The Highest Level Son of a Chaebol Family - Chapter 288



Only Noblemtl

“I just got a call from Mr. Tea······.”

My father muttered quietly, as if he couldn’t believe it.

My grandfather muttered quietly as if he couldn’t believe it either.

“Oh my, my corn······.”

My grandfather was speechless for a moment as he looked at the corn that had been crushed by the tractor.

“I clearly told you to cut the weeds along the ridge… You son of a bitch!”

My grandfather suddenly opened his eyes wide.

Looking back and forth between the weeds rolling around at the edge of the field and the tractor cutting through the cornfield.

“Why is a tractor here······ Why is a tractor here······!”

A vein appeared on my grandfather’s forehead.

The warning lights in my head were also going off.

“How many times has this happened!”

“Grandpa, this is the place to pull the plug!”

My grandfather paused for a moment.

Not missing that gap, I quickly shouted.

“From here to there! We’re going to build a 6-meter wide road.”

“Two lanes in both directions?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to have a village bus running at that level?”

“The village bus route? In front of here?”

My grandfather looked back and forth between the crushed corn and the place where the road would be built.

I whispered quietly.

“You said it was really inconvenient because the village bus didn’t run this way? I think the villagers would really like it if a bus stop was built here.”

“Ahem!”

“The price of land in this village will also rise a lot. Don’t you think the villagers will praise the village chief every time they pass by this road?”

“Ahem!”

“Dad, what did you say we named this road?”

My father answered quickly.

“Sujin-ro.”

“That’s my mother’s name?”

“Ahem!”

My grandfather’s eyebrows, which had been raised, lowered again.

“Well, if that happens, the whole neighborhood will be in an uproar.”

“sure.”

I nodded obediently.

“But that’s that, ruining a year’s worth of farming is a big deal.”

I deliberately slumped my shoulders.

“So my dad will be kicked out now?”

“hmm?”

“When my father gets kicked out, my mother and I will get kicked out too.”

I deliberately lowered my head to show my presence.

“Grandpa, I had a great day today. I’ll come see you again next time.”

“That’s enough! How much is that corn worth?”

My grandfather waved his hand.

I glanced at him.

“Then will you forgive my father?”

“I invited all the people in the village to the village feast.”

My grandfather turned his head away, pretending not to know.

Trying to ignore the ruined cornfield.

“Didn’t they say that a lot of customers from the western part of Seoul came down here? We can’t let them make a wasted trip.”

“Grandfather······!”

I hugged my grandfather tightly.

“thank you.”

“Ahem! That bastard is thankful for everything.”

“Thanks to you, my mom and dad were able to receive lots of congratulations from everyone who came to the village feast.”

I smiled broadly.

“I’m so happy.”

“Ahem! Mr. Cha, that’s enough. Come here quickly.”

My grandfather gestured.

“Come out quickly before I change my mind! Three, please?”

“I’m going! I’m going now!”

My father came running, throwing down the crushed corn.

Even in the midst of all this, he never forgot and held his mother’s hand tightly.

Both of their faces looked filled with the question, ‘Can you forgive them so easily?’

I leaned toward my grandfather and whispered softly.

“You see? Our dad never lets go of our mom’s hand.”

“Ahem! That guy is like a swindler. So manly. He shouldn’t be born like that.”

“Do you really hate that kind of son-in-law?”

“If you keep being as blunt as a rock to our Soojin, I’ll beat you up and kick you out right now!”

He said he didn’t hate it.

* * *

On the way back to the house where the village feast was being held.

We stood side by side and walked along a quiet field path.

My grandfather stood at the front and I stood at the back.

How did I end up coming down from my maternal grandfather’s shoulders?

-Why do you carry the child on your shoulder like a parrot?

-The child is about to fall. Please put him down.

-Isn’t it too heavy? What are you going to do if your shoulder goes out?

It was thanks to my parents who were terrified by the same words as the townspeople.

My maternal grandfather was the type of person who would turn a deaf ear to what the villagers said.

When I met my mother’s worried eyes, she quietly put me down with a cough.

“Tea, sir.”

“Yes, Master.”

My father followed my maternal grandfather.

My mother followed my father, and I followed her.

“Are both your parents innocent?”

Finally, my father-in-law is going to take a census!

What is this that is so touching?

My mother covered her mouth with both hands and her eyes were filled with tears.

