I Am the Third-Generation Heir of a Conglomerate - Chapter 495



Only Noblemtl

495. Pranks (5)

I returned from Hong Kong to Korea the next day.

I was able to watch a fun show on TV with Vice President Han.

It was a spectacular show, with the burning of Qing bonds accompanied by a speech calling for the re-establishment of relations between Taiwan and China.

“David made things very interesting.”

“China is likely to react very sensitively to the announcement that it will purchase and extinguish Qing Dynasty bonds in Taiwan.”

Repayment of Qing bonds was virtually impossible.

However, it was not impossible to buy bonds at a cheap price and then burn them.

Of course, 100% annihilation would have been a huge expense, but annihilating some of them was possible without spending a lot of money.

“The amount of Qing Dynasty bonds burned in this show is approximately ten million dollars?”

“I transferred some of the Qing bonds I had purchased in someone else’s name to David. The amount was exactly ten million dollars.”

“They say it costs ten million dollars, but they put on a spectacular show for less than a hundred thousand dollars.”

The face value was ten million dollars.

That was the amount you could receive when you redeemed the bond.

It was a pittance, worth less than $100,000 in the antiques market.

Moreover, from the Democratic Progressive Party’s point of view, since we had handed over the Qing bonds for free, it was as if we had not spent a single penny for show.

“Even though Taiwan has neither the ability nor the will to repay Qing bonds, the mere fact that it purchased and burned Qing bonds puts China in an awkward position.”

“Following the US, even Taiwan has brought up the issue of Qing Dynasty bonds, so we cannot ignore it like we are doing now.”

“You might think, ‘what if?’ If we join hands with the United States and gain full control of Qing bonds in Taiwan, China’s identity could be shaken.”

The relationship between China and Taiwan is truly mysterious.

They each considered themselves to be the true successors to China.

Of course, most people in the world did not consider Taiwan to be the successor to China.

But if Taiwan had secured its identity through Qing bonds, things could have been different.

“If China uses the strategy of ignoring Qing bonds again this time, we will hand over all of our Qing bonds to Taiwan.”

“If more than 60% of the Qing Dynasty’s bonds are transferred to Taiwan, something more interesting than expected may happen.”

“It will be difficult for the opposing party, the Kuomintang, to object. Isn’t the Kuomintang the party that always claims that Taiwan is the legitimate successor to China?”

The Chinese Nationalist Party.

The reason it was the Chinese Kuomintang and not the Taiwan Kuomintang was because of its identity.

In fact, the Kuomintang was a political party that had once ruled China, and although it had now lost the war and moved to Taiwan, it had the ideology of one day returning to China.

Of course, it was also a very faded ideology.

It seemed as if the grand dream of ruling China again had been abandoned.

However, it seemed difficult to oppose the Qing Dynasty bond issue, as it was impossible to abandon ideologies that had been maintained for decades overnight.

“The positions of the Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese Kuomintang are now opposites.”

“The Kuomintang claims to be the ideological successor to China, but the Democratic Progressive Party supports Taiwan independence. So the Kuomintang’s position has become very difficult.”

It was impossible to know when or how the situation would change.

The Qing bond burning show may not have generated as much of a response as expected.

But it certainly created an interesting variable, and now all we had to do was wait and see how China would move.

“Mr. Chairman! We have received a call from China.”

The planning director rushes in.

I never expected that I would hear from China so soon.

“What kind of contact is this?”

“I received a call from Secretary Lee Gang saying that he will visit Korea tomorrow. He requested a meeting with the Chairman. He also included a request to meet at the Financial Tower.”

“The response is hotter than I expected.”

The Qing bond burning show was literally a show.

From China’s perspective, it was nothing more than a grain of sand.

However, if a single grain of sand gets inside your shoe, it will be uncomfortable, so you will want to quickly take off your shoe and shake the sand grain out.

“Can I proceed with the meeting with Secretary Li Gang?”

“You can’t turn away someone who brings a big gift. Have Secretary Li Gang come to the financial tower with great grandeur.”

Why would I ask you to meet me at the financial tower for no reason?

It was clear that the location was chosen as the Financial Tower, as the Financial Tower had brought a satisfactory gift.

***

The next day.

Secretary Li Gang came to the financial tower with his hair flying.

So much has happened inside China that I’ve aged rapidly in a matter of days.

“Welcome to the Financial Tower. I was planning to go to China this week, so thank you for coming to see me in person.”

“Ahem, this was such a pressing matter that I couldn’t wait. Let’s go inside and discuss the details.”

Secretary Li Gang looked really anxious.

For him, I quickly walked to the chairman’s office, and the moment the door closed, it was Secretary Lee Gang who raised his voice.

“Did you see yesterday? The Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan made a crazy statement that they would repay the Qing Dynasty bonds!”

“Although they have expressed a willingness to repay, the likelihood of that happening seems very low.”

“Would the Democratic Party have done something like that alone?”

It was Secretary Li Gang who suspected the mastermind.

We waited nervously for his next words, wondering if he had realized that we were behind him.

“Who do you think is behind this?”

“Would there be another crazy country besides the United States that would do such a thing? Isn’t the Democratic Party also a pro-American party? And where would they get ten million dollars worth of bonds? It’s clear that they’re plotting a conspiracy with the United States!”

