Thoroughly nettled by Seong-ho Kim’s smile, Sang-jong Lee jabbed a finger at him and shouted.

“How would a nobody like you know whether the company has a problem or not?! What do you know about anything?!”

Even at Sang-jong Lee’s raised voice, Seong-ho Kim answered with the smile still on his face.

“Whether I know or don’t, whether I’m wrong or right — that’s something you can just verify, isn’t it?”

“What?”

Seong-ho Kim looked at Tak-hyeon Lee, who still sat there quietly without a word, and said,

“If you check and there’s nothing wrong with the Hi-Dot-Com acquisition, then I’ll accept any punishment you like.”

Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee nodded, cut off Sang-jong Lee as he was about to start shouting again, and gave an order.

“Enough noise. Tell Chief Hwang, out there, to come in.”

“Father!”

When Sang-jong Lee, wearing a face like he’d bitten into something foul, went out, Mun-jong Lee let out a rueful sound.

At that, Tak-hyeon Lee, his face crumpling in displeasure, shouted.

“We’re discussing business — why do you keep calling for your father?! Do you intend to trail after me at the company too, crying ‘Father, Father’?!”

At those words, Mun-jong Lee quickly bowed his head and apologized.

“S-sorry.”

“Tsk, tsk. Scatterbrained fool.”

Tak-hyeon Lee clicked his tongue at Mun-jong Lee, then turned back to Seong-ho Kim and said,

“I’ll verify it, just as you say — but if there’s no problem, you’d best be prepared.”

“Yes.”

Tak-hyeon Lee quietly regarded Seong-ho Kim, who answered in a confident voice.

While Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee and his son-in-law Seong-ho Kim looked at each other, Sang-jong Lee came back in, bringing Tak-hyeon Lee’s chief secretary, Chief Do-beom Hwang.

“Chairman. You called for me?”

Tak-hyeon Lee nodded and gestured with his chin.

“That thing I had you look into — go on, tell them.”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s words, the faces of Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee went white as a sheet.

Seong-ho Kim was just as startled.

Because from the phrase that thing I had you look into, he could tell that Tak-hyeon Lee had already investigated Hi-Dot-Com.

Do-beom Hwang glanced once around at Mun-jong Lee, Sang-jong Lee, and Seong-ho Kim, seated before Tak-hyeon Lee, and opened his mouth.

“Hi-Dot-Com is an IT firm that has been growing rapidly of late, a company that develops and sells various programs. Its revenue—”

When it seemed he was about to launch into a long-winded account, Tak-hyeon Lee cut Do-beom Hwang off and, flicking his hand, said,

“Skip all that — just tell me whether or not the place is worth twenty billion won.”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s instruction, Do-beom Hwang turned to the last page of the papers he’d brought and spoke.

“The secretariat judged that twenty billion won is a fairly good price for acquiring Hi-Dot-Com itself.”

At Do-beom Hwang’s words, the faces of Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee brightened.

And just as they were about to throw a remark Seong-ho Kim’s way, words that would put the two of them on edge slipped from Do-beom Hwang’s mouth.

“But the problem appears to be that Hi-Dot-Com’s president has other ideas.”

“Other ideas? What ideas?”

When Tak-hyeon Lee turned his head to look up at Do-beom Hwang, Do-beom Hwang shot a sidelong glance at Mun-jong Lee and said,

“There were signs that Hi-Dot-Com’s president had been diverting assets elsewhere from the very moment he entered acquisition talks with us.”

“Diverting? What do you mean?”

“Among the technologies Hi-Dot-Com holds, he signed a contract transferring several core technologies — including character-recognition technology — to a corporation called KA Station. KA Station’s representative is an employee who until recently worked at Hi-Dot-Com, so it’s reasonable to suspect it’s a company the Hi-Dot-Com president set up under a borrowed name in order to siphon off assets.”

Tak-hyeon Lee turned his gaze to Mun-jong Lee.

Mun-jong Lee kept his head down and avoided Tak-hyeon Lee’s eyes, but the fact that he’d gone red all the way behind his ears told you the state of his face without needing to see it.

But the account that flustered Mun-jong Lee didn’t end there.

“An even bigger problem than that is that he pulled in over ten billion won in funds from the private loan market under the company’s name.”

“He took out private loans under the company’s name too?”

“Yes. And what’s more, it was done at the end of last month, while the acquisition talks were underway.”

When Do-beom Hwang closed his file as if to signal that he’d finished his entire report, Tak-hyeon Lee let out a laugh as though amused and said,

“Hahaha. So you’re telling me that while he was conducting acquisition talks with us, he was siphoning off technology and money? Even though our negotiations weren’t finalized?”

“Father, that’s…”

In place of the head-bowed Mun-jong Lee, Sang-jong Lee opened his mouth.

Thwack.

Just then, the wooden pencil holder from the table went flying at Sang-jong Lee.

Struck in the head by the pencil holder, Sang-jong Lee clutched his head where he sat.

Tak-hyeon Lee shouted at Sang-jong Lee, who bowed his head with his hands wrapped around it.

“You should be the one running the con, and instead you get taken by a con artist? And you call yourself a child of the Ilhyeon Group?”

Tak-hyeon Lee turned his head toward Mun-jong Lee, who was cautiously lifting his reddened face.

“Or did the two of you scheme together to skim the money?”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s question, Mun-jong Lee shook his head in alarm.

“No. How could we? How could we ever do such a—”

“If not, then that’s a failing too.”

Tak-hyeon Lee raised his voice even higher and shouted at Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee.

