Golden Print [EN]: Chapter 265

The meeting finished. Woo-jin, So-jeong, and Section Chief Jo Yong-hyun went to a café near Icheon City Hall.

They had a dinner planned with the project team later, but they had some free time before that, so they decided to get coffee.

There was a nice cafeteria in City Hall, of course.

But Woo-jin had a reason for bringing them to a café outside City Hall.

Woo-jin wanted to talk about important things privately.

Even though the café wasn’t busy on a weekday afternoon, Woo-jin chose seats in the far corner.

The meeting had ended with smiles and handshakes, leaving a warm, friendly feeling in the air.

As they talked about the project, their coffees arrived.

Woo-jin took a sip of his coffee and then slowly brought up the real topic.

“By the way, Director,”

“Yes, CEO,”

“How is the audit going? It should be done soon, right?”

Jo Yong-hyun sighed before answering Woo-jin’s question.

“Ha, it’s almost over.”

“No problems, I hope?”

“How could there be? We haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Haha.”

Woo-jin let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. *Good,* he thought, a small knot of worry loosening in his chest.

Of course, Woo-jin wasn’t involved in any corruption in the Icheon City Culture Department.

But even if they found small problems, the project could be stopped.

Now that the main part of their big project, , was done…

The audit had already delayed the schedule by weeks, and any more delays would hurt the project.

‘The land allocation must be done by March,’ Woo-jin thought.

Director Jo Yong-hyun smiled and added, “Oh, now that I think about it… one of the employees might get in trouble.”

“Why?”

“They accidentally forgot to include 300,000 won in the company dinner expenses.”

“……”

So-jeong, who was listening, looked surprised and asked, “They get in trouble for that?”

Yong-hyun shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s our first time having an audit…”

Woo-jin was a little surprised by the word ‘trouble,’ but he laughed at So-jeong’s serious face.

She was now the CEO of a top entertainment agency, but she was still innocent sometimes.

‘That’s part of So-jeong’s charm,’ he thought.

Since he knew Icheon City had passed the audit, Woo-jin brought up the story he had planned.

“Director, you said you didn’t know why the audit happened, right?”

Jo Yong-hyun’s eyes showed interest at Woo-jin’s question.

“Yes, I did.”

“I thought I’d tell you why.”

“……!”

Over the past month, Woo-jin had become sure of his suspicions.

He suspected that the Architectural Association and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, who had contacted the Seongsu District design team, were behind the audit.

He was sure because of their actions.

He had found out what they were doing.

Im Jung-woo, the president of Dajin Construction, helped Woo-jin this time.

[Like you said, the association is choosing companies to work on the Icheon City development project.]

[I knew it…….]

[I heard there are three big public projects coming up?]

[It’s a project to build everything in an area that didn’t have much tourism.]

[They’re choosing twenty companies, including the small ones…….]

[Interesting.]

[What do you mean?]

[They’re choosing companies within the association, but the government should be choosing them through a public contest.]

[Hahaha. Well, not all projects are like this, but the association has won many projects this way.]

Dajin Construction traded with many offices in the association, so it was easy for them to find out this information.

‘It was hard to bid on public design projects without the association anyway… maybe this is normal,’ he thought.

This wasn’t a secret, and everyone in the industry knew it.

[Is Dajin planning to bid?]

[Haha, the association is already contacting us, even though you didn’t ask.]

[Oh……?]

[They said they could give us one of the project sites. They asked if we were interested.]

[…….]

[Of course, we refused, so don’t worry.]

[Hmm? Why refuse? They’re the ones doing the wrong thing, and it’s just more work for Dajin Construction…….]

[Hehe. It’s not that simple.]

[Did they ask for money?]

[You guessed it.]

[Disgusting.]

[Well, they say it’s to cover the association’s costs… but the money will probably end up in someone’s pocket.]

Woo-jin thought the Architectural Association’s plan was simple.

They thought Woo-jin was already corrupt, and when that was revealed, the association would take over the project sites.

You might ask how they could do that just because one company was corrupt.

But it was simple.

If Woo-jin was corrupt, then the Icheon City Hall employees involved would also be corrupt.

