The ham and meat skewers are stuck around the bonfire and the two men are sitting opposite to each other drinking heated brandy.
"How far did I tell you?"
The old man's face was red-cooked with wine and fire.
"You said you were going on a trip to Yunnan Province, China."
An exotic young man with dark eyebrows and angular jaws answered by rummaging through a bonfire with a long wooden stick
"Yes, I did. At that time, I went on a package trip with my friend Youngseok, who was fired from the company, and he and I went to Unnam Province, China, and the boy car, which is famous for transporting a boy car to Tibet and buying Dongchunghaacho, because besides Yeongseok and I, the three ladies and I, who were also close to 50 years old, accompanied by our parents.
The old man took a sip of brandy from an old iron cup, which had been stripped of its panicle coating.
"At that time, I was riding in a small bongo car, and it was so boring on the third day that I was drinking beer on the bench in front of the hotel, but the driver who was driving our bongo car came up to us, fumbled with Korean and Chinese, and made a gesture, and we understood what it was like, 'cause we understood it was like a ghost.
He said we were fine, and then the driver went around disappointed, and then he came back and read it on the paper.
"It's okay, Pooh and Sule. Adults, I love people."
That's what he said. I mean, why are you marrying someone from another tribe for genetic diversity? I think that's what the driver says. He's 16 years old, and he's a grown-up, and he's welcome to sleep in that tribe. At that time, it was 340,000 won or 350,000 won. Even though we were drunk for three days, we were in a bit of a jam. Think about it. The scenery was fantastic, but the places we've been going around were tea fields and teahouses. We drank a lot, but it was really boring when we were so full of energy."
"It must have been really boring..."
The young man also poured liquor into his cup.
"Oh, you said your mother was there, too, right If we go this time, we'll go very far? Have you saved some money?"
asked the old man, as if he had thought of it.
"No, not long. I'm just thinking of opening a house and a small store in a nearby city."
"If I got married early, I'd have a son like you. Time flies so fast that if you can't get over it, you'll be gone in 10 or 20 years. ··· If you go to your factory, you'll have to hire three more men for you."
The young man smiled on his face at the old man's words.
"That's not enough. It's probably a couple of weeks.
"I'm good at Korean, I'm good at my job, I'm good at it, and it's not easy for someone like you to find me."
The old man shook his head from side to side, as if it were not empty words.
For a moment the two were looking at the bonfire. The old man said as if he had forgotten what he was saying.
"I was so bored then, so Young-seok and I thought something funny would happen. We were young, so we said yes. So we got in the van, and the driver took a ride, and we waited for a couple of hours.
After we went up and down the unpacked mountain path, we arrived at a village in the woods. There was a light on, a dozen women from old grandmothers to young children, and the driver told us to get off. At first, we were a little scared, but all the women were there. So we were relieved, so we never had to give the money to the driver, because we didn't know we't have to be kidding.
An old grandmother told me to follow her, so I followed her with Young-seok.
Most of the houses were made of bamboo with roofs and walls. They asked Youngseok to walk into the same house. He said, "Do you have to come with me when you go home, you know?"
She took my hand and told me to take her to a house about 20 meters away from the house with Yeong-seok in it. When I went inside, she passed out a bunch of giant candles on her behalf, and there was a bed on one side, and a little girl with a red and yellow dye on her face, and she looked at me with a nice face, and she asked me to sit in a chair, and I thought I'd be embarrassed.He poured wine and drank it first. I still couldn't forget the taste of it. It was sweet like honey wine, but the smell of strong flowers spread out. I drank a few cups and hypnotized myself. I'm an adult. I'm not an irresponsible adult who abuses minors. They want me to get genetic diversity. Like that. What would you do if it were you? What if a beautiful 16-year-old girl sits in a hut to sleep with me?”
The old man cut off his long-running horse and asked, tearing off a sausage from the skewer he was holding.
"Well, culture isn't the kind of thing you can talk about. Culture should be respected.”
"That's it?"
When the young man spoke cautiously, the old man's voice became much brighter when he heard the answer he wanted to hear.
"After a few drinks like that, she grabbed my hand and led me to bed, and she took off one of my clothes as carefully as if she were handling fragile artifacts, and then she smelled like some kind of flower, probably from alcohol, and she washed me with that kind of oil, and it felt so weird, she washed me up, and then she smiled at me, and she didn't undress me.
What the driver said was true. She must have been in pain as she slept with a girl. She covered her mouth with her own hands. She was so drunk, so she was so dreamy, and she was so excited, she fell down, and after a while, she gave me another drink, and now she thought it was the best thing to do, so I thought it was to have two drinks.
I was out of my mind at the time, and I didn't think about it, so I made love twice and fell down like that. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep in the New Year's sleep, and I heard a strange buzzing sound in the middle of a dream. I lay my eyes, and I saw a woman holding a knife in her hand, and she was coming up to me with a knife, and then she said, "Why?"
I was so surprised that I kicked a woman right before I shot her down, and the wall of bamboo was weak that she went through it and fell down, and suddenly I went to a pond with Yeongseok in it. Fortunately, no one else was there, Youngseok was snoring, and he woke Yeong-seok up and took him to his seat without answering, but he didn't know what was going on the driver.
The guide was surprised to see our skeleton, because we were both dressed and covered in dirt. He deserved it. We dressed up, we turned around and talked about what the driver said, what he went to a village in a car, and what happened there, and he said, open his eyes wide and get ready to leave quickly! There are still two more days left to go on the Pacage trip, and I can't forget what the guide said!
There's a tribe here called the Thist family. Because they don't call themselves thist family, they're only known by hearsay. If you go and see the Thist family as you say, the women must kill their first night's opponent, so there's no man in the tribe. If you want to live, you have to fly back to Korea quickly.' I think so.
The guide quickly replaced the hotel car and sent us to the airport, and we were able to fly back safely.
Isn't it funny? No matter how big China is and how many minorities there are, have you ever heard of a species that has to kill a man who played the first night?"
The old man finished the brandy in his glass and poured a new drink.
"Everyone in the area knows the story of the Thist family. He is famous for killing a man during the first night. By the way, do you know that? What happens if you don't kill your opponent the first night ···
The young man also drank up the brandy of his glass.
"What happens?"
The old man looked at the young man with curious eyes.
"I believe that if we don't kill the man who spent the first night, the whole tribe will suffer a terrible curse. If something happens that doesn't kill her and the man who spent the first night, she's living in great pain and contempt by all the tribesmen. All of the villagers must live with the treatment of less than slaves, less than dogs and pigs."
"How can you treat a person like that, not a few hundred years ago, but in a world like this ··· Hue"
The old man clicked his tongue as if he were sorry.
"It's not that there's no way. If a woman doesn't kill a man, her child will find him and kill him. It's the only way to honor her. Do you understand, Father?"
The young man's words startled the old man up his head.
In one hand of a young man was his old wallet, which he had lost in China a long time ago, and a large hunting knife in the other hand.