The Inspector Is Getting Promoted! [EN]: Chapter 66

Prosecutor, You’re Going Places! – Episode 66 (66/341)

Intensification (1)

“Ms. Han Jiyu, do you happen to know anything about stocks?”

“Stocks?”

She tilted her head and replied.

“I used to dabble in it briefly as a form of financial management, but after losing everything, I haven’t touched it since.”

“Ah, then does anyone in your family invest?”

“My younger sister knows a bit… why?”

“I’ve come across some interesting information.”

Han Jiyu tilted her head, and I smiled and asked.

“Your sister trades stocks often, right?”

“Yes. She works at a company and apparently spends almost every day looking at charts.”

“Is the company she works for a regular company?”

“She works for a mid-sized company.”

Perfect.

This is even better.

If it’s her younger sister and not Han Jiyu directly participating, there will be no connection to me. Moreover, if she’s an ordinary person working at a regular company, there’s even less room for suspicion.

It will appear as if she’s just one of the many individual investors who profited from the stock price difference while Hanwool Group was artificially inflating the price of Saint Harper by 100 times.

Even if an investigation were to occur, this would be the first time Han Jiyu and I have met privately after exchanging contact information.

No matter how much they might want to suspect, a reasonable conclusion would be that there’s no reason for me to give this information to someone I’ve only met once.

Most importantly, if she’s been trading stocks regularly, Han Jiyu’s sister wouldn’t be on the list of suspects either.

“What we discussed today must never be disclosed to anyone outside.”

I leaned towards her and carefully began to speak.

“Talk to your sister and have her use any spare money you have to invest, and tell her to buy Saint Harper stock.”

“Buy Saint Harper stock?”

Han Jiyu couldn’t hide her surprise at the sudden suggestion.

“Yes. That stock will rise beyond what you can imagine.”

She put down the appetizer fork she was holding and began to concentrate.

“Buy it the day after it hits the daily limit [the maximum price increase allowed in a single day]. Buy as much as you can, no matter the price. And then, sell everything after making exactly five times your investment.”

“This is…”

She asked, looking as if she couldn’t believe her ears.

“Is this insider trading information?”

She caught on quickly; she’s quite perceptive.

I responded with a smile and continued my explanation.

“If you only take that much profit and get out, you won’t be suspected at all.”

Han Jiyu clasped her hands together, looking flustered.

“Why are you giving me this information…?”

If I were just telling a regular acquaintance, it would be risky and could backfire on me.

But Han Jiyu was different.

From an outsider’s perspective, there’s very little contact between her and me.

And more than anything, although it’s not certain yet, if she becomes my future wife as I saw in the text message, Han Jiyu’s assets will become ‘our family’s’.

“I wonder.”

I smiled and winked.

“I just want to give it to you.”

Han Jiyu lowered her gaze without a word.

She seemed to be seriously considering it.

That’s a normal reaction.

No one would not be taken aback if someone suddenly offered them top-secret information that would multiply their money fivefold without warning.

In fact, I didn’t think she would doubt whether this information was true or not.

Since I had saved her from Kang Hyeon-soo, her trust in me would be solid.

My biggest concern was her rejecting my offer.

Regardless of her trust in my words, she might think that knowing about and using insider trading is simply wrong.

However, I was confident that someone who would marry me would know when to seize an opportunity and when to draw the line.

Only after the appetizer was replaced with soup did she open her mouth.

“Okay.”

Han Jiyu looked at me as if she had made up her mind.

“I’ll do it.”

Nice!

“I don’t know why, but I believe that Prosecutor Choi wouldn’t suggest anything that would harm me.”

“Thank you for trusting me. But please tell your sister: a maximum of five times the investment. Anything more is dangerous.”

“I understand.”

Han Jiyu picked up her spoon again and asked.

“Can I enjoy my meal now without worrying?”

“Pardon?”

“If we talk more, I’ll feel like I came out for business instead of enjoying a meal.”

At her words, I chuckled and shook my head.

“No. I came out to have dinner with Ms. Han Jiyu. The stock talk is just a bonus.”

Only then did Han Jiyu smile.

“Try it. Their onion soup is really delicious here.”

“Yes.”

I comfortably took a spoonful of soup and put it in my mouth.

The fragrance of onions enveloped my mouth before smoothly passing down my throat.

Perhaps because I hadn’t properly enjoyed the appetizer due to the stock talk, the taste of the soup felt maximized.

“This is really delicious.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

At the same time, my phone vibrated again.

When I checked my phone, the word ‘Mother’ was written on the screen.

“Ah, excuse me, can I take this call? It’s my mother…”

I asked for her understanding as I tried to get up.

“You can take it here.”

I thought about going outside, but I was worried that people might recognize me, so I answered the phone in the room.

“Then, please excuse me for a moment.”

I pulled the chair back and answered the phone.

“Yes, Mother.”

-Oh, son. Have you had dinner?

“I’m eating now. Have you eaten, Mother?”

-Yes. I just ate with the neighbors upstairs. You know Heung-joo’s family, right?

“Yes. I know them.”

While talking on the phone, I glanced at Han Jiyu, but she was looking at me with interest.

It seemed like she was at ease since it wasn’t a work-related conversation.

-It’s nothing much, but I heard that their son, Heung-dae, is getting married this time. I received an invitation…

I had a bad feeling about this.

