I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 164

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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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Chapter 164
I grasped Ji-hee’s hand firmly.
“Ji-hee, let me teach you!”
“Okay! Oppa!”
I quickly took Ji-hee’s hand and led her into the room.
Then I opened the problem set she had brought with her.
I gazed at Ji-hee with eyes full of admiration once more.
The section Ji-hee was working on was marked as advanced study within upper-grade mathematics. In short, these were advanced problems designed for mathematically gifted students.
“Ji-hee, wasn’t it difficult while you were solving these?”
“The beginning was a little hard… but the rest was okay. Oppa, this problem is hard for me.”
Ji-hee pointed to a geometry problem with her delicate little fingers.
[How admirable this is….]
It was an easy problem for me, but naturally it was difficult for seven-year-old Ji-hee.
“Alright, let me explain. This shape is….
Just then, the door burst open and Min-guk poked his head in.
“Hyung, Mom says it’s time to eat.”
“Jeon Min-guk, I’m teaching Ji-hee right now, so could you please leave?”
At my words, Min-guk’s eyes narrowed as he walked closer to the desk. He clearly wasn’t listening.
“What’s this atmosphere? Hyung, when you taught me, you even brought Lim Mi-mi over and taught me North Korea style. But now you’re giving Ji-hee one-on-one tutoring so affectionately?”
“Min-guk, Ji-hee is still young.”
I clenched my teeth.
“You’re being lenient because she’s young? You told me to roll around and earn my keep when I was three!”
Min-guk began to get upset.
“Min-guk, I don’t remember doing that.”
I tried to dismiss Min-guk’s memory.
“Hyung, what are you talking about? I remember everything. You told me to roll around like that while watching TV and laugh!”
An IQ of 160 was truly unstoppable.
[How do I get Jeon Min-guk to be quiet?]
Just then, Ji-hee grasped Min-guk’s hand tightly. And she said just one thing.
“Oppa!”
In that moment, all of Min-guk’s anger melted away like snow.
Ji-hee looked at Min-guk again with her round eyes.
“Oppa! Didn’t you say earlier that teaching Ji-hee was a bother?”
“That was because you asked me when I was busy.”
Min-guk’s voice became much softer than usual.
[What is this situation?]
Ji-hee was completely playing both Min-guk and me.
Here I was, dead at forty, now being toyed with by a seven-year-old little girl!
“Oppa, look at this. Sung-guk’s oppa said he’d teach me.”
“Hmm… it’s not that difficult of a problem. I’ll teach you first. Hyung, it’s been a long time since you graduated, so you probably won’t know.”
[I’m a guy who goes to Harvard!]
But instead of snapping back, I stepped back slightly.
Min-guk explained the problem to Ji-hee with unusual tenderness.
Ji-hee nodded continuously.
[Sigh… I really shouldn’t have given my heart to a girl….]
Click.
The door opened and Mother stepped in.
“I told you to come eat, so what are you all doing? Sung-guk, bring your siblings out.”
I quietly passed by Mother’s side.
“Mother, you really can’t trust girls.”
As I muttered this, Mother struck my back hard.
“What are you saying, you brat? Go eat your meal.”
[Really… girls are terrifying….]
I headed to the dinner table with my head hung low.
* * *
That night, I handed Ji-hee a notebook.
“Oppa, what’s this?”
Ji-hee rubbed her eyes with her hands, looking drowsy.
“Ji-hee, open it.”
Ji-hee opened the notebook and looked up at me with wide eyes. She seemed a bit surprised.
[Surprised, huh….]
“Ji-hee, this is the life plan I wrote when I was seven years old.”
“A plan?”
“Yes.”
I nodded proudly.
“When I was just seven, I made a plan for how to study in order to lift this family up. Look at this.”
Age seven – Set life goals, sleep only four hours a day.
Ji-hee’s large eyes began to widen in shock.
“Oppa… you only slept four hours a day?”
“Just because your oppa did that doesn’t mean you have to. How about our Ji-hee sleeps about five hours?”
“Oppa… Ji-hee gets sleepy at nine o’clock at night….”
“That’s fine, you can gradually reduce your sleep.”
Ji-hee looked at me again with a bewildered expression.
“Oppa… what’s your life goal?”
“Hmm… when I was seven, I already decided to become a tycoon. Since your oppa earns a lot of money, how about our Ji-hee pursues academics instead?”
“Academics?”
“Yes. For example, a doctor, a lawyer. Things like that.”
[That’s right, Ji-hee… the family should have at least one doctor or lawyer.]
I smiled as generously as I could.
“Oppa, is a doctor the person you see at the hospital?”
“That’s right. A doctor is someone who takes care of people when they’re sick. A truly beneficial person in this world. A lawyer is someone who helps people when they’ve been treated unfairly. Hmm… Ji-hee, do you like math? Or do you prefer Korean?”
“Ji-hee likes math!”
I looked at Ji-hee with pride.
[I’m a tycoon, Min-guk’s an idol. Yes, Ji-hee. You should become a doctor!]
Ji-hee tilted her head and stared at me intently.
“Oppa, Ji-hee….”
“Yes?”
“Oppa, Ji-hee… wants to be Sailor Moon.”
“Sailor Moon? What’s that?”
The door burst open and Min-guk entered, striking an odd pose.
“In the name of justice, I will not forgive you!”
What on earth was this?
Min-guk looked at me and let out a deep sigh.
“Hyung, don’t you watch cartoons?”
“I don’t have time for that.”
“Sailor Moon, you know? She punishes villains in the name of justice!”
I looked at Ji-hee.
“Ji-hee, is Sailor Moon a cartoon character?”
“Yes!”
