At Least Double, No Exceptions — 5
"Our Honorary PR Ambassador sure is a stubborn piece of work, isn't he?"
Son Gu-chul stepped in close and muttered it just loud enough for me alone to hear.
"Oh! Governor Na!"
I peered over Son Gu-chul's shoulder and put on a face of pure shock.
"Gah!"
Son Gu-chul whirled around, flapping like a startled bird.
"G-Governor, it's an honor— wait. He's... not here? Aigoo, seriously!"
He'd finally caught on to my prank. Son Gu-chul's eyes bulged as he glared daggers at me.
"So now I see you're nothing but a two-bit punk, huh? Jerking people around for fun. You think this is funny? Answer me, you bastard! Am I a joke to you?"
"Watch your mouth, Mr. Son. The Governor is standing right behind you."
"Ha! Fool me once, shame on you—fool me twice? So you're from Seoul, are you? Must've really bottomed out if you couldn't hack it in that comfy city and had to crawl out to this backwater."
As if smearing all returning farmers and settlers wasn't enough, he went so far as to imply Pyeongcheong County wasn't fit for human habitation.
"You come sniffing around because you think there's something to scavenge here, spouting all that crap. This town was a dump a hundred years ago, and it'll stay a dump forever—no development, no nothing, ever. So why in the hell would you buy land here!"
Son Gu-chul shoved at my shoulder as he ranted.
"You got money rotting out of your ears? Or are you so desperate to torch your life savings that you're itching for it?"
"I'm telling you, the Governor really is right behind you."
"Oh, for crying out—what's a Governor, God? Buddha? So what if he shows up? What, am I suddenly forbidden from saying what's on my mind just because the Governor's here?"
Then it happened.
"CEO Son."
At Na Jeong-hwan's voice, Son Gu-chul froze solid as a block of ice.
"Did you just ask... what a Governor is?"
Ghost-pale, Son Gu-chul spun around.
"G-Governor? Ah... you definitely weren't there just a moment ago... though?"
The bottom dropped out of Son Gu-chul's world.
How does everything go wrong this spectacularly badly?
The county office doled out projects at year's end using whatever budget was left over, and to get a taste of that, you had to stay on the Governor's good side. Otherwise, you couldn't land a single contract.
Na Jeong-hwan had shut down the old system where local construction firms were handed jobs like allowances. Now everything went through proper open bidding—and the single biggest scoring factor was a company's track record. Whether you completed projects clean, without a single accident or complaint.
And on that front, I'm sitting at rock bottom...
If the image of the company's own CEO got tarred on top of it, even a contract he did manage to win might never get signed off. Son Gu-chul felt like dropping to his knees right then and there.
"I... what I meant was, I..."
The thing Na Jeong-hwan despised most was locals ganging up on newcomers who'd moved to the countryside. He'd instructed the village heads and civil servants to keep a close watch—make sure returning farmers weren't suffering disadvantages or harassment even when they never filed a complaint.
Son Gu-chul knew this all too well, and tears blurred his vision. Because anyone watching would have seen exactly that: Son Gu-chul harassing a settler. Me.
"When I spoke carelessly to our PR Ambassador here, it was only because... because I was worried he might sink his teeth into a big project and ruin himself... so out of the kindness of my heart... I offered a little advice... no, guidance—"
"You threatened him."
Na Jeong-hwan stressed the word threatened as he bore down on Son Gu-chul with his gaze.
"It wasn't like that—"
"No. I heard every word. Don't try to weasel out with lies."
Faced with Na Jeong-hwan's iron resolve, Son Gu-chul could have bitten his own tongue off.
"I apologize."
"And is an apology to me what's called for here?"
Son Gu-chul lifted his head slowly and looked at me.
"Brother Yunho, I'm sorry I stuck my nose in where it didn't belong, calling it advice. I only did it because I was worried you'd take a loss. I mean, hell, even us born-and-raised locals can't scrape together a living these days."
I told you to apologize. Did I tell you to pour out your sob story?
What a riot, this guy.
It seemed he was angling to air his business grievances in front of the Governor, but the mood for that had died long before he opened his mouth. Na Jeong-hwan's brow was already creased with displeasure, and for my part, I knew perfectly well there wasn't an ounce of sincerity in anything Son Gu-chul said.
