Episode 2: Drafty Thatched Cottage and Greasy Silk Robes

Episode 2: A cold wind blowing thatched roof and rich silk clothes When human greed closes the door to the soul, the first thing in the world to freeze is the sense of feeling the pain of others. It was 9 o’clock at night when the darkness of Christmas Eve engulfed the mountain valley of Chilsan Village. A blizzard swirled in the sky, screaming sharply as if it were tearing the air. Among the countless silver snowflakes, the invisible letters of spiritual destiny were engraved on the cold snowy field, burning with a mixture of blood and gold. [Heungbu and Nolbu: A Christmas Carol]

[Heungbu and Nolbu: Christmas Song] It was the headline of a tragedy that spanned an era, and a stern warning sent from heaven to awaken frozen souls. The front faces of the two men were alternately close-up in the gaze of the camera rotating in slow motion. One man was Heungbu, a 28-year-old man who bit his lip while shedding tears of sorrow for his family even in the midst of grinding poverty.

The other man was a 26-year-old Nolbu, trapped in a fortress of mountains and seas and gold, laughing at the blood and tears of others. Although they were born with the same blood as their parents, one was groaning in the abyss of hell and the other was trembling with pride atop the Tower of Babel of greed that he had built with his own hands. The abyss between the two was deeper and farther than any great river in Paldo, Joseon. Heungbu wiped the blood and rice paste from his cheek with his sleeve and finally pushed through the door of his thatched house. Sigh-

The window paper door, whose weathering paper had been torn off, let out a sad scream. As soon as the door opened, the sour, damp smell of poverty filled the room, and a biting chill stung the bridge of Heungbu's nose. The temperature inside the room was no different from the snow field outside. No, rather, it was like a narrow prison where there was no escape from the wind. A thatched roof with a cold wind blowing. The wall was covered with crumbling soil, with dried rice straw sticking out in an ugly way, and the snowstorm outside was pouring in into white powder from every crack in the wall the size of a finger.

There was white frost in every corner of the room, and the water bowl on the upper floor was already frozen to the floor and cracked tightly. The dust on the floor was mixed with ice particles and crunching, and whenever the wind passed between the rafters of the ceiling, dry dust fell like tears. In the middle of the room there was an old mat covered in dust. On that mat, Heungbu's wife and their seven young children were tangled together like a lump and shaking. What the children were covering was not a blanket.

It was a tattered mat that had not been washed for several years, so the dirt and cotton had clumped together and hardened like a rock. Even so, it was small and could not cover the bodies of a family of ten. The mother was hugging the body of her youngest infant child with the width of her thin skirt, and was constantly blowing on her, trying to cover the other children with more blankets.

“Hoo-hu-kids, just be patient. Dad… he’ll get some warm food for you soon…” But the children’s eyes were already half-open. Because they had not been able to drink anything other than boiled water for three days, the children's bellies were bulging like drums, and their limbs were as thin as tree branches. The fourth child, a five-year-old boy, whined softly, licking his blue lips.

“Mom… I’m hungry… My stomach was growling and now it hurts… Mom, I smell food… I smell meat being grilled somewhere…”

The child was looking at something in vain. The smell of meat that had flowed down from Nolbu's mansion on the hill had seeped into this poor room and was squeezing the stomachs of the hungry little ones mercilessly. “Baby… close your eyes… sleep and morning will come… you won’t be hungry…”

The wife shed bloody tears while holding the child in her chest. However, not even a drop of blood came from the mother's dry nipples. At that time, Heungbu closed the door and entered the room. The children's eyes all focused on their father's hand. "father!"

“Father, you are here! Did you bring rice?”

“Father, can we eat now? Are we eating white rice?”

The brightly shining eyes of young children. In the face of that pure and desperate anticipation, Heungbu could barely suppress the urge to sit down and cry. his empty hands. The man's rough, empty hands, covered in blood and frozen by the blizzard, were hidden behind his back. Heungbu's wife realized everything the moment she saw her husband's torn cheek, the rice cake stains stuck in the mud, and his empty hands. Thick tears poured from my wife's eyes. “Honey… Mr. Uncle… Hello…”

Heungbu lowered his head without saying anything. Fishy blood flowed from the man's lips. The silence weighed down the room more cruelly than any scream. When the children saw their father's empty hands, they stopped pestering him. This was because, despite his young age, he learned the cruelty of poverty too early. The seven-year-old second daughter quietly crawled out and held Heungbu's cold hand with her own two small hands. “Father… your hands are so cold… I’ll melt them… ho-ho-ho-”

The child blew on his father's frozen hand and rubbed it. The moment that delicate warmth touched Heungbu’s fingertips, something in Heungbu’s heart collapsed. He hugged his daughter tightly. “I’m sorry... I’m sorry, my babies... This ugly father... is starving you to death...”

