The Return of the Ruined Chaebol's Third-Generation Heir - Chapter 11

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

Regression of a Fallen Chaebol Heir — Episode 11
“Representative, how on earth did you come up with such an idea?”
At Choi Dong-su’s admiring question, the mother of Kang Seon-woo set down her teacup with a faint smile.
“Public sentiment and media coverage have turned quite favorable toward our group. The PR department sent up a clipping just now, and I even saw the phrase ‘Noblesse Oblige’ mentioned.”
Choi Dong-su gestured toward the morning newspapers spread across the table.
The headlines were plastered entirely with the scars left by Typhoon Maemi.
[Worst Typhoon Maemi Strikes Korean Peninsula… Crane Collapse at Busan Port, Damage Mounting]
[Severe Tidal Wave Damage in Masan… Some 20,000 Displaced Persons]
Last night, the typhoon that cut across the Korean Peninsula had been nothing short of a nightmare.
A massive tidal wave inundated the city, and harbor facilities crumpled like tissue paper. While the entire nation was gripped in sorrow and dread, the one company being lauded for heartwarming stories was none other than the Seonjin Group.
“Just earlier, the government sent an urgent cooperation notice to luxury hotels and resorts throughout Busan, asking them to open their rooms to accommodate displaced persons.”
“How have the other facilities responded?”
“It’s absolute chaos. They’re claiming they don’t have the personnel for such a sudden request, supplies are insufficient, and it’ll take days just to prepare. They’re already drowning in refund issues with current guests.”
He turned his gaze toward the mother of Kang Seon-woo.
“But we had completed all preparations before the typhoon even made landfall. As a result, we were able to welcome rescue personnel without a single hitch. The government itself has expressed deep gratitude for our proactive measures.”
The prepared and the rushed.
The difference was stark.
Choi Dong-su still seemed incredulous. That a housewife-turned-representative could pull off a move even veterans missed struck him as difficult to believe.
“It was all thanks to your swift decision, Representative….”
The mother of Kang Seon-woo shook her head.
“It wasn’t me. My son suggested it.”
“……Yes? Your son, you say….”
She spoke matter-of-factly.
“He saw the news and said that once the typhoon arrives, the resorts won’t be able to operate anyway, so wouldn’t it be better to open them voluntarily first? He said the optics would be far better than waiting to be forced into it later.”
Choi Dong-su’s eyes widened.
“Your son…… isn’t he a high school student?”
“That’s right.”
“I find it hard to believe a high school student could have such foresight. Your son seems to have an exceptional talent for political acumen—turning crisis into opportunity.”
“He is remarkable, isn’t he.”
The mother of Kang Seon-woo answered thus, and the image of her son Seon-woo’s face bloomed in her mind.
The day her husband departed, the funeral ceremonies.
Since the boy who had collapsed then awakened, he had somehow changed.
Simply saying he had grown up would not suffice.
—Mother, I think you’ll be able to manage this.
—I’m going to compete in a tournament with my club friends.
—If you borrow from others’ hands, what’s yours becomes theirs too.
The wavering light in her son’s eyes had hardened somewhere along the way.
It was her eighteen-year-old son who now steadied her, the one who wavered.
‘If Seon-woo overcame this, I cannot afford to weaken.’
The mother of Kang Seon-woo brushed away her thoughts and straightened her posture once more.
“How are things at the site? Are we providing proper support so they lack nothing?”
“Yes, I’ve received reports.”
Choi Dong-su opened his notebook and recited the situation.
“Currently, some three hundred firefighters and rescue personnel dispatched from across the nation are staying at the Seonjin Resort Busan Branch. They’re all grateful—they said that sleeping in actual beds is their first time, rather than dozing fitfully covered in mud.”
“What about meals?”
“Given the nature of rescue operations that run day and night, mealtimes are difficult to coordinate, so we’re running the dining facility around the clock. We’ve deployed kitchen staff and employees in three shifts, and we’ve hired local residents to fill any gaps in labor.”
