The Inspector Is Getting Promoted! [EN]: Chapter 266

The prosecution’s investigation was relentless.

Generally, investigations into high-ranking public officials proceed slowly.

This is because when an investigation proceeds, it’s not just the subject being investigated whose guilt or innocence is determined, but also the people around them who get caught up in it.

It goes without saying that high-ranking public officials are likely to have people in high positions around them.

It’s obvious that a seemingly simple case can’t be easily resolved because the interests of such people are intertwined.

They have to simultaneously conceal and report on the case, covering up what needs to be covered up and only disclosing what’s permissible.

If it’s a high-ranking person, there’s a possibility that they’re connected to the prosecutors’ superiors, and even if that’s not the case, the prosecutor in charge of the case may be pressured by their direct superior.

However, Prosecutor Gong Sang-wook, the ‘Knife Wielder,’ didn’t need to be mindful of such things.

After all, the people involved with Minister of Justice Park Chang-shik, the main culprit in this land speculation case, were all from the Blue House [South Korea’s presidential residence] and Sung Tae-hyun’s side.

Moreover, he wasn’t going to stay with his current superiors for life but would be moving to Choi Seo-joon’s line, so he didn’t need to be mindful of the people in the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

As a result, he turned everything upside down and poked around everywhere, just like when investigating ordinary people, so the case couldn’t help but proceed quickly.

The elders of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and the people at the Blue House seemed quite displeased, but the public’s reaction was different.

And in a completely amusing way.

-ServantAndMadam: Wow, that’s refreshing!

-YoonGweha: There’s never been a prosecutor like this before! Is it a suicide squad or the prosecution?

-NohTaemiin: Does Prosecutor Gong Sang-wook have connections? How is he moving like this without worrying about the aftermath?

-CafeIsGood: Wow, this is the first time I’ve seen an investigation into a minister proceed so smoothly.

-SafetyChief: Amazing. I’m having so much fun watching the news these days.

-WhiteBear: But this is normal. Whenever I see prosecutors, they’re always fawning over ministers and covering things up. They don’t even feel ashamed… This is a real prosecutor!

-MeowWoof: Looks like Choi Seo-joon in his early days. lol

-JangYujini: He’s incredibly cool.

-Invader: Honestly, I’m a 9th-grade civil servant working in Mo-si, Gyeonggi Province, and I didn’t even see the announcement. It seems like they were trying to take it all for themselves. Looking at how they announced it during the by-election period, you can tell.

-Chandong: But the Minister of Justice is going too far. It’s too obvious. Land speculation less than half a year after taking office as minister, lol.

-RabbitTokki: It’s a world where only the rich get richer. Commoners are struggling to make ends meet with their salaries, while someone is sitting still and earning 5 billion won, lol. Let’s send our Chang-shik to jail~!

-LeeDongyeol: Where did the president who promised to create a clean Republic of Korea go? As soon as the incident broke out, he immediately shut his mouth and said he was busy with work, right?

-BlueYoung: I was honestly a supporter of the Minguk Party, but now I’m starting to doubt the party’s identity.

The internet news article comments were in an uproar.

It wasn’t just the Minister of Justice who was being criticized, but the Blue House and the Minguk Party were also being dragged in and getting slammed.

Sung Tae-hyun probably had no idea how to react to this.

If he protected Park Chang-shik, he would be seen as the same kind of guy by the public.

But if he tried to abandon him, he would lose the trust of others in his line.

A dilemma.

He couldn’t just delete the internet search terms or censor them in real-time.

Because Choi Gyu-hyun, the former president, was kicked out for regulating the media and suppressing social media.

Of course, that didn’t mean the Blue House was just standing by and watching.

They tried to divert attention to other topics.

However, the Loach [a resourceful and slippery person] wouldn’t just stand by and watch.

The smoke screen that the Blue House spread was all cleared away by the Loach.

They must have noticed that there was some kind of force, but journalists like PD Song Jae-hoon and reporter Park Su-hyung, who were associated with Choi Seo-joon, weren’t showing any significant movement, just releasing follow-up reports like everyone else, so I wouldn’t have been on the list of suspects.

It was a stroke of genius to join hands with the Loach.

That wasn’t all.

The Knife Wielder was also digging into the case like crazy.

It was like a runaway train that didn’t care about tomorrow.

Thanks to that, the public cheered for him more and more as time went on, and of course, the media couldn’t take their eyes off the Knife Wielder due to public interest.

It goes without saying that Minister Park Chang-shik was rapidly collapsing.

He was claiming his innocence, but there was no way that would work.

Regardless of the truth, the public saw him as a filthy bastard who had 7 billion won in liquid assets to buy land and made 5 billion won in market gains in just one year by using his position as a high-ranking public official.

No one would listen to him.

Now, until Minister Park Chang-shik collapses.

Not much time left.

***

“Haa…”

Minister Park Chang-shik sighed deeply.

“How on earth did things get so twisted?”

All he did was find land to build a house to live comfortably with his family after retirement.

Of course, his life during his 30 years in public office wasn’t so clean that not a speck of dust had touched it.

He had covered himself with some filth, and he had bought that land in Goyang with the money he had collected in the process.

But this land speculation case was really not it.

It was obvious that he wasn’t aiming for market gains, and he didn’t even know about the new city information in the first place.

No, he wasn’t even interested.

It was just luck that the land price went up.

If he had even come across a rumor beforehand, he wouldn’t have even looked at it.

He was going to retire beautifully with the position of minister as the last step, but he never thought he would collapse so disgracefully.

“M, Minister!”

At that moment, his secretary rushed into the office.

“What?”

Minister Park Chang-shik glared at him, answering irritably.

