"Did you see that?"

"I saw it."

Without needing to ask what it was he had seen, the man who heard it answered as though he knew exactly what was meant.

The two workmates sitting across from each other over lunch in a set-meal eatery were talking about yesterday's announcement at Ilhyeon Electronics.

"Ilhyeon does things on a grand scale, and no mistake."

"Was it 923 billion? Or 925? At any rate they say it's over 920 billion."

"So the second son made him lose 920 billion?"

"When you work it out, yes."

"Honestly. He'll be the man who has lost the most money because of a child since Dangun. Chairman Lee, I mean."

"Why wouldn't he be?"

The workmate opposite picked the flesh from a mackerel, put it in his mouth and said,

"His crop of children looks like a failure. How is it every one of them turns out like that?"

"True. How many of them have done time already?"

"The second is certain to serve, so that makes three. Honestly. And what about the grandsons? Not just showing no promise — rotten enough to stink, the wretches."

"That's just what I say. Children and grandsons both… Eh. What good is all that money? If your crop of children fails like that, what use is money at all?"

Talking quietly over their set meals, the two of them even came to think Tak-hyeon Lee a figure to be pitied.

"His later years have gone properly wrong."

"That's just it."

"Still, his crop of children may have failed, but he seems to have raised a good son-in-law."

"A crop of sons-in-law?"

"That's right. The Ilhyeon Electronics Vice-Chairman."

"Ah — Vice-Chairman Seong-ho Kim?"

The man, catching who his companion meant, put a piece of kimchi in his mouth and nodded.

"True. Vice-Chairman Kim is all right, certainly."

"All right, is that all? His wife's family sent him out to have the filth poured over him in their place, and he went out and cleared the whole thing up. And look at the companies Vice-Chairman Kim has passed through — every…