The mother of Kang Seon-woo nodded with satisfaction. The costs would be considerable, but they had gained something money could not buy: reputation.
“Well done. Continue to provide full support without hesitation. You may even draw from the summer vacation promotional budget.”
“Understood, Representative.”
Choi Dong-su bowed and left the executive office.
Alone, the mother of Kang Seon-woo caressed the family photograph on her desk.
Little Seon-woo in the photo beamed brightly.
“My son…… how you’ve grown.”

* * *
After the Chuseok holidays ended and we returned to school, the classroom atmosphere was far from pleasant.
During every break, children gathered to talk of nothing but Typhoon Maemi.
Unsettling news circulated: someone’s grandmother’s house was submerged, or a crane twisted like taffy according to what they’d seen on the news.
‘The damage is indeed severe.’
I too shouldered my bag with a heavy heart and made my way to the annex.
As I opened the club room door, heavy silence greeted me first.
“Welcome.”
Han Jae-yi acknowledged me curtly without taking her eyes from the monitor. Lee Min-jae sat beside her, dispirited.
“You came early?”
“The holidays were long. I thought I should check the market conditions.”
Han Jae-yi bore obvious signs of exhaustion.
“How does it look? What’s the market situation?”
“As expected. The overall market is in the red. The KOSPI index dropped over two percent. There was considerable concern that consumer sentiment would contract due to typhoon damage.”
She clicked the mouse repeatedly, scrolling through the screen.
“However, typhoon-related stocks are on fire. The Reconstruction Theme is leading the market just as predicted.”
I nodded and pulled a chair over to sit.
“So what’s our team’s ranking?”
“……We fell.”
Han Jae-yi grimaced bitterly.
[Ranking: 3rd]
[Return on Investment: +7.5%]
We had dropped one spot from our second place position before the holidays.
The return rate itself wasn’t bad, but our competitors had caught up.
I frowned.
“We fell to third?”
“Yeah. I looked at the first and second place teams’ portfolios—they got lucky.”
Han Jae-yi pulled up the holdings of the second-place team.
[Ssangsong Cement / Seonjin Construction / Korea Cement…….]
“They were holding construction and cement stocks. They probably just bought them casually, but when the typhoon hit, these became flagship stocks under the Reconstruction Theme. They surged over ten percent in a single day.”
By contrast, the share price of Daejin Biotech that we had bought just before the holidays showed flat movement.
Neither rising nor falling—zero percent.
The market had not yet recognized the importance of disinfectants and fertilizer.
“The market is mistaken,” I murmured quietly.
“Mistaken?”
“Yes. Of course the typhoon damage is significant. Buildings were destroyed. But it doesn’t require large-scale civil engineering projects of the magnitude that major construction firms would undertake.”
I explained the reasoning calmly.
“Most of it is damage to rural farmhouses and road washouts. That kind of repair work is handled by regional small and mid-sized construction companies or interior firms, not major listed construction companies like Seonjin Construction. The revenue impact on large construction firms is negligible.”
Han Jae-yi nodded at my words.
“That makes sense. Actually, I found it odd too. It’s a bubble that’ll collapse once the material euphoria dies down.”
“But…….”
Lee Min-jae interjected anxiously.
“It’s not just construction that’s rising. Waste disposal and ready-mix concrete companies are hitting the upper limit price too. Garbage definitely needs to be cleared.”
Just as Lee Min-jae said, waste disposal companies like Insung NT had already settled at the upper limit price.
“That logic is sound. It’s garbage you can see right away.”
“So should we…… sell one defensive stock and switch over to waste disposal now? Daejin hasn’t budged all day.”
Lee Min-jae’s voice trembled.
With rankings published daily, he seemed unable to focus beyond the immediate fluctuations.
Han Jae-yi also regarded me with a conflicted expression.
“Seon-woo, what do you think? Should we try chasing up now? There are still a few waste disposal stocks that haven’t hit the upper limit price.”
I shook my head firmly.
