Sitting in his study checking the documents that had come up from each group company, Tak-hyeon Lee, as if something had suddenly occurred to him, lifted his head and looked at Do-beom Hwang.

“How’s he getting on?”

Do-beom Hwang, who’d been organizing the documents on the desk, paused what he was doing and answered,

“They say he had the staff member who moved over to Ilhyeon Watch with him check the financial statements, while he himself has been going around Gumi, the head office, and Seongnam, over and over.”

“Seongnam? What’s in Seongnam, that he went to Seongnam?”

As if the answer to his lightly-tossed question was too unexpected, Tak-hyeon Lee set down the pen he was holding and turned in his seat.

As if he understood Tak-hyeon Lee’s reaction, Do-beom Hwang gave a slight shake of his head and answered,

“I don’t know. Rather than there being something in Seongnam that he went for, they say he’s just been going around looking at empty land.”

“Going around looking at empty land? What in the world is that fellow thinking?”

As if it was an answer he hadn’t anticipated at all, Tak-hyeon Lee showed a dumbfounded reaction.

Do-beom Hwang cautiously asked him,

“Shall I look into what he’s up to, going around like that?”

“No.”

Tak-hyeon Lee waved a hand and turned back in his seat.

Then, taking up the pen he’d set down, he said as he looked at the documents,

“Leave him be. Let’s watch and see what he’s thinking.”

“Understood.”

Having answered Tak-hyeon Lee’s instruction, Do-beom Hwang set a new document down before him.

And, watching Tak-hyeon Lee check its contents, he thought,

‘I’d think he’d applaud even if the fellow just came back having caught the executives’ rebate scheme…’

Ilhyeon Watch, having turned into a swamp, had in the end rotted all the way through internally.

Not just the executives but even rank-and-file staff had begun taking bribes and embezzling money without the slightest hesitation.

Tak-hyeon Lee had learned of this fact not long ago.

That he’d nevertheless left Ilhyeon Watch alone was because preparation was needed to cut out the rotten part.

And just then, Mun-jong Lee had brought up sending Seong-ho Kim to that very Ilhyeon Watch.

If Seong-ho Kim dragged the matter up to the surface, Tak-hyeon Lee intended to blow Ilhyeon Watch away at once.

So Do-beom Hwang wondered whether Tak-hyeon Lee wasn’t inwardly hoping Seong-ho Kim would drag that problem up.

‘Should I tip him off…?’

Do-beom Hwang deliberated over whether to secretly inform Seong-ho Kim of Ilhyeon Watch’s problem.

Because it occurred to him that doing so might be the path of benefit to both Seong-ho Kim, who needed results, and Tak-hyeon Lee, who’d made up his mind to blow Ilhyeon Watch away.

But before long, Do-beom Hwang shook his head.

In the end, Seong-ho Kim was nothing more than Tak-hyeon Lee’s son-in-law.

And it wasn’t as though he held a respectable family behind him, like the eldest son-in-law, Yeong-su Cha.

He was nothing but the paltry son-in-law of a hollow, worthless family.

Deciding there was neither need nor reason to help such a man, Do-beom Hwang folded away the impulse to help.

As if he’d read Do-beom Hwang’s thoughts, Tak-hyeon Lee said without taking his eyes off the documents,

“Don’t even think about giving him a hint. I’m curious what that fellow will get up to, so just keep watching from a distance.”

“Yes. Understood.”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s instruction, Do-beom Hwang wiped away all the thoughts he’d been having.

And he merely cheered him on, hoping he’d figure it out himself.

But what Seong-ho Kim brought back was something in a direction entirely different from that expectation.

“You still haven’t gone home?”

“I could say the same to you — why are you back so late? Don’t tell me you went to Seongnam again today?”

The one who welcomed Seong-ho Kim back to Ilhyeon Watch was Manager Byeong-ju Jeong, sitting alone in the large office.

He set down the documents he’d been examining and looked at Seong-ho Kim, only now returned to the company.

Seong-ho Kim set down his bag, walked over to Manager Byeong-ju Jeong, looked down at the documents Byeong-ju had been examining a moment ago, and asked,

“How is it?”

