The Return of the Ruined Chaebol's Third-Generation Heir - Chapter 100

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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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The Regression of a Fallen Chaebol’s Third Generation – Chapter 100
“So, what do you think?”
The moment we emerged from the Underground Parking Lot, Team Leader Lim Do-hyeon turned to me with a question.
“Pardon?”
“Your first impression of our team members.”
“They seem like good people.”
Honestly, there wasn’t much else to say. They’d been watching my every move the entire time.
At my response, Lim Do-hyeon chuckled.
“That’s not very honest of you.”
…….
“Not that I’m saying it’s bad, though. That’s just how office life works. I was actually worried you might be too candid because of your background.”
It was a familiar gaze — one I’d have to get used to again.
“I’m too honest, aren’t I?”
“No, sir.”
“Come on, I know it’s awkward to say these things while someone’s in the car. But here’s the thing — I’m not comfortable with you either, Kang Seon-woo.”
…….
“That’s why I’m saying this freely. It might not seem like it, but I want to tell you what I expect before you do something wrong.”
I studied Lim Do-hyeon, and I was surprised. In my previous life, after graduating college, I went straight to headquarters, and everyone there watched my every move, always treading carefully around me. But Lim Do-hyeon was different. It didn’t feel like he was trying to establish authority — it felt more like he wanted me to act as a normal employee, and he was asking me to pull my own weight.
Of course, I couldn’t know all of his intentions, but that’s how it felt in the moment.
Still, that was my impression.
“That’s not why I asked you to step outside, by the way. Fundamentally, our team doesn’t hire new employees. We get transfers from other departments — people who’ve already proven their abilities.”
Lim Do-hyeon continued as he drove. At most companies, management and planning teams transferred in employees with outstanding track records.
“When they’re in other teams, they visit facilities like Hubs to get familiar with operations before transferring up. You didn’t have that, so I asked to take you along myself.”
“Thank you for the consideration.”
I bowed my head slightly and opened my mouth.
“Team Leader, please speak more casually with me.”
Lim Do-hyeon smiled and shook his head lightly.
“How could I possibly do that?”
“I’ve seen you speak casually with your other team members.”
“Once we get closer. Honestly, I can’t relax around someone who might end up costing me my job down the road.”
I laughed at his half-joking remark.
This guy Lim Do-hyeon was painfully honest. He seemed different from Representative Yun Sang-chul and Director Oh Jin-su, whom I’d met this morning.
The two of them had hidden their discomfort with me, but Lim Do-hyeon laid his bare.
A small difference, maybe — but it made all the difference when it came to working together.
‘I think I can work with this guy.’
From Gwanghwamun to Gunpo took roughly forty minutes. Halfway there, Lim Do-hyeon gestured toward the back seat with his chin.
“Take a look at those materials. I’ll ask you about them when we arrive.”
A file sat on the back seat.
I pulled it out and opened it. Under the title “Gunpo Hub Operations Overview,” everything was packed in neatly: throughput, equipment, workforce deployment, misclassification rates, even driver status.
I flipped through page by page. The things I’d heard about in the morning meeting were broken down here by facility.
“You don’t need to read it all — just get the general sense of it.”
“Yes, understood.”
Before long, the car had exited the Gunpo Interchange and entered the Industrial Complex.
“We’re here. Wow, there’s a lot of traffic today too.”
As we parked and opened the doors, a deafening noise hit us. The mechanical hum of conveyor belts moving boxes, truck backup alarms, the dull crash of falling packages — it all came at once.
Lim Do-hyeon got out and looked at me.
“Let’s head in. Inside, the whole world looks different.”
With that, Lim Do-hyeon led the way, and I followed.

* * *
“Dizzying, right? I was overwhelmed by the scale when I first came here too.”
Once we stepped inside, Lim Do-hyeon’s words proved no exaggeration.
Conveyor belts ran through the center of the building, and boxes flowed across them endlessly. It was a different dimension from what I’d seen as mere numbers in the office.
