Chapter 65: Leave It to Me!

When I handed over another note on which I’d written subway station information, Master snatched it up like an eagle.

“Oh ho, so the Seoul Express Bus Terminal in Gangnam is going to have Line 2 running through it?”

“I picked out only the best insider info for you. That’s my goodwill.”

“I was just keeping an eye on whether or not a subway station would go into the Gangnam Seoul Express Bus Terminal. Just how much higher is the land price going to go? Hahaha!”

Master grinned from ear to ear, looking over the note again and again.

“Last time you made me hype the crowd—now what errand are you planning? Where do you want me to go, and what do you want me to do?”

“Should we look at the item for sale before we talk?”

Ding.

The ever-perceptive Yoo Jongtae came in carrying a large box.

“See for yourself.”

“Very well!”

Master checked the items, then widened his eyes.

“My word! Aren’t these national treasures you couldn’t buy even with money? And you brought back a heap of top-class art pieces thought to have vanished without a trace during the Japanese occupation!”

A heap? I only picked out seven pieces.

“And they’re all genuine! Oh, today you’re really treating my eyes, aren’t you!”

He’s already getting all worked up.

“Where did you get these?”

“I took them out of an underground vault.”

“Kid, I’m not joking right now. I’m asking seriously, gravely, earnestly. Spill the route. From the black market? An underground auction? Through a fence? Smuggled in from abroad?”

He won’t believe me even if I tell the truth?

“Don’t tell me you robbed Taeseong Gallery?”

“Who do you take me for? Why would I do such a thing?”

I shook my head firmly.

“Actually, I’d like you to sell these to Taeseong Gallery.”

“What? Sell them to Taeseong Gallery? All of them?”

Master raised his monocle.

“In that case, wouldn’t it be better for you to sell them directly instead of going through me? Taeseong Gallery is run by Taeseong’s second daughter-in-law—they’d probably add a fat premium.”

“I’m not after a premium, I’m after money laundering.”

“What’s a seven-year-old doing laundering money!”

“Why not, though?”

I grinned, rubbing my palms together.

“If I sell my own items myself, people might get suspicious and think I got them as a gift. That’d be unfair.”

“Ha...!”

“And it’d be a waste to pass them to some other gallery. They’re obviously national treasures. If we’re doing this, Taeseong should get both the money and the glory.”

“Ha...!”

Master gaped and let out a hollow laugh.

Before he could ask that tired old question, ‘Are you really just seven years old?’, I spoke first.

“Taeseong Gallery will have to stretch their wallet to buy all these masterpieces at once. They won’t want to miss out on such perfectly preserved works.”

“Hm. Kid, in my opinion...”

“No need to go further. Anyone in the know can see these are in immaculate condition.”

If I hadn’t handed these over, our family’s resident ghost would’ve moved on from sheer gratitude.

I tapped the pawnshop counter with my fingertip.

“Don’t even think about undercutting me—just make sure you get a good price. That’s your commission, and it’s all going into the bank investment.”

“Hm!”

“The commission alone is one hundred million won. Now that you’ve taken the money, you’d better do your part.”

Finally, Master raised both hands.

“Fine. I’ll take care of selling them to Taeseong Gallery. But it’ll be hard to get all cash.”

“Promissory notes and goods-in-kind won’t do.”

There’d be a trail.

Not that it really matters if my identity gets revealed, since I’ve done nothing wrong—but money stashed on the side is always better the less people know, and the more there is.

Like a married man’s secret stash his wife doesn’t know about.

“But I’m fine with getting land or stocks instead of any lacking cash.”

“Land, maybe, but stocks? Oh ho, is there a particular stock you’re after? Taeseong Construction, perhaps?”

“Wrong. Taeseong Motors.”

Taeseong Motors is Taeseong’s core affiliate, currently headed by my eldest uncle.

‘When the oil shock hits, that sector will go up in flames over fuel economy.’

The oil shock, starting in the Middle East, will shake the world’s economy.

The Netherlands will receive an embargo and even reduce jail time for those who use more electricity than rationed.

The UK will instantly declare an end to Middle East intervention, desperate for oil. France’s 30-year economic golden age will come to an end.

Japan, which was still in the midst of rapid growth, will also see hell open its gates.

They’ll have to intentionally devalue the yen and even turn off neon signs in the streets as austerity takes hold.

‘With the second oil shock, automakers across the globe will topple like dominoes.’

The major US auto companies—GM, Ford, Chrysler—will never recover from the blow. Only Germany, Japan, and America, obsessed with fuel economy, will just barely survive; the car industries of the UK and other countries will all but collapse.

‘In Korea, policies like restricting government vehicles to 4-cylinders will be implemented to suppress demand, and thanks to what’s called the Fifth Republic’s “disastrous” automobile industry merger, we won’t be able to avoid the consolidation.’

My eldest uncle suffered greatly.

Taeseong Motors’ losses ballooned to the point of considering a sale.

As a result, the eldest son stepped down from Taeseong Motors, and it was the second son who brought the company back from the brink.

‘To make matters worse, this all happened while Grandfather had stepped down as chairman because of the Taeseong Chemical plant fire, so things just spiraled out of control.’

Thanks to that incident, the second son’s influence skyrocketed, and except for Taeseong Chemical and Taeseong Construction, which broke away, the rest of the affiliates began splitting between the two brothers.

Taeseong fell from the fifth largest conglomerate to 198th in five years.