At his question, Byeong-ju Jeong sighed and said,

“Haah… Honestly, it’s bad enough that I don’t even know where to start touching it. It’s a structure where selling 1,000 won’s worth produces a 200-won loss, and once you add the financial debt already piled up… just keeping the business running at all is a loss. There’s nothing to even call restructuring — it’s bad enough that going into bankruptcy proceedings would be better.”

Looking down at the documents once more, Byeong-ju Jeong shook his head over and over.

In his eyes, Ilhyeon Watch was an insolvent company with no going-concern value whatsoever.

At those words, Seong-ho Kim smiled and nodded.

“That’s good, then.”

“Good? You just said ‘good’ about a company that’d be better off bankrupt?”

“Yes.”

Bringing a chair over in front of Byeong-ju Jeong and sitting down, Seong-ho Kim propped his arm on the chair’s back, gestured with his chin at the financial statements Byeong-ju had been looking at, and said,

“Because those absurd financial statements will serve as the justification for what I’m about to do.”

“What is it you’re about to do?”

“Relocate the company.”

Seong-ho Kim, a thick smile at his lips, continued,

“There’s clear proof the company has no money, so no one will be able to object to a method of mine for producing money. That’s why I said it’s good.”

“Relocate the company? Produce money? What does that mean?”

Seong-ho Kim lightly tapped the back of the chair with his palm and answered,

“I’m thinking of selling this head office and the Gumi factory.”

“What?! If you sell the company, what about the employees?”

“They go to Seongnam.”

“Seongnam? What on earth…”

Seong-ho Kim straightened the chair and cut off Byeong-ju Jeong’s words.

“From now on, you and I are going to draw up a proposal for relocating Ilhyeon Watch’s head office and factory to Seongnam. If we get the chairman’s approval with it, then for now the financial-debt problem can be solved.”

“Relocate the head office and the factory to Seongnam?!”

At the plan he’d never imagined, Byeong-ju Jeong was left speechless.

But Seong-ho Kim’s plan was only just beginning.

The head-office and factory relocation was nothing more than the starting point of Ilhyeon Watch’s restructuring.

Having spent a week with Byeong-ju Jeong completing the proposal for relocating Ilhyeon Watch’s head office and Gumi factory, Seong-ho Kim took the proposal and headed straight for the head office.

Chief Do-beom Hwang, seeing Seong-ho Kim come to the chairman’s office, told him to wait a moment.

“Wait just a bit. He’s still in the middle of talking with the person who came before you.”

“Yes. Then I’ll wait here.”

Do-beom Hwang looked back and forth between the proposal Seong-ho Kim was holding and Seong-ho Kim himself, then asked,

“Is that a method to save Ilhyeon Watch?”

“Yes. I’ve brought the first method for now.”

“Seeing as it’s the ‘first method,’ it seems there’s a second and third too.”

At his words, Seong-ho Kim only smiled quietly.

Finding confidence within Seong-ho Kim’s smile, Do-beom Hwang smiled back.

“There’s no need to worry, it seems.”

“Of course. Don’t worry. I intend to save Ilhyeon Watch no matter what.”

“Right. I’ll wish you well.”

Facing Do-beom Hwang, Seong-ho Kim thought inwardly,

‘It’ll go well. Because it’s the method you used.’

The restructuring method Seong-ho Kim was about to use was the one Chief Do-beom Hwang had used in his past life.

Having won Daeguk Fertilizer at too high a price and been moved to Ilhyeon Watch, Chief Do-beom Hwang had, there, revived the Ilhyeon Watch that no one had been able to save, and returned splendidly to the Ilhyeon Group.

Having watched that situation firsthand, Seong-ho Kim remembered clearly the method by which Do-beom Hwang had revived Ilhyeon Watch back then, and he’d blended his own know-how into that method.

What had been created that way was the proposal Seong-ho Kim was now holding.

Clunk.

Just then, the chairman’s office door opened, and the person who’d been talking with Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee came out.

Before leaving the chairman’s office, he bowed once more, a full ninety degrees, toward Tak-hyeon Lee.

“Chairman. Thank you.”

