81. A good woman will come along in life.
After making an agreement with Vice Chairman Lee Jeong-ryong, we decided to talk to the city.
Cho Chul-bong conveyed our intentions to an official he had known since his days at Saseong, and later, President Nam Jung-won personally met with the mayor of Seoul to finalize the deal.
Eventually, the foundation would take over the project, but at least until it was completed, it was more efficient for Karma Holdings to pursue the project.
It was a bit too much work for the Purification Foundation.
It wasn’t exactly golden land because of the restrictions, but it was still a large piece of land in the middle of Seoul to honor the nation’s heroes.
There was no way any politician would oppose this.
“The mayor of Seoul has given us his full support.”
“hahahaha, good for you.”
“I’m afraid to say it, but he just raised his hand and said yes. I didn’t even try.”
“You did mention that the city will have to pay a quarter of the cost, right?”
“Yes, but it’s still a good deal for the city, because if they had bought it themselves and turned it into a cultural park, it would have cost many times that.”
“Of course they would, but you never know with human greed.”
“hahahaha, that’s not going to happen.”
Tiri-ri-ri-ring! Tiri-ri-ri-ring!
“Hmm?”
The phone rings, and it’s Vice Chairman Lee Jung-ryong.
I told him I was meeting with Joo Yang-tae from Corian, but I don’t know if that went well.
“Yes, Vice Chairman.”
– It’s Lee Jung-ryong.
“hahahaha! I know. How did your talk with Joo Yang-tae go?”
– I’m calling you because we just finalized the deal. We agreed to acquire the company for 510 billion won.
If it’s 500 billion, it’s 500 billion, if it’s 600 billion, it’s 600 billion, what’s 510 billion?
“Oh, you did, great job, how did you get them to give it up?”
– Don’t even get me started, he was whining about how he should have gotten 600 billion.
“Oh yeah, and how did you manage to cut so much?”
– He kept saying things that didn’t make sense, so I threatened him.
“Threatening? What the hell did you say?”
– I said, “Well, if you don’t stop, I’m going to take away all the airfreight that Sasung Group entrusts to Corian.
“Hmm?”
– hahahahaha! Korean Air has a very large air cargo revenue position. It has a big operating profit, and we, Sasung, are the big hands.
“Aha, I see, I should take a big shot at this?”
– hahahahaha, I’ll keep that in mind. So I think that’s all I have to say, or Chairman Kang, so I’m going to turn it over to the practitioners.
“Okay, see you next time.”
– Aah! Wait, Mr. Chairman!
“What? Go ahead, Vice Chairman.”
– Why don’t you leave the contractor over there to the construction division of Sasung Products? Wouldn’t it be great if we could work with them to build our art museum?
“Sasung’s construction division?”
– Yes, if you entrust us, we will build it with a sense of mission.
“Hmph—.”
This guy is also in business?
Well, the approximate construction cost is 500 billion won.
This is a very large construction project in Korea.
And we don’t have to worry about losing money.
Sasung’s annual sales are said to be around 10 trillion won, so Vice Chairman Lee can operate lightly.
Yeah, that’s about right.
“hahahahaha! Okay, but you have to build me a really good one, right?”
– Oh, thank you, sir, we’ll do our best!
“hahahahaha!”
This guy is surprisingly pleasant, isn’t he?
Somehow, Daeyang Construction has become like our foundation’s exclusive construction company, but Song Hyun-dong’s business is too big for Daeyang to eat.
It’s a good thing we had to find a contractor anyway.
If Daeyang’s chairman, Park Sang-hwan, whines, I’ll connect him and give him some subcontracts.
Two days later, newspapers and broadcasters announced that Karma Holdings, Sasung, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government had formed a consortium to acquire the Songhyeon-dong site, with Karma owning 50%, Sasung 25%, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government 25%.
The reaction was more explosive than expected, as the announcement was not just about buying land.
First of all, Vice Chairman Lee Jung-ryong announced that he would donate over 23,000 cultural assets and artworks held by Sasung to the state and build an art museum named after his father to share with the public.
Not knowing when he would be dragged out into the cold again, Lee Jung-ryong seemed to have pulled out all the stops, mobilizing the group’s public relations department.
It was too big a deal to not do so.
In a word, we’re sending a signal to the government to take a good look at us, but I don’t know if it will work.
In addition, we, Karma Holdings and the Purity Foundation, will use the largest part of the site to build a large memorial to Dr. Lee, his brothers, and General Kim Hong-il to honor the high intentions of those who served the country.
The mayor of Seoul also came out and announced that he would work with Karma Holdings and Sasung Group to create a cultural park where people can remember and enjoy history and culture together.
I don’t know what they are declaring.
Anyway, it will be a buzz for a while.
The broadcast interviewed Ms. Lee Hoe-young and the bereaved families of General Kim Hong-il, who had consulted with us beforehand, and they thanked Chairman Chung Eui-sik, which puzzled me.
