Chapter 38: Let’s Just Work, Nothing Else

The rights issue for shareholders had finally come to an end. Now was the time to move in earnest.

As I stepped out of Yang Sobo’s mansion, a stranger was waiting for me. There was a firm, restrained aura about him.

“Are you Mr. Baek Min-woo?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Starting today, I’ll be assigned to assist you for the time being. It’s by the Master’s order.”

I had already been told that someone would be attached to me, so I nodded silently.

Zhang Wei couldn’t continue to move around with me. He was Yang Sobo’s confidant, after all.

And the three people I had personally selected were already carrying out other important missions in their respective positions.

“I’ll be in your care for a while.”

“My name is Lee Cheong-ho.”

I extended my hand first, and he gripped it firmly.

His rough hands were covered with deep scars. That alone told me that he had never lived an easy life — he was someone hardened by countless wounds and soaked in blood and violence.

“Please get in. I’ll drive.”

As I got into the car and watched him take the wheel, I tried to recall what I knew about him.

His real name was Li Qinghao, a Chinese national from Shandong Province. That was all Zhang Wei had told me about him.

If he was to replace Zhang Wei, he had to be one of Yang Sobo’s hidden aides, yet there was no information about him whatsoever.

Together, we arrived at the operations office that Jeong Tae-soo had arranged.

When I opened the door and stepped inside, dozens of people were already seated before telephones, waiting anxiously.

The air inside was thick with cigarette smoke and tense energy.

At the center of the room stood Dan Tae-geon, arms crossed, wearing an arrogant expression as if to assert his authority.

They say the fox becomes king when the tiger’s away. I sneered inwardly and approached him.

The moment I entered, Dan Tae-geon picked a fight.

“Why are you so late, rookie!”

“As far as I know, we still have some time before the appointed hour.”

“Clicking your tongue* “Tsk. You should’ve arrived early to check the situation and prepare! You don’t even have the basics down.”

At his petty complaint, I couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh. Dan Tae-geon’s eyes flared.

“What the hell are you doing now? Did you just sigh in front of me, you bastard?”

It seemed it was time to deal with him properly once and for all. I couldn’t keep letting a small fry like Dan Tae-geon push me around.

“Let’s step outside and talk. Too many ears here.”

“Ha! Look at this punk! You giving me orders now? What’s this? You even brought a lump with you.”

Dan Tae-geon shot a scornful glance at Lee Cheong-ho, as if just noticing his presence.

Following his gaze, I said to Lee Cheong-ho,

“Mr. Lee Cheong-ho, please wait here for a moment. We have something to settle between us.”

“Yes, understood.”

He replied with an easy smile, without a hint of hesitation. His composure made Dan Tae-geon’s frown deepen further.

“Let’s go, President Dan. Let’s have a quiet talk, just the two of us.”

“Ha! Fine. I’d love to hear what kind of guts you’ve got to act so bold.”

Leaving the office together, we stepped into a narrow, dark alley beside the building.

The damp, unpleasant smell stung my nose.

When we reached the dead end, we faced each other.

“President Dan. Why are you doing this to me? Did I make some grave mistake against you?”

“Mistake? Your very existence is a mistake, you filthy bastard! Where the hell did a mutt like you crawl from, thinking you can stand equal to me?”

I sighed deeply again at his vile provocation.

“I told you not to sigh, didn’t I? You keep getting cocky, relying on Master Yang, and you’ll end up dead…”

“Hey, Dan Tae-geon.”

I cut him off and answered in informal speech, and Dan Tae-geon blinked dumbly for a moment.

That only lasted a moment; his face flushed beet-red as he came back to himself, and then he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“You, you son of a bitch! Do you really want me to throw you a funeral because you want to die so badly? Hey, Dan Tae-geon? Am I your friend?”

Dan Tae-geon couldn’t contain his rage and lunged at me swinging a fist along with a string of coarse curses. His punch had some weight to it, but his movements were simple and clumsy.

I bent my head lightly to dodge the punch and at the same time drove a precise, quick fist into his abdomen.

“Guhk!”

A short groan and foam burst from Dan Tae-geon’s mouth. He couldn’t withstand the shock and staggered back.

I shook my head and walked toward him.

Dan Tae-geon, who regained his senses quickly, snarled and swung again. I easily avoided his attack, grabbed his collar, and pushed him against the wall.

With a dull thud, Dan Tae-geon’s back struck the wall hard.