"CEO Son Gu-chul. Before you go handing out advice, I'd suggest you think very seriously about whether you should be bidding in this auction at all. That's land SD Financial is dumping into foreclosure. And SD Financial is the one offering to finance your purchase of it."
First: SD Financial wasn't putting this land up to recover its money. Second: their reason for lending to Son Gu-chul made no sense at all.
"They're either using you as a money-laundering conduit, or they'll work you like their personal errand boy and then come for your hangover soup company too. You might want to dig a little deeper into that, don't you think?"
I tapped my temple with a finger, then took a step back and turned straight to Na Jeong-hwan.
"What brings you here, Governor?"
Truth be told, I was the one who'd summoned him. Not that Na Jeong-hwan knew anything about it.
He gave a modest little shrug and spoke up.
"A report came in that land in Ugok 5-ri had entered auction, and that part of the local road right-of-way was included in the lot. I came in a hurry to file an objection."
"Surely that didn't require the Governor to come in person?"
At my words, Na Jeong-hwan shook his head. Apparently there simply wasn't time to dispatch staff to investigate and handle it properly.
"If we don't halt the auction immediately with a preliminary objection, the process afterwards becomes a bureaucratic nightmare. If the hammer falls by mistake, we'd be forced into administrative litigation."
Na Jeong-hwan took a tablet from his aide and pulled up a map.
"The registry lists it as private land, but the village roads that have served as actual roads—we have to gather the records on those, commission a fresh survey, and only then rerun the auction."
In other words, he was arguing that every parcel in the village needed to be resurveyed from scratch.
If the court accepted that argument, today's auction would either be postponed, or proceed on nothing but the lots around the old Chinese restaurant—the ones that didn't require resurveying.
Exactly what I wanted.
The land Son Gu-chul was drooling over was precisely that stretch. And I could spend the least money while still catching SD Financial's attention.
"I genuinely respect you."
I bowed my head to Na Jeong-hwan for acting so quickly.
"Seeing the Governor move this decisively for his county's people—frankly, it makes me feel very secure. I'm moved, truly."
"Not at all. I'd heard in passing that Ugok 5-ri was abandoned land, and I neglected it until now. Going forward, I intend to invest in Ugok 5-ri aggressively and build it into the finest village in Pyeongcheong County."
If he did just that, I'd be the one thanking him.
"That alone would make me very happy."
Na Jeong-hwan chuckled at my answer, then asked, "You seem quite interested in the Ugok 5-ri land yourself. Mind if I ask why?"
"I made a promise."
That I'd punish the bad people and let the world know about the injustices done to Yongsoo.
"A promise to whom?"
"To myself. That if I found good land, I'd buy it, plant crops, and live selling processed farm goods. Ugok 5-ri is land I've had my eye on."
"I see. I wish you good results."
Not long after Na Jeong-hwan went off to file his objection, a notice appeared on the courthouse board: the auction had been adjourned.
Bidding was originally set to begin at eleven; now it was pushed past two in the afternoon.
Abe, let's go grab some lunch.
Abe, who had been standing quietly at Son Gu-chul's side all this while, shook his head.
[I will see this through to the end of the auction.]
Standing next to Son Gu-chul, it seemed, had given Abe more than his fill of ugly sights. His expression had hardened far more than it ever did around me.
Suit yourself, then. When the auction's done and we get home, I'll grill your favorite skewers. We'll have a cup of sake too.
[Thank you.]
After lunch, I returned to the courthouse and found that, just as I'd predicted, only the five parcels around the Chinese restaurant went to auction; everything else was excluded.
Na Jeong-hwan's objection had been accepted. The land would be resurveyed, and only the portions excluding the road right-of-way would be sold off.
Though even that's bound to be contested in court.
Land couldn't be withheld from auction without documented proof that it had actually served as a road. And Ugok 5-ri had been empty of living people for thirty years.
Short of the roads officially registered as public property, there was no way to present evidence that villagers had used the rest as roads. Every last one of those villagers was dead.
My guess was the county would dig in its heels and pressure SD Financial to carve out the road parcels before auctioning. How SD Financial would respond, though, was anyone's guess.
"The auction will now begin!"
