novelraw Chapter 102 : The Chairman Fell Behind, and I Was Just Beginning
Chapter 102 : The Chairman Fell Behind, and I Was Just Beginning
Chapter 102: The Chairman Fell Behind, and I Was Just Beginning
From what I heard from President Cheon, he had intended to hand over the company as long as someone took on the debts and fines.
But weren’t people truly treacherous creatures. When faced with a situation where one had to give up a company they had devoted their entire life to without receiving even a single won, their thoughts were bound to change.
The sum of 2 million won must have been the final confirmation shot that trampled on his pride.
I refilled the empty glass and drank slowly as I waited for his answer. I did not rush him. Time was perfectly on my side.
Only suffocating silence flowed through the room. Chairman Lee Jin-seong’s gaze moved back and forth between the bundle of cash in the bag, my face, and empty space.
His tightly shut lips trembled. In the eyes of the old man who had once dominated South Korea’s business world, regret soaked with moisture, anger, and deep resignation flashed past.
In his mind, the past must have been flickering by like a revolving lantern.
During the Japanese colonial period, a young man of twenty who had started as a small shop clerk at a fabric store, working day and night until he opened a shop of his own.
After liberation, a middle-aged businessman who poured all his assets into the cement business, dreaming of rebuilding the ruined nation.
The overwhelming emotion of lighting the first German-made kiln in the country, sweating alongside workers on the barren land of Samcheok.
All of that was contained in the name Daejin Trading Company. The company was his life itself.
And now, he had to sell all of it for the price of a single house tossed to him by a twenty-something greenhorn.
“……Just who are you, exactly.”
After a long while, he finally spoke. His voice was far more subdued than before.
“President Cheon couldn’t have sent you. That bastard doesn’t have the caliber to set up a board like this.”
He was still trying to grasp the situation. He was desperately attempting to identify the invisible hand that had designed this entire game.
“Who I am is not important, Chairman. What matters is the fact that the person sitting in front of you right now is the only one who can acquire Daejin Trading Company.”
“The only one, huh……. Heh.”
He let out a hollow laugh.
“And where does that confidence come from? Money? I’ve had more money than I could ever spend.”
“It’s not money. What I have is not money, but the eye to read the flow of the times. Chairman, you had too much, and you stayed at the top for far too long. That is why you failed to see the times changing.”
I paused briefly, then refilled my glass again as I continued. The clear sound, unfitting for the situation, echoed through the room.
“The street merchants already know it. That the world has changed. Now, those who carry guns are making the new rules. Chairman, your connections and credit have become nothing more than scraps of paper. That is the reality.”
At my cold words, Chairman Lee Jin-seong’s face twisted, but I continued without concern.
“Even today, look at me. I am the same age you were when you first opened your shop. Yet you are looking down on me because of my age.”
Had those words struck him hard? His expression warped even further.
“I am someone who has nothing, just like when you first started. That means I have nothing to lose. The risk of acquiring a company marked by the government? I am not afraid of that. On the contrary, I know that opportunity is hidden within such risks. That is the only difference between you and me. You have fallen behind, and I am just beginning.”
He could no longer refute me. He must have known as well that my words were a bone-crushing truth.
After a long stretch of time passed, his shoulders rose like a massive mountain range, then collapsed in an instant. A cracked voice barely flowed out from his dry lips.
“……Very well. I will do as you say. I will hand over everything of Daejin Trading Company to you.”
He stroked the crisp bills laid out in front of him for a long time.
“Daejin Trading Company is yours now. However…… I have one last request.”
He did not beg for more money. Instead, with the last remaining pride of a chairman, he pleaded.
“There are employees who trusted me and devoted their entire lives to the factory. Among them are many old men who founded the company together with me. I haven’t been able to pay their wages for three months now. They…… their families, what crime have they committed. At least their wages, please…….”
He could not finish his sentence and bit down on his lip. I answered without even a moment’s hesitation.
“Do not worry. The moment I complete the acquisition, I will settle the three months of unpaid wages first.”
“…….”
“We will need them to get the factory running again. This, too, is part of my business.”
From the beginning, the reason I wanted to acquire Daejin Trading Company was because of the skilled technicians and employees inside it.
Starting from nothing and taking over a company that was already on track were different from the very starting line.
At my confident words, a faint glimmer passed through his once-empty eyes. I did not miss that opening and took out the documents I had prepared in advance from my chest.
“Daejin Trading Company will not disappear. I will rebuild it. Now then, please sign here.”
It was a perfectly prepared contract for the transfer of shares and management rights of Daejin Trading Company. I pushed the contract and the fountain pen toward him.
Chairman Lee Jin-seong stared blankly at that piece of paper containing his entire life.
His gaze lingered for a long time on the words Daejin Trading Company. Beside that name, instead of his own, another person’s name would now be written.
Soon, with trembling hands, he picked up the fountain pen.
In the brief moment he opened the cap, his hand hesitated several times in midair, as if an invisible weight were pressing down on it.
But in the end, he brought the pen tip down to the paper.
Scratch, scratch.
Only the sound of the pen scraping across the paper cut through the silence.
As he wrote down his own name, a single drop of hot tears fell onto the back of his hand, spreading a dark ink stain.
Finally, after pressing his thumb into the ink pad, Lee Jin-seong left a red mark beside his name.
The four-story Daejin Trading Company headquarters building on Taepyeong-ro was quiet, like the eye of an invisible storm.
But beneath that calm, tiny cracks had begun to form.
From the moment the rumor that the company had found a new owner began to spread secretly among the executives last night, by morning it had flooded through the entire workforce like a river bursting its banks.
