Chapter 140: Don’t Test My Patience

How have you been? I heard your debut schedule was set.

Yeah.

Ji-young came to visit me after a long time.

Are you confident?

I did my best. Even if I fail, I won't regret it…

Stop thinking about failure before you even try!

I've been preparing for two years, and I've learned that talent isn't everything.

That's true everywhere. If you'd told either me or your grandfather from the beginning, things wouldn't have taken this long.

Since that incident, I started paying close attention to how Cheon Ji-young was doing.

Financially, she was fine, but Cheon Su-han was hospitalized in a mental institution, and it seemed that Ji-young's mother was suffering from severe depression.

However, Ji-young showed no signs of that.

I just wanted to see if I could do this on my own. Not as someone's daughter or granddaughter, but as myself.

She's either too naive or plain foolish.

I didn't ask her any further about her sponsors.

Either way, just do your best. The agency will support you as much as they can.

Thanks.

Cheon Ji-young smiled brightly.

I wonder what's so great about debuting.

She thanks me for something so trivial, but what I'm truly grateful for is seeing her do well, unbent by the world. She's the only family I have left from my previous life.

I don't mind anything else, but I'm worried about your grandfather. He looked really thin.

I felt the same way regarding my grandfather.

His health was declining faster than it had in my last life, and the prognosis from the doctors wasn't good.

I regretted not being able to pay better attention to my family, and seeing them in chronic pain made me wonder if they had given up on life after losing their children.

At least visit him now and then, even if you get busy.

That's quite obvious.

Bring your debut album when it comes out. I want to show it to your grandfather.

Okay.

She must have been really busy with her preparations. Before long, Ji-young left.

Make sure to keep those weird bastards away from you. If anything happens again, make sure they know how serious this is.

Several days had passed since I ordered Manager Ma to give those orders.

Myeong-su sent a summons to Kim Seong-hak, of course, that bastard wouldn't comply.

I began exposing the rumors of Kim's slush fund through the Goryeo Daily.

At the same time, a warrant for the arrest of Chairman Kim Seong-hak was issued.

You bastards! Do you know who I am? Do you really wanna die that badly?

Kim Seong-hak burst into the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office, causing a scene.

I watched him from behind the two-way mirror in the interrogation room.

Let's get the investigation started.

As Myeong-su patted my shoulder, he smiled and entered the interrogation room.

Everyone, out. I'll take it from here.

At Myeong-su's words, all the prosecution investigators left the room.

Mr. Kim, when will your lawyer arrive?

Who the hell are you? Get the head prosecutor here!

Myeong-su shook his head in frustration.

Mr. Kim, do you still think you're the chairman of a conglomerate? Hyunhwa Corporation just filed charges of embezzlement and misappropriation against you with all the evidence. If we confirm this, there's a good chance you'll be sentenced to at least ten years in prison, no matter how hard you try.

What?

What I'm saying is I wish you'd come to us when we summoned you. You got a lot of reporters taking pictures of you getting arrested, and you've been charged with all these serious crimes. For someone like you, that's quite sad, isn't it?

Are you insane?!

Do us all a favor and stop calling me 'bastard.'

You little…

Kim Seong-hak trembled in anger.

Just then, Kim's lawyers arrived.

When his lawyers came in, Myeong-su quickly stood up and bowed his head.

Head Prosecutor, it's good to see you again.

Oh, it's you? I just saw you in Busan. How long has it been?

About a year, I think.

Haha, yeah. At least you came back to Seoul.

Yes, I heard you've entered the Atlantic.

Several pleasantries were exchanged between them since they knew each other. The lawyers who had come in a group soon left, leaving only two behind.

By the way, what's the reason you brought in Chairman Kim?

That lawyer who looked like he was in his fifties sat down. He seemed to have been the head prosecutor when I was in Busan.

Hyunhwa Corporation filed charges of embezzlement and misappropriation against Mr. Kim. In addition, we suspect him of creating a slush fund, violating the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act, and tax evasion… .

The longer this went on the more allegations against Kim came out of Myeong-su's mouth.

The lawyer suddenly interrupted him with a pale expression on his face.

Can you prove all of this? Do you think our country has seen a chaebol arrested for those crimes? If you can't take responsibility for this, get out of the way. I'm worried about you since I was once your superior.

Don't worry; I can handle this. Thanks for your concern, but I'll be handling this case myself.

Calmly, Myeong-su continued the investigation.

The lawyer kept trying to find a way out of this case. The evidence sent over from Hyunhwa Corporation was so well-organized that it made him hesitate a few times.

I was watching Kim Seong-hak's face rot in real time. It was impossible to keep up with the incessant interrogation.

As I was leaving the Prosecutors' Office, I asked Manager Ma.

What about Kim Hyun-jik?

He's still in Las Vegas.

Huh? Didn't he hear about what happened?

I don't know the details.

Well, whoever is gambling there would be a real lunatic.

The moment the arrest warrant gets issued, he should come back if he's human.

Even after a tiring overnight interrogation, even the luxurious legal team that was summoned from the Atlantic couldn't stop Kim's arrest warrant from being issued.

The allegations were too clear-cut, and the presiding judge was Han Min-kyung.

Hearing of his father's arrest, Kim Hyun-jik boarded a flight back to Korea.

He didn't even realize that the moment he arrived, he would be arrested at the airport.

I thought I should at least see his face when he was brought into the Prosecutors' Office.

#

The next day, when Kim Hyun-jik was arrested at the airport, he was brought to the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office.

He was arrested for habitual gambling and violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act. However, Myeong-su had already gotten a hold of photos of him smoking marijuana in America.

Do you want to talk first?

