Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Gifts and Opportunities
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“How did you know? About the bomb terror attack.”
That was Chairman Yoo Seong-pil’s first question.
His wrinkled face was serene. He seemed like a completely different person from the one I’d seen at the funeral. Even though he must have been greatly shocked, his voice was deep and stern, and his straight-backed posture and resolute gaze perfectly reflected his character.
Was this the true face of the founder of Daeha Group, the man they called Iron-Blood?
I fidgeted my feet a little and hesitated before speaking. I widened my eyes and put on a surprised expression.
“...It really happened? The terror attack.”
-Hmph.
Was it my imagination? It sounded like a chuckle escaped him.
“So it was just a bluff?”
I gave a small nod.
I’d planted plenty of seeds in my own way. As a child, I’d wandered around the house, sticking my nose into everything. Grandfather could verify it all if he wanted to.
They all had some basis, but they were far-fetched, and since they came from future knowledge, the odds of them being right were pretty high.
Back then, I’d just been flailing desperately to survive... but to think it would come full circle like this. My past efforts were paying off positively, and it made me happy.
“Yes. I’m just a kid, so even if I got it wrong, no one would care. But if I got it right even once... that would be a huge win.”
At that, Chairman Yoo Seong-pil clapped his hands and burst into laughter.
“Ahaha! My granddaughter knows business! That’s right—even when you’ve got no stake, you just poke around wildly! Your old grandpa did the same when he was young.”
As expected, he liked it.
Wasn’t it Chairman Yoo Seong-pil who’d contracted to build ships without a shipyard, used that money to build one, and then delivered the ships?
“Grandfather, so... what happened? With that person...”
“Hm? Oh, you didn’t hear? He survived. Kim Hae-ik.”
Phew.
I let out a sigh of relief.
The gamble had paid off. It was so nerve-wracking I could barely stand it.
“It was sheer luck.”
Chairman Yoo Seong-pil turned toward the window. He stroked my hair with his rough, wrinkled hand as he explained what had happened.
“The schedule got delayed midway, and during that mess, the commie bastards made a few mistakes. Then Kim Hae-ik remembered what you said and floated the idea to the Foreign Minister, and right then, the party leader’s chief secretary chimed in from the side, so he survived.”
They’d rehearsed the dirge to be played at the mausoleum, and the North Korean agent heard it, thought the event had started, and detonated the bomb.
I recalled my past-life memories and realized it was true. The Foreign Minister had opposed the trip from the start... and Shim Seon-woo, the kind and humorous party leader, had looked unusually grim starting the day before the incident.
A once-in-a-lifetime bomb terror like that meant not only that the perpetrators had planned meticulously, but also that security on the victim’s side had been lax.
Lax enough that a single butterfly effect could prevent it.
“But how did you know? Even if it was a bluff, you need background knowledge for that. And the pros are the ones who bluff best, aren’t they? How would a kid like you know about Foreign Ministry business?”
...Hmm.
I could feel Chairman Yoo Seong-pil’s sharp gaze. He probably thought someone had fed me weird political ideas.
This one should be fine to answer honestly.
“...Because Dad would like it. So I asked around bit by bit. Whenever Dad left for work, I was always home alone... I missed him...”
I put on a timid act, shrinking back like a kid that age who’d grown up watching their parents’ moods.
“Hic. I thought if I read hard books and got smarter, Dad would play with me longer... that’s what I thought...”
Ah, tears aren’t coming easy.
Thankfully, a child’s tear glands must be weak, because when I focused for a moment, tears started dripping down.
“No, why are you crying? I’m not scolding you, Ha-yeon. Stop it, come on, stop.”
The sharp atmosphere melted away in an instant. Chairman Yoo Seong-pil looked comically flustered as he tried to soothe me.
“Aigoo, Jin-cheol, that guy. Leaving just one kid behind and going like this... sigh.”
