I'll feed you. You just sleep.
Jeongwon cupped the exhausted weasel in his hands and fed him a ginseng root.
He must have been terribly hungry. Even though he couldn't open his eyes, his little mouth kept working, nibbling away.
The moment he finished the root, he fell fast asleep.
Jeongwon left the sleeping weasel on his palm and studied him.
His hands were admittedly quite large, but this weasel was definitely small. There was still room to spare on his palm.
With his left hand, he gently tapped the weasel's two front paws.
No response.
This time, he touched his nose.
It was soft and slightly damp.
When Jeongwon stroked his body with a finger, the little creature seemed to flow beneath his touch like liquid.
He was soft and warm, but there was also something alarmingly slender about him.
Jeongwon tried to gauge his weight by holding him in his hand, but he was so light it was almost impossible to tell how much he weighed.
Lighter than a phone.
Come to think of it, Hae Dam had been remarkably thin in human form too.
Could it be that he only ate when he was a weasel?
And why did he refuse raw chicken, canned salmon, and canned tuna, eating nothing but different varieties of ginseng, such as red ginseng, cultivated ginseng, and wild ginseng?
Was it simply a matter of preference?
Or perhaps….
To think there's another psychic in the world besides our Jeongwon. It's truly astonishing. When I see him, I suppose the first thing I should bring up is canceling his plans to emigrate. No, I should make sure he eats first….
The rapid stream of his eldest sister's second voice interrupted Jeongwon's thoughts.
He pushed his questions aside.
Click.
The door opened, and Ji Hae Ri, the eldest of the six Ji siblings, entered.
She was tall, with short hair that fell just below her ears and thick, dark eyebrows. Her lips were, as always, a shade of purple. Ever since she was young, Hae Ri had preferred lipstick with more purple than red in it.
Despite being only forty-three, Hae Ri had so much gray hair that she resembled someone much older. Two-thirds of her hair was white.
As far as Jeongwon remembered, his eldest sister's hair had begun turning white six years ago, after their parents died.
Though her hair had gone white at such a young age, she had never once dyed it.
Porcelain-white skin, classically beautiful features, purple lips, and white hair.
That striking combination had earned Hae Ri the nickname "the Witch" among the stuffy old figures of the business and political worlds.
Hae Ri was quite pleased with the nickname.
The Witch swept Jeongwon into a tight embrace.
"My baby brother! It's been so long. Have you been well?"
By ordinary standards, it hadn't been that long. They had seen each other at the end of the year, just over a month ago.
But by the Ji family's standards, where everyone except the fifth sibling, Ji Se Ri, who lived overseas, gathered almost every weekend, it had been a very long time indeed.
"Yeah, I've been good. How about you?"
"Not very well. I've missed my baby brother too much."
Hae Ri patted Jeongwon's broad back as though he were still a baby, then released him.
"And here's your New Year's present. Apparently it's some kind of limited edition that's hard to get, though I don't know much about it. Try them on and see if they fit."
Jeongwon never refused gifts from his brothers and sisters.
Apart from the occasional bizarre presents his youngest older sister brought him—a specially made grenade with a shock-absorbing coating, bullets customized with a pearlescent finish, a jackknife engraved with his initials—he accepted everything readily.
This time, the gift was a pair of running shoes from an expensive brand.
Jeongwon had absolutely no interest in running, but he understood why his sister had chosen running shoes for him anyway.
And he was sincerely grateful.
"Looks like Seokwon's running late. Let's eat without him."
"Okay."
They asked for the appetizers, main courses, and desserts to be served together.
Once all the food had arrived, Hae Ri took out the items Jeongwon had been waiting for and handed them to him.
Two cloned copies of Hae Dam's phones, along with a tablet containing detailed records of his entire life, from his birth to the present.
The six Ji siblings, whose family had originally made its living in the underworld, had no qualms whatsoever about digging into other people's private lives.
Jeongwon was particularly uninhibited in this regard. As a psychic who could hear other people's thoughts, he had spent his entire life intruding on their privacy, even when he hadn't meant to.
When he opened the file, the first thing that appeared was a news article.
[Child Found on Mount Seorak Adopted by Ginseng-Gathering Couple Who Discovered Him]
A four-year-old child had been discovered at the bottom of a steep cliff deep in Mount Seorak.
He was covered in blood believed to have come from an animal.
The child could remember neither his own name nor his parents' names or home address. His health was also poor.
The ginseng-gathering couple who had first discovered him adopted him and registered him as their son.
His officially recorded date of birth was July 30, 2018.
It was the same as Jeongwon's birthday.
There were only a handful of photographs from Hae Dam's childhood, but they suggested a warm, happy family.
A little boy wearing a straw hat, eagerly chasing butterflies, while a woman watched him with an affectionate smile.
The same little boy, his brows furrowed in concentration, using the face of a sleeping man as his canvas and scribbling all over it.
A side view of the child walking along a narrow woodland path, chewing vigorously on a ginseng root.
Perhaps he was naturally incapable of putting on weight, because he had been very thin even as a child.
