After the Divorce, I Found a Thousand Bitcoins - Chapter 41

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Got Divorced and Found a Thousand Bitcoins Episode 041

 

National Intelligence Service.

 

Kang Hyeon’s name was mentioned there.

 

“The person who made contact with Prime Minister Lao Xing is Choi Kang-hyeon, age 34. He is currently the CEO of KH Capital and KH Recovery, and the largest shareholder of KH Construction. His estimated assets are around 1 trillion won, but this is likely to change.”

 

“Likely to change?”

 

“KH Capital is an investment management company that invests in financial products based on overseas stocks. It’s not certain, but there are rumors that they made significant profits during this recent market downturn.”

 

“Tsk, I suffered big losses in this downturn. While someone else is making profits.”

 

It wasn’t something that should be said in a National Intelligence Service meeting, but since it came from Park Myeong-ho, the head of the intelligence department, everyone just let it slide.

 

“CEO Choi Kang-hyeon’s source of funds has been confirmed to be Bitcoin.”

 

“What’s the source of this information?”

 

“The Financial Supervisory Service.”

 

“So, he secured initial capital through Bitcoin and then made money through stock investments?”

 

“That’s what has been confirmed so far. According to information from the Financial Supervisory Service, the FBI also had him on their investigation list. This information is also recorded in the National Intelligence Service’s internal information network.”

 

All other information about Kang Hyeon was also mentioned.

 

“The Yeongjong Island rental fraud case appears to have involved him after his mother became a victim, and in this process he established KH Recovery…”

 

“The connection to India is understood to be from entering the India Market to attack Dongbang Partners in the process of securing shares in KH Construction.”

 

Park Myeong-ho, who had been listening to the story, frowned.

 

“He entered the India Market to attack Dongbang Partners? What kind of story is that?”

 

The report went into detail.

 

After hearing the entire story, Park Myeong-ho spoke as if incredulous.

 

“So, you’re saying he attacked an overseas branch to make them sell in order to secure domestic shares?”

 

“Yes, that’s what we’ve determined.”

 

“Is that even possible?”

 

“It was a snowball effect that occurred when Dongbang Partners’ headquarters failed in a large-scale investment.”

 

“And that beginning just happened to be NextMove, which CEO Choi Kang-hyeon short-sold?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Park Myeong-ho’s expression became serious.

 

“Everything fits together too perfectly, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it feel like it’s arranged to say ‘I have nothing suspicious about me’?”

 

Living life, gaps inevitably appear.

 

Humans make mistakes, and gaps naturally occur in that process.

 

Having no gaps was actually something to be suspicious about.

 

“Suspicious. Classify this guy as top surveillance level and monitor everything from now on.”

 

“Understood.”

 

Just as he gave the investigation order.

 

“Director, urgent report. CEO Choi Kang-hyeon has just departed for India.”

 

“What? When?”

 

“He just arrived at Incheon Airport and is currently going through procedures.”

 

“Damn! Contact our local agents in India and tell them to tail him!”

 

“Understood.”

 

* * *

 

A man came to meet Kang Hyeon as he got off the plane.

 

“Mr. Choi?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“I’m Nikhil Anand Sharma from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Please call me Sharima.”

 

“I’m Choi Kang-hyeon.”

 

After Kang Hyeon introduced himself, the two men beside him also introduced themselves.

 

“I’m Cha Tae-hun, Vice President of KH Construction.”

 

“I’m Choi Kyeong-min, lawyer from KH Recovery.”

 

There were two companions on this trip to India.

 

One was Cha Vice President from KH Construction, who handled practical matters.

 

Originally, President Kang Myeong-gu was going to come personally, but he had a schedule with Incheon City, so unfortunately he couldn’t.

 

So President Kang Myeong-gu sent Cha Vice President, whom he trusted most.

 

Though in his 40s and relatively young, he was someone whose abilities President Kang Myeong-gu personally vouched for.

 

And lawyer Choi Kyeong-min also joined them.

 

‘I’m glad he joined us in time.’

 

Lawyer Choi Kyeong-min had finally left Choi & Jang Law Firm and joined as an advisory lawyer for KH Recovery.

 

He had flown to India together for his first assignment.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

Following Sharima’s guidance, they left the airport and entered downtown New Delhi.

 

“Wow…”

 

“This is incredible.”

 

As they entered downtown, lawyer Choi and Cha Vice President simultaneously exclaimed.

