Gyeong-ae finally exploded. “Do you think I’m the sort who goes around squeezing money out of people?”
“Then what is this about? What is it that you’re doing?”
“What am I doing? Do you know who opened this store? Do you think I should kick out the owner? Do you think even a penny came from the Jo family?” Gyeong-ae said more than she had intended.
“Then whose money is it? Were you lying to me all along?”
“Why do you need to know? What can I expect from a guy who lost his father’s trust because he’s a womanizer and ended up inheriting only a few rice paddies? Sang-hun is mad about that, so he’s trying to cut ties with his own son.”
Gyeong-ae’s mother was aghast.
“If you don’t know what’s going on, just keep quiet. He’s trying to drive out his wife of thirty years, though together they raised a decent son. He hasn’t come to his senses in spite of his years, and he brings home a girl still fragrant with her mother’s milk and raises the roof. and you think he’s a respectable man?”
Gyeong-ae’s mother was dumbfounded, but when she asked for details, her daughter waved her away.
Later, on the streetcar, the mother wondered how much truth was in her daughter’s words. When the car reached the front of the Government-General building, she got off in a huff, intending to pay Sang-hun a visit. It was late, almost nine o’clock, but he would surely be at home, and she wanted to see for herself the young thing he’d taken in to drive away his wife. She wanted to vent her anger, and while she was at it, perhaps secure some kind of support for her, even if it amounted to just a few dozen sacks of rice a year.
I’ve got to get Byeong-hwa away from my daughter.
When she arrived at Sang-hun’s house, the gate was locked but when she shook it, a bellow came from the servants’ quarters, “Who is it?” Won-sam rushed out.
“What brings you here?”
“The master is in, isn’t he?” she hissed as she followed him inside.
“He’s just left.”
“That can’t be true! You just don’t want to wake him, but tell him I’m here because I have something important to say.”
“No, ma’am. He’s gone out.”
“This late?”
“This is early evening for my master,” Won-sam laughed.
“Then the young woman must be here.”
Won-sam laughed again. “What young woman?”
“Open the gate to the outer quarters,” Gyeong-ae’s mother demanded, annoyed to be speaking with a male servant in the dark.
“Even if you go in, you ain’t gonna find anyone there. The young woman came two days ago — maybe three — but left again.”
So it was true. “Then who’s inside?”
“The mistress. What’s this about?” Won-sam had no idea why this woman was so agitated.
“So you’re sure that the young one isn’t here?”
“If you don’t believe me, go in and look for yourself. She’s not here now, but he may bring her later. The first night he brought her here there was a big fight, so now he brings her home very late.”
So there had been a scene.
“If you want to see her, come early tomorrow morning.”
That made sense, she thought. “What sort of fight did they have?”
“The mistress can’t tolerate the situation silently, right? So she made a scene and told him to leave with her. She said he’d sullied her home, and she couldn’t raise her children in it. She’s right, but the master is no pushover, you know. He shouted back at her, saying she’s the one who should leave. I don’t know what’ll happen to this family. Before, when the master had a drink, it was in private. If he had affairs, nobody knew about them. But these days, he does it in the open, day and night. Is it because it’s time for him to follow his father to the other world? Or because he was pushed away? I don’t know.”
“In other words, that young woman intends to take over this house.”
“I think so. The lady is pregnant, I hear. Besides, she is an adopted daughter of the madam at Maedang House, over in Anguk-dong. That madam is pretty tough — she’s taken matters into her own hands and pushes the master around. He doesn’t seem to know what to do.” In his excitement, Won-sam volunteered more information than she had asked for.
Gyeong-ae’s mother withdrew, saying, “I’ll be back tomorrow, but don’t warn your master.”
Sang-hun was not thrilled that Gyeong-ae was running Sanhaejin with Byeong-hwa’s help. He had agreed to buy the building after she had pleaded with him, but he had no intention of doing so as long as she was with Byeong-hwa, regardless of what their connection might be.
He heard that Deok-gi had been taken to the police station. Out in the street, he phoned Gyeong-ae and asked to see her. She responded coldly but, after some wrangling, gave in. “If it’s so urgent, I’ll stop by your house tomorrow morning,” she said and hung up. Gyeong-ae wanted to take a look at how he lived with Ui-gyeong, and Sang-hun didn’t try to discourage her.
Sang-hun imagined he might be able to separate Gyeong-ae and Byeong-hwa if he bought the store for her. He wanted to hear how she’d react before he set up house with Ui-gyeong someplace or let her live with him after forcing his wife to live with their son. He was reluctant to cut Gyeong-ae off, but he couldn’t just get rid of Ui-gyeong, who was pregnant. Ui-gyeong had left home, quit her job at the kindergarten, and made a new place for herself in his quarters, determined to let his wife’s nagging go in one ear and out the other. What was fortunate was that Sang-hun’s father had died in the meantime.
The old gentleman couldn’t have lived much longer. Maedang and her entourage had been advancing hungrily, like a swarm of ants toward a dead fly. Even Ui-gyeong was angling for an opportunity to get something from the Jo family. Maedang was the queen ant reigning over her colony.
“How much did you get, little sis?”
“Only two hundred bags of rice! And another fifty for Gwi-sun.”
“What can you do? Accept it for the time being.”
So went the conversation between Maedang and the Suwon woman during Maedang’s condolence visit after the funeral.
“My niece has stumbled into good fortune!” the Suwon woman said cynically.
“She certainly has! A son is a son, good or bad. No matter what they say, the old man couldn’t have left everything to Deok-gi.” Maedang’s mouth split into a greedy grin, as if her own husband had become a millionaire overnight.
The Suwon woman grimaced. “Do you think he’ll give you a penny even if he gets a thousand bags of rice a year? He only got three hundred bags! And he couldn’t have gotten more than two or three thousand won in cash.”
“What? Only three hundred bags?”
“You should look into the rice refinery. The old man, who was so thorough and precise about everything, didn’t mention it in his will. We didn’t think it was anything of exceptional value, but according to the old man’s account book, it is worth more than roughly twenty or thirty thousand won in cash, and there’s a house and a store connected to it, so it’s worth getting your hands on!” Maedang’s mouth watered; she seemed more heartened than the Suwon woman herself.
“What if the person in charge of the refinery takes over, now that the owner is gone?”
“Don’t worry. The account book is there for everyone to see. I just wish I knew why the old man forgot to include it.”
Maedang decided to involve herself more aggressively. To firm up Ui-gyeong’s status, Maedang took her to the outer quarters of the Hwagae-dong house and talked her into installing herself there. Actually, it was the Suwon woman who had given her the idea. “If you don’t hurry, Hong Gyeong-ae might take Ui-gyeong’s place.”
The Suwon woman didn’t like the idea of mourning for three years, which was accepted practice during the Confucian era. She intended to choose a new husband and insist on dividing the rice refinery in three parts. It would be difficult to engage in a fight while living in the same house with the family. However, if the Hwagae-dong house were turned upside down and Deok-gi’s mother came to live with her son, it would look like the Suwon woman was being forced out and her reputation would remain unsullied.