Chapter 55

After finishing washing dishes, Kang Jin stood guard by the fire. He placed a pot of water over it to boil; once boiling, he would discard the water and replace it with fresh water. This was how they cleaned grease from the vent holes on the pots. After thoroughly washing them, one final step involved boiling the pots in hot water before completion.

With all the pots now clean, Kang Jin flipped bowls upside down at the sink and stretched his body.

Crack! Crackle!

Kang Jin sighed as bones popped throughout his body.

“Ahhh… Making money is nice but it’s too much work.” Today, during lunch service alone, he made about five hundred thousand won. Although he felt proud of this achievement, it also took its toll physically.

However, Kang Jin was finding it quite challenging.

“Mrs. Kim Bokrae is truly amazing. To endure this hardship for her entire life…” Kang Jin murmured softly as he glanced around the kitchen.

“By the way, where did that scoundrel Bae Yongsoo go off to? He should at least keep President Kim Bokrae company while she struggles with the dishes.” Kang Jin wondered aloud, noticing Yongsoo’s absence.

“Bae Yongsoo, Bae Yongsoo, Bae Yongsoo.”

“What do you want?” As Kang Jin called his name three times, Bae Yongsoo suddenly appeared beside him, looking puzzled.

Kang Jin couldn’t help but smile.

“This is truly impressive. How do you manage to show up just by me calling your name thrice?”

“You summoned me.”

“How can you hear me from any distance? Is my voice reaching you regardless of where I am?”

Bae Yongsoo squinted at Kang Jin’s question.

“Are you bored?”

“A little…”

Kang Jin’s response elicited a tsk from Bae Yongsoo.

“I was having quite some fun.”

“With what?”

Bae Yongsoo chuckled at Kang Jin’s inquiry.

“I followed Mrs. Kim Bokrae earlier.”

“And?”

“The hangover soup restaurant is now in chaos.”

Confusion clouded Kang Jin’s face upon hearing ‘chaos.’

“In chaos? Why?”

“That son locked the door and threw away all the prepared hangover soups.”

“Threw them away? Won’t he get penalized for wasting food?”

Bae Yongsoo nodded in agreement with Kang Jin.

“He certainly will. And honestly…if he had to discard them, he could’ve donated to a homeless shelter or similar places. It would have earned him some JS Finance points.”

Some might argue against giving away food meant to be discarded, but it wasn’t unfit for consumption. In fact, it could be considered a feast for those individuals who received it.

“So what happened next?”

“When I locked the door and threw out all the Sunji hangover soup, my daughter-in-law flew into a rage while Mrs. Kim Bokrae yelled, ‘Good job, good job’… It was absolute chaos!”

“And then?”

“Well, what do you mean by ‘and then’? Everything had already been dumped. And then…

Detective Jo Hyunsu watched Lim Mi-hyang’s shocked reaction with surprise after he overturned the container of Sunji hangover soup.

“You’re crazy! What have you done?!”

“No. I’ve finally come to my senses.”

“Then…what did you talk about with the restaurant owner earlier? Did she tell you to throw everything away?”

“That’s not it!” Jung Hyunsu yelled at Lim Mi-hyang.

“Just now…when we were eating Sunji hangover soup, what thoughts came to your mind?”

“What do you mean?”

“I…thought of Mom.”

“Well, since it was made using Mother’s recipe, of course it tasted like her cooking!”

“Yes, it was our mother’s recipe…” Jung Hyunsu paused briefly and sighed before continuing, “Sunji hangover soup.”

“Who doesn’t know that? Yes, it reminded me of my mother too.”

“Mom…she gave this shop to me, hoping I would eat well and live comfortably. She entrusted it to me, the youngest sibling, because she was most worried about me.”

“That is because you…” Lim Mi-hyang couldn’t finish her sentence, and Jung Hyunsu nodded.

