Chapter 57
The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Trading Company Chapter 57
Chapter 57. Let's Catch the Mouse (2)
Hearing Hyang-ok's words, my uncle shook his head and said, “I understand how you feel, but it's still too early.”
“What do you mean, too early?”
“I thought Seo-ho here was quite interesting.”
Hearing my uncle's words, Hyang-ok's gaze turned to me. Ugh. Hyang-ok is currently a disciple of the Ami Pa. In fact, she is the daughter of the head of the Ami Pa.
Hearing my uncle's words, Hyang-ok's gaze turned to me.
Ugh.
Hyang-ok is currently a disciple of the Emei Sect.
In fact, the children of the Trading Company join sects as disciples in order to benefit from the sect's influence.
Hyang-ok became a disciple of the Emei Sect for this purpose, but as I had thought before, she was more suited to being a martial artist than a merchant.
And I know what happens in the future.
The master of the Emei Sect recognized Hyang-ok's considerable martial arts talent, and later, even though she was only a disciple, she was allowed to learn the same martial arts as the official disciples.
In any case, the more she practiced martial arts, the sharper her aura became.
Of course, if my sister and I fought, I would win.
But regardless of that, I was just scared of her.
“Fun? What do you mean?”
Then my uncle said,
“Hyang-ok, I think you should greet Seo-ho first.”
Hearing my uncle's words, Hyang-ok said, “Oh!”
“I'm sorry, I forgot to say hello.”
I waved my hand.
“It's okay. We've seen each other, so isn't that enough?”
“Then will you tell me what you have in mind?”
* * *
There was a man.
His name was Yeong-po.
He was a senior employee and the head of the Sichuan branch of the Eunhae Trading Company, where he was in charge of silk.
He held a fairly high position in the branch.
He often visited places where silk was auctioned or sold, so it was only natural that he became acquainted with the Dan Trading Company.
The Dan Trading Company was also expanding into the silk business.
One day, someone from the Dan Trading Company approached him and invited him to have a drink at a nice place.
He wanted to refuse because it would be problematic if someone saw him at a brothel with someone from a rival company.
However, the person from the Dan Trading Company showed him the “back door,” which was only accessible to those who received special treatment.
There, he was entertained by beautiful courtesans and had a grand drinking party.
In front of him were delicacies he had never seen before and expensive sake.
He was captivated by the coquettish behavior of the courtesans who poured sake for him while flirting with him.
However, he was uneasy.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
He asked the person from the Dan Trading Company who brought him there.
“So what do you want from me? You're treating me like this because you want something, right?”
“Hahaha, don't be like that. What are you talking about?”
“Come on, tell me.”
When Young-po asked again, he smiled and said,
“It's nothing. I'm just curious about the inner workings of the Eunhae Trading Company.”
“What do you mean?”
The man smiled at Yeong-po, who was furious.
“Think about it. What good is it to be so loyal to the Trading Company? You have brought millions of nyang to the company, but how much of that has come back to you?”
“....”
He held out his pocket in front of him.
“What is this?”
Young-po opened the wallet and was shocked. It was filled with silver coins.
“I can't accept this.”
“Did you enjoy the hospitality today?”
“...”
He couldn't answer.
It was so good that he thought this was paradise.
“Money is all I need for this kind of pleasure.”
“...”
“And your superiors enjoy this kind of hospitality.”
“....”
“Oh! You feel guilty! There's no need to feel guilty. You're just getting something in exchange for the information you have. How is that any different from the Hao Clan?”
“That's true, but....”
“Of course.”
When Yeong-po returned home, he looked at the silver coin in his pocket and thought about what he had experienced that day.
He wanted to live like that too.
The next day, he went to the brothel again.
Naturally, the brothel treated him with the utmost hospitality because he had a lot of money, and he felt like he was floating on a cloud and couldn't think straight.
Pleasure is truly a scary thing.
Before experiencing it, he didn't know, but once he did, it was impossible to quit without a strong determination.
Young-po eventually joined forces with Dan's Trading Company for his own pleasure and to satisfy his greed.
At first, what Dan Trading Company asked of him was not very important.
It was just minor information, such as how many rolls of silk Eunhae Trading Company needed and where to deliver them.
However, the information they wanted became more and more, and Yeongpo also began to get greedy.
Then one day, an order came from the Eunhae Trading Company headquarters in Hubei.
It was an order to monitor the Dan Trading Company and report any suspicious activity immediately.
Naturally, he passed this information on to the Dan Trading Company.
A short time later, one of his team members reported to him.
“Sir, the Dan Trading Company is acting strangely.”
“Really? I'll look into it and report to my superiors. You focus on your other work.”
“Yes, sir.”
Yeong-po used this as an excuse to ask the Dan Trading Company for a generous gift.
The Dan Trading Company asked him to take care of them and gave him a gift that was more generous than he expected.
At that point, he thought that there would be no problems in his future.
A short time later, the Eunhae Trading Company was in an emergency situation.
This was because sales plummeted as bad rumors about martial artists began to spread.
It was quickly discovered that Dan Trading Company was behind the rumors.
Naturally, the branch manager of the Sichuan branch, who was monitoring Dan Trading Company, was not happy.
There was a big commotion, but fortunately, the relationship between Young-po and Dan Trading Company was not revealed.
“Will we be found out?”
He became increasingly anxious.
However, he could not give up the luxurious life he had been living thanks to the gifts from the Dan Trading Company.
Amidst all this, rumors began to spread from an unknown source.
The rumors were that the martial artist dolls had souls inside them, and that those souls would make a lot of money.
Thanks to the rumors, sales of the martial artist dolls recovered.
After that, he received a message from the Dan Trading Company asking to meet him.
.
.
.
