Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Celebrity Marketing

Hehehe.

Joseon best.

Joseon best! Everyone shout!

The life with the hellish pirate pirates is over.

The days of not being able to eat properly and being sickly, the days of fearing when crazy guys would pounce or try to wring my neck, are all over.

I provide Joseon people with entertainment that is endlessly rare to them, and Joseon people provide me with a warm back and full belly life. Hmm. Perfect.

- You, weren’t you going to change history or whatever?

Fuck, I lived a thrilling life in the pirate den for several years and finally became free, so cut me some slack for this much. Anyway I can’t do anything right now.

What on earth do I do to succeed.

How do I build up the tech tree of my life from now on.

A rough estimate was coming out now.

<​Britain’s best Far East expert>.

Even if you say Asia expert, most are India experts anyway. If there were many people who knew China well, Britain wouldn’t have sent a delegation to Qing and not even fought.

Moreover, how many Western intellectuals have studied Confucianism, which can be called the core of this East Asian thought, in depth?

Going one step further from there, how many people have rich knowledge about Joseon rather than Qing, and even lived there directly?

I can assert, there are none.

It is a blue ocean that is only me!

I also know cases showing how ignorant, no, miserable Europeans of this era were about other cultures. I read it in a sales-related self-help book.

Right after the enterprising British people won the Opium War and finally spread the true teaching of free trade to Qing, all merchants were happy that the vast market of over 300 million people had opened wide.

And everyone rushed to China to sell advanced culture expensively.

- But?

These ignorant guys.

They took silverware or pianos and tried to sell them in China.

As a 21st century civilized person I can’t feel at all in my heart why they thought Qing people would buy pianos or forks, but even the traders who would have been most sensitive to the trends of the time having such miserable ideas is exactly the 19th century.

Just properly selecting products that can sell and you rake in a fortune.

Just being able to give proper advice to the British government and you can establish yourself as an indispensable core talent.

Hehehe.

Future knowledge!

Understanding of the Eastern sphere!

With this, the fact that no one surpasses this Arthur Lee in the Far East is proven. I can enlighten the ignorant Anglo-Saxon bastards and rake in money with a rake!

So.

As long as I don’t die.

As long as I can return. Fuck.

My daily routine in Joseon was roughly like this.

First, wake up around just before sunrise, lightly wash with the wash water the slaves bring, and as the courtesy of a guest, that is, greet the house owner.

“Did you sleep well, Your Excellency.”

“You really don’t have to do this.”

Do you know whose house I am staying at?

Kim Jwageun.

The third son of the legendary powerful minister Kim Josun.

A core figure of sedo politics, a legend-class corrupt official and a powerful figure who would make Joseon tremble.

After Kim Josun died, Kim Jwageun’s older brother Kim Yugeun inherited the power, but because Kim Yugeun is currently wandering the brink of death from a stroke, all the people of Hanyang were talking that Kim Jwageun’s era would come soon.

An opportunity to cling to such a person arose, so why wouldn’t I cling? Originally, whether advanced country or backward country, if you stick next to a power holder, honey drips down and even things that don’t work work well.

Moreover, I am a child.

For a fully grown adult to look good to a power holder you have to lay all sorts of sweet words and gold and silver treasures, but a child can easily gain favor just by acting cute well.

“I read Sohak (Elementary Learning) and it said one must observe propriety to parents every day. Although I lost my parents early, there is a person who takes me in and looks after me like a parent, so how could I skip the greeting?”

“Hahahaha! You have opened your eyes to the correct way, I am truly happy.”

“No. It is all because Your Excellency helped a lot.”

Kim Jwageun’s expression became completely soft and he set off for work. This too is all my merit, right.

- Is... that so?

Let’s just say it is.

I can’t end with just Kim Jwageun alone.

This is the glorious Andong Kim family.

The opponents I need to build favorability with are piled and piled again.

The next target I am pouring my heart and blood into was precisely this house’s son.

“Hellooo. Did you sleep comfortablyyy.”

