As soon as the Right Censorate Inspector withdrew from the emperor’s presence, he asked Warrior Jin Yeong for his cooperation.
“Right now, we should go straight to the Ministry of Works, confiscate all evidence, and also detain the contractor that built the structure. I ask for your cooperation.”
“Understood.”
“By the way, where are the ones who wrote this report?”
Warrior Jin Yeong answered his question.
“They’re confined at my house right now. I figured it’d be trouble if they started talking.”
“You did well.”
“Then I’ll immediately lead my men and the Imperial Guard to the Ministry of Works.”
About half an hour later.
“All Ministry of Works officials, come out immediately!”
“Step away from your duties this instant!”
“If anyone tries anything funny, you’ll be treated as criminals defying an imperial decree!”
At that razor sharp shout, the Ministry of Works officials flinched in shock, not knowing what to do.
Then the Imperial Guard stormed in and drove them out of the ministry building like chickens chased out of a coop.
“What on earth is going on…?”
“Isn’t this because of that building collapse?”
“But on the paperwork there wasn’t a single problem, was there?”
“Exactly, that’s what I’m saying.”
“By the way, why haven’t Clerk Son and Officer Pung come back from their trip yet?”
“Maybe they’re off eating something tasty somewhere?”
“Do you really think Deputy Merchant Lord Eun is that kind of person?”
“…Well, when you put it like that, no.”
Because Section Chief Son Myeong and Clerk Pung Do had been forced out on a business trip by Eun Seo-ho and still hadn’t returned, everyone here had no idea what was really going on.
So they still didn’t grasp how serious the situation was.
Right then, officials from the Censorate came pouring in. The Right Censorate Inspector at the front slapped a sheet of red paper onto the entrance to the Ministry of Works.
[Sealed]
That single character written on the red paper meant the place was sealed, barring entry to anyone connected to the case.
Anyone who tried to enter or leave would be charged with defying an imperial decree and severely punished.
They almost never sealed an entire ministry like this.
Only then did the Ministry of Works officials slowly start to realize how grave this was.
It was as if a heavy reek of blood was already in the air.
Sealing an entire ministry by imperial order meant at least a few, at worst hundreds, could end up dead.
At that moment, another group approached.
They were Embroidered Guard warriors.
“You lot, come with me.”
“…”
Just like that, they were confined in one of the side halls.
The Censorate officials then started shaking down the Ministry of Works from top to bottom.
They didn’t stop at combing through documents. They took those papers with them, visited each house in person, and checked whether the final inspections had actually been done properly.
In the process, they discovered one thing.
“The owner of these houses is the Eunhae Merchant Group?”
“Yes. More precisely, Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho bought them personally.”
“He bought all of these in just a few days? Hah. He must have quite the fortune.”
“He wouldn’t be a deputy of one of the Hundred Great Merchant Groups Under the Heaven for nothing.”
“Even so, it seems he couldn’t avoid misfortune. Go inform him that we intend to inspect these places with him.”
“Yes, sir.”
The messenger who went with that notice came back a short while later, scratching by his ear as he spoke.
“He says it’s fine, but he’d prefer we look around a few days later.”
“Why is that?”
“He says he’s a little uneasy. Since another accident might happen, he’d like us to wait a few days and see.”
“Another accident might happen?”
“Apparently, all the mansions Deputy Merchant Lord Eun bought this time were built around the same period. And over half of them were built by the Ogeol Construction Merchant Group.”
“That’s quite a coincidence.”
“Back then there was that huge fire, and they rebuilt all the houses in this area at once, remember? It seems he just happened to buy mostly the ones the Ogeol Construction Merchant Group built.”
“Ah, I remember now. That did happen.”
He nodded slowly.
“What should we do?”
“Hmm. We’ll follow his suggestion and investigate a few days later.”
Truthfully, he had been thinking of just brushing it off.
But if the emperor was paying attention to this, there had to be a reason. So they decided to do as Eun Seo-ho suggested.
The next day, they heard that another house had collapsed overnight. It was one of the mansions owned by Eun Seo-ho.
“Deputy Merchant Lord Eun was right.”
“Yeah…”
Talking about that, they headed out on another inspection. Today’s destination was near the mansion that had collapsed.
As they compared the buildings to the blueprints and spotted the discrepancies, they clicked their tongues.
“This is beyond shameless.”
“You’re telling me.”
“The differences from the blueprints are obvious even at a glance, and they still signed off on the final inspection?”
