Max-Level Son of a Chaebol Family - Chapter 99

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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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99. How Should I Repay This?

 

Grandfather placed the document envelope on the drinking table.

 

But the Blue House Security Chief didn’t even glance at the document envelope and immediately frowned.

 

“Isn’t it too thin to call it a generous gesture?”

 

His voice was angry, beyond disappointed.

 

“Chief, this is actually…”

 

“I’m a busy man. Why is someone who should know better acting like this?”

 

The Blue House Security Chief raised his hand to stop Grandfather’s words.

 

“Don’t you know His Excellency’s presidential election is right around the corner?”

 

After the October Restoration, Republic of Korea presidential elections became government-controlled indirect elections where only a single candidate ran and was unanimously elected.

 

The 9th presidential election schedule was as follows.

 

Presidential candidate registration would be accepted in May this year, and delegate elections would be held the same month to select National Conference for Unification delegates.

 

Then in July, the delegates would gather at Jangchung Gymnasium to vote for president.

 

‘Of course, the 9th presidential candidate would be running alone, and he would be elected with a 99.9% vote share with just one invalid ballot out of 2,578 delegate votes.’

 

How could the Blue House Security Chief not know this fact?

 

Nevertheless, he was pressuring Grandfather by bringing up the presidential election.

 

His intention was obvious.

 

“When calling such a busy person all the way here, you should have prepared generous support that wouldn’t make the trip disappointing. Enough to save face before His Excellency.”

 

He was telling him to hand over money.

 

It was a rebuke for bringing out presents different from what was expected.

 

“Do you take me for some brat who comes running just to mooch a meal?”

 

“A brat? How could that be?”

 

“Then what is this? Unless you’re looking down on me, there’s no way you’d call someone out late at night and start by pulling out this measly document envelope.”

 

Clack.

 

The sound of setting down the empty ceramic cup grew loud, matching his displeased mood.

 

His eyes glaring at Grandfather were fierce.

 

“To think Taeseong’s prepared sincerity amounts to only this much.”

 

“Oh my, I failed to understand your deep intentions and committed a discourtesy. If I had known, I would have invited you to the hotel parking lot.”

 

Grandfather placed the car key on the drinking table.

 

“The presidential election is right around the corner. If it’s apple boxes to offer His Excellency, I have them loaded on the truck.”

 

“Ahem! Is that so?”

 

“I just thought it might be a bit awkward for your reputation to carry them to a hotel where everyone would be watching.”

 

“Hmm! Well, if someone saw us carrying apple boxes around, it would be perfect for misunderstandings.”

 

“Who would dare misunderstand? This is all your loyalty to His Excellency.”

 

“That’s right. Under the sky of the Republic of Korea, who else has deeper loyalty to His Excellency than me?”

 

Grandfather smiled and picked up the ceramic sake pot again.

 

“I know very well that you came all the way here entirely for His Excellency’s sake. Thank you for taking precious time out of your busy schedule.”

 

“To think Chairman Cha understands my intentions so well. Hahaha.”

 

The Blue House Security Chief laughed heartily, greatly pleased.

 

He picked up the ceramic sake cup that he had set down with a thud.

 

Only then could Grandfather tilt the sake pot to fill the cup.

 

“Will you drive it yourself? Or shall we handle the delivery?”

 

“Send it to Jangchung-dong.”

 

It wasn’t the Blue House or the Blue House Security Chief’s mansion.

 

They kept separate safe houses throughout Seoul City to secretly receive political funds.

 

“Apple boxes to Jangchung-dong. Then what about the pear boxes for you, Security Chief?”

 

“Pear boxes? Don’t tell me you prepared some for me too?”

 

The pear boxes were slightly larger than the apple boxes.

 

“It would be troublesome if the tail wagged the dog.”

 

“It’s not as much as the apple boxes for His Excellency. But it’s the New Year, and I couldn’t pay my respects empty-handed. So I only managed to prepare three boxes of pears.”

 

“Three whole boxes? Hahaha, perfect! New Year greetings – I can’t refuse this. Come, you have a drink too.”

 

The Blue House Security Chief, greatly pleased, took the ceramic sake pot from Grandfather’s hands.

 

Grandfather respectfully received the cup with both hands and turned his head to drink.

 

“I’m the one who stays with His Excellency 365 days, 24 hours a day.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

“That means you should clearly know who you need to impress from now on.”

 

The Blue House Security Chief stared directly at Grandfather like that and drained his drinking glass.

 

As the clear hierarchy was visible, the Blue House Security Chief couldn’t hide his satisfaction.

