The Return of the Ruined Chaebol's Third-Generation Heir - Chapter 70

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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 Heir — Episode 70
Seongshin Savings Bank Headquarters.
Park Han-su was a man who arrived at work every morning at 7:50. He had kept the same time for decades, driven by his belief that a bank with a tardy chairman is a doomed bank.
The radio news he listened to in the car was his only indulgence, and his morning routine was no different today. Or rather, it should have been no different.
“……What’s that?”
As the car pulled into the alley in front of headquarters, Park Han-su’s eyes narrowed.
A line of people stood in front of the entrance to the headquarters building.
Before the driver could even bring the car to a stop, Park Han-su opened the door. There appeared to be about fifteen or twenty of them, mostly middle-aged.
Scanning each face, he saw that their expressions were anything but bright.
Park Han-su walked past them toward the entrance.
“Excuse me, aren’t you the Chairman?”
Someone called from the middle of the line. It was a woman in her sixties, her face vaguely familiar.
She ran a shop in a nearby market and had been depositing money with Seongshin for years.
“Is our money safe?”
Park Han-su didn’t stop walking. He couldn’t have stopped.
He had no idea how to answer. No matter how much he turned the current situation over in his mind, no answer came.
“Chairman!”
The Vice Chairman emerged from inside the entrance, running. His necktie was askew.
“They started lining up from 7 a.m. They won’t leave even though we haven’t opened yet.”
“Why? What’s happened?”
The Vice Chairman handed him a folded newspaper.
It was the Goryo Economic Daily. Park Han-su’s expression hardened as he scanned the front page.
[FSC Insolvency Designation Imminent, Seongshin Savings Bank in Management Crisis]
Park Han-su’s eyes swept across the article.
Excessive Project Finance Loan weighting. Deteriorating Capital Adequacy. Two sale recommendations from the FSC. Every point was true. There wasn’t a single sentence he could dispute.
That was precisely why the situation was so dire.
If it were lies, he could issue a rebuttal. But an article that’s entirely factual cannot be stopped.
“Goryo Economic…….”
Park Han-su murmured.
Under normal circumstances, a single article on this page wouldn’t move customers.
But now it was different.
Two months after Lehman Brothers collapsed, American-origin panic hadn’t subsided—it had spread into the real economy. Banks had tightened their purse strings, companies were collapsing in succession, and every day the television broadcast news of restructuring and layoffs. Fear that one might not recover their own money had seeped into living rooms across the nation. In this atmosphere, the two words “insolvency” were more than enough to ignite panic in customers’ hearts.
“What about the other branches?”
“We’re checking.”
As Park Han-su entered the headquarters lobby, he found it in chaos. While employees milled about frantically, every line was ringing before the bank had even opened.
He climbed to the office, and the Vice Chairman followed him in.
“The Gangnam Branch has contacted us. They say customers are already waiting before opening.”
“……Yeongdeungpo?”
“I’ll confirm.”
The Vice Chairman left and returned in less than a minute.
“Yeongdeungpo has started as well. After further checking, it appears the Eunpyeong Branch is experiencing the most severe reaction.”
“Get me a statement to address this.”
“……What would you have me say?”
The Vice Chairman’s voice had grown small.
“Every word of the article is true. The Project Finance weighting, the sale recommendations—there’s nothing we can refute. The moment other news outlets pick up the story and confirm it with the authorities…….”
The Vice Chairman trailed off, and Park Han-su found his own tongue tied.
“……Go. See if you can find any way forward.”
As the Vice Chairman bowed and left, Park Han-su stared at the newspaper lying on his desk.
“It couldn’t be…….”
Jung Hyun-il of Jungseong Construction came to mind—the man who had come to see him a few days ago, angry, and left in a rage.
There was no proof. But a man who had spent decades in finance had instincts.
“……Yes, this is exactly how he’d come at me.”
He spoke with something closer to mockery than anger.
“Hah…….”
Decades ago, when it was just a mutual credit union, it had started with money that neighborhood shopkeepers would place in envelopes. Those pennies, carefully saved, had built today’s Seongshin. And now those same people stood in line outside trying to withdraw their money.
“I cannot let this continue…….”
