Chapter 208
Chapter 208
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 208
Chapter Title: Bitches with Bottomless Greed
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Outside the large window, thick darkness draped the night, while the faint glow of the late-night city lights flickered in the distance.
Cheon Hye-yeon sat on the sofa, clutching the remote, her eyes glued to the TV screen.
A moment later, she dropped to her knees on the floor and bowed deeply, her forehead pressing against the ground.
-[...This is all my own failing. For not thoroughly checking the data provided by Ms. Cheon Hye-yeon... and causing confusion to the public... I sincerely apologize.]-
The trembling voice of Assemblywoman Osea flowed from the TV screen.
It was the picture-perfect image of an actor following a flawlessly scripted performance.
Cheon Hye-yeon's face remained rigid as she watched the scene unfold.
'A public apology to the nation... tricked by the data...?'
Fragments of the conversation she'd had with Han Yura just days ago rapidly clicked together in her mind.
A cold realization sent a chill racing down her spine.
"Ha?! That fucking bitch Han Yura..."
A low voice drifted from behind her at the venomous curse that burst from Cheon Hye-yeon's lips.
"See? I told you not to trust Director Han."
Cheon Hye-yeon's sharp gaze whipped around.
Emerging faintly from the shadows behind the sofa was Dr. Park Seul-gi.
On the pale skin of the woman hailed as Korea's greatest intellect, crude words were etched in red ink across her body in countless vulgar scrawls.
Traces of Kim Cheolsu's "special hobby."
The dried semen stains scattered everywhere assaulted Cheon Hye-yeon's eyes, laying bare the woman's past.
"Awake?"
Cheon Hye-yeon asked calmly.
Park Seul-gi gave a faint smile in response.
"Yeah, thanks to you, I even passed out for the first time in ages?"
Her tone carried a hint of self-mockery.
"......It wasn't something I wanted."
Cheon Hye-yeon replied stiffly.
There was no need to make excuses, but she hadn't enjoyed it either.
A bitter smile tugged at Park Seul-gi's lips.
"Sure it wasn't. I saw you grinning like an idiot during the double fisting."
Her gaze lingered briefly on Cheon Hye-yeon's lower abdomen.
That area too bore the unmistakable marks of what had just transpired.
Cheon Hye-yeon said nothing more.
In this hell, arguing facts was utterly pointless.
Park Seul-gi settled onto the far end of the sofa and changed the subject.
"Anyway, what are you going to do? Just give up like this?"
Her voice held a subtle mix of anticipation and probing challenge.
Cheon Hye-yeon stared at Assemblywoman Osea, still bowing on the TV screen, and replied coldly.
"Not a chance."
Her mind began racing.
Han Yura's goal was obvious.
Use Osea to betray her, breaking one of the blades aimed at Taesung herself.
In exchange for opening the door to the "prison of public opinion" where her father was trapped, Han Yura would carve up Taesung Group's shares between her father and herself.
That was the most likely scenario Han Yura had plotted.
Her father and she had already crossed the point of no return.
If things played out according to Han Yura's scheme, with her father and her splitting Taesung's shares,
Han Yura's stake in Blue Sky would overwhelmingly dominate.
The absolute top holder.
And below her, two second-place contenders too busy tearing into each other.
A perfect structure of control.
'...Not gonna let that happen.'
Cheon Hye-yeon's eyes flashed like those of a predator spotting prey.
She turned her head to look at Park Seul-gi, seated on one end of the sofa.
The one wildcard in this game.
"Doctor, have you made your decision?"
Park Seul-gi eyed her with interest for a moment before shrugging.
"Mm, I'll side with you, Hye-yeon."
Her voice was light, but the reason behind it was anything but.
"That kid Director Han throwing a tantrum just 'cause she met the chairman early annoys me a bit..."
A lewd smile crept across Park Seul-gi's lips.
"And that double fisting you gave me? Pretty damn good."
"......."
'Tch... crazy bitch...'
Cheon Hye-yeon swallowed her curse inwardly but kept her expression neutral.
