I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 332

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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 332
Jeon Tae-guk shouted into the phone.
“Really?”
– Yes, I’m heading to the residence of Jeon Sung-guk, where the young master is staying. I’ll brief you on the rest of the details when I arrive.
“Ah….”
Jeon Tae-guk hung up and looked at us.
“Sung-guk, everything Han Myung-seok said about his family was a lie.”
“Hmm… I’m not surprised. Considering he’s a psychopath….”
At that moment, Adam looked at us with a frightened expression.
“Sung-guk, then shouldn’t we treat Han Myung-seok well?”
“Why?”
“If he’s a psychopath, he could kill us anytime. What if he killed his parents too?”
“Adam, why are you being so scary?”
“William, you shouldn’t have asked that either. Whether Han Myung-seok killed his parents or not.”
“If Han Myung-seok is truly a psychopath, he’s the type capable of doing that and more.”
I answered calmly.
* * *
“Han Myung-seok’s parents are both middle and high school teachers. They both retired last year and are living comfortably in a rural villa complex on the outskirts of Gimcheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do. And here are the documents.”
Secretary Park Sung-hee slid the documents about Han Myung-seok forward.
When Han Myung-seok’s admission to Seoul National University was reported in the local newspaper, both of his parents were listed as teachers.
Moreover, there were even accounts that both of them had excellent reputations as exemplary teachers.
Jeon Tae-guk’s brow furrowed deeply.
“Sung-guk, is all of this true?”
“Brother, you should ask Secretary Park Sung-hee about that.”
“Park Secretary, is all of this true?”
“According to our investigation, yes. However, what our investigation team discovered is that while it doesn’t appear in objective records, Han Myung-seok’s relationship with his parents is extremely poor.”
“Extremely poor? What do you mean, Secretary Park?”
“From our inquiries in the neighborhood, we heard that Han Myung-seok’s parents said their son is still working at Google in the United States and doesn’t come back to Korea often because he’s pursuing citizenship. In fact, there were no traces of contact between Han Myung-seok and his parents.”
“Do you happen to know why the relationship deteriorated?”
“Han Myung-seok fell into a multi-level marketing scheme during his college years and nearly became a credit delinquent.”
This was another new revelation.
“Multi-level marketing?”
“Yes, although Han Myung-seok’s family wasn’t in particularly difficult circumstances, it appears he had a disposition toward quick riches from a young age. He accumulated 30 million won in debt from the scheme, and according to our investigation, his parents paid off all of it and brought him out. ”
Multi-level marketing he fell into during college.
And reckless stock investments during his Google days.
It was clear that Han Myung-seok harbored a desire for sudden wealth rather than a stable life.
Secretary Park Sung-hee continued.
“After that, through stock investments, he accumulated another 10 million won in debt before even graduating from college, and his parents paid that off as well. It seems his parents did everything they could to settle it, probably because they were worried that if such a record remained, it would cause problems with employment.”
“But… he still hasn’t come to his senses.”
Adam spoke with a pitying expression.
“To be honest, Han Myung-seok is quite brilliant. After training him, I’ve come to see just how sharp he is. He has a strong desire to be recognized by others, which drives him to excel at his work.”
“The problem is his excessive ambition, ultimately….”
Everyone nodded in agreement with my words.
At that moment, Secretary Park Sung-hee glanced sideways at Jeon Tae-guk.
“Young Master, you’ve been spending your evenings at Sung-guk’s place quite often lately. Is there perhaps trouble on the romantic front?”
“Secretary Park, that’s not it! Jin-seo has been swamped with work, so I’ve just been hanging around here because I’m bored!”
“Given your temperament, Young Master, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were dumped. I’m relieved that hasn’t happened yet.”
“Yet? Yet?! I’m never going to be dumped!”
“Don’t speak so rashly. CEO Jeon Sung-guk was dumped by Emma Watson, after all.”
Simultaneously, everyone’s gaze shifted to me.
“Why are you all looking at me like that? On the surface, it may seem like I was dumped because of military service, but did you miss the articles about Emma crying and rushing back to Korea afterward? I was the one who didn’t meet her. And even after that, she called me countless times, but I didn’t answer. Show me even one of Emma’s regretful messages.”