 

“I’ll speak well to His Excellency about Taeseong’s loyalty and patriotism. I’ll do my best to match the sincerity you’ve shown.”

 

“Thank you. I humbly ask for your kind consideration.”

 

Grandfather refilled the Security Chief’s empty glass and casually broached the subject.

 

“These days His Excellency must have many headaches because of Wookwang.”

 

“Don’t even mention it. It’s a time when he should be focusing on the presidential election. Because Wookwang is needlessly stirring up public opinion and sentiment, His Excellency’s mood has been quite poor lately.”

 

“That’s a serious problem.”

 

“I can’t understand why Chairman Kim of Wookwang is staying silent like that. To turn a blind eye even when his younger brother and subsidiary presidents have been arrested.”

 

“Do you have any idea why President Kim of Wookwang Construction was arrested by the KCIA?”

 

“He must be involved in the Wookwang Chemical arson, as the rumors say.”

 

“There’s more.”

 

“More?”

 

Grandfather glanced down at the document envelope he had placed on the drinking table.

 

Only then did the Blue House Security Chief pay attention to the document envelope that had been neglected all along.

 

“Come to think of it, what’s that?”

 

“It’s a bribery list and bribery ledger of bribes that President Kim of Wookwang Construction distributed to political figures.”

 

“What? You mean he secretly kept a ledger behind the scenes, knowing full well that His Excellency detests political corruption?”

 

The Blue House Security Chief’s angle of anger was slightly different.

 

To be precise, it wasn’t ‘for committing corruption’ but ‘for secretly keeping a bribery ledger behind the scenes.’

 

“This was written by a deceased Wookwang Construction employee, and was obtained by the KCIA agent currently interrogating President Kim of Wookwang Construction.”

 

What? Why? What!

 

Even if quite a lot was omitted in between, anyway, as a result, it was true that Uncle Cheol-gu had obtained it!

 

“This is Taeseong’s present to you, Chief.”

 

The Blue House Security Chief frantically rummaged through the document envelope.

 

It was to see if his own name was recorded anywhere.

 

“I prepared this hoping it would help in removing troublesome people.”

 

Naturally, the Blue House Security Chief’s name didn’t appear anywhere.

 

Only then did the Blue House Security Chief’s expression become relaxed.

 

“Are there no names of the Army Security Command Chief and KCIA Director?”

 

If there were political enemies that the Blue House Security Chief was keeping a fiery watch on and checking, it would have to be those two.

 

But no matter how much the Blue House Security Chief rummaged through, no bribery list with those two names written on it came out.

 

“I apologize.”

 

“Just small fry then. What am I supposed to do with this?”

 

Grandfather and I had decided not to take out those two people’s bribery ledgers.

 

We concluded that the President wouldn’t purge the 3rd and 4th ranking officials just because they took a few bribes.

 

Presents should remain just presents, after all.

 

There was no need to invite future troubles.

 

“Even without something like this, sweeping away these small fry isn’t difficult. It would need to be dirt on the Army Security Command Chief and KCIA Director level. You’re calling this presents?”

 

“Please continue reading to the end.”

 

Hoping that somewhere in the back pages there might be weaknesses of his political enemies mixed in, the Blue House Security Chief continued rummaging through.

 

Then suddenly, the Blue House Security Chief let out a low groan.

 

“Isn’t this too much, even if there’s a lot?”

 

No matter how much he turned the pages, there was no end.

 

The increasingly detailed dirt on high-ranking officials kept coming out page after page.

 

The Blue House Security Chief couldn’t help but feel bewildered.

 

“Wookwang Construction spread this many bribes? This isn’t an amount a single construction company could handle, is it?”

 

Exactly.

 

All this time, they’d been using Taeseong’s vault like their own home vault, spreading so many bribes around.

 

‘Since I decided to remove the names of the big shots that the Blue House Security Chief was eyeing, I had no choice but to change the details a bit.’

 

Instead of removing the list of big shots, I had to fill it up with plenty of high-ranking political figures’ names.

 

When quality drops, you have to compete with quantity!

 

So this was my sincerity.

 

“They sure took a lot. If we catch all these guys, the Republic of Korea’s state affairs would be paralyzed in one blow.”

 

Of course it would.

 

Not only did I copy Wooguang’s entire bribery ledger, but I also packed in all the slush fund records of various figures that Secretary Kim had obtained through background investigations over a long time.

 

‘At this opportunity, I can pin everything on Wookwang Construction and Taeseong can cleanly wash its hands of it all.’

 

At times like this, the more people who took bribes the better, the larger the amounts the better, and the dirtier their backgrounds the better.

 

‘Anyway, Wookwang will take all the blame.’

