A few days later he went to the market, where he ran into Jong, whose voice startled him. Jong wondered why he was so jumpy and asked whether he was out doing some shopping. Sihon told him he had come out to buy a few things and run some errands. Looking at the shopping bag in his hand, Jong could find nothing but tofu, soy milk and vegetables, which made him wonder whether Sihon was training to join a monastery.
Sihon explained that he ordered most of his groceries online, since they were cheaper. Even though it looked as if he were on a strict diet, Jong told him he actually looked better and that his neck was more visible than when he first arrived. Pleased with the compliment, Sihon thanked him, and Jong asked why he was hanging around outside this particular store.
Sihon explained that he had dug up some herbs on the back mountain and wanted to ask about selling them. He went on to say that a few days earlier he had been chasing after his pet water deer when it suddenly pulled out a ginseng root. Jong found the story absurd and wondered aloud when deer had become so domesticated that they could help someone dig up herbs.
Sihon insisted that he was telling the truth, but Jong did not buy the silly story and simply offered to take him somewhere better to exchange the herb for money. As he led the way, Jong explained that they needed an expert to appraise the herb before any sale. Sihon was taken aback to hear it, and then the appraiser turned out to be none other than the village chief.
He was surprised that the village chief was an appraiser, and Jong revealed that he knew because he was a collector who gathered a bit of everything, and the village chief helped him sell it. Jong informed the chief that Sihon had herbs to sell, and Sihon handed her a bag containing them. As she opened it, the village chief had already dismissed whatever was inside as unimportant.
The next moment she swallowed her words in shock as she counted the leaves on the ginseng. Just as Jong was about to ask whether the herb was ginseng, the village chief pulled it out and excitedly announced that it was wild ginseng. Both Sihon and Jong were utterly shocked by the revelation, because wild ginseng was the cream of the crop.
The village chief's voice echoed through the small town as she scolded Sihon for carrying precious wild ginseng around in a damned plastic bag instead of on a gold platter. Her reaction was because wild ginseng roots grow for decades, absorbing the energy of the forest, untouched by human hands. On top of that, the one Sihon had brought was over fifty years old, which made it incredibly rare and extremely valuable.
The village chief asked him where he had got it, and Sihon explained that his pet deer had dug it up near the top of the mountain. As usual, the village chief found the story absurd, and she wondered whether he was really raising a water deer at home. Jong told her that the latter part was true, and that Sihon had even put a pretty collar on the deer.
The chief was astonished to hear it, and admitted that she had lived far too long. Jong then asked her about selling the ginseng, and the chief reassured him that selling the herb would be very easy. She said she would send a photograph of it to the ginseng diggers' association to find a buyer. She added that this particular wild ginseng could be worth more than thirty million won.
According to her, its value could even triple if it came with a ridiculous story. As an example, she described a ginseng digger who searched the mountains for more than six months without finding a single root, until he dreamed of a mountain spirit who pointed him towards a specific location. The next day he went there and discovered an entire patch of wild ginseng exactly where the spirit had indicated.
Since Sihon already had a story like that, they could tweak it a little and say he had stumbled on a blessed omen and followed a lucky deer, only to end up finding the wild ginseng. Jong did not care for such ridiculous nonsense, but the chief told them to leave it to her. She reassured Sihon that she would handle everything without taking a single won in commission from him.
Sihon gladly thanked the chief and decided to trust her with the wild ginseng root. After the meeting, he and Jong headed back home. On the way, Jong asked what he thought of the village chief's house, which happened to be the most beautiful house in the village. Sihon admitted that the house was indeed beautiful and that her greenhouse was enormous.
Jong then revealed that the village chief's husband used to be the boss of a big company that made a fortune building cars and ships. He had suddenly fallen ill after retiring to the countryside with his wife. It was not even three years before he passed away from the illness, and his wife, who had just decided to take a break after raising her children, had to spend all her time caring for him until his death.
According to Jong, she had started gathering herbs to keep him alive, which was how she became an expert in the field, and now she worked as a broker just for fun. Jong also pointed out that the village chief seemed to have a lot of luck when it came to making money. He told Sihon not to worry about finding a buyer for his wild ginseng, because the village chief had enough connections to find one.
As soon as the words left his mouth, he received a text from her saying she had already found a buyer. According to the message, the wild ginseng had been appraised at at least eighty years old and had sold for a hundred million won. Sihon was stunned, and even more shocked when Jong revealed that the village chief said she had sold it to the president of a famous company.
Jong then warned him to keep the ginseng story to himself and not to brag about the money to outsiders, because that might bring unwanted trouble to his doorstep. Sihon was moved by his concern, and it immediately reminded him of a memory he had long forgotten. It was the memory of his druid master, who had always stood by him.
Now Jong was doing the same, and it had been a long while since anyone had worried about him like that. A gentle smile spread across Sihon's face. He happily announced that he would treat Jong to a great deal of pork once the money came in, and Jong teased him about fixing the potato field his pet deer had trashed the other day.