“Hah! Those bastards, seriously…!”
The Censorate officials felt they could now see exactly what had happened.
“All right, let’s head to the next house.”
“Where was the next one again?”
They were just about to move toward the next house when it happened.
Crack!
Crumble!
A deafening roar exploded right beside them. And then…
Rumble!
A thick cloud of dust billowed up, and the Censorate officials stared with their mouths hanging open.
“That place is…”
“It’s one of the buildings we’re supposed to inspect.”
“If things had gone as planned, we might’ve been inside that right now.”
“…”
They didn’t say it aloud, but the same thought crossed all their minds.
‘If we had been inside just now…’
Cold sweat ran down their backs, and the dizzy realization that they had nearly been crushed to death under that building quickly turned into anger.
‘We’ll strip them bare!’
‘You bastards, you’re finished!’
The Ogeol Construction Merchant Group.
The place was in utter chaos.
Two of the buildings they had constructed had collapsed.
The Merchant Lord remembered that project very clearly.
There was no way he could forget it.
It had been a massive construction job and the single project that had earned him the most money at once.
Back then he’d cheated on materials and designs, then used the money he skimmed to branch out into other businesses.
Thanks to that, the merchant group grew into a name people in Beijing recognized, and the Merchant Lord’s family lived high on the hog.
“What are we going to do about this?”
As the Supervisor paced nervously, the Merchant Lord snapped at him.
“What do you mean, what? It’s already been ten years! How are they going to prove now that any of that was our fault?”
“But…”
“The Ministry of Works will cover for us. We bribed them for exactly that.”
“That’s true, but still…”
“Unless three or four of our buildings collapse all at once, you really think that heavy-assed Imperial Palace is going to budge?”
“…”
“So as far as anyone’s concerned, we didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Ah, I understand.”
But not even a quarter of an hour passed before word came that yet another building had collapsed.
‘This is getting dangerous…’
He had personally orchestrated the fraud, so he knew exactly how durable those buildings were.
On the surface they looked fine, but inside they were rotten through, so a big enough shock would bring them down.
For example, the impact from the house next door collapsing.
Feeling a bad premonition, he told his family to gather their valuables and have their luggage packed in advance.
If things went south, they had to be ready to bolt.
But his plan was blocked from the very start. The Imperial Guard surrounded the Ogeol Construction Merchant Group.
“Hey! Why are you stopping us from going out?”
“We’re preventing potential criminals from escaping.”
“Criminals? How are we criminals?”
“Shut up.”
“Wait, you can’t do this!”
The Merchant Lord tried begging, then tried threatening them by name-dropping powerful patrons, then even tried to buy them off.
But nothing worked.
He felt his lips growing drier and drier.
‘Feels like we’ve been found out…’
Otherwise the Imperial Guard would never have surrounded the Ogeol Construction Merchant Group like this.
As the Imperial Guard’s watch dragged on, the Merchant Lord made up his mind.
He would use the secret passage he had prepared for a moment like this.
As the Merchant Lord of a construction merchant group, he naturally had some skill in building.
So inside his own quarters within the Ogeol Construction Merchant Group, he had secretly built a hidden passage just in case.
Late at night.
He gathered his family members in his room, then pushed the bed aside.
A wooden door was revealed beneath it.
As he opened the door, he spoke to his family.
“Get in, quickly! You too, hurry inside.”
“Yes.”
They slipped into the secret passage and started down the solid stone steps.
After descending deep underground, they walked on and on by torchlight.
After walking for quite some time, a staircase appeared ahead, and they climbed up.
Soon they reached a door leading outside.
“Phew, we’ve made it. Let’s get out.”
The Merchant Lord smashed the door’s latch with the hammer he carried and pushed it open.
Creak.
A rush of cool, fresh night air washed over them.
“Phew, let’s rest for a moment and then…”
But he never finished that sentence.
Because suddenly the surroundings lit up.
Dozens of torches had them completely surrounded.
“I thought it might be like this, and it really was.”
A cold voice reached their ears.
Standing before them in golden light armor was Jin Yeong.
“Urk!”
At the sight, the Merchant Lord’s legs gave out and he collapsed on the spot.
After breakfast, I returned to my office and absentmindedly stared out the window, lost in thought.
I wonder if they’ve caught him by now.
In my previous life, the Merchant Lord’s family from the Ogeol Construction Merchant Group had slipped away in the dead of night.
Later, it had come out that there’d been a secret passage.
