Chapter 105

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“So, the sale is progressing smoothly?”

“Yes. Following President Jeong’s instructions, they’ve begun the sale process as quickly as possible. Several European companies, primarily from the EU, have also joined the project.”

Uncomfortable murmurs rippled through the room.

This was practically robbery disguised as a sale.

“The price?”

“They’re aiming for the highest price in the industry. Fortunately, the EU side doesn’t seem to object to that.”

“Right. The BDI index is going through the roof, isn’t it? If those vultures trying to take over our company also tried to lowball us, we’d have to fight tooth and nail.”

Even so, it left a bitter taste.

No—it was infuriating.

This must be what it feels like to get robbed right in front of your eyes.

“Vice President.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“What’s President Jeong doing now? He must be devastated. He tells me he’s fine, but honestly, how could anyone be fine with this?”

“Yes. I was worried about that too, but… he’s actually doing better than expected.”

“Hm?”

“I asked some employees who work closely with him, and they said he’s never once seemed troubled or irritated by the situation.”

The executives let out murmurs of admiration.

“President Jeong’s mental fortitude is really something…”

“The fact that he’s the most upset but doesn’t show it externally—that’s what true leadership looks like, isn’t it? Haha.”

But Chairman Hwang had a different thought.

“Jin-ho really isn’t reacting at all?”

“No. He’s working just as usual.”

For some reason, that sent a chill down Chairman Hwang’s spine.

Jin-ho was an honest guy. He knew that from years of gaming together.

Games were the best window into a person’s emotions, after all. Jin-ho knew how to get angry when he was angry.

So what did it mean that he wasn’t reacting at all?

It meant he had no reason to be angry.

In fact, Chairman Hwang almost got the impression that Jin-ho was smiling about it.

“What’s President Jeong focused on right now?”

“Recently, he’s shown interest in Hong Kong. But his main focus right now is the UK. As you know, a significant amount of money went into pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca.”

“Right, that. I’ve been curious about that. I didn’t want to pry into an area I know nothing about and risk getting in the way, so I just kept my distance.”

The executives were equally curious about this.

British companies were on sale right now.

But Jeong Jin-ho had ignored everything else and poured money exclusively into pharmaceutical firms.

Some were even saying that Jeong Jin-ho had deliberately crashed the British economy just to acquire those massive pharmaceutical companies.

“I’ll be honest—I don’t fully understand President Jeong’s intentions either. But he’s deployed all the personnel from the recently merged companies into vaccine development. More precisely, he’s developing technology that can produce vaccines as quickly as possible… I’m not well-versed in this field myself.”

“Is that so?”

All this time, Jeong Jin-ho had crushed anything that crossed him—whether it was a conglomerate or a nation. So when he heard about the forced corporate breakup, Chairman Hwang had been worried.

How would Jeong Jin-ho retaliate against the EU this time?

But there was no retaliatory action at all. Instead, he was investing in pharmaceuticals, building a massive pharmaceutical production line.

If he were openly preparing something against the EU, that would be one thing.

This was far more unsettling.

Jeong Jin-ho was definitely preparing something.

The problem was that no one could get a read on what it was.

But one thing was certain.

Jeong Jin-ho was sharpening his blade.

* * *

Clack!

A crisp sound echoed through the living room.

“Ohhh! He’s going! He’s going!!”

Mom and Dad, watching TV together, were screaming with excitement.

[Left field wall!! It’s going over!! Home run!!]

“That’s right-!!”

Our family never really watched sports.

Even baseball—the nation’s biggest passion—wasn’t our thing.

But ever since Gwangwoon Prime came along, they’d followed every game from the start of the season, and now here they were.

[Gwangwoon wins again today! What an incredible momentum! That’s 17 straight wins, and they’re charging toward a new record for consecutive victories!]

“Mmm—this is why I watch baseball, huh? Hey, Jin-ho. You really bought a good team. Where’d you find such talented guys?”

When Gwangwoon Prime first launched, there had been plenty of criticism.

The roster was the main issue.

They were all cost-effective players—guys who hadn’t even been drafted elsewhere.

Fans had even called Gwangwoon Prime the “trash bin.”

