The Editor's Burden
It was a stack of manuscripts so heavy it hit the desk with a dull, solid thud. Ma Seok-il’s eyes went wide in genuine shock. "Min-gwan, what is all this?"
"I wrote some novels."
"N-no, I mean... where did all this come from?"
"I wrote them myself."
Ma Seok-il could only gape at Son Min-gwan, who looked back with a completely puzzled expression. "T-this is really all pre-written material?"
Son Min-gwan nodded. "Yes. The Chairman mentioned that he’s been bored lately and has nothing to read, so he told me to bring him anything I write. It’s been about three weeks? I don’t have anything else to do at home anyway, so if I’m not reading, I’m just writing."
"Whoa..."
Ma Seok-il was lost in admiration for a moment, but then a sudden realization hit him. 'Wait, does this mean the Chairman predicted I would do this?!'
A chill ran down Ma Seok-il’s spine. Of course, it wasn't as if the Chairman had predicted with absolute certainty that he would do this, but it meant he had at least anticipated this as one of the possible outcomes. Even so, that alone allowed Ma Seok-il to drastically accelerate his schedule. 'My god... originally, I would have had to act as an editor and put pressure on Min-gwan, but he prepared everything so I wouldn't have to...'
Ma Seok-il asked, his voice trembling slightly. "Did the Chairman say anything else?"
"Hm? Not really? He just said my novels were fun and told me to bring them. Of course, there were quite a few manuscripts he cut, but the ones here are the ones that passed his approval."
It was an overwhelming amount of manuscript paper. Ma Seok-il felt a deep sense of respect. "You really are an author who doesn't need an editor."
In this era, the image of an editor was someone who hounded, tracked down, and pressured authors who weren't writing. But Son Min-gwan had simply been piling up pre-written drafts.
"No, I’m an author who absolutely needs an editor."
"Oh?"
"If I don't have an editor, my writing really goes off the rails. Besides, my editor is the most expensive editor in the world, isn't he? It’s not like the stuff I wrote without the Chairman failed, but it didn't exactly become a massive hit either."
"Oh... now that you mention it, that’s true."
If one were to calculate Choi Yoon-gi’s hourly wage based on the amount he earned in a single day, it would be truly astronomical. Strictly speaking, Yoon-gi investing his time in Son Min-gwan was the equivalent of taking a massive financial loss. No matter how many bestsellers Son Min-gwan produced, it would be a drop in the bucket compared to what Yoon-gi was raking in.
'Truly, the Chairman sees something far beyond just money...'
Ma Seok-il admired Yoon-gi once more in his heart and picked up the manuscripts Son Min-gwan had provided. "In that case, would it be alright if I published these in the newspapers?"
Son Min-gwan nodded. "By all means. Though, they aren't finished yet."
"That makes it even better!"
A deep, satisfied smile began to spread across Ma Seok-il’s lips.
Advertisements for Son Min-gwan’s new novels began to appear at the MEV. And that wasn't the end of it.
If they had simply increased the number of newspapers, it would have been the perfect recipe for criticism. But with the hostage of a "drama adaptation" dangling in front of them, the readers cheered even while grumbling.
The support messages posted on the bulletin board at the main MEV building, titled "Please send a message of support to Author Son Min-gwan," showed that Ma Seok-il’s marketing had narrowly avoided disaster. Still, the effect was massive. Because there were three novels, there were a whopping three newspaper companies that could profit! This reignited the competition between the newspapers, which had been on the verge of cooling down. Furthermore, what helped this competition was none other than the sales volume. Although it fell slightly short of the 4 million copies Ma Seok-il had targeted, the newspapers sold at MEV reached a staggering 3.5 million copies. The volume of newspapers sold at MEV now accounted for over 30 percent of the total newspaper sales in South Korea.
'If it’s difficult to make the major newspapers our allies, then I’ll just turn the newspapers that stand with MEV into the majors.'
Individually, none of the newspaper companies could become a "major." But as a coalition of newspapers doing business with MEV, they could exert the same effect as a large newspaper company. This was Ma Seok-il’s third method.
Thanks to this, now in the fifth week, content supporting Japan could no longer be found in most South Korean newspapers. Because the moment they printed such content, they were automatically disqualified from contract support. Five weeks was enough time for the newspaper companies to figure out exactly what MEV was checking for.
"Well done. I am very satisfied."
For the first time, Ma Seok-il was able to step into Yoon-gi’s study without Ryu Geun-tae. It was a truly emotional moment. And with Yoon-gi offering praise, he could ask for nothing more.
"It is nothing, sir. If you hadn't provided help to Author Son Min-gwan, I wouldn't have been able to handle this so easily. Thank you very much."
"No. There are countless people in this world who ruin things even when you support them. In that sense, Secretary Ma did a truly excellent job."