“Once you become deputy prime minister for the economy, you’ll have to work even harder.”

“I’ll do my utmost not to disappoint you, Chairman.”

“Now, now. For my sake? You should work hard for the country’s sake.”

As if the words about not disappointing him weren’t unwelcome, he spoke as though scolding, but his face wore a smile.

The man bowed his head once more to Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee and, carefully, backed out and closed the door.

Seeing the man’s face, Seong-ho Kim could tell who he was.

He was the current president of a prestigious university, a man who had once served as Minister of Commerce and Industry.

Seong-ho Kim knew that Tak-hyeon Lee had intervened in the selection of the deputy prime minister for the economy, and from it he anticipated that the economic policy to come would proceed in the Ilhyeon Group’s favor.

“Tell Assistant Manager Seong-ho Kim to come in.”

Just then, Tak-hyeon Lee’s voice came from inside the chairman’s office.

Seong-ho Kim straightened his clothes for a moment, then signaled to Do-beom Hwang with his eyes that he was ready.

Soon Do-beom Hwang opened the door so Seong-ho Kim could enter, and Seong-ho Kim, going into the chairman’s office through the opened door, gave Tak-hyeon Lee a bobbing bow.

“Chairman. I’ve brought a plan regarding Ilhyeon Watch’s restructuring.”

“Oh? A plan’s come out?”

Seated on the reception sofa, Tak-hyeon Lee looked at Seong-ho Kim with an intrigued gaze.

“Right. Bring it here. I’m curious what this plan might be.”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s gesture to come closer, Seong-ho Kim approached the reception sofa and sat across from him, and Do-beom Hwang followed, closing the door and coming to stand behind Tak-hyeon Lee.

Once seated, Seong-ho Kim held out the proposal he’d brought to Tak-hyeon Lee and said,

“The biggest problem for Ilhyeon Watch at present is its financial debt.”

“Financial debt.”

Tak-hyeon Lee gazed quietly at Seong-ho Kim, who’d brought up financial debt rather than saying reform was difficult because of the executives’ corruption.

And, skimming over the proposal Seong-ho Kim had placed before him, he said,

“Go on.”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s instruction to continue, Seong-ho Kim began laying out what he’d prepared in a calm voice.

“I believe we can only create the foundation to save the company by first stopping the money going out to financial debt.”

“That’d be obvious. The money we hemorrhage on interest alone runs to billions a month.”

Tak-hyeon Lee, who’d worn an indifferent expression at Seong-ho Kim’s obvious statement, faltered as he turned a page of the proposal.

And, brow furrowed, he stared hard at the proposal.

“…You’ll sell off the head office and the Gumi factory to deal with the financial debt?”

“Yes. The reason I’ve come to see you today is to get approval for selling the head office and the Gumi factory.”

“If you sell off the head office and the Gumi factory right now, where are the employees supposed to work?”

“If you look at the back pages of the proposal, I’ve laid out a replacement factory site.”

At his words, Tak-hyeon Lee began turning the pages and examining the proposal again.

“You’ll build a factory in Seongnam?”

“Yes. To correct the drop in work efficiency caused by the head office and factory being separated, I intend to build a new facility in the capital region that combines both offices and factory into one. With the proceeds from selling the head office and the Gumi factory, I expect there’ll be no problem clearing the high-interest financial debt and building the new factory. That’s laid out in the back pages as well.”

“Haha. Look at this…”

When Seong-ho Kim brought a proposal he hadn’t anticipated at all, the corners of Tak-hyeon Lee’s mouth rose.

Tak-hyeon Lee examined the proposal closely, then pointed out what was most problematic in Seong-ho Kim’s proposal.

“Right. Let’s say we relocate the head office and factory. Then what do you intend to do about the employees? The ones with homes in Seoul, and homes in Gumi.”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s question, Seong-ho Kim leaned forward and answered,

“That is precisely the second method of Ilhyeon Watch’s restructuring.”

Tak-hyeon Lee’s gaze, which had been on the proposal, turned toward Seong-ho Kim.

As if he’d been waiting for it, Seong-ho Kim began explaining the second restructuring plan to Tak-hyeon Lee.

(End of Chapter 23)