Uh, I'll be out in a bit. Thanks.

This time, I entered the interrogation room.

As I opened the door and entered, Kim Hyun-jik was looking around the room, bewildered. He was acting just like a child who had come to a new place for the first time.

Why did you bring me here?

Even under normal circumstances, it wasn't appropriate for me to be treated like this by this punk… . He was definitely Kim Seong-hak's son.

Do you know who I am?

What's it to you? Why did you bring me here?!

I slapped him across the face.

Kim was stunned. Probably in shock, he just blankly stared at me.

Because of what you did, Kim Seong-hak is being chased out of his position and will go to prison, but you're still asking why you're here?

Once I mentioned his father, I noticed his eyes regain focus.

Who are you? You're not a prosecutor!

You're the reason all this is happening! You have no idea how much trouble you've caused!

You bastard!

He kicked the chair he was sitting on.

The sound of the steel chair clattering to the floor sent Kim falling onto his butt.

Shut up. I barely stopped myself from killing you. Don't test my patience.

…

Once I started to figure out his personality, Kim kept his mouth shut.

I whispered to him slowly.

Everything you ever enjoyed is going to be gone. The people that used to suck up to you because of your father will point at you and call you a freak. Don't worry; you'll be out on probation. Just know you won't have anything left.

Kim's face stiffened.

Just as he was about to turn to leave, a voice came from behind.

Who… are you?

Ji-young's brother.

I opened the door, ignoring him. Myeong-su was waiting for me outside.

You did well. Make sure he gets a suspended sentence at most.

Why the hell would I do that?

Try going through something like this before making a f**k ton of money. You won't understand how it feels to be at the top to suddenly lose everything.

I knew that feeling so well.

The sense of powerlessness about not being able to do anything… . It was far more painful than simply being cooped up in prison.

As I walked past him, I casually said, Ah, how's your camera doing?

A few days ago, when he was briefing me, his face appeared on the front page of a newspaper and on the news. It seemed that he was beginning to be recognized.

Even though he was already kicked out as chairman, to the public, Kim Seong-hak still looked like a chaebol. Having someone that looked like that captured was enough to make the public feel satisfied.

Don't smile like that…

Grinding his teeth, Myeong-su said…

That day, he was probably having a hard time hiding his excitement as he gave his briefing. The dialect in his speech would suddenly come out, and his friends were teasing him for it…

#

After leaving the Prosecutors' Office, I went to the headquarters of Hyunhwa Corporation.

When I arrived, Kim Seong-hyeok came out of the chairman's office to greet me.

It's been a while, Chairman Kim.

The Hyunhwa Corporation Chairman's Office was now unrecognizable, nothing remained of its former appearance.

This place has changed a lot too.

Smiling, Kim Seong-hyeok replied.

Everything that Seong-hak touched was thrown away.

Has your takeover of the group been finalized?

Thanks to you, I've also taken over the boards of the remaining affiliates. I've fired all of Seong-hak's board members and president.

That's good to hear.

Take a seat.

Kim Seong-hyeok indicated the seat opposite him.

I shook my head.

It's rude to sit in the president's seat when he's still here. I'll sit over there.

Awkwardly smiling, Kim Seong-hyeok sat down where he could see me.

Isn't there anyone opposing the transfer of Hyunhwa Life and Hyunhwa Card?

It's not likely. Even so, I feel like it might be better if I were to take those as agreed.

To pass them to Il-sung, I had to clean up the cross-shareholding structure of the affiliates. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to get my hands on the remaining shares of the current board members.

I spoke to Chairman Seo a little while ago. He didn't say anything, but I felt like I was being pressured to fulfill my end of the deal.

He's not an ordinary person.

He wasn't like that when I last met him while I was still a kid. Could be that the years changed him.

Kim seemed to frown at the mere thought of Kim Seong-hak's revenge.

How is the lawsuit for damages against Kim Seong-hak coming along?

It's going well. I also plan to recover the assets that were supposed to go to the youngest. Since a lot of time has already passed, I probably won't find any evidence that the incident was his doing. But I'm going to try anyway.

He's probably not in his right mind what with tax evasion fines and the company's lawsuit for damages. He still has money so Atlantic Law Group is working for him but it's only a matter of time before he runs out of money.

That's true.

A complicated expression appeared on Kim's face.

Perhaps he still feels remorse for his brother?

You need to be more ruthless. If you don't kill him, he'll come after you. Once is difficult but two or three times is easy.

I decided to distance myself from Hyunhwa Corporation.

One of the unexpected benefits of this incident was that I was able to gain a chaebol for an ally.

After finishing our discussion about Kim Seong-hak and Kim Seong-hyeok, I left Hyunhwa Corporation.

#

That evening, I received a phone call from Russia.

This is Putin.

It was a pleasant voice.

Thanks to your advice, I was able to make a swift decision. I am grateful.

Well, you were the one who made the choice, not me. Even if I hadn't said anything, you wouldn't have made a different choice.

The brief difference in timings in politics can be huge. Because of your advice, I will most likely be appointed Prime Minister.

His appointment as Prime Minister was more than six months prior to the one in my original timeline.

Congratulations, Prime Minister.

The next time you visit Russia, please come see me.

Sure. Oh, next time, can you please be more casual when you talk to me? I'm much younger than you, so it feels uncomfortable. Korea is like that, and there's a certain distance to it.

I will think about it.

Hahahaha, please do.

I had gained the goodwill of Putin, who was going to be the Tsar of Russia. Just then, Manager Ma entered my office to report and paused as he looked at my face.

Do you have good news?

I just heard that, due to your advice, Putin is about to be appointed as Prime Minister.

And here's the reason… .