Chapter 189: The Shaking Empire (2)

As I moved my steps quickly to the 1st floor drawing room, the gazes of the employees on the 2nd floor became busy.

“I heard the Chairman is here?”

“Really?”

At the words someone spat out, the 2nd floor became noisy.

Employees who were working hard rose from their chairs one by one.

“Wow, to be in the same space as Chairman Lim Man-seok.”

“I’ll just go see him slightly from the end of the stairs. I should at least hear his voice.”

“Then how about we go down slightly by ourselves? It’s fine as long as we don’t get caught.”

While saying so, everyone was already lingering without being able to go down from the stairs.

A moment later, HJ Partners employees gathered at the entrance of the 2nd floor stairs, sticking their necks out and being distracted by listening to what was being said on the floor below.

“Shh, be quiet.”

“Can you hear what is being said now?”

“You have to be quiet to hear it.”

At that time, a heavy voice flew in.

“What are you all doing here?”

The employees moved their heads at the same time.

There, Hong Jang-gun was standing with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall.

He glared at the employees with sharp eyes.

“Did you perhaps come out for a group stair inspection?”

Someone made a choking sound.

It seemed they breathed out wrong due to surprise.

“Ah, that is… Advisor Hong. We heard Chairman Lim Man-seok is here below right now.”

“So what, is everyone seeing the Chairman for the first time? Not working? I might just tattle on you.”

Hong Jang-gun stared at each person one by one and put strength into his words.

“Everyone, return to your seats. Don’t get fired from the company while peeking at the Chairman.”

His way of speaking was on edge, unlike usual.

“Excuse me, just a moment. If we just listen for really a bit….”

“Sssst!”

The employee flinched and lowered their gaze.

They returned to their original seats one by one.

The noisy 2nd floor became quiet again.

Hong Jang-gun let out a long sigh quietly. ℯℯ𝑙.

***

First, Chairman Lim Man-seok walked in the lead.

I followed behind him.

After Kang Cheol-woo scanned the surroundings once, he opened the car door and Lim Man-seok climbed in slowly.

I also naturally placed my body in the seat next to Chairman Lim.

As soon as the door closed, the noise outside was cut off.

Inside the car, only the engine sound and the heater wind sound were spread faintly.

The red light peculiar to a winter evening brushed past the window and then flowed down over the car window while getting tangled with the traffic light.

For a moment, no one opened their mouth.

As the driver carefully increased the speed, the procession of vehicles on the commute home continued long outside the car window.

The traffic light light repeatedly was reflected in the glass inside the car and disappeared.

Lim Man-seok was looking ahead without opening his mouth for a while.

The hand that was slowly stroking the cane handle stopped for a moment, and then he suddenly opened his mouth.

“Hyunjun.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

The voice calling lowly was loaded with heavy power.

“What do you think an entrepreneur… should consider most important?”

My gaze headed to the side.

Grandfather’s side profile was like a great mountain as always.

But today, the wrinkles engraved near his eyes and mouth looked deeper.

‘Why is he suddenly throwing this question?’

Strangely, one side of my chest sank heavily.

In the original timeline, in the history of Taeseong that I knew while living as Jeong Taeshik, such a scene could not exist.

The series of events where the suspicion of borrowed names broke out, the social contribution announcement was made, and Daehan Group and Chen Wei Holdings were picking up shares to choke Taeseong’s windpipe.

All were incidents that did not exist in the past I knew.

‘As I began to move… the future is changing little by little.’

Iraq, oil price, Universe Games, HWS, Daehan Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, and even the crisis that spread to Taeseong Group now.

Each one flowed in a different pattern from the original history or were things that didn’t happen at all.

That was why.

I might have been intuiting that this question Grandfather threw now was perhaps not education.

He wasn't just trying to hear a good word from his grandson, nor was he trying to give vague admonition.

Furthermore, I was already in a state of having heard through Chief Secretary Kang Cheol-woo that he decided to meet Chairman Nam Kun-ho of Daehan Group at Taeseong Hotel this evening.

Daehan Group.

The rival in the Korean business world that has always looked for each other’s gaps with Taeseong.

An existence that peeps for a chance to dig one step further inside whenever Taeseong is shaken like now.

On the way to meet that Nam Kun-ho, this question thrown by the head of Taeseong to the grandson sitting next to him was in fact close to this meaning.

‘What kind of entrepreneur do you intend to become. And where do you think Taeseong should go in the future.’

I inhaled and exhaled a short breath.

It wasn't a question I could just gloss over.

I also couldn't just recite words coming out of a textbook.

After organizing my thoughts for a moment, I slowly opened my mouth.

“If it were in the past, I might have first thought of words like profitability or perhaps growth potential.”

“In the past?”

One of Lim Man-seok’s eyebrows went up very slightly.

“Does that mean it’s different now?”

“Yes.”

I nodded and continued speaking.

“Now, I think responsibility comes first.”

The air in the car changed.

“Responsibility.”

Lim Man-seok repeated briefly.

I continued my words.

“The money a company earns, the people a company protects, the position a company occupies. I mean the responsibility for all of those.”

My gaze headed beyond the front windshield.

On the outside, it looked as if I were staring at the road blankly, but my eyes were already heading elsewhere.

