Golden Spoon Investment Portfolio - Chapter 523

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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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523. Could you do me a favor?

A few days later.
The international arrivals hall at Gimpo Airport was crowded with journalists who had gathered since early morning.
Lee Suk-young, her hair tied back with a ribbon, checked her wristwatch with an anxious expression and muttered to herself.

“Why isn’t he coming out?”

She then turned her head back and looked at Kim Seon-han, who stood with a camera mounted on a tripod with a large lens attached, and spoke.

“Senior, he’s definitely coming through here, right?”

Kim Seon-han, who had been chewing mints since he couldn’t smoke inside the airport, replied leisurely.

“I told you he is. This is the fifth time you’re asking.”
“It’s past noon and he still hasn’t shown up.”

At her grumbling, Kim Seon-han pointed with his chin at the other journalists stationed all around the arrivals hall.

“Look at all of them waiting here. If they’re all camped out, it’s certain he’s coming through here. Just wait a bit longer.”
“Ugh.”

Lee Suk-young smacked her lips and gripped the voice recorder tightly in one hand, ready to use it at any moment.

“Anyway, he fled overseas only to get caught by the Public Security Bureau in China and extradited back to Korea. He’s really brought shame to the nation with accounting fraud across the board.”
“Tell me about it.”

Just then, the doors to the arrivals hall, which had been quietly closed with no passengers coming out, swung open on both sides, and the eyes of both journalists and the gathered reporters automatically snapped toward the entrance.
In the tense atmosphere, two burly men in black suits escorted an elderly man with his head bowed low, walking him out from both sides.
Though he wore a white mask and had a baseball cap pulled down low to conceal his face, everyone immediately recognized him as Yu Chun-seok, the chairman of the Daekwang Group, ranked second in the business world, and chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries.
In that instant, the sound of shutters erupted from all directions as camera flashes went off in unison.

Click-click-click-click-click!

As Yu Chun-seok raised his arm to shield his face, blinded by the relentless flashes, handcuffs fastened around his wrist became visible through the gaps in his coat sleeve.
Kim Seon-han didn’t miss that fleeting moment and pressed the shutter to capture it.
Meanwhile, journalists crowded around him thrust microphones and voice recorders forward, unleashing a barrage of questions.

“Do you admit to the large-scale accounting fraud?”
“Isn’t it true that you tried to avoid entering the country to escape Prosecution investigation?”
“There are suspicions that you illegally embezzled a substantial sum of company funds—is this true?”
“There’s testimony that you directly ordered the accounting fraud. What do you have to say about that?”

Despite the barrage of questions that came at him like daggers, Yu Chun-seok offered no response.
He couldn’t.
Surrounded by reporters scuffling with airport security personnel, Yu Chun-seok bit down hard on his lower lip, overwhelmed by unbearable humiliation, his gaze fixed only on the ground.

“Please step away now!”
“Just say one word!”
“Move! Get out of the way!”

As security personnel struggled to push back the reporters who descended like a pack of hyenas on fresh prey, clearing a path, Prosecution investigators hurried Yu Chun-seok away, fleeing the immigration hall.
Kim Seon-han quickly snapped several shots of their retreating figures, and when he lowered his camera from his viewfinder, Lee Suk-young let out an exasperated groan.

“Damn it! I waited over six hours and didn’t even get a single word from him.”

Lee Suk-young’s appearance was a mess from grappling not only with airport security but also with fellow reporters.
Seeing her disheveled hair and flushed face burning with frustration, Kim Seon-han clicked his tongue.

“Tsk, tsk.”
“Senior! This isn’t the time to stand around like a bystander watching someone else’s fire!”
“Well, what else can I do?”

Kim Seon-han deftly packed his camera into his bag and folded up the tripod as he spoke.

“We’re heading to the Prosecutor’s Office, right?”
“Of course!”

Lee Suk-young nodded with a crumpled expression, knowing full well that returning to the office now would only earn her a scolding from the bureau chief.

“Then let’s get moving. We need to grab a good spot before the others get there.”

Kim Seon-han slung his camera bag over his shoulder and quickened his pace alongside Lee Suk-young.
Soon, the other reporters also rushed out of the immigration hall in a tide, pursuing Yu Chun-seok.