“Yes, that’s right. She gave me the store because she was most worried about me. She said to make a living with this…”. Jung Hyunsu paused for a moment before continuing, “However… I ruined Mom’s Sunji hangover soup. She warned me that the broth is the foundation.”

Lim Mi-hyang looked at Jung Hyunsu with a serious expression.

“You were the one who complained how incredibly difficult it was to make the broth. And it was also your idea to source the broth from a factory.”

“I know.”

“Are you seriously planning to do it all over again despite the hardship?”

Jung Hyunsu nodded in response to Lim Mi-hyang’s question.

“Yes, I’m going to start anew. And this time, I’ll truly perfect my mother’s Sunji hangover soup.”

“I’m going to recreate it.”

“How? You haven’t made it even once in several months!”

“We’ll start over. Let’s do this.”

“Wait, think about it again. The gas bill alone will cost thousands of dollars per month. It would amount to hundreds of millions won annually. With that money…”

“…trying to save on expenses…” Jung Hyunsu trailed off. “…caused our loyal customers, whom Mom cherished, to leave us.”

Lim Mi-hyang bit her lip at her husband’s words. It was true that their revenue had significantly decreased. However…

“Making broth is truly arduous… Can you handle it? I’m not confident…”

As a homemaker, Lim Mi-hyang had experience boiling bones for stock occasionally. But the thought of doing it twice daily seemed overwhelmingly exhausting.

“My mother endured this hardship…until she passed away.”

Feeling her husband’s determination, Lim Mi-hyang sighed.

“I don’t care! It’s frustrating because it’s so difficult.”

Watching from the side with red eyes, Oh Soon-young smiled as Jung Hyunsu’s words resonated with Lim Mi-hyang.

“That’s thoughtful of you. Yes! Very thoughtful indeed.”

”…I see why you called me over here,” Kang Jin responded with a smile after hearing Bae Yongsoo’s explanation.

“It seems to be working wonders for your grandmother.”

“She looks great now. She appears incredibly happy.”

“Yes, I imagine so. Her dissatisfaction stemmed from not being able to make proper hangover soup. The best outcome would be crafting the perfect hangover soup.”

Kang Jin nodded and turned towards Bae Yongsoo.

“So…will Grandma ascend immediately?”

“Differently from other ghosts, we can still see Grandma. She’ll likely ascend soon.”

Bae Yongsoo gazed wistfully into the air before speaking, “Still, she won’t ascend immediately. She’ll likely wait until after seeing the guests empty their bowls.”

“If we follow Grandmother’s recipe properly…”

Kang Jin licked his lips as he continued, “She should depart soon.”

“Yes, that seems likely.”

Regret was evident on both their faces. Although they hadn’t known Oh Soon-young for long, they had grown quite fond of her during this brief period.

With a saddened expression, Kang Jin glanced at Bae Yongsoo and said, “You should hurry up too.”

“Yes, I must leave eventually,” replied Sung Yongsoo.

Kang Jin looked intently at him and asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“If I needed your help, I would have asked earlier. However…I don’t know what assistance I might require, so it’s hard to ask.”

“Should we visit Woonam Restaurant?”

Bae Yongsoo shook his head at Kang Jin’s suggestion.

“You think I haven’t been there before?”

“But not with someone alive, right?”

“That’s…true.” Bae Yongsoo nodded in response.

“Okay!”

“What do you mean ‘okay’?”

“I meant let’s discuss this later. For now, I need some sleep. I’m tired.”

He had conducted ghost business until 11 PM yesterday and then simmered broth for 10 hours afterward.

I was tired from selling lunch as well. Moreover, I had to make Seonji hangover soup for dinner…

‘Should I boil it?’

If Jung Hyunsu really made Sunji hangover soup with sincerity, then maybe I could quit. The reason why I started making Sunji hangover soup was because of Bae Yongsoo’s request to ruin the store. With this thought, Kang Jin sighed briefly.