“Yes. Did you sleep well?”

Kim Jwageun had no son.

Whether he judged he couldn’t see more children himself, he brought in a distant relative as an adopted son, and that is another famous person Kim Byeonggi.

“Is there anything delicious?”

“No, you haven’t even eaten breakfast yet and you’re looking for snacks again?”

“But it’s so delicious! It’s as delicious as chocolate!”

Kim Byeonggi hesitated for a moment, but when I rolled around here and there panting, he eventually held out a piece of yeot he had hidden. Damn, it feels like I’ve become Hector. I miss Hector.

“You have to eat breakfast later so eat only a little.”

“Wow!! Thank youuu!!!”

When I om nom nom at a terrifying speed and ate the yeot, Kim Byeonggi smiled the triumphant smile unique to an uncle who satisfied his nephew to the fullest.

“What on earth is that chocolate that it’s compared to yeot that you eat so deliciously?”

“Chocolate is brown, and it’s super sweet and melts gently in the mouth.”

“It must be yeot that Westerners eat. What is it made of. There’s nothing this Jangdong Kim clan can’t do, so can’t we make that?”

“Chocolate has separate chocolate fruits so you probably can’t make it. It’s delicious to eat, you get less sleepy, and dad said it’s good at night too.”

“...Good for what?”

“At night. He said it’s amazing for men.”

What I was doing was a very delicate task.

No matter how tearfully poor Joseon is, in the end the uppermost class is wealthy.

Joseon people won’t buy pianos or forks or alarm clocks... but what about luxury goods?

“Is that different from the coffee you mentioned before?”

“That is super bitter. They say yangban must of course drink coffee.”

“Do all British people drink coffee?”

“Women and kids drink more tea! Coffee is only drunk by yangban. They say if you drink it sleep disappears completely, concentration becomes good, and it’s good at night.”

Tonic.

Concentration enhancement for examinees preparing for the civil service exam.

And the long-awaited ‘really good for men at night’.

How about it.

Don’t you feel like importing it once via Qing or Japan? Huh?

- Devil-like bastard...

What are you saying. There’s no way the nation of ah ah dislikes coffee and chocolate.

Making even one more Joseon person taste the happiness of coffee a little earlier so they lose less in life, this is honestly a losing business for me. It’s something worthy of being deified as the saint of coffee.

If I were a schemer who only cares about my own interest, I would have brought a ship fully loaded with coffee and chocolate later and started sales. Spreading Western culture like this now has no particular gain for me?

- You’re just doing it because you want to eat it!

No.

I’m casting capitalism magic that creates demand.

Indian cotton cloth or alarm clocks can be done by firmly closing the country’s doors, but luxury goods can absolutely not be controlled.

If Joseon people just put it in their mouths even once somehow, the rest is a straight line.

Then the possibility that I someday start a big business in Joseon will also increase.

***

The main thing I do in Joseon... is studying.

It’s absurd but that’s it.

“Heo. Truly mysterious.”

“While learning Joseon language he simultaneously learned vernacular script and true writing and now he’s finished the classics.”

Precisely, ‘showing the appearance of studying’ is my main content. Yangban seemed to get very full just from watching me study.

“That guy’s voice is clear again. Shall I give you one injeolmi?”

“Thank you!”

“Wouldn’t yeot be sweeter and tastier than injeolmi? Come here and recite once and I’ll give you a piece.”

Ayu, Young Master Kim Byeonghak, thank you for the donation. Young Master Kim Byeongguk, really thank you for the sponsorship of one piece of yeot.

The Kim Byeonghak and Byeongguk brothers are also Andong Kims who will later grow into big shots.

These were Kim Jwageun’s 9th cousins according to the family register, but anyway the Kims here all live gathered in this Jangdong area. By modern standards it feels like cousins living next door.

By welcoming me as a guest, these Kim family members were seeing quite a bit of fun knowingly or unknowingly.

“There, I came to see the child called Lee Aseul a bit...”

