Golden Spoon Investment Portfolio - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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30. Has something happened at the company?

After ending the conversation, I climbed back to my room and let out a pained groan, my eyes narrowing slightly.

“Ugh. I thought that was all settled, but I never expected Father to come at me like this.”

It felt like I’d been blindsided, caught completely off guard.
I wasn’t young anymore, but I could understand Father’s concern to some degree—my younger brother had just graduated from university and wanted to dive headfirst into Wall Street, that jungle of schemes and manipulation, carrying a fortune with him.

“Still, though. I’m the one who survived for decades in Yeouido’s securities district—an ant farm far worse than Wall Street. I can’t even show him my true feelings about this.”

I scratched my head in frustration and sighed.
But I’d already set things in motion in the United States, and it would be too wasteful to abandon all that and come back to Korea, only to squander time and opportunity.

“Then there’s only one conclusion. I have no choice but to demonstrate my abilities so convincingly that Father will have to acknowledge them.”

Then Father wouldn’t be able to interfere with or oppose what I was doing anymore.

“Maybe it’s actually fortunate that I took the blow first.”

I decided to shift my perspective and think about the situation positively.
What was done was done, and it wasn’t easy to break Father’s stubborn, ox-like resolve.
So rather than engage in a pointless battle of wills, it was better to use this opportunity to tie everything up completely once and for all.
I smoothed the furrow from my brow and stood with my arms crossed, deep in thought.

“If I’m going to do this, I should do it properly.”

Then a conversation I’d had with Manager Oh long ago naturally came to mind.

Manager Oh, dressed in a short-sleeved dress shirt and sitting in a chair, was thoroughly fed up with the oppressive summer heat that was in full force.

“Phew. What kind of weather is this?”

Manager Oh wiggled his feet in triple-striped slippers while continuously fanning himself with his hand.
He complained so much about the heat that my ears were burning.
Sitting across from him, I carefully applied shoe polish with a cloth rolled up in my hand, then sighed and turned the electric fan toward Manager Oh.

“I’m feeling better now.”
“Oh, thank you. But aren’t you hot? How is it that you’re not sweating at all?”
“I have a constitution that doesn’t feel heat very much.”

Seok-won replied casually while applying shoe polish again with smooth strokes.

“Insane. I sweat buckets the moment it gets a little warm. You’re lucky, you bastard.”
“In exchange, I’m very sensitive to the cold.”
“That’s actually better. You can just wear more clothes when it’s cold. But in summer, you can’t strip everything off even if you’re dying of heat, so that’s more annoying.”
“Now that you mention it, that makes sense.”

Manager Oh wiped the sweat beading on his forehead with a handkerchief and asked with curiosity.

“Do you also not get bitten by mosquitoes much?”
“I get bitten less than most people.”

As he shrugged, Manager Oh let out an exclamation of admiration.

“Wow, you were born with all the good traits.”
“What good is that? I have no parental fortune at all.”

At those words, Manager Oh’s face, who knew that Seok-won was an orphan, shifted to a pitiful expression.
Though Seok-won had answered matter-of-factly without any emotion, the listener’s perspective was different.
In fact, Manager Oh had been treating him like a real younger brother and helping him in subtle ways because he was impressed by how he lived with integrity and sincerity without falling into the wrong path in this harsh world.
Being an orphan was something that would normally be a complex to hide, yet the way he spoke of it so casually made it feel all the more heartbreaking.

“Ahem.”

Feeling unexpectedly gloomy, Manager Oh deliberately cleared his throat and naturally changed the subject.

“But you know, it really does seem like the world goes in circles, doesn’t it?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, you know how they call it retro fashion these days, and those jackets with huge shoulder pads or knit skirts from back in the day are coming back in style, so daughters are rummaging through their mothers’ closets to wear those clothes.”
“Ah… I think I heard something similar on the radio. But why is that?”

Manager Oh habitually pulled out a cigarette pack from his pocket, took one out, put it in his mouth, and lit it.

“The economy seems to cycle like trends, you know.”
“How so?”
“You know how the dot-com bubble exploded after skyrocketing like mad, and now there’s this value stock craze sweeping through?”
“Yes.”

