News of the special tax investigation into the five major groups was made public through the press.

Photographs capturing men in suits descending on the headquarters of the five major groups and hauling away documents drew the public’s attention.

“Aren’t these people just rotten bastards?”

A man smoking a cigarette looked at the photo in the newspaper and shook the paper at his colleague.

“The country’s struggling and the people are going hungry, and what do these bastards do? Embezzlement and tax evasion? And they call themselves corporate heads?”

“They ought to throw every last one of them in prison.”

The man’s colleague spoke in an equally worked-up voice.

“Even little kids are pooling their money to help pay off the national debt, and here the big corporations are looking out for nothing but their own hides… And after laying off all their workers, how much did they skim? A hundred billion? Two hundred billion?”

“People like this should all go under, every one of them.”

And this sentiment spread rapidly among the public.

Corruption that surfaced while the country was in dire straits was more than enough to become a target of public condemnation.

The level of public criticism only grew harsher, to the point that some people even demanded government-led dismantling of the corporations, as in the days of the old military regime.

And Ilhyeon could not stay free of this wave of criticism either.

“Father. Please save me…”

“And who exactly is going to devour you?”

Tak-hyeon frowned and rebuked Sang-jong at his words.

But Sang-jong, still wearing an expression like he might cry, pleaded with Tak-hyeon.

“I really don’t want to go in. Father… please…?”

Apparently displeased at the sight of Sang-jong like this, Tak-hyeon clicked his tongue and said,

“Tch tch. A grown man well past forty, making a sniveling face in front of his own children.”

Tak-hyeon looked at his grandchildren visible behind Sang-jong.

Sang-jong’s wife, Min-yeong Oh, was pleading with Suk-ja Chu.

“Mother. Their father can’t go in. It’s getting colder and colder now — how can he go into that freezing place? Please?”

When Min-yeong grabbed Suk-ja’s leg and pleaded, Suk-ja turned her head toward Tak-hyeon and said,

“Do you really intend to put our second son in prison?”

Sensing that Suk-ja was taking his side, Sang-jong moved himself over to her.

“Mom. You know me. If I go in there, I won’t survive.”

“You fool. Your own children are watching — pull yourself together!”

Suk-ja looked with pained eyes at Sang-jong, who had cast off all dignity to plead with her in front of his children.

Because she understood why Sang-jong was behaving this way.

Heedless of Suk-ja’s admonition to keep his composure, Sang-jong clung to her all the more.

“Mom. You know my knees are bad, right? If I go in there, I might not be able to walk out. Mom. Do you want the children raised without a father?”

Following Min-yeong, who held her left leg, Sang-jong wrapped his arms around Suk-ja’s right leg.

Suk-ja patted the backs of the couple clinging to her legs on both sides and looked back at Tak-hyeon.

Whether his son and daughter-in-law carried on like this or not, Tak-hyeon was reading the newspaper with a face that said he couldn’t care less.

The newspaper stated, in huge print, that the corporate officials at each company whose embezzlement charges had been detected through the special tax investigation would be summoned for questioning in short order.

And beneath the large letters was a list of the businesspeople to be included in the summons investigation.

[…… Ilhyeon Construction President Sang-jong Lee]

And within that list was Sang-jong’s name.

Perhaps his indignation had boiled over at Tak-hyeon showing no reaction at all despite all his pleading — Sang-jong shot to his feet and shouted at the air.

“Why do I have to be the one investigated?! There’s my eldest brother, the Vice-Chairman, and Father, the Chairman — so why does it have to be me?!”

“You fool. What is this behavior, in front of your father?”

Suk-ja rebuked Sang-jong with a startled face and hurriedly checked Tak-hyeon’s expression.

But Sang-jong, seemingly still unable to collect himself despite Suk-ja’s scolding, only shouted at Tak-hyeon instead.

“If anyone’s going in, shouldn’t it be Father? Why are you making me your shield?!”

Sang-jong pointed a finger at the newspaper Tak-hyeon was reading and spoke even louder.

“Look there — they’re all chairmen! They’re summoning the people responsible for each group! So why… why is Ilhyeon the only one summoning me, a mere subsidiary president?!”

Sang-jong looked Tak-hyeon straight in the eye and asked,

“You threw me out in your place, didn’t you? To be dragged off instead of you.”

Tak-hyeon gave no answer at all to Sang-jong’s question.

