Episode 8: The Uninvited Guest
I had definitely heard something.
I cautiously looked in the direction the sound had come from, but unlike just moments before, it had suddenly gone quiet.
‘Was it the wind?’
As evening came, a light breeze had picked up, so I thought it might have been the sound of trees and grass swaying and brushing against each other.
The countryside night was very dark.
With no streetlights around the house, it was even darker, which made me feel a bit scared.
Thinking I should finish up quickly and go inside, I used my shovel to cover the dirt and roughly wrap things up.
Fortunately, while I was covering the dirt, I didn't hear any sounds at all. It seemed it really had been the wind.
****
The next morning, I woke up and headed to the agricultural supply store in the town center.
I needed to buy compost to spread in my vegetable patch.
Compost is a type of decomposed fertilizer made from grass, straw, livestock manure, and so on. It’s used to enrich the soil.
Plants will grow even if you just put them in the ground, but compost is essential if you want to grow them properly.
Land spread with compost has improved soil, so crops grow better, and it can help prevent diseases and pests, as well as avoid damage from continuous cropping.
Of course, I had only learned this from searching the internet yesterday evening.
I had originally planned to buy various vegetable seedlings and seeds to plant them today, but I changed my plans after learning that I needed to spread compost first.
The truck drove along the country road, and when I rolled down the window, a cool breeze began to flow into the car.
Beyond the window, I could see farmers diligently tending their fields, all preoccupied with preparations to start new crops.
All crops have a season, and if you miss this season, you ruin the year’s harvest, so everyone was working hard.
When I first came down here, I had been happy there was no commute, but now that I was actually living here, I found myself working hard again in order not to miss the season.
Still, my mindset was a bit different from when I worked in the city.
Back then, it felt like I was forcing myself to work for money, but now I was working because I wanted to.
I liked my current life, sweating, eating delicious food, and occasionally visiting my parents’ grave.
Of course, farming might not go well, but that didn’t really matter much.
I had over 8 billion won in lottery winnings, after all.
If country life became too hard or boring, I could just go back to the city.
Having a lot of money felt like holding an all-access pass to the amusement park of life.
A very fun amusement park where I could do whatever I wanted.
Right now, farming and living in the countryside put my mind at ease, so I planned to stay here and try various things.
Enjoying the breeze coming through the window, I picked up speed. I was in such a good mood.
“The weather is great today too!”
****
When I arrived at the agricultural supply store, I told the owner I wanted to buy compost.
“You’re buying compost?”
“Yes, I’m planning to spread some in my vegetable patch. How much would I need?”
“Usually about 2 to 3 bags per pyeong.”
The vegetable patch behind my house was about 100 pyeong.
Going by what the owner said, that meant I needed to spread around 30 to 50 bags—a lot more than I had expected.
“How much does it cost?”
“It’s about 4,000 won per bag.”
The individual price wasn’t that expensive, but 50 bags would cost 200,000 won.
Since compost was absolutely necessary to raise crops well, I expressed my intention to buy it.
“How about it? Shall I have it delivered?”
“No, I brought my truck to take it with me right away.”
“Then would you park your car in the empty lot next door? I’ll load the compost right up.”
“Yes, understood.”
I parked my truck in the empty lot the owner had mentioned, and shortly after, a forklift arrived loaded with compost.
The owner had the compost loaded directly onto our truck, and perhaps because of the weight, the vehicle rocked slightly.
I tried to use the rubber straps in the car to secure the compost so it wouldn’t shift, but the owner grabbed a strap from the other side and helped me.
“Thank you.”
“But you’re a new face around here. Where are you from?”
I thanked the owner for helping me, and hearing that, he struck up a friendly conversation.
“I lived in Haenam through high school, then went to Gwangju, and recently returned to farming.”
“Ah, I see. Where do you live now?”
“I live in Bonghwang Village now.”
“Bonghwang Village. It’s quiet there, nice for living. Your parents must have lived around there?”
“Yes, my father lived there.”
“What is your father’s name?”
The owner asked my father’s name, and thinking about it, my father must have come here to buy pesticides and fertilizer, so he might have known the owner.
“My father’s name is I Donghui.”
“Ah, so you’re the son of the gentleman who lived in the Bonghwang Village valley.”
Our house was past the village, deeper in, so some people called it the Bonghwang Village valley. He really did seem to be someone who knew my father.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Your father used to come to our supply store often to buy what he needed.”
“He did?”
“I heard he passed away suddenly from cancer, but I never thought I’d meet his son here like this.”
For some reason, the owner’s friendly tone made me feel good.
And it made sense; since coming to the countryside, I had met several people who knew my father, and they had all reacted kindly.
I hadn’t known well, but it seemed my father had gotten along with everyone during his life in the countryside.
“Yes, I’m planning to try farming in his stead, so I’ll come by often if I need anything.”