“Dan Tae-geon, I’m someone who has nothing to lose. Want to go all the way? Shall I systematically clean up your businesses one by one?”

“You... you son of a—”

“You couldn’t even throw a proper punch, yet you’re all temper. How on earth did you come to control the loan shark market?”

My taunt made Dan Tae-geon’s face go even redder. Or maybe his face was pale from having his throat squeezed—but why should I care?

“Have whatever emotions you want toward me. But don’t mix private feelings into the work. I’m holding back now even though there’s someone before me I’d like to kill.”

I was the one who had to cooperate with Jeong Tae-soo, essentially a sworn enemy, and help him. No one could have been more disgusted about participating in this operation than I was.

Thinking of Jeong Tae-soo made my hand on his collar tighten without my realizing it. Choked, Dan Tae-geon scratched at my arm with both hands and coughed.

“If you don’t want that, what then? Shall we strip off our ranks and have a one-on-one here, loser obeying the winner? I can persuade Master Yang, but can you convince Deputy Manager Jeong Tae-soo? What’ll you do?”

The Jeong Tae-soo I knew wasn’t the kind of man who would personally take time to manage these petty matters.

He would have used Dan Tae-geon as his right-hand man, set the broad framework of the operation, and watched the situation from behind, intervening only when the situation changed.

If I introduced a variable to such a Jeong Tae-soo, it was obvious what would happen to Dan Tae-geon. Dan Tae-geon knew that too; his face turned white.

I let go of his collar and stepped back. Then I spoke in a polite tone again.

“President Dan. Let’s just do the work—just the work. We can fight all we want after it’s over. If this goes wrong, wouldn’t you be in more trouble than me?”

Dan Tae-geon glared at me fiercely as he panted, but I paid him no mind and only flashed a friendly smile.

“Or, do you really want to take it to the end?”

Dan Tae-geon furrowed his brow hard. His head was probably calculating things in a complicated way.

If he backed down, his pride would be hurt; if he continued to confront me, he couldn’t be sure he’d beat someone he considered a rookie.

Dan Tae-geon wasn’t a martial-arts man from the start. He had risen to his position by cunning, money, and dirty means.

If he decided to obstruct me on purpose, I’d have a headache too. But I couldn’t keep being dragged around by him, so I chose this extreme method to break his spirit.

“...Fine. Stop it.”

At last Dan Tae-geon gritted his teeth and spoke. He wasn’t an idiot either. He knew that if he opposed me to the end, this operation would be derailed from the start.

“Your role is only to watch. Anything more is overstepping. Understand?”

“Yes. I’ll just watch.”

“Good. We’ll talk again after this is over.”

I nodded inwardly, amused at his insistence on saving face. If I crushed him completely, he might rebel, so I gave him enough to preserve some dignity.

“All right. Thank you. For agreeing to my request.”

“I'm leaving now.”

As we tried to leave the alley, Lee Cheong-ho stood blocking the exit with his back turned. Several burly men faced him with hostile expressions.

“Boss!”

They were Dan Tae-geon’s men. When they spotted Dan Tae-geon, they hurried over. Lee Cheong-ho glanced our way and stepped slightly aside.

“What happened? Did that bastard do something to you, Boss?”

“Nothing! What are you doing yourselves?”

“We were just worried something might happen to the boss...”

“Hey! You think I’m going to get in a scrap with that punk right now?”

“Ah, no... it’s not that...”

“Stop the useless fuss and keep watch around! If I needed you specifically, I would’ve called you separately!”

While Dan Tae-geon, thoroughly beaten, vented his frustration at his undeserving subordinates, Lee Cheong-ho approached me and asked slyly.

“Did you win?”

“Win what?”

“Oh come on, I have ears too. I heard rumors that Mr. Baek Min-woo is supposed to be good at something.”

“We resolved it by talking. Peacefully, with words.”

“Ah, how anticlimactic. I thought something fun might happen.”

What on earth was this man? I looked at Lee Cheong-ho with an expression of disbelief without realizing it.

He seemed polite yet infinitely light. He was a person whose personality I simply could not pin down.

“Let’s go back in. It’ll open soon.”

I started walking first; Dan Tae-geon stopped barking at his men and reluctantly followed.

Back in the office, I sat in a chair and watched Dan Tae-geon pretend to be in charge.

Finally, it was time for the stock exchange doors to open. Dan Tae-geon, anxiously checking his watch, raised his voice.

