Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 64⟩
“Of course. These days, people joke about selling dreams if someone dreams a good dream. In the old times it was even more so. If You had a good dream, they would pay the price of the dream and buy it. The representative example is Selling The Dream Myth. It’s a story that appeared in the 『Three Kingdoms Chronicles』. I believe You heard the names of Kim Chunchu and Kim Yusin[1]…”
“I learned about them, I learned.”
“General Kim Yusin had two older sisters. Bohwi and Munhwi. From the two, Bohwi had a dream one day. She climbed the Seok Mountain and urinated, and the whole Seorabeol[2] was flooded. No, it’s not something to laugh about. It means that her power and influence would cover the whole Seorabeol. When she woke up in the morning, she told her dongsaeng Munhwi about it, and Munhwi, realizing the meaning right way, asked to buy the dream.”
“She was more cleaver than her unnie. Isn’t it quite cunning?”
“Kim Yusin would agree with You on this point. He always quite liked Kim Chunchu and tried to pair him with his older sisters. So, while playing a ball game, he deliberately stepped on the hem of his clothes and ripped it. He then brought him to his home, and called his older sister Bohwi to sew it, but Bohwi refused saying that a noble cannot mingle with such trivial tasks. So instead Munhwi came to do the needle work, and seeing the pretty Munhwi, Kim Chunchu fell in love. After this, Kim Chunchu often visited Kim Yusin and soon Munwhi had a child.”
“That’s too fast! I didn’t think that such a story would cross to us from over a thousand of years ago, because it was stuffed into the history book. But it must have been even stricter in the old times, so it was no good if she had a child, right?”
“Silla had a relatively free-spirited atmosphere, but even then, it was a big deal if an unmarried noblewoman had a child. It may be different from the actual history, but anyway, according to the 『Three Kingdoms Chronicles』, the day Queen Seondeuk[3] was climbing Nam Mountain, Kim Yusin deliberately piled up wood at his home and set it on fire. Seondeuk saw the smoke and asked what happened, so the vassals informed her that Kim Yusin’s sister became pregnant without a husband, so he plans to burn his donsang to death. When she asked who is the father, the complexion of Kim Chunchu, who was present, drastically changed.
“He had some conscience.”
“Seondeuk immediately noticed it and told Kim Chunchu to quickly go and save Munhwi. With that, Munhwi married Kim Chunchu. That Kim Chunchu was the very 29th King Taejong Muyeol, who laid foundation for the unification of three kingdoms. After he rose to the position of the king, Munhwi became the Queen Munmyeong. Taking the position of the queen of Silla with just a dream was the Dream Selling Myth. There are numerous stories beside this one about changing fate by selling dreams. Because of that, everyone covets the qilin dream.”
“So that’s how it is, huh…?”
Now he perfectly understood the reason why those strange people kept coming to him and bothering him about buying a dream. Yu Dan was about to nod, but then looked at Baek Ran.
“But why did you give me that qilin dream? What am I to help you with? There is no way it’s to establish a country, right?”
“Of course not. And I didn’t give it to You at all, only lent it to You for a moment. In fact my goal is to sell the qilin dream.”
“Didn’t you say not to sell it?”
“I’m not going to sell it to just anyone, I plan to get the best price for it.”
As if he got it, the dokkaebi slowly nodded.
“In short, this punk is a price gouging catch, eh?”
“That’s right.”
Baek Ran kept smiling as if something was fun.
“In the future, the people who come asking to buy the qilin dream will gradually increase. However, you must absolutely not sell it. Not until two young boys will come to you.”
“Young boys?”
“Young children wearing old Chinese clothes and with heads like dumplings. When those two boys come, please tell them this.”
Baek Ran stretched out a rolled paper tied with a string.
“As You wouldn’t be able to naturally memorize it, I wrote it down. That’s the important part. You have to make certain that You say it like this. If You don’t, all will be in vain.”
Yu Dan accepted the paper.
For some reason the yokai were looking at this scene with wide smiles. Baek Ran asked:
“What’s up with You?”
“Didn’t You at last decide to do it?”
Do-ssi winked as if he knew everything.
“What do You mean?”
“Aren’t You trying to solve the serious financial difficulties of our shop, whose life hangs by a thread, always at risk of bankruptcy or temporarily closing down by getting rich overnight? By selling the qilin dream, I mean.”
