The Conglomerate Family Became A Villain [EN]: Chapter 147

147. The Uninvited Guest (1)

January 11th.

Jung Hyun-woo went to work as usual and held meetings with Development Teams 2 and 3 until 2 PM as scheduled.

The unexpected event occurred at 2:20 PM.

It was when he finished a short meeting with Sarah and came out of her office.

“You have a visitor.”

The one who approached Jung Hyun-woo and reported was his secretary, Anne.

“A visitor, you say?”

“She said she’s Charlie’s relative.”

Relative.

It was an unfamiliar word to Jung Hyun-woo.

‘Hmm, if it were my uncle, he would have contacted me in advance…….’

It didn’t seem like Jung Min-young.

‘Could it be my great-uncle?’

It would be awkward if Jung Min-seok came to visit.

Anne lowered her voice, seeing that Jung Hyun-woo’s reaction was lukewarm.

“Shall I send her back?”

Jung Hyun-woo shook his head.

“No. I’ll meet her.”

He took a deep breath and headed to his office.

Opening the door and entering, a neatly dressed woman in her twenties stood up and greeted him familiarly.

“Hyun-woo, long time no see.”

Jung Hyun-woo seemed to know roughly who she was.

‘She must be my great aunt’s daughter.’

Judging by her age, it was highly likely to be Han Jin-ye, the second daughter.

“What brings Jin-ye noona [older sister or female cousin] here?”

“What else…… I was in the neighborhood and stopped by to see you.”

As expected, she was Han Jin-ye, the second daughter of Jung In-hae.

“It’s hard to see you even during the holidays, but you come all the way to Boston. I can’t help but be surprised.”

Jung Hyun-woo said he couldn’t help but be surprised, but his tone was stiff.

“You don’t seem happy to see me at all.”

Jung Hyun-woo spoke somewhat brusquely.

“It’s during work hours. What would the employees think if the company president spends personal time during work hours?”

Han Jin-ye also knew that Americans strictly separated work and personal time.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think of that. Should I go out and wait?”

Jung Hyun-woo sighed briefly.

“Haa……. You’ve come all this way, it’s okay. I can spare about 30 minutes.”

He pressed the intercom, and Anne came in.

“Mr. Jung, did you call?”

“Coffee, please. What would you like, noona?”

Han Jin-ye replied in a light voice.

“Coffee for me too.”

Anne smiled after taking her order.

“Two coffees, understood.”

After she left, Han Jin-ye said.

“You’ve really made it.”

Han Jin-ye had been half-doubtful until she met Jung Hyun-woo. But now she was convinced of Jung Hyun-woo’s success.

“I just got lucky.”

“You can’t get this far just by being lucky.”

There were thousands of Korean students studying in the United States. None of them had succeeded like Jung Hyun-woo.

“Then I’ll say I got very lucky. Is that okay?”

“You’re still stiff.”

“Isn’t this better than when I was a troublemaker?”

Jung Hyun-woo was the black sheep of the Daewoon Group, an outcast.

Han Jin-ye glanced at him and replied.

“I was a little scared of you back then.”

Jung Hyun-woo tilted his head at her answer.

“Scared of a middle schooler?”

“Middle schoolers are scarier because you never know what they’ll do, don’t you think?”

She was saying that she was scared of the infamous middle school syndrome [a rebellious phase common in Korean middle schoolers].

‘I can think of two reasons why she came to see me.’

The first is simple curiosity.

It was only natural to be curious about the black sheep of the Daewoon Group becoming a tycoon in America.

‘She probably wants to see what kind of state I’m in.’

The second is an instruction from Jung In-hae.

Great Aunt Jung In-hae might have given her a message to deliver here.

‘The possibility isn’t very high.’

That was because Jung In-hae had sided with Jung Min-seok, not Jung Min-young.

‘But I should still ask, just in case, right?’

Jung Hyun-woo crossed his legs and said.

“Now that I’m a college student, you’re not scared of me anymore?”

“Now that you’re a college student and a company president, you wouldn’t do anything weird, would you?”

Jung Hyun-woo crossed his legs and put his hands together.

“What did my aunt say?”

“Mother?”

“Weren’t you here to deliver my aunt’s message?”

Han Jin-ye waved her right hand.

“Not at all.”

“Not at all?”

Excessive denial was close to affirmation.

“My mother is close to my great-uncle, so…”

She was saying that Jung In-hae had no separate message to convey because she was on Jung Min-seok’s side.

“So you’re saying you came to see me purely out of curiosity.”

“Is it just curiosity to check on how your cousin is doing?”

“It’s not like we haven’t seen each other for a year or two.”

Just as he said that, Anne appeared with the coffee.

Thump. Thump.

She set the cups in front of them and went outside.

“A beautiful secretary?”

“If the salary is the same, it’s better to have a beautiful one, right?”

“You’re hiring beauties instead of those with better skills?”

“Anne is also very capable.”

Anne was a superwoman who could figure out anything Jung Hyun-woo needed.

