Mining And Construction Tycoon [EN]: Chapter 54

54. As Desired (2)

After Song Chang-jun left, Tae-soo was lost in thought for a moment.

“What is Cha Ki-beom after? The benefit I’ll get from delaying my departure schedule isn’t clear yet, but the disadvantages are certain.”

The key point is that the special agent’s stay will be very short.

He’s delaying the departure date with various excuses.

But he subtly sets the return date by mentioning the inter-Korean Red Cross talks.

“If the special agent fails in the operation and returns, Park Jeong-hwan’s anger may be directed at me. It’s like he didn’t get his money’s worth for supporting me wholeheartedly.”

There’s a separate reason why Park Jeong-hwan is fully supporting Tae-soo.

What he wants is only one thing: an ‘image makeover’.

He wants to be seen as a ‘cool president’ who sends special agents to rescue kidnapped citizens.

“Could it be that Cha Ki-beom is in cahoots with Han Cheong-ho?”

Tae-soo’s expression darkened.

“I need to move assuming the worst-case scenario.”

It doesn’t matter who Cha Ki-beom brings.

Defense against him has already been thoroughly planned.

But it’s difficult to threaten Tae-soo in this way.

Tae-soo decided.

“Instead of relying on the special agents, I should secure their identities in advance. That way, no matter how short the special agent’s schedule is, Park Jeong-hwan’s goal will be achieved unconditionally.”

Tae-soo straightened his coat and grabbed the car keys.

Vroom.

And he set off for the area where the Corino and Hakonen tribes lived together.

* * *

Darkness falls on the desert.

Arriving at the Bedouin village with the headlights on.

The villagers welcomed Tae-soo.

“[What brings you here at this hour?]”

“[Have you had dinner?]”

Tae-soo took out what he had brought for the children.

The children recognized it and were delighted.

“[Foreign snacks!]”

“[It’s full of candy and chocolate!]”

“[Mom, can I eat this?]”

In particular, young Bedouin women asked with smiling faces.

“[How about staying overnight today?]”

“[Shall I prepare a place for you to sleep?]”

Tae-soo smiled and shook his head.

“No. I’m not here as a guest today, but to discuss something with the elders.”

The faces of the young Bedouin women were filled with disappointment.

Then Tae-soo spotted a woman playfully shaking a string from a tent over there, with half her body sticking out.

The dancer winked at Tae-soo and smiled slyly.

Tae-soo chuckled.

‘I haven’t seen her since that night. I guess she’s doing well.’

Tae-soo headed to the tent where the tribal chief was staying.

It happened that the leaders of the two tribes were gathered in one place.

They were frowning while looking at the blueprints, probably because of the construction work scheduled for the next day.

“You’re working hard until late at night.”

When Tae-soo entered the tent, everyone welcomed him.

“Oh! Benefactor, what brings you here at this hour when the desert night dew begins to fall on the sand?”

“You’ve come at the right time. There’s something we wanted to ask for your opinion on.”

Tae-soo sat down in the seat offered by the tribal chief.

“Before discussing the construction work, there’s something I’d like to ask first.”

“Please speak. We’ll answer anything we know.”

“You said you’ve detained the executives of Samwon Construction, right?”

When the story of the Samwon Construction executives came up, everyone’s eyes turned fierce.

It was a completely different look from when they were treating Tae-soo.

“Why are you looking for those guys?”

‘It’s to secure their identities and hand them over to the special agents.’

But why are the Bedouins reacting like this?

Suddenly, curiosity arose.

“Hmm, now that I think about it, I haven’t heard the details. Why have you been holding the Samwon Construction people? I’ve heard that you’ve often clashed in the past.”

At the casual question, a strong reaction came back.

“Don’t even mention it! Those guys were very self-centered.”

“There was a tribal war here because of water, but they acted like they had guts outside their stomachs and did crazy things.”

“Inevitably, we decided to detain the guys who caused the problem first, and the rest scattered. They were guys with no loyalty or honor.”

It seems that Samwon Construction has completely lost the people’s respect.

“What exactly did they do to make you say that?”

“They said they needed water for the road construction, so they asked us to give them the entire well. In this drought!”

The people here are the ones who fought a tribal war over the well.

To ask them to give up the entire well was an absurd request.

“That’s a really absurd request.”

“That’s right. Even if we generously assume that they don’t know our situation, we can just let that pass.”

“Is there something else?”

