WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Arsène
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◈ The Conglomerate Heir Just Wants to Fail ◈
Chapter 4
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Bang! Bang!
“Does this make any sense? As if it wasn’t enough to suddenly make that wet-behind-the-ears kid vice chairman just because he’s the chairman’s grandson, now he’s cancelling every schedule on his first day!”
President Park of Daeseung Heavy Industries slammed his fist onto the table and shouted in a booming voice.
His face was even redder with rage than the fist that had struck the sturdy table.
The presidents of the other affiliates were seated in the same conference room, but no one tried to stop President Park despite his nearly disrespectful behavior.
They probably all felt much the same way.
At least President Kim of Daeseung Chemicals, seated beside him, tried to calm him down.
“Watch what you say, President Park! What if someone hears? He’s the chairman’s grandson!”
“So what if he’s his grandson? The chairman personally oversaw the Hwasu Heavy Industries acquisition, saying the future of our company depended on it! If we don’t get the seal today, the deal falls through! We’ve spent the last year and a half working on this project!”
“What can we do? The vice chairman ordered it cancelled. We’ll lose the deposit.”
“No, hyung! No, President Kim! We’re about to lose forty billion won in cash!”
“Ahem...!”
Strictly speaking, it was not a deposit but a performance guarantee deposit that would be forfeited for breaching the contract. But no one in the room cared about such a minor difference in terminology right then.
“What kind of way is that to run a company? Is this some children’s game? I need to see the chairman myself and speak to him!”
When President Park nearly lunged at the planning secretary with a shout, the secretary shook their head with a troubled expression.
“Haven’t you heard that the chairman requires complete rest? He has refused every visitor except Chief of Staff Lee Jinju.”
The presidents were left speechless.
The owner of the empire had gone into seclusion, yet none of them dared openly defy the chairman’s decision.
But the young heir who had suddenly appeared was shaking the empire with incomprehensible actions.
A broken contract. Disruptions to management.
All because of that vice chairman, who had only just taken office and whose face they had not even properly seen.
President Kim of Daeseung Chemicals, cautious by nature, adjusted his glasses and spoke carefully.
“Forty billion won is one thing, but isn’t the greater problem that if the Hwasu Heavy Industries M&A fails, Daeseung Group’s long-term plans will be thrown into disarray? President Park, if we do not acquire Hwasu this time, who will?”
“Who else could it be? Those bastards from Hanseong Group!”
President Park answered through gritted teeth.
Daeseung Group and Hanseong Group had been longtime rivals, clashing over everything for nearly half a century.
President Park was somewhat hot-blooded, but he was renowned for his aggressive drive and boundless loyalty to Daeseung. Chairman Kang cared for him greatly because of it.
Having led the charge in countless fierce fights against Hanseong Group, President Park had plenty of personal grudges against them as well.
“If those Hanseong bastards hear this news, they’ll dance for joy. They’ll run straight to Hwasu and snatch it away by offering even more than we did.”
President Park added bitterly.
The battle to acquire Hwasu Heavy Industries, which possessed next-generation ship engine technology, was practically a fight that would determine which group controlled the future shipbuilding market.
“Haah... We have no choice. Contact Hwasu’s creditor group and ask them to delay the signing a little. It’s an open secret in the business world that our chairman is unwell... If we use that excuse, we might buy some time.”
After President Kim finished speaking, silence fell over the conference room.
“This cannot continue. We should contact Chief Lee immediately and somehow bring the vice chairman to the company. That way, we can at least understand his true intentions and offer whatever small assistance we can.”
President Choi chose their words as politely and carefully as possible, but all the presidents understood what they meant.
Even if they had to drag that inexperienced brat into the conference room, they needed to make him realize this was not a place for games and knock some sense into him.
President Jo of Daeseung Shopping, who had not said a word until then, cautiously raised his hand.
As the man in charge of the group’s retail division, he had joined the group of presidents most recently and was the youngest among them.
That meant he always had to keep a low profile around the group’s senior veterans.
“The vice chairman is still young, and I heard he has had a difficult life until now... Perhaps he wants to enjoy spending money for a while. I will personally escort him on an inspection of our department store, naturally ask what he wants, and try to ease the atmosphere.”
It was, in its own way, a clever idea.
The vice chairman was probably still a child who knew nothing of the world. President Jo intended to win his favor by showing him the pleasures of spending money at a luxury department store.
Perhaps the new vice chairman had no interest in complicated management issues and simply wanted to spend money and relax.
If that was the case, it would be the best possible scenario for everyone.
After President Jo finished speaking, silence lingered in the conference room.
The M&A that determined the group’s fate was in danger of collapsing, and they were suggesting taking the vice chairman to a department store to buy him things and curry favor with him.
It might have sounded pathetic to some, but no one could easily criticize the idea.
For now, it felt like the only method worth trying.
“Ahem. An inspection of the department store...”
The presidents exchanged glances, then nodded as though it was not a bad idea.
