Chapter 1

The Company Employee Who Sees Fate – © Yeongwan (映完)

A child born with a destiny to become a shaman and disrupt the world.

He tries to become an ordinary company employee to renounce his greed and avoid becoming a shaman.

Choi Yeonghoon, who can see through fate with physiognomy and astrology.

Can he truly become an ordinary company employee?

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1996, Tongyeong, Gyeongnam.

I can't remember exactly where it was.

*

Clank!

Startled by the noisy doorbell, Yeongsun's mother went outside and opened the rusty iron gate.

"Hello. I am a humble monk who follows the path of the Buddha. I'm sorry, but may I receive some alms?"

Yeongsun's mother, a devout Buddhist, couldn't refuse even though she had little means, and invited the monk inside.

The monk sat on the porch and looked around the old house.

"Do you want some bibimbap with cold rice and vegetables?"

"Oh, that would be a feast."

"Please wait a moment."

Yeongsun's mother went into the kitchen, put some cold rice and a few vegetables in a large bowl, added a spoonful of sesame oil and chili paste, and brought out the bibimbap.

But by then, a boy of about five or six was standing next to the monk.

"Who are you, mister?"

"I am a monk."

"What's a monk?"

"A person who follows the Buddha."

"What's Buddha?"

"Hehe... Actually, I'm not sure myself."

"Hey~ You're a fake."

Yeongsun's mother quickly approached, placed the tray of bibimbap in front of the monk, and pulled the boy away.

"You shouldn't talk to the monk like that."

"It's fine."

Yeongsun's mother urged the boy to go inside and apologized to the monk.

"Oh, I'm sorry. He's still young."

"Hehe... It's really fine."

The monk, who had been stopping her from apologizing, ate the bibimbap with relish.

Seeing him finish a bowl of bibimbap in no time, Yeongsun's mother poured him an instant coffee in a paper cup.

"I'm not sure if it will suit your taste. That's all I have at home..."

"I like coffee too."

The monk smiled, took the coffee, and after a moment's hesitation, spoke.

"Um... By any chance, what's the name of the boy just now?"

"Yeonghoon."

"His name is Yeonghoon?"

"Is Yeonghoon here?"

"Originally, I would quietly bless and leave after receiving alms, but I became curious after looking at Yeonghoon's physiognomy. Could I know his birth date and time?"

Yeongsun's mother thought for a moment, then went into the room and came back.

She slowly unfolded an old, carefully folded piece of paper and handed it to the monk.

The monk unfolded the paper and, after a long while, moved his fingers and said,

"Are you, by any chance, not Yeonghoon's real mother?"

"Mommy!"

Yeongsun's mother was shocked and fell to the ground.

"Is that true?"

"How did you know?"

The monk paused for a moment and said,

"From the boy's birth date and time, I saw that he would have two different parents in his early years. But from your physiognomy, I see that although you will face difficulties in middle age, you will not lose your child."

Yeongsun's mother glanced at the room where Yeonghoon had gone and started to cry.

"Oh, really... Monk, what should I do?"

The monk, with his hands clasped, quietly watched her cry for a while.

After a while, when she calmed down a bit, she began to tell her story.

"Monk, to be honest, I had a very close sister... We grew up together in our hometown... We were closer than real sisters... But one day, she stopped contacting me. About five years later, she appeared with a one-year-old child."

"That was Yeonghoon?"

"Yes. She cried and said that if she raised Yeonghoon, he would have to become a shaman... No matter what... She had already received a divine calling and became a shaman."

What a tragic story.

"No matter how close we were, how could she ask me to raise a child? I refused, but she said if I didn't take the child, she would kill herself and the child. I said if we both die, I won't make the child a shaman."

"Hehe..."

The monk felt sorry for her.

"I believed my sister wasn't lying. I had never seen her so determined. But... Raising a child is really hard. My husband's business is failing, and we're running out of rice... Sob..."

When she burst into tears again, the monk closed his eyes and waited for her to calm down.

After a while, she grabbed the monk's sleeve and pleaded.

"What will happen to our family? To be honest, I even had bad thoughts..."

The monk knew what those bad thoughts were without her saying.

The monk said to her, with her eyes swollen from crying,

"Yeonghoon has a very rare destiny... He was born with the Mangeonsal, Yookhaesal, and Gwee Mun Gwan Sal."

"What does that mean?"

"It means he will have no success and his family business will decline. Since he will have no success, he might turn to religion to escape reality. However, this child has a strong innate greed and cannot quietly leave the secular world."

"Is that so...?"

"Such a destiny, full of resentment and excessive greed, can turn him into a fraudster who will cause great harm to those around him. Especially with the strong Gwee Mun Gwan Sal, if he becomes a fortune-teller, his powers will be indescribable and he will cause great harm to the world. Give the child to me."

"To you? The child?"

Yeongsun's mother was greatly surprised.

"Can you really do that...?"

She said this while looking at the monk.

To her hesitation, the monk said decisively,

"Yeonghoon's destiny is like a whirlpool. It's too big for an ordinary person to handle. He will want everything—health, wealth, and talent. Moreover, although you are facing difficulties now, your nose is thick and your face is bright and lustrous, indicating that you will have good fortune. If you give the child to me, good fortune will soon come to you."

Given that she had already had bad thoughts, the monk's offer was incredibly sweet.

She immediately accepted the monk's offer, packed Yeonghoon's clothes, and handed him over to the monk.

Was it because he had a lot of greed for the secular world?

That day, the whole neighborhood was in an uproar as Yeonghoon cried.

One of the neighbors even asked if they should report it to the police.

Yeonghoon refused to hold the monk's hand, as if it were the hand of a demon, and Yeongsun's mother had to forcibly separate him.

Was it the shock of hearing that she wasn't his real mother?

After a day of pulling and pushing, Yeonghoon finally decided to go with the monk.

"Meeting me is also a form of destiny. You need to let go of everything. If you renounce your greed, I will send you back."

That was when I was seven years old.

The End