The curtains of the president’s office window on the top floor were drawn tightly shut. Chairman Lee Jin-seong did not come to work.
Guarding his empty seat were the founding contributors who had built the company together with him for decades.
On their faces lingered the fatigue of a sleepless night, along with deep betrayal and anxiety.
Director Choi, who had been there since the early days of the company’s founding, asked in a trembling voice.
“Executive Director, is it really…… really true that the Chairman handed everything over?”
“……Yes. He personally stamped it last night.”
“How could he…… how could he hand over a company he devoted his entire life to…….”
There was no expectation or curiosity about the new owner in their conversation.
There was only the grief of retainers who had lost the king they served, and deep anxiety over the unknown future that was about to arrive.
“Last night, the Chairman contacted us himself. He said the new owner of Daejin Trading Company would be visiting today, so we are to receive him without any issues.”
To them, the new owner was not a savior who would save the company, but merely an invader who had seized the empire they had devoted their lives to.
One floor below the fourth floor where the executives were gathered.
While department heads and assistant managers whispered nervously, Manager Choi of Production and Manager Yoon of Management stood by the stairway window, doing nothing but burning cigarettes.
“Do you really think it’s true?”
Manager Choi asked as he let out a long stream of smoke. Half expectation and half anxiety were mixed on his face.
“I don’t know. But the atmosphere hasn’t been normal since last night. There are rumors everywhere that Cheon Sang-do’s side moved. But if it’s true…… it might become an opportunity for us.”
At Manager Yoon’s cautious answer, Manager Choi’s eyes lit up. They were not founding contributors of Chairman Lee Jin-seong. They were field operatives who had clawed their way up from the bottom through sheer ability.
Above them, there had always existed a solid wall called ‘the Chairman’s people.’
“New wine goes into new bottles. If a new president comes in, won’t he start by clearing out the old executives? When that time comes…….”
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. We don’t even know what kind of person this so-called new president is. He could be an even worse tyrant.”
Manager Yoon did not let down his guard, but his eyes were wavering as well.
A new wind blowing into an organization where stagnant, rotten water had pooled. It was a risk, but to those who had been suppressed, it was clearly an opportunity.
On the floor below that, the atmosphere among employees at the assistant level and below was even more desperate.
“Is it true our company got sold?”
A newly hired female employee from the Accounting Department asked tearfully. Assistant Manager Kim from General Affairs glanced around and tried to stop her.
“Shh, keep it down. What if they hear you upstairs. Sold, my foot. Do you know what kind of man the Chairman is? It’s all just groundless rumors.”
But there was no strength in his voice. He knew as well how precarious the company’s situation was.
“If a new president comes, won’t we all get laid off? They say mergers and acquisitions always start with restructuring…….”
“Don’t worry. There’s no way they’d fire all of us.”
“But what about the unpaid wages? What happens to that if the president changes?”
Senior Staff Lee from Accounting spoke while anxiously biting his nails. At his words, all the surrounding employees swallowed hard.
Three months of unpaid wages. To them, who were immediately worried about how they would survive tomorrow, who the new owner was did not matter.
Whether he was a savior or a devil, as long as he could resolve the unpaid wages, anything was fine. Assistant Manager Kim lowered his voice and whispered.
“I actually think this might be a good thing. I hope this chance cleans out all that rotten water stuck at the top. Isn’t it all those people’s fault the company ended up like this?”
Thus, a day at Daejin Trading Company was beginning.
On the top floor was the grief of having lost a king, on the middle floors was uneasy anticipation, and at the very bottom was desperate struggle for survival, all mixed together as they waited for the massive storm the new owner would bring.
At the same time, while Daejin Trading Company was waiting for its new owner on the eve of the storm. Yang Sobo’s office.
After Baek Min-woo left, he did not step out of his office for several days. His entire routine consisted of either looking out the window or staring blankly at a tiny point on the globe.
The calm like still water was broken by Zhang Wei. He stood before Yang Sobo holding an urgent report that had just come in.
“Sir, I have something to report.”
Yang Sobo turned only his gaze toward him without answering.
“Baek Min-woo…… has acquired Daejin Trading Company.”
A faint question surfaced on Yang Sobo’s previously unmoving expression. He twitched one eyebrow and asked.
“Daejin Trading Company? Are you sure you didn’t mishear? You mean that government-marked time bomb?”
“That is correct.”
Yang Sobo remained silent for a while. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning.
That twenty-year-old greenhorn actually swallowing what everyone had shunned as a poisoned chalice.
“You’re saying that child really swallowed Daejin Trading Company.”
“Yes, sir. He met Chairman Lee Jin-seong privately last night and completed the transfer contract.”
Zhang Wei’s voice was calm, but even he could not completely hide his surprise. A hollow laugh burst from Yang Sobo’s mouth.
“Heh……. So he looked at the person rather than the company. Is it confidence that if he cuts away the rotten head, he can make the body his own as much as he wants?”
He stood up from his seat and slowly paced around the office. His mind was filled entirely with Baek Min-woo’s moves.
“He asked me for a trading firm, an intelligence network, and a money-exchange organization…… and instead of waiting for that, he went and got a cement factory on his own?”
His steps stopped. A strange light surfaced in Yang Sobo’s deeply sunken eyes.
“The meeting in two days will proceed as scheduled. And call Baek Min-woo as well.”
“Yes? But sir, there will be strong internal opposition.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll see for ourselves what kind of vessel that child is. I also want to see it once. How that child responds when facing worn-out, outdated men.”
A faint smile formed at the corner of Yang Sobo’s mouth.