The Baby Is the Best Lure in Goam Village

He wanted nothing more than to hurl every curse he knew at Mount Song, but even that was out of the question. With this squirming bundle of blood and flesh cradled in his arms, raising his voice was unthinkable. "Next summer? Fine. I'll make sure your memorial day falls next summer too." Gritting his teeth, Sowol racked his brain for ways to utterly destroy Beopgong. Strip him naked and hang him from a waterfall? No—shaving that man's head clean off might be even more effective. No, on reflection, shattering his dantian would be best after all... "Ooo-ah." Sowol froze at the baby's babbling and looked down. Had the little one sensed the murderous air rolling off him? Those pitch-black eyes were darting about, uneasy. "......I see. I wasn't planning to do this in front of you. I'm sorry." Sowol patted the baby's back, forcing down his fury. What mattered now wasn't plucking out Beopgong's hair strand by strand—it was figuring out how to feed this bundle of blood and flesh for the next six months. Running the numbers in his head, Sowol ground his lips together. To keep this child fed, somehow, he had to draw customers in. Only when customers came could he sell somyeon, and only by selling somyeon could he put anything into that tiny mouth. Sowol's eyes turned resolute.

The next day. Sowol flung open the inn doors before the sun had even finished rising. And yet, not a single soul crossed the inn's threshold even as the sun climbed to its zenith. Sitting alone in the empty great hall, breathing in the smell of the broth going cold, Sowol rose with a long creak of his joints. If nothing else, he could stand in front of the gate and look hopeful. "......Maybe I should take this to the market and set up a stall." As he mulled it over, gazing down at the village, a small shadow fell across him. It was Baekya. The boy said nothing, simply staring intently at Sowol's face, as though weighing something with great care. "What is it?" Instead of answering, Baekya disappeared inside the inn, came back cradling the baby, and held the child out to him. "Hyungnim, hold." "Why would you bring the baby out here? It's cold." Even at Sowol's scolding, Baekya didn't back down. "Hold." Bewildered but obedient, Sowol took the child into his arms, cradling its neck and back. A tiny hand slipped free of the swaddling clothes and clutched tight at Sowol's collar. Just then, a young couple came into view, walking up from the village. Baekya gave Sowol a firm push between the shoulder blades. Sowol took a step forward without thinking and called out. "Eaten yet? Our somyeon's actually quite decent." The wife flinched and seized her husband's sleeve. The same flow as yesterday. Now she'd shriek and run. Just as Sowol resigned himself to it, the woman's gaze landed on the bundle in his arms. "Oh my, there's a baby? He can't even be a hundred days old yet!" "Just past two months." "What a precious age. And such a lovely little thing." The woman approached as if bewitched, fawning over the baby. At that very moment, the infant looked up at her and broke into a toothless grin. "Oh goodness, he's smiling! Honey, look, he's smiling!" That one smile melted the woman's wariness like snow in the sun. Her husband craned his neck to peer over her shoulder. "Well, I'll be. Look at the little fellow." Sowol blinked, dumbfounded. Not once had a customer failed to run away after being approached by him. Only then did the woman seem to actually notice the inn, glancing up at Sowol sidelong. "This is that inn, right? The one where ghosts appear?" "That's all nonsense." "Isn't it, though? The place looks perfectly fine. I wonder how such a rumor ever got started." Her husband cleared his throat awkwardly. "Of course it's nonsense. If there really were ghosts here, would anyone have left a newborn behind? Ahem—could we get two bowls of somyeon?" "Of course you can. Come right in." Sowol nodded briskly and ushered the couple inside. Ordinarily, he would have simply dropped off a cup of tea and left it at that. But these were lean days, when a single customer felt like a gift. He wiped down the table a second time, brought the tea, and even fetched a plate of roasted watermelon seeds. "The somyeon will be out shortly." "Take your time. My, the baby is such a calm little thing." "He's a gentle one, from what I hear. Do you have children?" "One son, five years old. He's at the schoolhouse right now." Unlike the man who had fled yesterday, the couple chatted with Sowol easily and naturally. Yet as the conversation flowed back and forth, a puzzled look crept over Sowol's face. What was different from yesterday? When Sowol's confusion showed, Baekya leaned in and whispered. "Hyungnim alone is scary." "......" So a single palm-sized bundle of blood and flesh was all it took to change how people saw a man. Sowol glowered down at the baby, sulking. Just then, the wife asked with a smile. "By the way, what's the baby's name?" Baekya answered for him. "Baby." "......The baby's name is Baby?" "Baby is baby." A strange silence settled over the great hall. When the atmosphere turned awkward, Sowol offered an embarrassed excuse. "We haven't chosen one yet." "Well, names matter. You must be pondering it carefully." Sowol dodged the question. Slipping away to the kitchen, he pressed down on the dough without a word. Knead. Far more force went into it than necessary.