****

Jinhae Naval Base, Naval Operations Command.
With deep waters, towering mountains encircling it like a folding screen, and islands serving as breakwaters blocking the approach, the Jinhae Naval Base had long been called a natural fortress—a place that could evade typhoons and other natural disasters while making enemy attacks difficult.
A Bell 412 helicopter painted in Norton Blue and Crystal White two-tone colors descended toward the dock where large and small warships were moored, circled once in a wide arc, and then touched down gently on the landing pad positioned to one side.
Oh Jae-guk, a colonel in black winter duty uniform, approached with one hand pressing down his cap to keep it from being blown away by the helicopter rotor, his body bent forward against the wind.
As his uniform fluttered in the fierce wind, Colonel Oh Jae-guk grasped the passenger door and pulled it open.
As the helicopter rotor gradually slowed and the wind subsided, Seok-won, dressed in a gray suit and wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses, descended from the private helicopter alongside Han Ji-sung, his Attendant Secretary.
Colonel Oh Jae-guk, who had stepped aside, rendered a crisp military salute toward Seok-won as he exited the helicopter and spoke.

“Welcome to the Naval Operations Command.”
“Thank you for the warm reception.”

With a smile on my face, I extended one hand, and Colonel Oh Jae-guk quickly grasped it, exchanging a light handshake.

“I am Colonel Oh Jae-guk, Chief of Staff of the Naval Operations Command. The Commander is waiting at the dock, so I shall escort you there immediately.”

As Seok-won gave a small nod, Colonel Oh Jae-guk raised one arm and guided the party forward.
Upon exiting the landing pad, a Grandeur sedan with a red license plate bearing two stars—commonly called a “star plate”—was waiting.
The waiting driver rendered a military salute and opened the car door, and Seok-won climbed into the back seat.
The Grandeur, now carrying Colonel Oh Jae-guk and Han Ji-sung as well, smoothly departed and headed toward the dock where the warships were moored.

“So this is that famous Typhoon-class nuclear submarine.”

The moment Ryu In-jung, the Naval Operations Commander, heard the report that the Severtstal had finally arrived at Jinhae Naval Base—a ship he had been eagerly awaiting—he rushed to the dock and stood there with an expression of profound emotion.
Watching the Severtstal, which boasted an enormous hull as if a gigantic fortress were floating upon the sea, slowly dock with the assistance of tugboats, he stood with his mouth agape, unable to close it.

“This is my first time seeing one directly with my own eyes. It truly is remarkable.”

To the words of Gong Sang-min, the Operations Department Commander, Jo Hwi-mun, a brigadier general standing nearby, responded without hiding his excitement.

“American nuclear submarines are enormous too, but this is on a scale that defies comparison—it’s simply a colossus beyond words.”

As the commander of the 9th Submarine Squadron, to which the Severtstal would be assigned after undergoing extensive overhaul and maintenance, Jo Hwi-mun’s face was flushed with anticipation as he could not tear his eyes from the submarine.
The dock was crowded not only with naval personnel but also with technicians from the Defense Science Research Institute and various shipbuilding companies specializing in submarine technology, all waiting to disassemble and examine every bolt of the Russian nuclear submarine.
On one side, a group of foreigners with different appearances had gathered—they were the American naval technology team.
Although the Russian Navy had effectively abandoned the operation of Typhoon-class nuclear submarines due to difficult economic circumstances, they could not miss the opportunity to thoroughly examine the technology used and the interior of what had once been the most terrifying weapon that made America tremble during the Cold War.

“The submerged displacement exceeds 48,000 tons, correct?”

In response to Commander Ryu In-jung’s question, Squadron Commander Jo Hwi-mun answered immediately.

“That’s correct. The bow is equipped with six 21-inch torpedo tubes, and twenty R-39 SLBMs are loaded in two rows between the two pressure hulls.”

Commander Ryu In-jung smacked his lips, revealing a hint of regret.

“It would have been even better if the SLBM launch tubes weren’t empty and the missiles had come fully loaded.”

Then Gong Sang-min, the department head standing beside him, spoke in a soothing tone.

“If that were the case, the Severstal wouldn’t have made it here.”
“You’re right. The Americans wouldn’t have just sat back and watched.”

It was obvious as daylight that massive sanctions would have followed for violating the nuclear agreement, yet Commander Ryu In-jung couldn’t help but feel a twinge of greed.
Watching this, Squadron Commander Jo Hwi-mun spoke with excitement still evident on his face.

