I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 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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Chapter 2
Jeon Tae-guk.
My younger brother, two years my junior.
Jeon Tae-guk inherited nothing but our parents’ recessive genes, and the moment he entered middle school, he was practically banished abroad for early study abroad in the United States.
There, he dabbled in marijuana, drugs, and every conceivable designer narcotic before returning home—only to continue down the same path.
When we entrusted him with one of the Samjeon Group’s subsidiaries, he got high and crashed a car, cleanly eliminating himself from the succession race in one fell swoop.
Those narrow, vicious eyes of his looked no different from before the regression.
I quickly glanced behind Jeon Tae-guk.
Father and Uncle stood with gloomy expressions on their faces.
During the three months Grandfather spent in prison, what was known as the Prince’s Rebellion erupts.
Uncle, whose ambitions far exceed his actual capabilities, persuades the shareholders to strip Father of his management rights.
But everything fails, and the rebellion concludes with the Samjeon Group’s least profitable division—construction—being handed over to Uncle.
[Ah yes, Uncle clung to Grandfather’s pant legs, weeping and wailing back then. Grandfather said it was partly his fault for having a son like him, so he’d let the construction company go as if sacrificing his own body….]
“Kkook-ah, what are you saying after watching the news?”
A woman with flushed cheeks from the alcohol looked down at me.
[You people will never understand the world of the chaebol, even if you died and came back to life. I should just pretend to be asleep.]
I blinked several times before closing my eyes—a signal of drowsiness.
“Kkook-ah seems sleepy.”
The woman carefully picked me up and gently placed me in my spot in the corner of the one-room apartment. Then she kissed my cheek.
“Sleep well, our little Kkook-ah.”
The woman patted my belly gently.
“So-young, don’t you think our little Kkook-ah is at the age where he should be saying ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy’ now?”
“Some children talk a bit late. Maybe our little Kkook-ah is one of those.”
[It’s not that I’m late to talk—it’s because you’re not my real mother and father. You’re just surrogate parents raising me, Jeon Sung-guk. Nothing more….]
Sleep began to creep over me gradually.
I’d suffered from insomnia my entire previous life, but these days sleep crashed over me periodically like a tidal wave, nearly killing me with exhaustion.
* * *
Whenever the news hour came on, I did my best to cry.
The woman realized that my crying stopped when I watched the news, so she regularly turned it on for me.
The news was like a pacifier to me.
Thanks to it, I could see exactly how the Samjeon Group was currently operating.
Grandfather received a two-year sentence just as before the regression and entered prison amid a barrage of camera flashes.
As if waiting for this opportunity, Uncle launched the Prince’s Rebellion, and when Grandfather was released on special pardon after just three months, the rebellion came to an end.
There was nothing different from what I remembered before the regression.
Though I was born into poverty, all my experiences and knowledge from before the regression remained intact, and I even knew the future.
That is, if the future of South Korea after 1992 that I knew hadn’t changed.
Moreover, I was ten years younger than in my previous life.
If I could just endure in this family, it seemed I could reclaim the wealth and honor I’d enjoyed before the regression.
I fell into sweet reverie.
In this life too, I plan to become a chaebol.
Beneath my feet stood countless employees with bowed heads.
The economic pulse of South Korea moving within my grasp.
Hehehehe.
“Sung-guk, what’s so funny?”
The woman paused from washing dishes and turned to look at me with a smile.
I stared at her with a pouty expression.
[I’ll make some money during the IMF crisis. So raise me well. I’ll repay your kindness later.]
I intended to offer appropriate compensation for raising such a noble being in these squalid circumstances.
[I should buy a house too, and give both the woman and man decent positions.]
I stroked my chin thoughtfully.
“Sung-guk, let’s go to the Supermarket in front to buy bean sprouts with Mom.”
[I’ll watch the news. Go by yourself.]
But the woman was already wrapping me in a blanket and holding me.
[Woman! I can manage just fine on my own!]
As I squirmed, the woman patted my bottom.