His hair was a deeper black than was typical among Koreans, while his round eyes were lighter in color.
In sunlight, they sometimes appeared gray. They were clear and translucent, like water freshly drawn from a stream.
His cheeks were rosy.
Beneath a naturally high, well-defined nose were full lips.
There were videos too.
In one, a little boy who looked about five or six sat at the edge of the wooden porch of a country house, gazing toward the mountains covered in green foliage as he sang.
It was a popular song from that time.
"Is there something you want to eat?"
"There's a dream I want to dream."
"There's someone I want to love, too."
Apparently, the sight of such a tiny child singing a love song with such careful pronunciation was adorable, because the woman's laughter could be heard from behind the camera.
The second video showed the boy's birthday party.
Instead of chocolate decorations, the whipped-cream cake was topped with crunchy red-ginseng sweets and slices of ginseng confection.
There were seven candles.
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Hae Dam, happy birthday to you…."
The woman and the child sang together, clapping their hands and laughing.
Little Hae Dam sang the words "dear Hae Dam" louder and more clearly than any other part of the song.
The man wasn't visible, presumably because he was filming, but his low, hearty laughter was full of happiness.
The final record was a photograph from Hae Dam's first day of middle school.
He looked like an elementary school student who had been dressed in a school uniform.
Hae Dam's expression was bright with excitement.
The woman standing beside him was smiling, but her eyes were filled with worry.
"He's had a terribly difficult life," Hae Ri said. "An orphan whose parents were never identified, and then the couple who raised him were tragically killed by a drunk driver. Apparently, he dropped out of school in middle school and has supported himself as a detective ever since. It must have been devastating at such a young age, but he found a way to survive. Quite a capable young man."
Hae Dam had left school not long after the ginseng-gathering couple died.
After that, there were almost no photographs or videos of him.
The only footage showed him as a tiny figure in the corner of another animal detective's GemTube video.
Without the slightest hesitation, Jeongwon moved on to the cloned phones.
Hae Dam used separate phones for work and personal matters, and Hae Ri's capable subordinate had cloned both.
The number Hae Dam had given him was his work number.
Naturally, Jeongwon wasn't offended.
Someone harboring a secret wasn't likely to open his heart so easily to a stranger.
Messages were still arriving on Hae Dam's work phone in real time.
We're Animal Detectives
Shy Hamster
Is everyone getting good views on GemTube these days?
Hungry Cat
Speedy Turtle
My Reel blew up hahaha. Over three million views in just three days!
A group chat for animal detectives… who were practically GemTubers themselves.
Veterinary Clinics
Hae Dam, Chorong has been discharged!Dam, Yongyong's owner isn't answering the phone. Want me to try contacting them?Detective! Someone wants to adopt Byeori!
Messages from veterinary clinics.
Nationwide Animal Detective
[email protected]
Hello, Detective Hae Dam! ^^
This is Nationwide Animal Detective. I contacted you before.
I know you've already turned me down, but I really want to work with you, so I'm reaching out again.
We'll make absolutely sure your face is never shown, and I'll give you as generous a share of the profits as possible.
Naturally, I'll handle all the editing myself.
As your partner, I'll support you with everything from brainstorming ideas and preparing shoots to managing uploads, so you won't have to worry about any of it.
All you'd need to do is the detective work and provide commentary.
I'd be incredibly grateful if you could reconsider my offer, just this once.
Let's at least meet for a casual chat over coffee.
I'll be waiting to hear from you, Detective.
Love you!
Bookwriting Animal Detective
[email protected]
Hello, Detective...
I understand that you're reluctant to appear in front of large audiences, but our content doesn't involve showing anyone's face ;ㅅ;...
It's just a short interview, so only your voice would be included. But if you're uncomfortable even with that, we'll disguise your voice!
Please reconsider ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ
There were also numerous invitations to appear on GemTube and offers of collaboration.
Some were willing to pay several million won for a single appearance.
Hae Dam had rejected every offer.
Unlike his work phone, which continued to receive messages even now, his personal phone was quiet.
The only messages waiting for him were these.
PERSONAL MESSAGES
[○○ Ginseng Wholesale]
Premium six-year-old fresh ginseng from Geumsan arrived early this morning.
[□□ Farm]
(Photo) Today's field report! Soil conditions are excellent, so this year…
◇◇ Ginseng Special Offer
Great-value stock available at special prices. If you're looking for quality at an affordable price, don't miss this opportunity.
A suspiciously large number of ginseng suppliers.
FINANCIAL NOTIFICATIONS
[SR Bank]
IQ00 Fund Performance Alert: Your return has reached 20%…
[KS Bank]
Retirement Pension Performance Notice: Dear Hae*, the return on your retirement pension…
[MS Securities]
Cash Dividend Deposit Notice: Dear Hae*, Account 330-34-****…
Signs of someone diligently planning for his future.
Apart from those, there wasn't a single group chat with friends.
Not even the sort of elementary or middle school classmates' group chat that practically everyone had.