It was Taeseong’s darkest era, when everyone wondered if the group would disintegrate entirely.

‘This time, let’s minimize Taeseong Motors’ losses and buy up other auto companies going cheap to bulk up.’

I know the entire sequence of how Taeseong Motors rose from the ashes.

So I’m basically jumping in with the answer sheet in hand.

“It’s normal for companies to pledge friendly shares to banks in exchange for investment or loans, right?”

I winked.

“You can get some Taeseong Motors shares, can’t you?”

“I’ll give it a try!”

Master slapped the pawnshop counter.

“For a newly opened bank, having a solid client like Taeseong Group right from the start would be a huge boost. There’s nothing better than shares for cementing a relationship with Taeseong.”

This is the symbiotic relationship between banks and companies.

“And Taeseong’s famous for never being late with interest. It’s not for nothing that other banks are scrambling for their business. We’d be fools to refuse!”

“Then use these.”

I slid a stack of papers across the pawnshop counter.

“This is the brokerage contract, and this is the investment agreement.”

“Ha, you came fully prepared—all that’s left is a signature and seal.”

“Better to be sure, right?”

It’s my money on the line, after all.

When it comes to recovering my money, I’m always deadly serious.

“One last thing.”

“Want to pawn something?”

“That, too—please check directly.”

I took out a gold-shimmering IOU from my coin purse.

“Remember what you said to me at the coffee shop in Hyeonmu Hotel?”

Master had said:

-Kid, if anyone eats your money and then betrays you, tell me.

-I don’t let people who run off with money go easily.

There’s no way I’d pay a hundred million won just to broker a few artworks.

The real purpose of this errand was this.

It’d be tricky for Cheolgu, the NIS agent, or Yoo Jongtae, the Taeseong Group security officer, to handle.

“That’s your commission.”

“What the—!”

The moment Master saw the IOU I handed him, he was shocked.

“How many houses did he lose? The Horsehead really got fleeced! Wahahaha!”

He clutched his belly and roared with laughter.

“This’ll be a riot! Leave collecting principal and interest from Horsehead to me! Wahahaha!”

Master loves making a profit himself, but he loves beating rivals in the same business even more.

He rolled up his sleeves, already fired up.

When it comes to action, he’s lightning-fast.

Right then and there, he picked up the phone.

“Hey! Horsehead from Maljukgeori! It’s me, Myeongdong Peregrine! Don’t be too shocked—I’ve just gotten your IOU! From now on, I’m collecting!”

Click.

Now that’s what I call getting straight to the point!

Master only says what he wants, then hangs up.

But it sure is effective.

Ring! Ring!

Watching the phone ring madly, Master snickered.

“He must be going nuts! Ahh, that twenty-year-old frustration just disappeared in a flash!”

He clapped his hands with glee.

“All right, that wraps up the business—hm?”

“I’m not done yet. If you want to collect from Horsehead, you need to sign this first.”

I slid another paper across the pawnshop counter.

“It’s a debt collection delegation contract.”

“Wahahaha!”

Master instantly grabbed his cheap ballpoint pen and scrawled his signature and seal.

I folded the contract and tucked it into my coin purse.

“You know the commission for debt collection’s a bit steep, right? High risk, high return! Work like this is always—hm?”

He realized I’d sneaked in a fine print partway through: 

“Wh-what! You’re not going to get away with this—hey!”

Ding!

But the little customer and Yoo Jongtae had already made their escape.

***

We climbed into the car without looking back.

“Team Leader Yoo, let’s go!”

“Seatbelt fastened, right? Here we go, young master!”

Vroom.

From the driver’s seat, Yoo Jongtae chuckled.

“Sir Peregrine has been outwitted twice in a row. Still, he seems delighted this time as well. Horsehead from Maljukgeori’s finally met his match.”

Master and Maljukgeori have been long-time rivals.

Master would never let this chance slip by.

If I ever got a shot at Namsan’s Leech, I’d jump at it too.

“Where to, sir?”

“Taeseong Department Store.”

“Mind if I ask what for?”

“Time to fill up my mother’s wardrobe.”

Grandfather officially introduced us—mother and son—at the year-end party.

He also invited the other family members for a meal together, so no one would feel slighted.

That’s tomorrow.

“It’s the first meeting with the in-laws. We’ve got to show up looking sharp, with a pretty bag and a pretty outfit.”

With the marriage to Woo Gwang falling through, Taeseong Chemical also slipped away.

Grandfather said Taeseong won’t collapse just because of that, and sometimes you invest big and win big, sometimes you invest big and lose big—Taeseong Chemical was just a failed venture.

But there’s no law saying the rest of the family will accept that so easily.

If anyone uses Taeseong Chemical as an excuse to attack my mother, my parents will be embarrassed.

If siblings start bickering, the dinner will be noisy and awkward.

‘You never get a second chance at a first impression. I won’t let anyone blame my mother for making a mess of it!’

Neither I, nor Father, nor Grandfather want that.

‘Among the direct family, the eldest aunt is the most prickly and difficult. I’ll have to keep her mouth shut.’

So, off to Taeseong Department Store!

The president of the store, my grandfather’s only daughter, and my aunt—Cha Manyoung—is my target!

‘Time to make a good impression.’

I’ve got plenty of bullets—prepared a thick wad of cash just for this!

Let’s do this, make it rain!

I’m officially part of a chaebol family now, aren’t I?