It was Secretary Li Gang who suspected that the United States was behind it.

In fact, given the circumstances, the United States was suspicious.

Because the Republican Party in the United States was preparing a bill to demand the redemption of Qing Dynasty bonds, and then the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan was putting on a show like this.

“Well, if the US gets serious about it, it could supply the Democratic Progressive Party with Qing Dynasty bonds worth more than $10 billion, not just $10 million.”

“It is clear that the Democratic Party is planning this with the United States in order to win the upcoming local elections. So, Chairman Kim, we urgently need your help. Please help us stop this kind of thing.”

It was Secretary Li Gang’s expression that looked desperate.

Even during his last visit to Korea, he did not hesitate to make remarks disparaging Korea, let alone the Taewoo Group.

Already this kind of reaction.

As the US-China trade dispute intensifies, Taewoo Group’s value increases.

If they are already reacting like this even though they have only just started, I wonder what kind of reaction they will show when they reach the finish line.

“How can I help you?”

“Didn’t you say you could solve the Qing bond problem? I will accept your last offer.”

“Do you accept the condition of lifting all restrictions on the financial tower’s expansion into China?”

“I convinced everyone. I got a promise that I could do financial activities in China without any restrictions for the next five years. I would have liked to extend the period, but five years was the limit.”

Five years was more than enough time to spare.

Because it was a time that overlapped from the US-China trade dispute to the COVID-19 era.

“More than 50% of Qing Dynasty bonds can be secured from the financial tower. If that happens, no matter what plans the US or Taiwan make, they will not be realized.”

“Could you please hand over the Qing bonds you have secured?”

It was a profitable business even if the Qing Dynasty bonds were handed over.

Because if they could gain unrestricted access to the Chinese financial market, which is likely to be in turmoil in the future, they could make astronomical profits.

But how can you believe it?

If you trust me and hand over the bond and then change your words, you will end up like a duck egg in the Nakdong River.

“After the promised five years, why don’t we sign a contract to transfer the Qing Dynasty bonds to China?”

“It may be a little lacking, but I will accept it.”

“Shouldn’t we share this good news with everyone in the financial tower? I’ll call together the representatives or managers of each financial company. Would you mind taking a short break in the meantime?”

“Then I’ll just rest for a bit. I haven’t had a proper rest in days.”

He left Secretary Li Gang behind and went outside.

A vice president who had been waiting in the waiting room quickly got up from his seat and approached me.

“Did everything go as planned?”

“The variable worked well. The Financial Tower was given the right to enter the Chinese financial market without any restrictions on the condition that it would solve the Qing bond problem.”

“If that happens, we can increase the short selling volume by at least two times and up to ten times compared to now.”

“It’s still early days for me to like it. Aren’t the details important? So gather the people in charge of each financial company and create details that will help you generate higher profits.”

It wasn’t for nothing that we gathered representatives from each financial company.

The aim was to get one more thing from Secretary Lee Gang.

“I have several scenarios already prepared. I will negotiate the details to get as much out of them as possible!”

“We have to do this very well. If it were a contract that Taewoo Securities was making alone, the Chinese government could overturn it, but if we were to sign a contract with the entire financial tower, that wouldn’t be possible.”

“Let me try to insert the straw properly!”

It was a vice president’s comment mixed with a joke.

But we couldn’t just treat it as a joke, we really were planning to stick a huge straw into the Chinese financial market.

The Chinese government would like to see a large amount of foreign exchange coming into the financial tower.

The moment you sign a contract with us, all the money evaporating from the Chinese financial market will be transferred to the financial tower.

“The Qing Dynasty bonds are acting like filial sons.”

“Honestly, I still thought it was more of a prank. But once we moved to Taiwan, the prank became no joke.”

“If you put sincerity into your jokes, you can create a reaction from the other person. You should go now. Secretary Lee Gang should have rested enough by now.”

A vice president entered the chairman’s office with the person in charge of each financial company.

As soon as I saw that, I picked up my cell phone.

Now that I had to stop messing around with Qing bonds, I had to give David the good news.

[China has taken the bait! It was worth the effort.]

“Thanks to David’s work between the US and Taiwan, you can expect a bonus.”

[I can really show off to my teammates. Oh! And the Nikola hydrogen truck research is also complete.]

While David was dealing with the Qing Dynasty bonds, he was also investigating the Nikola company.

Hundreds of people, state-of-the-art equipment, and connections made while working as a lobbyist.

If David had put his mind to it and dug in, he could have easily taken out a company the size of Nicola.

“Is it true? Or is it a fabrication?”

[It was a company with a lot of problems, just as the boss suspected. Of course, it wasn’t the truth, and it was more than just manipulation, it was fraud. To be honest, I can’t even call it fraud. It was manipulation at the level of a prank.]

“Package up the evidence you’ve collected so far and hand it over to Beryl. She’ll cook it up nicely. And since she’ll also be moving several financial companies in the financial tower, it won’t be hard to expand the case.”

Even pranks produce different results depending on who does them.

Taewoo Group and Financial Tower were able to produce good results because they put sincerity into their pranks.

Nicola prepared the prank so half-heartedly that it resulted in a bad outcome.

Nikola’s hydrogen truck that gave Musk a headache.

In just a few days, Musk’s headache will be gone as if washed away.