novelraw Chapter 109 : I Bought That Future
Chapter 109 : I Bought That Future
Chapter 109: I Bought That Future
After midnight, after wrapping up everything at the Taebaek Mine, I climbed into the jeep.
Unlike when we arrived, all the miners had come out to see us off, bowing their heads toward us as we faded away into the pitch-black darkness.
“President, drive safe on the way back.”
Leaving behind Kim the Pit Boss’s rough farewell, I spoke to Yoon Ji-seong, who was holding the steering wheel.
“Let’s go to Seoul. As fast as possible.”
Everyone was exhausted from the forced march, but not a single person complained. The jeep began climbing back over the rugged mountain passes of Taebaek.
Amid the rattling vibrations, I closed my eyes. It was to review the results of the past few days and prepare for the war to come.
Through Choi Cheol-gyu, I had secured the hearts of the people on the ground, and I had placed the blade of sales firmly in Kim Jin-soo’s hands. I had obtained a sharp blade named Yoon Sang-hyeon, and by using the miners’ rage, I had toppled Ma Dong-cheol’s kingdom.
Loyalty bought with money could never surpass trust forged through blood. I had let them sever the chain of rage with their own hands.
With the provincial matters finished, my gaze naturally turned back to Seoul.
‘Yoon Sang-hyeon will take care of cleaning up Daejin Cement’s insides.’
I had opened the floodgates, so that ambitious man would surely move swiftly.
‘Dan Tae-geon.’
By now, he would know that I had taken Daejin Cement into my hands. He might even be delighted, thinking I had swallowed a poisoned chalice. He was that simple-minded.
‘The problem is Jeong Tae-soo. It’d be reckless for him to move directly right now.’
With the power structure being reorganized, he couldn’t act rashly. If so, what stood directly in my way was……
‘Yang Sobo’s gathering.’
I faintly curled the corner of my lips. The old tiger’s empire was collapsing.
The old hyenas that had gathered to seize the vacant seat—how they would look at me, a young wolf who had suddenly appeared, was obvious without saying.
‘Go on. Try it.’
I would devour all of them and become the apex predator.
Loaded with countless thoughts, the jeep cut through the darkness and drove on for a long time.
The jeep that had run all night finally arrived in Seoul close to lunchtime. After having the car stop in front of Daejin Cement’s head office, I gave Yoon Ji-seong instructions.
“Deliver the ledgers we brought from the Taebaek Mine directly to Director Yoon Sang-hyeon, and tell him what happened at the factory and the mine.”
“Understood, President.”
Yoon Ji-seong gathered the briefcase and the bag containing the gold bars.
“Executive Director, please go home and get some proper rest. I’ll see you at the morning meeting tomorrow.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Exhausted from the forced march, Choi Cheol-gyu bowed and disappeared. I entered Daejin Cement’s head office together with Yoon Ji-seong.
“I’ll be in the president’s office.”
Leaving Yoon Ji-seong on the first floor, I headed straight for the president’s office on the fourth floor. When I opened the door, thick cigarette smoke and the smell of old documents greeted me.
Cheon Sang-do, buried under a vast pile of financial statements and ledgers, was flicking the beads of an abacus with bloodshot eyes.
Several men were slumped asleep against the sofa beside him. The moment Cheon Sang-do spotted me, he forgot his exhaustion and welcomed me in a lively voice.
“Well I’ll be damned, President Baek! You finally made it!”
“You should’ve taken some rest while doing this.”
“How could I, lookin’ at this mess? Take a look here! I’ve been diggin’ up a gold mine! This damn company—looks fine on the outside, but inside it’s pure rags. Rags, I tell ya!”
Cheon Sang-do began pouring out his discoveries in an excited voice.
“President Baek. I’ve been diggin’ through these books day and night for days, and this ain’t just ordinary rot. Here—there are traces of payments made for years to ghost material suppliers that don’t even exist. Just the amounts alone go into the tens of millions of won. Textbook window dressing.”
