Max-Level Son of a Chaebol Family - Chapter 4

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

‘I guess I’ll have to ask Mother about this. There’s more than just one or two men in the Cha family.’

I have a bitter taste in my mouth.

I’m craving a cigarette.

“Hey, kid. If you keep biting your lips like that, you’re going to bleed.”

Uncle Cheol-gu, who was sitting next to me, roughly tousled my hair.

“If you want to cry, go ahead and cry. I’ll let it slide just for today.”

“No thanks. If crying could save my mom, I would have wailed my heart out long ago. But crying won’t solve anything.”

Though it might be different if I solve this through other means.

“So, Uncle, could you lend me some money?”

“Money? Is it for the hospital bills?”

“No. I have something I need to take care of right away.”

Originally, requests should be accompanied by sincerity.

I did bring Mother’s purse, but there’s only 9,850 won in it.

“What are you talking about? A request?”

“I’m going to slip the attending physician a generous token of appreciation.”

“······.”

Uncle Cheol-gu blinked his eyes.

Each time he did, the cigarette he was habitually holding bobbed up and down.

This man really doesn’t get what I’m saying.

“Rather than just comforting yourself with ‘do your best and leave the rest to heaven,’ or praying to all sorts of gods, this way is much easier, faster, and more certain.”

I rubbed my fingers together and grinned.

“Where else can you find such good lubricant for handling life’s affairs smoothly?”

Thud.

Uncle Cheol-gu dropped the cigarette he was holding.

“So with that in mind, could you lend me some mon— Ugh!”

Uncle Cheol-gu grabbed both my cheeks and mercilessly stretched them sideways.

“Uggyagyaak······!”

“Where do you get off talking about bribing people?”

“Gyauaaat······!”

I rubbed my stinging cheeks furiously and backed away as far as possible.

“In the hospital, the attending physician is God and Buddha. Who do you think holds our Mother’s lifeline in their hands?”

“Hmph.”

“If we can buy sincerity and devotion with money, then we should. They say coal briquette gas poisoning has terrible aftereffects.”

Uncle Cheol-gu let out an even longer sigh than me, even though Mother was the one in the ICU.

“Is this something a seven-year-old kid should be saying?”

“Then should I ask you to refrain from secondhand smoking in front of a kid who got coal briquette gas poisoning?”

I picked up the cigarette Uncle Cheol-gu had dropped and blew on it to dust it off.

Uncle Cheol-gu, who looked exactly like a brown bear, cleared his throat awkwardly.

“I was just holding it in my mouth.”

Clank.

Just then, the intensive care unit door opened and a doctor came out.

We both jumped to our feet at the same time.

The doctor spoke.

“If we had been even 10 minutes later, it would have been dangerous.”

“Ah······! Thank you, Doctor! Thank you so much for saving our Mother!”

I bowed deeply to express my gratitude.

When I felt someone firmly gripping my shoulder, I turned to see Uncle Cheol-gu smiling brightly.

“See? I told you Mother would be safe, that everything would be okay.”

I nodded my head vigorously.

My chest swelled with overwhelming emotion.

The doctor said with an extremely tired face.

“Our hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art hyperbaric chamber facilities, and our top medical staff······.”

The doctor drew out his words, then swept over us with sharp eyes.

I was wrapped in a hospital blanket, wearing only underwear and barefoot in the middle of winter.

Uncle Cheol-gu was wearing a tracksuit with an old flight jacket thrown over it and dirty sneakers carelessly crumpled on his feet.

The doctor’s words grew increasingly cold.

“Please register the treatment fees at the Administration Department first. Then we’ll move the patient to the General Ward right away.”

How many minutes had passed since Mother entered the ICU?

One corner of my mouth trembled involuntarily.

‘Are they trying to hastily end the hyperbaric oxygen treatment because we look poor?’

In fact, the only treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning is supplying 100% pure oxygen at high pressure.

So they treat patients by keeping them in 4 atmospheres of oxygen concentration for 1-2 hours.

But hyperbaric oxygen treatment also costs money.

Probably many people in shabby condition like us couldn’t pay even that money and ran away.

This area was an industrial complex, and the pockets of factory workers were generally light as feathers.

As long as they don’t die.

Then the hospital can claim it’s not a medical accident or medical staff negligence.

In the end, the aftereffects become the patient’s burden.

‘It would be troublesome if Mother ends up suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning aftereffects.’

Once the brain is damaged, it’s difficult to regain its function.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is frightening because the hemoglobin binding power of red blood cells is about 200 times stronger than oxygen.

When carbon monoxide blood saturation reaches 55-57%, total paralysis and nerve cell death begin, and exceeding 60% causes death from oxygen deficiency.

Mother had lost consciousness from suffocation.

She can’t be abandoned like this.

‘Since Mother’s potential aftereffects are at stake, I can’t back down either.’

It’s frustrating.

That I’m just a seven-year-old child.

That I have no money, status, power, or even physical force that I can use right now.

‘The most reliable and simple method would be to put pressure on the attending physician’s superiors. But right now I don’t have that kind of ability, power, or connections.’

Tsk.