He could bear no more. To save Seongshin, to save all those people lined up outside, Park Han-su had only one option left.
Park Han-su gazed quietly at the telephone, then picked it up with resolve.

* * *
“You’ve arrived, Representative?”
Jung Tae-sung rose from his seat as the office door opened.
It was a week before final exams. He should have been buried in the library, but the moment he received the message, he’d rushed from school to the office.
[Bank Run at Seongshin Savings Bank Headquarters. Goryo Economic Front Page]
“The Goryo Economic?”
Jung Tae-sung nodded as I set my coat on the chair.
“Today’s front page. FSC Insolvency Designation Imminent, Seongshin Savings Bank in Management Crisis. Lines formed in front of headquarters from 7 a.m., and it’s spreading to all branches—Gangnam, Yeongdeungpo, Eunpyeong.”
I sat down and took a moment to collect myself.
Goryo Economic was part of the Jungseong Construction media portfolio. An article breaking there meant only one thing.
“Jung Hyun-il has made his move.”
Jung Tae-sung’s expression hardened.
“Is he trying to pressure Chairman Park Han-su?”
“More than pressure—he’s trying to break him.”
I paused to collect my thoughts before continuing.
“He triggers a bank run with one article, pushes Chairman Park to the brink, then runs a story about how Jungseong Group is interested in acquiring him. One headline about a conglomerate’s acquisition interest and depositors’ anxieties ease, the run stops. At that point, what choice does Chairman Park have left?”
I’d seen the chaebol playbook too many times—in my past life and in this one. The damage ordinary citizens suffer is merely a tool to them, a natural calculation.
Jung Tae-sung’s brow furrowed.
“Chairman Park will eventually raise the white flag and contact Jungseong Construction first. That’s when the upper hand shifts.”
“Seems excessive……. And wouldn’t we need to move quickly?”
I shook my head.
“No need to rush. We should be grateful.”
“……Pardon?”
“This is an opportunity, Director Jung.”
Jung Tae-sung fell silent.
My calling a bank run an opportunity—his face showed he couldn’t believe it. But that’s how it looked to me.
“Jung Hyun-il missed something. What Chairman Park needs most when a bank run hits.”
I continued, looking at Jung Tae-sung.
“The people lined up outside don’t want news that ‘a conglomerate is acquiring us.’ They want to know one thing: can I withdraw my money at the counter when I go there? And what can deliver that isn’t a press release—it’s actual cash.”
“…….”
“If Seongshin loses liquidity at this rate, they’ll be in trouble. Asset ratios shrink, and before long they’ll run dry on cash.”
Just like the American investment banks had during the Lehman crisis.
“But if someone supplied cash as a loan at that moment……?”
“The bank run stops.”
“Chairman Kim Jong-su’s money will do exactly that.”
In my past life, I’d seen it countless times: a helping hand offered in a crisis outlasts any contract.
“I was wondering when to send Chairman Kim Jong-su to Chairman Park, but Jungseong Construction just handed us the perfect timing.”
I looked at Jung Tae-sung.
“What did Executive Director Kim Seok-jun say?”
“Authorities choose what they can explain, not what is right.”
“Exactly. This is a chance to overcome Chairman Kim Jong-su’s weakness as a private lender in one stroke. The man who supplied liquidity during the bank run. Jungseong handed us a justification on a silver platter.”
Jung Tae-sung nodded in understanding.
“Should I visit Bukchon?”
“No. I’ll contact Bukchon myself. You reach out to the Seongshin side and set up a meeting. Since the two of them know each other, it should happen quickly.”
“Understood.”
After Jung Tae-sung left, the office fell quiet.
I pulled out my phone and dialed.
“Chairman, it’s Kang Seon-woo. I have something to discuss regarding Seongshin.”

* * *
Seongshin Savings Bank Headquarters, third floor, Chairman Park Han-su’s office.
Through the window, the line extending in front of the building was visible.
The procession that began in the morning showed no sign of ending past lunch, and Park Han-su ignored the sight, watching only the clock.
“Time certainly drags…….”
It had been an hour since he’d called Jung Hyun-il of Jungseong Construction.
He had expected a response sometime that afternoon, and honestly, he couldn’t afford to sit idle in this office.