Ji-hee nodded brightly with a radiant smile.
“Oppa, Ji-hee’s going to become Sailor Moon, the moon fairy!”
Ji-hee jumped up and struck the same odd pose as Min-guk.
“In the name of justice, I will not forgive you!”
Then she and Min-guk attacked me simultaneously.
“Oppa, take this!”
[Sigh… my younger siblings are all so unpredictable….]
* * *
I sat alone on the terrace again, sipping milk in solitude.
The door opened with a creak, and Father stepped out holding a beer in one hand.
“Sung-guk, why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I have a meeting tomorrow. I wanted to prepare some more materials before bed.”
“Sung-guk, I heard you’ve been teaching Ji-hee her studies?”
“Father, Ji-hee seems to have talent for academics. I can’t tell yet if she leans toward humanities or sciences, but since she loves math, I think it would be best to guide her toward medical school.”
Father patted my back. Three times.
[That’s my gesture…]
“Sung-guk, when you were little and couldn’t speak yet, you’d pat my back twice if you liked something, and three times if you didn’t. At first, I thought it was just something you did unconsciously, but watching you over time, I realized every gesture meant something. Looking back now at how a child who couldn’t even speak would do that… I suppose our Sung-guk really was a genius after all.”
[Father, I’m not a genius. My IQ is ordinary.]
I smiled bitterly.
Father pulled out the notebook he’d shown Ji-hee earlier from behind his back and handed it to me.
“Sung-guk, this here. Did you really write this?”
I quickly snatched the notebook from Father’s hands.
“Father, that’s embarrassing.”
Father immediately handed over the notebook and patted my back again.
“Sung-guk, I’ve been deeply troubled ever since you were little, studying without sleep.”
[Father, that’s exactly why I got into Harvard.]
“My Sung-guk has suffered so much. To think you were born to such inadequate parents….”
[Father, why are you suddenly like this?]
Father gulped down his beer.
“When I think about how you’ve been worried about the family since childhood, my heart aches terribly.”
“Father, that’s not it.”
I tried to comfort him.
[Sigh, what an immature father. Well… people in their thirties are still quite foolish.]
Father patted my shoulder.
“Sung-guk, we’ll be returning to Korea soon anyway. So stop worrying about the family. Sung-guk, I hope you don’t just work all the time and actually enjoy your life. Don’t people your age date in America?”
[Father, there’s no woman in this world who catches my eye.]
Just then, the terrace door opened and Min-guk and Ji-hee came out with Mother.
“Honey, stop lecturing Sung-guk.”
“Your mother is always complaining only to me.”
“Where can you find a child as capable as our Sung-guk? You’re always venting to him, that’s why.”
“I wasn’t venting. I just told him to go on some dates.”
At that moment, Ji-hee rushed over and grabbed my hand tightly.
“Sung-guk oppa, no dating! Sung-guk oppa is mine!”
I quickly lifted Ji-hee into my arms and whispered in her ear.
“Ji-hee, you must never change that heart of yours. And I’ve been thinking… I think it would be wonderful if our Ji-hee became a doctor who heals the moon fairies when they’re sick. What do you think?”
“Ji-hee wants to do that!”
I smiled with satisfaction.
[Yes, we need at least one doctor in the family.]
* * *
Tension hung thick in the FaceNote office.
Mark and Lim Mi-mi both wore expressions of nervous anticipation.
I reviewed the presentation materials once more before showing them to Jerry Chang from Yahoo.
This was the moment when FaceNote needed fresh investment.
To expand FaceNote globally, we needed more than the free office space at Apple Campus—we needed a larger office and more programmers.
Peter’s investment alone wouldn’t be enough for that.
Soon the door opened and Jerry Chang, a man of small stature wearing glasses, entered.
I stood up from my seat and greeted Jerry Chang.
“Welcome to FaceNote.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Jerry Chang.”
“I’m Jeon Sung-guk. This is Mark, my co-founder. And this is our programmer, Lim Mi-mi.”
“Just as I heard, a company run by young people. We had exactly this kind of atmosphere when we started Yahoo. My co-founder David and I were classmates at Stanford.”
“Mark and I went to the same high school and university. Though I dropped out partway through.”
“Harvard?”
“Yes.”
Jerry Chang seemed to know far more about us than I’d expected.
I handed over the materials Jerry Chang had prepared, and just as I was settling in to give a brief explanation of FaceNote, he stopped me.
“Sung-guk, I already know FaceNote very well. No need to explain.”
Jerry Chang was more aggressive than I’d anticipated.
“Then please, ask whatever you’d like. I’m prepared to answer anything.”
“You’re as confident as I’ve heard. People around me talk about you a lot—the Sung-guk behind FaceNote.”
Jerry Chang was subtly laying groundwork with a different topic.
It seemed he was employing a tactic of shifting focus with tangential remarks before revealing his true colors.
[Jerry Chang, I’m not falling for that. I’m a former chaebol heir.]
I steeled myself mentally.
Jerry Chang glanced through the materials quickly, then looked at Mark and me.
“But I heard that Samjeon, a Korean conglomerate, wanted to invest. Why did you reject that investment?”
“Our visions didn’t align.”
“So you’re saying you’ll only accept investment from companies whose vision matches yours?”
“Yes.”
“Then, what about us at Yahoo?”
Jerry Chang asked without hesitation.
“Are you interested in investing in FaceNote?”
I asked back just as directly.
Jerry Chang paused for a moment, then suddenly asked.
“Actually, I don’t want to invest in FaceNote. I want to buy it outright. How about one billion dollars?”
The office fell silent as a tomb.
One billion dollars.
It was an astronomical sum—over one trillion won in Korean currency.

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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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