Then, even the staff working on the project would have to get involved.

‘Even if the staff were fired, Icheon City would never give up this project. Because The Millennium’s You is so popular,’ he thought.

Icheon City had wanted to become a special tourism zone for a long time.

They couldn’t give up the project just because some staff members were corrupt.

‘If the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport helped the city, they would take over the project. If the association got involved then… it would be very easy,’ he thought.

Woo-jin was sure he was right.

That’s why he told Director Jo Yong-hyun about it after the meeting.

Now that he knew how to respond, he needed to tell Director Jo Yong-hyun, who would help him.

Woo-jin organized his thoughts and began to speak calmly.

“So, where should I start explaining this…….”

Jo Yong-hyun listened to the story about the Seongsu District design contest and looked surprised.

“Is that… really true?”

Jo Yong-hyun looked unhappy.

He had worked hard on this project.

He felt like someone had ruined his work, so he was in a bad mood.

“If that wasn’t the case, why would there be an audit?”

“Ha……. I thought it was strange…….”

Woo-jin smiled.

“In the end, there’s nothing to worry about, right?”

“Well, that’s true. The corruption they’re looking for… doesn’t exist.”

Annoyance showed on Jo Yong-hyun’s face.

He was upset about the overtime he had worked for the past three weeks because of the audit.

But he was most annoyed that the project had been delayed.

If it hadn’t been for the Architectural Association, they could have finished the land allocation before the main episodes of aired, which would have been perfect.

Woo-jin realized that Jo Yong-hyun could look like this, since he always smiled.

Woo-jin spoke again.

“So, Director Jo.”

“Yes, CEO.”

“Do you remember what I said on the phone a while ago?”

Jo thought for a moment, then tapped the table as if he remembered. “Oh, you said you were going to get revenge……?”

Woo-jin smiled.

“Yes.”

Jo Yong-hyun asked quietly, “Do you have a plan?”

Jo Yong-hyun’s eyes were now sparkling again.

The idea of ‘getting revenge’ meant he would have to deal with problems outside of work.

But if he could get revenge, he felt he could handle it.

“First of all, it’s obvious what they’re going to do, right?”

Yong-hyun nodded.

“That’s right.”

Woo-jin smiled. “Then we just need to set a trap for them, right?”

Woo-jin continued.

To catch prey in a trap, you need two things.

First, you need to know where the prey will go and put the trap there.

Second, you need to put something delicious in the trap to attract the prey.

He knew where the prey would go, so he had the first thing.

Woo-jin was worried about what to put in the trap.

He decided on this.

“Normally, the most delicious thing for them would be ‘money’.”

Jo Yong-hyun tilted his head. “Normally……? So not now?”

“Do you think they care about money?”

“Yes. Of course…….”

Woo-jin shook his head.

“Of course, that’s part of it, but the main reason is probably me.”

“……!”

“They want to see me fail more than they want to make money from this project.”

“Are they that mean?”

Yong-hyun looked like he didn’t understand, but Woo-jin nodded.

“They are. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have known I was involved in this project.”

Woo-jin was right.

These projects are announced by national organizations, but the announcements don’t mention Woo-jin or WJ Studio.

So, they must have been watching Woo-jin to know he was involved.

If a big organization like the Architectural Association was watching Woo-jin, it must be because they didn’t like him.

While Jo Yong-hyun was thinking, Woo-jin spoke again.

“Now that the Icheon City audit is over, it’s my turn, right?”

Yong-hyun answered, “That’s right.”

“I’m going to throw out some bait and go fishing in this audit.”

“Fishing……?”

“It’s not a big deal. I have a foreign account that I opened when I worked with a Spanish architect. I’m going to hide that account and make excuses.”

“Hmm……?”

Woo-jin smiled and continued.

“I’ve only used that account about 10 times. I only used it to receive design fees back then, and I haven’t even opened it since.”

Woo-jin smiled more.

“But they’ll think there’s hundreds of millions of won in secret money in that account.”

Jo Yong-hyun understood Woo-jin’s plan and smiled back. “Is that the money you were going to send me when this project was over?”

Woo-jin took a sip of his cold coffee. “Exactly.”