12 Hours After Chapter 152

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

I looked at Tak Mun-su and thought, 'I don't know if this person is a good person or a bad person . ' On the surface, no one was as kind and good as this . If I hadn't seen him killing in the crow's dream, if I'd been invited here, I would have thought this person was a truly trustworthy man . I bowed my head slightly to him in appreciation, for the moment .

Tak Moon-soo received it with a soft smile .

'Umm…' I didn't know if it was because I'd seen it through the dream of Crow before, but every time he laughed, I felt like he was being pretentious . He was like a mannequin with a well-made smile . I watched the others, sipping the cocktail I was holding . The other CEOs of this group had weaknesses, every one . They were excessively narrow-minded, excessively ostentatious, excessively luxurious, excessively detached, or excessively cautious . However, if I thought about their characters the other way, they were also human . They were rich people with billions or tens of billions of dollars of assets, but Tak Mun-su did not feel that way well . It was like dealing with a computer .

He might have thought, 'I'm going to comfort Han Sang-hoon . Then I can give him a good image,' after Heo Joon-ik said what he had .

In a way, he seemed to be very capable, or very impersonal . He was somehow an odd character . I thought, 'How will he react next April?'

I thought of the secret code “TWKC” written on the timetable at the time . That was the first news I saw on vacation when I went to Europe . [Tak Woo-kyung's condition is critical and he is unconscious after a heart attack . ]

'If his father, who is hale and hearty, suddenly falls into a death crisis, he will face a great ordeal . If Tak Woo-kyung dies, he'll pay an inheritance tax of 50% . Currently, Chairman Tak Woo-kyung's assets are worth more than ten billion dollars . Tak Woo-kyung has been dodging inheritance taxes by giving out the prime businesses to Tak Mun-su and providing him with a lot of work to do, but it has not been enough to pass over that much money . '

He might have thought his father would live another ten years . However, even the richest man in Korea could not escape death . Of course, he wasn't dying right away .

I kept searching for Tak Woo-kyung and found that he didn't die after losing consciousness from the heart attack . [The cause of the heart attack of Tak Woo Kyung's heart attack is an acute myocardial infarction . ]

[Chairman Tak Woo-kyung is hospitalized in the VIP room of Seoul National University Hospital . He is unable to move, but conscious . ]

But considering his age, it was highly likely that he would not last much longer . I felt Tak Mun-su might lose the smile at the corners of his mouth .

'Hmm…' I glanced at Tak Mun-su, downing the rest of the cocktail . Maybe it was because they were cousins . Looking at him reminded me of the face of Tak Joon-gi . Then, I recalled the data that Tak Joon-gi had investigated, and the will that was written there: When Tak Woo-kyung dies, I will detonate a nuclear bomb .

I thought I would be busy sometime in April and July next year .

I brought my hand to the mouth of the dragon sculpture . The water from the mouth was very hot .

'Is it too hot?' I then put my hand in the outdoor bath . The water was just right as it cooled a little in the cold wind . 'That's enough . '

I turned my head and said, “Everything is ready here . ” Then I threw away the robe I was wearing and went in . It was just the right temperature .

“Oho!…” I looked up at the sky with a shout . The winter sky of December was visible at a glance . Thanks to the hot, open-air heat of the outdoor bath, I could watch the scenery while completely naked . Ah-young appeared with a tray in her hands .

“How do you feel? Is it warm?” She was only wearing a long towel .

“If you don't come in quickly, you'll catch a cold . ”

“Yes, wait a minute . ” Ah-young put the tray down next to me; a gourd bottle with some Japanese words, cider cans, and fish cake skewers were on the tray .

“What are they?”

“The outdoor bath reminds me of Japan, so I prepared them . They are hot fish cake skewers and sake, Mr . CEO . ”

“Oh yes . They look good . ”

Ah-young came into the bath with her hands on the tie of the towel . Then she asked, pouring sake to the glass, “So, what are you going to do with one and a half billion dollars?”

I corrected her words by taking a glass from her . “Not one and a half, but 1 . 58 billion dollars . ” I opened the cider can with my other hand and poured it into her glass .

“Does that make any difference when the numbers get so big?” She told me .

“Well, eighty million dollars is huge . ”

Ah-young and I tinked glasses and took a one-shot of the sake . A hot fire poured down my throat . I breathed deep, as if I could exhale that fiery energy . “Hoo…”

Yesterday afternoon, I had signed a contract to sell the stake in Hyun Young Pharmaceutical owned by Invictus Investment to Pfizer for 1 . 58 billion dollars . I tried 1 . 65 billion dollars as a counter offer, but after looking at the failed deal in the future news, I called it at 1 . 6 billion dollars, and it was counter-offered at 1 . 58 billion dollars . I decided to sell it there without dragging things out further .