Knock-knock.
“Come in.”
As the door opened, a familiar face entered along with his secretary.
“Chairman, Chairman Kim Jong-su has come to see you.”
“It’s been quite some time, Chairman.”
It had been four years.
The last time was in 2004, after their final handshake across the negotiating table.
When Kim Jong-su had said he wouldn’t sell due to the real estate boom, Park had gracefully withdrawn.
The impression of a clean man still lingered.
But it was precisely that impression that had made this meeting happen—no other reason.
“Chairman Kim. Good to see you. Though I must ask your understanding—I have little time, so I’d appreciate if we could keep this brief.”
His tone was curt.
Kim Jong-su didn’t mind. He’d come upstairs after seeing the line in front of the bank.
If there were anyone composed in that situation, that would be odd.
He bowed slightly and sat, then spoke at once.
“I’ll get straight to the point.”
Kim Jong-su looked at Park Han-su with resolute eyes.
“You need liquidity. I’ll provide it.”
Park Han-su’s eyes narrowed.
The king of the private-loan market is offering to inject liquidity. No man who’d spent forty years in finance could fail to distinguish between goodwill and business.
“What are your terms?”
“I’ll take the deposit interest rate. I noticed on the way in that the promotional rate was 6 percent annually—that’s quite acceptable.”
Park Han-su’s expression wavered slightly.
Not a number a private lender would name. In a situation where emergency funding always came with a premium attached, the condition he’d received was the same rate as a regular depositor.
On the surface, it looked like a high-net-worth individual simply placing funds in a bank.
Not a loan. Not emergency financing. A deposit.
Clean on paper, nothing to explain to the FSC.
Which was precisely why it made no sense.
“Chairman Kim.”
Park Han-su looked at him squarely.
“Taking only the deposit rate—that’s essentially giving it away for free, isn’t it? You’d go that far just to help me?”
Kim Jong-su smiled inwardly.
An hour earlier, over the phone, Kang Seon-woo had said exactly this.
‘Chairman, put in the cash first and say you’ll take the deposit interest rate. Chairman Park will definitely ask why. That’s when you bring up the real purpose.’
A boy barely twenty-three had drawn this scheme, and two old men were following the script he’d written.
The feeling was peculiar, but not unpleasant.
Seon-woo had never been wrong yet.
Which was exactly why he’d been chosen to draw up this board.
“I’ll be honest.”
Kim Jong-su straightened his back.
“Please give us a chance at acquiring Seongshin Savings Bank.”
Park Han-su’s eyes narrowed.
As expected. The world has no free lunch.
“Using cash as bait to snatch the acquisition, is that it?”
“No.”
Kim Jong-su’s voice was calm.
“Cash is cash, acquisition is acquisition. We keep them separate. I’ll inject the liquidity regardless of whether the acquisition goes through. All I ask is that when you decide to sell, you give us a seat at the table.”
Park Han-su was silent for a moment.
This morning, the Goryo Economic article had broken.
Everyone knew it was part of the Jungseong Construction media network.
That Jung Hyun-il had deliberately triggered the bank run was obvious enough with a little thought.
And an hour ago, Park had lowered his head first, calling that same Jungseong. He’d submitted to the one who’d drawn the sword.
The humiliation of it sat heavy, but now the man before him offered cash with no strings attached.
“In 2004, Chairman Kim withdrew so gracefully that you left a good impression.”
Park Han-su spoke slowly.
“I’ll take the cash.”
The mere fact that an alternative to Jungseong now existed was reason enough.
“As long as you don’t tie it to the acquisition. I’ll give you the chance to negotiate.”
Kim Jong-su bowed.
“Thank you, Chairman. Please tell me the amount you need, and I’ll have our corporation transfer the deposit this afternoon.”
“I’m grateful.”
“Not at all. I should thank you for the opportunity. Well, I’m sure you’re busy with the situation, so I’ll take my leave.”
After shaking hands with Park Han-su and leaving the office, Kim Jong-su only smiled once the elevator doors had closed.
He pulled out his phone and dialed.
There was one person who needed to hear this first.
“Representative Kang. It’s done.”
It was a brief call, but it was enough.

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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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