Baek Ran stared at the excitedly chattering dokkaebi.
“Ah, do I? Am I trying to do it right now? I had no idea.”
“… Or not.”
“I can’t sell such a thing to solve the shop’s financial difficulties by getting rich overnight. We don’t know from whose bank account cash is deposited. In human world, the important thing is cash. Isn’t the truth that the cash whose origin You can’t trace is best passed down since immemorial? So in the time You dream strange delusions, You could clean up one more…”
The fox yokai stopped talking.
“Right. I guess they can’t enter because of me. I should remove myself.”
“Uh? Who?”
Yu Dan followed Baek Ran’s gaze, and looking outside, he was shocked. The yokai were also startled.
“No! What is that!?”
“It’s customers! Customers are flocking in!”
“See that! They’re lining up in front of our shop!”
As if a monster from legends had appeared, the dokkaebi, the serpent and the wild ginsengs rubbed their eyes and marveled.
But they quickly came back to their senses. Do-ssi jumped first and opened the door.
“Please come in! Sit down! Kids-ah! What are you doing!?”
“Ah, yes! Menu! Menu!”
The shop became full in the instant. Even though there were no place for customers, they didn’t turn back and waited. Everyone stood in a line, but even more customers gathered. The yokai’s mouths were wide open.
Was it also because of the qilin dream? It was amazing.
Without thinking, Yu Dan tried to help, but Baek Ran, who hid in the corner, waved his hand at him.
“It’s okay. Please go and act as a bait. You make one mistake, and those money-hungry yokai may catch You and turn you into a decoration sold at this shop.”
“Ah, got it.”
He slipped out and when he glanced back, Baek Ran called Do-ssi at some point and was telling him something. The face of the dokkaebi, who seemed to be the most excited person in the world, gradually turned serious.
What did that fox tell him again?
Because it was becoming too crowded in front of the shop, he couldn’t observe any longer. Yu Dan started walking. He got home, and then remembering the paper Baek Ran gave him, he unfolded it.
He should make sure to memorize it, right?
He just had to do as he was told. In the first place he said he would help, so it was like he got into the speeding up car.
From that day on, his luck continued. When he played a game, even in the disadvantageous situation, he unconditionally won big. No matter what he wrote in his homework, he heard high praises. If he shot on the test quiz, he got all right. But if he tried to solve them, they were wrong. Yu Dan let out a bitter laugh, looking at the exam paper.
He can’t do it even with the qilin dream, huh?
Besides that, he was lucky in all small daily things. He didn’t have to wait for a bus or subway. They would always come right away, and there was always a seat. If he tried to buy something, an employee would come and immediately change the discount to the ninety percent. If he saw a lost dog or cat poster and turned his head, the punk would quietly be sitting right there. If he stretched out his hand, they would get caught without any fuss. Those animals almost all had a large reward for finding them.
But Baek Ran just temporarily lent him this qilin dream. He couldn’t be greedy. He knew better than anyone else what happens if he falls for the allure of those things escaping the everyday norms, so Yu Dan brainwashed himself.
It’s not money. It’s just a number written down on a piece of paper.
No matter how tempting sum of money reward was offered, after contacting the owner, he would leave the animal and flee. Whenever he was bored, he would endure the annoyance and donate all the money he picked up.
The highlight was when he fell asleep in the subway, and when he woke up, he found a briefcase on his knees. Looking inside, it was full of cash. It was so much, he completely flustered, so he dumped it on the first public service worker, which happened to patrol around and ran away.
“I’m tired…”
Yu Dan sat on the sofa, exhausted.
Would his life dreaming the best good dream would all be like that?
Luck was annoying too. Because it poured on him everywhere he went, so much so it was boring. He thought he could understand the entertainers, who were harassed by fanatic fans. It felt like the whole world became his fanatic fan. Even so, as he was just an ordinary highschooler, who just kept moving back and forth between the school and the house, it ended up on such a petit bourgeois comedy, but…
“The reform plan met with the unexpected stormy opposition and the fierce fight continues…”
“The successive variables in the total market values led to the evaporation of over trillion won and enormous loss…”
“An armed group attempted a bomb terrorism, but was apprehended beforehand…”
Yu Dan looked at all kinds of national news that flashed on the television screen. Doesn’t the dream the people dream differs depending on their vessel? What if the person, who had the qilin dream was a politician, a businessman or a criminal? It wouldn’t be a petit bourgeois comedy then. The genre would change. Then truly amazing things might have happened.
