Chapter 52 : The Slacker's Ordeal (3)

Chapter 52: The Slacker's Ordeal (3)

Wi Yeonho hurriedly wiped the sweat running down his face.

Jin Yeran stepped back inside. She looked over the dishes, most of which had barely been touched, and spotted a chicken drumstick with one bite taken out of it.

“Is the food not to your liking?”

“Huh? No, it's just that... haha, I’m full right now...”

Jin Yeran blushed and reached for the table.

“I’ll bring out a new meal, so please wait a moment.”

“What?”

As Jin Yeran approached silently and attempted to carry away the table, Wi Yeonho reflexively grabbed it.

Bring it out again?

From her tone, it sounded like she meant to prepare an even better meal.

Wi Yeonho gripped the table harder.

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

“If I fail to serve my guest properly, my late father would be disappointed. That would weigh on my conscience, so please let go.”

‘I’m telling you, I’ll die from this, woman!’

Wi Yeonho desperately clung to the table.

“No! I’ll eat it! I was just taking a short break before starting again! I’ll eat! I’ll eat it all!”

Jin Yeran looked at Wi Yeonho with a hint of suspicion.

“Are you sure?”

“I told you! I was going to eat.”

Jin Yeran cautiously set the table back down.

Wi Yeonho didn’t waste the opportunity and immediately started stuffing the chicken and fish into his mouth.

“Ahm shure Imma eat...”

He devoured the food on the table with a frenzy. Once it entered his mouth, he was too busy swallowing to even register the taste. He simply chewed and gulped it down.

Strangely, it felt like tears were welling up in his eyes again and again.

“Please eat slowly. You’ll upset your stomach.”

‘And whose fault do you think that is?’

Wi Yeonho wanted to shout, but the words wouldn't leave his mouth. He could only swallow them down with the food.

She was a formidable foe.

Among all the formidable enemies Wi Yeonho had faced in his entire life, in a certain sense, she was the most difficult one to deal with.

“Then, I’ll see you again in a bit.”

Unable to speak due to his bulging cheeks, Wi Yeonho only nodded. Once Jin Yeran stepped outside, he finally swallowed the food in his mouth and let out a deep sigh.

“I’m not going to die a natural death at this rate.”

Wi Yeonho’s eyes turned to the table.

The empty dishes laid bare the savagery of his recent actions. She had pawned off her mother’s keepsake and used borrowed money to fund this meal, only for it to be devoured it like this.

“Ughhh...”

His stomach began to churn.

The conscience he thought he’d left behind in Baek Muhan’s cave jabbed at his gut.

In the end, Wi Yeonho quietly stood up.

“Ugh...”

Then trudged outside.

Even as he stepped out, he couldn’t believe what he was doing.

Thinking back over his entire life, no one had ever gotten him to move on his own volition. Some tried threats, others tried negotiation. But now, without any request or pressure, Jin Yeran had somehow made him kick open the door and walk out.

If Wi Jeonghan or Baek Muhan had witnessed this scene, they would have wept and bowed in gratitude to Jin Yeran.

“Ugh...”

Wi Yeonho sighed again and walked toward a corner. There, he found Jin Soa drying herbs.

“Soa, was it?”

“Yes?”

Jin Soa startled and turned around at the unexpected voice behind her. Standing there was Wi Yeonho, his cheeks swollen like balloons.

“Did you finish your meal?”

“There was some left, so you should eat too. I cleaned it up nicely. Anyway, how many pawnshops are around here?”

“Why are you looking for a pawnshop?”

Wi Yeonho let out a heavy sigh.

“I’ve got business to take care of. Where is it?”

“If you head down that way, there’s the Silver River Pawnshop. It’s the only one nearby.”

“Thanks.”

With another heavy sigh, Wi Yeonho shuffled toward the pawnshop. Jin Soa watched his retreating figure with a curious look in his eyes.

Wi Yeonho trudged along like a slug and arrived at the Silver River Pawnshop. As Jin Soa said, it wasn’t far, and soon he spotted a large signboard. Entering the lavish building—lavish enough to seem excessive for a pawnshop—he looked around.

“What brings you here?”

A man who had been waiting respectfully approached with both hands clasped.

“I came to pick something up.”

“What item are you referring to?”

“I’m here to retrieve the jade necklace I left today through the Sacred Hand Grounds.”

“You're from the Sacred Hand Grounds?”

“Yes.”

“Please, come this way.”

