CLS-Chapter 53

Chapter 53

Wei Yan-ho hurriedly wiped the sweat that had run down his face.

Jin Ye-ran came back inside. She examined the food that showed barely any signs of being eaten, then discovered a chicken leg that had been bitten once and set down.

“Does the food not suit your taste?”

“What? No, that’s… haha, I’m just full right now…”

Jin Ye-ran’s face reddened as she grabbed the meal table.

“I’ll bring out fresh food, so please wait just a moment.”

“What?”

As Jin Ye-ran approached without a word to take the meal table away, Wei Yan-ho instinctively grabbed hold of the table she was trying to remove.

Bring out fresh food!

From the way she spoke, didn’t it sound like she was going to prepare even better food?

Wei Yan-ho put strength into his hand gripping the meal table.

“No, it’s not that I don’t like the food!”

“If I can’t properly serve our guest, my late father would be disappointed. This makes me uncomfortable, so please let go of this table.”

‘I’m going to die, woman!’

Wei Yan-ho desperately held onto the meal table.

“No! I’ll eat it! I’ll eat it! I was just resting for a moment and was about to eat now! I’ll eat it! I’ll eat it all!”

Jin Ye-ran looked at Wei Yan-ho with somewhat suspicious eyes.

“Are you certain?”

“I told you so! I was going to eat it.”

Jin Ye-ran carefully set the meal table back down.

Wei Yan-ho didn’t miss this opportunity and frantically stuffed the chicken and fish from the table into his mouth.

“Mmph nom nom ngh.”

Wei Yan-ho frantically devoured the food on the table. Once he put it in his mouth, he was so busy chewing and swallowing that he couldn’t even taste what it was. He just crunch crunch chewed and swallowed.

Strangely, it seemed like tears kept trickling out.

“Eat slowly. You’ll get indigestion at this rate.”

‘This is all because of whom!’

Wei Yan-ho wanted to shout, but since these were words he couldn’t dare say aloud, he just swallowed them inwardly.

She was a formidable opponent.

Among all the formidable opponents Wei Yan-ho had encountered throughout his life, she was in some ways the most difficult person to deal with.

“Then I’ll see you in a little while.”

Wei Yan-ho couldn’t respond because his mouth was stuffed full of food, so he just nodded. When Jin Ye-ran left the room, Wei Yan-ho swallowed the food with a gulp and let out a deep sigh.

“I won’t die a natural death.”

Wei Yan-ho’s eyes turned toward the meal table.

The cleanly emptied plates vividly showed Wei Yan-ho’s atrocious deed. To think he had so wretchedly devoured food prepared with money borrowed by pawning his mother’s keepsake.

“Ughhhhh.”

Wei Yan-ho’s stomach began to churn.

The thing called conscience, which he thought had departed from his body when he entered Baek Mu-han’s cave, was now stabbing at his stomach.

Finally, Wei Yan-ho quietly rose from his seat.

“Ugh.”

Then he trudged outside.

Even as Wei Yan-ho went outside, he couldn’t believe what he was doing.

Looking back from his childhood until now, no one had ever made him move of his own accord. Some people had threatened him, some had negotiated with him. But now Jin Ye-ran had made Wei Yan-ho storm out of the room without any requests or threats.

If Wei Jeong-han or Baek Mu-han had seen this scene, they would have shed tears and bowed to Jin Ye-ran in gratitude.

“Ugh.”

Wei Yan-ho sighed repeatedly and walked to one corner. Where Wei Yan-ho went, Jin So-ah was drying medicinal herbs.

“So-ah, was it?”

“Yes?”

Jin So-ah was startled by the voice that came from behind her without any sign and turned around in surprise. There stood Wei Yan-ho with puffy cheeks.

“Have you finished your meal?”

“There’s some left, so you should eat some too. I ate it cleanly. By the way, how many pawn shops are there around here?”

“Why are you looking for a pawn shop?”

Wei Yan-ho let out a deep sigh.

“I have business there. Where is it?”

“If you go straight down that way, there’s the Silver River Pawn Shop (Eunha Jeonjang). That’s the only pawn shop in this area.”

“Thanks.”

Wei Yan-ho trudged toward the pawn shop, sighing deeply. Jin So-ah watched Wei Yan-ho’s figure with puzzled eyes.

Wei Yan-ho trudged along like a weary caterpillar crawling and arrived at the Silver River Pawn Shop. Just as Jin So-ah had said, he could find a large signboard after not walking very far. Thus Wei Yan-ho entered a building so magnificently impressive that it seemed excessively large for a pawn shop.