“They tried to mess with the women of our tribe. By force, too…”

Until now, Tae-soo had only heard that Samwon Construction was suffering because of the desert tribe’s localism.

But the Bedouins’ words painted a different picture.

“Huh… Are you saying they harassed the women?”

“Fortunately, we discovered it early, so it only ended in an attempt, but can we just let it go? So we caught and imprisoned them. We said we’d let them go if they apologized properly, but they just scoffed.”

Tae-soo’s brow furrowed.

“Those are really guys who deserve to be punished by heaven. But why didn’t you protest such rudeness? If you had told the Saudi royal family or the Korean embassy earlier…”

The Bedouins turned their heads.

“Are you saying we should snitch on our own affairs? Those guys aren’t worth reporting to the royal family. We can just solve it ourselves.”

“So we put them in shackles and locked them up. They must have reflected a bit by now.”

The Bedouins have a tradition of not harming outsiders as much as possible.

It seems they endured a lot because the wicked guys were also outsiders.

The way they punish them is just to restrict their range of movement by putting them in shackles.

If it were Tae-soo, he would have hung them upside down.

“Sigh, I didn’t even know such a thing happened. As a fellow Korean, I deeply apologize to the Bedouin people.”

As Tae-soo said that and bowed his head, the leaders waved their hands and stopped him.

“Oh, no. It’s not like you did anything wrong.”

“Thank you for understanding. I’d like to identify the people who are being held here.”

“That’s…, we don’t really know about that.”

They scratched their heads and were embarrassed.

“We just caught and imprisoned the guys who did wrong…. We didn’t really intend to investigate them properly because they were outsiders.”

“I see.”

‘I understand.’

Tae-soo closed his mouth for a moment and fell into thought.

‘Should I meet the executives of Samwon Construction directly…?’

It’s uncomfortable.

For various reasons.

‘They are the ones who will be sacrificed to Park Jeong-hwan. People who will only cause trouble if I get involved with them.’

After learning that the Bedouins were safely taking care of them, Tae-soo lost interest in them.

Anyway, it wasn’t a task given to Tae-soo.

He thought that the special agents would arrive soon and take them away on their own.

Tae-soo had a mountain of things to deal with right away.

He didn’t have the time or reason to worry about them.

‘If I meet them, I can’t help but talk about the road construction. If they know that Taeyang Construction has swallowed Samwon Construction’s work, they won’t stay still…’

It’s not just the work that was swallowed.

Somehow, the company was swallowed up as well.

Tae-soo asked for an official document for the handover of the road construction, but Park Jeong-hwan took the initiative and handed over Samwon Construction to Taeyang Construction.

‘We’re people who have nothing good to gain from meeting each other. For that reason, I’ve only been supporting them with goods and food from behind, and I haven’t appeared in front of them…’

There was another reason why Tae-soo didn’t want to get involved with them.

‘It’s also uncomfortable if they cleverly cling to Taeyang Construction.’

It’s a headache because Samwon Construction is much larger than Taeyang Construction.

Capital, technology, performance, number of employees.

From one to ten, Taeyang Construction can’t even compare.

‘I can’t live serving my superiors.’

They’ll pretend to enter Taeyang Construction willingly and try to devour it instead.

Tae-soo and Park Cheol-wan will have to have unnecessary nerve wars with the existing Samwon Construction executives.

Then a full-scale power struggle will begin.

‘New wine must be put in new bottles. There’s no place for them in Taeyang Construction. I’m going to grow the company around Park Cheol-wan.’

The 고민 [gomin – worry, concern] is over.

‘I’ll just identify them and help the special agent’s work. I can just call one person and ask.’

Tae-soo opened his mouth.

“Can you call the president of Samwon Construction for a moment?”

“Ah! I know who the president is. But he’s not here.”

“What do you mean? Did you release him?”

“No.”

“If not, then he’s dead…”

Although the Bedouins don’t harm outsiders, this is the desert.

From getting a endemic disease.

Or getting caught up in a fight.

Or getting lost in the desert.

You can lose your life in any way.

“No. We didn’t even catch him in the first place.”

“When our two tribes started fighting, he took all the money and ran away first.”

It’s getting worse as I listen.

Tae-soo let out a hollow laugh.

When I first came here, I remember the abandoned construction site.

I thought the Bedouins had taken all the money, but in fact, the president and his party ran away with it.

“Then who are the people being held? Are they the executives of Samwon Construction?”

“Well. We don’t really know. I think they’re the executives, but…”

“Then who among them is…”

Tae-soo stopped talking.