 

It wasn’t out of admiration.

 

The tuk-tuks and cars filling the roads, and the constantly blaring horns.

 

To the three people from South Korea, it was a downtown that showed no sign of order.

 

“The airport was incredibly clean and the highway was decent too. But entering downtown, it’s exactly like India’s image.”

 

“But there aren’t many cows, are there?”

 

Lawyer Choi was right.

 

When thinking of India, what came to mind were cows freely roaming the streets.

 

Surprisingly, not many cows were visible, so they asked Sharima.

 

“There used to be many stray cows. But two years ago, we sent them all to shelters. So currently, the only cows moving around downtown are those with owners. And we plan to prevent even those from roaming by next year.”

 

Though India revered cows, they seemed to be making improvements for development.

 

However.

 

‘The smog is still there. I heard the city itself was paralyzed at times.’

 

From the moment they arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport, his eyes and throat had been stinging, and entering downtown New Delhi made it even worse.

 

True to being the country with the worst air pollution in the world, the hazy atmosphere was tormenting them.

 

‘The environment itself isn’t good, but India is a land of opportunity that the world is watching.’

 

1st in population.

 

4th in total production scale.

 

7th in area.

 

These conditions were enough to create expectations that India would replace China.

 

Moreover, the expected growth rate was incredibly good.

 

Of course, it wasn’t all advantages.

 

‘India is overflowing with corruption and graft. Actually, this isn’t just India but something most developing countries experience. Our country was the same, and it still is.’

 

Corruption and graft exist in any country you go to.

 

It was just a matter of degree.

 

The problem was that India’s level was severe.

 

The reason major domestic corporations got burned after entering India was also due to corruption and graft.

 

‘Plus, the slow administrative processing speed is also a problem.’

 

If you were to list the problems, there would be countless ones.

 

But even considering all that, it was still an attractive enough market.

 

‘Thanks to Dongbang, I caught an opportunity from an unexpected place.’

 

Being connected to the Prime Minister, they would likely benefit from reduced corruption and graft, as well as faster administrative processing speeds.

 

But this was thinking that came from not knowing the country of India well enough.

 

“I’m Arun Prakash Menon, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.”

 

What greeted them was a Deputy Secretary from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

 

In terms of hierarchy, he was effectively the third person after the Minister and Deputy Minister.

 

Since they had spoken once through a video meeting, there was some familiarity.

 

“I’m Choi Kang-hyeon.”

 

After brief greetings, they immediately entered the meeting.

 

“Currently, the projects our Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is proceeding with include smart city construction and redevelopment of existing urban areas, as previously informed. Here are the documents summarizing those projects.”

 

The volume of documents was quite extensive.

 

Originally, he wanted to receive and review the documents in South Korea, but the Deputy Minister specifically requested that he visit to confirm them in person.

 

Thanks to that, this was his first time checking the detailed projects.

 

“There are also road construction projects, but we excluded those since KH Construction mainly built apartment complexes like apartments and villas in South Korea.”

 

As he said this, Menon glanced at the documents set aside on one side of the table.

 

Kang Hyeon also casually shifted his gaze in the direction he was looking.

 

‘Hmm?’

 

At that moment, Kang Hyeon saw something glowing intensely red among the documents piled messily.

 

Kang Hyeon, who reflexively thought he needed to check that, naturally requested.

 

“Could I possibly review those documents over there as well?”

 

“Pardon? Those are mostly related to road construction, so they wouldn’t be worth reviewing.”

 

“Since I’ve come this far, I’d like to keep all possibilities open and review them.”

 

“Well, if you insist.”

 

Menon soon brought over the documents.

 

The volume was extremely extensive.

 

It was enough to cover all the existing documents.

 

But it didn’t matter.

 

‘What I need is that glowing document.’

 

There was no need to target it from the start.

 

That might be too conspicuous.

 

While checking the documents one by one, he naturally reached out and picked up that document.

 

[National Industrial Corridor Access Highway]

 

Simply put, it was highway construction.

 

It wasn’t expanding existing local roads, but a national project to build everything new from start to finish.

 

‘It’s a $1 billion scale construction project. It would be difficult with KH Construction’s current capital alone. But if I get involved, it’s definitely manageable.’

 

What’s important is the light emanating from this document.

 

He wondered if anything had ever glowed this intensely before.

