Chapter5:< Destiny Cannot Be Avoided (2) >
Dumbfounded, Yang Tae-pyeong turned back and snatched Yeonghun's arm.
Only then did Yeonghun seem to snap out of it, realizing his mistake and offering an awkward smile.
“Ah, I’m sorry. I was suddenly lost in thought.”
“What are you talking about? How could you be lost in thought in a situation like this? Anyway, let’s go. Ms. Lee Ju-hee, it’s no use holding on to us like this. We’ll be leaving now.”
As if pulled by Tae-pyeong's urging, Yeonghun got into the car.
Unsurprisingly, Tae-pyeong started yelling at Yeonghun.
“What the hell are you doing, you punk!”
“I’m sorry. Something just occurred to me...”
“What is wrong with you? Let me ask you one thing. Did you serve in the military? You’re acting like a problem soldier.”
“I haven’t served in the military.”
Having only attended elementary school and then preparing for his middle and high school equivalency exams at a temple, he had naturally been exempted from military service.
“Really? Good thing you didn't. With that attitude, you would’ve screwed over a lot of people. It’s a miracle you wouldn't have killed yourself. Look, I’ll drop you off at the company on my way, so don’t bother coming to work tomorrow. I’ll talk to the President.”
With that, Tae-pyeong started the car.
Yeonghun was about to protest but decided to just hold his tongue.
A while later, having cooled down a bit, Tae-pyeong stopped the car in front of Myeongdong Station and spoke calmly.
“I’ve been thinking it over on the way here, and I don’t think this job is a good fit for you. Think about it carefully. If you don’t think you can do it, I’ll smooth things over for you.”
“I understand.”
“Get going.”
Yeonghun watched the car drive away after dropping him off, then immediately searched for public transportation on his phone.
He then started following the public transit route shown in the directions.
His destination was Lee Ju-hee’s house, the very place he had just left.
He took the subway to Daehwa Station, got off, rode a bus for a good while, and finally arrived back at the same house.
Yeonghun caught his breath in front of the gate for a moment and then knocked.
A moment later, Lee Ju-hee opened the door with the same dark expression as before.
“Oh... have you decided to give me another month’s grace?”
Lee Ju-hee asked, her face brightening.
Yeonghun hesitated for a moment.
When he saw the face of the little girl who had grabbed his arm, he was reminded of his own childhood.
Why did that moment, when he was separated from Yeongsun's mother at the age of six, come to mind?
He thought it was a truly coincidental and cruel situation.
The image of the Head Monk, who had come to the place where he lived with Yeongsun's mother and changed his destiny, now overlapped with his own.
Was it right to intervene so rashly?
This could be a connection that would form eventually even without my interference. Am I trying to force it?
If I keep meddling in other people's lives like this, one by one, will I end up becoming a shaman?
Was it my destiny to come full circle, back to where I started, after sacrificing my entire youth to avoid this very path?
Countless thoughts raced through his mind, but he concluded that while he could have remained ignorant, now that he knew, he couldn't pretend he didn't.
And since he had started this job, wouldn't it be better to collect the money without causing harm to anyone?
That was why he had returned.
“That’s not it. Could I speak with you for a moment?”
“What? Yes... please, come in for a moment.”
Yeonghun sat in the same spot Tae-pyeong had occupied earlier.
Just then, he made eye contact with Eun-ji, who was peeking out from inside the room.
His suspicions were correct.
The girl’s features, generally speaking, weren't incredibly remarkable or unusual.
They were the kind of features one might commonly see, but the problem was that they didn't match the family's current circumstances.
Face Reading can usually be divided into three parts: early-life un, mid-life un, and late-life un. Looking at the girl's face, her early-life un appeared exceptionally strong.
That was why he had stared so intently at the girl’s face.
Wasn't it strange?
To be born with such excellent early-life fortune in a rundown hovel like this.
Such cases did exist, albeit rarely.
Cases where someone is born with a very good four pillars of destiny but is unable to fully enjoy that good fortune because of their parents' current situation.
It wasn't common, but such cases did happen, so he had wondered if this was one of them.
That's why, on the drive back with Tae-pyeong, he had taken the year (年), month (月), and day (日) from the resident registration copy attached to the contract and deduced the hour (時) of birth from the warmth he felt when she had grabbed his hand.
The four pillars of destiny refers to the four pillars (四住), and a proper reading was only possible when the two characters for each—year, month, day, and hour—were combined to make a total of eight characters.
Without the time of birth, a proper reading of the four pillars of destiny is impossible. However, Yeonghun possessed a strange ability, incomprehensible even to himself, that allowed him to deduce the time of birth. As long as he knew the birthday, he could grasp the four pillars of destiny without having to ask.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Lee Ju-hee glanced at the copy of the contract in Yeonghun’s hand.
He could almost read the frustration in her heart.
“I didn’t come here to demand you pay it back right away.”
“Then why did you come?”
Yeonghun couldn't bring himself to speak easily.
On his way here alone from Myeongdong, he had carefully calculated the four pillars of destiny for Lee Ju-hee and her daughter, Jo Eun-ji.
Lee Ju-hee’s four pillars of destiny were the very picture of a harsh life.
How should he put it? A fate with absolutely no luck—no money, no connection to academics, and no fortune with husbands in her four pillars of destiny.
When he first saw Lee Ju-hee, her features didn't seem particularly fortunate, so he hadn't thought it strange.
Her narrow and pointed forehead indicated no early-life un and no wealth, and her faint eyebrows suggested she had no one to help her.
She might have been called a beauty in her youth, but her features made her poverty understandable, and her four pillars of destiny confirmed it.
But when he looked at Jo Eun-ji’s four pillars of destiny, he was stunned.
Just as her Face Reading suggested, her early-life fortune in her four pillars of destiny was also exceptionally good.
Normally, one doesn't read the four pillars of destiny for a child.
An individual’s un is influenced by their family’s un, and a family’s un is influenced by the nation’s un.
No matter how outstanding an individual is, they are bound to falter if a war breaks out or a major national crisis like the IMF crisis occurs.
In any case, that's why there's no need to read a young child's fortune, as it simply follows that of their parents...
If it had been just one or the other, he might have dismissed it, but since both her four pillars of destiny and her Face Reading were the same, something was clearly amiss.
So, Yeonghun cautiously asked Lee Ju-hee, who was watching him warily.
“May I ask what the child’s father does?”
“What? He’s usually a sailor, but he went off to find the friend he co-signed a loan for...”
He had heard the story.
Why this ordinary family had fallen on hard times.
With the husband not bringing in any money, they had kept accumulating debt until it came to this.
Hadn't it been over three years since the husband left home and hadn't returned?
Yeonghun shook his head.
“That’s not who I mean... I mean someone else.”
“What?”
Yeonghun took a notepad and pen from the bag he was carrying, wrote something down, and held it out to her.
It was so that Jo Eun-ji, who was listening nearby, wouldn't hear.
[I’m asking about Eun-ji’s real father.]
Lee Ju-hee took the notepad from Yeonghun, her face turning deathly pale as she began to tremble like a leaf.
“How did you...”
Just as he thought.
< Destiny Cannot Be Avoided (2) > End
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