Ma Seok-il trembled. Yoon-gi’s "secretary" had a different meaning than a secretary at any other company. If a secretary at another company performed standard secretarial duties, Yoon-gi’s secretary meant an extension of himself. That was why the executives at YK hoped to be called "secretary" rather than by their official titles. It was a title that signified being Yoon-gi’s closest confidant.
"Chairman, may I ask you one question?"
"By all means."
"Will the Japanese just sit back and watch? The reason our method worked this time is likely because it was difficult for foreign capital to enter Korea easily. If that’s the case, I can think of two methods the Japanese might use..."
"They will naturally use other methods."
Yoon-gi said this with a bright smile. In reality, the Japanese Prime Minister and his ministers were furious that their methods weren't working.
"Damn it! What on earth are the Korean reporters doing?"
At the Defense Minister’s outburst, the Prime Minister and the other ministers sighed.
"It’s... it’s unavoidable. No matter how much funding we try to send, there are limits to sending money through legal channels. The fact that there isn't much private exchange between Korea and Japan is actually helping them in this instance."
The reason Yoon-gi and Ma Seok-il’s strategy worked was simple: no matter how much money Japan had, there was a limit to the money they could legally send to Korea. Even if they tried to bribe reporters through legal methods, the limit was obvious. If Japan had been willing to pay more than the value of the newspaper companies themselves, it might have been a different story, but there was no way they would go that far, so MEV naturally emerged victorious. Japan’s strategy was to bribe reporters to incite generational conflict in Korea. Yoon-gi countered this by absorbing the Korean media itself. If Yoon-gi had forced them to write articles praising YK, the reporters' backlash would have been immense. But Yoon-gi simply induced them not to write nonsense about Korea. Only a few reporters had been writing nonsense to begin with. Therefore, Yoon-gi’s strategy of simply desiring "normalization" was very easy to implement. Moreover, thanks to this, he was actually seeing minor profits, so in a way, Yoon-gi had benefited from Japan’s tantrum.
"No, why are you so insistent on using legal methods? We can just ignore the laws made by those Joseon-jins!"
At the Defense Minister’s shout, all the other ministers nodded in agreement.
"The Defense Minister is right. If the laws were made by Joseon-jins who are trying to walk the wrong path, then those laws are clearly wrong as well. Therefore, we, the superior Japanese people, must ignore the Joseon-jins' laws and set things right."
At the Justice Minister’s words, everyone nodded again, and the Prime Minister opened his mouth as if to agree.
"In that case, from now on, we must give a real reward to the Joseon-jins who will enlighten Joseon for the sake of Japan. Does anyone object?"
Naturally, there were no ministers who objected.
"Then, we shall send the money to Korea. A truly massive amount of money, at that."
A sum too large to refuse began to head toward Korea.
Japan was a country that used cash far more than cards even into the 2010s. Because of that, money laundering was incredibly easy, so how much more so in '88? Even in the 2010s, the cost Japan spent on cultivating overseas pro-Japanese factions was a staggering 1 trillion won. And that was just the amount that appeared on the surface. If so, how much did they spend in '88? The massive name of being the world’s second-largest economy—an amount befitting that name was headed to Korea by ship. Customs clearance? That was easy. There was nothing in the world that couldn't be done with money. It had decreased a bit recently, but from the 60s to the 90s, public officials supervising goods at ports were very easy to bribe. The 80s were an era where bribery was a daily routine. Anyone who drove a truck back then would know that if a truck driver met a police officer on the road, they had to hand over their license. With a 5,000-won bill, folded like a ticket, or two, tucked under the license. It wasn't for nothing that overloading became a daily occurrence in Korea. Other things were the same. Public officials didn't uncover illegal activities to punish them; they received money after uncovering the illegal activity. Merchants also committed illegal acts without hesitation. They could commit illegal acts without any problems just by having a bowl of makgeolli with a public official and slipping them some money. Even looking at places in the 2010s where a bowl of jjajangmyeon cost 4,000 won in cash and 6,000 won by card, those places should have been punished the moment it was seen. But very few people reported it. They weren't giving a 2,000-won discount because of card fees. The main reason was income tax. If a shop gives a 1,000 or 2,000-won discount on jjajangmyeon if paid in cash, you can assume that the "monthly sales they are forced to report to the National Tax Service" alone already exceeds 100 million won. Card fees are at most 3 percent, so there’s no way they’d be crazy enough to give a 2,000-won discount.
"Hahahaha! As expected, the Joseon-jins are a primitive people swayed by pocket change."
Since they were personnel sent by the Prime Minister and his ministers, their sense of racial superiority was immense. Himura, who was put in charge of being the middleman for this operation, moved the black money very safely through the yakuza active in Busan. In Japan, the relationship between the yakuza and politicians was like the relationship between the chaebol and politicians in Korea. Therefore, Himura was able to do his best for his mission with the support of the yakuza.
'Newspaper reporters are fine, but there are people who would be good to bribe before that.'
The first target Himura chose to bribe was none other than the "professors."