A Genius Speaks with Money

Chapter 49

After Choi Seo-jun left the office, I looked out the window and enjoyed the view of the darkened city.

"Jeong Yu-chan, Kim Jongseok, Choi Dong-ryeol, Baek Geon-yeol, and Lim Man-cheol."

It was like pieces in a giant game board.

Now, no matter how it turned, I belonged inside it.

I muttered quietly.

"Well, now shall we see who makes the first mistake."

***

Several days later, dinner time.

A luxury sedan stopped at an old Korean restaurant in northern Seoul.

This place was mainly visited by politicians and was thoroughly blocked from the outside.A peculiar point was that once inside, communication with the outside was also cut off.

The room had no windows and was soundproofed.

Vice President Choi Dong-ryeol cautiously opened the door to that secret space and entered.

He had met countless politicians until now, but this was his first time with someone of this caliber.

Of course, it was his first time here as well.

If not for Baek Geon-yeol's invitation, he could not have set foot in this place.

A person was already settled and sitting inside the room.

It was Baek Geon-yeol, the opposition party leader and a four-term veteran assemblyman whom even ordinary assemblymen could not easily approach.

Seeing Baek Geon-yeol, Choi Dong-ryeol felt his heart shrink as if overwhelmed by the momentum.

Even if his inner heart was like that, he did not show it outwardly and greeted him vigorously.

"It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Choi Dong-ryeol."

Baek Geon-yeol did not even look at the greeting Choi Dong-ryeol and said a word while putting down the teacup he was holding on the table.

"You are truly persistent. How did you butter up Baek Gi-mun to tell me to come or not."

At those words, Choi Dong-ryeol bowed his head and said in a low voice.

"I am sorry if you were displeased, Assemblyman. I just had something to tell you, so I had you take such a precious step."

"Vice President Choi. I do not know everything about what you guys did at Daehan Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. But why should I get involved in that matter."

It was not hot weather, but Choi Dong-ryeol continuously shed thick beads of sweat from his forehead.

"Assemblyman, about this National Audit. Assemblyman Jeong Yu-chan is trying to call former Center Leader Kim Jongseok as a witness. If that becomes a reality, our company will suffer a huge blow."

"So?"

"If it is an influence of your level, wouldn't persuasion be possible."

Baek Geon-yeol chuckled as if it were absurd.

"That Jeong Yu-chan, as you know, is a stubborn fool among stubborn fools. Would such a person listen just because I say so?"

Silence flowed for a moment.

Choi Dong-ryeol lowered his head further with both hands on his knees.

"...I beg of you. If this matter is only resolved well, I will repay the grace to you, Assemblyman."

Baek Geon-yeol still looked down at him with cold eyes.

His gaze was as stingy as if looking at a bug.

"So what kind of benefit can that opportunity give me? Do I have to take a risk and nag Jeong Yu-chan for the sake of you people?"

At Baek Geon-yeol's sharp question, Choi Dong-ryeol wiped the sweat flowing on his forehead with a handkerchief.

"I will match anything for you. Information, funds, connections... if there is anything you want."

"Words are easy."

Baek Geon-yeol snorted and placed a finger on the teacup.

He slowly rolled the cup back and forth and opened his mouth.

"You also have very slick words. Do you think I am meeting you because I lack such things right now?"

"No. Please do not misunderstand. It is absolutely not meant like that. We will just listen to anything within the limits of what we can do."

This time, Baek Geon-yeol lifted the cup and slowly put it to his mouth.

Putting down the teacup after only slightly wetting his lips, the wrinkles on his forehead deepened.

"Doing politics these days, you see. Money is quite funny."

At those words, Choi Dong-ryeol pricked up his ears.

Baek Geon-yeol continued his words as if talking to himself.

"For a National Assembly member, where money is used is all revealed. Nothing works without a receipt. But do only those kinds of things happen."

Baek Geon-yeol placed both hands on the table and clasped them.

"There will be about two times left for me in the future. Among them, an opportunity will come to me once. But to do that, I need some money to do it. And a lot of it."

Assemblyman Baek looked directly into Vice President Choi Dong-ryeol's eyes for the first time.

"But would it be okay if that money is caught?"

"Absolutely not."

Assemblyman Baek raised his head slightly.

"I, you see. I need money that leaves no traces. Money that no one knows about."

What he wanted was clear.

It meant he blatantly needed political funds.

Choi Dong-ryeol swallowed dry saliva with his head bowed.

Before the sweat could cool, it started to flow down his neck again.

'That guy is also no different from a thief.'

He mocked him plenty inside.

Although he complied with his mood outwardly, curses naturally came out in a part of his heart.

Baek Geon-yeol was speaking in a roundabout way, but in the end, it meant he needed money that would not get his hands dirty.

It was the inner thoughts of a sly snake.

But that thought was only for a moment.

Right now, he had to look good to that sly snake to survive.

Choi Dong-ryeol nodded diligently and catered to his whims.

"We will help as much as possible. If only you help us, Assemblyman, what could we not do. Please do not worry about anything."

Baek Geon-yeol looked at him silently, then chuckled and shook his head.

"People, you see, Vice President Choi. There is a way that if something comes, something goes. Is that not how the world works?"

"Yes, yes. Of course. Those are perfectly reasonable words."

Inside the room, the atmosphere loosened unlike at the beginning.

It was a signal that a secret deal between the two had been reached.

Choi Dong-ryeol headed back to the office after meeting Baek Geon-yeol.

He even lowered the blinds and spoke to the secretary.

"Tell the Strategy Planning Chief to come to my room."

After a moment, the Strategy Planning Chief entered the office.

