In the ward, the family waited for Tak-hyeon, who would be brought up in a little while.

Suk-ja, along with the children and the daughters-in-law, sat in silence, each of them wearing the look of someone lost in thoughts of their own.

"Still, it's a relief."

Perhaps finding the awkward quiet uncomfortable, Min-yeong Oh—Sang-jong's wife and Tak-hyeon's second daughter-in-law—was the first to speak.

"I'd heard plenty that thyroid cancer is easy to treat, but it's still cancer at the end of the day, so I was worried. And they say the surgery went well, so it really is a relief. Isn't that right, dear?"

She tugged at Sang-jong's arm, as if to say she wasn't wrong.

Sang-jong glanced at her, then turned his head and spoke to Mun-jong. "Brother. Still—cancer's cancer, and surgery's surgery, isn't it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lost in thought, Mun-jong looked at Sang-jong with a questioning gaze.

Sang-jong shook off Min-yeong's hand where it had been tugging at his arm. "Since it's just us here, I'll speak plainly."

He looked around at the family seated in the ward, then began. "Father isn't a young man. An old man like that going under general anesthesia—his strength will drop off sharply, and his judgment will only get worse and worse."

"So what is it you want to say? Don't go round and round—say it straight."

"Do you really not understand what I'm saying?"

Sang-jong looked Mun-jong dead in the eye, then nodded slowly. "Fine. If you insist on hearing it from my own mouth, I'll spell it out for you."

He swept his gaze once more over the family. "The question is whether Father can go on running the company."

"Oppa!"

"Brother!"

Jeong-eun and Chang-jong stared at Sang-jong, startled.

But Mun-jong looked at him without so much as a change of expression. "So—Father's strength will fail, his judgment will be impaired, and he won't be able to lead the group well? That's it?"

"Yes. Even the doctors won't be able to deny it. They say plenty of men in their seventies don't even wake from general anesthesia."