‘I don’t know if he can do it immediately… Let’s continue making the hangover soup until tomorrow.’

Having made up his mind, Kang Jin closed the store door. It was good to give up on evening sales and close at 11 pm.

Click!

Kang Jin suddenly opened the door again.

“Scenery.”

Kang Jin pondered for a moment before sighing and exiting the store. He had been meaning to buy some artwork but hadn’t gotten around to it…

“I should go while I’m thinking about it.”

Daesiso wasn’t too far away, so Kang Jin decided to head there since he already made up his mind.

“Where are you going?”

“I want to purchase some wall art.”

Bae Yongsoo hastily asked after hearing Kang Jin’s simple reply.

“Where will you buy it from?”

“Daesiso.”

“Won’t that look cheap?”

“That’s because I plan on buying something inexpensive.”

“But our restaurant has standards. Hanging a few thousand won piece of art doesn’t convey quality.”

“What do you mean by ‘standards’…”

“But wouldn’t it still seem too low-quality?”

“So what do you suggest?”

Bae Yongsoo pondered Kang Jin’s question before replying.

“Let’s buy them at the flea market.”

“The flea market… True, we might get some good deals if we’re lucky,” Kang Jin agreed, sounding quite knowledgeable about it.

Bae Yongsoo asked him, “Have you been there before?”

“I used to work part-time as a junk dealer years ago.”

“What exactly does a junk dealer do?”

“It involves finding valuable items among discarded goods and selling them to merchants at the flea market.” Kang Jin chuckled wryly. “Initially, I thought it could be lucrative if I picked well, but…it ended up being more effort than profit.”

“Don’t they pay you for your part-time work?”

“No, since I found and sold the items myself, there was no separate payment. Basically, it’s all about making money by purchasing cheap finds and reselling them, or losing out otherwise.”

“And did you find anything valuable?”

“I got ripped off instead.”

“Ripped off?”

“I bought this Buddha statue from some antique dealer for thirty thousand won and sold it to him for fifty thousand won because he claimed it wasn’t worth much.”

“So then…?”

“When I checked later, he was selling it for one million won!”

“You let that slide?”

“That’s how the flea market works. You can be taken advantage of in no time. Besides…I also purchased it for only thirty thousand won at another antique shop. We’re both guilty of the same thing.”

Bae Yongsoo nodded in agreement with Kang Jin’s words.

“You’re right. You were quite cunning yourself.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It’s true. You bought a million-won item for just thirty thousand won at an antique shop.”

“If I hadn’t bought it, its fate would have been to be sold as scrap metal.”

“And you didn’t know that it was worth one million won,” Sung Yongsoo said with a smile, making Kang Jin chuckle.

“I unknowingly deceived him, and he knowingly deceived me.”

“That’s right; you two were quite different indeed. You were just naive, while he was a shrewd businessman.”

“Thanks for the comforting words.”

“The world is full of such things. Shall we go now?”

Kang Jin grimaced at Sung Yongsoo’s question. Even though they were close to the Daegu Market, getting to the flea market required taking the subway, including transferring trains…

I’m so tired…

Kang Jin had been simmering bones all night and then went grocery shopping for lunch supplies, so he was quite tired. As Kang Jin debated internally, Bae Yongsoo’s bloodied face caught his attention as it stared back at him.

“You want to go?”

“I’m a ghost, but being stuck inside this store every day is suffocating. Besides, there are many interesting things at flea markets.”

“Have you been before?”

“Yes, I occasionally visited when buying items for interior decoration at Woonam Restaurant. It feels nostalgic.”

Kang Jin responded, “Can’t you just go alone?”

“I can’t purchase anything myself.”

“Why would you need to buy anything if you’re a ghost?”

“It’s not that I don’t desire things; the issue is that I can’t actually buy them.”

“Fine, let’s go.”

Sighing, Kang Jin locked the door and started walking with Bae Yongsoo towards the subway station.