novelraw Chapter 107 : Because Darkness Hid Many Things
Chapter 107 : Because Darkness Hid Many Things
Chapter 107: Because Darkness Hid Many Things
Yoon Ji-seong and Cheon Sang-do’s subordinates each carried a bag of money and placed them on the platform in front of the open lot.
“Executive Choi. Please bring a desk and two chairs.”
At my words, Executive Choi Cheol-gyu shouted at the young worker standing nearby.
“What are you doing! Hurry up and bring a desk and some chairs suitable for office use!”
Several employees moved busily. An impromptu wage payment counter was set up beneath the platform.
On top of it, the thick wage ledger that Cheon Sang-do had organized overnight was spread open. Everything flowed smoothly, without a hitch.
After watching that scene, I sent Choi Cheol-gyu a look. Receiving my signal, Choi Cheol-gyu climbed onto the platform and raised his voice.
“Everyone, listen up! From now on, line up according to your department and team order! Starting with the Engineering Department Machine Section, then Production Department Firing Section, and finally the Finishing and Packaging Section! Line up by team, and only those whose names are called are to step forward!”
At his shout, hundreds of laborers began moving in perfect unison.
The chaotic crowd from just moments ago was nowhere to be seen. Instead, like an army, they formed orderly ranks according to their affiliations.
With Choi Cheol-gyu, the central pillar, returning, it felt as though the factory’s halted order was coming back to life.
“Machine Section Team 1, Team Leader Kim Man-soo.”
As Yoon Ji-seong called out the first name written in the wage ledger, a middle-aged man who had been standing at the front hurried forward.
“I am Kim Man-soo.”
Click-clack, the cheerful sound of an abacus echoed, and Yoon Ji-seong placed a precisely calculated bundle of cash in front of him.
It was a stack of freshly printed 500-won bills.
“Three months of unpaid wages, a total of 27,000 won, has been confirmed. Today’s payment is one month’s worth, 9,000 won.”
Team Leader Kim accepted the money envelope with trembling hands. Without even counting the money, he firmly pressed his thumb onto the ledger, leaving his seal.
Then, clutching the envelope tightly inside his work clothes, he bowed deeply toward me. So deeply that his head nearly touched the ground.
“Thank you, President. Truly, thank you.”
The employees standing behind him murmured among themselves. It was wages that should have been paid as a matter of course, but to them, this sight must have seemed nothing short of a miracle.
Unlike the previous executives who had only spoken of paying the overdue wages, I was actually handing over the money.
“Next! Engineering Department Electrical Section Team 2, Team Leader Lee Cheol-yong!”
“Production Department Raw Materials Section, Group A Team 3, Park Dae-ho!”
Each time a name was called, the laborers stepped forward, received their share, and bowed deeply in overwhelming emotion. I watched the scene in silence.
Hope spreading across the faces of those who had been starving. The power of money was this direct and this strong.
After watching the wage payments continue for quite some time, I turned my head toward Factory Manager Jeong Dong-jin, who was standing beside me, fidgeting uneasily.
“Factory Manager.”
“Yes, yes! President.”
“Guide me. I would like to look around the inside of the factory.”
Following behind Jeong Dong-jin, I entered the gray factory building. The vast interior was silent, like a ghost town.
The massive kiln that had come to a halt looked desolate, like the corpse of a dead giant, and cement bags that had lost their owner lay scattered on the conveyor belt, covered in dust.
“How is the condition of the equipment?”
I asked as I ran my hand over the surface of the halted crusher. Thick dust and grease stained my fingertips.
Seeing my fingers darken in an instant, the factory manager hesitated.
“Well, that is…… recently, parts procurement hasn’t been smooth……”
“You certainly took the long way around just to say it’s broken.”
At my cold remark, Jeong Dong-jin’s face stiffened. After surveying the ruin-like scenery for a while, I headed toward the old factory manager’s office on the second floor.
This place was even worse. There wasn’t a single trace that any work had been done in the factory manager’s office. I brushed my finger across the desk thickly coated in dust and asked quietly.
“Does this look like the way a factory manager works?”
“Because the factory was shut down…….”