“No. If we buy in now, we’ll be caught in the dead-cat bounce trap.”
“Dead-cat bounce trap?”
“What’s rising now is just hopeful sentiment. There’s no sustainable momentum. If we focus on waste disposal, it’ll fizzle out in days.”
I spoke firmly, looking between the two of them.
“The real key is reconstruction. And the most urgent and important thing in reconstruction is reviving the dead land.”
“But…….”
Han Jae-yi seemed to accept the logic, but Lee Min-jae still looked anxious.
No matter how sound the reasoning, faith wavers when your account balance doesn’t grow immediately.
The top-ranked team was pulling away, and we were marking time.
‘If we just hold on a bit longer.’
The atmosphere settled heavily.
Han Jae-yi habitually pressed the refresh button, checking the news, while Lee Min-jae gnawed at his nails.
We sat in suffocating silence for some time.
“……Huh?”
Han Jae-yi’s eyes widened as she stared at the monitor.
“What is it? Is something happening?”
“Look. A breaking news alert just dropped.”
Han Jae-yi clicked urgently on the article.
[Government Announces Emergency Support Measures for Typhoon-Damaged Farms]
[Inundated Areas Face Epidemic Risk… All-Out Effort on Livestock Disease Prevention and Disinfection]
[Directives Issued to Secure Livestock Medicines and Fertilizer]
Han Jae-yi read the article aloud, her voice trembling.
“The government is…… beginning to move on securing disinfectants and fertilizer. They’re declaring recovery of waterlogged farmland their top priority…….”
Han Jae-yi turned to look at me.
“Hey, Kang Seon-woo. Daejin Biotech…….”
“Is it rising?”
“Rising? It’s hitting the upper limit price in after-hours trading right now!”
[Daejin Biotech (After-hours Single Price): 5,200 ▲10.0%]
The bid-ask display for Daejin Biotech on the screen glowed red.
There were barely any sell orders, while tens of thousands of buy orders stacked up waiting.
“Holy…… seriously? The construction stocks are pulling back in after-hours, but ours is flying away.”
Lee Min-jae leaped to his feet with a shout of triumph.
I clenched my fist tightly under the desk.
‘My memory wasn’t wrong.’
Construction and waste disposal were one-dimensional fake themes, and the real money lay in reconstruction. Once the market opens tomorrow, first place will be ours again.

September 29. One day before the Mock Investment Competition ends.
The air in the club room was sweeter than ever before. Not just from the autumn breeze drifting through the window.
It came from the overwhelming numbers displayed on the worn computer monitor.
[1st Place: The Principles of Profit (Return on Investment +42.5%)]
[2nd Place: Undefeated Legend (Return on Investment +11.2%)]
“Wow…… this is really…….”
Lee Min-jae stared blankly at the monitor, murmuring.
“Look at the gap from second place. Over thirty percentage points difference, right? Doesn’t that basically guarantee we’ll win?”
“Unless the Earth explodes and the market doesn’t open tomorrow, it’s guaranteed.”
Han Jae-yi leaned back in her chair and laughed with ease.
“Seriously insane. A 42% return in just one month…….”
Han Jae-yi shook her head as she looked at me.
“Kang Seon-woo, be honest with me. You came from the future, didn’t you?”
I felt caught, but outwardly shrugged casually.
“Come on, you’re something else. We just got lucky.”
“Lucky? Don’t make me laugh. It was perfect execution.”
She was right.
The market over the past two weeks had been our stage alone.
Our ace, Daejin Biotech.
This stock’s performance could only be described as phenomenal.
‘Two consecutive days at the upper limit price.’
Right after Typhoon Maemi passed, the moment the government announced its disinfection measures, the stock price rocketed. There were only two days where it opened at the upper limit and closed without budging.
But that wasn’t the end.
Usually, theme stocks plummet once their catalyst is exhausted. But Daejin Biotech was different.
“Government reserves alone weren’t nearly enough,” I added in explanation.
