Spirit Farmer - Chapter 1

I’m Home

Woo was able to reunite with his parents as soon as he arrived at his hometown.

He hasn’t seen them for a really long time.

So when he saw them, his eyes started filling up with tears.

“Mom, Dad… I’m home.”

He greeted them in a muffled voice.

His parents, who were much older, than when he last saw, also started to shed tears at the sight of their son who had returned home after 11 years.

“Oh, my son!…. Welcome home……look at you all grown up?”

His mother ran towards him as soon as she saw Woo.

Then, she opened her small body and embraced Woo.

Woo felt the warmth, which he missed for a decade.

” Sorry mom…….I had given both of you, a lot of trouble. I’m sorry.”

Seeing her son with a sorrowful face, Woo’s mother said

“Oh…it fine, baby. Why didn’t you show your face often ? Do you know how much we missed you”

Woo hugged his mother, who seems to have grown shorter than before.

At that time, a small realisation came to Woo

‘What have I been doing without taking care of the people who cared for me.

‘what was I chasing and for whose happiness was I chasing?’

As Woo thought about several things.

Tear drops ran down from Woo’s cheeks.

It condensed on the tip of the chin, and while it fell to the floor, it became a small crystal, and it melted into the floor with a bright sparkle.

Woo, unaware of it, wiped away the remaining tears in his eyes and said to his mother.

“I will do my best in the future. I will live by repaying all the love you have given for me.”

“No, Son, do what you want and live.”

“It’s the duty of the parents to love their children. It’s not done expecting something in return.”

As his mother said that, she hugged Woo once again.

After a while, his father came from behind after wiping away all his tears and opened his mouth.

“Oh…come one, stop it……don’t you think he might be hungry from his travel ?”

“Ah, I completely forgot…. Let’s go in son. I’ve prepared all of your favourites.”

After saying so, Woo’s mother tried to take her son inside the house.

But before she could do that, she was stopped by Woo’s

father.

“Stop, I have something to talk to our son. You go in first and set the table.”

At those words, Woo’s mother scowled at his father. It felt as if the happy expression until now was a lie.

” Are you trying to say something strange to our son?“

“What you mean by strange, I just want to have a man-to-man conversation with my son.”

After a little bit of hesitation, Woo’s mother gave in and went inside.

Woo watched the scene till the end, and then turned the face towards his father.

“Dad, what do you want to talk about?”

Hearing his words, his father sighed lightly, and after a while, he opened his mouth with great difficulty.

“You’re an adult now, so I think you have the right to know about our family situation.”

“what is it Dad?”

“The thing is…….., there is no land to farm.”

“Wha…..!?”

Geon Woo encountered a landmine within 5 minutes into reunion with his parents.

After a long meal, Woo had a serious conversation with his parents about family affairs.

And I found out the reason for his family having a hard time.

“So you mean that the land got taken away because of Chan’s guarantee, and we have a huge debt to repay because of him?”

Lee Chan, who was Woo’s younger brother, started a business by lending money using their ancestral land.

But the business never took off, soon it went bankrupt and Lee chan, fearing the debtors left the town without saying anything to the parents.

His father continued with a pale face.

“Yeah. All we are left with is a small piece of land.”

Woo’s father felt sorry for not being able to pass the ancestral property to his son.

His face showed signs of stress, and he took a cigarette to puff out the stress.

Seeing his father taking a cigarette, Woo opened his mouth.

” Does the rule of not smoking inside the house, change during my years of absence.”

“Yeah…yeah…sorry I forgot about that Mr. Landlord.”

Woo’s father replied with a bitter smile on his face, and continued

“So, now that you’re all grown up, Do you smoke.”

To the question from his father Woo shook his head, and said

“No, I don’t smoke. If you want to become a ‘superhuman’ you must never drink or smoke.”

“Yeah, yeah…you had that. It’s good…..once you start smoking… you can’t stop.”

Saying that Woo’s father opened the door and went outside.

Woo felt a strange feeling rising from the inside as he saw the tired shoulders of his father, which were once majestic in his eyes.

Damn you Chan, because of you, all we have is 650 sq.m of our ancestral land, and a huge load of debt

Woo closed his eyes and remembered his past memories with chan.

Chan was a type of kid, who liked to know about wide variety of thing, rather than understanding completely about one particular thing.

He wanted to be a business man, since the middle school days.

He used to always say that, he needed one item, just one item, to turn into a successful business man.

Damn it, brother…… you always told that you would do business with other people’s money……does the other people’s money meant to be your family’s money…!?’

Woo shook his head and opened his eyes. After which he let out a long sigh.

“I’m in no position to blame him….I just ran away for my selfish desires, and never cared about what’s happening in our house.

At that moment, his mother, who was looking at him from the kitchen, opened her mouth.

“Son, chan is not at fault.”