However it had come about, Sowol's salesmanship—no, the baby's salesmanship—worked remarkably well. After that couple's visit, the curious faces loitering outside the gate began crossing the inn's threshold one by one. "Master, is that talisman of yours really effective?" "It is. Written by a genuine Taoist." "Ooh, then we've nothing to worry about." Even as they said so, the customers' eyes lingered far longer on the cradle than on the talisman. "But would it be all right if we had a peek at the baby? It's been ages since I've seen a newborn." This was a mountain village whose young people had all left one after another. In a town where baby cries had long since gone silent, a newborn held more sway than any ghost story ever could. Some came to eat somyeon. Some came to see the baby and ended up ordering somyeon. One way or another, the kitchen soon smelled of simmering somyeon broth again, and the storeroom chests began filling up, little by little. Meanwhile, the snow piled in the courtyard melted away. The icicles hanging beneath the eaves grew shorter by the day, until one morning they vanished without a trace. It was around then that a stranger came calling at the inn. Clop. Clop. The steady rhythm of horseshoes drew steadily closer. Sowol, sweeping the courtyard, looked up. A single carriage, drawn by a pair of sleek black horses, was climbing the hill. It was a handsome rig rarely seen in Goam Village. "Whoa, a carriage!" Children playing along the road came running one after another. When the carriage finally drew up before the inn, an elderly man in a fine silk traveling cloak stepped down. His grizzled beard neatly groomed, the old man gazed up at the inn's weathered signboard, then offered Sowol a deep fist-and-palm bow. "Would you be the master of this establishment?" "I am." "I am Seok Mun, head steward of the Mi Merchant House in Chongqing. I beg your pardon for this unannounced visit." The Mi Merchant House. Even Sowol had heard the name on merchants' lips. A rising family said to have made a fortune in Chongqing within just a few years. Sowol narrowed his brow. "What business would the Mi Merchant House have with a country inn?" Master Seok answered with his gaze fixed quietly past Sowol, into the inn. "It concerns the child." The broom handle creaked in Sowol's grip. "I don't know what you mean, but this hardly seems a conversation for the doorstep. Come inside." As he led the steward's party into the great hall, Sowol caught Baekya's eye and gave a small nod. Without a word, Baekya gathered up the cradle and vanished upstairs. Master Seok's gaze followed after them. Sowol stepped into his line of sight and spoke. "It's a humble place, but I'll treat you to a bowl of somyeon." "I'm ashamed to accept, but I'll gladly impose." A short while later, a steaming bowl of somyeon was set before him. Master Seok did not decline; he picked up his chopsticks at once. He emptied the bowl to the last drop, then launched into a string of fine compliments. "The broth is truly profound. Even the famous inns of Chongqing could never serve broth like this." "Spare me the flattery." "It is no flattery. The Mi Merchant House makes its money by weighing the true worth of things—and we pay good prices for good goods." With that, Master Seok drew a gold ingot from his sleeve and laid it on the table. It was far too large a sum for a bowl of noodles. Sowol didn't so much as glance down at it. "The somyeon costs ten coins." "Then consider the rest an apology for calling on you so abruptly." "Apologies are made with words." When Sowol pushed the ingot back, Master Seok withdrew it without a trace of offense. "You are every bit as impervious to money as the rumors say." "I can't imagine my affairs ever reaching Chongqing. What is it you want to say?" Master Seok straightened his posture, as if he had been waiting for exactly that question. "We of the Mi Merchant House wish to take in the child you are raising."