Chapter 42

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“So what you’re saying is. You’re not even acquiring tower ownership, not even presale rights, but spent a whopping 2 trillion won just to lease hotel space?”

Hearing that, I was so dumbfounded I stopped cutting my steak.

“Haven’t spent it yet. The group needs to support it. And it’s not simple leasing. It’s business rights to go straight to industry number 1.”

“Anyway, you’re not buying LK Tower, just leasing hotel space, and you’re burning 2 trillion won?”

“Pay 2 trillion won and there’s no need to pay rent. We can operate our Baekje Hotel in LK Tower forever. How can you buy LK Tower for 2 trillion won? Even current value alone exceeds 6 trillion won.”

“They say you’re giving away hotel profits to them?”

“Giving away! Just giving a portion, a portion!”

“After offering 2 trillion won too?”

Kang Mi-ra knows too.

That this is tremendous money-wasting.

“It solidifies industry number 1. Dad always said that. Be number 1 in whatever you do.”

“Wouldn’t Dad say to think once more about 2 trillion won?”

“No. So will you do it or not? Honestly, 2 trillion won is pocket change to Kangsung Electronics.”

Chairman Kang briefly sighed and moistened his lips with wine.

“Expensive pocket change. You think 2 trillion won is some neighborhood store name? And is this really because of industry number 1? Didn’t you just want to enter LK Tower?”

“Can’t say not at all. That’s why I said. Since LK Group is building such a tower, we should build something taller.”

“Right. Thanks to that, what happened to LK Group? Losing the tower to some securities firm nobody heard of and now having to give hotel business rights to us?”

Kang Mi-ra finally couldn’t hold back and got irritated.

“So will you do it or not? If we miss this opportunity, we can never catch up to LK Hotel.”

“Is group money yours?”

“I know. It’s oppa’s. But when did I ever covet group management? Did I ever oppose once when Dad said he’d unconditionally pass succession to eldest son oppa? You can do this much.”

“Always that sound when you’re at a disadvantage.”

But his younger sister’s words are right too.

When Father said he’d pass succession to the eldest son, Kang Mi-ra unconditionally agreed.

Before, she thought it was natural, but seeing LK Group get overturned by a prince’s rebellion, should she say this is fortunate too?

“2 trillion won is enough, right?”

“Ah. One more thing. LK Group bastards are somehow trying not to lose the tower, so they’re spreading money to political circles and pressuring. Solve that too.”

“We’re basically paying money and cutting for Gwangwoon Securities instead?”

“What can I do? We need those guys to get LK Tower.”

“Speak properly. We’re giving LK Tower to Gwangwoon Securities. We’re just borrowing hotel business rights.”

“Geez. You’re so picky. Just eat meat. It’ll get tough. Anyway, you’ll do it? Huh?”

His younger sister was grinning happily.

When LK Tower was under construction, how much did she whine beside me saying she’d have no wishes if she could do a hotel there?

She achieved that wish.

With a whopping 2 trillion won.

‘This way, only those Gwangwoon Securities bastards eat for free.’

Gwangwoon Securities.

Their name is heard frequently lately.

Even trying to eat LK Tower without spending a penny by using Kangsung Group.

“You can do it as quickly as possible, right?”

“Yeah. We have a new smartphone launch soon anyway, so no time to keep paying attention elsewhere. Need to finish quickly.”

“Phew. Just do this and I’ll never worry about hotels going forward. Promise~.”

They were utterly audacious bastards, but it seemed things would go their way in the end.

Currently Korea is noisy because of Kangsung Group that suddenly joined the battle over LK Tower.

But we were focusing on something else.

“Wow. They must really be crazy.”

“This actually passed?”

England’s EU exit.

Also known as Brexit.

After the prime minister announced it, they swiftly prepared a national referendum and counted the results.

By a narrow margin of 2%, Brexit ultimately passed.

Now England exits the EU.

This became official.

European countries evaluated this as follows.

A worldwide betrayal.

“How are the stocks we placed?”

“Yes. They’re shaking like crazy. Especially pound prices are dropping tremendously.”

Dropping means we’re making that much money.

We anticipated Brexit would burst and placed shorts on pounds and various stocks, just holding.

“Are they all collectively crazy? If they exit the EU, there’ll definitely be more losses than gains.”

“It means anxiety and antipathy toward immigrants grew that much. This terrorism must have been the direct hit.”

The reason British citizens dislike immigrants is that immigrants were freely taking jobs with very cheap labor costs.

But driving them all out definitely won’t create jobs.

Employment will decrease due to raised labor costs again, and conversely product prices will rise.