Given how little time had passed since the meal was brought out, Wi Yeonho had correctly guessed it was left at the nearest pawnshop.

The man led Wi Yeonho to an inner room.

Wi Yeonho followed with deep sighs, unsure what he was even doing anymore.

Inside, a man with a warm demeanor—someone who looked like a merchant—sat behind a large desk. Wi Yeonho slumped into the chair placed in front of the desk.

The man who had led him in whispered a few words, and the merchant nodded broadly, then motioned for the other man to leave.

Click.

Once the door closed, the merchant gave a gentle smile.

“Pleasure to meet you. I am Ha Daebung, the master of Silver River Pawnshop.”

“I’m here to retrieve a necklace.”

Ha Daebung shrugged with an apologetic look.

“I'm sorry, but that item wasn’t sold by the Sacred Hand Grounds—it was pawned. So, I can't return it.”

It was an understandable answer. If items could be returned just because someone offered money, they would have been sold, not pawned. Only when the borrowed money wasn't repaid by the agreed time did a pawned item become a product for sale.

“I’m from the Sacred Hand Grounds.”

“I don’t believe I’ve seen you before?”

“I came today.”

Ha Daebung studied Wi Yeonho with a sharp gaze, then shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t release it. The owner or a direct family member must come in person.”

Wi Yeonho nodded.

“So, if a direct family member comes, it’s fine?”

“That’s correct.”

“Then I’ll bring them. By the way, how much was borrowed?”

“It was a sizable amount.”

Wi Yeonho pulled a wallet from his robes and tossed it to Ha Daebung. Inside was the money Moon Yuhwan had quietly slipped him when he left the Great Scholarly Institute. Wi Yeonho hadn’t counted it, but it had to be a substantial amount. Most likely, it had come from the Second Prince, not Moon Yuhwan.

“Will this cover it?”

Ha Daebung shook his head with a troubled expression.

“It’s not enough.”

Wi Yeonho’s expression hardened. He snatched the wallet back and started counting the money inside.

“There’s more than two taels of silver here.”

One tael of silver could feed a family for several months. He was offering enough money to feed a whole family for a year, and it still wasn’t enough?

What was pawned, a lump of gold?

“The young lady only borrowed one tael of silver.”

“And?”

“At Silver River Pawnshop, we charge triple the borrowed amount when an item is retrieved. If it’s not reclaimed within three months, the amount triples again.”

Wi Yeonho let out a hollow laugh.

“Triple?”

“That’s right.”

“Are you loan sharks?”

“Not at all. It's just the rule of the pawnshop. If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to let the item be sold.”

A vein bulged on Wi Yeonho’s forehead.

It wasn’t technically wrong, but everything about it rubbed him the wrong way.

“So, in short, I can’t retrieve it with this money?”

“Regrettably, that’s correct.”

In other words, for the Sacred Hand Grounds—who were already worrying about running out of rice before pawning the necklace—it was utterly impossible to reclaim the necklace.

There was no way Jin Yeran didn’t understand that.

And yet, she had still been unable to sell it and instead pawned it and borrowed money. Imagining her frame of mind, Wi Yeonho couldn’t just accept the excuse that he didn’t have enough money and walk away.

In the past, he might have scraped together the money in an instant, even by begging if necessary. But now, after eating well and living comfortably at the Great Scholarly Institute, with his face still glistening with grease, such a thing was impossible.

Wi Yeonho steeled himself.

“Do you take items as collateral here?”

“Of course. Leave the item and repay three times the borrowed amount. The deadline is three months.”

“Got it.”

Wi Yeonho pulled out the golden ritual blade from his robes and slammed it on the desk.

“Loan me the rest on this.”

“This is...”

“It’s made of gold. It should be worth a lot.”

“It is certainly made of solid gold. Very well. For something like this, I can loan one tael of gold. But repayment would require three...”

As he spoke and examined the golden blade, Ha Daebung suddenly trembled as if struck by lightning.

Despite being presented with an obviously valuable item, Ha Daebung began to sweat profusely, then suddenly leapt up from his chair and prostrated himself flat on the floor.

“M-my lord! I didn’t realize and dared to speak nonsense!”

“What are you going on about?”

Sweat streamed from Ha Daebung’s face and splashed onto the floor.

“I-I was speaking nonsense...”

Ha Daebung had completely lost his composure.