Seizing the moment, I threw myself into his arms and wailed loudly.
“Dad... hic... came to me in a dream. He was really worried about me and showed me yesterday’s newspaper, but it felt weird... but the adults wouldn’t believe me, sob.”
Even as I sobbed out the words, I worried a little.
Would even Chairman Yoo Seong-pil believe such a far-fetched story...?
“Whew. I had a feeling. That Jin-cheol grumbled a lot, but he was a good kid at heart. Must’ve come back down from the afterlife to handle some big business before heading back.”
He actually believed it.
No wonder. Even if it was thanks to me that he survived, I’d thought he accepted it too easily. Turns out he’d already been thinking along those lines.
He thought dead Yoo Jin-cheol had appeared as a ghost to tell me. In the 80s, that wasn’t so strange. And the timing was perfectly coincidental.
...It wasn’t entirely wrong, was it? I mean, I was basically a ghost myself.
Damn. Now I couldn’t boldly say ghosts don’t exist in this world anymore.
After patting me until I calmed down, Chairman Yoo Seong-pil asked me gently.
“So, my granddaughter. What do you want for a gift?”
At those words, a thrilling current raced through my body.
Finally, was I at the starting line?
“A gift...?”
I pretended to know nothing and acted demure. After all, switching from crying to this might seem a bit odd.
“If there’s one thing this old man holds as a lifelong creed, it’s that people die if they don’t eat. You have to feed your subordinates well for them to trust and follow you. We saved some big government officials, so of course we have to reward that generously. Right?”
I nodded my little head vigorously at Chairman Yoo Seong-pil’s words.
Grandpa really knows his stuff.
“So. What do you want?”
Grandfather looked at me with a warm smile, like he was gazing at his cute, pitiful granddaughter.
For now, at least.
“...”
A brief silence passed. I had a few prepared answers, but for some reason, none came out easily.
I could ask for land in Bundang like in those famous chaebol novels, or request introductions to people to build connections.
But the wish I considered best... was simply to be by Grandfather’s side. I could win his heart and pick up scraps of power right there.
However.
‘I don’t like it.’
I didn’t like it.
What did I want?
Money, power, fame. I loved them all.
Chairman Yoo Seong-pil would give money if I asked for money, power if I asked for power. Fame I’d seize myself, so it was meaningless...
-Crunch.
But I couldn’t settle for that. Now I wanted more.
The power to dominate people and achieve my desires and cravings with ease. People called that power.
I closed my eyes gently.
‘More. Be greedier. Don’t be bound by common sense. When setting impossible goals and pushing plans..., act like a madman.’
Why choose just one?
People who move the world gallop like mad horses to keep up with the era’s flow and lead it from the front. Chairman Yoo Seong-pil before me was one of them.
Let’s devise something more cunning and exquisite. Gaining one profit per move is for amateurs.
“...”
Having sorted my thoughts, I opened my mouth and looked at Chairman Yoo Seong-pil with clear eyes.
“An opportunity. Give me an opportunity.”
“What kind of opportunity?”
“The favor you earned with the government officials—you’ll claim that, right? Share some with me. I’m the one who did it.”
“Hmm. Ha-yeon, is this... a deal?”
Deal.
At that word, Chairman Yoo Seong-pil’s demeanor changed.
From the eyes of a doting grandfather to those of a businessman.
“You know no one else but me can claim that favor, right? In simple terms, it’s a monopoly. And nothing yields as much profit or is as petty as a monopoly.”
Monopoly.
He was right. If favors could be traded, it was a huge profit. And Chairman Yoo Seong-pil was the only one I could deal with now.
“You’re monopolizing my ties to the government itself... That’s how you put it. I never thought of it that way.”
I gaped and pretended to freeze for a moment.
I’d expected it, but his thinking was truly different from an ordinary person’s. Every circuit in his brain seemed wired for business. I had to learn from that.
I pouted my little lips and grumbled softly.