My father answered bravely.

“Yes. They are both healthy and safe.”

“Brothers?”

“I have two older brothers and one older sister. That’s why I’m the youngest.”

“hmm.”

Silence fell.

Is this the end?

But neither my grandfather nor my father opened their mouths and just walked along the path between the fields in silence.

After a long time, my grandfather opened his mouth.

“You won’t have to come help me out anymore.”

“yes?”

It was an unexpected ban on guests.

“There’s no need to look that far ahead.”

My mother had a desperate look on her face, as if the sky had fallen.

For a moment, she staggered, so I held onto her hand tightly.

Father shouted urgently.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t even give you a proper answer, and I even ruined the crops······.”

My father washed his face dry.

“So you’re really angry? I was wrong.”

“Ah… Ahem! I don’t intend to hit you with that.”

“yes?”

“Just as a shaman catches people, it is natural for someone who is not good at farming to ruin the farm. Why don’t I know that?”

My grandfather clicked his tongue.

“The misunderstanding is not mine, it’s you.”

“yes?”

“I meant that now that I know what kind of person you are, I don’t want you to go through any unnecessary trouble in the future.”

“But, Master, we are short-handed here······.”

“It’s okay because you sent me a bunch of expensive farm machinery.”

My grandfather slowed his steps.

It was to walk side by side with my father.

“During harvest season, planting season, or especially when you need a lot of hands, you can just hire people instead of paying wages. That’s how it’s always been done.”

My maternal grandfather has no sons.

There are only two daughters.

“If we build a road here as you say, we’ll be able to clear a lot of farmland, so it’ll be even better.”

In farming, the best labor force is the hard-working young men.

It’s not like my maternal grandfather farms a small patch of land the size of the palm of his hand.

It must have been disappointing in many ways to cultivate that much farmland by hand.

“Patients should focus on their doctors, farmers should focus on their farms, and business people should focus on their business.”

He declared that he would not ask for help from his father in the future.

······Of course, I’m completely convinced just by looking at the state of the corn scattered over there.

It wasn’t an incomprehensible decision.

“What I wanted from you wasn’t farming.”

“Then what do you wish for?”

“First of all, I want to take care of my daughter, Sujin, as if she were my own body.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Father looked back at Mother and smiled broadly.

“I will cherish it as if it were my own body, as if it were my own life, no, more than that.”

“Secondly, I want to raise my grandson, Jeong-hyeok, well.”

My grandfather looked back at me and smiled.

“Isn’t the most important thing in farming children?”

It was a remark full of the farmer’s pride.

“I have to protect my child. I will pave the way for Jeong-hyeok’s future.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

My grandfather nodded.

Then he looked back at his mother with sharp eyes.

“Sujin, this time you answer.”

“yes?”

“Do you like this guy?”

“yes.”

It was an answer without hesitation.

“So I can’t do it without it?”

“yes.”

“Then I have no choice. I have to get married.”

“yes?”

My father stopped walking abruptly.

It was the same for my mother and me.

Only my grandfather walked briskly at the same speed, carrying his luggage on his back.

“If you try to make it difficult, the marriage between two families is something that will be endlessly blocked, but if you try to make it easy, it will happen in the blink of an eye. That’s the job of a man and a woman.”

My parents looked dumbfounded.

The questions ‘So easily?’, ‘Suddenly?’, ‘Why did you change your mind?’ seemed to be floating on his face.

“Do you think this is all thanks to Jeonghyeok?”

My grandfather coughed loudly, “Ahem!”

“Mr. Cha, I’ve been so rude to you up until now, so if you have something to complain about, it should be to me, not Soojin······.”

“There is no such thing, Master.”

Father shook his head.

My father immediately knelt down, not even bothering to walk down the dirt road between the fields.

“Thank you very much for allowing me to have your daughter, Father-in-law.”

“No, Mr. Cha, this is······!”

“We will live happily.”

My father bowed deeply.

“I will cherish and love you more so that you, my father-in-law, will not regret your decision and Soo-jin will not shed tears.”

“Okay then. Okay then.”

My grandfather’s eyes, looking down at my father, turned red again.

“Mr. Cha, please take good care of my daughter and my grandchild.”

“yes!”

“ah······!”

The mother covered her mouth with both hands and began to shed tears.

My father smiled brightly, holding my mother’s hand tightly as she stood next to me.