Moreover, even tax benefits enjoyed through EU trade will disappear, so England’s economy going forward was unpredictable.

“Department Head. Should we pull money now and try day trading?”

“But if we already recover all the money we spread, the profit rate is 30%?”

“Money is pulling out from Brexit shock, but couldn’t it bounce back immediately?”

30% from 1 trillion.

We earned 300 billion won from Brexit alone.

The scary part is this isn’t the end.

Pounds, banks, all English companies benefiting from the EU.

Nothing is normal now.

They’re all taking carpet bombing and just endlessly falling.

Of course, as staff said, it might bounce back.

“..”

I touched stocks on the list one by one.

No feeling comes at all.

Maybe pulling volume to day trade then re-entering would actually be a loss?

Then there was one method I could take.

“Let’s hold.”

In this turbulence, we just leisurely drink tea and wait for money to naturally push toward us.

“Wow. Kangsung Group is Kangsung Group. Articles criticizing our Gwangwoon Securities really all disappeared at once.”

For a while, articles criticizing Gwangwoon Securities filled all media.

LK Group entered public opinion manipulation.

But after dramatic agreement with CEO Kang Mi-ra, such articles all disappeared like a lie.

“Look at this even. Articles are coming out saying our Gwangwoon and Baekje Hotel achieved national prestige.”

Is this Kangsung Group’s power?

Kangsung Electronics, the core of Kangsung Group, has 70 trillion won in cash assets alone.

Combining all liquid assets exceeds 140 trillion won, Korea’s best conglomerate.

Also they’d long had deep roots in political circles, and media was always on the side of those with money.

“Pressure coming from political circles all disappeared too?”

“They were making a fuss saying they’d investigate through the Financial Supervisory Service or something, but everyone lowered their tails.”

“It means Kangsung Group’s words work better than LK Group’s.”

At this point, LK Group will have no more methods.

Bank loans were already blocked, and as soon as they heard Kangsung Group and Gwangwoon joined hands, news came that funds are also struggling to escape.

Everything went as intended.

Exactly according to Jeong Jin-ho’s intentions.

“Proposing to join hands with Baekje Hotel too. Presenting 2 trillion won as the selling price before that strict CEO Kang Mi-ra. How many hearts does he have?”

“I thought Department Head Jeong was going to flip the board then.”

“But actually accepting that impossible demand.”

When reading Jeong Jin-ho’s writing telling him to demand 2 trillion won from CEO Kang Mi-ra.

Honestly Hwang Dae-woon felt dizzy.

But what was his creed?

Once he decided to believe, even if getting backstabbed, he’d believe to the end.

And Jin-ho responded to that firm trust.

Handing over hotel business rights for a whopping 2 trillion won, Gwangwoon Securities could eat LK Tower without really spending a penny.

“Ah. Of course, we have to repay the debt LK Tower owes banks. That amount is about 700 billion.”

“Then deliver 1.1 trillion won to LK Group. With 900 billion, repay 700 billion debt. Then 200 billion remains?”

“Yes. Tremendous achievement. We ate LK Tower and money still remains.”

Still doesn’t make sense.

How can such things more magical than magic happen?

It’s been a series of miracles since the day I started working with Jin-ho.

“Rumor is circulating in financial circles. That our Gwangwoon Securities fleeced both LK and Kangsung.”

“No such articles in media?”

“Naturally. Writing such things would irritate Kangsung Group.”

But anyone working in this field knows.

That only Gwangwoon hit the jackpot.

“Well, Kangsung doesn’t get nothing. They completely pushed out LK Hotel.”

“Yes. That’s good for Kangsung Group too. Baekje Hotel was always pressed by LK Hotel. Even from this incident, LK got eliminated from duty-free shops, so no more competitor worries.”

A long and long, no. Not even that long.

Then tenacious?

No. This was almost one-sidedly beating down LK Group, so no struggle either.

Just won without particularly doing anything.

Jin-ho even brought those old elderly people in games to somehow clear raids, and he was doing it here too.

“But there’s a problem, President. We need to give incentive to Department Head Jeong Jin-ho, but this time how much to set.”

Just from investment earnings alone, hundreds of billions.

Currently betting on Brexit, earnings were coming from there too.

But the biggest achievement is LK Tower.

How should this be evaluated to give money?

“If trying to give just money, Jin-ho will dislike it. Because to give performance bonuses right now, we need to pull some from investment funds Jin-ho put in.”

Jin-ho extremely dislikes bet amounts decreasing.

“What about giving as shares?”

“Stock options?”

“Not stock options, just really splitting shares.”

Dividing shares.