So this time I gave Warrior Jin Yeong a hint about that escape route.
“In my experience running a merchant group, people with shady corners like that always make themselves an escape hole.”
“An escape hole?”
“Yes. And usually it’s in the field they’re most confident in.”
“That guy’s good with construction, so… Ah, a secret passage!”
“That’s what I think as well.”
I didn’t know the exact location, but if it was Warrior Jin Yeong, I was sure he’d handle it.
A voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
“I’ve finished sorting these documents.”
“Ah, thank you.”
As expected of Jaryeong… no, Lady Seohyang. Her skills really are impressive.
“My lord, we’ve been told a guest has arrived.”
At that moment, I heard Escort Guard Seo Wu’s voice from outside my office door and tilted my head.
“A guest?”
The door opened and Escort Guard Seo Wu stepped inside.
“The Gyeong Family Clan Lord wishes to meet you.”
The Gyeong Family?
After thinking for a moment, I remembered they were the original owners of one of the mansions I bought.
What could this be about?
“Please show him to the guest hall.”
At my words, Escort Guard Seo Wu cupped his fists, opened the door, and left.
I straightened my clothes and headed for the guest hall.
“Welcome. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”
“Not at all. I’m the one who’s sorry, calling out a busy man like you.”
We exchanged polite greetings, and a maid in the guest hall poured tea in front of me.
“What brings you all the way here?”
“I heard the news. The mansion I sold you collapsed.”
“Ah, yes… it did.”
“In a way, that means I sold you a defective house, doesn’t it? So I felt I should at least return half of what you paid for it, and came here.”
“…”
For a moment, I was at a loss for words. I hadn’t expected him to say anything like that.
“Why do you look so surprised?”
“It’s just… unexpected. You’re the first person who’s ever come to me like this.”
He nodded as if he understood.
“People have their greed, so I do understand. But thanks to your urgent warning to vacate the house, my family and I kept our lives. In a way, we received a life-saving grace from you, so how could I not come? I’m actually ashamed I can only return half and not the full amount.”
During my time in the merchant world, one thing I’ve learned is that the bigger the sum of money, the bigger people’s greed grows.
The Ogeol Construction Merchant Group was no different.
A large-scale construction like that must have tempted them even more.
Anyway, the price of the mansion I bought from him was one thousand silver taels.
Originally it was worth five hundred, but to get them to vacate in a hurry, I’d paid twice the market price.
Half of one thousand taels is a hefty five hundred silver taels.
That’s a huge amount, and he wants to return it?
He took a banknote out from his robe and set it on the table. It was the one I had given him.
Heavens… so there really are people like this.
I couldn’t claim to know his true heart. There’s that saying: you can know ten fathoms down in water, but not one fathom into a person’s mind.
He might truly be returning five hundred taels because he feels that way, or he might be making a preemptive move so selling me a defective house doesn’t cause trouble for him later.
Sigh, the fact that I can’t just accept someone’s goodwill as goodwill is my own problem too.
It’s all because there are so many people ready to rip you off the moment they see even the smallest opening.
Even so, I couldn’t help but be moved.
Whatever his reasons, the fact that he actually acted on it was impressive in itself.
And people like this are worth knowing for a long time.
How was this person in my previous life again…?
Back then everything was in chaos, and the bereaved families’ resentment was loud, so the Emperor personally arranged a joint funeral for them.
There had been one place that drew an especially large number of mourners.
It was the spot where the spirit tablet of the Gyeong Family Clan Lord now sitting in front of me had been placed.
People had cursed the heavens, asking why such a good man had to die in an accident like that.
At the time I had no connection with the Gyeong Family Clan Lord before me, so I hadn’t understood, but now I could see why they said that.
With someone this decent, I should all the more keep him close.
I pushed the banknote back toward him and spoke.
“No. Please put this away.”
“Heh, you… No. Take it.”
“I can’t accept it. You didn’t know the house had defects either, Clan Lord.”
“I didn’t. If I’d known, I would’ve moved out immediately.”
“Exactly.”
“But my conscience won’t let me just keep all of it.”
“No. Please take it back.”
So we went back and forth, arguing, but we couldn’t reach a conclusion easily.
“Then let’s do this. Let’s treat these five hundred taels as an investment in our merchant group.”
Wealth belonging to someone like this is worth helping grow.
–TL Notes–
Tired of seeing Ads? Then please support me on Patreon! Any tier of subscription will make it so you won’t get any ads!
If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/InsanityTheGame
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt