[015] First Fortune 2.
She sprang up from her chair, dropped to her knees, and bowed her head to the floor.
“I’m sorry, Father. Please, just this once, forgive me.”
She was a daughter whose ambition often outstripped her abilities.
Despite being sidelined early in the succession race due to the limitations of being a daughter and an outsider by marriage, she had been biding her time, waiting for an opportunity.
Now, she was trying to create that opportunity herself.
Her plan was to push her husband into politics and seize political power.
She probably thought it didn’t have to be the presidency. As long as she could position herself to influence politics, she believed she could eliminate the heirs of Sunyang one by one, and her chance would come.
Her foolish husband, seduced by her cunning, likely threw his resignation at the prosecution with a cheer.
“Be content with what you have and do your best. If the department store’s performance drops even a little, I’ll replace you. You’re not the full owner yet.”
Jin Seo-yun couldn’t get up, her knees trembling at her father’s final warning.
With a flushed face and twitching lips, my uncle left the study without looking back.
Something was definitely off.
After confirming the living room was empty, I quietly moved toward Chairman Jin’s study door.
Sure enough, loud voices erupted from inside.
He was a terrifying and resolute old man, earning his nickname “Iron Face” for a reason.
It seemed he was determined to leave only the department store to his daughter.
From her perspective, seeing her much less capable brothers secure positions in the main subsidiaries must have felt unfair to Aunt Jin Seo-yun.
Sharing the same blood but unable to dream of an equal share, she had resorted to such schemes. Her business acumen was still uncertain, but her cunning was impressive.
I needed to rethink my approach.
I had planned to bring my aunt to her knees and gouge out my uncle’s eyes, but that could wait.
For now, it was better to keep those who had been pushed to the sidelines close and use them as much as possible.
Hearing the sound of a chair scraping the floor, I quickly left the area.
Pretending to lounge on the living room sofa, I watched out of the corner of my eye as my aunt, like my uncle, left the house looking defeated.
When Chairman Jin emerged, I jumped up from the sofa.
“Oh, Do-jun, were you bored?”
“No, I was reading.”
“Really? That’s a good habit. Always keep a book close.”
“Yes.”
As Chairman Jin patted my head, a secretary hurriedly entered the living room through the front door, bowed, and handed over a thick envelope.
“Chairman, this is regarding the matter you instructed earlier.”
“Ah, is the purchase complete?”
“Yes, everything is finalized, including the registration transfer.”
“Good work. And the construction?”
“It starts tomorrow morning. As for the horses, two will be moved from Jeju once the ranch is ready, and two Thoroughbreds have been ordered. You’ll see them at the ranch in six months.”
“Well done.”
After the secretary bowed and left, Chairman Jin opened the envelope with a bright smile.
The thick documents were clearly the ranch’s registration papers, along with some photos and blueprints.
The photos were of the horses ordered from Arabia, and the blueprints were of the ranch itself.
“What do you think? Isn’t this one handsome?”
I didn’t care whether the horse was handsome or not, but I clapped my hands and pretended to be pleased. What I was really curious about was whether the entire 80,000 pyeong was included and whose name was on the registration.
After admiring the horse photos with my grandfather, we finally opened the registration documents.
“Do-jun.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
“This is the land deed for the place you wanted. All 80,000 pyeong.”
Oh! An additional 30,000 pyeong.
“I remember you mentioned 50,000 pyeong last time, Grandfather.”
“You little rascal, you remember the numbers too. Haha.”
I understood the meaning behind his laughter. How important it is to remember exact numbers in business management!
“There were several landowners, so it didn’t come out to exactly 50,000 pyeong. That’s why it increased to 80,000.”
I was already calculating in my head how much compensation the 80,000 pyeong of land would bring, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Do you like it that much?”
Seeing my smile, Chairman Jin also looked pleased.
I was happy because of the land, but he probably thought I was excited about the ranch and the horses.
I needed to secure this. Even though it’s in my name, if Chairman Jin held the registration documents, he could sell it at his discretion.
The documents were the guarantee. I needed to have them.
I put down the horse photos and continued to fiddle with the registration documents, pretending to read them with interest.
“You rascal, do you even understand what you’re looking at?”
“Well, it’s mine, so I like it. Hehe.”
“What? Haha, look at this kid. You’re already trying to secure the land deed?”
Land deed? Not at all. What I was securing was a savings account worth over 16 billion won, maturing in two to three years.
The current market price for a 31-pyeong Eunma Apartment is only 75 million won. It’s enough to buy over 200 of those apartments. And this money is my seed capital.
Chairman Jin patted my head and said,
“If you lose that, it’ll be a big problem, so I’ll keep it safe for you.”
I looked at his outstretched hand with a sullen expression. Of course, I didn’t hand over the documents. I needed to hear what I wanted.
Seeing my expression, he chuckled again.
“You little rascal, you don’t want to give it up because it’s yours? Haha.”
He probably saw my actions as greed or possessiveness, and fortunately, my grandfather liked such possessiveness.