“Yes. Trust me and leave it to me.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

My grandfather and I were nodding our heads with the same expression and at the same speed.

My grandfather extended his hand to me.

“Let’s go, Jeonghyeok.”

“Yes, Grandpa.”

My grandfather made me sit on his shoulders.

There was no time for mother or father to stop him.

“It’s a shame for a bride to show up at a wedding party in tears. Then, Mr. Cha, please come slowly with Soojin.”

My grandfather walked away with brisk strides without looking back.

“We’ll go first, so don’t be too late.”

The purpose of hastening the pace was clear.

First, to welcome guests who came to the village feast.

Second, to give yourself time to collect your thoughts.

And finally,

“Grandpa, please use this.”

I held out my handkerchief.

My grandfather sniffled and rubbed his eyes with his sleeve.

“Okay. My face is covered in dirt from rolling around in the field. I’ll just throw away my expensive handkerchief.”

“I think my grandfather was very sorry to give my mother to my father.”

“What nonsense are you talking about! It’s not a waste at all!”

“Really? Me too.”

I wiped my grandfather’s face with a soft, white gauze handkerchief.

It was a service that was possible because I was sitting on my grandfather’s shoulders.

“Thank you, Grandpa.”

“Ahem! That’s what I said earlier! Okay.”

I hugged my grandfather tightly.

“From now on, I’ll come and play often, holding Mom’s hand.”

“Ahem! Okay. How far is it from Seoul to here?”

“I’ll come here often and eat a lot of food made by my grandparents. Here, I’ll catch cicadas, grasshoppers, pick beans, lettuce, and peppers.”

“There’s no better place for kids to eat and play. Ahem! Well, that’s okay.”

“Can I bring a friend?”

“Yes. Of course.”

My grandfather smiled brightly.

“There are a lot of spare rooms in my grandfather’s house.”

It seemed so.

It was a house with tiles that looked like a whale’s back.

“There’s also a large hut built in the field over there. In the summer, it’s great to pick and eat watermelons, cantaloupes, and cucumbers.”

It reminds me of old times.

When my mother passed away and the shack in Guro-dong was torn down, I was thrown out onto the streets with nowhere to go.

Because there is no place to escape the wind, rain and cold dew.

I used to sneak into someone else’s storage room every time to sleep.

In the summer, I used to sneak out and lie down on a breezy hut or on a bed at the entrance to the village.

Then, without fail, the villagers came chasing him with brooms.

Watermelon thief, melon thief, fucking beggar.

I always insisted on my innocence, saying, “I didn’t steal it!”, “It’s true!”, “I was just lying down to rest for a bit!”, but no one believed me.

* * *

It was noisy even before entering the banquet hall.

When he opened the front door and went in, his grandfather’s mouth opened wide.

“No, what’s going on here?”

The banner that had been hung on the wall now stands proudly in the front yard.

Welcome messages drawn with magic marker on the back of the calendar were also visible here and there.

The villagers rolled up their sleeves and helped out at the village feast where the main character was absent.

“I should give another plate of boiled pork to the president of Taesung Chemical!”

“The anchovy noodle soup is missing some sesame seeds. Do you have any more tofu here? Should I sprinkle some red pepper powder on it?”

“We have some Taeyangcho chili pepper powder at home. Should I bring that?”

“The steak is chewy. Let’s eat that first.”

Taesung Group executives also went back and forth busily delivering food.

Taesung Group presidents were personally pouring makgeolli for the village elders.

“Our vice president, I ask for your continued support.”

“He is a man of great accomplishments. Please look upon him favorably.”

The sales skills of Taesung Group presidents were definitely exceptional.

“What prize would you like to win?”

“How old were your grandchildren? Do you know their shoe sizes?”

“If you speak well to the village chief, I will give you a gift certificate from Taesung Department Store.”

This is customized service!

My grandfather asked with his eyes wide open.

“Honey, Soojin’s mom! What are you doing there?”

Sujin turned her head as if possessed by her mother’s voice without realizing it.

Among the middle-aged women lying side by side on the porch with their faces covered in packs.

A small, plump man raised his hand.

‘Is that your maternal grandmother?’

But what is this?

The girl with short hair who was standing right next to her grandmother and giving her a pack,

“aunt?”

“Is your nephew here? You’re late?”

My aunt smiled and raised her hand.

End

ⓒ Osorok

=======================================================