But against all expectations, Gwangwoon Prime was now sitting alone in first place.

The momentum was truly terrifying.

“Your old man has never once asked to go to a baseball game, but last time I nagged him so much he took me, and I came back with a uniform! Can you believe it?”

“Heh heh. It was more fun cheering with the people there. Next time, you should come with us, Jin-ho.”

“Sure. I’ll find a chance sometime.”

But I had to apologize to our Gwangwoon Prime—I still hadn’t watched a single full game of our team. I just caught bits of news here and there.

The guy who aggressively acquired the team in the first place doesn’t even watch baseball.

Even I thought that was weird.

“……”

But what caught my attention was my younger sister, who hadn’t been watching the game at all and had been staring blankly at her phone with a troubled expression for a while now.

“Something wrong?”

“Huh? Ah, no. Nothing.”

I knew my sister better than anyone. She definitely had something on her mind.

Sure enough, once our parents left the room, she called me over urgently.

“Oppa. I need advice.”

“Sure. You looked like something was bothering you. What is it?”

“So… remember how I said I was seeing someone?”

“Ah, wait. I’m kind of bad at relationship advice.”

“Just listen. It’s not that.”

I listened to what she had to say.

“So… the guy you’re seeing is from the Kangsung Group family?”

And that was more interesting than I expected.

“Yeah. I had no idea at all. Usually, chaebol families are flashy and throw money around, but he never showed any of that. Then as things got more serious between us, he confessed.”

“Why didn’t he say so earlier?”

“He said he didn’t want me to have preconceptions… I don’t know. Remember how I told you before? The Kangsung Group tried to set you up with someone from their family.”

That wasn’t even a secret. Chairman Kang Seong-ho had been pretty transparent about trying to arrange something.

“But since you showed zero interest, I’m wondering if they targeted me instead.”

That made sense.

“So you’re saying he might not genuinely like you?”

“Yeah. He’s really great when we’re together, but after hearing that, I felt a little…”

My sister’s suspicions were completely understandable.

An idea suddenly struck me.

“Got any photos of you two together?”

“Huh? Ah, yeah. Here.”

A good-looking guy smiling with my sister in the photo.

I reached out and touched the image, just in case.

“……!”

The two of them, sharing happy smiles, flashed before my eyes. And with that image came a warmth that felt genuinely nice.

“Just keep seeing him.”

“Huh? Really?”

“You actually like him, don’t you? And you’ve been overthinking it because of me.”

“Well… I guess.”

“I’m fine with it. If you two are happy, keep going. He doesn’t seem like the type to make you cry.”

“Wait. How would you know that? Can you tell just by looking at his face?”

“Hmm~. Just a good feeling.”

My sister burst out laughing.

She still seemed to like the guy, and her troubled expression faded quickly.

“Alright. I’ll give it a shot.”

“Yeah. If anything bothers you, tell me. I’ll go straight to Chairman Kang Seong-ho and file a formal complaint.”

“Gasp. T-that’s a bit much…”

I was half-joking, half-serious.

But if that guy in the photo really made my sister cry, I would absolutely pay him a visit.

“Oh my. What are they saying?”

“Oh dear. Isn’t that too much?”

Our parents had returned to the living room and were exclaiming at the TV screen.

“What is it?”

“Jin-ho, look at that. Isn’t it horrifying? In this day and age.”

I looked at the screen and froze.

It was the scene I had seen in my previous vision.

Military forces brutally crushing Hong Kong protesters.

* * *

“Sir, you were right. China really is deploying the military to suppress the protests by force. What’s shown on the news is sanitized for broadcast, but the reality on the ground is said to be brutal.”

China had been allowing “one country, two systems.”

They allowed it solely to peacefully absorb Taiwan.

“But now China has decided to change its stance. They realized that insisting on peace while delaying unification would become irreversible.”

And it started with Hong Kong.

With anti-China forces growing too numerous in Hong Kong, China began crushing them by force before they could gain more momentum.

The result was baton-wielding troops forcibly dispersing a million protesters.

“With this, China is sending a clear message. No more peace. This is undeniably aimed at Taiwan.”

“And one country, two systems is done too?”