He opened another ledger and continued.
“This one’s even more ridiculous. The replacement costs for equipment parts at the Samcheok factory were inflated to more than three times the actual price. The difference must’ve been split between factory manager types and those old bastards at head office. No wonder the factory couldn’t run properly.”
False entries in executives’ expense ledgers, fabricated entertainment expenses, traces of salaries siphoned off by registering ghost employees.
Everywhere his fingers pointed, the rotten innards of Daejin Cement were laid bare.
“At this level, it’s a miracle the company’s still standing.”
“Tell me about it. Looks fine on the outside, but it’s completely rotten through. Lee Jin-seong, that old geezer, stuffed only his own belly.”
“Have you checked everything?”
Clicking his tongue softly, Cheon Sang-do shook his head.
“Gonna need a few more days. This might just be the tip of the iceberg, or something bigger might come out—we won’t know till we dig deeper.”
Lighting a cigarette, he exhaled deeply.
“This company’s rotten. From the roots to the tips of the branches, properly rotten to the core. Can you handle it?”
“Haha, no need to worry so much. That’s exactly why it’s good.”
“What’s so good about that?”
“If we clean all of it up, then this company will be nothing more than a clean sheet of paper. After that, all we have to do is draw the picture we want on it, isn’t that right?”
Cheon Sang-do stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, muttering.
“Sometimes I look at you, President Baek, and you’re really somethin’ else. I just don’t see what’s so good about this.”
“Let’s go get lunch.”
“It’s already lunchtime? Then let’s go eat.”
Cheon Sang-do dusted himself off and stood up. I nodded toward the men sprawled across the sofa and asked,
“And them?”
“Leave ’em be. Back in my day, I could go three days and nights without sleep and still be fine. Kids these days are soft as hell.”
I laughed without realizing it. I hadn’t expected to hear a ‘back in my day’ here.
“Let’s go, then. I heard there’s a decent seolleongtang place up ahead. Have you been?”
“Course I have. The broth’s real rich. C’mon, c’mon, let’s go.”
We left the Daejin Cement building and headed onto Taepyeong-ro. At noon, Taepyeong-ro was full of vitality. With Seoul City Hall close by, the atmosphere was different from other areas depressed by the currency reform.
The seolleongtang shop Cheon Sang-do led me to was shabby, but the moment we stepped inside, it was packed to the brim with hot steam, savory aromas, and noisy crowds, leaving barely any room to stand.
“Auntie! Two here!”
As Cheon Sang-do called out familiarly, a curt reply came from the kitchen.
“No seats, so share over there!”
We were guided to an old shared table by the window.
Already seated at the table were three men in suits who looked like city hall employees, chatting animatedly with steaming soup bowls in front of them.
“Did you hear? The Economic Planning Board’s announcing something again.”
“With public sentiment in shambles over this currency reform, they’ve gotta put something out.”
Listening closely to their conversation, I poured kkakdugi juice into the freshly served earthenware bowl and added a generous amount of green onions.
The savory scent rising from the milky broth seemed to wash away the fatigue of the forced march.
Even as Cheon Sang-do hurriedly shoved spoonfuls of soup into his mouth, he didn’t forget to scan the surroundings.
“Over there are newspaper reporters, and over there are bank folks. This place is a real gathering spot for information brokers.”
Just as he said, this wasn’t just a simple restaurant. It was an invisible crossroads where Seoul’s power and information converged.
The conversation of the city hall employees at the next table grew deeper. They lowered their voices as if wary of their surroundings, yet amid the noisy restaurant, their words struck my ears with strange clarity.
“So did you hear about Ulsan? That oil refinery construction—stalled again over funding issues.”
“Figured as much. It was too ambitious a project from the start. Where’s the country supposed to get the money for such a massive industrial complex…….”