Heungbu's rough chest heaved and he finally burst out in sobs. The whole family hugged each other and started crying. A snowstorm blew through the cracks in the earthen wall where the cold wind blew in, landing white on the backs of the families hugging each other. Heungbu wiped away his tears and went out to the kitchen. It was embarrassing to even call it a kitchen, and it was a living room covered with only a piece of mat. There wasn't a single ember left in the furnace, so only white ash blew away, and when I opened the lid of the cauldron, the inside was full of only spider webs and cold frost. The bottom of an empty pot. The cold and heartless black floor with its unique metal gleams sparkled in the moonlight.

Heungbu held a broken gourd and raked clean snow from a corner of the yard. And he poured it into the pot. In a cold pot where even a fire could not be started, the snow slowly melted and turned into ice water. Heungbu put the ice water in a bowl and brought it into the room.

“Guys… drink at least this… you have to fill your stomach to survive… please drink at least this and hold on…”

The children faced each other and took turns drinking the cold melted snow water. Each time the ice water went down the esophagus, the children's little bodies trembled in disgust. That was the only dinner the Heungbu family of ten shared on Christmas Eve. The children tried to overcome the cold by squeezing each other's hands, but the ice water only made their cold stomachs even colder. Heungbu's wife quietly wiped away her tears and patted the youngest child in her arms. “Honey, don’t blame your uncle too much. It’s all because we are in favor.”

When the sun rises tomorrow, I will go to Jinsa Choi's house in the village below to do some laundry and at least get some rice water.

“Just for tonight… just for tonight, let’s hold on to each other and hold on tight.”

Instead of resentment, my wife's trembling voice contained deep patience and love like a saint. Heungbu held his wife's rough hand tightly. A woman who was once a beautiful young woman met an incompetent man like herself and became unable to even wear linen clothes. “Owner... in my next life... I will definitely dress you in silk clothes and feed you lots of rice...”

“Please forgive me...”

Heungbu leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes. In the darkness, my wife softly recited a lullaby. “Lush, my baby... It is a holy night when baby Jesus was born in the distant western sky...”

“It is a night when angels sing and the stars shine... Please eat your fill of warm food only in your dreams...”

That sad yet beautiful lullaby transcends the cracks in the cold weatherstripping,

It spread thinly into the darkness of the snow-covered village. Meanwhile, Nolbu's mansion on the hill was at the peak of luxury and pleasure. The main house's spacious main floor and ondol room shone brighter than daylight with over a hundred candles and colorful lanterns. Smell of Grease and Feast. In the kitchen, about a dozen servants and servants were sweating profusely and pouring out all kinds of delicacies. In a huge cast-iron cauldron, samgyetang, made by boiling dozens of hens with ginseng and jujube, was boiling with white soup gushing out.

Thick beef sirloin and brisket were cooking on the brazier, making a sizzling sound. The smell of fatty meat, sweet grain syrup, and ripe chrysanthemum wine weighed heavily on the air in the room. On the table, there was a mountain of sweet fish, abalone, and golden-grilled oysters in top-quality white porcelain bowls that had been transported from Jeonju. Nolbu lay down on a red silk cushion, holding a fatty chicken leg in his mouth and munching on it. “Haha! Meat tastes best when chewed when the fat is flowing in the middle of winter! Hey, Chunsam! Bring more drinks! Tonight is the longest night of the winter solstice, so we’ll drink and get drunk until dawn!”

Nolbu's eyes were already red and bloodshot from the strong soju energy. Beside him, his twelve-year-old maid was kneeling trembling and pouring alcohol. When the child accidentally spilled a drop of alcohol on the silk mat, Nolbu's eyes suddenly flashed fiercely. “You damn bastard! How dare you spill alcohol on my silk mat?”

Nolbu mercilessly hit the child on the forehead with the silver spoon he was holding. Sigh! Blood spurted from the child's forehead, but the child could not even scream and trembled like an aspen tree, bowing his forehead to the floor. “I have committed a mortal sin, I will get better! Please forgive me!”

“Hmph, it’s unfortunate that you’re bleeding! Just go away!”

