Inside the car.
This is the first time I've ever driven in a car since being born into this era.
As soon as I sat down, the way I looked at the manager changed.
It was sharp.
'It seems like you don't trust the manager anymore.'
Not yet, at least.
But if the manager makes another mistake later, he'll definitely be fired.
"Are there any other errors in the ledger?" President Nakamura, who had been staring at the manager, asked me calmly.
He must have already figured out what I didn't say.
"That is…"
"You didn't say anything because Manager Han was here, right?"
He seemed to think more highly of me than I expected.
"Master Nari comes occasionally, but I see you every day."
Right now, I shouldn't report the manager's wrongdoing.
Once you're labeled as a whistleblower, gaining trust becomes harder.
Rather than showing off, I just need to quietly do my work.
"Hahaha. That guy has a good attitude."
"I'll record things carefully so I don't make any mistakes."
This part is important.
It's likely someone tipped off the boss—not reported directly—that the manager was secretly pocketing money.
"Why do you think my rice shop has no regular customers who buy grain in retail?"
So he already figured things out.
He knows the ledger is wrong and the transfer calculations don't match.
And the manager must have realized he's been caught.
"That is…"
"Do you know or not?"
The boss already knows.
That's why he asked me to check the ledger every day.
"That is…"
"You know, but you can't say it?"
"What I mean is…"
"If a merchant loses his credit, he loses everything. Someone is damaging my credibility."
He paused for a moment.
"I need to change the starting point."
He had already understood everything.
There must be rumors spreading.
Come to think of it, the number of people buying one or two small bags of grain has dropped drastically.
"Tomorrow, you change it."
The boss gave me a direct order.
It meant I should take responsibility.
'Manager Han will be fired soon.'
He'll probably stay until a replacement is found.
"Yes, Master Nari, but—"
"You knew, right?"
"…Yes."
Now that he said it, I could answer honestly.
He'd see me as someone tight-lipped, not someone stirring trouble.
'Good…'
If I gain more trust, I'll be assigned more important work later.
"Do you have anything to say?"
"I don't think business is something where you just sit and wait for things to sell on their own."
"What?"
The boss looked at me strangely.
"I think we should try advertising."
"Advertising?"
In this era, advertising barely existed.
"Yes."
"Fine, try it."
President Nakamura always tells me to go ahead with the things I bring up.
"Yes, sir."
Now was the time to show my ability.
June 21, 1940.
The next day, I changed the sacks without the manager noticing.
'About half a hop bigger…'
I also switched out the measuring bucket to one that held about half a hop more.
In a few months, word would spread among the poor.
Rumors like: If you buy rice or barley from Nakamura's rice shop, you can get one or two extra meals out of it.
Of course, rebuilding lost trust would take time.
'Park Lee Damaeji.'
The saying: If a merchant loses trust, he loses everything.This would be my lifelong principle.
I started advertising like I had told the boss.
It wasn't much—just some drawings and writing on paper pasted onto telephone poles and walls.
I even drew a simple map to show where the shop was.
When I get a chance, I have to show my abilities.
Only then can I move to the next step.
'If I can just become the manager of this rice shop before liberation comes…'
It would open a stepping stone to bigger opportunities.
I also became the main record keeper for the ledger.
Nothing too different.
I still woke up at 5 a.m. to fetch water.
I swept the area in front of the shop so that not a single speck of dust remained.
After three months, profits increased by over 30%.
I was called to the boss.
"Sales have increased."
In a situation like this, he should be calling the manager—he's the one responsible for the whole store.
But he called me instead.
Because the manager had already lost his trust.
President Nakamura knew I was the one who caused the increase in profits.
"Yes, that's right, Master Nari."
"Profit decreased compared to the unit price of grain purchases, but because total sales increased, net profit also rose. How did you do it?"
He already knew.
But asking me directly meant he wanted to test me.
"I used sacks that were about half a hop larger than the standard size."
"You gave more to customers who bought retail?"
His expression shifted strangely.
Probably because I acted without permission.
Technically, it was an unauthorized action.
"Yes, that's right. I'm sorry for not telling you in advance."
"Why did you do it?"
"The saying 'the throat is like a grapevine' came to mind. Anyone who cooks rice can guess how much is left just by looking at it."
Most people of this era are poor.
Not a single grain is wasted.
"Women who cook will realize that buying rice or barley from your store gives them one or two more meals."
"You acted with that in mind?"
"Yes. There used to be few retail customers back when the market was smaller."
Since this was a large rice shop, small retail purchases didn't happen often.
"As you said before, once trust is lost, everything is lost."
"That's true."
"That's why I thought selling more at a slightly lower profit margin would bring better overall results."
"So you acted however you wanted?"
His gaze hardened.
"Sorry."
I immediately bowed my head.
"If you're going to make decisions on your own, then you should be the boss."
A warning.
A warning to report things before acting from now on.
"I won't do it again."
"Since the results were good, I'll let it go this time. But don't ever act without permission again."
"Yes, I understand."
"It's exciting to succeed through cleverness, but that's not how business should be run. Trickery may succeed sometimes, but it fails often. And the harm it causes outweighs the benefit."
In some ways, this also meant my authority had increased slightly.
"Yes, Master Nari."
"Even though the customers were poor, you won their hearts and built virtue. That's good."
He seemed Buddhist.
Anyway, he smiled after hearing that net profits rose by 30%.
"Cheol-i, you're honest but also clever. So tell me—how do you think we can increase profits further?"
A surprising question to ask a clerk who had only worked six months.
"There are small ways… and very big ways."
Since he asked because he trusted my ability, there was no reason to hold back.
"What's the small way or the big way?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Tell me."
"The small way is to remove more of the rice germ when milling and sell it separately."
Depending on how you polish brown rice into white rice, the number of grains per bag changes slightly.
And that directly affects profits.
Though the rice quality goes down.
'Meat soup with rice…'
For Koreans, rice with meat soup is a dream.
Later, when Kim Il-sung took over the North, he even used "rice with meat soup" as a political slogan.
But that dream still hasn't been achieved for everyone.
"Are you trying to sell it as brown rice?"
"I think selling white rice and brown rice separately would be better. Mixing them isn't right."
In truth, brown rice is healthier than white rice.
But no one in this era knows that.
The boss nodded.
"Good. Sell it that way. And what's the big way?"
Author's Note
English and Korean are not my first languages, so I do my best when writing. Thank you for understanding.