Whatever the reason, she'd secured an ally.
With this, Dr. Park Seul-gi's shares in Shinra Biotech became friendly shares under her control.
But... it still wasn't enough.
Park Seul-gi's stake in the Paju Bio Complex itself was too small.
'...Han Yura moved one step faster.'
Cheon Hye-yeon admitted bitterly.
But she had no time to wallow in sentiment.
Assemblywoman Osea's half-baked apology show didn't just signal Han Yura's betrayal.
'...With this show, Father's intervention is now justified.'
Cheon Hye-yeon thought coldly.
'And Father's next move will naturally be aimed at me.'
She reminded herself of her current position once more.
The empty title of "Paju Bio Complex Director" for Taesung Group—a business card with no real power.
Her father hadn't cast her out.
No, he couldn't.
She was the one who had brought this project to Taesung.
The business rights she'd barely secured at the cost of becoming Kim Cheolsu's cum dump.
The moment she stepped down from this post,
Taesung would hand the world a perfect pretext to pull out of the project.
From Taesung's perspective, if even her hollow title vanished?
Would that beast Kim Cheolsu continue business with Taesung?
No.
Cheon Hye-yeon knew the man's true nature.
To him, the Paju Bio Complex was just fodder he'd handed out to his "bitches."
Nothing more, nothing less.
The "joint venture" with Taesung was merely an excuse to tie her to this board.
If she disappeared, he'd ditch Taesung without hesitation and claim everything for himself.
She gazed beyond the TV screen at the full picture of this game.
With Osea's apology, her father—effectively freed from the prison of public opinion—now had license to intervene.
Yet even so, on the Paju Bio Complex matter alone, her father couldn't cast her aside.
Because the instant she vanished, Kim Cheolsu would abandon Taesung.
There was still time.
Having run all the calculations, a cold flame reignited in Cheon Hye-yeon's empty eyes.
"So, what now?"
Cheon Hye-yeon watched Osea's face fade from the TV screen and murmured softly.
"Gotta team up with someone stronger than Director Han, right?"
"No way... the Madam?"
Shock colored Park Seul-gi's voice.
Yoon Chae-won.
The sole exception in this hell, the one person who controlled the absolute predator.
Instead of answering, Cheon Hye-yeon gave a faint smile.
"...Even when it's just us, calling her 'Madam' feels a bit off, doesn't it?"
It was a cryptic, chillingly intimate remark.
Park Seul-gi stared at her, trying to gauge its depth, then shook her head in warning.
"You know messing with the Madam doesn't end well if you get caught, right?"
Her voice carried genuine fear.
Park Seul-gi flinched and took a step back.
"I'm out on touching the Madam."
At her refusal, Cheon Hye-yeon smiled thinly, as if amused.
"Who said anything about doing something?"
She countered with the innocent face of someone utterly clueless.
"I'm just... going to play the role of the loyal concubine, whining to the principal wife."
"...Pardon?"
Park Seul-gi stared at her in disbelief.
Cheon Hye-yeon's smile deepened, growing colder.
Though she was used nightly as Kim Cheolsu's cum dump...
By contract, her position was clearly that of "concubine," the second wife.
Cheon Hye-yeon was
a greedy bitch more than willing to wield her卑屈 and vulgar position as her strongest weapon.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "...Come in."
A low but commanding voice carried from beyond the heavy office door.
Han Yura stepped through the door held open by the secretary, entering the domain of Cheon Myeong-hwan—Korea's living legend of the business world.
The air in the room felt as heavy as the weight of decades of amassed capital.
Chairman Cheon Myeong-hwan sat sunk deep into the leather chair behind his massive wooden desk, eyeing her.
He didn't rise.
Instead, he beckoned her forward with a gesture.
Han Yura crossed the room silently to stand before his desk.
Only then did Chairman Cheon Myeong-hwan heave his substantial frame upright and extend a hand for a shake.
A haughty, traditional gesture proclaiming who ruled this space.
But Han Yura didn't take his hand.
She simply offered a flawless business smile, like something out of a painting, and politely shook her head.