"Did you call for me, Vice President."

Choi Dong-ryeol sat in the chair without a word and took out a file from the drawer.

He threw it with a flick.

"This is the draft for the equipment supply contract for the Middle East from last time. Adjust the unit price there and increase it by about 1 billion won. Make the funds as a lump sum advance payment."

The Planning Chief could not hide his flustered expression.

"Vice President, we already matched the unit price with the local company for this. To adjust it again..."

"Why are you talking so much! Just do it if I tell you to. Anyway, you never do things at once. And you will have to do this without the headquarters knowing. Refer to last year's data and adjust the fluctuation range well."

The Planning Chief answered reluctantly.

"...I understand."

He took the documents and walked out of the office.

Choi Dong-ryeol leaned his body on the sofa and looked at the ceiling.

'It is damn hard to make a living.'

He wondered if he had to do this kind of thing again, but he comforted himself saying it was an unavoidable choice for survival.

A few days later, money was pre-paid from the Middle Eastern equipment company that Daehan Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering had contracted with.

Some of it was uploaded as data as actual transaction details, but the rest was funneled into slush funds through a paper company.

All this work was carried out quietly and meticulously.

The money that came in under the name of an overseas corporation was quickly withdrawn somewhere without a trace.

A day after that.

The two people gathered again at the Korean restaurant they met at before.

This time too, a strange tension hung in the place where communication was cut off.

The one who arrived first was Vice President Choi Dong-ryeol.

He was sitting in the middle of the room holding a briefcase.

The bag was small, but inside, hundreds of millions of won in cash were packed layer by layer.

The door opened a little late and someone came inside.

Baek Geon-yeol sat down, welcoming Choi Dong-ryeol unlike before.

"Oho, you came early."

"Not at all, I cannot take up the time of a busy Assemblyman."

Choi Dong-ryeol gave an awkward smile and pushed a bag deep under the table.

Baek Geon-yeol gave a satisfied smile looking at the bag that slid under his feet.

"There won't be any chance of getting caught, right?"

"Do not worry about that. The account was processed to a place where not even a trace remains. It is money no one knows about, so you can use it comfortably."

"Is that so?"

Baek Geon-yeol nodded slowly.

His eyes still shone sharply.

"Your work processing is more certain than I thought. Let's meet often."

"Just leave it to me, Assemblyman."

For the first time, Baek Geon-yeol poured a drink for the Vice President.

The two men lightly drank after clinking glasses.

"Do not worry about Assemblyman Jeong Yu-chan. I will try to talk to him well. Well, then we won't be able to see Kim Jongseok at the National Audit either."

At Assemblyman Baek Geon-yeol's words, Choi Dong-ryeol let out a sigh of relief as if his mind were finally at ease.

"Thank you, Assemblyman. It is truly a great grace."

"Grace.... Yes, since you have received a truly great grace, be sure to remember it."

"I will keep it in mind."

Baek Geon-yeol lightly touched the bag placed under his feet.

He was clearly pleased with the heavy weight, as it showed on his face.

The moment the last glasses of the secret deal clinked.

In the room next to it, a man with a fierce gaze was working on something.

A man with a high-performance transmitter plugged into his ear was continuously entering something on a laptop.

There was not even a hint of surprise or tension on his expression.

Rather, he calmly did the work he had to do.

The conversation shared in the next room flowed into the transmitter using a small gap in the vent.

-... Do not worry about Assemblyman Jeong Yu-chan. I will try to talk to him well.

-Kim Jongseok won't be able to come out to the National Audit room either.

The man's fingers did not stop.

All conversations were being encrypted and saved on the laptop in real-time.

The person secretly doing this work was HJ Partners' Information Analysis Chief, Jeong Jin-woo.

Baek Geon-yeol's voice was heard clearly in his ear.

Even the place where all communication was said to be cut off was useless to him.

Jeong Jin-woo's eyes shone coldly at the sound heard from the next room.

He closed the laptop he brought only after entering every last bit of the conversation.

Then he took the transmitter out of his ear.

Jeong Jin-woo stood up and quickly organized the equipment he had secretly inserted into the vent.

He processed it cleanly without leaving a single fingerprint or even a single strand of hair.

He did not leave a trace like a seasoned hunter.

Having collected all the equipment, he quietly closed the vent cover.

After attaching the wallpaper back as it was, everything was in its place as if nothing had happened.

A few minutes later, having left the restaurant leisurely while in disguise, he inserted his body into a narrow passage installed next to the underground parking lot exit.

Inside the dark and cramped space where even the emergency lights were turned off, a suffocating silence hung.

Jeong Jin-woo's movements as he escaped through there without hesitation like a person familiar with it were steady.

Soon after, Jeong Jin-woo's appearance as he escaped through the exit was revealed.

It was an alley without a single light.

Mounting a motorcycle hidden in a corner, he started the engine with his helmet pressed down deeply.

He rode leisurely out of the alley without looking back.

The motorcycle ran fast on the road and entered the Taeseong Hotel underground parking lot.

Heading toward a security area in a deep corner of the basement, he pressed the password with familiar hand movements.

After a moment, the door opened with a mechanical sound and he boarded the elevator.

Jeong Jin-woo entered inside with an expressionless face.

This was a private space used only by the Taeseong Group owner family, which general employees or guests could never know about.

When Jeong Jin-woo pressed the only button, the elevator moved.

The place he arrived at was a wide space decorated like a single suite on an entire floor.

As Jeong Jin-woo quietly entered inside, someone was waiting for him.

It was I, Lim Hyunjun, in a school uniform, and Assemblyman Jeong Yu-chan in a shabby suit.