The Genius Grandson Of The Cash King Becomes A Tycoon [EN]: Chapter 145

#145

Back in Korea, Jeong-hoon was swamped with pending work.

After clearing the mountain of documents, he took a break to read the newspaper.

The newspaper was what had brought him to where he was today.

So, whenever he had time, he made sure to read it.

The economic section mentioned the plunge in Nvidia’s stock price and the possibility of bankruptcy.

‘They should have known better than to overdo it.’

Jeong-hoon clicked his tongue and sighed.

‘This is why you shouldn’t look down on people.’

Sitting back at his desk, he opened the drawer to refill his fountain pen with ink.

An old key in the drawer caught his eye.

It was the key to the secret vault that his grandmother had given him.

“Should I go down there today?”

Taking the elevator, Jeong-hoon went down to the first basement level and examined every nook and cranny.

According to Mr. Manho, there was a path in the corner of the underground parking lot that led down to the second basement level.

Sure enough, he saw a shutter in the corner of the parking lot where old luggage was piled up.

“There was a place like this here. Is this it?”

Jeong-hoon scanned the area with a flashlight.

Next to where the shutter came down, he saw a keyhole.

He inserted the key and turned it slightly to the side, and the key turned.

Jeong-hoon turned it with all his might.

– Creak

– Rumble

The shutter rose automatically with a loud noise.

And as the orange light came on in the lamp on the wall, the curved path leading down was revealed.

It was wide enough for a car to go down.

It was clear that the original second basement level had been blocked off out of necessity.

He was convinced that something important enough to block off an entire basement level was inside.

‘What could be there?’

His heart pounded.

A cool breeze blew from below.

‘It definitely smells like money.’

A smile naturally appeared on Jeong-hoon’s face.

The second basement level was empty.

Only white fluorescent lights of different colors flickered.

At the end of the empty space, a large gray iron door was visible.

Jeong-hoon approached slowly.

He turned the handle and slowly opened the door.

A cold wind swept over Jeong-hoon’s face.

Dark inside, Jeong-hoon pressed the switch next to the door.

– Ugh

He covered his eyes with his hand.

He had to squeeze his eyes shut.

He thought he was going blind from the intense golden light.

Jeong-hoon, who had frowned and closed his eyes, slowly opened them.

As he squinted, the shape and color of the cold object in front of him became faintly clear.

His hands trembled without him realizing it.

It was an enormous amount of gold, the likes of which he had never seen before.

He reached out and grabbed one.

The haughty energy of gold was felt in his hand.

“Ha, how much is this worth…….”

It looked like at least dozens of tons.

He blinked his eyes and checked again.

Dozens of tons, not dozens of kilograms.

With the price of gold at around 20 billion won per ton [approximately $15 million USD], it was at least trillions of won worth of gold.

Jeong-hoon called his grandmother.

“Grandma, when did you buy all this?”

“Are you checking now? I bought it little by little as a hobby. Ah, back in the day, the Cheonjihoe [a secret society] guys were going to sell the gold collected from the gold collection drive overseas, so I bought it all back to Korea. That’s 20 tons that I bought back then, plus what I had before, and some that I bought because it was a good investment.”

“So, how many kilograms, no, how many tons is this in total?”

“200 tons.”

He was so surprised that he asked again.

“200 tons?”

“Yes. It’s not much, but use it wisely. I have to pull weeds now, so I’ll hang up.”

His grandmother dismissed it as nothing and hung up.

Jeong-hoon stood there blankly, smelling the unique scent of gold.

Pleasant fantasies never left his head.

***

Calming his excitement, he returned to his office and plopped down in his chair.

200 tons of gold in the basement.

4 trillion won [approximately $3 billion USD].

It was definitely a huge sum of money.

But he already had over 100 trillion won.

Still, he couldn’t help but be excited.

Who wouldn’t be excited by money?

To calm his excitement, Jeong-hoon unfolded the approval documents in front of him.

‘Mobileye M&A.’

The approval for the Mobileye acquisition, which was recently carried out through Shinhwa Electronics, had come up.

‘Mobileye is being resolved more easily than I thought.’

Mobileye, not just a venture company, but one that was starting to be recognized for its growth potential.

He was worried, but he easily succeeded in the acquisition negotiations.

Jeong-hoon checked the amount.

1. 36 trillion won [approximately $1 billion USD].

‘Hmm, not bad.’