“What brings you here?”

As Wei Yan-ho entered, someone who had been waiting approached with hands politely clasped.

“I came to retrieve an item.”

“What kind of item are you referring to?”

“I came to retrieve a jade necklace that was pawned at Seongsu Medical Hall today.”

“You’ve come from Seongsu Medical Hall?”

“Yes.”

“Please come inside.”

Since the time from Wei Yan-ho’s arrival to when the food was served wasn’t long, his deduction that it would have been pawned at the nearest pawn shop seemed correct.

The man guided Wei Yan-ho to the inner room.

Wei Yan-ho followed the man inside, sighing deeply. He had no idea what he was doing.

Inside the inner room sat someone who looked like a merchant with a warm impression, seated behind a large desk. Wei Yan-ho plopped down in the chair placed in front of the desk.

When the man who had guided him whispered a few words, the merchant nodded greatly and waved the man away.

Click.

When the door closed, the merchant smiled broadly.

“Welcome. I’m Ha Dae-bung, owner of Silver River Pawn Shop.”

“I came to retrieve a necklace.”

Ha Dae-bung shrugged as if troubled.

“I’m sorry, but that item wasn’t sold by Seongsu Medical Hall but was pawned as collateral, so I can’t give it to you.”

It was a natural response. If they gave away items just because someone paid money, they would sell them rather than accept them as collateral. The item only becomes merchandise when the borrowed money isn’t returned by the promised deadline.

“I came from Seongsu Medical Hall.”

“You seem to be someone I’m meeting for the first time?”

“I came today.”

Ha Dae-bung looked at Wei Yan-ho with sharp eyes, then shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t give it to you. The person themselves or immediate family must come to retrieve it.”

Wei Yan-ho nodded.

“So if immediate family comes, that would work?”

“That’s right.”

“Then I’ll bring them. But how much was borrowed?”

“The amount is quite substantial.”

Wei Yan-ho took out a money pouch from his chest and threw it to Ha Dae-bung. The money pouch contained the money Moon Yu-hwan had given him when leaving Hanrim Grand Academy. He hadn’t counted it exactly, but there should be quite a large amount inside. It was probably money that Lee Wang-ya, not Moon Yu-hwan, had provided.

“Would that be enough?”

Ha Dae-bung shook his head as if troubled.

“It’s not enough.”

Wei Yan-ho’s face hardened. Wei Yan-ho snatched the money pouch from Ha Dae-bung and counted the money inside.

“There’s over two nyang of silver in here?”

One nyang of silver could feed a family for several months. He had offered enough money for an entire family to live on for a year, and it wasn’t enough?

Had they pawned a gold ingot instead of jade?

“Of course, the amount that young lady borrowed was one nyang of silver.”

“Then what?”

“At our Silver River Pawn Shop, when retrieving items, we charge three times the borrowed amount. If you don’t retrieve it within three months, you must pay three times again.”

Wei Yan-ho laughed helplessly.

“Three times?”

“That’s right.”

“Is this usury?”

“Heaven forbid. It’s just a rule set by the pawn shop. If you don’t want that, you can just sell it.”

Veins bulged on Wei Yan-ho’s forehead.

It wasn’t wrong, but something kept bothering him.

“So you’re saying I can’t retrieve it with that money?”

“Unfortunately, that’s correct.”

In other words, for Seongsu Medical Hall, which had been worrying about running out of rice before pawning the necklace, there was absolutely no way to retrieve this necklace.

Jin Ye-ran couldn’t have been unaware of this.

Even so, thinking of Jin Ye-ran’s feelings—unable to bear selling it and having to pawn it to borrow money—Wei Yan-ho absolutely couldn’t give up and retreat just because there wasn’t enough money.

In the past, he would have gathered money instantly, even by begging, but for Wei Yan-ho now, with his face glistening with oil from eating and sleeping well at Hanrim Grand Academy, this was impossible.

Wei Yan-ho steeled his resolve.

“Do you also accept items here?”

“Of course. As long as you pawn them and repay the borrowed money three times over. The deadline is three months.”

“Really?”

Wei Yan-ho took out the small sword from his chest and placed it on the desk as if throwing it down.

“Lend me the remaining money with this.”

“This is…”

“It’s gold, so it should be expensive.”

“It’s certainly made of gold. Good. With an item like this, I can lend you one nyang of gold. However, when you repay, you’ll need three nyang…”

As Ha Dae-bung spoke while examining the small sword from various angles, his body suddenly trembled as if struck by lightning.