“Farmers realized that if they waited only for government support, their land would rot. So private demand exploded. Everyone scrambled to buy fertilizer and disinfectant, even at premium prices.”
Thanks to that, Daejin Biotech transformed from a mere theme stock into a genuine earnings growth stock.
Securities analysts rushed to revise their price targets upward, predicting 300% revenue growth for the next quarter, and as institutional and foreign investors piled in, the stock continued climbing relentlessly.
Lee Min-jae’s holding in Hyunbo Computer fared just as well.
“My Hyunbo did sweetly too. Remember how flooded PC rooms scrambled to replace all their computers?”
Lee Min-jae grinned.
While the typhoon damage was lamentable, it stimulated replacement demand for IT equipment, becoming a blessing for the PC parts market. Lee Min-jae’s instinct had been spot-on.
But there was another unsung hero behind this victory.
I gave Han Jae-yi a thumbs up.
“Most importantly, your portfolio turned out to be a masterstrokes.”
“Mine?”
“Yes. Look at the KOSPI index over the past two weeks. It was obliterated.”
The overall stock market was in decline due to weakened consumer sentiment from typhoon damage and renewed concerns about credit card company insolvency.
That’s also why the competing teams that had been leading were crushed.
They’d enjoyed a brief windfall from construction stocks, but as the market collapsed, they were swept down with it.
“But Korea Electric Power and telecom stocks you established as anchors didn’t budge. In fact, as the market grew uncertain, money flowed toward them and they climbed steadily.”
Han Jae-yi’s absolute defense strategy.
It served as a dam that protected our team’s return rate, keeping it intact.
I, the attacker, was able to score freely because Han Jae-yi, the defender, had sealed the back perfectly.
“Now you finally see my true worth?”
Han Jae-yi spoke with a raised nose and haughty tone, but couldn’t hide the smile playing at her lips.
“Fine…… I’ll admit it.”
And soon after, she looked at me with a serious gaze.
“At first I thought you were just some rich kid playing around out of impulse. But you’re not.”
“…….”
“From selling Genias Games at its peak to discovering Daejin Biotech. Your logic had no gaps. The way you steadied Min-jae’s nerves too. Without you, we wouldn’t have even broken even, much less won.”
Han Jae-yi extended her hand.
“Thank you, Kang Seon-woo. Thanks to you, I’ll probably get a scholarship.”
I clasped her hand.
“Thank you too. None of this would have been possible without your trust.”
“Me too, me too!”
Lee Min-jae jumped in and grabbed my hand.
“Wow, we’re really first? We’re getting a computer? That ancient thing in the club room is finally gone?”
The three of us looked at each other and burst out laughing.
Han Jae-yi, who had feared real investing due to poverty.
Lee Min-jae, always timid from lack of confidence.
This month-long race had gifted them both the finest asset of all: a sense of accomplishment.
And for me as well.
‘I proved it.’
I took in the return rate displayed on the monitor.
This number wasn’t just virtual money.
It was the ticket that let me break free from my shell as a child and enter the world of adults.
‘And my account has grown nicely too.’
While the club’s account based on the portfolio showed a return rate in the 42% range, my personal account was hovering at over 80%.
Five million won had grown to nine million.
‘This is how I’ll keep building my personal wealth.’
“Alright, keep your guard up until the market closes tomorrow. We don’t want it to flip at the last second.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be watching until the final call auction.”
With Han Jae-yi’s reassuring answer behind me, I gathered my bag and stood up.
“Huh? Are you leaving already?”
“Yeah. I have something to take care of.”
“What something? Are you going to meet a girlfriend?”
Lee Min-jae asked mischievously, but I chuckled and waved my hand.
“No. I have homework inspection to receive.”
“Homework? Do you go to a cram school?”
“Something like that. I have a very intimidating teacher.”
I slipped out of the club room and walked down the corridor.
The autumn sky visible through the windows was unusually high and blue.
The sky after the typhoon passes is always clear like this.

* * *

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