” Mom……what are you saying.? Because of him we lost all our land.”

At Woo’s anger tone, his mother spoke softly

“He wanted to help us, but things didn’t turn out like he wanted… it happens…that’s what life is.”

If he wanted to help you, he should have farmed the land. But he went and took a loan for his business by pawing the land.’

But Woo couldn’t say what he thought, while his mother continued.

“Now, we don’t know where he is, and what he is doing……I hope a day comes, when I could see this table getting filled with the faces of my children and grandchildren.”

Woo stared at his mother spellbound.

He couldn’t understand, why she is not angry at the son who never cared about them for 11 years, nor the son who lost all the things they protected.

He couldn’t understand the species called parent.

He thought that, a selfish being like him could never become a parent like them.

Woo lowered his head, and in low tone said to his mother.

” I won’t blame him mother, at least, he tried to be with you guys unlike a trash like me who only cared about himse……”

Before Woo could complete his words, his mother hugged him tightly and said.

“Don’t say like that baby……you are my best and you are my first…after all, you are the first one to call me mother……nothing can replace that.”

His mothers words made him remember a lot of old memories.

The same words ‘ you are my best and you are my first’ which she would always say whenever he was feeling down.

Somehow hearing those words, made Woo regain the confidence in him.

He clenched his fist and said to himself.

There must be a way to solve all the problems……and I have to find it.’

Seeing his mother still hugging him, smile bloomed in Woo’s face, and with that face he spoke

” Mom…….you never change.”

At her son’s compliment, Woo’s mother replied with a bright face.

“Of course, your mother is the eternal beauty of Hildon town.”

Laughter filled the room which was filled with a depressed atmosphere until a few moments ago.

After Woo returned to his hometown, the first job he started was not farming.

Because he had work to do before that.

Flexibility is possible up to 300 million.’

The first thing Woo did was to use his smartphone to examine the government support measures being promoted in Hildon town.

There were quite a few types of government support measures, and among them, the one that caught Woo’s attention was the support policy for young people to return to farming, which provided a loan of 300 million won and exemption from interest for two years.

‘Pay back after 2 years with only 3% interest’

Korea was basically a country with a very small primary industry.

It was an unavoidable part when considering the direction of the country’s development.

Therefore, the Government has come up with a number of support measures to foster the primary industry, and one of them is the youth’s return to farming.

To qualify for this program, one must possess some inherited land, and should return to farming unconditionally, which Woo decided, the moment he set foot in the town.

After deciding about the program, Woo planned on the next thing.

‘Let’s see how much land we can buy with 300 million won.

The reason Woo wanted to receive a large sum of 300 million won in the first place was to increase the land for farming.

Nothing could be done with the land that was left.

However, as time went by, Woo’s expression grew darker.

Looking at the price of land on the Internet, it was cheap, but the location of the site was not good.

The ground was too low, or the road to the ground is too limited.

Lands with development restrictions or something.

‘After all, it is not easy to live in rural land.’

In rural areas, it was often difficult to find usable land, even for a higher price than usual.

Most of the usable land was handed down from generation to generation, so no one wanted to sell it, and it was often not possible to sell due to circumstances involving relatives or nearby neighbours.

Woo made a decision and decided to visit the town chief’s house to ask help in this issue.

And in addition to that, he also wanted to ask about information on the ‘special crops’.

He was able to acquire some land with chief’s help, but that didn’t solve all the problems, since the chief didn’t had any information on the ‘special crops’

You can’t make a lot of money by growing only general crops. We have to grow special crops.’

The farming that Woo is currently thinking about is farming special crops.

He wanted to farm by cultivating seeds or seedlings obtained from the ‘dungeon’.

However, farming special crops was not easy from the start.

“There is no finite way to grow them, nor any place to get the seedlings’

No matter how much he searched, he couldn’t find any detailed information about the special crops.

In other words, it was difficult to even before he could farm.

This is because the related occupations were in strict control of the information.

‘It’s not as easy as I thought.’

Woo sighed and pressed his temples down.

‘Let’s take a break.’

Woo went out of the house to get some air.

He took a deep breath as he looked around the house.

“It’s frustrating.”

Woo stood in front of the gate, where he cried reuniting with his mother few months back.

” It’s the same, whenever I try to do something.”

“It’s always failure, failure ……and failure.”

” Why……why… this time, it isn’t even for me, I just want my parents to spend their remaining life comfortably.”

” Why am I alive when I can’t be useful to anyone…..”

” Why….why….why………”

As Woo was overcome with a feeling of disgust and disbelief.

A droplet of tear emerged in his eyes, slid through his cheeks and fell towards the ground reflecting the moonlight.

As soon as it reached the ground it fell on a sprout popping out near the gate of his house.

At that moment a voice reached Woo’s ear, a voice which made him forget all of his sorrow.

” Hawananah.”