“The way you’re thrashing around like that—maybe Sung-guk will become a soccer player?”
[What are you saying? My dream is to become a chaebol.]
“Alright, alright. Let’s go.”
The woman carried me on her back and stepped outside.
Just then, I heard someone descending from the upper floor.
“Unit 107?”
[What? How dare she address me by unit number instead of my name?]
I glared at the woman coming down the stairs.
Short hair, dark formal suit. Her expression was cold and distant.
“Oh, are you heading to work now?”
When the woman asked warmly, the short-haired woman nodded.
“I have something this morning, so I’m leaving a bit late today. I need to cross the street and catch the Bus stop.”
“Have a good day.”
The woman bowed respectfully at the waist.
[Hey, woman. Who is this woman that you’re bowing so deeply to?]
“Sung-guk, why are you fussing so much?”
The woman patted my bottom again.
Why did this feel so pleasant?
My anger melted away after a few pats, and drowsiness began to creep in.
“Sung-guk, are you falling asleep?”
[Don’t… make… me…]
I drifted off into slumber.
I heard the woman asking for more while buying 100 won worth of bean sprouts at the Supermarket.
Trembling over a mere 100 won.
I had no memory of ever using a 100 won coin.
The woman who had left the supermarket walked home, continuously patting my drowsy bottom.
“Sung-guk, I’ll make you a delicious soybean sprout soup for dinner tonight.”
[That’s for you to eat. What I eat is formula.]
I mumbled in my sleep.
“Our Sung-guk really seems to understand everything Mom says. After I gave birth to Sung-guk, I was so lonely at home by myself, but now that Sung-guk is babbling like this… I can’t tell you how wonderful it is.”
The woman must have been very lonely.
Postpartum depression, perhaps—I’d heard such things existed, and it seemed she had it.
The woman continued patting my bottom.
Again! Again! Again!
I shouldn’t let myself feel comforted by something this trivial.
Rumble!
What was that?
At that moment, a deafening sound jolted me awake.
“Aaaahhh!”
“Get out of the way!”
“Aaaahhh!”
Screams erupted from people all around.
[What on earth is happening?]
The woman quickly scooped me up from her back and began running urgently.
[What is going on?!]
That was when it happened.
A building beside the street collapsed with a tremendous crash.
Simultaneously, my vision became clouded.
The woman held me tightly against her body.
I felt suffocated, and everything before my eyes turned pitch black.
Was I going to die like this in this life?
[Well, I was born into a poor family, so dying young isn’t the worst thing… but if there’s no next life! That can’t happen!]
I frantically grabbed the woman and shook her.
[Woman, snap out of it! Woman, you can’t die! I’m supposed to grow up and become a tycoon!]
That was when it happened.
The woman’s desperate voice reached me, barely a whisper.
“Sung-guk… Mom will protect you.”
What…?
Why did my chest feel warm…?
A massive brick was falling directly toward the woman’s head.
[No!]
I thrashed my entire body and screamed, while the woman wrapped herself completely around me.
“Sung-guk… Mom will protect you.”
The woman didn’t even finish her words.
In that instant, something burst from my lips.
“M-Mom!”
The moment she heard my voice, the woman smiled.
“That’s right, Kkook. I’m your mom….”
The woman’s eyes slowly closed.
From that moment on, I began to wail with a voice that the whole world could hear.
“Waaaah! Waaaah! Waaaah!”
It was my desperate struggle to keep my mother alive.
[Mom! Don’t die! Someone help! My mom is dying!]
* * *
Huff. Huff. Huff.
I had cried so much that my breathing came in labored gasps.
My eyes were so swollen that they stung whenever I opened or closed them.
The man holding me as I wept had been pacing the hospital corridor for an hour now. No—my father had been.
The moment I called that woman “mom,” my last emotional barrier crumbled instantly.
As we were leaving the supermarket, the multi-family residential building undergoing demolition collapsed.
In the chaos, many people walking on the street were injured.
My mother was one of those many people walking down that street.
Among them all, I alone escaped without a single wound.