“I came too suddenly today, didn’t I?”

“It’s good that you know.”

“I’ll contact you in advance next time.”

Han Jin-ye held out her right hand to Jung Hyun-woo.

‘She wants my contact information.’

Jung Hyun-woo uncrossed his legs and picked a business card from the desk, handing it to her.

“Here’s my contact information.”

Han Jin-ye received Jung Hyun-woo’s business card and stared intently at it.

[Charlie Jung, CEO of Victoria Corporation]

‘He really is a CEO.’

She looked at his business card with fascination.

Jung Hyun-woo just let her be.

‘It seems she really came out of curiosity.’

He had no special feelings for Han Jin-ye.

‘It’s not like she’s done anything to harm me.’

Just a distant relative.

She was nothing more or less than that.

After staring at the business card for a long time, Han Jin-ye stood up.

“I’ll be going now.”

Jung Hyun-woo was still brusque.

“I can’t go far because I have work to do.”

“It’s okay. I know the way out.”

Han Jin-ye didn’t pay any attention to Jung Hyun-woo’s brusqueness and went outside.

After she left.

Jung Hyun-woo sighed briefly.

“Haa……. Is she surprisingly nice?”

Han Jin-ye was the granddaughter of Daewoon Group Chairman Jung Woo-sun. In American terms, she was in the same position as Lyra Marine.

But he didn’t feel any arrogance or sense of superiority from her.

* * *

“Yeah, I met Hyun-woo.”

The person Han Jin-ye called was her mother, Jung In-hae.

“How was it?”

“He was handsome.”

Jung In-hae sighed at her daughter’s superficial assessment.

“Haa……. How can you be so…….”

“And he was smart.”

“He must be smart since he got into MIT. What else?”

“I got his business card.”

Jung In-hae raised her voice.

“A business card?”

“I went to his company.”

“Hyun-woo’s company?”

“Yeah. It’s called Victoria Corporation, and it’s in downtown Boston.”

Jung In-hae asked again.

“How’s the company? Is it big?”

“They use the whole building. But it’s not like the headquarters of a large corporation like Daewoon Group. Hmm, how should I put it, would you call it a mid-sized company?”

Jung In-hae nodded, accepting her words.

“That’s right, a mid-sized company is below a large corporation.”

Han Jin-ye recalled Victoria Corporation, which she had visited today.

“There’s a pretty secretary, and the office is spacious.”

“Is Hyun-woo really the president?”

“The business card says CEO, and he’s using the president’s office, so he must be the president.”

Jung In-hae was able to confirm Jung Hyun-woo’s reality through her daughter.

“So it’s true that he succeeded in America.”

“I was a little scared at first. I was wondering what to do if a strange person came out.”

“Does it seem like he could be on our side?”

Han Jin-ye thought Jung In-hae was being too hasty.

“Mom, you can’t know that just from meeting him once.”

“Then can you know if you meet him twice?”

“It’s going to be hard to make time again. I have an exam next month.”

Han Jin-ye wasn’t just playing around in America. She was engaged in fierce academic competition with American college students.

“Is your GPA more important now?”

“Mom.”

“Everything will be solved if we just get Hyun-woo on our side.”

Han Jin-ye narrowed her brows.

“Mom, it’s not like we’re so poor that we need Hyun-woo’s help.”

She was curious about Jung Hyun-woo, but she didn’t want to use him.

However, Jung In-hae thought differently from her daughter. She wanted to use Jung Hyun-woo to expand her position in the Daewoon Group.

“Jin-ye, it’s not Hyun-woo’s money that we need.”

“Then what?”

“What we need is Hyun-woo’s influence. The person Hyun-woo wants will become the chairman of the Daewoon Group.”

Jung In-hae had a good sense.

‘There’s no significant difference in talent between Min-seok and Min-young. Then the one who gathers more people will win.’

She thought that recruiting Jung Hyun-woo would greatly increase the chances of being chosen by Chairman Jung Woo-sun.

“Mom, the Daewoon Group is our maternal family.”

“Listen to me unless you’re going to get a job at the bank like your father.”

Han Jin-ye’s father was the second son of the president of Hongik Bank.

“Mom. Why are you talking about getting a job?”

Jung In-hae hardened her voice and said.

“Why else? Do we have land to inherit? Or a company? We have to make money by getting a salary.”

She thought it was much better to side with the Daewoon Group than with Hongik Bank.

‘Everything could go wrong the moment my father-in-law fails to be reappointed as the bank president.’

Her father-in-law was the president who managed the bank, not the owner of the bank.

“Stop talking back and visit Hyun-woo whenever you have time. And don’t bother him, give Hyun-woo even a little bit of help.”

“Okay.”

Han Jin-ye hung up the phone and narrowed her brows.

‘Tch, if I visit him whenever I have time, he’ll be annoyed. How can I help him?’

She thought her mother’s request was unreasonable.

“Should I visit him one or two more times anyway?”