Even without Manager Oh’s commentary, I picked up plenty of talk while polishing shoes, and since I dabbled in stocks myself, I understood well how the Yeouido securities market operated.

“Growth stocks that would shoot up unconditionally just by slapping ‘.com’ on their names got demolished. Now they’re repackaging those neglected low-PER stocks as ‘value stocks’ and pumping them back up.”

Manager Oh spoke cynically, a cigarette wedged between his fingers.

“I make my living in this business too, but honestly, the way people scheme to bewitch investors and drain their wallets is just astounding.”

I paused my shoe-polishing and immediately countered with what I’d learned.

“But those low-PER stocks really are undervalued compared to their actual worth.”
“Of course that’s true.”

Manager Oh smiled with a look that said “look at this kid getting smarter,” regarding me like a junior who’d grown a bit sharper, then explained the reasoning in detail.

“Like you said, low-PER stocks are ones priced cheaper than their intrinsic value.”
“Right.”
“But once the stock price shoots up ten, twenty times over, can you still call it a low-PER or value stock?”
“…”
“The moment it shoots past fair value and skyrockets absurdly, it stops being investment and becomes speculation.”

Manager Oh’s voice grew serious as he continued.

“Everyone knows it, but they close their eyes thinking ‘as long as it’s not me’ and pass the bomb around. Then when it inflates to the limit and finally explodes, only the retail investors who bought at the peak—clueless ants—get wiped out.”

As I listened quietly and absorbed his words, Manager Oh flicked ash from his cigarette into the empty paper cup, then crossed one leg.

“The same thing happened back in the ’90s when the market opened and foreign capital first entered.”

Then Manager Oh suddenly wore a playful expression.

“Of course you wouldn’t remember—you were just a green kid back then. Weren’t you the one eating dirt and playing in the schoolyard? Huh?”
“Stop treating me like a child. Besides, I was already an adult with an ID card back then.”

Seok-won glanced sideways and pretended not to hear.

“So that’s why you said the world seems to go round and round?”
“That’s right. In this business, the moment you close your eyes, your nose gets cut off. So if you don’t want to squander all the pocket money you’ve carefully saved, look carefully at what’s ahead and behind before you invest.”

Mixed with the rattling sound of the fan, Manager Oh’s voice faded into the distance.
Recalling the memory up to that point, Seok-won curled up one corner of his mouth and muttered.

“That period of PER stock surges Manager Oh talked about—it’s happening right now.”

Even if external capital was pouring in, the index didn’t skyrocket for no reason, and securities companies weren’t called golden geese without cause.
Several representative low-PER stocks, starting with banks, came to mind immediately.
But I filtered out all the trivial ones and selected only a few stocks that had achieved such remarkable growth rates they’d be recorded in the securities company’s history.

“To make Father have no choice but to acknowledge me, I need to create at least a ten-bagger.”

A ten-bagger, meaning a ten-run hit, referred to a stock that generated a tenfold return on investment.
It was the kind of feat one might accomplish once in a lifetime, if at all, but having regressed, I could immediately recall several such stocks.

“This is exactly what a regressor’s privilege is all about.”

Imagining Father’s shocked expression upon receiving results that far exceeded expectations, I smiled broadly.

* * *

“Auntie.”

The Gunsan Housekeeper, who had been washing radish in the kitchen to make kimchi, turned at the sound of the call from behind.

“Oh my, young master. Is there something you need?”

The Gunsan Housekeeper, seeing Seok-won standing with something in one hand, wiped her wet hands on her apron and asked.

“Do you have any unused bowls?”
“Of course. But what do you need them for?”
“A stray cat went under the wooden deck in the garden and gave birth to kittens.”

At that, the Gunsan Housekeeper’s eyes widened with a look of sudden realization.

“So a Tricolor Cat has been coming and going for a few days now—it must be her. But she was pregnant?”
“Apparently so. I came back from my morning exercise and heard cat sounds, so I went to check. She had five kittens.”
“My goodness! So many. It’s amazing she could carry that many in such a small body.”