First of all, it was not a bad price, and second, I decided it was time to raise the cash . So, I sold it . As a result, Invictus Investment had secured 1 . 58 billion dollars from Pfizer, following up on the two billion dollars from Tencent gained from selling Kai Games to them . A total of 3 . 58 billion dollars was no doubt enough to say that the ammunition for the next battle had been secured .

Ah-young handed me a fish cake skewer and said, “So what are you going to do with 1 . 58 billion dollars?”

“Well… I'll have to invest somewhere else . ”

“Umm, are you investing again?”

“Yes, money is bound to rot if it stays still . ”

There are two main enemies for the rich . The first is taxes, and the second is inflation . Although the tax goes out, it only does so if money comes in . If money stays still, the expense going out is inflation, chipping away at the value of each dollar every day . As a result, most rich people don't hold much cash for a long time . Most of them invest in stocks, bonds, or real estate, even if they are in debt . This is because they know that there is a greater increase in asset value there than the decrease from the inflation rate .

Ah-young asked me, “What are you going to do with your continued earnings?”

It was a simple, but quite essential question . I thought it over, and replied, “First of all, I will be the richest person in Korea . That way, I'll be able to live without anyone's help . I'm thinking of running out there for now . And then I think of something else . ”

As I said that, I recalled the gathering of the Garden Royale the other day . If I was not at the level to overpower all of them, I could not be said to be at the peak of Korea .

“Well, okay . What are you going to buy this time?”

“Well, I'm not buying anything this time . I'm thinking of selling it . ”

“You selling?”

“Yes . There are some financial products that sell things that I don't have: sell them first and buy it later and give it back . ”

“Well, is it… Is this a short stock sale? That's too bad . I thought I'd buy it too, if you were buying something . ” Everyone around me was talking about the same thing .

I told her, “No way . Investors don't make money by copying someone . You can make a quick buck, but you'll end up losing it . Just be ready to go to my parents' home next month . That's your best investment . ”

Ah-young replied, pouring sake again to my empty glass . “Well, I got that!”

In the meantime, I chewed a fish cake skewer she had given me . It tasted better than expected . “Wow, this is delicious . ”

“That's right, isn't it?”

Ah-young had been learning in the culinary academy for half a year . Her skill had been rapidly improving . Whether her major in art helped her with her dexterity or not, she had her own talent for this .

“Yes, if I do this for your parents, I'll be accepted right away as good at cooking . ”

“Are they ready for this?”

“Yes . ”

To be honest, my parents rarely opposed what I said now . I had bought them a big building and made them secure in their old age . Therefore, if I said something, it would usually go, “Yes, do it however you want . ”

Of course, welcoming a daughter-in-law was a different matter, but I thought they'd like to see Ah-young as well . She had been really nice to me lately . I was sure my parents would agree, if she were in their eyes .

Ah-young said, leaning against my shoulder . “Then shall I have some side dishes when I go there? They can try them . ”

“That wouldn't be bad, either . My parents don't like to go out to eat, even for expensive food . So if they see their daughter-in-law serving rice and side dishes this way…”

But then my cell phone on the back of the dragon's head rang . I reached out and picked it up . When I pressed the call button, Vice President Jang gasped and made a loud noise .

“Boss! We have a big deal . ”

“Big deal? What's the big deal?”

To be honest, I didn't have anything big to do . I'd already know if there was a really big deal through the future news . I spoke calmly, “What's the matter, Vice President Jang?”

“Oh, I got a call from Amazon . They want to take over FutureSync . ”

'Oh… that's it . ' I took a deep breath and shouted, “Really? From Amazon?”

At any rate, it was the hardest thing to pretend to be normal . When I made an agreeable response, Jang said even more excitedly, “I heard that at the last Silicon Valley conference, a senior executive at Amazon was impressed by FutureSync's technology . They say the Amazon M&A team will come to Korea soon to bargain . ”

I stood up from the open outdoor bath and said, “Oh, really? That's great . I am going to sell it soon . ”

I decided to go through the sales process without further dragging on this time . The year was about to change from 2020 to 2021 . I didn't have any more time to relax .

“Then we'll prepare an M&A negotiation team right away . ”

“Yes, Vice President . I ask a favor of you . ”

When I finished talking, I put my cell phone back in place . Ah-young was looking up at me . “What's going on?” she asked .

I hugged Ah-young's shoulder with one hand, and said, lifting up a sloshing glass of sake with the other hand, “Everything is going well . ”

“Hmm . You've never really lost…”

“That's why I named it Invictus Investment, because I have not been defeated . ” I drank a second glass of sake . Now all the preparations were over . It was time for the fire-breathing dragon to rise .

Chapter end