Han Jin-ye felt like Jung Hyun-woo’s success was her own.

* * *

Sarah started the engine and raised her voice.

“I heard you had a visitor today?”

Driving home was still her job.

Jung Hyun-woo fastened his seatbelt and replied.

“A relative came.”

“I heard it was a woman?”

“My cousin, noona.”

“Wow, you mean a real noona came?”

Jung Hyun-woo shrugged at her question.

“My real noona is right next to me.”

Sarah chuckled at that answer.

“Charlie always calls me noona when it’s advantageous.”

“Did I do that?”

“So, what kind of person is she?”

“What kind of person? I haven’t seen her in years, so I don’t feel anything.”

Sarah turned the steering wheel and asked.

“At least she’s not Charlie’s enemy, right?”

“She’s not the kind of person who would become an enemy.”

“So you’re saying she’s a good person.”

“I didn’t say that far, did I?”

“I can guess to some extent when I hear Charlie’s voice. What kind of person that person is.”

Was it because they had been together for a long time?

Sarah could read emotions in his voice. She couldn’t feel any anxiety or displeasure in Jung Hyun-woo’s voice today.

“I’m more worried about CES next week than her.”

“CES, like Nintendo?”

“No.”

Sarah tilted her head at his answer.

“Not Nintendo?”

“Commodore.”

Victoria Corporation was working with several IT companies. Therefore, it had no choice but to open a booth jointly with several companies, not just one, at CES [Consumer Electronics Show].

“Ah, Commodore was there too. I forgot.”

Just before CES last year, Jung Hyun-woo and Sarah had met Commodore’s CEO, Luke Bernard, at his mansion.

Currently, Luke Bernard was in crisis due to the failure of the Plus 4.

“If he doesn’t release a proper new product this time, Mr. Bernard will step down from his position as CEO.”

“That’s not good for us, is it?”

“That’s right.”

It was Luke Bernard who decided to cooperate with Victoria Corporation.

His resignation was likely to affect the collaboration between Victoria Corporation and Commodore.

“But even if he steps down as CEO, we’ve already gotten what we wanted, right?”

What Victoria Corporation wanted most from Commodore was to install JP Service and American Service on affordable PCs like the Commodore 64.

And last year, Jung Hyun-woo and the development team led by Andrei made that possible by releasing a completely redesigned program in BASIC.

In short, Victoria Corporation had already gotten everything it could from Commodore.

“That’s true, but it’s different whether Commodore is still strong or collapses.”

Jung Hyun-woo wanted Commodore to last a few more years.

‘If it collapses now, there will be a shock to the market.’

What he wanted was a soft landing for Commodore.

“How’s IBM doing?”

IBM was still firmly holding the top spot in global market capitalization in January of this year.

“There’s no problem there. Rather, doesn’t Sarah know more about IBM than I do?”

“I haven’t been able to take care of IBM properly this month because I’ve been busy with new partners like Microsoft.”

Sarah had no choice but to leave IBM to Robert because she was directly taking care of new partners, including Microsoft.

“We’ll get another 2 to 3 million customers through IBM this year as well.”

Sarah was slightly surprised at Jung Hyun-woo’s words.

“That many?”

“The evaluation of this version is good, isn’t it?”

The new version of the JP series, released at the beginning of this year, was being praised as groundbreaking.

“Still, that’s too much, isn’t it?”

Sarah thought it would be difficult for the number of JP Service and American Service customers to increase explosively.

‘Because the market is stabilizing to some extent.’

She thought it was more important to prevent existing customers from leaving than to attract new customers.

‘The good reviews of this version will be more helpful in that regard.’

Jung Hyun-woo said in a slightly complaining tone.

“Sarah was pessimistic at the last meeting, and she continues to be pessimistic.”

Sarah raised her eyebrows at his criticism.

“Was I?”

“You said that the marketing team’s expectations were too high when you saw the 1985 plan.”

“That’s because the plan was too rosy.”

Sarah preferred realistic plans to ideal ones.

“It wasn’t that rosy.”

“Wasn’t it?”

“It was.”

Sarah stepped on the brake and stopped the car in front of the stop line.

“Charlie, it’s good for the CFO to be conservative.”

“I know that much.”

If the CEO was someone who painted a hopeful future, the CFO was someone who executed funds coolly so that the CEO’s plans could be realized.

Sarah wanted to be faithful to her role as CFO.

“If the number of subscribers increases as Charlie predicts, the number of service subscribers will reach 10 million this year. But we haven’t made a plan to handle 10 million people.”

Jung Hyun-woo groaned lowly at her point.

“Hmm, that’s true.”

To maintain 10 million subscribers, more data centers, more AS [After Service] technicians, and more management centers were needed.

“If you really think about 10 million people, you’ll have to rewrite the plan.”

Jung Hyun-woo crossed his arms at her words.

“Let’s re-examine the plan after seeing the number of subscribers in January.”

He thought the number of 10 million was not far away.