“Yes. Since it’s been agreed upon, they’ll maintain it until 2047. But it’ll be one country, two systems in name only—communism in practice. They’ve already filled the Hong Kong government with pro-China forces.”

Until now, people believed that as Asia’s largest financial hub, China wouldn’t dare use force against Hong Kong.

But watching China bulldoze through Hong Kong, they finally realized.

Hong Kong’s democracy was over.

“That’s why PikPik and other SNS platforms are flooded with ‘Free Hong Kong’ posts. The movement is spreading massively in our country too.”

My intuition had foreseen this crisis.

The strange thing was, usually before something like this happened, my intuition would already have specific stocks picked out.

But this time, it recommended nothing.

Even though we all knew capital flight from this crisis would be severe.

If I’d shorted some stocks, I could’ve made a killing. But my intuition wasn’t sparking on anything.

“Sir, regarding investments…”

“For now, hold. Is there anything else?”

“Ah, yes. One more thing. The shock of Hong Kong effectively becoming communist has prompted major capital movements. Many wealthy individuals are deciding to emigrate. But moving that money to the US comes with significant taxes, so there’s really only one place the money can flow.”

“Singapore?”

“Yes. Here’s the report on that.”

But my intuition seemed to be looking elsewhere.

“……!”

My intuition, which had been dormant regarding Hong Kong to the point where I’d wondered if it was broken, suddenly exploded with excitement the moment I opened the Singapore report.

It was so overwhelming that I quickly shut the folder.

“Could you open an account in Singapore for me?”

* * *

The employees returned to the office after the meeting.

They all wore puzzled expressions.

“Strange, isn’t it?”

“Yes, definitely.”

“What is?”

“President Jeong. Whenever he predicts something like this, he always shorts the market or buys the relevant stocks in advance. And sure enough, this time too, China is crushing the Hong Kong protesters by force, just as he said.”

President Jeong Jin-ho only made shocking predictions.

The Hong Kong crisis was no exception.

Everyone had predicted China would bow down to preserve Hong Kong’s financial hub status. Jeong Jin-ho was the only one who predicted they’d stain Hong Kong with blood.

And if that was the case, he should have followed his usual pattern—buy the relevant stocks and profit. But this time, he didn’t.

“I thought that was strange too. President Jeong predicted this weeks before it happened, didn’t he?”

“Yes. Maybe he was too busy with the pharmaceutical companies and the Gwangwoon Shipping situation?”

“That can’t be. When has our president ever lost focus for even a moment? He’s probably seeing scenery that us little sparrows can’t even glimpse.”

For the employees, Jeong Jin-ho was practically a religion.

But just as we could never fully grasp the will of God from the start, the same applied to President Jeong’s intentions.

“Instead, he suddenly asked us to open a Singapore account.”

“Right. We’ve never invested there before. Why Singapore of all places…”

The employees were discussing this when—

“Ah! I got it!”

Manager Seo suddenly clapped his hands loudly, drawing everyone’s attention.

“What? What is it? What did you figure out?”

“Heh heh. You’re all still lacking. You still don’t understand the president’s deeper meaning?”

“……?”

“Remember what the president said? He wanted to make our country Asia’s largest financial hub.”

“Ah~ At the last company dinner? But honestly, is that possible? Our regulations are strict, and more importantly, there’s Singapore as an alternative.”

Singapore and Hong Kong were the top two financial hubs in Asia.

If Hong Kong fell, everyone would naturally move to Singapore.

“Right. The president knows that too. That’s why he opened the Singapore account.”

“……Huh?”

“How dense can you be? I’ve explained this much and you still don’t get it?”

The employees’ minds raced.

If Hong Kong fell, capital would flow to Singapore.

But… what if, just what if, Singapore also fell?

“Wait. You don’t mean making Korea Asia’s representative financial hub…”

“Exactly. If Singapore falls too, where will the money go? Japan? We already crushed them long ago. So there’s only one option left.”

“!?”

Only then did the employees finally grasp the blueprint Jeong Jin-ho had been envisioning.

“So this time, it’s Singapore…!?”

The words about making Korea Asia’s representative financial hub.

It wasn’t empty talk. He meant every word.