 

Above all, such intense light from a national project meant it was highly likely to lead to tremendous profits.

 

‘I need to secure this.’

 

Kang Hyeon made a secret resolution.

 

* * *

 

Vice President Cha Tae-hun was flustered.

 

“Road construction?”

 

“Yes. I’m curious whether road construction is possible if we mobilize all of KH Construction’s current capabilities.”

 

“Director, I’m sorry, but road construction is completely different from apartment construction. Even excluding technical and financial aspects, the problem is we don’t have anyone to supervise the site.”

 

“Can’t we bring in someone to supervise the site?”

 

“It’s possible, but someone with that level of experience would command a high salary.”

 

“That’s fine. What about other aspects?”

 

“It requires a lot of funding. It would be difficult with KH Construction’s existing capital. Plus, with the Yeongjong Island construction project ahead, it’s hard to pull existing personnel.”

 

Even the Yeongjong Island construction alone was a theme park project that KH Construction had never undertaken before.

 

At least the theme park had many similarities to apartments, so it was possible with just a little additional personnel recruitment.

 

But road construction was an entirely different matter.

 

Not only was there the difference between vertical and horizontal construction, but the constantly changing ground conditions posed major obstacles to construction.

 

‘Plus, it seems like they want to take on construction work in India. How do they plan to handle this scale of construction overseas…’

 

Vice President Cha Tae-hun was someone who joined KH Construction out of respect for CEO Kang Myeong-gu.

 

Having grown alongside him from the bottom, his respect for CEO Kang Myeong-gu was exceptional.

 

But his thoughts about Kang Hyeon were somewhat different.

 

‘The CEO praised him so much that I wondered what kind of person he was. Was he really someone who knew so little about practical work?’

 

He had high expectations because CEO Kang Myeong-gu, who was stingy with praise, had praised Choi Kang-hyeon endlessly.

 

But just as disappointment was setting in at his lack of practical knowledge.

 

“So you’re saying it’s possible if we have sufficient capital?”

 

“Pardon? Ah, yes. But recruiting personnel would cost at least several billion won. Plus, for overseas construction, we’d need to establish a subsidiary and separate the corporation, and for overseas construction, there would be additional living costs and other…”

 

“That level of cost shouldn’t be difficult. Choi Lawyer, it would be better to establish a corporation and put it under KH Construction, right?”

 

“For overseas construction projects, that method would definitely be the cleanest.”

 

Costs of several billion won aren’t difficult?

 

Just who is this man…

 

‘How much money does he have?’

 

After that, practical meetings continued to secure the construction project.

 

* * *

 

After finishing the practical meeting, Kang Hyeon returned to his room and checked the details.

 

‘The cost of recruiting new personnel and having them reside in India is roughly 13 billion won.’

 

The cost for domestic personnel was 13 billion won.

 

Of course, that wasn’t the end.

 

There were also local workers to be hired, so the total labor costs would likely reach 70 billion won.

 

Since labor costs are about 5-6 percent of total construction costs, the total construction cost would easily exceed 1 trillion won.

 

“That’s an enormous amount of money. The good news is that it’s an amount we can sufficiently handle. Now the question is how exactly we’ll recover this money.”

 

It was a manageable level even if they bid and proceeded independently.

 

Of course, Vice President Cha explained that independent bidding was unlikely since it’s a national project.

 

Anyway, when hundreds of billions of won are invested, the methods to recover it include contract fees, operating rights, and toll revenue.

 

Additionally, they could recover part of the investment through surrounding infrastructure development or financial loans.

 

But what Kang Hyeon wanted wasn’t those things.

 

“This level of light definitely indicates there will be significant margins. I’d like to know that part more clearly.”

 

Kang Hyeon checked the region written in the project documents and entered it into Google Maps.

 

Since it was a line starting from Chhattisgarh State and leading to the Eastern Port, he wanted to check those areas in advance.

 

“I thought it would be wasteland since it’s undeveloped. But there are hills and forest-like areas too.”

 

While moving through Google Maps and checking the surrounding scenery.

 

“Huh?”

 

He saw something glowing red in the distance on the map.

 

Upon confirming it, Kang Hyeon immediately moved the map to that location.

 

With each click, the light grew more intense, and when he arrived at that spot, it was shining like the sun.

 

“This is it.”

 

He had finally found it.

 

The reason why he needed to secure this construction project.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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