“I understand that. But at the very least, you should have thoroughly managed the equipment. Don’t make excuses that the workers didn’t do it. Even I wouldn’t work if the factory manager didn’t pay attention.”
When the person responsible for the factory trashed it first, the people below would naturally have given up hope as well.
“I hear you were a trusted confidant of the head office executives. So you must have believed it. That no matter whether the company went under or the factory stopped, your position alone would be safe.”
Perhaps Daejin Cement would have collapsed even without the regime’s pressure. There were simply too many parasites clinging to the massive fruit called Daejin Cement.
When I openly sneered as if making sure he heard, Jeong Dong-jin’s face flushed bright red.
“P-President! What do you mean by…….”
“Be quiet. Everyone who came out to greet me today, including you, is fired.”
“……What?”
“Did you not hear me? You are not managers, but nothing more than parasites sucking the company’s blood. There is no place for parasites in my company.”
“This is unfair, President! We were just……!”
“Enough.”
At my quiet but firm words, his final struggle came to a halt. I had momentarily forgotten that conversation was something you had with humans, not with insects.
“Shut up and pack your things immediately and leave. The head office has begun a large-scale internal audit into your corruption. They will comb through everything, even your personal asset statements, so stay quietly at home. Do not think of stepping even one foot outside Samcheok without my permission.”
At the words “internal audit,” Jeong Dong-jin’s face turned deathly pale. It was only natural, considering he knew exactly how much he had siphoned off.
As I passed by him, I whispered.
“If you try to run…… then you won’t be tasting the police station, but hell.”
Jeong Dong-jin stood frozen in place, unable to say a word. I wore a gentle smile and lightly patted his shoulder.
“Leave ‘my’ factory immediately. Unless you want to see something unpleasant.”
Jeong Dong-jin, his face drained of color, staggered out of the factory manager’s office.
A short while later, as if they had heard the news from him, the parasites who had been with Jeong Dong-jin came rushing toward me.
Jeong Dong-jin knew his own corruption all too well, so he kept his mouth shut, but these people were different.
“President! Where in the world is there a way to fire people like this?”
To not recognize their own wrongdoing and immediately reach for the law. I sneered and spoke.
“The law is good. Very well. We’ll do it by the law, so go home and wait. And from now on, in Daejin Cement, I am the law. Leave immediately. Before I call people to drag you out.”
Some people who still hadn’t come to their senses shouted in protest, but Jeong Dong-jin moved quickly.
“Let’s just leave.”
“Factory Manager.”
“Hurry!”
I could clearly see Jeong Dong-jin’s authority. People who had talked back to me without fail were immediately reacting to Jeong Dong-jin’s bark.
After they left, I looked down toward the open lot where wages were still being distributed. It seemed the payments were gradually coming to an end.
I checked the time on my wristwatch and let out a small sigh.
“It’ll be midnight by the time we reach the mine.”
My body was tired, but since I was already here, I intended to finish everything before leaving.
If I was to head back up to Seoul tomorrow and attend Yang Sobo’s nighttime gathering, I couldn’t afford to waste even a moment.
By the time all wage payments at the Samcheok factory were finished, the sun had already set and the surroundings were submerged in darkness.
Leaving behind the backs of laborers dispersing with hopeful faces, we climbed back into the jeep without even a moment’s rest.
“Let’s go straight to Taebaek.”
At my words, Executive Choi Cheol-gyu spoke with concern.
“President, it’s already night. Crossing that dangerous mountain pass at this hour is……”
“That’s exactly why we must go. Darkness hides many things.”
It took a full additional hour just to cross one mountain.
In the pitch-black darkness, only the jeep’s headlights precariously illuminated the winding mountain road.
At last, in the distance on the mountainside, the bizarre sight of the Taebaek Mine revealed itself.
Everything around it was drowned in deep darkness, yet the area surrounding the mine alone was lit up as bright as day by dozens of searchlights.
The jeep came to a stop in front of the mine entrance. As we stepped out, dozens of miners blocked our path, gripping their work tools in their hands. Not a single one of them put down their well-worn tools.
The man leading them, his face blackened with coal dust, stepped forward.
“I don’t know where you folks are from, but this ain’t a place for fancy gents like you. Don’t go stirrin’ up more trouble—just turn around and go back nice and quiet.”