At the bailiff's announcement, I filed into the courtroom. It was packed with people.
With more than thirty cases scheduled for the afternoon session, bidders with an interest in each property had come flocking. Shops, land, villa units—a whole lineup of lots to be handled in order.
The judge worked through the docket one case at a time.
"Next: Ta 1, Case 3213-gang. The Ugok 5-ri auction lot."
When Ugok 5-ri's turn came, most of the people in the courtroom didn't so much as look up—just kept their noses buried in their own paperwork, faces blank with indifference. Thanks to the rumor that the land was haunted, hardly anyone showed interest.
"Ahem!"
Everyone except Son Gu-chul, that is.
Son Gu-chul shot glares toward where I was sitting, making no effort to hide his agitation.
The judge straightened his documents and began.
"This is a voluntary real estate auction case filed by SD Financial Co., Ltd. The lot consists of five parcels in total, with an appraised value of 320 million won and a minimum bid of 256 million won—eighty percent of appraised value."
The judge began reading the property inventory aloud.
The Chinese restaurant building, the building that had housed a shoe store and a corner supermarket, the butcher shop, and the surrounding vacant lots. Zoned as planned management district along a two-lane national highway, the parcels had sat neglected so long that the appraisals came in low.
They'd have been treated as so worthless that appraising them at all felt like a formality. Plenty of people probably figure even that price is a rip-off.
All the other parcels, houses, and buildings had been struck from this auction thanks to Na Jeong-hwan's objection.
"The bid deposit is ten percent of the minimum bid: 25.6 million won. Those wishing to bid should pay the deposit at the cashier's desk on the first floor, then bring your receipt to fill out a bid form. Bidding closes at three p.m."
The moment the judge finished, Son Gu-chul rose from his seat. Two other men rose as well and filed out of the courtroom besides me. One look was enough to tell they were Son Gu-chul's lackeys.
So he planted shills.
With so few bidders, if it looked like the land would go for the minimum, someone might get greedy and jump in with a "well, maybe I'll throw my hat in too." So he'd seeded a little fake competition to scare them off.
But his boys aren't actually going to bid. It's obvious Son Gu-chul intends to buy the land himself.
I went downstairs, deposited the bid money, and collected my receipt. Son Gu-chul was standing at the cashier's desk too.
"Best of luck, Mr. PR Ambassador."
I didn't answer and headed straight for the bid-writing station. The form required the bid amount and my personal details.
Abe.
I called for him.
[Yes, my lord.]
Keep a close eye on what number Son Gu-chul writes down, and tell me.
[Yes, my lord.]
Before long, Abe returned and reported the figure.
[He has written 286 million won.]
Thirty million won above the minimum bid. I wrote down exactly ten won more than Son Gu-chul.
That way I'd win by a margin of ten won—and Son Gu-chul would be ready to chew his own liver out over it.
I sealed my bid form and dropped it into the submission box. Son Gu-chul submitted his own in turn.
His two lackeys never turned in a bid form at all. Shills to the very end.
At three o'clock sharp, the judge re-entered the courtroom.
"We will now open the bids for Lot 235, Ugok 5-ri, and the four parcels besides."
The court clerk unlocked the bid box and drew out the forms. Two in total.
The judge examined the two slips, then raised his head.
"The highest bid stands at 286 million won."
"Yes!"
Son Gu-chul leapt to his feet with a small celebratory pump of his fist.
"Congratulations, boss!"
"Magnificent, sir!"
His lackeys even broke into applause, working overtime to stroke his ego.
"Order!"
At the judge's bark, the bailiff hurried over and shot Son Gu-chul and his men a stern look until they quieted down.
The judge read the winning bid slip aloud once more.
"The highest bid of 286 million won... and ten won. The auction is awarded to Kim Yunho."
Bang-bang-bang!
The judge rapped the gavel.
"It is hereby declared that Ta 1, Case 3213-gang—Lot 235, Ugok 5-ri, and the parcels besides—is awarded to the highest bidder, Mr. Kim Yunho, at 286 million won and ten won."
Son Gu-chul turned to stone in his seat. I rose quietly from mine.
Abe, good work today.
I flashed a wide grin at Son Gu-chul's crimson face and walked out of the courtroom.