Still, I Will Live As The Son-In-Law Of A Conglomerate [EN]: Chapter 70

70. 21st. Know Thyself (5)

Park Namjoon smirked at Jang Suyeon and took a sip of water.

“I’m the kind of guy who can’t sleep without a woman. I knocked out five girls at my graduation party. Can you handle that?”

Park Namjoon slammed the water glass down, brimming with confidence, but Jang Suyeon looked at him with amusement and chuckled.

“You’re weaker than me. I took down six men in one day. Or was it seven? I was swapping them out from early dawn till midnight.”

Park Namjoon’s eyes narrowed. It wasn’t something to be proud of, but he had tried to deflate that arrogant woman, only to be neatly blocked.

He took a breath, cooling his heated insides, and spoke with a sneer, “The men you’ve met must have been weak, Jang Suyeon. How weak must they be to collapse without satisfying one woman?”

“That’s what I wanted to say. How feeble must they be to fall for a man?”

Park Namjoon couldn’t retort.

Jang Suyeon was the most provocative woman he had ever met. Her deeply cut blouse and tight leather skirt accentuated her figure, making Olivia Hussey [a famous actress known for her beauty] pale in comparison, and her face overflowed with ‘charm’.

Park Namjoon let out a hollow laugh and raised both hands.

“I give up. A woman like you, Suyeon, is a first for me, honestly. Your looks and personality are both fiery, haha.”

“You’re not bad either, Namjoon. I like that you’re not a wimp, unlike some others, heehee.”

Having acknowledged each other, they locked eyes. An indescribable, subtly erotic current surrounded them.

Park Namjoon extended his index finger and pointed upwards.

“I want to see how amazing you are, Suyeon. Up there.”

“Excuse me?”

Jang Suyeon wondered if this man was out of his mind. Getting intimate on the first meeting?

“We’ve seen everything from the first meeting, so why the pretense now? Disappointing,” Park Namjoon sneered, and Jang Suyeon’s eyes narrowed. How dare he!

“Let’s go. We’ll see how amazing I am.”

“Great. Let’s have dinner first to recharge our stamina. How about steak?”

“Sure. How about rare, if possible? The juice is the essence of steak.”

Right now, Jang Suyeon didn’t care about observing Lee Sungmin. Her eyes overflowed only with the desire to indulge in how ‘useful’ the man in front of her was.

***

After receiving the list of hangers-on attached to the Hwang Nayeon family from Gong Sungpil, I sent him away and returned to the penthouse with Park Taejin.

“You’ve worked hard, Young Master.”

“Thanks for your effort.”

Fear flashed across Park Taejin’s eyes as he faced me. I wanted to live kindly, but the world wouldn’t let me. What could I do?

In both my past life and now, it was half self-inflicted due to my love, revenge, and desires, but once I stepped onto this path, I had to see it through to the end.

Those who used me like toilet paper, those who exploited me and then sank me into the abyss of death… I couldn’t stop until I saw them meticulously licking and sucking my toes.

Still, I didn’t feel good about showing such a harsh side in front of Park Taejin, who was a soulmate on par with Jang Hayeon. I turned around and called out to Park Taejin, who was about to go to his room.

“Hyung [older brother or respected male figure].”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“Was I too much just now?”

Park Taejin blinked a few times and then smiled.

“It’s alright, Young Master. Wasn’t it self-defense?”

“Self-defense, huh…”

As I calmly pondered, Park Taejin said,

“You’re just going your way, Young Master. They’re scattering caltrops [sharp, spiked objects] and setting up booby traps on the path you’re trying to take, so how could you succeed Chairman and lead Haedong and Myeongdong without such resolve?”

He had a point. Whether it was the sunny or shady side of the Korean business world, it was more dangerous than a jungle. I wouldn’t survive unless I hardened my heart more fiercely.

“I guess so.”

“Of course, I was surprised to see you acting like that at your age. I was afraid that if you keep this up, everyone will be trembling in about ten years, haha.”

Park Taejin laughed as if he were joking, but what he said would become reality. My revenge wouldn’t be complete unless I became such a terrifying existence.

“I don’t know what will happen if it turns out as you say, Hyung. I’ll go in now.”

I entered my room, wrapped in a slightly lighter mood.

“Hmm…”

After changing into training wear and a short-sleeved T-shirt, I sat at my desk and looked at the list Gong Sungpil had written. Comparing it to see if it matched the list I remembered.

Several hours passed.

