Chapter Forty-six: Hope (II)

The first trade ended in success and more open doors.

When the middleman, the guards and the cart carrying the goods arrived at the capital, they stumbled upon a businessman who has been looking for suppliers for his new thriving business. The old suppliers has been bringing goods that are sometimes rotten to him.

He was even quarrelling with one of the suppliers when they saw him. He also cancelled his agreement with the suppliers and threatened to imprison him for conning him into buying spoilt goods.

After observing the exchange,the middleman walked into the man's shop who was fuming with rage. The man saw him and thought he was one of the buyers but on enquiry he found out he was actually a supplier.

Reluctantly he agreed to inspect their goods. The middleman gestured to one of the men and he brought the first batch of the goods.

He saw the goods and jumped out from his seat shouting excitedly.

"Boss, how did you dry this abalones .They are so fresh and beautiful"

Seeing his reaction, the middleman smiled

and urged his men to bring more goods inside the shop.

Mr Nam the businessman didn't even bother to check the goods and bought everything at once. He told them that the palace has been requesting for abalones for a very long time but since it was difficult getting fresh ones due to the distance of the seas from the capital, he hadn't made deal with them. He even wrote an agreement with them to bring more 100 jars of abalone and other seafood for him to buy .

Once the trade was done, a celebratory drink was shared . Well ,each of the two sides had things to celebrate about thus they drank to their heart content.

The middleman left with his guards since his part has ended while the three men from the Kim's residence went with the money to buy the grains and other things they needed back at home.

Mrs Kim has been anxiously waiting for the broker and his men to come back with any news at all. She went to her husband from time to time fidgeting. He assured her that everything would be fine and again it would take a bit of time for them to come back.

He estimated that to reach the capital and back would take 8 days , he allocated 3 to 4 days for them to finish the sales, together making it 11 to 12 or even more for them to come back.

It's just the 9th day meaning that they should be back in the next 2 to 3 days or even more.

It's past evening time, he urged her to take a stroll with him to the coastline before coming back to have their supper. She agreed so they got ready to go.

Immediately they came out from their tiny hut , they saw those men sent to the capital with their cart filled to the brim with sacks of grains with bleating of the sheep and goats.

"Master! we are back" they shouted in unison.

They still remained dumbfounded as they weren't expecting them to be back so soon.

Mrs Kim finally broke out from her stupor and shouted to the women in the backyard to come and witness what is happening.

They all ran out and saw those men. They broke into chants of praise and dancing celebrating their first successful trade.

Mr Kim finally came down to earth and asked the men how they did it. They narrated that immediately they touched down at the capital they sold everything at once to a businessman dealing in seafood business.

The women were happy that their handiwork was praised and they awed at the amount of goods they would prepare next time.

The assumed leader among them apologized for returning late. The rest of the people didn't understand why he would do that.

He cleared the air by telling them that they should have been back the last two days but due to the diarrhoea one of them experienced they stopped to get a doctor that would treat him therefore delaying their arrival.

He explained that while they were selling the pearls to the jewellers, a man had talked about a secret cave he used to get to the coastal area faster. They gave half of the pearls to the man in exchange for the information about the location of the cave. Following the cave will reduce the journey hence instead of traveling to capital with 4 days or even 5 they will make it with just 2 days or 3 depending on their speed.

They celebrated all night with some fruit wine and roasted fishes and other seafood.

First they celebrated on the success of the business, secondly on finding a new path to the capital and lastly on the hope of a better future.

Even Yoona wasn't spared from the celebration. Just like everyone else she drank her wine and ate the delicacies until her brother teased her into sleeping early.

Among all the people she can't stand, this brother of hers ranked first. He is always teasing her and looking forward to making trouble with her.

At one time , he had put cricket on her clothes. The other time , he hid behind the door and scared the living hell out of her .One day after another, he had a trick to play on her.

The celebrants stayed up late even when their masters retired to bed. Luckily for them, fruit wine don't make people drunk or else most of them would have been dead drunk.

That night, those that had lingering intention of leaving discarded it. Actually, they like it better here with lots of food and drinks.

The next day ,they all woke up energized and with burning desire to catch more abalones and oysters for their new business .

They divided themselves into two groups.

The first group comprises of Mr Kim and jae-hyuk with four other men while the second group comprises of Mrs Kim and Yoona together with the remaining 4 servants . In total, they had 6 men and 6 women.

The 6 men are Mr Kim and his son , Jae joon Yoona's bodyguard,Mr Kim's personal guard, jae-hyuk's guard and finally their butler or rather used-to-be butler.

The women were Yoona and her mom, Seohwa, her mother's maidservant and two of their cooks that swore to follow them anywhere they go due to the kindness they received while serving them in the old house.

The two groups decided to compete with each other. The men were assigned with catching the oysters , abalones and fishes while the women tasked themselves with shelling and preserving the food.

The competition theme was who will complete their task first and efficiently.

In the spirit of the competition, gifts were prepared to be given to the losers. Weird, right?

Well it is obvious that losers will be the women with the long task of preservation hence they made the rule.

It will be a win-win situation for them. If they win, they will laugh at the men and rub it on their faces and if they loses , they will still have the gift to themselves.

They commenced the competition with the men running off like rabid dogs to the coast to gather what their women will work with while their women relaxed on their seats gossiping and eating meats while waiting for them to return.