Currently Gwangwoon Securities is unlisted.

Once dreaming of Gwangwoon Financial Group, they tried to list, but pressed by competitors, they had to shelve that dream briefly.

“Not bad to give a certain amount of performance bonus as shares. And I’m bothered Jin-ho keeps being department head. When meeting with Baekje Hotel too, saying department head made them look strangely.”

Meaning raise to executive level.

No one opposed raising Jeong Jin-ho, who recently joined the company, to executive level.

“Good. If it’s Department Head Jeong Jin-ho, no problem raising to executive.”

“Honestly no complaints even if we should serve him as our master.”

But even giving executive position, what seat fits exactly?

Becoming executive doesn’t mean he’ll keep staying in current Prime department doing investments.

“Is there space usable as offices at LK Tower?”

“Ah, yes. Baekje Hotel takes most. But there are places we can utilize. Are you planning to move the president’s office there? Certainly LK Tower side is much wider and better than here.”

“No. What would I do going there? Here’s enough for me. Rather not me but Jin-ho should go.”

“Then perhaps space just for Department Head Jeong Jin-ho.?”

“Yeah. Look into what space is like there. I’m planning to send Jin-ho’s department plus research team and all teams Jin-ho needs completely there.”

Since Jin-ho got LK Tower presale, he planned to let him comfortably commute from there, and take comfortable sleep anytime if wanting to sleep.

But one problem still remained.

“Executive.”

Then suddenly this thought came.

Director, division head, managing director, vice president, etc.

Even such positions now seem light for Jin-ho.

Something that can add more weight was needed.

“While doing it, should I make an affiliate?”

An investment company just for Jeong Jin-ho, by Jeong Jin-ho.

“No. I was really completely surprised. At that important meeting, oppa was sitting right next to the person who’s Gwangwoon Securities company president. How different he looked.”

My sister was repeating the same story all weekend.

The funny part is Mom and Dad are listening attentively and admiring like hearing new stories always.

“I definitely saw then. That Gwangwoon Securities president briefly consulted only with oppa about something, then suddenly called 2 trillion won? Then our CEO and executives were shocked and their faces turned bright red. Ooh. Still thrilling.”

“So? So what happened?”

“What happened. At first they made a fuss saying no, but eventually our CEO lowered her tail. Plus seeing executives who always pressured us unable to say anything before oppa felt oddly refreshing even for me.”

Yoon-ah was hyping me up as much as possible before sparkling-eyed parents.

Though it felt good receiving such recognition from my sister, that day I thought Yoon-ah looked really cool too.

Wearing flawless business attire and presenting without trembling before all those people looked different.

Being assigned presentations at such important places means receiving that much recognition.

I seemed to understand why she doesn’t listen when told to quit the company and live doing what she wants with oppa’s money and diligently attends.

She was building her career following her own goals.

Such a cool kid.

When did she grow up like this?

“Our son is already executive level?”

“Well. They give cars. Give drivers. Plus give tremendously lots of money. So he meets and has meetings with Kangsung Group people too.”

“Right. Our CEO is a person from no less than Kangsung Group, but I saw her flustered like that for the first time. Hehe.”

Feeling embarrassed riding an airplane receiving such praise for no reason.

But I felt good.

This is what it feels like being recognized by family.

“But what’s this?”

I pointed at a shopping bag placed on the chair.

“Hm? Ah~ This came from Kangsung Electronics this time. K7 model. Not officially sold yet. They distributed to employees by lottery first. But I was selected. So I brought it. I haven’t changed phones long. Oppa bought it last time. Ah. Since it turned out like this, how about oppa changing?”

I don’t play phone games or anything, so no particular inconvenience using it.

Hmm. Looking now, seems like time to send it off.

“Can I look once?”

“Yeah. Check it out.”

This is the model released this time.

Not officially sold yet, but they’re really hitting advertisements.

“How is it? Good, right?”

Definitely much lighter than the phone I use and better design.

Especially the touch feel.

Sizzle!

“Eek!”

I was startled by the intensely jumping spark and dropped the phone.

Once on the table edge.

Once big on the floor.

“..”

The phone gloriously died in battle like that.

“Even if you don’t like it, no need to break it.”

“No. Sorry. Didn’t mean to.”

“It’s okay. Got it as a prize anyway. But a bit regrettable. It came out really nice this time.”

“Want oppa to buy it if you need?”

“Forget it. How long has it been since changing phones?”

I lightly touched the broken phone.

Why just now. Ouch hot!

I rubbed my stinging finger and pushed the phone far away.

“What the heck.”

Why does such a strong feeling come from there?