The Inspector Is Getting Promoted! [EN]: Chapter 152

Prosecutor Jang Ha-young is Getting Ahead! -153

Troyan Horse (4)

Prosecutor Jang Ha-young personally completed additional reviews of the individuals she had prepared.

Most of them lacked connections to powerful families, and their personal lives were unremarkable.

Seeing this, I decided to execute the plan immediately.

As expected, few of the prosecutors had significant financial resources.

From the start, truly clean and upright prosecutors wouldn’t have considered paying to get ahead.

Most were involved in cases with the nouveau riche [newly rich], accepting money under the guise of resolution fees, or pocketing funds through pressure from local governments.

Of course, even then, it was mere pocket change compared to what I had provided.

You might call it the ‘living expenses corruption’ that the media so often lamented.

Even if they had taken money, many prosecutors were too busy providing for their families to accumulate any significant savings. Prosecutor Jang Ha-young used the money she received from me to lend to these prosecutors without interest.

Of course, no promissory notes were written.

There was no need to give them leverage by holding promissory notes.

In fact, it was an investment to take down Chief Prosecutor Seo Ki-woong, so I had no intention of recovering the funds.

After all the preparations were complete, Prosecutor Jang Ha-young asked me.

“If you give the signal, I can execute the plan you mentioned right away, but what if Somangwon refuses the donations? I’m worried everything will fall apart. Is there any way around this?”

“Of course, I’ve already planned for that.”

I handed her a sticky note with a date written on it.

“Go donate on this day.”

“This is…….”

I smiled lightly and said,

“It’s Director Lee Young-mi’s day off.”

Knowing that Chief Prosecutor Seo Ki-woong was trying to prevent donations to curry favor with her, the orphanage would naturally refuse the donation if 20 prosecutors swarmed in.

But if she wasn’t there, the situation would be different.

Since Inspector Jung Hyung-joon had already won over the operations team leader and discovered her day off in advance, the matter would be settled if the operations team leader accepted all the donations in Director Lee Young-mi’s absence.

Even if they tried to return the money, claiming they had already submitted all the documents for tax deduction benefits would force Director Lee Young-mi to accept the donations as they were.

The biggest advantage was that, as prosecutors, they could process these documents faster than anyone else.

“Sir, you always think several steps ahead.”

Prosecutor Jang Ha-young smiled brightly as she put the sticky note in her pocket.

“I will proceed without any setbacks.”

***

“1.63 billion won [approximately $1.2 million USD]?”

Director Lee Young-mi, who had taken a day off, could hardly believe her ears.

“You received that much money in donations in just one day?”

“Yes. A total of 20 people came, and they were all prosecutors from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.”

At the word ‘prosecutor,’ Director Lee Young-mi paused.

“Wait a minute, team leader, did you accept all of that?”

“I remembered you instructing me to accept donations as much as possible because the orphanage’s situation is difficult right now, so I accepted them as they came…….”

“Even so, you should have reported it to me.”

“There were so many people that it was hectic… and I didn’t want to bother you on your day off.”

“Haa…….”

Director Lee Young-mi sat down, holding her forehead.

“We have to return all that money.”

“That might be a little difficult.”

“Yes?”

As she frowned and asked, the operations team leader feigned bewilderment and said,

“They said they needed to process taxes for the amount they donated, so they all got their seals on the documents.”

“I can’t believe this.”

It was hard to believe, but Director Lee Young-mi sighed as she looked at the documents the operations team leader had brought.

Everything had been processed in one day.

It was impossible to reverse.

“Okay, I understand.”

“Yes. Please call me if you need anything.”

After the operations team leader left, she looked through the documents again, but the notarization process had already been completed.

Because of her husband’s situation, she had even blocked anonymous donations, so she had indeed instructed them not to refuse any donations as the orphanage’s situation had become difficult.

But she never thought things would escalate like this.

The operations team leader had followed her instructions, so she couldn’t blame her.

Realizing she couldn’t handle it alone, she reluctantly took out her cell phone and called her husband.

“Hey, honey, something happened…….”

***

Chief Prosecutor Seo Ki-woong grabbed his throbbing head after hearing the situation.

This was a blatant attempt to sabotage him.

‘Did Choi Seo-joon make a move?’

He pondered for a moment, but thought it was unlikely.

No matter how capable Choi Seo-joon was, he couldn’t recruit 20 prosecutors with no connection to him in such a short period.

Besides, it was a huge sum of over 1 billion won.

It could only be a rumor.

It must have been a false rumor that donating to Somangwon, which his wife ran, would result in special favors.

Since they had donated under their real names, not anonymously, it was clear that misunderstandings would arise if he remained passive.

‘No, if they donated on my wife’s day off on purpose, they must have donated hoping for those special favors.’

The best course of action would be to leave the money untouched, but that was impossible given Somangwon’s financial situation.

Chief Prosecutor Seo Ki-woong pondered for a long time before making a decision and speaking.

“Is anyone outside?”

“Yes, Chief Prosecutor.”

He instructed the woman who cautiously opened the door.

“Call all the prosecutors on this list to the Chief Prosecutor’s office. Immediately.”

“Yes, sir.”

***

“So everyone donated without any ulterior motives?”

“Yes.”