“Fine. You keep it yourself. Put it in your desk drawer and don’t forget about it. If you lose it, the ranch won’t be yours. Understand?”
“Yes, Grandfather. Thank you.”
I jumped up from the sofa… It was quite a chore, but I hugged my grandfather.
After all, he had given me a gift worth 16 billion won, so a little affection was warranted, wasn’t it?
After spending a week at my grandfather’s mansion, putting on a show, I returned home to find my mother waiting with a stern face.
“Do-jun, let me see what your grandfather gave you.”
Of course. It was too easy to get.
Then again, who would entrust registration documents to a child?
The interesting part was that my grandfather informed my mother, not my father, about the land. Perhaps he trusted his unwelcomed daughter-in-law more than his unreliable son.
I handed the envelope to my mother.
She quickly took it, examined the photos and documents for a while, then set them down.
I couldn’t read her expression.
The sudden attention and gift, so different from the cold treatment we’d received before. Even if it was just barren land, it was the first property the chairman had ever gifted.
She seemed uneasy and anxious, unable to fully rejoice.
“Do-jun, I’ll keep this safe so you don’t lose it.”
Traditionally, a child’s allowance is best kept by their mother.
“Yes, please do.”
“And your grandfather asked you not to brag about the ranch to your cousins. Do you understand?”
“I understand. Don’t worry.”
Knowing my seriousness, my mother seemed reassured.
I watched her expression and cautiously spoke.
“Mother.”
“Yes? What is it?”
“Do you… have any money?”
Her eyes widened at the sudden mention of money.
“Money? Why? Are you out of allowance? But you don’t even spend your allowance. If there’s something you want, tell me. I’ll buy it for you.”
As a child, it was natural for her to think I meant allowance, but the money I was talking about was on a different scale.
“No, it’s not allowance. I might need a large sum.”
“A large sum? How much?”
Her eyes now sparkled with curiosity.
“When I was at Grandfather’s house, I overheard something. Do you know where Ilsan is?”
“Ilsan? I’m not sure. Why?”
As expected, she was clueless about the world.
No matter. I wasn’t expecting much anyway. I just hoped my kind-hearted mother had a little nest egg somewhere.
All I could do was drop a hint.
“I don’t know much, but I heard Ilsan is going to become a city soon. So, the land prices are going up.”
“What? Who said that? Your grandfather?”
“Oh, no. It was the people at Grandfather’s company talking about it.”
She wasn’t naive enough to miss my point. And she wasn’t foolish enough to squander the generous allowance her father-in-law sent.
With bank interest rates at 15% per annum, she must have saved a considerable amount, and how she used that nest egg was her choice.
Though a bit flustered, she seemed deep in thought, her eyes gleaming, as I headed to my room. I flopped onto my bed, pondering my next steps, but there wasn’t much I could do.
I was too young.
If I were in my twenties, how much more could I prepare? Pushing aside my regrets, I picked up a book.
Nothing calms a restless mind like reading. Besides, there wasn’t much else to do in this era.
I spent the entire winter break with books as my companions, and a new era, the Sixth Republic, began.
On February 25th, Roh Tae-woo was inaugurated as the 13th President, and soon after, the 13th National Assembly elections kicked off.
Chairman Jin Yang-cheol was more resourceful than I had imagined.
What surprised me the most was how he used the National Assembly elections as a billboard for Sunyang Electronics.
As the election approached, candidates in every district rode around in trucks, straining their voices to win votes.
Chairman Jin, anticipating the 1988 Seoul Olympics boom, was preparing high-end TVs and VTRs for viewing and recording the games. He hastily produced prototypes and began distributing them to all candidates under the guise of “rental.”
A massive 33-inch screen, detachable surround sound speakers with a subwoofer for stereo sound, and even a PIP (Picture In Picture) feature that allowed viewers to watch two channels at once—this was the TV of the future.
In an era when a new college graduate’s monthly salary was around 330,000 won, this TV was a staggering 2.6 million won.
And then there was the VTR, boasting the groundbreaking technology of a wireless remote control, priced at 450,000 won.
These two products were loaded onto the candidates’ trucks and toured the country.
Voters flocked to the electronics, showing more interest in them than in the candidates’ fervently shouted campaign promises.
It was a clever strategy that combined product testing and advertising in one go. After the campaign trucks passed through a neighborhood, inquiry calls flooded in, and TV news covering this intense curiosity served as the final touch of the advertisement.
Compared to this advertising success, the news of my uncle’s election to the National Assembly seemed trivial.
After all, if the son-in-law of Sunyang were to lose in Suwon, often dubbed “Sunyang City,” it would be akin to a natural disaster.
Yet, even such an expected outcome deserved celebration.
I had assumed the victory party would be held at my grandfather’s mansion, but it was hosted at the Sunyang Hotel’s grand ballroom instead.
It seemed they wanted to avoid the optics of senior lawmakers visiting a chaebol’s home, which could stir controversy if caught by the media.
The news that the celebration would be at a hotel brought some relief to my parents.
Unlike at home, they wouldn’t be treated like servants at the hotel, which was a comforting thought.