The Gunsan Housekeeper caught sight of the cat food bag I was holding and broke into a broad smile.

“So you bought cat food for the mother?”

On the yellow packaging, a cute cat struck an endearing pose in a large photograph.
At the Gunsan Housekeeper’s words, I scratched the back of my head and spoke as if making an excuse.

“The mother looked terribly thin—probably starving from nursing. I couldn’t just walk past her, so she kept weighing on my mind. I ended up buying this.”
“My, what a kind heart you have.”

The Gunsan Housekeeper looked at me with a warm smile and spoke.

“Even though they’re creatures without words, they understand kindness. When you help like this, you’ll receive blessings in return. Oh, you mentioned needing a bowl? Just wait a moment.”

The Gunsan Housekeeper turned quickly and opened the cabinet beneath the sink, rummaging through it.

“I happen to have one set aside that I was planning to throw out since my daughter moved. Will this work?”
“That’s perfect.”

I thanked her, took the jade-colored ceramic bowl, and left the kitchen.
Watching my retreating figure, the Gunsan Housekeeper’s eyes grew warm with affection.

“The other chairman’s children cause so much trouble, but this one has grown up with such a good heart.”

Meanwhile, stepping outside through the front door, I placed the bowl on the outdoor table in one corner of the garden and filled it generously with cat food.

“I wonder if she’s still there.”

Carrying the bowl of food, I made my way to the far corner of the wooden deck on the left and carefully knelt on one knee on the grass, peering inside.
In the dim depths beneath the deck, I could see small forms squirming about.
A Tricolor Cat lay on her side, nursing her kittens whose eyes hadn’t yet opened.

Mew!

Tricolor Cat, sensing his presence with acute awareness, bared her fangs and hissed at him.
Given her defensive posture, I decided not to press further and instead slid the food bowl deeper into the shelter.

“Easy there. I’m just bringing you food.”

Tricolor Cat, her fur bristled in protection of her kittens as she continued hissing, soon caught the scent of the food and her nose twitched.

Sniff, sniff.

As I pushed the bowl closer, Tricolor Cat began nursing while devouring the food ravenously.
Watching her eat with such desperation, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy.

“Poor thing… she must be starving.”

Though I wanted to watch longer, I stood and stepped away to let her eat in peace.
Just as I was about to head inside with the feed bag from the outdoor table, the front gate opened.
Turning to look, I saw my older brother Park Jin-hyung in a long coat walking in with Chief Secretary Gil Seong-ho.

“Brother, you’re here?”

I greeted Chief Secretary Gil Seong-ho casually as well.

“You came too, sir.”

Chief Secretary Gil Seong-ho responded with a gentle smile.

“How have you been?”
“I’m on break, so there’s not much going on.”

As the two exchanged words, Park Jin-hyung’s gaze fell on the feed bag in my hand.

“What’s that?”
“Oh, this? Nothing much. A stray cat gave birth under the garden deck, so I’ve been feeding her.”
“Hmm.”

The atmosphere grew awkward under his serious gaze, so I quickly changed the subject.

“But what brings you here so suddenly?”
“I have something to discuss with Father.”

Park Jin-hyung answered briefly, his distinctive expressionless face unchanged.
Seok-won, glancing sideways at Chief Secretary Gil Seong-ho standing beside him, realized this was business related to the group and decided not to press further.

“He’s probably in the Study Room. Go on in.”

Park Jin-hyung gave a small nod and walked past him.

“See you later then.”

Chief Secretary Gil Seong-ho offered a slight bow to Seok-won before following his senior toward the main house.
Seok-won watched them go and murmured quietly to himself.

“Both of them coming together… something must be happening at the company.”

Then a thought crossed his mind.

“Right. Now that I think about it, Kim Sung-gyu was elected president a few days ago.”

After thirty-two years of military rule since May 16th, a civilian government was taking power—a pivotal moment in history.
As this was a time of great transformation, corporations had no choice but to remain vigilant about their next moves.

“Things won’t change much in the long run, but this is when companies have to be especially cautious about the new administration’s preferences. It can’t be helped.”

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