A company with core technology for autonomous driving.

If he could secure the future with this money, it was by no means expensive.

Moreover, wasn’t today the day he got 4 trillion won in his hands?

Jeong-hoon took out his Montblanc fountain pen and wrote his name in the signature field in the very center of the document.

It was the moment when a great future came to him.

With a satisfied feeling, he leaned back in his chair and spun around once.

The chairman’s office was visible in his eyes like a panorama.

Sofas and tables worth tens of millions [of won, equivalent to thousands of USD].

A vintage round table and chairs for simple meetings.

Paintings worth billions [of won, equivalent to millions of USD] hung on the walls.

It was a perfect moment when everything was to his liking.

He didn’t get Nvidia, but he made them pay dearly for ignoring him.

Jeong-hoon was thinking of calling Musk.

He also had to let Peter, the president of Shinhwa Motors, know.

The intercom rang.

“Mr. Chairman, Mr. Hwang from Nvidia is here to see you.”

“Hmm, tell him I’m busy.”

“……He says he’ll wait.”

Jeong-hoon pondered.

The humiliation he suffered that day came back to him.

He wanted to pay him back in the same way, but that would only make him the same kind of person.

He was a different class of person.

“Haa, tell him to come in.”

As Mr. Hwang entered, Jeong-hoon reached out his hand to shake it.

He didn’t take Jeong-hoon’s hand and immediately bowed deeply and apologized.

“I’m really sorry, Mr. Yoon. I sincerely apologize.”

“You look so different from your confident self that day.”

“I was deceived.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“There was a Korean among our company’s executives. I made the wrong decision based solely on what that person said.”

Jeong-hoon was puzzled.

If he was Korean, he would know Shinhwa Group.

“So that’s what happened. Where is that person now…….”

“Of course, I fired him. It turned out that he was secretly stealing our company’s technology. I sued him for industrial espionage, but he had already fled to Korea.”

“So that’s what happened.”

“Yes, he got a job at a Star Group affiliate and then disappeared.”

Star Group?

Then it was definitely those Cheonjihoe [secret society] guys.

Jeong-hoon was certain that the executive at Nvidia was definitely a Cheonjihoe spy.

“I’m glad you solved the spy problem even now.”

“Yes, I think so too. And…….”

Mr. Hwang hesitated, watching Jeong-hoon’s expression.

“Could you please resume supplying the memory semiconductors that we were receiving through Shinhwa Electronics?”

“I’m afraid that will be difficult.”

“I sincerely apologize. Please forgive me, Chairman Yoon, for ignoring Korea and Shinhwa Group.”

“There is currently a shortage of semiconductors. I can’t take what’s going to other places now and turn it over to you. I’m sorry for your situation, but please understand.”

“Chairman Yoon, then please buy our company.”

It was a desperate statement, but in fact, that was the only proposal he could make.

“Nvidia will soon go bankrupt. Why would I buy a company that’s going to go bankrupt? Wouldn’t it be better to let it go bankrupt and then just pick it up for free?”

“Please.”

Mr. Hwang pleaded once again.

Jeong-hoon strongly grabbed hold of his weakening heart once more.

“Well, what reason do I have to acquire that company now?”

“Our company has 3,000 excellent employees. I can’t bear to see them end up on the streets because they met the wrong president.”

“If you can’t bear to see it, what can you do?”

At Jeong-hoon’s words, Mr. Hwang took out a document from his bag.

“I will transfer all of my shares free of charge. Then it will be your company. According to my investigation, I know that Chairman Yoon’s company has never fired employees under any circumstances.”

“Hmm, that’s true, but…….”

Jeong-hoon was at a loss.

To be honest, he didn’t think this person would go this far.

“If you have my shares, all the problems will be solved. Just let me do research there. I don’t want anything else besides that. As for compensation…… I don’t even care if you just give me the minimum wage.”

“Then what’s left for you?”

“I haven’t thought that far. I just…… like doing research the most.”

“You’re hopeless. Haa…… I really don’t understand. You’re so different today than you were that day.”

“I repeat, it’s because I was deceived. That bastard spoke of the chairman and Shinhwa Group like they were devils. I’m a bit gullible…….”

So that was it?

The problem with that person was that he was gullible.

He also had a great sense of responsibility for his employees and a high passion for research and development.

He shouldn’t push him any further.