The man spoke sharply, barely concealing hostility. Choi Cheol-gyu recognized him and stepped forward.
“Foreman Kim, it’s me, Choi Cheol-gyu. This here is the new president.”
Foreman Kim gave Choi Cheol-gyu a brief nod, but his guard did not drop.
“……Executive Choi. What brings you all the way out here.”
“The owner of the company has changed. And the owner of this mine has changed as well.”
“The owner of this mine is us! Not some fancy gents from Seoul!”
The distrust-filled shout, almost a scream, echoed thunderously through the mine. Choi Cheol-gyu, left speechless, only moved his lips.
Stopping him, I stepped forward.
“I know why you’re reacting like this. You have three months of unpaid wages, don’t you?”
“Now you’re mockin’ us outright? A kid who barely looks past twenty sayin’ he’s the new president? Bring Chairman Lee Jin-seong here! Where’d that man go!”
Foreman Kim glared at me with axe-like eyes. I could see the grip on his pickaxe tighten.
I sent a look to Yoon Ji-seong. He quickly took out one remaining money bag from the jeep and placed it on the ground.
“I can’t pay all three months at once. The account freeze hasn’t been lifted yet. Still, we need to put out the urgent fire, so I will pay one month’s wages today.”
The miners, including Foreman Kim, wavered, but Foreman Kim did not back down easily.
“We don’t trust fancy Seoul folks. Ain’t this just payin’ one month so you can work us again?”
“No. If the wage issue isn’t resolved, you don’t have to work again.”
Choi Cheol-gyu cut into the conversation.
“The president made a promise. That he’d pay all overdue wages as soon as possible and normalize the factory and the mine. So, Foreman Kim, for now, put that thing down and—”
“No. Since you’re already holdin’ tools, let’s settle what needs settlin’. Don’t bring me—bring out the site manager inside. If you’ve drawn the blade, you oughta cut somethin’, ain’t that right.”
Choi Cheol-gyu looked at me in panic. No—everyone except Yoon Ji-seong was looking at me.
“I know that Site Manager Ma Dong-cheol and the mine office staff acted arbitrarily without considering your situation. And that they siphoned off the wages that should have gone to you.”
Among those that needed to be dealt with this time, Site Manager Ma Dong-cheol and the mine office staff here were the worst of the lot.
Ma Dong-cheol was king here. He fattened himself by exploiting miners who risked their lives working inside the shafts.
Did the head office not know? No. They knew and turned a blind eye. As long as the tribute came in properly, that was enough for them.
“Drag him out with your own hands. Today, you settle your resentment.”
My final words were the trigger.
Foreman Kim stood there for a long moment, unable to say anything.
He stared at me with eyes that couldn’t believe what he was hearing, then turned to look at the dozens of comrades who trusted and followed him. And in their eyes, he saw the same flames of anger burning as his own.
At last, Foreman Kim yanked his old pickaxe from the ground and raised it high toward the sky. His rough voice turned into the clang of steel as it split the stillness of the night.
“Did you all hear that?!”
At his shout, every miner’s gaze focused on him.
“While them bastards sucked our blood, we risked our lives in pitch-black shafts, and our families went hungry! And now they come here, not takin’ responsibility, treatin’ us like dogs and pigs!”
His voice grew louder, trembling with rage.
“Now’s the time we judge ‘em ourselves! Time to drag those sons of bitches out with our own hands and take back what’s ours!”
“Waaaaaah!”
Foreman Kim’s incitement was a spark thrown into a powder keg. The miners’ long-suppressed fury exploded all at once.
“Kill them!”
“Give me my money, you sons of bitches!”
Dozens of miners gripped their work tools like weapons. Dirt-stained pickaxes, shovels, and heavy steel pipes gleamed ominously under the searchlights.
The sound of dozens of safety boots pounding the ground was like the drums of an advancing army.
The miners who had been waiting inside began to join those guarding the entrance.
Listening to that enormous roar and the earth-shaking footsteps, I silently watched the scene. Beside me, Executive Choi Cheol-gyu was aghast.
“President. Is this really okay?”
I answered him with a deep smile.