“Without the SLBMs, but with extensive refurbishment allowing us to unleash over a hundred Tomahawk cruise missiles in one volley, it will become a lethal weapon that will make not only North Korea but neighboring nations nervous.”

Commander Ryu In-jung nodded vigorously.

“Absolutely. If a submarine suddenly emerges from the depths and fires off over a hundred cruise missiles, even I would feel like I had a bone stuck in my throat.”
“I would feel the same way.”

The acoustic tiles affixed to the hull had peeled off in places, and rust had accumulated due to the Russian Navy’s poor maintenance and neglect, but such details hardly registered.
The moment I thought of this colossal nuclear submarine as now belonging to the Korean Navy, only a sense of reassurance filled my mind.
Then, a thought suddenly occurred to Commander Ryu In-jung.

“Once the refurbishment is complete and she’s recommissioned, she’ll be the largest vessel in the Korean Navy.”
“That’s absolutely true.”

Gong Sang-min acknowledged from beside him.
Squadron Commander Jo Hwi-mun also harbored the expectation that the submarine corps, which had long been treated as a minor branch, would now emerge as a core naval asset thanks to the Severstal, and a deep smile played across his lips.

“It appears Chairman Park Seok-won has arrived.”

At the major’s words from behind, the three men turned their heads in unison, looking in the direction he was pointing.
Seeing a Grandeur sedan with a general’s flag enter the dock, Commander Ryu In-jung brightened and spoke.

“He’s arrived right on time.”

Moments later, as Seok-won descended from the Grandeur sedan that had come to a stop nearby, accompanied by Colonel Oh Jae-guk who had gone to greet him, Commander Ryu In-jung also moved forward with his subordinate officers.

“Chairman Park. Welcome.”

Commander Ryu In-jung greeted me with a warm expression.

“I hope you’ve been well.”

Since we’d met a few times before, I smiled and shook his hand.

“The trip down to Jinhae Naval Base wasn’t too inconvenient, I hope?”
“Even if it’s far, this is such a special day—of course I had to come.”
“Ha ha ha, indeed. Today will be a truly historic day for the Korean Navy.”

Commander Ryu In-jung laughed heartily and spoke to me with genuine sincerity.

“Without you, Chairman Park, I never would have imagined we could acquire a nuclear submarine in the midst of a foreign exchange crisis—and the largest Typhoon-class in the world at that. I truly cannot thank you enough.”
“I’m simply grateful that I could be of some small help to the Navy, which guards our nation day and night on these rough seas.”
“Ha ha. Small, you say? Please don’t speak that way.”

Commander Ryu In-jung lowered his voice with gravity.

“This is a truly magnificent gift that will never come our way again.”

The naval officers present nodded in agreement.
Looking past Commander Ryu In-jung’s shoulder, I gazed at the massive hull of the Severtstal, now fully moored, and spoke.

“I’ve already seen her in Russia, but seeing her here in Korea feels entirely new.”

Commander Ryu In-jung turned to look at the Severtstal with affectionate eyes, then replied.

“I heard that you’re covering all the refurbishment costs as well.”
“Since I brought her here, I should bear full responsibility until the end.”

I answered matter-of-factly.
But this wasn’t something just anyone could say, so Commander Ryu In-jung responded with admiration.

“The refurbishment costs alone will run into hundreds of billions of won. I don’t know how to express my gratitude. With the foreign exchange crisis shrinking the entire defense budget, if the Navy had to refurbish her with its own resources, it could have taken years before she returned to service.”

With that, Commander Ryu In-jung thanked me once more.

“I feel terrible that I have received such tremendous assistance yet have nothing to offer in return.”

At this, Seok-won’s eyes gleamed with interest as he posed a question.

“Then, might you be willing to grant me a single favor?”

Commander Ryu In-jung, who had not anticipated such a direct request, was momentarily taken aback, but he soon nodded his head.

“If it is something within my authority, please tell me anything.”
“You must be aware that I have decided to commission the construction of six speedboats and donate them to the Navy.”
“Of course.”

Seok-won regarded Commander Ryu In-jung with a serious demeanor and spoke.

“I would like all six of the speedboats being donated to be deployed to the West Sea Fleet 2.”
“…!”

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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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