Min-yeong, still holding onto Suk-ja’s leg, watched for the mood and then cautiously asked Tak-hyeon,

“Father. Is it true? Is this man really going in in your place?”

“What nonsense are you all spouting!”

Thwack!

Tak-hyeon flung the newspaper he’d been holding onto the table and shouted.

“I sit here listening quietly, and there’s no end to the things you’ll say.”

After glaring once at Min-yeong, Tak-hyeon jabbed a finger toward Sang-jong and said,

“The investigation hasn’t even begun, and why is there talk of going to prison or not! And if you did something wrong, then you’re the one being punished for it — how does that become me throwing you to the wolves!”

At Tak-hyeon’s roar, Sang-jong spoke in a slightly deflated voice.

“Th-the press keeps making it sound like I’ll get an actual prison sentence… that’s why. And I haven’t committed any crime.”

“If you haven’t committed a crime, then you go get investigated and come back out with your head held high — so why are you standing here babbling about dying or not!”

At Tak-hyeon’s words, Sang-jong’s mouth clamped shut.

Because Tak-hyeon’s words — that it was a matter of getting investigated and coming back out — gave him the sense that no amount of further pleading would do any good.

Mouth firmly shut, Sang-jong gestured for the slumped Min-yeong to get up.

“…Let’s go.”

Gesturing also to the children who had been standing quietly behind him, Sang-jong went up to the second floor first.

Min-yeong, caught between Suk-ja and Tak-hyeon, looked at Suk-ja with an even more desperate gaze than when she’d been pleading to save Sang-jong moments before.

But when Suk-ja turned away from her gaze, Min-yeong lowered her head and, with reluctant steps, followed Sang-jong up to the second floor.

Once Sang-jong, Min-yeong, and the grandchildren had all gone up to the second floor, Suk-ja finally lifted her head.

And she said to Tak-hyeon, who was reading the newspaper again,

“Do you really intend to just leave our second son like that?”

“What exactly did you hear?”

Thwap.

Tak-hyeon lowered the newspaper he was holding and said,

“The investigation hasn’t even started yet. And there’s a problem at Ilhyeon Construction, so they want to bring in Ilhyeon Construction’s president — what is there to leave alone or not?”

“And what in the world is the problem at Ilhyeon Construction?”

“How would I know that?”

Apparently thinking Suk-ja would keep nagging, Tak-hyeon rose from his seat.

“What am I supposed to do if you ask me what the people who ran the investigation know? It’s not too late to act after he’s investigated and we see whether there’s guilt or not, and if there is, how it comes out — but he’s scared out of his wits ahead of time, telling everyone what to do. Tch.”

Tak-hyeon put on a displeased expression, turned, and headed for the study.

Not long after Tak-hyeon entered the study, a faint scream reached Suk-ja’s ears.

“…I did. Please, at least spare the children…”

Suk-ja knew what that sound was.

At first, startled, she’d even chased up to the second floor.

And she’d rebuked Sang-jong, urging him not to do that while his father was present.

“How furious must he be, to act like that?”

Suk-ja put on an expression that said she understood Sang-jong’s feelings at the sounds carrying down as they would, and called for the housekeeper.

“Run the vacuum cleaner around the study for a bit.”

Suk-ja issued the instruction to keep the sounds from the second floor from reaching Tak-hyeon’s ears.

And, biting her lip, she muttered to herself.

“If only that man hadn’t cooperated, our second son wouldn’t be like this…!”

Suk-ja believed the reason Sang-jong had ended up facing the summons investigation was Seong-ho Kim.

Because she’d heard, and knew, that Seong-ho meeting the tax office director and actively cooperating with the investigation was what had led to the summons investigation of Sang-jong.

Within Suk-ja’s heart, her hatred of Seong-ho only burned hotter.

The National Tax Service, having conducted the special tax investigation into the five major groups, gathered the relevant materials and filed a complaint with the prosecutors.

And with that, it reached the point where the concern was no longer merely calling in the five major groups’ officials for reference questioning, but whether the five groups’ executives might be arrested and detained.

And amid these worries, the Blue House convened the second session of the Big Deal talks.

Byeong-jin Jo, who had come back to the Blue House annex following Seong-ho, looked at the gathering of the five groups’ aides with a fascinated expression at how the mood had changed from last time.

“Um… our Chairman is scheduled to meet with the Russian Minister of Trade and Industry in Moscow this month.”

A Sunwoo Group representative spoke to the secretary in a cautious voice.

