BBS (80)

Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost

 
 

〈Chapter 80〉
 

According to the tradition, one should offer fruits and kowtow to the Weaver Girl and wish for improved needlework skills.

“The boys also have to know how to stitch their clothes at least.”

Dragged by Heuk-yo’s hand, all of them prayed. After that, because you were supposed to eat wheat flour food on Chilseok, they ate noodles and miljeonbyeong[1]. They also ate watermelon punch. Next, they took a nap, waking up in the evening.

“Who will come this year, I wonder?”

Do-ssi already stood at the entrance and looked out.

“I’m curious what period and place the guest will take us to this time.”

Heuk-yo also put a hand to her forehead and looked out with him.

The shop was positively brimming with anticipation. To receive the special guests at the Chilseok Night, they took out all the candles, and in the appropriate darkness, they hung a handful of paper lanterns.

According to what the twins said, the lanterns used in this place contained stars. The fox yokai picked and gathered the pieces of stars that fell from the sky in old times… It felt like a ridiculous story, but looking at the mysteriously sparkling lanterns, he thought the story might have been true.

In the shop lit up by lanterns like the Milky Way, everyone stared at the door with nervous faces.

They sensed a presence in the darkness outside. A silhouette of a person shimmered in the dark yard, gradually growing closer.

The door rattled on their hinges. He heard the twins loudly swallow out of nervousness.

The door opened.

The Chilseok Night’s guest at last entered the shop.

A man with a very tired face. With everyone observing him, he staggered in and slumped in the chair. On his chin was an unshaven stubble, and his necktie was all loose. He appeared to have suffered from morning till night.

“What?”

The yokai murmured.

“Isn’t it a first time a Chilseok Night’s guest, who visited us, is a man? Isn’t it right, older brother?”

“True. I expected a young miss with sparkling eyes to visit, because she wanted to know who was her lover in the previous life.”

“It’s an uncle! An uncle!”

“Noona, He will hear you. Please don’t be so loud. Even if He looks like this, He is a true romantic at heart. Didn’t He hear a rumor and came here?”

Chaeu smiled softly and approached the guest.

“Hello. Welcome. Do You want to go to see Your true love from Your past life?”

“Uh?”

The man asked back with a confused face.

“Past life? Did I perhaps enter the wrong shop? I’m just very tired and had a difficult day, so I came here hoping to drink a cup of cool tea.”

“Yes?”

Even Chaeu was flustered at the unexpected answer.

“Did You not come here after hearing a rumor?”

“What rumor?”

“This shop has a door that opens only once a year on Chilseok. The guests, who come at that time can enter through that door to meet the person they loved in their previous life.”

“Uh, really?”

The man stretched his cheek.

“If it’s true, then it’s really amazing. But I have no need for it.”

“No need?”

“I’m abstinent. It hasn’t changed since I was born. All the women I was forced to meet because of my parents-nim’s impatience ended badly. Do people have to be interested in love? I’m just comfortable alone.”

Heuk-yo glared at Yu Dan.

“A human jut like you came, huh? What a bad luck. Bad luck.”

“It’s too early to be disappointed.”

Chaeseol quickly approached the guest.

“Really pitiful uncle-ssi. Your heart has completely hardened. But you know what? Such a person is the perfect option for the Chilseok Night’s guest.”

“That’s right. A powerful negation soon turns into powerful affirmation. Guest-nim says He doesn’t need anything like love, but in His heart he may earnestly want it. So aren’t You curious why Your heart hardened like a stone?”

“The last life will hold the answer. Let’s cross the Milky Way together.”

The twins diligently made a sales pitch, with a cute and polite smiles. But the man was more formidable enemy than expected.

“No, I’m fine. I have to go to work early tomorrow.”

The two child ginseng yokai exchanged glances. A very powerful desire was exposed in them.

The Chilseok Night can’t end like this.

Following that intention, the two flung their bodies, snatching the briefcase the man put down beside him for a moment.

“Uh? What!? Give it back!”

The twins fled like crazy.

“No! The presentation materials are there!”

The man screamed and chased after them. Do-ssi, Heuk-yo, Baek Ran and Yu Dan all quickly followed. The twins ran through the backyard into a long corridor. Through numerous rooms, finally stopping in front of a certain darkened room.

The sliding door, decorated with old constellations, was wide open. Inside of it, dark blue darkness. Numerous stars shined bright.

The man stopped in surprise.

“Is it really the Milky Way?”

“How is it? We didn’t lie, did we? Other spectacles can’t compare to this.”

“You can cross it. If there was a person You’ve truly loved in your previous life, You will meet them across the Milky Way.”