-When is my son going to show me his bride?

“Ah, Mother, that’s…”

-Son, you’re thirty-one now. You should get married soon and show me my grandchild.

“I don’t have the time to think about marriage yet…”

-Oh dear, I need to see my grandchild before I die. I should arrange another blind date soon…

I thought it would be a short conversation.

I should have gone outside to take the call.

But it was too late to go out now.

So, I spent a long time sweating as I listened to nagging about marriage.

“Ah, Mother. I have a work-related call coming in. I’ll call you later.”

After saying that, I hung up the phone.

“Haa.”

As I let out a deep sigh, Han Jiyu, who was sitting across from me, burst into laughter.

I scratched my head in embarrassment and looked at her.

“I’m sorry. It’s my mother, so I couldn’t just hang up quickly.”

“No, it was fun.”

“Fun?”

Han Jiyu rested her chin on her hand and looked at me.

“It made me feel like even Prosecutor Choi is the same as everyone else in front of their parents.”

“Hearing that makes me even more embarrassed.”

“By the way, do you not have a girlfriend?”

Her eyes sparkled.

“Ah, no. I’ve been too busy with work lately.”

“What kind of woman do you like?”

Han Jiyu moved closer to me across the table.

At the same time, her face filled my vision.

“Like your ideal type, you know? Appearance, style, or even a celebrity.”

“I…”

I said, as if possessed.

“Someone like Ms. Han Jiyu.”

Her face turned red in an instant.

She, who had been resting her chin on her elbow on the table, cleared her throat and sat up straight.

“I also…”

Just as her mouth opened.

Knock, knock.

Two employees entered the room.

“We will prepare the pasta for you.”

One employee cleared the soup plates, and the other placed a warm pasta dish on the table and opened his mouth.

“It’s an Aglio e Olio pasta with a spicy aroma of natural mushrooms…”

The employee was explaining something, but I couldn’t hear it.

Han Jiyu seemed to be the same, as she was just looking at me and making eye contact.

After the employees left, I looked at her without even picking up my fork.

Han Jiyu coughed unnecessarily and asked.

“Shall we eat?”

At her question, I lightly shook my head and put my hand on the table and asked.

“I didn’t hear what you were saying earlier.”

Her face flushed red again.

“It wouldn’t be fair if only I said something and it ended there, right?”

She looked down at the pasta and opened her mouth.

“My ideal type is…”

Han Jiyu fiddled with her fork and said in a barely audible voice.

“Someone like you, Prosecutor Choi.”

Then, she carefully looked up at me.

In that moment, sparks flew between Han Jiyu and me.

***

“Prosecutor, we are receiving unusual requests regarding the Judge case.”

“Unusual requests?”

Yoon Seol-ha handed me a printed page over the table and said.

“It’s about the content posted on the Blue House National Petition bulletin board [a government platform for citizens to voice concerns]. You know the Judge’s ninth target, right?”

The ninth target, the person I directly made the Judge’s target when I arrested him.

“You’re talking about Yoo Dong-hyeon, right?”

“Yes. It’s a request for him to receive proper punishment.”

When I checked the printout she handed me, it was a captured screen of a national petition that had already been agreed to by over 100,000 people.

The content was a request for a retrial for the murderer Yoo Dong-hyeon and a cancellation of the lenient punishment.

“I thought this was a case where a retrial wasn’t possible, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right. It’s impossible because a verdict has already been handed down for injury resulting in death. Even when the prosecution appealed, the second trial confirmed the dismissal, so it can’t be reversed.”

“There’s nothing I can do about this either.”

“That’s right, but I thought you should know that public opinion is like this, so I reported it.”

As a citizen, it’s frustrating, but since he has already served his sentence, he cannot be punished again due to the principle of double jeopardy [a legal principle preventing someone from being tried twice for the same crime].

“Still, I’ll check the case once. Can you bring me the related documents? I think it’s better to at least review them.”

Yoon Seol-ha smiled and immediately brought a stack of documents from her table.

“I knew you would say that, so I prepared them in advance.”

“You’re the best, Seol-ha.”

I immediately started reading the documents on the spot.

It would be one thing if it was an issue that was appropriately publicized and then buried, but this is a case where over 100,000 people have agreed to it on the Blue House National Petition.

If the number of agreements exceeds 200,000, the Blue House is obligated to respond, so this issue will definitely become more of a hot topic among the public.

In that situation, there’s nothing that would capture the public’s hearts more than stepping up to say that you can handle this case.

It would be great if there was something to latch onto.

While reading in detail for a long time, I discovered one interesting fact.

“Seol-ha, did you check this?”

“Yes?”

“When the prosecution initially indicted him, they indicted him for murder, not injury resulting in death.”

“Ah, yes. But it seems that the indictment was changed to injury resulting in death during the trial.”

At the same time, a smile appeared on my face.

“Then, if we initially handled it as an imaginary concurrence of offenses [where one act fulfills the elements of multiple crimes] when indicting, we should handle it as a substantive concurrence of offenses [where multiple acts each constitute a separate crime] if the charge is injury resulting in death.”

I added a word for her, who didn’t understand exactly.

“In other words, we can screw Yoo Dong-hyeon over.”

My lips twisted into a wide grin.