It was probably the first time my name was officially mentioned.
I said.
“Boss, the Tesla stake purchase is over, phew, now it’s just a matter of waiting.”
“Oh, yeah? Good work, John.”
Toward the end of September, John came to me to report the closing of the Tesla stake.
The big deal he’d been working on all spring and summer had finally come to fruition.
“hahahaha,” he said, “that’s kind of weird. I don’t even want to look at Tesla stock anymore, at least for a while. I’m so sick of it.”
“hahahahaha! Give me a break for a while.”
“I don’t have to look at Tesla stock, but that’s a break?”
“Puh-hahahahaha!”
I must have gotten a little carried away.
It had been a while since I’d seen him so focused on a single stock.
“Okay, so where do we stand at the end of the day?”
“Over 28%.”
“Ho-ho, you got more than you thought?”
“Well, when I originally said 25% was the limit, I was thinking that Elon’s bastard would interfere.”
“hahahaha, I see.”
“Well, as you and Elon became friends, he helped me out when I needed it and didn’t interfere at all, so we ended up with as much as we could get given Tesla’s ownership structure.”
“Well, as long as he takes all of our voting rights, our shares are as good as his, so that’s the way it is.”
Giving up their voting rights and handing them over to Elon Musk was a gesture of faith.
For Elon, who is obsessed with control, it’s a chance to focus on running the company without having to listen to the nagging of shareholders.
“So from now on, I’m going to follow the boss’s lead and start acquiring stakes in e-commerce companies.”
“Let’s do that, because when ‘that thing’ happens, e-commerce stocks will probably go up a lot.”
The “thing” I was referring to was a new virus changing the world.
From nob le mt l. co m
John is one of only three people in the United States who knows what I’m preparing for.
Those three being John, George, and my brother Jeffrey, of course.
They don’t care what I do in Korea, either because they know me or because they don’t think it’s going to affect the mainstream.
In John’s case, he believed it was going to happen because he was so blind to what I was saying, and he was refocusing his attention on the hot stocks.
When a pandemic hits and the world shuts down, e-commerce is the one thing that gets the most attention.
“We’re doing what the boss said. I started buying Shoppify in the spring and already have over 10%, and I’m going to buy some more, and Pingduoduo finished at 15%.”
“Good job.”
“Wayfair Inc, I’m taking a wait-and-see approach because the stock is so high right now, but I’ll wait to buy it until early next year to see how things go.”
“And wasn’t there one more?”
“Yeah, ETSY is also a bit high, so I’m going to give it a month or two and then jump in.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”
“Phew, I’m going to sign off then.”
“Already? You want to have a drink with me?”
“Boss.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Do you know?”
“Know what?”
“That my wife is secretly starting to hate the boss.”
“Yes? No? Why?”
“Because he keeps catching me coming home from work and drinking.”
“…”
Holy sh*t!
Why didn’t you just say something?
Doesn’t this make me some kind of asshole boss who just wants to hang out and talk?
“Humph, tell him I’m sorry.”
“I’ll only deal with you one day a week from now on.”
“Yeah—.”
“And boss.”
“What else?”
“Aren’t you going to get a real girlfriend? You’re alone in a foreign country, and you’re drinking all the time, and I was wondering if—.”
“Maybe what?”
“Maybe a guy?”
“Cut the crap and get off work, you know how much I like women!”
“C’mon! Okay, I’ll go in first.”
“Let’s go.”
Damn it, you know who doesn’t get laid because they don’t want to get laid?
They can’t get laid, right?
Not all rich guys are good.
Now, no matter how nice a girl approaches me, if she makes the first move, it’s assumed that she likes my money, not my human steel.
Especially since I almost got lobotomized by Amber Whatshisname at Tom’s party.
sh*t, a good girl will come along in life.
Cancer, I’m sure they will.
By the way, doesn’t your brother Tom throw parties?
If he’s going to set me up with the right girl, why doesn’t he party?
Should I call Jerry?
Ha, let’s just sleep.
Even though they didn’t go back to Korea, they still talked on the phone at least once a day to prepare for the war against the virus.
I also sent Mr. Nam a separate $2 billion to start investing in the right places first.
In the midst of all this, it was November.
From the beginning of November, my big three stocks, Nvidia and AMD, started to rise in earnest.
At the same time.
I’ve been talking about these two stocks together for a while now.
AMD finally broke $40 on November 19th.
Nvidia also broke above $50 in November, and it’s clear that it’s on a gentle upward curve.
Now all we needed was for Tesla to start rising, and we were starting to feel the heat.
Unbeknownst to us, the signs were starting to show in China in November——.
An angry seafood market in Wuhan, China.
An unexplained flu outbreak centered on merchants.
The gates of hell opened and a crowned devil descended upon the human world.