“If you have any questions, feel free to ask anytime. Ah, do you know that you need to let the compost ripen for about 10 days after spreading it?”
“Yes, I know.”
I had learned that after spreading compost, you should till it into the soil once and let it ripen for about two weeks for best results. I had read this online yesterday, but hearing it from the owner made me feel more certain.
“Right. And I’ve heard that wild boars have been coming down from the mountains often these days… Since Bonghwang Village is close to the mountains, you should always keep an eye out for boars while working.”
“Ah, really?”
“And next time, don’t come all this way—just call in your order. We can deliver the compost.”
As soon as I mentioned I was his son, the owner gave me lots of advice, for which I was very grateful.
“Yes, thank you for your concern.”
After securing the compost firmly with rubber straps together with the owner, I asked if he had a business card.
“Owner, do you have a business card by any chance?”
“Wait a moment. I’ll go get one from the office.”
“I’ll contact you if I need anything else.”
“Drive carefully around the curves so the compost doesn’t topple over.”
“Yes, understood.”
****
When I returned home, I began spreading the compost in the field.
Since I was told to spread one bag per every 2 to 3 pyeong, I placed the bags in the middle of the field for easy access.
Each bag of compost weighed 15kg. At first, when I lifted one, I didn’t think it was that heavy, but after moving about 20 of them, my shoulders grew heavier and heavier.
“Goodness, this is hard…”
I was a bit surprised that so much compost was needed just to tend a mere 100-pyeong vegetable patch.
In the past, my father had grown napa cabbage in the field up above. That field was 1,000 pyeong, so if he spread the same amount, he would have needed about 500 bags of compost there.
If spreading 50 bags was this hard, I couldn’t imagine doing 500, and it made me think of how much my father must have struggled.
‘Still, I suppose it was a bit easier for him since he had a compost spreader back then.’
My father said he rented machines from the Agricultural Technology Center in town. I had seen one before; its work speed was incomparably fast.
But right now, I didn’t have a compost spreader.
I had heard you needed to be registered as a farmer to rent one, and I wasn’t a farmer yet.
For now, I had to spread it by hand, one by one.
“Let’s spread it quickly with a shovel.”
I took my shovel and went over to the bags of compost I had placed in the middle. I stabbed the tops of the bags with the shovel to make holes so the compost would come out easily.
I scooped some with the shovel and spread it around, and when the bag got a bit lighter, I held the bottom of the bag and started walking around the area.
“Simpler than I thought?”
I had searched on YouTube for how to spread compost. Many methods had come up, and for manual spreading, this method seemed the most convenient.
If I had tried to spread it alone without this work know-how, I would have had a much harder time.
But the world had improved; through the internet, I could easily learn how to work efficiently.
Thump, thump, thump.
Should I say that the more I did it, the more efficient I became? My working speed gradually increased.
Once again, I worked while listening to music, and time flew by as I spread the compost.
But as time passed, my body grew tired as well.
“This won’t do. I’ll just spread this much and stop.”
After spreading about 45 bags, the field was covered in compost, and it felt like it would be enough even if I didn’t spread any more.
And to be honest, since I had been working since morning, I was hungry too.
I was about to wrap up and go inside when I noticed a corner where the ground seemed dug up.
“What is this?”
Curious, I went over to look, and it was the exact spot where I had buried the food waste yesterday.
“Why is this dug up?”
Looking closely, the food scraps inside were scattered here and there, as if someone had dug them up.
Then I remembered what the man at the supply store had said.
“Could it be a wild boar?”
April was the birthing season for wild boars. In spring, to eat a lot before giving birth, they often came down to villages in search of food—I had seen this on the news.
African swine fever and other contagious diseases were a problem, but most importantly, they attacked people.
Because they were pregnant with piglets, they were already sensitive, and if they encountered a human, wild boars became excited and displayed aggressive behavior.
Wild boars also had sharp fangs, so if one attacked, you could be seriously injured.
Worried that a wild boar might have dug this up in search of food, I suddenly heard a sound from the bushes.
Rustle, rustle.
Instinctively, I raised my shovel and took an aggressive stance.
‘What is it? A wild boar?’
I glared intently at the bushes, and the sound came again.
Rustle, rustle.
It was similar to the sound I had heard yesterday evening. Now that I thought about it, it didn’t seem like a sound made by the wind.
The likelihood that it was a wild boar seemed high, so I began quietly moving backward.
If I encountered one, there was a high chance of being badly injured.
I planned to climb into the truck if a wild boar suddenly burst out and charged at me. As I was quietly moving my steps, the grass suddenly began to sway.
Startled, I quickly jumped onto the truck. Something pushed through the grass and walked out, and I pointed my shovel at it and glared.
Meow.
What emerged from the bushes was a small yellow cat. The creature simply walked over and began eating the remaining food scraps in the dirt.
I had jumped onto the truck in surprise, and seeing this, I laughed in absurdity.
“So it was you, not a wild boar?”