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# 104
Taejonbirok Volume 5 Episode 4
Chapter 33: The Lazy Man Goes on a Journey (4)
The glasses clinked and some of the alcohol spilled onto the floor. However, Dokbi didn't seem to care and emptied his glass in one gulp.
Wi Yeon-ho also drank half of his drink and put his glass down with a sour expression.
“I feel like I’ve been drinking more recently, but I don’t know why I drink. It just makes me bitter.”
Dokbi nodded.
“Alcohol is bitter.”
“But why do you eat it?”
“Because I wrote it.”
It was an answer that seemed both understandable and incomprehensible.
“If alcohol were sweet, there would be no reason to drink it, right?”
“I think I’d like it if it were sweet.”
“That’s too bad.”
Dokbi picked up the bottle and poured alcohol into the empty glass.
“What brings you here?”
“I have a question.”
“Speak. I will answer.”
Wi Yeon-ho emptied the remaining alcohol in his glass. As soon as the glass was empty, Dok-bi picked up the bottle and poured alcohol into his glass.
“Why did you do that?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You lost on purpose.”
“That’s funny. Are you saying that Dokbi lost the match on purpose?”
"yes."
Wi Yeon-ho answered calmly.
“You were able to make meatballs in the end, right? But you intentionally failed to make meatballs.”
“Haha.”
Dokbi drank his alcohol without answering.
“I should have lost, but I ended up winning. I want to know why.”
Wi Yeon-ho did not change the subject.
Dokbi was a little taken aback when he met someone who asked him straight to the point, having always heard only half-answered questions.
“You don’t seem that impatient…….”
“I don’t like wasting time on useless things.”
“I see.”
Dokbi raised his head, glanced at the sky, and opened his mouth.
“What do you think gambling is?”
“Gambling is gambling.”
“That’s a foolish question. Yes, gambling is gambling. Gambling is ultimately a competition. People sitting at the gambling table use all their abilities to decide the winner.”
“It’s a showdown…….”
“But these days, they say that useless things keep getting added to gambling tables. Like plans, or strategies.”
"hmm……."
Wi Yeon-ho looked at Dok-bi as if he had no idea what was going on.
“Isn’t that what you’ve been doing until now?”
“That’s right. But as you live, there are times when you want to throw those things away.”
“Hmm.”
Wi Yeon-ho looked at Dok-bi as if he didn't understand at all.
“So you lost on purpose?”
“I never lost on purpose. It was just my luck.”
Dokbi smiled brightly and continued speaking.
“But since my luck was that good, for a while, there won’t be anyone who loses their fortune because of gold-plating. New gambling houses will appear and one day they’ll try to suck people’s blood like gold-plating, but until then, won’t we be able to gamble for fun again?”
“You must have lost everything?”
“What are you talking about?”
Dokbi asked Wi Yeonho as if he didn't know at all.
“The things you have built up.”
“Hahaha, you say interesting things.”
Dokbi held his glass forward.
“Can you see it?”
“What is it?”
“What’s in this glass?”
“……There’s nothing.”
"exactly?"
Dokbi poured alcohol into the glass.
“Now?”
“There is alcohol.”
Dokbi picked up the glass again and drank.
“So now that the glass is empty, everything is lost?”
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“…….”
Dokbi shook his head.
“What’s important is not the car, but the vessel. I may have lost fame, followers, and even credibility, but these are not the things I’ve built up. What’s truly important is my ability. Aren’t cups meant to hold wine? Even if the wine is empty, as long as there’s a cup to hold the wine, it’s not like I’ve lost everything. In fact, I can say I’ve lost nothing.”
“……It sounds a bit like sophistry.”
Wi Yeon-ho scratched the back of his head.
“So what if it’s sophistry? If I think that way myself, then it’s like that, isn’t it?”
“That’s true.”
Dokbi was a strange person.
Even though he was doing a job that most people despise – being a gambler – he never lost his confidence in himself.
And although we live in a world where winning and losing are everything, and we say that we live in a world of competition, we don't think of that as everything.
Jin So-ah and Jin Ye-ran were on the right path, but they split up because of their values. However, Dok-bi was doing something that everyone was pointing fingers at, but he was maintaining his sense of propriety.
Where does the difference come from?
Wi Yeon-ho also turned his head and looked at the sky.
– How is it?
The master's face appears superimposed on the large full moon.
Wi Yeon-ho looked at the moon for a while without saying anything.
Dokbi, who had called out to Wi Yeon-ho a couple of times, silently poured himself a glass of wine alone when Wi Yeon-ho looked up at the sky without answering.
It feels like the wind is blowing from somewhere.
Wi Yeon-ho turned his head and looked at Dok-bi.
“It looks like you had something to think about?”
“Isn’t it strange?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I may have been with the nicest person in the world up until now.”
“…….”
“Even though I spent a long time with someone who was hard to find these days, both in terms of his work and his consideration for others, I didn’t really feel anything. I just felt that he was walking a path that I wouldn’t have dared to think of. I knew in my head that he was great, but I couldn’t really feel it.”
Dokbi nodded his head.
I thought I knew what Wei Yanho meant.
“I didn’t really feel anything when I was with that kind of person, but when I talked to the gambler, I felt like something was out of the ordinary.”