Following him, a KF Group representative opened his mouth.

“Our Chairman is currently unwell. He’s been refraining from outside activities due to the aftereffects of surgery he had two years ago, so I’m afraid he likely won’t be able to comply with this summons investigation.”

When the KF Group representative openly stated that their chairman couldn’t submit to the summons investigation, the Mirae Group and DN Group representatives chimed in as if they’d been waiting for it, saying they too likely couldn’t comply.

Having listened to all this for a while, the secretary looked at Byeong-jin, who was eating an apple today as well, and asked,

“Does Ilhyeon have nothing to say?”

“Us?”

Byeong-jin, who’d put a slice of apple halfway into his mouth, took it back out and answered.

“Hmm… In our case, Ilhyeon Construction President Sang-jong Lee is set to appear before the prosecutors in person next week.”

“Is that so?”

The secretary nodded to indicate he understood, then slowly looked around at the remaining four groups’ aides surrounding him, one by one, and said,

“But it’s no use telling me about the summons investigation.”

“Secretary. Why do you say that? Surely you could put in a word with the prosecutors and the tax office? Frankly, if you say something, don’t they listen?”

Hearing the Sunwoo Group representative’s words, Byeong-jin sneered inwardly.

He understood the desperation of wanting to grab at any straw, but it struck him that they were placing far too much hope in a secretary seated here with the aides.

And the secretary seemed to feel the same way.

“It’s an investigation in which the Sunwoo Group chairman has been summoned. Do you really think I’d have any power over something like that? If you truly want to resolve this matter, you should be moving someone other than me.”

“And who would that be? The Senior Secretary for Economic Affairs?”

“Or the Deputy Prime Minister?”

At the secretary’s words, the KF Group and DN Group representatives hastily threw out their questions.

Byeong-jin, picking up again the apple he hadn’t managed to eat earlier and putting it in his mouth, let out a scoffing laugh and turned his head away.

Whether they knew and pretended not to, or simply didn’t want to believe it, he didn’t want to listen to their empty talk any longer.

And in the annex’s main conference room, Seong-ho was feeling the very same thing as Byeong-jin.

“Deputy Prime Minister. Isn’t this going too far?”

The head of Sunwoo Group’s Restructuring Headquarters spoke to Deputy PM Jang-chul Hwang as though he’d been wronged.

“Embezzlement? No — what reason would our Chairman have to embezzle, exactly?”

“Embezzlement would be getting off easy.”

KF Group cut in from the side.

“For us, it’s suspicion of slush funds! Why on earth would we create slush funds?”

KF Group’s chief of staff stretched out his hand toward Deputy PM Jang-chul Hwang as if he might leap up and rush him right then and there, and said,

“Deputy Prime Minister. What in the world is this? Our Chairman told me not to go today, but I came because I was too frustrated. Too frustrated! You have to give us a clear reason, don’t you!”

Talk similar to what passed among the aides was exchanged here too, but the mood was different.

If the aides’ talk was closer to pleading, this was a forum of grievance, protesting how wronged they’d been.

Jang-chul Hwang looked around at the four groups’ representatives speaking one after another, as if they’d fixed an order in advance, and said in a frustrated tone,

“I did not invite you all to the Blue House to listen to talk like this. What matters to us right now isn’t that, is it?”

“To us, this matters more!”

The head of Sunwoo’s Restructuring Headquarters shouted at Deputy PM Jang-chul Hwang’s words in an even louder voice.

The remaining groups’ representatives too, full of bravado, raised their eyes as if to pressure Deputy PM Jang-chul Hwang.

Watching this from the side, Seong-ho shook his head.

They’re going to be in real trouble, carrying on like that.

Seong-ho knew Jang-chul Hwang’s temperament well from his experience in his former life.

There had been an account of Deputy PM Jang-chul Hwang in his diary, too.

[…… Deputy PM Jang-chul Hwang swung his blade as if he’d dismantle any company that wouldn’t heed his word. Several companies raised a banner of defiance against Deputy PM Jang-chul Hwang and actually suffered great harm for it, and only after finally prostrating themselves at his feet to apologize were they barely able to keep their companies alive. He was by no means a pro-business figure. Our Ilhyeon too……]

Seong-ho recalled the writing in his diary and took a step back, watching Jang-chul Hwang and the four groups’ representatives.

Crash!

And seeing Jang-chul Hwang finally erupt, he clicked his tongue quietly.

(End of Chapter 156)