The carriage came to a stop infront of trader Soo Byung Hu's resident. The door opened, he was about to come down when she held his arm.
" I want you to be calm and act like everything is normal."
He turned with a cold face. " Do I look normal to you?"
".....y..yes, a little."
He nodded and went out of the carriage while she followed behind. They held hands as they made their way to the living room.
" Aha!, chaewon the chief of finance son will be arriving tommorow. I hope all the preparations are set?"
" Yes they are."
**Hanseong**
It was getting dark. She came out of a carriage wearing a thick garment made of fur which shielded her from the cold wind. She turned to her maids and servants, told them to stay back while she relieve herself in the woods. As she went into the woods she turned around to make sure no one was watching or following her and she went further. She came to a stop in front of a tree and slowly whispered.
" I came alone master."
A figure wearing a black cape and mask appeared before her, she quickly bowed upon seeing him.
" Min joo. I guess everything is going smoothly in the palace?"
" Yes master."
" Good."
" He removed a little drawstring bag from his pocket and gave her.
" I believe you know what to do with this."
" Yes."
" you may go now, before they start suspecting something."
" yes." she replied as she made her way to the carriage which took off upon her entry.
**Trader Soo Byung Hu's resident.**
There was a knock on yoona's door. Hearing no response, lady chaewon entered the room holding a black silky bag. The room was tidy, yoona was lying down on the bed facing the wall. She sat down next to her daughter, looked at her for some minutes and turned the other way round.
" I know you're not sleeping and I know how it feels. I was once like you, a naive little girl." She said with a smile. " I was seventeen when I married your father, heartbroken. I kept imagining how marrying a complete stranger would feel like. My friends mocked me for getting married to someone older than me with thirteen years. Infront of them, I showed them I was a hero, the happiest woman on earth. But deep down I feel my world tearing apart. I thought it was the end for me. But when we got married, things changed. Nothing is permanent my dear, who knows what tommorow holds. Yours might turn out to be the best."
There was a long awkward silence. She continued." Your father said I should give you this hanbuk." She kept the bag beside yoona. " I would like you to know that we'll never make a decision that will hurt you. If you'll like to move on with the engagement wear it and if you don't..... You don't have to." She slightly tapped her back, took a long sighed. " Good night dear." She said and left.
Upon hearing the door closed, yoona slowly opened her eyes, turned towards the bag and kept looking at it.
Yoona's engagement day.
The house was beautifully decorated, lady chaewon, hanyul and all the female servants were preparing different meals in the kitchen. It was full of aroma while the men were busy decorating the premises.
" Hanyul dear, take over will you?, I'll check on yoona, let me know if the meal is ready."
" Yes mother."
She went out with her apron. Meanwhile Trader Soo Byung Hu and ik-jun were talking about marketing strategies and how to boost their business.
" .... No, we'll provide salt instead of ginseng this time around."
" What about the ginseng we have? what will we do with it?"
" We'll take it to baiju, I heard there's an outbreak of flu there, don't worry I'll take it there myself."
" But dad it's dangerous."
" They are in need of it, we have two rooms full of ginseng. Look at it this way, we brought each box at 200 yen. Ginseng is 500 yen per box, if we sell it at 300 yen to the sick, we will help them a lot."
Ik-jun nodded in agreement. " I had shilhoa are selling theirs at 1,000 yen per box because it's scarce."
" Those greedy bastards, then we'll lower our's to 150 yen per box."
" I think we'll fall."
He laughed upon hearing his son's reply.
" We won't, shilhoa will. They have no other choice but to also lower their price. They are greedy and dumb at the same time, so they will lower their's to 100 yen, thinking they are smart. Then we'll buy them all and raise our's back to the normal price, that's 300."
" That's a fantastic plan. But....what if they refuse to lower their's and decide to store it instead?"
" The weather there is quite harsh."
" I thought it's going to be cold since we are approaching winter??, It's already cold here."
" Yes, but it's not. we are surrounded by mountains while they are not."
" Oh....i see."
" There's a myth that says shilhoa was a volcano thousand years ago, as the east wind blew, it buried it with sand."
Ik-jun looked at his dad who was putting on a straight face.
" It's a myth as you said"
" Son...some myths are true."
" What are you saying?"
" Some days back, Hanyul....."
They were interrupted by the sudden opened door behind them.
" What are you two doing in here, I thought you are dressing up!."
" We're talking about bus..."
" B..business??!!"
" I mean brrrr...rr, yes, no lies, it was buisness."
" Hunny, you promise you won't even utter that word yesterday!."
" I can't help it...."
" Mom am hungry."
" The food is almost done and will be here as soon as possible. I'll go check on yoona., You two should get ready" heading to yoona's room. She slowly opened the door and went in. Yoona was wearing an ash hanbok, with peach, grey and red flower pattern. And a veil which covered her head.
" Wow, you look beautiful, except for that thing around your head" she said as she removed it from yoona's head. She suddenly screemed.
" That....was loud!!"
" You...r face!!, What happened to your face?"
" I...."