“Hahahaha.”
Dokbi laughed cheerfully and picked up the bottle of alcohol.
“What a pity.”
Dokbi poured some wine into Wei Yanhu's empty glass and lifted his glass.
“But isn’t that too obvious?”
“Of course?”
Dokbi chuckled as if he found Wi Yeonho's reaction funny.
“If right is to be done and wrong is to be avoided, then why would there be casinos?”
"ah……."
“That’s what it’s like to be human. Even though you know it’s wrong, you still go down that path. That’s what it’s like to be human.”
“Are you trying to say that it’s not the work that’s important, it’s the people?”
“I don’t know such difficult words.”
"hmm……."
“But there’s one thing I know…….”
Wi Yeon-ho waited quietly for Dok-bi's next words.
“That’s what people are like. Even in the same situation, people feel different things and take different paths, so isn’t that what makes the world interesting? If everyone naturally went their own way, how boring would the world be?”
“That may be true.”
“So, wasn’t the last gamble with Confucius enjoyable?”
Wi Yeon-ho raised his glass.
Dokbi also raised his glass without saying a word.
Their glasses clinked in the air.
The moon was quietly looking down on the two.
* * *
“Take care on your way back.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon. Is there anything you want to eat when you get back?”
“Please come quickly.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
The left-hand man left the house after being seen off by his wife.
“The weather is nice for once.”
It was a really nice day, with warm sunlight from the morning.
When I used to work in the black kitchen, I couldn't even imagine mornings like this.
The wife couldn't look others in the eye because of her husband's guilt over being a gangster, and Jogeol also felt heavy-hearted every time he went to work. He thought that his way of making a living would be bleak after the black kitchen went bankrupt, but who knew that it would turn out to be such a blessing?
“Are you out?”
As soon as I entered the main gate, the servants all greeted me.
“Patients will be arriving soon. Are you ready?”
“Yes, don’t worry.”
The members of the National Assembly, the medical women, and the herbalists were managed separately by the general, but the one in charge of managing the servants was the Jwagyeol. Although it was a high position, it was a low position, but the Jwagyeol was satisfied with his current position.
The salary is also secretly quite high.
“Are there any problems?”
"I……."
“Huh? What’s going on?”
“I think the room will be full today.”
"……okay?"
The left-hand man scratched the back of his head.
“I see, that’s right.”
The water tank was now properly filled with water.
Customers kept coming, and the reputation grew day by day. Even though the fake holy water shop went out of business, the medical fees were not raised, so people began to recognize the authenticity of the holy water shop.
And the members of the council were also known to be highly capable. The chief executive officer, Ha Dae-bung, spared no expense in bringing in good members of the council, and Jin So-ah's reputation as the successor of Seongsujang also played a big role.
These various factors came together to make the holy water tower seem like a tiger with wings ascending to the sky.
A branch of the Holy Spirit Market was to be built on the site of the fake Holy Spirit Market, so unifying Hubei's medical profession was no longer a dream.
but.
There's just one problem… … .
The left-hand man looked at the door in front of him and let out a deep sigh.
In this place where everyone was working hard, there was one bum who just played around and ate.
“Ugh.”
I haven't seen this door open for five days now. The nobleman is inside this door that never opens except when the servants bring out food.
“So why are you here……”
Wi Yeon-ho, who was embarrassed to see people working hard, was inside the room, saying that he was annoyed by Ha Dae-bong's offer to provide a house for him.
“Your Majesty the Supreme Lord.”
The left-hand man called out to Wi Yeon-ho in a low voice.
The only people who knew that Wi Yeon-ho was the real owner of this holy water market were Jin So-ah, Ha Dae-bong, and himself.
The other two had started a business together, so it was natural for them to know, and Zuo Jie was the one who knew how Wi Yeon-ho had destroyed Heukji Kitchen and embezzled its wealth.
However, I also completely agreed with Ha Dae-bong's words that it was embarrassing and that I shouldn't tell others.
Zuo Jie called Wei Yan Ho again carefully so that no one else could hear.
“I, Your Majesty the Supreme Leader.”
There was no answer.
“Ugh.”
Zuo Jie sighed deeply and went up to the veranda. He planned to wake up Wei Yan Ho, as he was sure he was lying down and sleeping.
“I will go in.”
Even though he didn't have the respect for the Supreme Master Zhang Zu, he was a left-handed person who knew how great of a master Wei Yan Hu was, so he was careful with every move he made.
Creak.
I carefully open the door and step inside.
"huh?"
Ha Dae-bong was busy with his work.
“The road to recovery is long and arduous.”
Business is going well, but since the investment is so large, it seems like it will take a long time to recover the money. However, since it has gained enough momentum, it will not be difficult to get several times the investment in the long run.
“Then it can’t be done in one place.”
The following schedule began to pile up in Ha Dae-bong's head one by one.
But unfortunately, his thoughts could not continue.
“General, we’re in trouble!”
“Hmm?”
Ha Dae-bong frowned at the voice coming from outside. However, the voice was so urgent that it was hard to ignore.
He opened the door and went out, and asked the left-hand man who was looking at him with an anxious look.
“What's going on?”