"Sorry, Chairman."
Ignoring his outstretched hand, she said,
"Our chairman hates any other man touching my body."
For an instant, a faint crease flickered across Cheon Myeong-hwan's brow, but he quickly masked it with a hearty laugh.
"Hahaha, even this old man's getting treated like a 'man'?"
"You'll understand, right?"
Han Yura pressed with a smile, refusing to yield.
Cheon Myeong-hwan stared at her intently for a moment before withdrawing his hand and nodding.
"Of course. How could I not, after such a grand gift?"
'Gift.'
It referred to Assemblywoman Osea's public apology just moments ago on TV.
Han Yura had halted the most thorniest attack—"environmental issues"—that had plagued Cheon Myeong-hwan,
shifting all blame onto his daughter Cheon Hye-yeon, granting him perfect justification to reenter the fray.
Cheon Myeong-hwan gestured to the sofa opposite.
"Sit. We should discuss that 'gift' of yours."
The two's dangerous deal was only just beginning.
Once seated facing each other, Han Yura spoke first.
Her face wore an expression of profound regret, as if the awkward greeting from moments ago had never happened.
"First off, I'm sorry about your son."
She was referring to Park Sun-woo.
A perfunctory apology for exposing his hidden son to the world and using him to assault his empire.
"Between businesspeople... you'll understand that much, right?"
The words were a sly warning: 'Using your son was just business—don't take it personally.'
Chairman Cheon Myeong-hwan said nothing for a brief, tense moment.
Han Yura didn't miss the flicker of an old beast's rage across his hardened face.
But it passed in an instant.
He soon flashed a disarming, world-weary grin.
"Already forgotten."
He waved it off.
"These things happen in business."
'Liar.'
Han Yura sneered inwardly.
Old foxes forget nothing.
They just sheathe their claws for now.
With perfect awareness of each other's masks, the two pressed on.
Chairman Cheon Myeong-hwan cut to the chase.
"So, what's the reason for summoning me since morning? Don't tell me... you have another gift?"
His tone held more wariness of potential poison in the gift than anticipation.
Han Yura beamed her brightest smile, as if she'd been waiting.
"Executive Director Cheon Hye-yeon—no..."
She deliberately corrected herself.
"Former Executive Director Cheon Hye-yeon. Don't you think it's time to retire that business card?"
It was a brazen proposal to sever Cheon Hye-yeon's last remaining thread.
Chairman Cheon Myeong-hwan's eyes narrowed.
With a humorless face, he zeroed in on the crux.
"Hmm, but that fellow Kim Cheolsu won't just sit idly by."
His point was valid.
As long as Kim Cheolsu was tied to Taesung through Cheon Hye-yeon, ousting her at will was a risky gamble.
But Han Yura held a card he couldn't have foreseen.
Without dropping her relaxed smile, she leaned in conspiratorially, as if sharing juicy gossip.
"Did you know?"
"Know what?"
"Kim Cheolsu,"
She said his name low and intimate on purpose.
"is a total daddy's girl."
"What? What's that supposed to mean?"
Genuine puzzlement—the first of its kind—crossed Chairman Cheon Myeong-hwan's face.
Han Yura kindly elaborated.
"Nothing will happen on Taesung's end... so don't worry."
"...You've already made moves?"
His eyes slitted like a snake's.
"Yes."
That single affirmation sent a chill down the spine of Korea's business titan.
He sized up the young woman before him for a moment before leaning back into his chair.
"Anyone else, and I'd doubt it... but coming from you, Director Han, it puts my mind at ease."
He feigned relaxation, though his gaze remained razor-sharp.
"But... what's in it for you in all this?"
The seasoned tycoon sought to confirm the final puzzle piece: her true motive.
Han Yura offered her most perfect, radiant smile, as if she'd anticipated it.
"Our characters overlap."
"Characters?"
Cheon Myeong-hwan didn't grasp it.
Han Yura simply smiled without a word. She saw no need to explain.
Endless greed for success.
Cheon Hye-yeon, who resembled her so uncannily.