 

That’s why I prepared even more!

 

Not only the backdoor bribery records obtained through four major figures from the Underground Finance World, but I also gathered all the dirty secrets of political figures and stuffed everything in there.

 

The specialty of our underworld bigshots is digging up other people’s dirty laundry.

 

My creed was that among those with power and money, there doesn’t exist a single one whose past isn’t rotten.

 

“This is ridiculous. Absolutely preposterous!”

 

The Blue House Security Chief threw down the document envelope.

 

“The documents on the people I actually want aren’t here, but you’ve prepared a bunch of useless small fry. What am I supposed to do with this?”

 

“Chief, do you happen to know how Tiger Hunting is done?”

 

“Why are you suddenly talking about Tiger Hunting here?”

 

“No matter how skilled a hunter may be, going into a tiger’s den alone to catch a tiger is dangerous. There’s no need for you to take such risks alone, Chief.”

 

“Me?”

 

The Blue House Security Chief perked up his ears.

 

Grandfather calmly opened his mouth.

 

“It’s more certain to dig traps in advance, use hunting dogs to drive them, and prepare multiple spearmen to take turns throwing spears until it dies.”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“While the list of people you want isn’t here, Chief, couldn’t we use the people here as drivers and spearmen?”

 

“You mean you’ll hand over these guys’ leashes to me?”

 

The Blue House Security Chief’s eyes gleamed.

 

“Why? If Taeseong kept hold of them, they would have been very useful, wouldn’t they?”

 

“I’m just a mere merchant. Even if I hold their leashes and shake them, would they even blink an eye?”

 

Grandfather picked up the documents the Blue House Security Chief had thrown down.

 

He respectfully put them back in the envelope and handed it over again.

 

“Originally, leashes should be shaken by someone with power like you, Chief. Only then will their necks be strangled and their breath cut off.”

 

The Blue House Security Chief’s eyes grew increasingly greedy as he looked at the thick document envelope.

 

Now he finally understood how to use that thing.

 

“His Excellency has made the eradication of corruption his banner.”

 

“Even without this, they wouldn’t dare defy your words, Chief. But with this, things will become much easier.”

 

“Since their lifelines are caught, they’ll follow my words without a peep.”

 

“If we remove all of them at once, it would be enough to paralyze the Republic of Korea’s state affairs. Would His Excellency, who listens to public opinion, simply ignore the unanimous advice of those who serve as his hands and feet?”

 

In other words, he was telling him to use these people to somehow create a pretext for eliminating political enemies on his own.

 

If there were no weaknesses, he was saying to push through with force.

 

All roads lead to Seoul, after all.

 

Though the details of the plan had changed slightly, he just needed to achieve the original purpose of the Bribery List as a ‘gift for eliminating political enemies.’

 

“Yes, if this many people rush in and tear them apart…”

 

The Blue House Security Chief crumpled the Document Envelope as if crushing it.

 

“Hahahaha!”

 

The Blue House Security Chief couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.

 

“Taeseong filled even the carrot with Pear Boxes, and now they’re handing me a whip too.”

 

Building factions is always troublesome, and carrots and sticks are essential when recruiting people to your side.

 

“Chairman Cha, I will never forget this favor!”

 

Thud!

 

The Blue House Security Chief couldn’t contain his excitement and slapped his knee.

 

“If I kept my mouth shut after receiving such sincerity, I’d be a damn dog. What should I do to repay Taeseong? Speak frankly.”

 

Grandfather carefully opened his mouth.

 

“I know nothing about politics, nor do I want to get involved. So please treat this as something I never saw or obtained.”

 

“So you’re giving me all the credit?”

 

“Also, Taeseong has absolutely nothing to do with the Wookwang Chemical fire.”

 

“Your ambition is too lacking compared to the merit you’ve established. Claiming innocence only gets you even at best? What are you so afraid of that you’re being so cautious? What’s so special about Wookwang anyway?”

 

The Blue House Security Chief grinned wickedly.

 

“His Excellency has been looking unfavorably upon Wookwang and waiting for an opportunity anyway. A few Pear Boxes aren’t enough to fill the bellies of the people I’ve gathered, so we’ll have no choice but to devour Wookwang.”

 

Glug glug.

 

The Blue House Security Chief filled Grandfather’s Drinking Glass and said.

 

“I’ll take responsibility for Taeseong’s share and carve out something substantial. His Excellency would turn a blind eye to one or two Affiliated Companies.”

 

Before Grandfather could express his gratitude, the Blue House Security Chief added.

 

“But you know what. Would you really be satisfied with just that much?”

 

It was his way of saying he could offer something even bigger.

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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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