Nolbu spat and kicked the child. There was not a single trace of mercy or sympathy for humans in his bones. Nolbu got up from his seat and opened the closet door wide. Inside the closet were chests full of the wealth he had accumulated over decades of blood and sweat... no, by squeezing out the blood and filth of the peasants. He opened the heavy brass lock and dragged a chest out to the middle of the floor. Slam! The dazzling golden and silver brilliance that comes out as soon as the lid is opened. Bundles of coins containing thousands of pieces of Sangpyeong Tongbo and Dangbaekjeon were coiled like snakes.

In between, silver ingots, white silver, and sparkling chunks of pure gold were showing off their heavy presence. A huge pile of coins. The madness of greed flashed in Nolbu's eyes along with the light of the candlelight. “My money… money like my blood…”

Nolbu stroked the silver ingot with his rough hands, as if caressing a lover. Every time the touch of cold metal touched his skin, he felt the ultimate pleasure, as if every hair on his body stood on end. He picked up a handful of coins and scattered them in the air. Jingling-jingling! The coins hit the brass chest and the floor, making a clear metal sound. To Nolbu, the sound of money falling was sweeter than any other beautiful instrument in the world.

“Hahaha! The only person in the world I can trust is this money! When parents die, they turn to dust, and when brothers turn against them, they become enemies, but this gold and silver treasure will never betray me! I am the king of this village! I am the god of Namwon-gol!” Nolbu roughly rubbed his oily hands on the hem of his silk coat. The silk dopo was the highest quality silk from the Qing Dynasty, costing tens of nyang a piece, but to him, it was nothing more than a dishcloth for wiping his hands. He lay down on a pile of coins. The feeling of cold, hard metal against my back.

An ordinary person would have writhed in pain, but Nolbu was ecstatic, enjoying the pressure of the cold metal. He held a coin in his mouth and giggled as if spitting into the air. “Heungbu, that stupid bastard... He’s like a foolish gomtaeng who doesn’t even know that having children costs money. Whether he freezes to death in the blizzard tonight is none of my business. If his whole family starves to death, even the piece of land they occupy would be mine. Hahaha!”

Nolbu's scathing laughter echoed off the high ceiling. The sound of laughter was no different from the roar that a hellish maw vomits in front of its prey. Nolbu put the abacus back on his lap. His fingers flicked the abacus like the feet of a living centipede. Click, click, click! “The two fields of Mr. Seobang Kim have been confiscated due to interest arrears. Three of old Mr. Park’s fields are scheduled to be confiscated as collateral for the Jangli rice during the spring crisis. This Seobu’s fourth daughter will either be taken as a concubine for five islands of rice next spring or handed over to the gisaeng room... kekekeut...”

In his calculation method, the blood, tears and wailing of the village people were transformed into numbers and steadily accumulating. To Nolbu, this entire village was a huge gold dust field in his hands.

The people were nothing more than fat cattle whose fat oozed out when the skin was peeled. He took out a thick wad of Korean paper from the bottom of the chest. It was the document of inheritance distribution left behind by Heungbu's late father. Originally, before his father died, he left a will to divide the rice field equally between the two brothers. However, as soon as his father closed his eyes, Nolbu bribed the royal family and burned the will.

He had created a forged document stating that all the fields and houses belonged to him, the eldest son. Nolbu caressed the document and smiled wickedly. “Father was very naive too. If I gave the land to that foolish Heungbu bastard, it was obvious that he would give it to tenants and become a beggar. I took it all and made the family prosper like this, so my father in the underworld should also bow down to me. Oh, that’s right!”

Nolbu drank a bowl of alcohol with a shameless look on his face without even a trace of guilt. His arrogance was sky-high. On a snow-covered hill outside the village, two strange shadows stood, transcending the boundaries of time and space. There was Ji-eun, a female singer with a heavenly melody, and Taemin, a rapper who spit out sharp, realistic beats. They were holding stand microphones in a strange dimensional space where the modern sensibility of the 21st century and the quiet snowscape of Joseon met. Taemin spit out a sharp rap as if he was chanting over a heavy bass beat. “The tile-roofed main house filled with the smell of oil,”

Lying on a pile of coins and laughing at the world. The brothers are shedding bloody tears in the snow,

You close the door and count the gold. But remember, greed always ends in cold ashes,

“A bell is coming to knock on your heart tonight.”