The secretary carefully picked up the remote control on the table and said.

“Y, you should watch TV now.”

“Why, is that bastard Gong Sang-wook doing something again?”

“No. This time it’s a press conference.”

“A press conference?”

“Yes. And it’s not Prosecutor Gong…”

The secretary sighed and opened his mouth with difficulty.

“It’s the Governor of Gyeonggi Province.”

“What?”

Minister Park Chang-shik jumped up from his seat, snatched the remote control from the secretary’s hand, and turned on the TV himself.

As soon as he saw the screen, he burst out laughing.

As the secretary said, the Governor of Gyeonggi Province was really bowing his head in front of reporters on the broadcast.

-I’m sorry. As far as we have confirmed, it seems that internal information has been leaked.

He continued, as if filled with anguish.

-As the Governor of Gyeonggi Province, the main entity involved in the alleged land speculation by a certain public official, I deeply feel responsible for not paying close attention to all these facts.

“Huh.”

He couldn’t even speak.

He could only inhale empty air because he was so dumbfounded.

The secretary’s face also turned red, and he pointed at the TV and shouted.

“That, that Daehan Party stooge!”

However, Gyeonggi Province Governor Min Hyung-taek was acting perfectly.

-In the future, we will strengthen the internal affairs of Gyeonggi Province civil servants through more thorough education so that this kind of thing does not happen again. In addition, we will actively cooperate with the prosecution’s investigation to find and punish the insider who leaked the information in this case.

The Gyeonggi Province Governor’s press conference continued, but Minister Park Chang-shik could no longer hear the words.

Finishing blow.

This was literally a finishing blow.

To say that internal information was leaked was no different from saying that the Minister of Justice bought the land for the purpose of land speculation with that information.

“M, Minister?”

The secretary also felt the seriousness of this and immediately turned off the TV, but Minister Park Chang-shik’s mentality was not restored.

Despair.

And resentment.

Those two emotions were clearly revealed on Minister Park Chang-shik’s face.

‘Should I have lived a little cleaner… If I hadn’t accepted it from AQ Group back then, I wouldn’t have even dared to buy that land in the first place.’

But now, reflecting on past corruption is a meaningless act.

He looked at the ceiling as if he was in despair.

The corruption he had committed so far flashed through his mind clearly and quickly.

It’s not that he’s unlucky.

It’s his fault.

The mistakes that had been 쌓여 [accumulated] up until now just exploded at once.

Minister Park Chang-shik eventually gave up.

“I think I’ll have to step down, right?”

“……”

The secretary couldn’t open his mouth.

He also felt that way, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell the minister he was serving to step down.

“You’ve worked hard, Secretary Baek.”

“……”

The secretary gritted his teeth and said.

“It’ll be a little better if the public’s interest wanes. The punishment issue for real estate-related laws is uncertain, so…”

“Yeah. I guess so.”

Minister Park Chang-shik patted the secretary’s shoulder and said.

“Go out. I want to be alone.”

The secretary held back the tears welling up inside and nodded.

“Please tell me when things are 정리되면 [settled]. I’ll be preparing.”

“Okay.”

After the secretary left, Minister Park Chang-shik opened the drawer.

He eventually took out a cigarette that he had quit for over 10 years and lit it.

“Cough!”

A cough burst out, but soon his mind became calm.

The nicotine and tar that he felt after a long time made his head spin, but that also didn’t take long to get used to.

“Hoo.”

He exhaled deeply, releasing the cigarette smoke in vain.

Then, he opened the top compartment of the drawer, which was locked with a key.

A letter of resignation.

In fact, he had sensed the crisis immediately after this incident broke out and had written a letter of resignation in advance.

He just couldn’t bring himself to submit it and had put it in the drawer.

‘Now it’s really over.’

He took the cigarette in his mouth and took out the letter of resignation.

But then, a business card in the corner of the drawer caught his eye.

Among them, one business card that was shining the most 영롱하게 [brightly].

-Choi Seo-joon, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office

At that moment, Minister Park Chang-shik’s mind began to 돌아가기 [work] quickly.

‘Maybe…’

He thought it would be a futile expectation, but he still couldn’t let go of the string of hope.

No, he couldn’t let go.

Because Choi Seo-joon’s words that he sincerely liked and respected him remained vividly in his mind.

Even if he collapsed disgracefully, if there was a possibility, he had to 걸어 [bet].

There was nothing different whether he stepped down like this or asked for one more favor and fell.

It’s better to try one last time before submitting the letter of resignation than to regret it later.

Minister Park Chang-shik made a phone call with the 심정 [feeling] of grabbing at straws.

Beep. Beep. Beeeep.

The signal sound that rang very slowly.

With each signal sound, it felt like his heart was 철렁 내려앉는 [sinking].

His legs were 달달 떨리고 [trembling].

To the extent that he couldn’t keep his fingers still due to anxiety.

After a long minute like that.

Finally, a voice was heard over the phone.

-Yes, this is Choi Seo-joon.

“Oh, Chief Prosecutor Choi. It’s me, Park Chang-shik.”

-Ah, it’s been a while, Minister.”

Choi Seo-joon’s voice was calmer and more friendly than he had expected.

Minister Park Chang-shik swallowed hard and asked.

“The words that you like me… are they still valid?”

-Minister.

Choi Seo-joon opened his mouth in a low voice.

-Why are you calling now?

“……Oh?”

-I’ve been waiting.

At his words, 소름이 쫙 돋아났다 [goosebumps] ran down his spine for a moment.

“……Really?”

-Yes. I was holding back because I was worried I’d be a 방해될까 [hindrance].

Choi Seo-joon spoke more reassuringly and calmly than ever before.

-I will help you.