A secluded forest estate.
It was a secret hideaway that Young-po had prepared.
Naturally, he hired warriors to guard it.
Three warriors were guarding the place.
“Are you here?”
“Yes.”
He replied arrogantly to the warrior who bowed to him.
“Nothing happened, right?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Good work.”
He entered the manor, and the warrior's eyes were filled with hatred as he looked at him.
“If only I hadn't been poisoned...”
Meanwhile, Young-po, who had entered the manor, clicked his tongue.
“It's really hard to protect real wealth. You have to hire three samurai.”
He was more thorough than he had thought.
The fact that he hadn't been discovered until now showed how thorough he was.
The fact that he became a senior employee of the Eunhae Trading Company at such a young age was proof of his ability.
All kinds of valuables were stored in the manor, so there was no guarantee that someone wouldn't steal them.
Therefore, he hired warriors to protect them.
However, there was a possibility that the warriors would kill him and take the valuables.
Therefore, he obtained poison and fed it to the warriors who came to sign the contract.
The poison was so potent that unless an antidote was taken once a month, the victim would writhe in agony until death.
In this way, he held their lives in his hands.
The manor was extremely luxurious.
Expensive items were lined up everywhere, and looking at them made him feel good.
There was a reason he had come here after such a long time.
“Is the manager here?”
This was the place where he was supposed to meet the person from the Dan Trading Company.
Soon, a man with an ordinary appearance entered.
“Hahaha! Im, are you here?”
“You still look as divine as ever.”
“You're good at flattery. I've been busy lately and haven't been able to rest properly, so my skin has become rough.”
However, Yeong-po had no intention of retiring.
He knew that
The moment he retired, Dan's Trading Company would abandon him.
He was no longer useful to them because he did not belong to Eunhae Trading Company.
“So why did you come here today?”
“I'm disappointed in my manager.”
“Disappointed? What do you mean? I think I've been very fair to you.”
“The rumor that you can make money must have been spread by Eunhae Trading Company... Did you forget to mention that?”
“It's unfair.”
It really was unfair.
“I don't know anything about that. In fact, no one in our Sichuan branch knows anything about it either. The branch manager was confused, so how could I have known?”
“Is that really true?”
“Of course. If I had known, I would have sent a message to see him immediately. It's information that could have earned us a gift.”
“I guess so...”
Lim Hang-soo, a confidant of the Dan Trading Company, looked at Yeong-po.
He was the one who had been filling his pockets with gifts from the Dan Trading Company.
There was no way someone like him would just keep such information to himself.
He would try to get more for himself.
“He really didn't know.”
Looking at his greedy eyes, the right-hand man smiled inwardly.
He was competent despite his appearance.
Now that he had been promoted from a junior officer to a senior officer, he would be able to extract more information from him.
“Is that why the Trading Company is investing such a large sum of money? To take over Eunhae Trading Company?”
Even if it was only at the bottom of the list of the 100 best trading companies in the world, it was still a tempting target.
And the upper class was a place where people ate and were eaten.
It was Eunhae Trading Company's fault for not catching the rats that had entered their house.
“Here you are.”
He handed over the bundle he had brought with him.
“It's quite heavy today.”
“The captain asked me to take extra care.”
“Don't worry. I will.”
With that, the captain's right-hand man left.
Yeong-po entered his room and untied the bundle.
“Oh!”
He was mesmerized by the dazzling sight of the gold.
Because of that, he didn't notice
that someone was watching him from the ceiling.
.
.
.
A few days later.
He went to a battlefield to sell the gold and get some money.
It was his regular battlefield.
In exchange for keeping everything a secret, he had to pay a large commission, but it was safe.
And there, Young-po heard an unbelievable story.
“Ha! Are you making fun of me?”
“What are you talking about? Making fun of you? Why would I make fun of you?”
“Then what is this? Why did you bring me fake gold? Are you trying to make a fool of me?”
“Fake? What are you talking about? Fake? This is definitely real gold!”
In response to Yeong-po's protest, the pawnbroker scratched the gold with a needle and said,
“Look. If you scratch it a little, the gold leaf on the surface comes off and you can see the metal inside, can't you?”
“....”
Gasp...
It was real.
Just in case, he pointed to all the gold nuggets he had brought with him and said.
“Those too! Check those too!”
“Yes, sir.”
The result was that all but one were fake.
At first, he couldn't believe it, but soon anger began to rise within him.
“This means they're going to abandon me!”
There was no other reason they would humiliate him like this.
However, he had no one to complain to.
If he did, it would be revealed that he had been working as a rat for the Dan Trading Company.
But he couldn't confront the Dan Trading Company either.
The meaning behind the one real gold nugget among the fake ones was, “Now, take this and become our loyal rat.”
The Dan Trading Company already had a noose around his neck.
What if Dan's Trading Company threatened to reveal that he had been working as a rat for them?
He would be helpless.
It was a self-defeating move.
It was his own fault, but he couldn't just let it go.
.
.
.
A few days later.
People from the main office of the Eunhae Trading Company arrived at the Sichuan branch.
Among them was the third son of the head of the trading company, who was a handsome young man.
One day, Yeong-po happened to overhear a conversation between a man named Eun Seo-ho and the branch manager.
“At first, we thought about starting a salt business here in Sichuan.”
Salt and bamboo from Sichuan Province were ingredients for making a medicinal herb called bamboo salt.
“Unfortunately, we decided not to go ahead with it. We received information from higher up that it was a little dangerous.”
The moment he heard that conversation, Yeong-po knew what was going on.
“They think they have me by the throat, but heh heh heh. I'll show them!”
If he was going to throw it away, he had to be the one to do it.
He immediately sent a message to the Dan Trading Company asking for a meeting.