“I heard it’s the same with the Chuncheon Dam. Construction started, but they don’t even have money to pay the workers’ wages, so everything’s frozen solid.”
The conversation among the newspaper reporters at the opposite table wasn’t much different.
“In the end, they’ll have no choice but to bring in private capital, but in a recession like this, what company would jump into such a risky gamble?”
Listening to their worried talk, I smiled faintly.
I was seeing what they couldn’t. A massive opportunity blooming in the midst of crisis. I spoke quietly to Cheon Sang-do across from me.
“Did you hear that?”
“Hear what? Those fellas’ complaints?”
“The government has no money, and the banks have tightly shut their purse strings. But companies have to secure projects and keep their factories running to survive.”
I crunched down on a piece of kkakdugi with an audible snap and continued.
“The companies handling those projects are having their blood dry up right now. They don’t have money to use tomorrow, and the banks won’t lend them a single won. So where do you think they’ll flock to get that money?”
At my question, Cheon Sang-do’s eyes—buried deep in his soup bowl—began to gleam like a beast of prey.
“The private loan market.”
“There’s not much time left. Prepare in advance.”
As if realizing his role, Cheon Sang-do wore a greasy smile. I smiled along with him and finished my bowl of seolleongtang.
After the meal, Cheon Sang-do and I left the restaurant. Picking his teeth with a toothpick, he asked,
“Headin’ back to Daejin Cement?”
“No. I have other business today. There’ll be a morning meeting tomorrow, so please keep working a bit longer.”
“Got it. Then see you later, President Baek.”
After parting with Cheon Sang-do, I moved on.
My destination was Yang Sobo’s house. When the office door opened, the familiar scent of tea and the deep gaze of the old tiger greeted me.
Yang Sobo was seated, holding a teacup, his eyes fixed on me as I entered.
“You’re here.”
His hand gestured to the seat across from him. When I sat as indicated, an empty teacup was offered to me.
Soon, he lifted the teapot and filled the cup. His hand was steady, without the slightest tremor.
“I’ve heard that you acquired Daejin Cement. A very bold decision.”
There was a subtle tone in his words—neither clearly praise nor criticism.
“What do you intend to do while carrying that rotting corpse? You even took on a company that’s become a government target, along with its massive debts. If you needed Daejin Cement, you could’ve waited until the government took it, cleared the debts, and then joined the bidding.”
Yang Sobo’s words were orthodox. In my previous life, Daejin Cement’s ownership had changed exactly that way.
“With that method, I wouldn’t be able to put Daejin Cement in my hands. That’s why I moved first.”
“I know Chairman Lee Jin-seong well. He’s not the type to give up what’s his easily. He must’ve handed it over to you because he truly couldn’t hold on any longer. The acquisition price?”
“I paid two million won.”
“Two million won…… That must’ve been humiliating for Lee Jin-seong. It’s a shame I couldn’t see that old man’s twisted face.”
Yang Sobo looked quite pleased as he said it. Truly, a man with a nasty personality.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“You called it a rotting corpse, but it looks different to my eyes.”
I lifted the teacup and savored the aroma. The fragrant scent tickled my nose.
“To me, it looks like a giant that’s fallen ill and gone to sleep for a while. If we carve away the rotten flesh and transfuse new blood, it’ll awaken far stronger than before.”
Though Daejin Cement currently reeked of decay, once it passed through my hands, it would give off a good scent—just like this tea.
“For now, everyone will point fingers and call it a poisoned chalice. But before long, the government will open roads and build dams to rebuild the country. When that time comes, Daejin Cement’s cement will turn into gold. I bought that future.”
At my answer, a faint smile appeared on Yang Sobo’s lips for the first time. He asked no further questions. Instead, he delivered a cold warning.
“Fine words. But hyenas don’t look at the future. They only eye the prey in your hands right now. At the gathering that will soon be held, they’ll try to tear at your throat instead of the old tiger they thought was dead. Can you handle that?”