Episode 4
“Don’t speak yet. Your throat might not be healed.”
A low, soft voice like a gentle breeze. Cheon-O had heard this voice before.
A cool mountain breeze came in from behind the person standing, gripping the door frame with one hand. White hair fluttered, swaying lightly. He stepped inside lightly, with steps that felt weightless.
“Sayoung, Sahyun. Once your work is done, go and get something you want to have for dinner. I’ll do the rest.”
“Yes, Master.”
The girl and boy, who had previously chattered cheerfully, closed their mouths and quickly wrapped up their work before hurrying outside. The white-haired man, who had just come in, glanced at their departing figures, then approached Cheon-O and knelt down.
Up close, the man had eyebrows and eyelashes that glittered white. His expression was faint, but his features were neat, and his light brown eyes were calm and serene. Just sitting across from him made Cheon-O feel like all distractions were disappearing and his mind was becoming clear.
He handed Cheon-O a bowl filled with a transparent reddish-brown liquid.
“Get up and drink. Your throat will feel much better.”
As Cheon-O, being helped up, hesitantly took the bowl with both hands, he felt a lukewarm warmth. Unsure, he took a sip, and a light sweetness spread in his mouth.
While Cheon-O sipped the herbal medicine, the man uncovered the blanket, revealed Cheon-O’s legs, and rolled up his pants to the thighs. As the children had mentioned earlier, his legs had been treated just like his hands.
The man skillfully treated Cheon-O’s legs similarly and spoke.
“You can call me Choyun. As you can see, I study medicine, and this is my home, Dumang Mountain.”
“……”
It was as if he knew all of Cheon-O’s curiosities. Cheon-O carefully placed the emptied bowl down and listened attentively.
“You were severely injured, both mentally and physically, and lost consciousness. It didn’t feel right to leave you somewhere else, so I brought you here. Once you recover, tell me where you want to go. If you have nowhere in mind, you can stay here.”
Injured? Why?
As soon as he questioned it, memories struck him like lightning. The constant screams of agony he heard while crouching in the dark underground, the blazing fire creeping through the floor’s cracks, the sight that greeted him when he stepped outside after counting to ten thousand, as his mother had instructed…
His heart started pounding loudly. It felt so intense that it might burst out of his chest. He distinctly felt blood draining from his fingertips and toes. His brain stiffened and hardened, and a thorn-like lump grew in his throat.
He couldn’t possibly forget it.
The fact that he couldn’t recall until now felt completely unbelievable and guilt-ridden.
Just as he was about to be overwhelmed by an emotion too immense to contain, a hand gently covered his dark, dead eyes and hugged him tightly.
Cheon-O curled up in the embrace and trembled. As he tried to grab the person’s garment, a much larger hand gently held his small injured hand, as if to protect it.
He wanted to scream and go wild. He wanted to cry until he fainted again.
But his throat was damaged, and his body was held tight. He couldn’t cry, and he could hardly breathe.
He had no idea what to do.
Just then, a voice softly fell like the first snow.
“The reason you can’t cry is because you’ve lost your strength. Crying takes an immense amount of willpower. But once you cry like that, something inside you will clear.”
Cheon-O gasped and swallowed breaths. Choyun soothingly stroked the child’s back and continued speaking calmly.
“Even if you tug at my clothes, scream, and stomp, let’s focus on recovering your body first so you can cry like that. We’ll think about what to do afterward. It’ll be tough, so don’t think about anything right now. Nobody blames you.”
Strangely, his words seemed to seep into Cheon-O. It really seemed like he didn’t need to think about anything, and nobody would blame him.
…No, to be precise, it felt like Choyun would protect him just as he was. It felt like he would hold him like this no matter what happened, and that everything would be alright.
And if he had nightmares, he would wake him up.
Once more, Cheon-O slipped back into unconsciousness and fell soundly asleep. The fact that Choyun personally fed him gruel while he was limp in his arms, Cheon-O would never know.
◇
“M-Master, but… who is that?”
“Where did you bring him from? The atmosphere was really strange.”
Voices chirped like mountain birds, cautiously following behind Choyun. Choyun, walking lightly down the rough mountain path with his hands behind his back, spoke.
“You’ll have to ask him directly when he wakes up. It’s not polite to discuss someone’s personal matters in their absence.”
“B-but, Master, you said he won’t… be able to speak for about two weeks.”
“And when we are around, he just closes his mouth tightly like a fish. He doesn’t even respond! It’s us who cleaned and dressed him while he was asleep, and he doesn’t even show gratitude.”
“He’s had a tough time at a young age. Be generous and understand him. Once he recovers, he will call for you and run around soon.”