It was because I had been cradled securely in my mother’s arms.
In the end, I survived because of my mother.
“Sniff!”
I sniffled again, my nose running.
The man called Father tried to comfort me.
“Kkook, it’s okay. Fortunately, your mom is fine too.”
I looked up at Father’s face, his eyes swollen from crying, as he held me to soothe my tears.
Father was barely holding back his own sobs as he cradled and comforted me.
He hadn’t even removed his restaurant apron.
Now these two were my mother and father.
My mother had thrown herself in front of danger to save me, and my father had stood working all day to comfort me when I cried, then spent the evening walking back and forth through the hospital corridor.
Yet they never spoke a harsh word, and instead wrapped me in warmth, worried only that I might be frightened.
“Kkook, it’s okay. Your mom is completely fine. Heaven really helped us. The doctor says she just needs a few days of rest.”
[I know that too. But the tears just keep coming….]
I babbled incoherently.
If Secretary Yang, who had served me before my regression, saw me like this, he would surely be shocked and flee.
Before my grandfather passed away, he had left me with these words.
– A corporate chairman must choose the time and place even for smiling and crying, Sung-guk.
That’s why I didn’t shed a single tear even at my grandfather’s funeral, the man who had cherished me so.
Displaying emotion directly affected the company’s stock price.
“Shall we go see your mom?”
“Uh-huh!”
I answered emphatically.
Pat, pat. The man tapped my back and opened the door to the hospital room where Mother lay.
An IV line was inserted into Mother’s slender arm.
Her head was wrapped in bandages, but according to the doctor, it was merely a laceration—nothing else was seriously wrong.
Mother smiled when she saw me.
Father lifted me into Mother’s embrace.
Mother held me tightly once more.
“My little one, I thought I’d never see you again. Thank goodness you weren’t hurt at all.”
[You’re the foolish one—Mother’s head is split open!]
As I squirmed, Mother held me even more firmly.
“So-young, I’ll watch over him tonight, so get some proper rest here at the hospital.”
“Honey, I want to be discharged. Hospital bills are so expensive.”
“There’s nothing seriously wrong, but we can’t be certain. The doctor said you should stay one more night.”
“Honey, but still….”
“So-young, listen to me. Your health comes before money. You need to be well to raise him properly. Don’t you?”
“…All right.”
Mother reluctantly agreed.
“Oh, honey. The Landlady found me. Where did she go?”
“She said she had to get to work right away. She helped with all of his tests too—I can’t thank her enough.”
The short-haired woman had been waiting for the bus at the stop across the way when the building collapsed. She rushed over, quickly got Mother and me to the hospital.
Everything happened so fast that I don’t remember much, but thanks to her, we arrived at the hospital faster than anyone else could have.
“If you see her first, give her my regards. I’ll thank her properly once I’m discharged.”
“Don’t worry about anything now—just rest. I’ll take good care of Sung-guk.”
Father carried me out of the hospital.
* * *
The night air was refreshing.
Father soothed me as we walked on.
“Little one, let’s walk a bit tonight. Father’s only twenty-three—my legs are still strong.”
[In other words, we have no money for a cab.]
“I’m so relieved you and Mother are safe. I’m sorry about all this. The building owner will cover the hospital bills and rebuild the structure properly. I’ll make sure to oversee it.”
[Shoddy construction absolutely cannot happen!]
“People say when I talk to our little one, it’s like having a real conversation. Come on, let’s spend a deep night together, just us men.”
[Hmm. I’ll have to pass on that.]
I shook my head firmly.
“Does our Sung-guk really understand everything Father says?”
[Of course.]
Father finally smiled, his puffy face breaking into a grin.
Mother, injured yet fretting over hospital bills.
Father, saving on cab fare by carrying his one-year-old son through the night.
Yet somehow, all of this felt strangely wonderful.
On this late summer night, my twenty-three-year-old father—penniless and struggling—trudges forward with me strapped to his chest in a baby carrier.
I sense that I will remember this night for a very long time.

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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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