Sitting at the table with only the desk lamp on, I rested my chin on my hand and stared intently at the two pieces of paper in front of me.

Even after squeezing and squeezing my memory, there was no way that there would only be about 20 executives from Hwang Nayeon’s side. Whether they were the ones who had already joined the line or the ones who would join later, the ones I had additionally written on another piece of paper were several times the number of the list I was currently looking at.

‘Is Gong Sungpil telling the truth?’

Tapping the desk, I recalled the interrogation I had conducted at the restaurant a few hours ago.

###

“You want me to believe this? Are you kidding me?”

I received the list of executives that Gong Sungpil had written and let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. Even I knew more than double this number!

I slammed the table with my fist, thinking he still hadn’t come to his senses.

“Are you trying to pull a fast one on me? Hurry up and write more!”

Even though I yelled at Gong Sungpil, my anger didn’t subside, so I grabbed the envelope with the list of executives and threw it. The corner of the envelope I threw hit Gong Sungpil’s forehead, who squeezed his eyes shut.

“T-That’s all there is! That’s all the executives left!”

Even as a dot-like drop of blood formed in the middle of his forehead and flowed down his nose, Gong Sungpil shouted with a look of injustice, not caring about anything else.

He was about to pound his chest to prove his sincerity, but he lowered his hand and only sighed after meeting Park Taejin’s leopard-like eyes.

I stared at the top of his head, which was bowed deeply, and something strange struck me.

“The executives left now?”

Gong Sungpil nodded vigorously and opened his mouth.

“Almost all the executives were either demoted or retired as advisors or consultants during the personnel reshuffle in the second half of last year. Really! Why would I lie to you, Young Master?”

I had missed it. The Shinseong Group’s great purge, which I had heard in passing because I was busy working, was actually true!

I bit my lip slightly and spat out at Gong Sungpil.

“Anything you can think of?”

“They were pushed out during the special audit by the secretary’s office last year. They were caught buying land in Godeok or somewhere…”

Godeok was the Pyeongtaek County where our family and the Hwang family had scraped together land last year, or rather, Godeok-myeon [a township] in Pyeongtaek City, which would be integrated this year. Our family was openly making money by creating large-scale farms and Hanwoo [Korean beef] ranches and supplying them to department stores, but I had felt a sense of satisfaction at the thought of the Hwang family suffering silently like a mute with a burning heart…

I gathered my thoughts and asked him again.

“Why there?”

“I heard they were building a Shinseong Electronics semiconductor factory, but this time, for some reason, they said they were directly buying the factory site instead of the surrounding area.”

Hearing that, I smiled inwardly.

‘Things are getting interesting?’

The Hwang family from the Joguk Ilbo [a newspaper] would be going crazy. How much would it hurt that the funds and the servants they had prepared to milk Shinseong after Jang Hogeon stepped down had been completely plundered?

I exchanged a look with Park Taejin and burst into laughter before continuing the interrogation.

“What about you?”

“I was in New York, so I didn’t hear any information. But in the money laundering account…”

###

After that, I listened to Gong Sungpil’s confession and realized why Jang Hogeon and Lee Soohan had been so proactive during the department store consulting. In the end, they had used me, our family, and Jang Hayeon to completely purge the internal enemies.

I couldn’t erase the bitter smile from my face due to a sense of defeat. Even though I hated him as a human being, Jang Hogeon was by no means an easy opponent, as he was someone from whom I could learn a lot as a manager and as someone sitting on the throne.

Now that things had turned out that way, I had to abandon the plan to make them fight each other if I became Jang Hogeon’s son-in-law and tear apart and swallow the affiliates.

Still, I had put a dog collar around Gong Sungpil’s neck and pulled out his heart to hold in my hand, so I had landed a shadow punch on the Jang family, right?

***

After wrapping up this matter, I called Claire early in the morning and headed to Henry’s mansion with Park Taejin. Henry, who had taken us to the drawing room, had the butler bring tea.

“I received a report that you weren’t being followed. You’re finally free.”

“Thanks to you, I was able to fully appreciate the Royce family’s treasures, so I’m just grateful, haha.”

Gong Sungpil didn’t send anyone to follow me as promised. But it could have been a trick, and they might only have refrained from following me today, so I couldn’t let my guard down until I returned.

Henry seemed to have read my worries hidden in my laughter, and he looked at me with pity in his eyes behind his monocle.

“Still, it seems like you wasted time unnecessarily, since time is money. Are you alright, Johnny?”

“It can’t be helped. It wouldn’t be good for it to be known in Korea that I had built such wealth at the young age of twenty-five.”

