The Hyundo Group chairman's office.

Gu Hoseon turned the pages of the report on his desk one by one.

It was dense with detail: the cleanup at Hyundo Construction, what the future residents were doing, the financial institutions' requests for more documents, even how the corporate bond market was reacting.

The Lunar New Year holiday was over, but the situation showed no sign of calming down.

If anything, now that people were back at work, the anxiety that had been drifting around the news and the internet was catching fire in the real world.

"Daehan Bank?"

"The review of the new credit line is still on hold."

"The others?"

"Two have asked for more documents."

"Corporate bonds?"

"Not at a dangerous level yet. But the institutions are reluctant to buy."

Gu Hoseon stopped turning pages.

"The future residents?"

"They're demanding safety inspections at other sites too."

"The press?"

"It's still one of the top stories today."

"Damn it."

Thunk!

Gu Hoseon threw the report onto the desk. Park Giho, the chief of the chairman's secretariat, said nothing more.

Shoddy work at a single construction site was dragging in the whole group.

And it was happening far too fast. They'd fired the people involved and handed them to the prosecutors.

The construction chief had apologized in person. But far from dying down, the fire was leaping to new places and growing fiercer.

The banks were going back over the books, and institutional investors were reassessing the risk on its corporate bonds.

The future residents suspected other sites too. The nickname Boneless Hyundo was still all over the internet.

Gu Hoseon leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Something his father had said kept nagging at him.

Someone is pouring oil on the embers.

Someone's behind this!

At first, he'd put it down to his father's old habit of overreacting.

But one day passed, then two, and it kept spreading with a precision that looked planned.

"Director Park."

"Yes, Chairman."

"A few days ago, didn't I have you do something for me?"

Then it came to him in a flash:…