‘I have no choice. For now, I’ll have to offer up my entire fortune.’

This was an era when a bowl of jajangmyeon cost 300 won.

The money, less than 10,000 won, was ridiculously small to bribe a doctor, but it would at least show sincerity.

Because I’m just a seven-year-old kid.

The other party would consider that and decide how to act.

‘If worst comes to worst, I’ll even offer the luxury wristwatch. Right now, Mother comes first.’

But Uncle Cheol-gu was faster than me.

He pulled out whatever 1000 won bills he could grab from his wallet.

I was shocked when I saw his ID card tucked in his wallet.

‘What? He wasn’t just some neighborhood bum who constantly rambled about spies?’

Uncle Cheol-gu discreetly slipped the money into the doctor’s coat pocket.

“Thank you for your hard work. Please take good care of us in the future.”

“Ahem!”

The doctor coughed conspicuously.

It meant this money couldn’t buy devotion and sincerity.

‘This gentleman is too greedy. Can’t be helped. If that’s how you’re going to play it, I have no choice but to reveal Uncle’s ID card.’

I snatched Uncle Cheol-gu’s wallet.

I spread the wallet wide open so the doctor could see Uncle’s ID card.

“Uncle, your name is Park Cheol-gu? Korean Central Intelligence Agency agent.”

Korean Central Intelligence Agency, also known as KCIA.

The predecessor to the 80s ANSP, it was currently the president’s mighty sword.

An organization that grasped domestic and foreign intelligence in one hand and wielded power beyond that of the prosecution.

“You can even read Korean? Oh, you’re smart?”

“They say you’re busy catching spies these days. When spy reports come in, you rush out immediately, right?”

Uncle Cheol-gu looked puzzled about why I was suddenly talking about spies.

But when I sparkled my eyes at him, he obediently answered.

“That’s right.”

“What if a spy report comes in from a hospital?”

“First we catch and eliminate the spy bastard, then thoroughly investigate everything behind them.”

“In that process, even innocent hospitals would get turned upside down.”

“If there’s no spy suspicion, they get released quickly.”

In short, once you got entangled with spies, you’d see nothing but dirty business.

The 70s was an era when the government shouted anti-communism and hunted down spies with burning eyes.

‘The protests of the powerless might be laughable, but the threats of those in power would be troublesome, right? If a KCIA agent stepped in to stir things up, they’d have to hide the hospital ledgers first. Who would like that?’

The hyperbaric chamber was already running anyway.

If you compared the scolding they’d receive when tracing back who caused this annoying incident with the trouble of administering a bit more high-concentration oxygen?

The scales definitely tipped to one side.

I folded my wallet with a sharp snap.

“······.”

The doctor immediately straightened his posture and spoke in a serious voice.

“It seems we should extend the hyperbaric oxygen therapy time a bit longer to prevent any aftereffects. I promise we’ll do everything possible for the treatment.”

Then he took out the 1000 won bills he had received earlier from his pocket and stuffed them back into Uncle’s pocket.

“We shouldn’t make someone who serves the nation worry about such things. Medicine to pharmacists, patients to doctors. We are the Taeseong Hospital medical staff. Please trust us and leave it to us.”

The doctor opened the intensive care unit door and loudly gave several more instructions.

“Check the blood oxygen saturation levels properly, and add one more nutritional supplement to the IV drip.”

“Yes.”

“The patient is shivering from the cold. Quickly wrap her with several blankets. It would be troublesome if she caught a cold.”

“Yes.”

The quality of medical service changed immediately.

Uncle Cheol-gu opened his eyes drowsily and looked down at me.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“The effect is certain, isn’t it?”

If I could guarantee Mother’s treatment without aftereffects through threats, what choice did I have?

If bribes don’t work, you have to resort to threats.

* * *

We sat side by side in the same position, waiting for Mother’s hyperbaric oxygen therapy to end.

Uncle Cheol-gu crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and leaned his head against the wall.

I quietly pulled out the bank passbook I had kept earlier.

‘She really saved up so frugally.’

It was remarkably similar to the bank passbook that the late Kang-woo’s Mother had left behind.

Some days 120 won, some days 90 won, and other days 440 won.

Mother had been carefully saving up these small amounts bit by bit.

On the passbook cover, she had written in neat handwriting.

【Our Jeong-hyeok’s University Tuition】

In reality, I couldn’t even properly graduate from Elementary School, let alone university.

Yet our Mother had been saving money to send me to university.

‘Did Kang-woo feel this way when he saw his mother’s passbook?’

Vaguely guessing someone else’s feelings and experiencing it myself firsthand are vastly different things.

Somehow, one corner of my chest ached.

‘When Mother passed away, this passbook, the notebook, and the wristwatch weren’t there. It means someone stole the entire jewelry box in between.’

It was bitter.

I could understand if they stole it because they coveted the luxury goods watch.

But to think they even cleaned out the passbook, calling this money too.

‘In the notebook, there’s just one phone number written with no name, no address, nothing else.’

It’s a phone number I’ve seen many times before.

‘It was definitely the Chaebol Chairman’s house phone number, wasn’t it?’

I think I know where this place is.

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