Thinking about it made him uncomfortable.
As expected, the qilin dream was also a supernatural thing. And the supernatural was complicated. Like the geureumae that looked like a pure evil could do something beneficial, and like the qilin dream that looked like a pure good, but sometimes could become dangerous. As his thoughts reached this point, he became curious again.
Who the hell Baek Ran was trying to sell the qilin dream to?
He watched, with his senses on alert.
As the fox yokai said, the people asking to buy the dream kept coming. Numerous shapes of yokai, dokkaebi, divine creatures and things whose identities he couldn’t identify. They stood in his way to school, they looked for him in the classroom, they knocked on his door if he was home. They earnestly begged him, persistently clung to him, and sometimes even threatened.
But Yu Dan firmly refused.
“Not selling it. Absolutely not selling it.”
When he closed all the doors like this, everyone couldn’t help but turn back.
Entire week passed like this.
While he was just blankly killing time with a book unfolded on his desk, suddenly the lights went out. He thought it was a blackout, but a thick fog spread out.
Yu Dan abruptly stood up.
The wall where the bookshelf and closet turned blurry. From the fog, two young kids slowly walked out. Their hair was rounded up on both sides like dumplings. Blue silk clothes. Belts fluttering without a wind.
The boys. Those were the boys for sure.
The two boys approached and politely prostrated themselves.
“Are You planning on selling the qilin dream?”
He looked whether he was awake or dreaming, and then organized his thoughts. Indeed. They really came, huh? As for the script, he memorized it some time ago.
“No matter what, it’s much too great of a dream for a such lowly person as me, so if a worthy owner appears, I plan to sell it. But it’s already too late. When the owner of the shop I often visit offered a precious treasure, and said to sell it to him, I promised to do so.”
The two boys stood stunned for a moment.
“Is it okay to ask who is the owner of the shop?”
They asked according to the script, and he answered according to the script.
“Cheon-ho.”
The boys were at a loss for words and looked at each other.
“You mean the owner of the shop You often visit is Cheonho-nim.”
“That’s right.”
“What did Cheonho-nim offer for the price of the dream?”
“Heavenly official’s jade belt.”
The two boys looked at each other again. Their embarrassment was obvious. Their reaction exactly matched the script Baek Ran wrote.
“Please wait for a moment. We will tell of this to our owner-nim and come to see You again.”
“Good.”
The boys carefully retreated. The fog cleared, and the wall returned to normal.
There, he did as he was told…
But what should he do next? He just concentrated on dealing with the two boys according to the script, and didn’t think about what comes after.
Well, he will find out soon, right?
He tried to browse the book again, but the text didn’t enter his eyes at all. After a while of wasting the time again, he abruptly raised his head. He heard a strange sound behind the wall. The sound of wheels rolling.
“What is it again?”
Yu Dan stared with his mouth opened wide.
From the fog, a beast that surely was a dragon walked out. Behind it were those boys from a moment ago, and the red dragon, with its eyes covered by cloth, was dragging an enormous cart.
The guests sat in that cart. From the fog, he was able to immediately make out the pointy fox ears and coy white face. Beside him was a middle-aged dokkaebi.
When the two saw Yu Dan, their faces remained indifferent like they didn’t know him. So Yu Dan also acted coldly, pretending not to know them.
The boy spoke.
“Our owner truly wishes to buy the qilin dream. So She invites Cheonho-nim and the owner of the qilin dream to have a conversation. Cheonho-nim readily said He would readily go, but what about young master?”
“Sure thing.”
Yu Dan boarded the cart, and glanced at Do-ssi.
Was this because of the secret conversation they had before? The dokkaebi was always cheeky, but right now he was tightly holding onto the box on his knees, as if he was nervous. Yu Dan lowered his voice and asked.
“What is that?”
“The price of your dream.”
“That heavenly official’s jade belt something? Then what is that?”
“It’s a belt made fully from jade, given by a king in the old times by the heavenly official, or in other words, heavenly messenger, who descended from heaven.”
Beak Ran replied instead. Over the unreadable brown eyes, only the fog cruised through. Yu Dan turned his gaze away.