At that moment, Secretary Park Sung-hee handed me her phone with an article.
“Emma Watson’s regrets appear to be over.”
The article contained a photo of Emma Watson dating the son of a famous American company CEO who was currently attending Harvard.
– Emma Watson’s new boyfriend is a Harvard student.
– Emma Watson’s new boyfriend is the grandson of Pizza Hot, the founder of an American pizza chain. Tall with a handsome face. Those close to Emma say he perfectly matches her ideal type of man.
– Emma Watson now on a Starbucks date with her new boyfriend!
– Emma Watson and her new boyfriend on a yacht date in Spain! Passionate skinship without a care for those around them!
– Traces of CEO Jeon Sung-guk felt in Emma Watson’s new boyfriend. Perhaps one’s eye for people truly doesn’t change.
“Sung-guk has completely moved on now.”
“But doesn’t this guy look somewhat like Sung-guk?”
At Adam’s observation, Secretary Park Sung-hee even enlarged the face of Emma Watson’s new boyfriend to show us.
“Now that you mention it, I thought the same thing. He really does look quite similar to Sung-guk.”
“Similar? You all have eyes, noses, and mouths—of course things look similar! Comparing someone with my perfectly proportioned features to some lanky guy whose only merit is his height? You all have terrible taste. And let me be clear: I dumped Emma!”
“Fine, you dumped Emma. But she was the one who started dating someone else first after the breakup.”
Jeon Tae-guk said with a sneer.
“Tae-guk, just know that Lim Jin-seo’s overtime will continue through next month.”
I stood up with my arms crossed.
And quietly entered my room.
Since leaving the Military Training Center, I hadn’t had time to worry about Emma because of Han Myung-seok.
I scrolled through Emma’s messages one more time.
If I had replied to her back then, could we have worked things out again?
I shook my head. Even now, I didn’t regret that decision.
[Work is more important to me than romance….]
* * *
The day after the article about Emma Watson’s new boyfriend came out, I woke up to messages from my family.
– Sung-guk, are you okay? If you’re struggling, come home and have a meal with us this weekend.
– Hyung, it’s Min-guk. Hyung, I know a bit about heartbreak, so if you’re having a hard time, come by this weekend and let’s play some games together.
– Oppa, it’s Ji-hee. Mom, Dad, and Min-guk oppa asked me to comfort you because they think you’re struggling after breaking up with Emma. But oppa, I’m still in touch with Emma noona. She says her new boyfriend is much more considerate than you. She said she likes that about him. So don’t be too upset. Girls naturally like considerate guys.
“Sigh….”
I let out a long sigh and rose from my seat.
[Are they calling this comfort now? Families can be so cruel. And… what? Jeon Ji-hee is still in contact with Emma Watson!]
Knock. Knock.
I heard a knock at the door, followed by Secretary Park Sung-hee’s voice from outside.
“Sung-guk, it’s me.”
Then the door opened.
“Secretary Park, didn’t you go home yesterday?”
“Young Master asked me to have a beer with him, so I slept here.”
“What’s the matter so early in the morning?”
“Last night, we received new information from one of our informants.”
“Is it about Han Myung-seok?”
“Yes.”
Secretary Park Sung-hee nodded and continued.
“Apparently, Han Myung-seok borrowed money in advance from Wang Meng, his guanxi connection.”
“How much?”
“100 million won.”
“100 million won?”
“Yes. We don’t know where the money went, but what’s certain is that he signed a promissory note agreeing to repay it by the end of this month, and there’s also a clause stating that if he fails to repay, he forfeits his life.”
“H-how did you find that out?”
“Wang Meng passed that promissory note to Korean-Chinese fixers. In other words, if Han Myung-seok doesn’t steal the confidential information, he’s a dead man.”
I jumped to my feet.
By the end of this month?
That meant less than three weeks remained.
“Understood. It’s time we rolled out our fake proposal.”
Either way, if Han Myung-seok died, we’d lose any chance of tracing the Chinese connection through Wang Meng.
* * *
“Han Myung-seok, Lee Sun-hwa, Kim Jae-hoon, Adam, and Jeon Tae-guk. Please gather in the Conference Room.”