There’s no way they’d know such details.

“That’s… I don’t really know. I’m sorry.”

The Bedouin leaders are embarrassed.

‘It’d be faster to go to the people being held and ask them directly. It’ll be a bit uncomfortable for a moment.’

Tae-soo felt sorry for no reason.

“There’s no need to be sorry. It’s okay. I’ve caused unnecessary trouble. It’s something that can be solved by asking a few words directly.”

“If we had known it was important, we would have figured it out properly a long time ago…”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not a big deal anyway.”

It’s a simple matter, and it’s nothing special.

It’s enough to know their position, name, and age at Samwon Construction.

‘Park Jeong-hwan just needs to get the title of president who rescued the kidnapped hostages. It’s enough to secure the personal information to be broadcasted.’

It’d be nice to have a president, but if not, it’s okay.

It’d be nice to have executives, but if not, it’s okay.

For Park Jeong-hwan, it’s enough to just have the Samwon Construction people who are being held here now.

“So where are they now?”

“Follow me. I’ll guide you.”

* * *

Inside a desert tribe’s tent.

There were 7 people tied up in a row with makeshift shackles.

Thanks to being well-fed, they all looked healthy and had good complexions.

One of them overturned the bowl, complaining irritably.

“Ugh, it tastes terrible. They brought this out for people to eat.”

It was a food fight that even a child wouldn’t do.

“They left us out last time when they held a party. The whole tribe was having a great time, right?”

“I’m not someone who should be getting this kind of dog food here, tsk.”

The vice president of Samwon Construction was angry, panting.

The more he thought about it, the more upset he became.

“Just wait until I get released, I won’t leave these bastards alone.”

“Sigh, Executive Director. This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t gotten drunk and messed with the woman.”

“What? Was it just me? Were you guys being quiet? How can you say this about a momentary mistake while drunk?”

The desert warriors who separated them from the women while they were drunk and gave them a beating came to mind.

He gritted his teeth involuntarily.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t be so upset if I had succeeded.”

“That’s true.”

“How pretty and shapely are the women here? How can we just stand by and watch?”

“We’re not people who are cultivating virtue. Honestly, it’s too much. They’re being too expensive.”

He felt wronged.

“I came to a foreign country and haven’t been able to properly see women or drink alcohol for months. It’s just one mistake I made after drinking happily for the first time in a long time.”

Someone sighed.

“I heard the president ran away with our entire vault?”

“President Choi! You son of a bitch!”

“It was strange from the moment he said he had found alcohol with difficulty and told us to drink as much as we wanted. We fell into a trap, I guess.”

For a long time, there was a lot of cursing about President Choi and his confidants.

After that, it led to complaints about the uncomfortable life here.

“I don’t eat rice without meat side dishes. The food here is terrible, and they only give us a tiny bit of water.”

“They haven’t washed the bedding even once. The sanitation is terrible because they’re uncivilized.”

In this drought, even drinking water is precious.

But there was no way these people would consider such circumstances.

Today, he missed his home more than ever.

“I want to go home. What is this 꼴 [kkol – state, condition] that I’ve come all the way here for…”

“I can’t do construction, and I can’t get paid. What is this? Dog food, shackles. What kind of dog-like treatment is this?”

Woof woof!

At that time, the sound of a dog barking came from outside.

It seems like they’re patrolling nearby.

“The Bedouins are definitely planning to rip us off for a lot of ransom, right?”

“Of course. I heard that medieval nobles lived as prisoners like that and went home?”

“Is the Korean government negotiating our ransom? International terrorists do that, right?”

“What the hell is the Republic of Korea government doing? The people are being held as prisoners like this.”

I can’t stand it anymore.

“I can’t take it anymore. We have to do something, even if it’s just us.”

“We’re captured as prisoners, what can we do?”

He spat on the floor.

“We have to escape.”

Everyone was surprised.

“Escape?”

“Yeah. No one’s coming to save us, so we can’t rot here as prisoners for the rest of our lives.”

Now is the time to find my own way to live with my own strength.

The goal is also clear.

“President Choi, you dared to run away with the entire vault? I can roughly guess where he went.”

The vault!

Everyone was tempted.

“Let’s just catch President Choi. We’ll split the money and go home.”

The vault that President Choi took.

The money in it is about 4 million dollars.

“The vault has passports and money. We have to catch President Choi. We’ll have fun with that money for the first time in a long time and go back to Korea. How about it, everyone?”

It was an offer they couldn’t refuse.