The cart was moving softly. They were home just a moment ago, but they entered some unknown place at some point. The odd scenery changed every second, and lazily brushed past, lumping together.
The two boys floated a red cloud-like mushroom close to the dragon’s nose and guiding it through the scent, they moved forward unhindered. Before he could ask, the fox spoke first.
“That is the herb of eternal youth.”
“Aha.”
“Do You know what it is?”
“Well, I’m sure it’s good. But where are we going right now?”
“First of all, do You know that’s a dream?”
“A dream?”
“Yes. Right now You’re lying on the desk and dreaming. Of course it isn’t an ordinary dream. This dream is an extension of reality. Human minds can move through the dreams. They can go to places that are difficult to go for both humans and yokai when awake. Like abode of god.”
“Then the owner of those boys…”
“Monghwi (Dream Lady). The goddess, who gives dreams.”
“The one we’re going to sell a dream to right now is the goddess of dreams?”
“That’s right. Monghwi collects all the dreams of the world, but she doesn’t have the qilin dream. As such, she can’t stand it and really covets it. She will try to buy no matter the price.”
“Keuung…”
The dokkaebi made a strange sound. His face was full of anxiety.
“Till now, I attended a few such meetings and assisted Cheonho-nim, but I can’t help but worry this time. Is it really okay?”
“You know the answer, so why ask? Of course it’s not okay.”
Yu Dan flinched and looked at the fox.
“As expected, there is something. Something you didn’t tell me.”
“What do You mean? There is always something I don’t tell You about. What You said right now is as obvious as looking at the sea and saying ‘As expected, it’s water, huh?’.”
“What the hell are you trying to…”
He was about to raise his voice, but then remembered the boys, and held back his words. The fox smiled.
“It’s okay. You can just speak comfortably. They were eavesdropping on our conversation for some time now, anyway.”
The boys’ shoulders flinched.
Do-ssi just shook his head. It felt like he knew what he was thinking. How can that fox yokai be so brazen? Yu Dan gave up on talking with Baek Ran any longer.
“Uncle-ssi, what are we doing here right now?”
“I don’t know. It’s no different from if they tell you to suck it, you suck it. That’s what seniors said.”
“What? Suck what?”
“When you go to the army later, you will learn.”
“Uncle-ssi, you served in the army?”
“Hey, I was in the service since the Manchu Invasion[4].”
Do-ssi declared and shut his mouth.
The cart traveled for a while and crossed a stone bridge. A pavilion, so towering it seemed to pierce the sky, appeared through the fog. It was a magnificent great mansion with several floors. The two boys pulled the cart and entered through the door with twin red lamps hanging.
Wherever he looked, there were weeping willows. Their branches were so long they touched the ground, and they looked like they were hiding their heads and sleeping. When he looked closer, there were people tied to the trees. Kings, generals, nobles, commoners… As if they were there a really long time, they were no different from skeletons.
“What is that?”
“If You’re caught by Monghwi, You can’t come back. As such, Your body in the reality can’t wake up and dies. And even after death, Your dreams are harvested like this.”
Baek Ran replied calmly. Hearing those words, and looking again, some trees shined with a dim light. It was terrifying.
“If I make a mistake, I won’t be able to leave?”
“Nothing like that.”
“I’m relieved then.”
“You will be able to leave only if You do well.”
The fox smiled widely again. Yu Dan felt a chill down his spine. Without knowing anything, didn’t he just jump to completely end his life by stepping forward saying he would help?
“What do I do to do well?”
“You must just listen to me well.”
Will that do?
Yu Dan worked hard to soothe his heart. Calm down. That fox will take you out of here. Probably.
*~*~*
[1] Kim Chunchu and Kim Yusin — Kim Chunchu was 29th King of Silla, Kim Yusin was his general. They were largely responsible for unification of Korean Penisula under Silla.
[2] Seorabeol — Silla.
[3] Queen Seondeuk — if you know any figures from Silla’s history, it’s probably her, because she was a badass, but in this case all you need to know is that Kim Chunchu was her nephew.
[4] Manchu Invasion — the invasion of Qing on Joseon in 1636-1637, in which Joseon became tributary state of Qing.
Translator’s note: Sorry, Yu Dan, apparently you’re just terribly useful in committing frauds.
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