As soon as I arrived at the company, I summoned these specific people to the Conference Room.
Once everyone was inside, I shut the Conference Room door firmly.
Then I looked at them all with a grave expression.
“Everyone gathered here today represents the core personnel of our Alpha and the three individuals who demonstrated the highest performance throughout the new employee training.”
That was all true.
Han Myung-seok and Kim Jae-hoon had demonstrated exceptional programming skills.
Lee Sun-hwa worked in marketing, but she had a strong understanding of programming and excellent English, so she seemed like a valuable addition to this team.
“The reason I’ve gathered our core personnel like this is because I want to launch a new SNS I’ve been conceptualizing with this team. You’ll lay the foundation and establish the groundwork, and then outside personnel will join in. That’s how I worked in the United States.”
Of course, it was all a lie.
In the United States, I had founded FaceNote with Mark alone, and Instagrim was my sole idea. Though admittedly, it was an idea I’d obtained from the future.
In short, my method was to come up with ideas unilaterally and push them through.
But Han Myung-seok, Kim Jae-hoon, and Lee Sun-hwa, who had never worked with me before, couldn’t possibly know my work style.
“Sung-guk, what’s this idea?”
Han Myung-seok was the one most curious about it all.
I lifted the right corner of my mouth into a subtle smile.
[Han Myung-seok, this is bait you’re really going to love.]
* * *
“Sung-guk, so you’re saying we should create a messenger app for mobile phones?”
“Yes….”
“But there are already messengers from Microsoft and others out there.”
“Most of those are PC-based. What I want to do is create something mobile-based. It’s an app where only people who download and register can connect with each other.”
In 2010, KakaoTalk users were still relatively few in Korea.
WeChat, China’s version of KakaoTalk, would begin service in 2011.
The important thing was that WeChat was already in active development.
I’d learned this through Samjeon Group’s intelligence network. It was a project so classified within China that only a handful of people knew about it.
“But… I believe KakaoTalk is already in its early service phase domestically.”
Han Myung-seok pointed this out sharply.
“That’s correct. Which is why I’m planning to target China instead of the domestic market for our messenger development.”
Everyone looked startled at my words.
China, of all places?
But right now, China is an incredibly attractive market. At least until the trade restrictions come down in a few years and we become adversaries.
Han Myung-seok’s eyes began to sparkle at my words.
“Sung-guk, so you’re planning to move forward with this idea in collaboration with your Chinese connections?”
“You’re as sharp as ever, Han Myung-seok. I believe in the power of the Chinese market. No matter how much KakaoTalk is used in our country, it won’t reach fifty million users. But China? It’s guaranteed to start in the hundreds of millions. The profits we can generate from any business there are on a completely different scale than what we could make domestically. The market we need to focus on going forward is China!”
I spoke with absolute conviction.
“Now, I’ve sent my organized ideas to each of your company emails. Everyone here, you are the vanguard of ‘Alpha’. Make sure the follow-up team can catch up properly by doing your best in your assigned roles, and remember—this is absolutely confidential until we’ve laid the groundwork. And… meetings will be held every Tuesday morning in the Conference Room.”
* * *
Everyone left, and only Jeon Tae-guk, Adam, and I remained in the Conference Room.
“Sung-guk, your idea is great… why don’t we develop it ourselves?”
“William, it’s already being developed in China. And I believe that in a few years, China’s political climate will be completely opposite to what it is now.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Right now they’re pursuing open policies, but in a few years we might become enemies. Then all the technology we worked so hard to develop could be stolen by China.”
“That’s… complicated.”
Adam scratched his head.
“Anyway, I’ve cast the bait today. Since this project is only known to a select few even within China, Wang Meng probably won’t know the exact details. All we need to do is watch when Han Myung-seok passes this idea to Wang Meng.”
“I’ll tell Park Secretary to assign someone to tail Han Myung-seok.”
“Please do. And Adam, use the security program installed on all computers to monitor Han Myung-seok’s movements constantly. If you notice anything suspicious at all, let me know immediately.”
“Yes, Sung-guk.”
All I needed to do now was catch the moment Han Myung-seok leaked this idea to Wang Meng.
I murmured quietly to myself.
“Now the real game begins, Han Myung-seok….”

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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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