Empire of the Ring

The night in the plain was dark without any lights. Breathing in the fresh cold air, Youngho was mesmerized by the sky.

“Oppa, you are like a dreaming boy. I haven’t seen many people looking at the sky these days.”

“Why don’t you look closely too, Zeynep? This is an indescribable mystery of the universe. I feel like everything we do is just so little and unworthy when I look at the sky.”

“The sky here has more stars than the sky from the grape farm.”

The sky in the untouched nature was incomparable to the polluted Baku’s night sky. As Youngho was reminiscing his past, Zeynep interrupted him again.

“Oppa, I still don’t get why the town’s men are not friendly to us? It’s weird. We’re just here to help but they won’t even talk to us.”

Young Zeynep did not understand their behaviors. Unwanted help was strictly refused by the town people, especially when they had voluntarily come to a remote place to cut themselves off from the outside world.

However, their intense vigilance against the outsiders was fishy. There must be something that they wanted to hide from the outside since they had refused a broadcasting company too.

The men of the town came back several hours after Youngho’s team’s arrival. They seemed to be quite perturbed by twenty strangers waiting for them.

Youngho explained that they were from a social welfare foundation and they had come to give help to the town, but the people did not look happy.

Since the town had already received valuable supplies from Youngho’s team, the old chief of the town invited the team for dinner but Youngho told him that he would prepare for the dinner for the whole town. It was because he did not want the town to run out of food and there was not a house that could fit all of the town people.

At the mouth of the town, Youngho’s team prepared to camp out and made excessive foods to treat the whole town. He made an effort to get close to the town people by setting up a temporary screen and showing them a movie.

People seemed to be more relaxed than before but they did not try to converse with the team except for the old chief of the town.

It was natural for people in remote areas to be vigilant against outsiders but once they identify the strangers, they would soon lower their guard but they would not budge.

Also, the men of the town were acting very awkwardly. This had triggered Zeynep’s curiosity.

“I like how the kids are lively here. They loved watching the movie, did you see their faces? And…”

As Zeynep began to chat, Youngho was thinking about the town people’s strange behaviors.

“Oppa!”

“Oh boy, why are you shouting?”

“You didn’t hear a single word I said, right.”

As Youngho was thinking that there must be a great secret hidden in the town, he had missed Zeynep’s words. She usually got very upset when someone does not pay attention to her words. It seemed that he would be getting an earful from her tonight.

***

The next day, Youngho met up with the old man alone. He was invited to the old man’s house and they were having tea.

“Mr. Chairman, why did you start doing this? This doesn’t do you any good. It doesn’t make you money or give you reputation.”

“You don’t have to call me Mr. Chairman, sir. I don’t deserve to be called that yet.”

“What do I call a chairman? You’re still a chairman.”

“To be honest, I started the foundation with a shallow idea to improve my farm’s image in Kazakhstan but this is not easy. I don’t know how to approach people.”

“Hah! I thought you were going to make an impressive speech there. You’re honest.”

The old chief smiled at Youngho’s unexpected answer. In fact, there were not many businessmen who would make a social welfare foundation or a scholarship foundation without any calculation of a benefit in return in mind.

Even though they establish foundations with grandiose official purposes, Youngho was casually telling that he wanted to join the Kazakh mainstream society.

“You must’ve earned some wealth to do this.”

“That’s true. Paying this much won’t shake my company. Also, I didn’t contribute that much since I’m not a philanthropist. I’m just pretending that I’m one but I really do want to support people who have the intention to study. That way, I can educate them first and hire them for my business later.”

“Hahaha…”

As they were chatting, Youngho sensed that the old man wanted to say something but he was beating around the bush. Youngho just opened up his heart to the old man, so that he could trust him. Since there was nothing to lie about, he told everything truthfully.

“I’ve been living for nearly 80 years and I’ve seen a lot of people, but you are special. I get that you are not the person who would deceive people.”

“Well, it’s nothing to brag about but I have big hotels around the world and a vineyard and a wine factory. I have more than 5,000 people under me, who rely on me.”

“…”

“I didn’t have to make lies to be recognized by people. People around me naturally accepted me because of my work. You’d know why I’m telling you all this.”

Youngho was reminding the old man that he had nothing to gain for lying to him. Since the old man had been reluctant to say what was on his mind, Youngho was inviting him to the conversation.