Choyun gently patted the children’s heads, soothing them with his mild voice. Though Sayoung and Sahyun seemed a bit sulky, they soon softened and walked beside Choyun. In a few days, they had become quite close, taking care of the same person.
Choyun looked at the children affectionately and then offered his final incentive.
“So, I’ve decided to give him nutritional supplements and chicken broth for his health. Go down and buy four well-grown chickens. You can spend the leftover money on snacks.”
“Snacks!”
The children’s eyes sparkled as they looked up at Choyun. Choyun took out a small pouch from his breast pocket and placed it in the palm of Sayoung, the older sister.
“If you get pickpocketed?”
“Don’t try to get it back and just return home!”
“If an adult starts a quarrel?”
“Don’t respond and just walk away!”
“What if a stranger tries to take you away?”
“Bite their fingers or hit a vital spot and run away!”
“Lastly?”
“We’ll be careful and come back safely, Master!”
“We’ll be back, Master!”
The two children bowed deeply to Choyun before dashing down the mountain. From a distance, they looked back and waved their hands wildly, to which Choyun responded with a small wave.
Though the children’s figures quickly disappeared, Choyun’s keen senses still clearly perceived their lively movements. He smiled at their zest and continued walking.
Sayoung and Sahyun were eleven and nine years old, respectively, children who had become Choyun’s pupils in herbal medicine. He had taken in the siblings, who had lost their parents and were wandering the streets, and been raising them for three years… something he had only learned after arriving here a few days ago.
‘It’s all good, no, it’s not good. Isn’t there a way to recall all memories at once? It’s confusing to find out things only when something happens. Would it be a problem if nearly two centuries of memories updated all at once?’
“Ah, it’s Mansingcho. This is… useful for pain relief, fever, and even general weakness. It’s not toxic, so it’s safe to consume in large quantities.”
As the large rhododendron-like Mansingcho caught his eye, its medicinal properties naturally came to mind as if he had memorized them. He swore he knew none of this before seeing the plant.
Choyun’s vast knowledge surfaced spontaneously from various triggers.
When he thought of treating a particular symptom, the herbal combinations came to mind; when he saw a familiar object, related memories resurfaced.
This prevented his memories from becoming jumbled, but it often caused confusion.
“It would have been nice to know about raising kids right after waking up at the inn… There’s so much stuff required to raise children.”
While grumbling, Choyun carefully picked unharmed Mansingcho leaves and tucked them into his sleeve.
Jung Ha-yoon had awakened in Choyun’s body inside a shabby inn.
Thinking, ‘Where is this place?’ brought the name Cheongmyeong Inn in Unhan Mountain to mind.
Wondering, ‘Why am I here?’ brought up images of nearby medicinal herbs of Unhan Mountain.
It was only then that the consciousness of Jung Ha-yoon came to the forefront.
Surprisingly, he wasn’t confused. Perhaps because many web novels started similarly these days, he calmly accepted it. Jung Ha-yoon then sat on the bed, tracing Choyun’s memories. Consequently, scenes from a tragedy near the inn and the identity of a character from the original story filled his mind, blending Choyun’s memories with Jung Ha-yoon’s knowledge.
Under Unhan Mountain, the small village protected by the Seo-mun family was filled with fear that the disastrous fire which engulfed Seo-mun might spread to ordinary folks like them. The atmosphere seemed uneasy even the day before, when Choyun had just arrived.
If it had been the actual Choyun there, he might have thought it wasn’t his concern and left. But having just awakened as Jung Ha-yoon, he couldn’t ignore it.
Wondering if this really was the world of , he went to confirm it and found Joo Cheon-O, as if to affirm his suspicions.
‘The place to take the child for treatment’ that came to mind was his home, Musimso (霧深墅), in Dumang Mountain, where he took Cheon-O. But as soon as he arrived, he was stunned when two children rushed out, calling for their ‘Master,’ making him stiffen awkwardly.
“Even one kid is trouble enough…”
Taking care of children is never easy. Children don’t grow up well without care. Jung Ha-yoon knew the importance and the challenges of child-rearing all too well. Suddenly finding himself responsible for three kids was an overwhelming feeling.
Choyun might have been a recluse enjoying his idyllic life, but to modern-day Jung Ha-yoon, it seemed like he was already neglecting the children.
Moreover, a bigger problem lay ahead.
“…Let’s return for now. I can’t leave a young child alone for long.”
Though he had checked the child’s peaceful sleep before coming out, caring for a child meant never letting your guard down. Choyun began climbing back up the mountain path, now satisfied with the herbs he had gathered. The rugged terrain of Dumang Mountain felt familiar, just like his own home. Well, it was his home after all.