“What catches your eye?”
I looked around the building and answered Lim Do-hyeon’s question.
“I noticed a long queue of trucks waiting outside. I think the Docks might be undersized.”
Lim Do-hyeon paused for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“That’s right. We have twelve Docks. When this Hub first opened, it was the largest in the country, but now other logistics companies have more, so we look small by comparison. After package volume increased, bottlenecks like that started appearing.”
I nodded and jotted it down in my notebook.
“Come on, let’s visit the office first. Ask whatever you want. That’s why I brought you along today.”
I followed Lim Do-hyeon into a small office on one side of the facility. When he opened the door, a man inside stood up. He looked to be in his early fifties.
“Oh, Team Leader Lim. You made it?”
“Director, I’m sorry to bother you.”
“Ah, you surprised me coming down so suddenly. With anyone else, I’d have told them not to bother, but since it’s you, I was waiting.”
The two seemed to have a good relationship. When the Director noticed my gaze, he tilted his head questioningly at Lim Do-hyeon.
“A new employee from the Management Planning Team at headquarters. I brought him down to show him around today, and there’s also some things I wanted to ask about.”
“Is that so? Well, nice to meet you. I’m Director Jang Hyun-taek.”
“Hello. I’m Kang Seon-woo.”
The Director offered me his hand, and fortunately, he didn’t seem to know who I was. Lim Do-hyeon hadn’t mentioned anything about me being the chairman’s son.
“Well then, let’s take a look at the Facility Floor right away.”
The Director handed safety vests and helmets to Lim Do-hyeon and me, then led us out to the floor.
“This is the Primary Sorting Line. When packages arrive, the scanner reads the barcodes and sorts them by direction.”
Boxes tumbled across the conveyor belt, and each time the scanner read a barcode, the box fell into its designated lane. It was fast and accurate.
A true Primary Hub, indeed. All packages from across the nation converged here, then dispersed back out nationwide.
In the future, some delivery companies would consider this inefficient and place large hubs in each region, but that wasn’t feasible yet.
Beep-beep-
As I looked around, an alarm suddenly blared through the building.
It seemed to come from a section near the end of the line where boxes were stacking up.
Boxes that the scanner couldn’t read were falling into a manual section. Three workers rushed over, picking up boxes one by one, checking addresses, and sorting them by hand.
“The materials showed a misclassification rate of 1.8 percent. Is that section the cause?”
The Director’s eyes widened at my question, and he nodded.
“Don’t even get me started. That’s the problem right there. The sorter’s old and causes trouble constantly.”
“So are those workers stationed specifically there, or are they pulled from the line when issues come up?”
The Director let out a hollow laugh.
“Goodness, even the representatives from headquarters don’t ask that. You’re quite eager for a young employee.”
Lim Do-hyeon stood a step back, arms crossed.
“Technically, we had workers from nearby lines patch things up when problems occurred, but after it kept happening day after day, we brought in three additional workers specifically to handle it full-time.”
I followed the Director toward the Dock area. Sorted boxes came out to the Docks, and drivers loaded their section’s boxes onto trucks.
“Those vehicles over there are a bit small, aren’t they?”
“Ah, those are for immediate delivery to nearby branch offices. The rest go out to the regions, but we don’t need that for this area.”
“How many deliveries would those drivers handle in a day?”
The Director paused as if he’d gotten used to my questions by now, then answered immediately.
“It varies by date, but on average, probably 130 to 150 deliveries.”
I made a note and continued walking with the Director.
This time we headed past the Dock toward the Waiting Room.
It was a modified container. A bench and vending machine sat inside, and a couple of drivers were drinking coffee.
“Seyang dropped their price to 2,300 won, didn’t they? We’re going to get cut too, aren’t we?”
“If we get cut, I’m quitting.”
“What’s the point of quitting? It’s the same everywhere.”
We didn’t interject and continued walking toward the Director’s Office.