“Whether you’re skimming money or gorging yourselves on it, you should be the ones leading the scheme, and instead you let yourselves be played for suckers? Have you ever once stopped to think about how many people will come swarming to bleed you dry once word gets out?!”

Whether it was because the fact that he’d nearly been taken by a con artist rankled him, Tak-hyeon Lee clicked his tongue and instructed Do-beom Hwang.

“He dared try to run a con on Ilhyeon — we can’t just let this end here. Breach of trust, embezzlement, whatever — pin something on him and clean it up.”

“Yes. I’ll speak with the prosecutors’ office right away.”

Hearing Do-beom Hwang’s reply, Tak-hyeon Lee nodded and waved a hand at Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee.

“I can’t stand the sight of you — get out this instant.”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s words, Mun-jong Lee, Sang-jong Lee, and Seong-ho Kim made to rise from their seats.

Just then, Tak-hyeon Lee pointed at Seong-ho Kim and said,

“You — stay a moment.”

Seong-ho Kim, half-risen from his seat, planted his backside back on the sofa at Tak-hyeon Lee’s instruction.

Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee glared at him for a moment, then opened the door and came out of the study.

Standing in front of the study were Suk-ja Chu — the mother of Mun-jong Lee and the others — and Gyeong-eun Lee.

“What is it, hm? What did your father say?”

At Suk-ja Chu’s question, Mun-jong Lee shook his head.

“It’s nothing, so don’t worry.”

“Nothing, my foot! Your father’s booming voice had the roof practically rattling — how is that nothing?”

“We were just talking about company business and he chewed us out.”

When Mun-jong Lee shook his head as though finding it a nuisance to keep talking, and furrowed his brow, Suk-ja Chu couldn’t ask any further.

Just then Gyeong-eun Lee, who’d been standing with them, spoke to Mun-jong Lee.

“What about Seong-ho? Why didn’t he come out with you?”

“Ask that husband of yours when he comes out.”

Having answered Gyeong-eun Lee’s question sharply, Mun-jong Lee moved away from the study door as if he had no wish to talk any further.

Sang-jong Lee left after him, and Suk-ja Chu, seeing the two of them, knit her brow and said to Gyeong-eun Lee,

“That beggar’s gone and caused trouble in the end.”

“Mother. Beggar?!“

“What else would a beggar be but a beggar?”

Suk-ja Chu spoke viciously to Gyeong-eun Lee.

“This is exactly why I said you shouldn’t bring home some man with no pedigree — and sure enough, the moment we let him into the house, he stirs up this whole mess. I knew it would come to this.”

“Mother. That’s going too far.”

“Too far?”

Suk-ja Chu raised a finger and pointed it at Gyeong-eun Lee.

“You manage that husband of yours properly. Should your brothers get chewed out because of your husband?”

“Mother.”

“Don’t call me that!”

Suk-ja Chu turned on her heel and headed toward where Mun-jong Lee was, meaning to smooth over his mood.

Gyeong-eun Lee looked back and forth for a moment between the retreating Suk-ja Chu and the study door, then followed after Suk-ja Chu.

Because she thought that, rather than waiting for Seong-ho Kim, who might not come out for who knew how long, it was more important to first find out what had been discussed inside the study.

Once the people had gone, the once-clamorous space in front of the study fell quiet again.

“Looks like they’ve finally left.”

Sensing that it had gone quiet outside the door, Tak-hyeon Lee looked at Seong-ho Kim with a trace of a smile on his face.

Under that gaze, Seong-ho Kim secretly broke into a cold sweat.

‘He knew everything?’

This was a side of him Seong-ho Kim hadn’t seen in his past life.

Seong-ho Kim remembered clearly how Tak-hyeon Lee had flown into a blazing rage when Hi-Dot-Com was acquired and its problems came to light.

Back then, since the Hi-Dot-Com acquisition had simply been entrusted to others, Seong-ho had assumed Tak-hyeon Lee too had been unaware of the company’s problems.

But from the way he’d behaved today, it was clear Tak-hyeon Lee had known everything from the start.

‘He knew it all from the very beginning.’

He had looked into it all and, placing his children and son-in-law on the palm of his hand, watched to see how the situation would unfold.

Seong-ho Kim, who’d thought he knew Tak-hyeon Lee well from having watched him up close, felt a cold sweat run down his spine at this fact he hadn’t known.

“Hi-Dot-Com… well done.”

Tak-hyeon Lee quietly offered Seong-ho Kim words of praise.

“As I said a moment ago, it isn’t the money that matters. If it had gotten out that we’d been played for suckers over this, every con artist in creation would have come swarming. I can’t let something like that happen to Ilhyeon.”

With a resolute expression, Tak-hyeon Lee looked at the door Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee had left through and clicked his tongue.

“You did well to stop those imbecile fools from very nearly smearing filth on the company I built.”

Having spat out a few bitter words, Tak-hyeon Lee looked at Seong-ho Kim and smiled.

“Thanks to you, we managed to dodge a dangerous situation. Well done.”

In his past life, Seong-ho Kim might have been overjoyed that Tak-hyeon Lee had praised him not once but twice.

Because at the time, having the chairman himself — Tak-hyeon Lee, of the Ilhyeon Group said to be the finest in all Korea — personally face a mere assistant manager, son-in-law or not, and offer praise, could have been thrilling enough to move him.

But the Seong-ho Kim of now was different.

Though he smiled to convey his thanks for the praise, inwardly Seong-ho Kim never let go of the thread of tension.

Because from his experience in his past life, he knew all too well that Tak-hyeon Lee was the kind of man to whom even his own children were nothing but tools.

(End of Chapter 6)