“Call them all and place the orders! Now!”

“Yes, President!”

The people in front of the telephones all lifted their receivers at once and began making calls somewhere.

The operation had finally begun.

At the same time.

In the heart of South Korea’s financial system — the Monetary Policy Committee conference room at the Bank of Korea.

Normally, this place would be filled with refined discussion and prudent decisions, but today, it was charged with a tension so sharp it felt like walking on thin ice.

Convened at the urgent request of the Ministry of Finance, the meeting had a single agenda: “Emergency funding measures for stabilizing the securities market.”

The Bank of Korea’s executives and Monetary Policy Committee members all sat with grim expressions.

The overheated stock market, which had raged like a storm in recent months — especially the speculative frenzy surrounding Daegung stock — had long since passed the danger threshold.

Park Jin-hyung, the Bank’s Deputy Governor in charge of funding, began explaining the agenda with a heavy expression.

His tone was calm, but the concern in his words was unmistakable. He detailed the severe shortage of funds in the securities financing sector and pointed out the key problems as seen from the Bank of Korea’s perspective.

“First, there’s the fundamental question of whether lending an additional fifty billion hwan in funds will truly prevent the current market turmoil.

Second, the securities market is clearly in an overheated state. If the Bank of Korea provides yet another round of financial support, won’t that only fuel and sustain this bubble further?

Third, why must this support be treated as an extra-limit special loan? The Monetary Policy Committee has already allocated an additional fifty billion hwan in special ceiling funds to commercial banks. It would be more reasonable for banks to autonomously provide support within that limit.”

When Deputy Governor Park’s explanation ended, the meeting room sank into an even heavier silence.

For the Bank of Korea, providing fifty billion hwan in securities financing outside the existing limits was indeed an excessive demand. Yet if they refused, the Bank would surely be blamed for the collapse of the securities market — a political firestorm of accusations that they had caused the disaster.

It was, quite literally, a dilemma with no way out.

The Monetary Policy Committee members present began voicing their own conflicted opinions, each with a troubled look.

“The stance of the commercial banks is already firm. They say, ‘At this rate, even by the end of May, the securities financing sector will still lack settlement funds. In that case, they’ll not only fail to repay but will likely request further assistance. How can banks lend at their own risk to an entity already so insolvent? Unless this is handled as an extra-limit policy loan, it’s absolutely impossible.’ That is their official position.”

Another member spoke with frustration.

“Shares with a face value of fifty jeon are now trading for over fifty hwan in the market. That’s a hundredfold increase! How long can we possibly sustain such an abnormal bubble?”

“Indeed! It’s time to make a cold-headed choice. Do we stop this madness now, or do we march straight into an even greater catastrophe?”

“The current stock market is no different from an overinflated rubber balloon.”

The impassioned voices were predicting nothing but a grim end.

“To land it safely, we must let the air out gradually, to a point where the balloon can hold its shape. If we don’t, it’ll just burst spectacularly in the end!”

Of course, there were also those urging caution.

“The mountain’s already ablaze, and the government keeps pouring gasoline over it. If they recklessly prop up the market like this, and then fail to contain the aftermath, who will bear the responsibility when it all collapses?”

“The sly speculators who inflated the prices have already slipped out, leaving behind only the innocent ordinary citizens — they’ll shed tears of blood and suffer enormous losses. Once the market crashes, it might take years, even decades, to return the securities market of this country to normalcy.”

The conference room quickly turned into a scene of condemnation.

Each person criticized the unfairness of treating the securities funding as extra-limit and warned of the horrific consequences it could bring.

Then, Bank of Korea Governor Kang Tae-jun, who had been presiding over the meeting, finally opened his mouth with a heavy tone.

The deep lines of his face showed the marks of sleepless deliberation.

“If I were convinced that providing fifty billion hwan would stabilize the securities market, I would gladly agree. But no one here — not even the Ministry of Finance — can give us that assurance. Under such uncertainty, it’s difficult to approve funding so hastily.”

The Vice Minister of Finance and the Director-General of the Treasury Bureau, who were attending the meeting, could not respond to Governor Kang’s remarks.

They too had no concrete plan to stabilize the market.

In the end, the Committee demanded the direct appearance of Minister of Finance Kim Do-hoon and Korea Securities Exchange Chairman Shin Man-cheol.

Before long, the two men hurried into the conference room.

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