Chief Prosecutor Seo Ki-woong was dumbfounded, but he couldn’t say anything.

They claimed they didn’t expect any special favors, and the orphanage had already received the money and couldn’t return it.

In the end, all he could do was maintain control so that this wouldn’t become a problem.

“Listen carefully, all of you.”

Chief Prosecutor Seo Ki-woong made eye contact with each of the 20 prosecutors and spoke seriously.

“I don’t know how you learned about the orphanage where my wife works, but even if you donated, I have no intention of giving any special favors or paying attention to you. That’s for sure. It won’t change even if hell freezes over.”

He lowered his voice seriously.

“If you donated hoping for something like that, take it all back. I won’t penalize you for it, and I’ll pretend I don’t know.”

“…….”

“Prosecutor Oh.”

“Yes, Chief Prosecutor.”

He sternly addressed Prosecutor Oh Joon-min, who seemed to be the informal leader among them.

“If you’re trying to screw me over…….”

“No, sir.”

Prosecutor Oh Joon-min vehemently waved his hand.

“We all got together and thought about doing something good, and we happened to find out that the Chief Prosecutor’s wife runs an orphanage, so we decided to donate there because it’s a worthy cause. There’s absolutely no other intention.”

“I hope that’s the truth.”

Chief Prosecutor Seo Ki-woong sighed.

“I’ll say it again, there will be no special favors or disadvantages resulting from this donation.”

“Understood.”

“Go.”

The 20 prosecutors filed out of the Chief Prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutor Joo Han-song, who looked the most cunning among them, cautiously approached Prosecutor Oh Joon-min and asked.

“Senior, I even borrowed money to donate, but you don’t think he’ll really pretend he doesn’t know, do you?”

“How could he?”

Prosecutor Oh Joon-min gave a sly smile.

“If he’s human, he’ll have no choice but to take care of us out of guilt. To be honest, the hidden meaning behind not allowing anonymous donations is that he wants us to appeal to him so he can recognize us if we donate.”

“Ah, is that so?”

“That’s right, you idiot. We donated over 1.6 billion won this time. Do you think he can just ignore that?”

“Well, that’s true.”

“Don’t worry.”

Prosecutor Oh Joon-min shrugged, reassuring the other prosecutors.

“Everyone, go back and do your work. I’ll make a quick call.”

“Yes, thank you for your hard work, Senior.”

“You’ve worked hard. Get some rest.”

He gestured for them to go, went out to the emergency exit, took out his cell phone, checked that no one was around, and made a secret call.

-Yes, hello?

“Ah, yes. Prosecutor Jang Ha-young. I’m just coming out of the Chief Prosecutor’s office.”

-What did he say?

“He said he wouldn’t give any special favors… but he looked very flustered. He was trying to hide it by making threats.”

-Were there any mentions of me or the Special Investigations Department?

“Of course not. The other prosecutors still think I’m the one who found out about the orphanage.”

Prosecutor Oh Joon-min raised his eyebrows and asked.

“Once this is over, about the law firm position you promised…….”

-Of course. Just make sure the other 19 prosecutors don’t mention my name.”

“Understood.”

A sinister smile spread across his face.

***

“Hello, Prosecutor.”

Inspector Jung Hyung-joon shook my hand and bowed politely.

“The kids are doing well, right?”

“Of course. Thanks to you, Prosecutor, the kids are wearing designer clothes.”

“That’s a relief.”

I sat down and immediately got to the point.

“How are things progressing at Somangwon?”

“Until recently, they were trying to avoid spending the money, but the situation became so urgent that they eventually started using it, I heard.”

Inspector Jung Hyung-joon chuckled and added.

“Besides, they say spending money is habit-forming, right? Once they start, there’s no stopping them. They even bought new furniture to replace the old, repaired stuff.”

“What about the remodeling?”

“There’s a building with leaks, and they’ve decided to remodel the entire three-story building.”

“What about the construction company?”

“Of course, Neulbit Construction was selected. They quoted a lower price than other places, so Director Lee Young-mi had no choice but to choose Neulbit Construction.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“It’s nothing. This is standard procedure.”

He took out a document envelope from his bag and placed it on the table.

“These are copies of the documents received from the Somangwon operations team leader and Neulbit Construction.”

As soon as I took out the documents and checked them, a smile spread across my face.

Director Lee Young-mi may not even know it, but even the side contract with her seal on it was in my hands.

“The operations team leader handled it well.”

“Yes. The operations team leader has been working at Somangwon for so long that there were no difficulties at all.”

“If this goes well, I’ll have to give them a bonus on top of what I promised.”

I winked and added.

“Of course, the same goes for you, Inspector.”

“Euhahahahahat! No.”

Inspector Jung Hyung-joon burst into laughter and waved his hand.

“I’m just grateful to be able to work with you, Prosecutor.”

“Try not to attract too much attention, Inspector.”

“I’ll do my best to stay hidden.”

“When does construction start?”

“They’re trying to proceed as quickly as possible. They’re also planning to finish the project as early as possible, within this year.”

“Understood.”

Chief Prosecutor Seo Ki-woong and his wife have finally dragged the Trojan horse into the fortress.

Now all that’s left is to wait.

The moment the building’s remodeling is finished.

My schemes riding in the Trojan horse will crush his complacency.