If what he had just seen was correct, then he was currently inside the jaws of a tiger. Not just any tiger—a bloodthirsty one that hadn’t eaten in a month.

The symbol engraved on that golden ritual blade clearly belonged to the Royal Inspectorate. A pawnshop dealt in money, and to operate safely, one needed to know the Royal Court and the murim better than anyone, or risk losing everything in an instant.

‘Of all things... the Royal Inspectorate...’

And what was the Royal Inspectorate? Was it not the very institution that arrested corrupt officials who bled the people dry, merchants who exploited the masses, and fallen nobles?

If the first group the Inspectorate cracked down on was government offices, the second was the black factions, and the third were merchant houses like Silver River Pawnshop.

“What are you talking about?”

Yet this suspicious fellow was still pretending not to know.

‘Where do I even start cleaning this up? That necklace made of Baek Silver Jade worth ten taels, which I lowballed at three? Or the loan shark-level interest that triples the debt in three months?’

There were too many issues.

Ha Daebung kept sweating bullets as he forced a smile. But that smile was closer to a grimace.

“M-my lord, the interest I’ve been charging may be a bit high, but with so many customers pawning items and never returning, we’ve had no choice but to cover losses this way...”

Wi Yeonho tilted his head.

“Is the interest high?”

“……”

“Come to think of it, if it triples in three months, what’s the monthly rate? Sixty percent per month?”

Ha Daebung flailed his arms in panic.

“Of course not! Sixty percent? Anyone charging that kind of rates deserves to be wiped out! We would never charge that much.”

“But you said triple.”

“That’s if you calculate using simple interest! We use compound interest!”

“Compound interest?”

“Y-yes, that’s right. Calculated with compound interest, the actual rate is only about forty-five percent!”

“Forty-five percent, huh… That’s cheap?”

“Yes!”

At hearing that it was cheap, Ha Daebung’s face lit up. But as soon as the next words came out, that brightness quickly faded to a deathly shade.

“With compound interest, what’s the annual rate if it’s forty-five bun a month?”

“Excuse me?”

“Calculate it.”

Ha Daebung quickly did the math in his head.

“Um… It’s not that much. At most… six hundred percent…”

“Oh?”

Wi Yeonho gave a slow smirk.

“Six hundred percent annually? Not sixty-six hundred? A sixty-fold increase?”

A chill ran down Ha Daebung’s spine. Put like that, it wasn’t just high-interest—it was outright extortion. He had to find a way to contain this disaster.

“But, my lord, at that level…”

“Six hundred percent. I haven’t lived a long life, but still, this is the first time I’ve heard anyone say six hundred percent. Not sixty but six hundred?”

“T-that may be so, but if you consider the actual value of the item… That necklace of Baek Silver Jade is worth at least ten taels of silver. So it’s really only a sixty percent rate…”

Wi Yeonho’s eyes flashed.

“Ten taels?”

“……”

Ha Daebung’s face now looked greenish-blue like a corpse.

“Hey.”

At Wi Yeonho’s call, Ha Daebung flinched and shrank back.

“Y-yes!”

“Stand up.”

“Uh, I…”

“Do you want me to hit you until you do?”

Ha Daebung shot up instantly.

Wi Yeonho nodded and gave Ha Daebung a few pats on the shoulder.

“You must be real good at business, huh?”

“Heh-heh…”

“Loan one tael on something worth ten, then try to keep it. And when someone comes to pay it back, you slap them with sixty times the interest over a year. Pah! This is what you call business. Isn’t that right?”

“Heh-heh, well… my lord…”

Poke!

Wi Yeonho suddenly jabbed his finger straight into Ha Daebung’s eye.

“Ow!”

Ha Daebung rolled on the floor, clutching his face.

“You people trying to con me or what?”

He had come all the way from the Sacred Hand Grounds, and what did he find? The clinic was collapsing, and the physician was practically a corpse. And now, after all that, Wi Yeonho—of all people—had been forced to walk over a hundred meter distance on his own will for the first time in his life.

That pent-up frustration finally exploded.

Wi Yeonho screamed at the top of his lungs and thrashed about.

“Lock the doors! I’m not leaving here until this is settled!”

“My lord, please!”

“Call me ‘my lord’ again and I’ll burn you alive!”

That day, the roof of Silver River Pawnshop—one of the three great pawnshops of Hubei—soared into the sky.

Even a slacker knew the value of money.

Tip: Tap/click the left or right side of the screen to go to previous/next chapter.