The twins spoke, while panting.

The man said no word and just stared. His enlarged pupils reflected the sparkling of the starlight. He refused, saying he has no need and the like, but looking at the Milky Way, his heart seemed moved.

“Really? Until now there was no woman, who made my heart race. Won’t it be the same in my previous life. Could there really be a person I truly loved?”

Like possessed, he took a step in.

You’re fine now? Trailing after the yokai, who followed the excited guest, Yu Dan also entered the Milky Way.

A real river of sparkling stars? Even though he was personally crossing it, he couldn’t believe it. The white, green and occasionally red stars and like hazy fog nebulas, mingled and spread without end. Was this cold energy touching his arm a wind of universe?

The Banwoldang’s yokai saw this marvelous sight each year, but they were busy looking around like it was a marvel for them too. The guest was also speechless.

“Aye, it’s a pity I can’t take a picture.”

The traces of exhaustion disappeared from his face, His eyes shined. Be in a good or bad sense, he was thrilled by the momentary change from his no-life. Yu Dan stretched out his hand. Starlight twinkled in his palm.

“But is it real? If we’re really crossing the distance between stars, we would have to be giants.”

“If You keep thinking about this here, I’m chasing You out into that.”

Baek Ran pointed at the blackness across the universe.

Now that he thought about it, when he was young, he really hated when black holes appeared in a program about cosmos. Yu Dan shut up right away.

The Milky Way was endlessly long, but he saw a dim end ahead. The end of sparsely shining stars and darkness around it. Before they reached it, the fox yokai gave short instructions.

“I say it every time, but I’ll say it again. This is an illusion. An event that already happened in the past. In this world, we’re complete onlookers. Even if our interference seems to change something, it will never change the past.”

“Got it.”

Yu Dan nodded, and walked towards the end of the Milky Way.

It was a pond.

Moonlight and lights of flying around fireflies reflected in a mirror like water. Dense trees quietly surrounded them from four directions. Looking up into the sky, they clearly saw the dazzling Milky Way among the numerous stars.

Do-ssi and Heuk-yo looked around.

“Where are we?”

“Which period is it?”

At that moment, a small shadow jumped out of the darkness.

“Hello?”

Yu Dan flinched.

It wasn’t a human. A rabbit. It was a rabbit yokai. She had soft silver fur and two blue eyes. Silver rabbit sniffed in their direction with an extremely wary expression, and then rejoiced.

“You — You were here!”

Everyone looked back.

Where a moment ago stood a corporation worker, stood a rabbit yokai. Yu Dan was surprised once again.

“That uncle was a rabbit in his past life!”

“And not just any rabbit. It’s a moon rabbit.”

Baek Ran replied. Looking at him, the fox yokai also had a surprised face. His pupils were greatly dilated.

“What is a moon rabbit?”

“They’re very rare and precious yokai. There is a legend they’re rabbits Chang’e raised on the moon.”

“By Chang’e, You mean that legendary Chang’e? The wife of Yi?”

When Do-ssi asked, Baek Ran nodded.

“Yes. Long time ago, ten suns rose in the sky and scorched the whole world, so a hero called Yi shoot down nine of them. Chang’e was his wife, but when Yi stole the elixir of life Mother Queen of the West had, they ran away to the moon. The people thought that the moon rabbits, who were rabbits raised by Chang’e, also drunk that elixir of life. They believed that the neidan in their bodies contained the power of longevity — like with fox beads[2] if You slice open a fox — and hunted them down willy-nilly. So the moon rabbits hid their traces one after another.”

“You’re perfectly informed, ah?”

The female rabbit was amazed.

“Honey, were did You meet such a clever fox-nim? That’s really amazing.”

Looking at her husband, she smiled brightly. The Chilseok Night’s guest, or perhaps, male rabbit stared at her blankly.

“Ah, oh my goodness… Now I remember. Why did I forget about You for such a long time?”

“For such a long time? I just took the last turn around before leaving this place, not much time could have passed.”

“No. I completely forgot about You for a really long time. How could it be? Unspeakable.”

The male rabbit’s voice dropped. It seemed like he would cry at any moment. The female rabbit looked worriedly at her husband.

“What’s the matter with You? Just a moment ago You were so spirited. Still, with everything changing so suddenly, You probably can bear the anxiety in Your heart. Hey, look into the sky. The Milky Way is so bright and shining so clearly, just like on the Chilseok we met. Nothing bad happens on such a night. We will be able to safely leave. Don’t worry, hey.”

She took the male rabbit’s paws into her soft paws and tapped them lightly. Then sensing Yu Dan and yokai’s gazes, she gave them a sheepish smile.