“Okay. I have no choice. I’ll accept your offer.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

He handed Jeong-hoon the prepared contract.

Jeong-hoon received the contract and read the contents.

There was nothing special, but the last part caught his eye.

The share transfer amount was written as 0 won.

Jeong-hoon took out his Montblanc fountain pen from his desk.

He drew two lines through the part that said 0 won.

Then he wrote down the price he had in mind and left his signature.

“Here you go. I feel relieved that we seem to be friends again, Mr. Hwang.”

“Thank you.”

They shook hands with each other.

As he took the documents and was about to go outside, he asked Jeong-hoon.

“By the way, I can still keep working, right?”

“Of course. I’ll send you the salary and conditions by email.”

“Thank you.”

Jeong-hoon checked his salary.

It was only about 500 million won [approximately $375,000 USD].

It was very low for an American company, and there were no stock options.

It seemed insufficient for him, who had built an excellent company.

He resolved to pay him a fair price for the business he had built.

He was thinking about how much to set his salary when…

The door to the chairman’s office burst open.

Mr. Hwang was standing there.

“Mr. Yoon, is this amount real?”

His face was flushed red, and the hand holding the contract was trembling.

“Is 4 billion dollars certain?”

About 5 trillion won [approximately $3.75 billion USD] in Korean currency.

It was not a small amount of money.

But even if you can get a perfectly good company for free, you should never buy it that way.

There is a high possibility that something will go wrong later.

You should always buy things at a reasonable price.

He estimated that Nvidia’s fair value was around 10 trillion won [approximately $7.5 billion USD].

But due to his slip of the tongue, 5 trillion won was blown away.

If the negotiations had gone well that day, he would have sold it for 10 trillion won, but now it was 5 trillion won.

That was the appropriate amount that Jeong-hoon could give.

“Are you not satisfied with the amount?”

“Ah, no. It’s not that…… I just can’t believe that you offered this price when I ignored you and Shinhwa Group.”

“Hmm, I think it’s a reasonable price.”

“Thank you. Really!”

“Oh, and let’s make the annual salary 2 billion won [approximately $1.5 million USD]. Now that you’re an affiliate of Shinhwa Group, you should receive a salary that matches your value. Of course, stock options will be set separately.”

He only blinked his eyes with an expression that didn’t feel real.

“Well, I have an appointment.”

He left him standing motionless in front of the door and came outside.

Jeong-hoon felt burdened by his gaze.

He knew that if he stayed there any longer, he would be rushed by him, covered in tears and snot.

“I’ll see you next time I go to America.”

Jeong-hoon quickly left the scene, leaving behind a nonchalant remark.

As expected, when he passed by Mr. Hwang, he dodged his two hands trying to grab him with lightning-like agility.

***

The dramatic reconciliation between Nvidia and Shinhwa Electronics.

Shinhwa Group’s status was further strengthened through the acquisition of Nvidia.

Some media pointed out that they had pressured the supply, but they didn’t make a big deal out of it.

This is because Nvidia was not a company with a factory, but a company that only did design.

So, even if they blocked the memory supply, it was difficult to see that it was actually aimed at Nvidia.

He received a call from Musk.

“Yahoo, you’re really amazing. I just got a call from Mobileye and Nvidia. They said they would provide all the technology needed for autonomous driving.”

Now that they were in the same group, it was natural.

“Yes, please use that technology to create a proper autonomous driving technology within three years.”

“Hmm, I keep saying that 10 years would be barely enough, but 3 years is too tight.”

“Then I have no choice. Like I said last time, either liquidate Tesla or merge it with Shinhwa Motors. Of course, you are……. ahem.”

“Ahem, what kind of gruesome words are those? I’m kidding, Chairman Yoon. I’ll work hard.”

He hung up the phone after making a fuss.

Was it said that good things never come without bad?

Was it said that the tree with many branches never has a day without wind [a Korean proverb meaning great success always comes with great troubles]?

His situation was exactly like that.

As soon as he solved one problem, another problem broke out in a new place.

He received a call from Lee Byeong-seok, the president of Shinhwa Games.

His voice was so low that it seemed to be digging underground.

“Mr. Chairman, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry…… What’s the matter?”

“The game we released flopped.”

“I told you not to…… Seriously……”

Irritation soared and a long sigh escaped from his mouth.

He had to think of a plan to overcome this crisis.

Genius Grandson of the Cash King Becomes a Billionaire.