Jieun supported him with a sorrowful and pure voice. “Look at those young souls crying in the snowstorm,”

You arrogant person who laughs behind closed doors... the tears you ignore will turn into huge ice that will crush your soul.

“Nolbu, wake up... your fateful night has begun...”

Their voices traveled around the roof of Nolbu Mansion in the snow and wind. A spiritual wave that cannot be seen with the human eye was coldly shaking the tiles of Nolbu's mansion one by one. It was approaching midnight. Nolbu emptied two bottles of strong soju by himself and then staggered to his feet on a pile of coins. The room was still simmering from the wood fire, but strangely enough, a chill began to creep up his spine. Was it because of the alcohol, or was it because of the congestion caused by overeating? A corner of my chest felt tight and my breathing became difficult. My heart was beating abnormally slowly and heavily, thumping... thumping... thumping. “Hmm… I guess I drank a little too much tonight… Why does my chest feel so tight?”

Nolbu loosened the silk clothes from his chest and looked toward the veranda. At that very moment, the sound of the snowstorm that was violently shaking outside stopped as if it were a lie. The strong wind that roared as if it was going to tear the door bars to pieces disappeared without a trace in just one second. Perfect silence. All life in the world, the wind, and even the sound of falling snowflakes disappeared as if trapped in a vacuum. It was a bizarre and unnatural silence that was deafening. Nolbu frowned and stopped walking. “Huh? Why did the wind stop so suddenly?”

The temperature in the room began to plummet strangely. Even though the firewood was burning brightly in the furnace, the air in the room was as cold as if I was standing on ice. White breath blew out between Nolbu's lips. “W-What’s going on? There’s breath coming out of the room... Chunsam! What are you doing other than turning on the fire more!”

Nolbu shouted, but there was no answer outside the door. In the frozen silence, Nolbu's ears began to hear a very subtle and strange sound. Tinkle... Tinkle... It wasn't the sound of a cow's bell or the sound of wind chimes at a temple. It was a very clear and cold silver bell that sounded like it was hitting ice in the air. The sound was getting closer. It seemed to come from above the roof, and then it seemed to flow down the walls of the room and directly shake Nolbu's brain. Jing... Tingling... Tingling... Every time that sound rang out, Nolbu's heart began to beat violently, thump... thump... thump... to a strange rhythm. The pictures hanging on the wall began to tremble slightly,

The candle flames trembled and strangely changed from red to cold blue. “What, what? Chunsam! Is there anyone outside? Answer me!”

Nolbu took a step back, clutching the jewel at his waist. But outside the door, only the strange silver bell echoed louder and sharper. White frost began to rise rapidly on the thousands of coins and silver bars scattered at Nolbu's feet. The gold and silver bars he loved so much were hardening, like the bones of a frozen corpse. Cold sweat flowed from Nolbu's forehead, ran down his cheeks, and froze in the air. Nolbu looked in horror at the large copper mirror placed in the corner of the room. My own reflection under the dim candlelight. However, Nolbu in the mirror was moving differently from his real self. In reality, Nolbu was trembling like an aspen tree in fear,

The shadow in the mirror was smiling coldly, with the corners of its mouth grotesquely torn. The self in the mirror slowly raised his hand and pointed at Nolbu's neck. And blood-red letters slowly spread across the surface of the mirror. [Remember your sins] “Ugh, ugh! It’s a ghost! A goblin has appeared!”

Nolbu screamed and fell backwards. The pile of coins he was standing on collapsed, and the metal pieces flew out in all directions. But there was still no sign outside the door. A bizarre level of isolation where the footsteps of servants, dogs barking, and the sound of the wind are completely blocked. A dark blue shadow crawled down from the corner of the room's ceiling like a living organism, blackening the calligraphy, painting, and folding screen on the wall. The hundred or so candles had now completely turned into bluish ghostly lights, emitting only a cold phosphorescent light without any heat. His breath turned into a thick fog that filled the room, and Nolbu's teeth clenched mercilessly. This entire mansion, no, this entire time axis of Chilsan Village

It was as if I had escaped the realm of the human world and been dragged up to the great judgment seat of the underworld. In the middle of the night before Christmas, towards Nolbu, the greedy landowner of Chilsan Village.

The huge door to the invisible spirit world was slowly opening. It was the most cruel and holy judgment of Christmas that a person blinded by greed had to face. Will this man be able to save his frozen soul?

Or will he sink into the flames of eternal ice hell in the golden tomb he built? The pendulum of fate was falling heavily towards 12 o'clock.