Put negatively, it was flattery. Put positively, it would be the first attempt to understand an unpredictable new figure of power.
“It does not seem like a bad idea. Right now, we know nothing about the vice chairman. Why the chairman suddenly put him at the forefront, what kind of temperament he has, what he wants. We know nothing. If we act rashly in this state, we may bring an even greater disaster upon ourselves. I think the proper course is for President Jo to take responsibility, meet the vice chairman, and at least find out what sort of person he is.”
“That’s right. And isn’t President Jo the youngest among us? Young people will have something in common.”
“Young? President Jo will be in his fifties soon. He’s only young enough to tend the grill when we dine among ourselves. Anywhere else, everyone calls us elders. Why do you keep going on about age?”
“What did I say? I only said he was young.”
“Oh, President Choi, President Hong, that is not true. Is it not a fact that I lack experience? Please continue to guide me in the future.”
President Jo smiled and quickly lowered himself.
“Ahem. Right. Besides, does actual age matter? He will know modern tastes better if he works in shopping. That must be why he came up with such a good idea. Let us proceed that way. Contact the vice chairman through Chief Lee.”
The meeting that had begun so seriously ended on a somewhat absurd conclusion, but at least the mood had improved.
Their faces were still full of worry, but they desperately wanted to cling to even the faintest hope.
.
I simply shut myself indoors.
It was an empty penthouse with panoramic city night views, incomparable to the rooftop room that had once been my whole world.
Yet every time I sank into the recliner by the window, I strangely missed my old creaking chair.
I ordered all my food for delivery.
Greasy pizza, cold Chinese food, spicy rice cakes.
The delivery containers scattered carelessly across the luxurious marble kitchen island were the only signs of life in this home.
“Eating only things like this is not good for you. I will arrange for a chef from now on.”
Chief Lee Jinju said that, but I refused.
I thought I would become too comfortable if I let her.
I might not be licking anyone’s boots, but I was afraid that if I grew used to a luxurious life, I would become accustomed to it.
No, that was not it.
I knew it too.
What I was doing was no different from a sulking four-year-old throwing himself onto the floor in a tantrum.
.
Twice a day, at set times, employees from the Secretary’s Office came in to clean the house.
I did not know what they normally did, but they moved silently like ghosts and erased every trace of the mess I made.
The living room and kitchen were their responsibility. Only my bedroom at the very back was an exception.
“There may be sensitive information or documents, so I will personally clean the bedroom and the room beyond it.”
There was something surreal about Lee Jinju putting on rubber gloves as she said that.
A major conglomerate chairman’s Chief of Staff was cleaning my shabby little room, hardly better than that of a rooftop studio tenant.
Of course, there was no such thing as sensitive information in the first place.
Lee Jinju’s actions only made me feel more miserable.
.
It was the morning of the seventh day.
As usual, Lee Jinju knocked on my door.
“Vice Chairman, today, President Jo Eungsu of Daeseung Shopping...”
“Cancel it.”
My answer came out before she could even finish speaking.
By now, it was almost an automatic response.
“...Yes. Understood.”
After a brief silence, Lee Jinju’s answer was much the same.
I heard her quietly leave after replying in a mechanical voice.
Unable to bear the boredom, I lay on the living room sofa and pressed the remote.
My fingers mindlessly flipped through the channels before stopping on an economics news channel.
A red breaking-news banner flashed across the bottom of the screen.
“This is an exclusive report. Major additional financial irregularities have been discovered at Hwasu Heavy Industries, which Daeseung Group recently withdrew from acquiring. The Financial Supervisory Service has just immediately suspended trading in Hwasu Heavy Industries shares and launched an intensive investigation into suspected accounting fraud.”
The screen changed, and a serious-looking economic analyst appeared.
“Yes. Based on what has been discovered so far, the hidden liabilities omitted from the books alone appear to amount to hundreds of billions of won. Evidence of clear accounting fraud has also been found. If Daeseung Group had proceeded with the Hwasu Heavy Industries acquisition as planned, it would have taken on all those liabilities, potentially freezing the liquidity of the entire group. It would have been the worst possible situation.”
Hwasu Heavy Industries?
It was a name that had appeared every day in Lee Jinju’s briefings over the past week.
The very matter the presidents had requested approval for like parrots, calling it the group’s most important issue and saying its future depended on it.
I rummaged through the stack of documents scattered across the living room table and unfolded one.
The title was clear.
<Hwasu Heavy Industries Acquisition Contract>
“...This is ridiculous.”
I had only been stubbornly refusing to approve it because I thought that if it was so important, I should not approve it.
But that childish act of defiance had ended up saving Daeseung Group.
As I held my confused head in my hands, the living room intercom rang.
It was Secretary Lee Jinju.
“Vice Chairman, may I come in for a moment?”
.
At that very moment, the presidents’ conference room on the thirtieth floor of group headquarters was in a festive mood.
The very place where every kind of criticism had been hurled at Kang Daeun for an entire week.
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