“If a large corporation like Taeseong staggers once, it’s not just that the stock price falls. Employees, partner companies, the numerous households attached to them, and even the national economy will be shaken together.”

I continued speaking.

“So, I think an entrepreneur should never forget the weight they are carrying. Because the moment they forget that, they think only in a convenient way and move to live only by themselves.”

Lim Man-seok’s finger slowly swept the end of the cane.

“So in your thought, even this matter Taeseong is experiencing now….”

He chose his words for a moment and then asked lowly.

“Do you see it as a place asking for responsibility after all?”

I closed and then slowly opened my eyes.

“Yes.”

It was one word, but as far as the voice went, it was firm.

“I think the more one tries to avoid responsibility, the greater it returns. Even your choice of social contribution, Grandfather… I see it as being because you did not turn away from that responsibility in the end.”

Lim Man-seok looked ahead without saying anything.

A moment later, a very faint smile spread near his mouth and then disappeared.

“You speak very plausibly.”

Although it was words flowing like a joke, the warmth contained in the voice was not light at all.

“Then is there nothing besides responsibility? Something an entrepreneur should value importantly.”

I caught my breath for a moment.

“It is people.”

“…People?”

“Yes. Because people move a company in the end, and it is also people who endure during a crisis.”

I naturally thought of the HJ Partners employees.

The people who would have pricked up their ears to hear the Chairman’s voice once while huddling at the entrance of the stairs.

And even Hong Jang-gun’s face, who would have shouted at those people and sent them back to their seats.

“Taeseong, HJ Partners, the names are grand but in the end they are places where people gathered. If a decision is made by looking only at numbers, it might be a gain in the short term, but… I think it is people, not money, that make a company endure for a long time.”

Lim Man-seok’s gaze narrowed.

“According to those words, Daehan picking up our shares bit by bit now….”

He twisted the corners of his mouth up.

“It won’t be because their people’s sense of responsibility is stronger than ours?”

I smiled along.

“Yes. That isn’t responsibility but… greed.”

“Greed?!”

Lim Man-seok nodded slowly.

“Is greed not necessary for an entrepreneur?”

This time, I kept my mouth shut for a moment and then answered calmly.

“I think it is necessary. However, I think the direction is the problem.”

I continued speaking while lowering my voice.

“If it is greed to fill only one’s own pocket, it will collapse someday, but… if it is greed to grow the company and go to a better place together with the people working with together… I see that as greed that is fine to carry to the end.”

The air filling the car gradually changed.

Inside the warmth of the heater wind, a tension hard to explain in words flowed.

Silence took its place for a while.

The traffic light light on the road brushed past the car window.

That light brightened Lim Man-seok’s side profile for a moment and then sank into the darkness again.

“Hyunjun.”

After a long time, Lim Man-seok opened his mouth again.

“I am going to meet Nam Kun-ho today.”

It was a fact I already knew, but the weight of those words changed the moment they came out of his mouth.

“Daehan are fellows who have prepared to bite us since long ago whenever our gaps were visible. Even while seeing Taeseong shaking now, they are picking up shares behind our backs.”

His voice sank lowly.

“At that place, what kind of words that man says. And with what kind of face he brings up those words. Watch it clearly with your own eyes.”

My gaze became a bit more serious.

“Yes, I understand.”

“An entrepreneur must take responsibility, and also look at people. But there is one more thing.”

Lim Man-seok said this time while looking straight at the grandson sitting next to him, not outside the window.

“What the opponent is thinking, how far they are coveting… you must read it to the end.”

His gaze deepened.

“Only then can you protect what is to be protected and properly take away what is to be taken away.”

In an instant, my heart beat loudly once.

‘…Protecting and taking away.’

Nam Kun-ho in the memories of the past was certainly a person closer to the side that takes away.

However, no one can guarantee what choice the current him will make.

History has already begun to change.

Lim Man-seok added one last word.

“Today, you find out what an entrepreneur should protect. You see it directly and find the answer in your own way.”

This time, it didn’t sound simply like advice toward a grandson.

Responsibility, people, greed, and even the eye to read the opponent.

It was like handing over his conviction that had grown Taeseong, not to a grandson, but entirely to the one who would carry on the future.

I nodded quietly.

“Yes, Grandfather.”

It was a short answer, but my gaze became a level deeper.

Lim Man-seok was still a figure in history to me.

The founder of Taeseong, a legend in the business world, a name that existed only in news articles and books.

But the person in front of my eyes now was not such a symbol.

He was a person directly demanding an answer as to what is important and what criteria one should live by holding onto as an entrepreneur.

‘Ah, so that’s why this person was able to build an empire.’

The realization came down clearly inside my chest and was stuck like a thorn.

For the first time, the existence of Lim Man-seok was felt not as a figure in a story but like a giant mountain faced in reality.

While thinking so, the car was already entering the street where Taeseong Hotel was located.

The speed gradually decreased.

The sunset light that remained red gradually faded, and the scenery where the cold darkness peculiar to a winter night and the lights of the city were mixed flowed long outside the car window.

Looking at those lights, such a thought suddenly occurred to me.

The hunch that the criteria for what I should protect and what I should take away will also change after this place today.