“What are you doing coming empty-handed? How many people are here, you should at least steam one steamer of rice cake.”

“I’ll bring it next time. Hehehe.”

Originally the Andong Kims had people coming to make requests flocking like flies to the extent the threshold wore out.

But now because they welcomed this gifted Arthur Lee, even scholars who know a bit of learning are loitering at this house’s door for no reason, aren’t they.

“Master Hwaseo sent a letter, and he said he wants to come up to Hanyang soon and see this child.”

“Heo!”

“For Master Hwaseo to take interest, it seems the words that he is a prodigy of the age are not empty words.”

I want to scold ‘Who is Hwaseo you Confucian geeks...’, but seeing them marvel, he seems like a great Confucian scholar so I just kept my mouth shut.

Since my product value is this amazing, it seemed advantageous to somehow memorize thoroughly and chatter fluently to level up as the first Western Confucian master.

- The inner core is an adult much older in age...

What are you saying. What’s more important than the core is the outside. Is sending a holiday gift wrapped in a nice wrapping cloth over a useless cardboard box the same as putting the contents in a black plastic bag and giving it? If I’m a unique highest-grade product like me, of course I have to be the best outer shell.

I showed the trick of reading classics like a circus animal, and carefully watched among the people coming and going here who there was to plug connections into.

The problem is that there aren’t particularly any named people I know of... damn, if I had known it would be like this I should have read late Joseon background web novels more diligently.

And today.

Another unfamiliar face appeared.

“Oh my, Elder has come.”

“Everyone, it’s been a while. They say Master Hwaseo is coming to see the child who is making the whole capital so noisy? I came to take a look quickly before that.”

The newly arrived person was a young person, and seeing those present get up one by one and greet, he looked like a fairly successful person. Moreover the title is Elder, Elder.

“Come. Come here and offer a greeting once.”

“Oh, is this the child?”

“Yes. Come, introduce yourself.”

“Hello, Elder sir. I am Lee Aseul. I am seven years old.”

“Heo!”

When I offered a greeting in a polite posture, an exclamation inevitably popped out. Wow shit, it really feels like living life for free.

“The person here is Heungseon Vice Jeong Elder. As a member of the royal family, a very noble person.”

“I’m just a lowly one who is given official posts by the country because I’m a royal relative in form while being sickly, what nobility... I’m Lee Ha-eung, kid.”

Lee Ha-eung.

Heungseon.

Heungseon Daewongun!

Damn. I have to catch him unconditionally. I have to catch him and see first.

It’s ultra-long-term investment but I have to buy this coin at the bottom.

“You look like a very noble person.”

“Hahahaha! The child is skilled at flattery. Did someone teach you?”

“How could that be.”

Something like a slight sneer formed on Kim Byeonggi’s face and disappeared, but this skilled salesman Arthur Lee caught even that negative emotion that appeared and disappeared for a very short time.

- Isn’t he just going crazy alone?

Ahem. That is the typical attitude of ‘when meeting a person one looks down on in a public place’. I heard Heungseon-gun was treated like a funeral house dog, and even if not to that extent it seems roughly similar.

“But as I already said, to come here you should at least prepare one steamer of rice cake for the child to eat-”

“Rice cake is a bit much, I brought some of my paintings so wouldn’t it be fine to substitute with this?”

“Good. Please do so.”

Just looking, Lee Ha-eung... looks temperamental. Not an ordinary personality. Mustn’t provoke him.

While I was worrying how to act cute, Lee Ha-eung also seemed to have seen that expression of Kim Byeonggi and opened his mouth while smiling.

“But is it okay?”

“What do you mean.”

“I mean this child.”

“Yes, did Aseul do something wrong?”

“The Right State Councillor said he would soon have him confront the heretical religion barbarians. Those Westerners who are the cult leaders or whatever.”

Yes?

Confrontation interrogation?

- Seems fucked, right?

What’s fucked.

That day is the day my body price hits the ceiling.

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Author's note

Thank you to psm for your sponsorship!!