“Team Leader Lim, you see? I’ve asked headquarters how many times to invest quickly in what’s needed, and why does it move so slowly?”
The Director launched into his complaint the moment we entered the office, just as Lim Do-hyeon was removing his vest and helmet.
“Give us a little time. Headquarters is also requesting it from the Group.”
“If things keep going like this, won’t Seyang really devour the whole market? They have a big Hub in Chungcheong Province, but how much longer are we going to use Gunpo as our main Hub?”
“……That part too.”
“Sigh.”
Lim Do-hyeon fumbled for an excuse, but fell silent at the Director’s sigh.
“Look, I’m in the same boat as you, so why take it out on you? Anyway, make sure you report the situation today to the higher-ups.”
“Yes, I’ll report it to my superiors right away.”
“Good. Come again next time.”
The Director made a gesture as if toasting with a cup in his hand.
“Next time I’ll come when I have more time and treat you to a meal.”
“Sure, head out. See you later. You too, young man. Take care.”
“Thank you for today, Director.”
After saying goodbye to the Director, Lim Do-hyeon and I left the Hub and got back in the car.
Shortly after, Lim Do-hyeon started the engine and spoke.
“You read those materials well.”
“I’m sorry. I think I asked too many questions without reading the room.”
“No. That was a compliment, so just take it as one.”
With that, Lim Do-hyeon started driving.

* * *
“So you two went to Gunpo?”
Near quitting time, at the Seonjin Logistics Management Planning Office, Lim Do-hyeon was summoned to Director Oh Jin-su’s office and nodded.
“Yes.”
“How was it?”
“It was fine.”
Oh Jin-su narrowed his brows. The explanation wasn’t sufficient, and Lim Do-hyeon paused to gather his thoughts before speaking.
“I gave him the Hub materials in the car. I told him I’d ask about them when we arrived.”
“And?”
“Usually new employees gloss over things. But when we arrived, before we even went inside, he saw the truck queue and said it looked like the Docks were undersized.”
Oh Jin-su’s eyebrows rose.
“On his first day?”
“Yes. And once we went inside, the sorting line had a brief error, and he caught that too and asked about it.”
Oh Jin-su leaned back in his chair and spoke.
“What did Director Jang say?”
“Well, the Director isn’t one to give evaluations, so he didn’t say much, but he looked surprised by Kang Seon-woo’s questions.”
Oh Jin-su let out a hollow laugh.
“Is that so? Usually new employees come back from Director Jang’s place beaten down, but this one didn’t?”
“No. He was even taking notes in a notebook. Ask him one question and he asks another right after. The direction his questions flow……”
Lim Do-hyeon trailed off.
“The direction is what?”
“Not typical of a new employee.”
Oh Jin-su paused, resting his chin in thought.
“Is he clever, or did he study beforehand?”
Lim Do-hyeon paused before answering.
“Both, I’d say. He seems to have natural business acumen, and he’s also the type who studies hard. You know.”
“Right, with a perfect College Entrance Examination score and a President’s Award from Korea University, he’s got to be sharp.”
Oh Jin-su tilted his head slightly.
“So what’s your conclusion?”
“I’m not sure.”
Lim Do-hyeon paused and looked through the glass partition at Seon-woo sitting at his desk, organizing something.
“Rather, I think his sincerity might be genuine. It was good enough that I’m wondering if I’m the one who still can’t shake my suspicions.”
Oh Jin-su nodded at Lim Do-hyeon’s words. Lim Do-hyeon wasn’t the type to make empty remarks. That’s also why he’d assigned Seon-woo to him.
“But one thing’s for sure. He’s not the type to just show up and kill time.”
Oh Jin-su stared at Lim Do-hyeon for a while before speaking.
“Do you have a sense of how to use him?”
“Yes, since he seems willing to work hard. Then I should give him something to do.”
“What kind of work are you thinking of giving him?”
At Oh Jin-su’s question, Lim Do-hyeon, who had been watching Seon-woo intently, slowly parted his lips.

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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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