Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Chairman Cha’s Intention (1)

The owner of Taeseong called the Flame Bulldozer, Cha Tae-seong.

He was sturdy and had a grand physique enough to make his age meaningless.

With bulging eyes, broad shoulders, and a voice like a train funnel.

He was a person with strength in his gaze and words.

Chairman Cha raised his hand.

“Coffee here! No. Bring double flower tea with two eggs floating.”

I glanced down at the cocoa emitting a sweet smell.

As expected, cocoa is not something to buy and eat with money.

If anything, double flower tea that is good for the body and the insides is better.

“Aigo, my child! How did you resemble Seong-jun so much!”

Chairman Cha lifted me up and sat me on his knee.

“I can tell just by looking at the face. No need to ask this and that more. Try calling me Grandfather once. I am your grandfather.”

Honestly, I was a bit bewildered.

‘What? If it’s Chairman Cha, he’s not the type to welcome like this on the first meeting? I might understand if he got angry and chased me away so I couldn’t even approach.’

I looked back.

Secretary Kim uncle nodded as if very pleased, and Mother smiled as if a bit troubled.

‘There’s no need to pick a fight with someone showing goodwill and welcoming.’

I answered as politely as possible while smiling brightly.

“Yes, Grandfather. Nice to meet you for the first time.”

“Aigo. Good. What is our baby’s name?”

“Cha Jeong-hyeok.”

“Yes yes, Cha Jeong-hyeok it is. Ta-da, Grandfather bought a gift like this for our Jeong-hyeok.”

When Chairman Cha gestured, a muscular giant who looked about 2 meters approached.

He in a suit was holding a lot of large and small gift boxes.

“Since I didn’t know what my child would like, Grandfather prepared them by type.”

“Thank you, Grandfather.”

“Your father is currently abroad so he couldn’t come together. But you’ll be able to see him soon. I sent someone to go immediately and bring him.”

“Really? Thank you, Grandfather!”

I quickly did a navel bow excitedly.

‘Great. I was already pestering the underworld messenger to stir up Father’s dreams whenever there was a chance.’

Dreams are like that.

If you just dismiss them as nightmares and ignore them, they become trivial matters.

But if Chairman Cha sends someone and exerts force, the story changes.

“Then can we spend this Christmas together with Dad?”

Is it too tight?

“I’ll try once!”

“Wow! Grandfather is the best!”

I gave a thumbs-up.

Because I wanted to definitely prevent at least the incident of Father dying in a plane crash on the first day of the new year.

Chairman Cha burst into hearty laughter.

“Oh dear. Did I buy too many toys? Go manager, put those on that table over there.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Jeong-hyeok, will you unpack the gifts over there? I need to talk briefly with your mom. Secretary Kim, help a bit with opening the gifts.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

I moved to the side table.

Of course, I left the cocoa emitting a sweet smell at this opportunity.

Swoosh.

I pushed the gift boxes in front of Secretary Kim.

“You heard Grandfather’s words, right? Open these.”

“······.”

All my eyes and attention were focused on that table.

Snap.

As soon as I snapped my fingers, the underworld messenger appeared like smoke with a swoosh.

‘It’s eavesdropping time.’

[Do I have to?]

‘I don’t want to miss a single word.’

[······.]

The underworld messenger now raised the volume as if it was natural without asking or questioning.

Somehow, his face was covered in thick fatigue.

* * *

Chairman Cha glanced at his wristwatch.

“Since I received a report in advance, there shouldn’t be a need to talk in detail. 5 minutes should be enough.”

It meant the time given to Mother was only 5 minutes.

“I have no interest in the messy circumstances that happened in the meantime. What’s important is that that child is my grandson, and how to raise my child from now on is more important.”

Chairman Cha gulped down the hot double flower tea.

He trembled and then gulped down the ice water placed next to him again.

While crunching the ice, Chairman Cha asked.

“You almost died from coal gas poisoning, right? Is that why you came looking for me?”

“Yes. As I said, I thought I should inform about the child’s existence. Jeong-hyeok also has to enter elementary school soon, but he hasn’t been registered in the family register yet.”

“Come to think of it, you cut ties with the natal family.”

Chairman Cha nodded readily.

“Good. I’ll put him on the Cha family register. We’ll handle all the trivial matters ourselves, so you don’t need to worry.”

“Thank you, Chairman.”

“That’s that.”

Chairman Cha said.

“Are you trying to set foot in the Cha family by putting the child in front?”

“No.”

Mother shook her head.

“I know well that Mr. Seong-jun is engaged to the young lady of U-gwang Group.”

“Yes. There are many things entangled in business. Engagements between chaebols break for business reasons if they break, but they don’t break for emotional reasons. Even if an illegitimate child is born.”

“······.”

“It’s a matter entangled with a 30 billion won business. You understood that too, so you retreated gracefully. The child is the child, and marriage is marriage.”

30 billion in this era was a large sum equivalent to 1.5 trillion won in the 21st century.

Chairman Cha glanced at me.

“You should have taken the money envelope back then. Then you wouldn’t have gone out empty-handed and suffered like this.”