Ha Dae-bung, who should have been pleased since an expensive item was offered, began sweating profusely like rain, then immediately kicked his chair away, stood up, and prostrated himself flat on the floor.

“My lord! I didn’t recognize you and dared to spout nonsense!”

“What are you talking about?”

Sweat continuously dripped from Ha Dae-bung’s face to the floor.

“I, I spoke nonsense…”

Ha Dae-bung was completely out of his mind.

If what he saw was certain, he was now inside a tiger’s maw. Moreover, inside the bloody maw of a starving tiger that hadn’t eaten for a month.

The pattern engraved on that small sword was definitely the symbol of the Censorate. A pawn shop specializes in money-related business. To do such work, one had to know more about the imperial court and the martial world than anyone else to avoid being caught off guard.

‘Of all things, the Censorate…’

What kind of place was the Censorate? Wasn’t it the place that caught and punished officials who squeezed the people’s lifeblood and merchants and rogues who tormented the people?

If the first management target of the Censorate was government offices, the second was underworld factions, and the third was commercial establishments like Silver River Pawn Shop.

“What are you talking about?”

But this clueless fellow was still playing dumb.

‘What should I address first? Undervaluing a white silver jade necklace worth ten nyang of silver to three nyang? Or running a usury operation where borrowed money triples in three months?’

There were too many violations.

Ha Dae-bung sweated profusely and forced a smile to his lips. But that smile was no different from a crying face.

“My lord, although the interest I charged is a bit high, since there are so many who pawn items and never come to retrieve them, to compensate for losses, it’s unavoidable…”

Wei Yan-ho tilted his head.

“The interest is high?”

“…”

“Now that I think about it, if you have to pay three times the amount in three months, what percentage is this? Six percent per month?”

Ha Dae-bung waved his hands frantically in shock.

“How could that be! Six percent! Anyone who charges such usury should be eliminated! We’re definitely not six percent.”

“You said three times?”

“That’s calculated as simple interest! We use compound interest!”

“Compound interest?”

“That’s right. Calculated as compound interest, our interest rate is merely four and a half percent!”

“Four and a half percent… that’s reasonable?”

“Exactly!”

Ha Dae-bung’s face brightened when he heard it was reasonable. But after hearing what followed, his brightened face began to rapidly turn deathly black.

“If it’s four and a half percent compound interest per month, what’s the annual interest?”

“What?”

“Calculate it.”

Ha Dae-bung’s mind raced.

“That’s… not much. At most six hundred percent…”

“Oh?”

Wei Yan-ho grinned.

“Six hundred percent annually? Not forty percent but six hundred percent? Sixty times?”

Ha Dae-bung’s spine went cold. If you calculated it that way, this wasn’t usury level but practically extortion. He had to somehow resolve this situation.

“But my lord, that amount is…”

“Six hundred percent, I’ve never heard of six hundred percent in my life. Not six percent, not sixty percent, but six hundred percent?”

“But if you think about the actual price of that item, it’s not that much. That white silver jade is worth at least ten nyang of silver, so it’s only about sixty percent!”

Wei Yan-ho’s eyes flashed.

“Worth ten nyang?”

“…”

Ha Dae-bung’s face was now deathly pale like a corpse.

“Hey.”

Ha Dae-bung flinched and cowered at Wei Yan-ho’s call.

“Yes!”

“Why don’t you stand up?”

“No, I…”

“Want to get hit before standing up?”

Ha Dae-bung immediately sprang to his feet.

Wei Yan-ho nodded and patted Ha Dae-bung’s shoulder.

“Good at business?”

“Hehe…”

“Not only do you swallow a ten-nyang item by lending one nyang, but you charge sixty times the annual interest to someone wanting to repay. Ha! This is what you call business, right?”

“Hehe, that’s… my lord.”

Poke!

Wei Yan-ho extended his finger and poked Ha Dae-bung in the eye.

“Ow!”

Ha Dae-bung rolled on the floor covering his eye.

“These bastards are trying to swindle me right now?”

He had come all the way from Hanrim Grand Academy to Seongsu Medical Hall, but the medical practice was dying and the physician was going bankrupt. Moreover, Wei Yan-ho, who had left that medical hall, had to walk over a li on his own initiative for the first time in his life.

All that frustration exploded.

Wei Yan-ho roared and raged wildly.

“Lock the door! I’m going to settle this here today!”

“Please, my lord!”

“My lord can freeze to death!”

That day, the roof of Silver River Pawn Shop, called one of the three great pawn shops of Hubei, shot up into the sky.

Even a lazy person knew the value of money.