“You’re too harsh on a 6-year-old. Tch.”
“Ahaha! You’re the one who proposed a deal to your grandpa, Ha-yeon. Yoo Seong-pil here wouldn’t offer terms this good to anyone else, so I’ve already cut you a lot of slack.”
Then, just like that, he turned back into the kindly grandfather and patted my head.
“Ha-yeon, no need to push yourself. Even this old man was splashing in streams at your age, and just understanding what I said is impressive enough. Got it?”
I nodded and boldly asked again, knowing I wouldn’t get it all in one go anyway.
“Yes, Grandfather. Then... can I come to your room sometimes? I’ll try to convince you.”
“Hmm. You okay with getting your gift so late?”
At Chairman Yoo Seong-pil’s words, I widened my eyes and shook my head.
“No? I should get the gift. Make it easy money in an anonymous account...”
“Aigoo, look at this one. She’s really out to suck her grandpa dry. You can only take one gift.”
For the first time, disbelief flickered in Chairman Yoo Seong-pil’s eyes. Good, that meant we were still okay.
If favors were tradable commodities, then paternal and familial love could be priced similarly.
“The gift is from Grandfather to me. So it’s from grandfather to granddaughter, not Chairman Yoo Seong-pil. That’s what makes it a gift. But stopping the bomb terror is different, right?”
I continued my logical explanation in the clearest, most innocent voice I could muster.
“This is a deal between Yoo Ha-yeon and Chairman Yoo Seong-pil, so it’s separate. Like you said, it’s negotiating the price for the exclusive right to meet those government officials you monopolized.”
In normal circumstances, it’d be an outrageous demand. Who would haggle with Daeha Group’s chairman for days?
And my argument even had a flaw.
“Me even dealing with you is the gift. Don’t you know?”
Exactly. The logic only held under his goodwill from the start.
But conversely, that meant it was possible under his goodwill.
I looked at Chairman Yoo Seong-pil with that intent.
“But you like it too, Grandfather. Seeing your smart granddaughter.”
So, therefore.
I could do it. Because I was Yoo Ha-yeon, Chairman Yoo Seong-pil’s granddaughter. And with both parents gone, he was all the family I had left.
Yoo Seong-pil, born in the 1920s and valuing family above all, couldn’t refuse this.
“Alright. I get it. From your grandpa’s view, not the chairman’s, it’s not a bad deal, huh?”
I nodded so hard my head spun a little. My granddaughter cheeks, still chubby with baby fat, looked up at Grandfather with sparkling eyes.
“Hmm. Okay, I get it. I permit it.”
Finally, Chairman Yoo Seong-pil gave his approval, and I bowed my head with a small smile.
“Thank you.”
“Off you go now, Ha-yeon. You barely ate breakfast, so don’t skip lunch. Got it?”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
I bowed politely, closed the door, and dashed back to my room.
-Creak.
I flopped onto the bed and rolled around in the empty room. The one-on-one with Chairman Yoo Seong-pil had drained so much energy.
Thud.
I buried my face in a big pillow and let out a soft laugh.
“Hehe. Ah, hahaha!”
A natural smile bubbled up. I’d even momentarily forgotten about Father’s death.
Hm.
Perfect.
In that conversation, I’d gained three benefits.
First, money. Especially money I could use freely—it was an encouraging achievement. As a girl, not a boy, any economic activity required Chairman Yoo Seong-pil’s permission.
Second, using the negotiations as an excuse to stay close to him. He hadn’t seemed to consider it, but this was my biggest gain.
Being near a powerholder was a privilege in itself. He knew how huge the chance to meet the Senior Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs was for me, yet he hadn’t mentioned it...
Probably because he was my grandfather. From his perspective, an orphaned child staying under her grandfather’s wing was a given, not worth mentioning.
And the third, final one...
The chance to build a personal connection with the legendary economic chief, once called the Economic President himself.