Chairman Cha gestured to the giant who had brought the gifts.

“Now that I know, I can’t send the person who gave birth to my grandson back empty-handed. Go manager.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Give this child a couple of Gangnam apartments and one well-located commercial building that can be lived on by receiving rent.”

“Understood.”

“This much should be ample as the value for giving birth to and raising my child for 7 years. You’ve worked hard in the meantime.”

Chairman Cha said decisively.

“So now don’t worry about the child, and it would be good for you to find your own way of living.”

“Yes?”

“Remarriage. Ah, since you didn’t even register the marriage, it will be clean on paper. If you take this much real estate, you should be able to live being loved in a fairly decent family.”

“That’s······!”

“If you don’t retreat at this point and insist on breaking the 30 billion won engagement, I can’t help it either. Even your natal family that cut ties will get involved. This is a warning.”

I can’t listen to this at all.

I stood up abruptly.

“Mom, I’m sleepy!”

I jumped off the chair.

I stood next to Mother and did a navel bow.

“Chairman Cha, it was nice to meet you today. And the toys are fine, so take them back.”

“Chairman Cha?”

Chairman Cha quietly looked into my eyes.

“Why? What don’t you like?”

“I thought it was a gift to get along well from now on, but it was alms telling us to eat this and leave. Do you think I’m a beggar?”

I turned to look at Secretary Kim.

“Uncle, that bribe. I gave it to get along well from now on, but since things turned out like this, it can’t be helped. Just consider it alms.”

It was telling him to eat this and leave.

“If the child is the child and marriage is marriage, then business should have just been business too. A business done by selling children, I didn’t know the ability was lacking to that extent. Mom, let’s go.”

“I booked a room at the Taeseong Hotel. I also moved the luggage from the inn, so let’s go up.”

Chairman Cha smiled gently.

“I can’t let my child sleep in such a shabby place. You were even kicked out of the Guro-dong shanty and don’t have a house to return to right away.”

“Why don’t we have a house? We bought a house today?”

Chairman Cha turned to look at Secretary Kim.

It must be something not in the report.

“If it’s a house that can be obtained with just 10 million won, it’s obviously another shanty.”

He doesn’t even hide the fact that he investigated the background.

Since it’s not worth responding, I dug my ear with my little finger.

“I’ll keep the story you told in mind. Please tell Father to marry well.”

I flicked the earwax and grinned.

Chairman Cha looked down at me with a slightly peculiar gaze.

“Jeong-hyeok, you need to think carefully. Are you really going to follow your mother like this?”

“Of course.”

“You might not know well yet because you’re young, but depending on whose hand among the parents you hold, your future will change a lot. If you choose your father, you can live without worrying about money for a lifetime and prosper, but if you follow your mother, the path of hardship will be clear.”

“So what?”

I raised the hand I was holding with Mom.

“No matter how much you like money, abandon the mother who gave birth to and raised you? Do you want to pick up and raise such an unfilial child?”

I snorted.

“I have no intention of even looking at humans I can’t associate with, but Chairman has a good stomach.”

I bowed at the waist.

“I’ll properly say goodbye. Form a 30 billion won in-law relationship with your business comrades and live well for a thousand years, ten thousand years, and live long.”

I walked out without looking back.

Mother had a very troubled expression and kept looking back.

I pulled Mother’s hand.

“Mom, if you enter bowing like this, the daughter-in-law life will only be hard. Not receiving the money envelope? You did well! That kind of thing all becomes a weakness later, you know?”

Just looking at the U-gwang Construction bribe ledger I diverted, it’s like that.

If you exert a bit of power in the subway construction bidding and turn a blind eye a bit, the pocket will become thick.

But that became a weakness choking their own neck.

“Don’t worry. Mom, I will let you live in luxury.”

I winked one eye.

“You trust me, right?”

I have that much ability.

If the problem is that this side is empty-handed and unsatisfactory, the problem becomes easy.

'This side is 180 billion won, no, plus 2 billion additional!'

With this much, even that stiff Chairman Cha will be gently softened.

Because there’s nothing else that oils relationships as smoothly as bribes.

‘Then do you think I would have given the ledger as is so innocently? What do I trust on the first meeting?’

What can be given as a bribe is only up to there.

I grinned while touching the pages of the ledger I had diverted in advance over my pocket.

'Giving out even the cards I’m holding is something only a pushover would do.'

When I was leaving the Taeseong Hotel holding Mother’s hand.

The president of U-gwang Construction entered the hotel lobby leading a group.

The faces I saw were familiar.

‘Leading people related to Subway Line 2 and coming to the Taeseong Hotel as if showing off? This is almost a declaration of war? Seeing this sight, Chairman Cha will also have his insides quite turned over.’

Luck is good.

I was planning to create and show this kind of situation.

To think things are unraveling so smoothly without even having to lift a finger!

'Originally, in a fight between whales, the shrimp makes a fortune.'

Angry whales rush like pushovers if it’s a weapon that can kill the opponent.

In short, it means an opportunity to sell much more expensively than usual!

So a hum can’t help but come out naturally.