“My father took all of his family and went to the Maritime Province to fight for Korea’s independence in 1920. After that, we were deployed here and we were able to build our family again by doing a family business, but our business went bankrupt because of other Koryoins. I was resentful about people and I couldn’t trust anyone. That was why my old friends’ and my families moved to a remote area and settled in here.”

‘Man, is this it?’

Although it was a long story that could make a book, he explained everything in a short story. Youngho was disappointed a little bit. There must have been many difficult and dangerous moments when his family fought for Korea’s independence, when they were forcefully removed from the Maritime Province, and when they tried to survive in the new land, Kazakhstan. However, the story was not even a minute long. Youngho was not sure what the old man was implying.

“Is there anything you want to ask from me?”

After thinking for a while, Youngho carefully asked a question. The old man finally smiled.

“I am called Kim Sungchan. May I ask you to take care of our town?”

“Oh, sir. I came here after making up my mind to help the town already. Tell me anything you need. I and the foundation staffs will be glad to help.”

“Wait here for a moment. I have something to show you.”

***

Although Zeynep was now turning into a woman, she still liked to come along anywhere Youngho went. Her curious and adventurous personality was part of the reasons for that.

Youngho had told her to stay in the vehicle down the valley but she insisted on following him. As she was out of breath climbing the valley, she kept asking if they were close. It almost bothered him.

Youngho, Kim Ilkwon, and Zeynep were now guided by the old chief Kim Sungchan’s son and other men of the town. They were heading to the place where they had been collecting gold, this was the reason that the town people were vigilant against outsiders.

Kazakhstan was a country that had many gold resources and it was still producing several tons of gold every year. That amount was what the government was officially producing.

Where the government’s administration did not reach, gold is illegally collected and all of them were being sold in the black market. That was why many jewelers were extremely wealthy since they treated gold from the black market. Also, Youngho had heard that the number of diamonds traded in the black market was more than the amount that was sold in the official market.

Yesterday, the Koryoin old man Kim Sungchan brought a heavy sack and opened it in front of Youngho.

The sack was filled with gold dust.

He explained that the town people accidentally found a valley where gold was produced. The town people had collected about five kilograms of gold until now, but they were not sure what to do with the gold.

Knowing that if the rumor was spread out that there was gold near their town, the town would not be able to survive greedy outsiders or the government, so they had been keeping the secret.

Kim Sungchan finally opened up to Youngho since he thought that he could be trusted but Youngho was having a hard time to hide his joy. The valley must be a field of alluvial gold since the town people were able to collect gold without any knowledge about collecting gold.

This was why Kim Sungchan asked Youngho to take care of the town before he came clean to him. He believed that Youngho could take care of the town people no matter what he did with the gold.

Although five kilograms of gold was not going to make the town rich, it could have made their living better. Kim Sungchan admitted that he and the town people turned greedy after looking at gold. The men of the town only focused on collecting more gold, and the town was neglected by them. When he was regretting about gold, Youngho showed up and he finally gathered up his courage to open up to Youngho since he looked like a person who could rebuild the town.

“Mr. Chairman. This is the place.”

The bottom of the clear stream of the valley was sand everywhere but those sands were sparkling under the sunshine.

Youngho and Ilkwon took out their shoes and went into the stream. Youngho scooped up the sparkly sand with both of his hands. The sand was indeed mixed with gold dust. Since the dust was too small, it would have been impossible for the people to collect them without any expert knowledge. It made Youngho wonder. To think about that, the grains of gold that he saw yesterday was bigger.

“How have you been collecting gold until now?”

“We couldn’t even collect gold dust because they’re too small. We only collected what we could pick up with our hands.”

At this point, Youngho wanted to shout out to the world that he found gold.

“This is it? You won’t be able to gather a fistful of these even if you collect them for a month.”

Looking at the alluvial gold that that was gathered on her finger, Zeynep was disappointed.

“Phew, sweetie. When this is piled up, it would be a huge asset. Don’t say anything about gold to other people, alright? If outside people found out about this, this place will be a bloody battlefield.”

“Don’t worry. I should protect the town’s people property but are you really going to come far to collect gold here?”

“Of course, I will. These little grains of gold will brighten the future of the Kingdom of Serbia. I guarantee.”