Henry, who was sitting in the drawing room drinking tea, nodded at my answer.

“If you were American, Johnny, you would have become a treasure of this country. It’s a shame.”

“Rather than blaming reality, I should create a better path within reality. Isn’t that right, Claire?”

Claire, who was drinking tea next to me, smiled.

“Someone like Johnny can create the path you want. Isn’t that right, Father?”

“You’re right, Claire. I was short-sighted. Yes, if you don’t like the path, you should create your own path and move forward, haha.”

Henry chuckled and took a sip of tea at Claire’s question, which she had thrown after turning her head to look at me.

“The green tea that Ssun sent from your family, the refreshing scent is good, and the moderate bitterness is another charm different from black tea. It’s very good.”

“It’s green tea made at my grandfather’s tea garden in Boseong [a region in South Korea famous for its green tea]. It’s made by picking and roasting organically grown leaves one by one by hand, so I’m glad it suits your taste.”

Henry exclaimed from his pursed lips.

“Hoo… I received a precious gift. If such excellent tea comes from that place called Boseong, the scenery must be beautiful. I went to Sri Lanka before…”

We had an in-depth discussion about the flavors of different types of tea and the correlation between the tea and the place where it was made before going to the dining room for brunch.

Despite being from a wealthy family, they couldn’t hide their German heritage, and Kartofelpuffer (German potato pancakes) topped with fried eggs cooked on one side, bacon, rye bread, orange juice, and sparkling water were placed on the table.

While eating, Henry placed the fork and knife he was holding in both hands on either side of the plate and took a sip of sparkling water.

“The reason I wanted to talk to you about business is because of what happened last time.”

“Are you talking about the yen-go betting?”

“That’s right. I expected to be dragged to the Washington hearing, but I didn’t feel good after being subjected to it.”

Before attending the hearing, Henry had unleashed lobbyists like a pack of dogs and showered the US Congress with money. Thanks to that, there weren’t any major issues, but when one congressman sneered at him as ‘Yokai Royce’ [referring to a supernatural monster in Japanese folklore], Henry glared at him with eyes so sharply raised that it seemed like he would break his monocle.

The memory of seeing that scene on CNN TV came to my mind, and I placed the fork and knife on the plate and lowered my eyes slightly as I looked at Henry. Henry examined my face and cleared his throat.

“So, the Democratic Party said they would like me to invest in other areas as well.”

If it was something that the Democratic Party would have offered… was it that?

I had a hunch. What the Democratic Party wanted from us at this time.

“Could it be… the cultural industry?”

As I asked cautiously, soft wrinkles formed around Henry’s monocle.

“You’re right. To be exact, it’s movies and music. Isn’t that one of the three pillars of the Democratic Party and the Clinton administration’s economic policy?”

As expected.

The Democratic Party-Clinton administration had designated IT, finance, and the entertainment industry as new cylinders to explosively turn the giant engine of the American economy.

So, it was only natural for such a Democratic Party to want Triumph and Standard, which were based on finance and played the role of a major player in the IT industry, to pour money into the film industry as well.

As soon as I received confirmation of my guess from Henry, I clenched my fist on my knee under the table.

I was a well-known movie buff in the business world, but even though I wanted to invest money in movies, I had been postponing the investment until now because of my relationships with company colleagues, including Claire.

I had made enough money now, but I was worried because there was no natural opportunity to invest, so Henry’s offer was very attractive to me.

Hiding such inner thoughts, I calmly opened my mouth.

“I understand, Henry. Have you thought of any places to invest in?”

“That’s why I called you. Let’s finish our meal before looking at the investment proposals. I’d feel sorry for the Kartofelpuffer and bacon.”

“That’s right, Father. I think we’ll feel sorry if we leave them to get colder, heehee.”

The three of us diligently moved our forks and knives to empty the plates, bread basket, and cups before moving to Henry’s study and office.

“Henry?”

“Dad?”

As if he had decided to have this conversation from the beginning, there were piles of documents for three people prepared on the table in the study. Mountains of documents!

Henry smiled at me and Claire, who were startled.

“These are all investment proposals sent from Hollywood. Think of my house as your own for a few days and relax comfortably, haha.”

“Ahahahaha…”

I just laughed as I looked at Henry, who was smiling with a good-natured expression. He was going to give me a bedroom that rivaled a royal suite instead of a one-room apartment, and meals made by chefs from 5-star hotels instead of fried dumplings, and then make me work?