“We met and became a pair when we were young, and we were living happily at this point. Even for the future, we just wished to grow old together. But recently there had been a lot of noise in the castle, and it appears that a ‘daoist’ bastard appeared? He knows that we’re living and hiding here, and fretting to capture us somehow. No matter how much we told him that there isn’t anything like a neidan of longevity, he didn’t believe it.”

Baek Ran nodded like he understood.

“So in the end You’ve decided to abandon this base and leave.”

“Yes. Fox-nim, You have to be careful too. That ‘daoist’ will try to capture You for Your fur to sell it. If he sees that golden fur of fox-nim, his eyes will go red, and he will pounce on You. Serpent-nim be careful too. Dokkaebi-nim, the ginseng children-nim and, and…”

The female rabbit’s gaze stopped on Yu Dan. She perked up her two ears, and thought for a while.

“Apologies for the rudeness, but what yokai are You?”

“A highschooler…?”

“Is that so? Anyway, highschooler-nim be careful too. The taoist and his gang are everywhere around.”

The female rabbit turned in a circle.

When her back paws tapped the ground, silver brilliance spread in all directions like a net. She was examining the surroundings and carefully investigating the smells.

The male rabbit stared at his wife.

“We’ve reincarnated, so doesn’t it mean we’ve died in the end?”

“Yes. The moon rabbits had been long time extinct.”

Just when Baek Ran’s words dropped down, the ground suddenly moved.

Dense cloud of dust rose up, and an enormous iron trap jumped out. Everyone shouted in Surprise.

“You! Are You okay?”

“Honey!”

The female rabbit screamed. Once the dust cloud settled, they saw her trapped in the iron trap.

“It can’t be!”

The male rabbit ran to her terrified.

“Oh no.”

“Just after they meet?”

The twins mumbled with dazed faces.

“Let’s go!”

Following Heuk-yo, everyone got to the trap that imprisoned the female rabbit.

It was a peculiar trap. It didn’t have an entrance or locks at all, and the frames were densely covered with talismans.

“It’s the daoist’s work!”

Flustered, the female rabbit slammed her body into the trap. Each time, sparkles flickered.

“Honey, stay still! I’ll break you out!”

The male rabbit grabbed the frame with his front paws and tried to break it. But the rabbit’s strength was no use. No matter how much he bit and put strength into it, it didn’t budge.

“What about some tool?”

Yu Dan looked around. He noticed a thick branch, quickly grabbed it and plunged it between the frames. He tried to break the bars with the male rabbit, but it still didn’t flinch. They only wasted energy.

“What kind of rabbit trap is so sturdy?”

“Move aside, please.”

Baek Ran stepped forward and swung his spear. With the grinding sound — Clang! Like when welding, huge sparks jumped out. But the trap was the same as before. Yu Dan was dumbfounded.

“How can it be?! What a rabbit trap!”

“We can’t do anything in this world. If it broke in the past, we would be able to break it, if it didn’t break, no one, not even Cheonho, would be able to do anything to break it.”

Baek Ran swung his spear again. Sparks jumped just like a moment ago.

At that moment.

It became noisy in the distance. Everyone looked at each other.
 

*~*~*
 

[1] miljeonbyeong — a type of wheat pancakes.

[2] fox beads — the stories I found about fox beads were usually about a fox kissing someone and leaving a bead in their mouth, which — if swallowed — would gift the person skill to read heavens and earth.
 

Translator’s note: Ah, yes, the highschooler yokai…
 

Patron thank you note:

Thank you patron, Nobody, please accept this Solanum seaforthianum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Al, please accept this Solanum incompletum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Dust, please accept this Solanum jamesii’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Maru, please accept this Solanum laciniatum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, kamisonk, please accept this Solanum lanceolatum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Kasimir Ilmonen, please accept this Solanum laxum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Tara Hess, please accept this Solanum linnaeanum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Ice, please accept this Solanum marginatum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Hematite, please accept this Solanum muricatum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Deflubs, please accept this Solanum nemophilum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, TheFloorGuy, please accept this Solanum nigrum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Akemidy, please accept this Solanum campylacanthum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, vicky moch, please accept this Solanum oligacanthum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Diana-Maria, please accept this Solanum pachyandrum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Reichie, please accept this Solanum palustre’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Ch W, please accept this Solanum pennellii’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Links to support this translation and access to 8 advanced chapter (Patreon & Kofi)

> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LibraryKeyTranslations

> Kofi-Euro: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslator

> Kofi-USD: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslatorusd

Did you see a mistake? 🐞