Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 121

Translator: Dreamscribe“What? Where?”

“England. It seems that market over there is in a very serious state right now.”

“How serious?”

“It’s to the point where they may have to declare a national emergency. It wouldn’t be surprising if the country defaulted at any moment.”

“Tsk tsk. That’s why they shouldn’t have left the EU.”

Ever since they pushed forward with Brexit, England had begun to shake significantly.

Now they were paying the price for it.

“Brexit is one thing, but what really brought England to this point is, decisively, Kwangwoon.”

“Hm? Kwangwoon?”

“Yes. You know, don’t you? Kwangwoon bet on England’s collapse, and because even the bear funds rushed in at once, the English stock market got wrecked.”

“And that led to the EU going through with a no-deal Brexit?”

“Yes. Things already turned bad then, but this time, a final decisive blow was delivered.”

Kang Sung-ho felt like he didn’t even need to listen to know what had happened.

“Insurance?”

“Yes. Because of the Beirut explosion incident, most of the large insurance companies in Europe got entangled in it, and it’s a complete mess now. Of course, England is one of them. There was a slight rebound thanks to the recovery of the US stock market, but now it seems completely over.”

So England had collapsed.

When the no-deal Brexit became a reality, it had already been sentenced to death, but with this latest incident, it truly hit rock bottom.

“Beirut took down a lot.”

“Europe is one thing. Even Levant, which was Kwangwoon Shipping’s rival, is now on the path to dismantlement. Not only did they lose 30 billion dollars, but they also lost the ships and goods at the Beirut port all at once. It seems they decided to shut down the company completely in the face of a massive wave of lawsuits. In the end... things went exactly as Kwangwoon intended.”

At those words, Kang Sung-ho furrowed his brows.

“As Kwangwoon intended?”

“Yes. Wasn’t Kwangwoon the one who benefited the most from the Beirut port explosion?”

“That’s right. And there are even rumors that Kwangwoon is not only using this opportunity to dominate shipping, but is also eyeing the EU market.”

“Everyone stop. Are you trying to make a conspiracy theory out of something with no evidence? And do you think I don’t know CEO Jung? He’s not someone who would go that far.”

“But Chairman, if you look at how things are unfolding right now…”

“Enough. If you want to be certain, bring me proof. Then I’ll believe it.”

The executives didn’t open their mouths any further.

Wasn’t Kang Sung-ho’s affection for Jung Jin-ho well known?

“Even if all of that is true, Jung Jin-ho would never attack Kangseong or a domestic company. If anything, he would grow together in symbiosis, not strip us down.”

That alone was a tremendous relief.

Jung Jin-ho had long said like a habit that he wanted the country and its companies to do well.

And with the recent National Pension Service matter, he proved he wasn’t lying.

Among the countless entrepreneurs, how many truly placed national interest above their own profit?

“So, are you saying we should reduce our investments in England?”

“Yes. The electronics sales are poor, and in terms of semiconductors as well, England just doesn’t seem attractive. I think we can safely minimize costs in that region.”

“Then let’s go with that.”

“Yes. Ah! And there’s one more thing I need to report. Premier League clubs in England are currently looking for buyers.”

“Hm? Soccer?”

Kang Sung-ho had little interest in sports.

It was only because his late father had been a sports fanatic that he still maintained such investments today.

“Newcastle, Everton, West Ham, and so on. With the British economy in turmoil, several clubs have come on the market. And the most controversial team locally right now is this one.”

“…Tottenham? Isn’t this a famous club?”

“Yes. It’s also where a Korean player is active, and it used to be a very profitable team. But recently, they built a new stadium and spent way too much money. They’re also deep in debt.”

Tottenham is a well-known club in Korea.

It also had a strong fan base in England.

But now, the club had fallen into a financial crisis.

“Building a new stadium was fine, but the problem was that the COVID outbreak hit at that exact timing. Because of that, there were no spectators, and they couldn’t properly utilize the stadium, leading to a serious financial crisis. The problem is, under normal circumstances, the UK government would have provided loans to bail them out, but...”

“Given the current situation in the UK, they can’t even offer loans?”

“Yes. That’s how serious it is. Even people in London are in great shock. They say they never imagined that even Tottenham would crumble so helplessly.”

“Wouldn’t a club like Tottenham be desirable to other companies?”

“At first, European companies were interested, but after the Beirut incident, the stock markets collapsed entirely, so they lost interest. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund is in the process of acquiring Newcastle. Other oil money sources seemed interested too, but they also can’t move any capital right now because of the Beirut incident.”

So this meant Tottenham was on the verge of bankruptcy and was looking for a buyer.

Normally, the government would’ve stepped in to protect the pride of a prestigious football club, but the UK didn’t have the capacity to do that right now.

“I’m not interested.”

“Yes, I’ll pass that message along.”

Then suddenly, something came to Kang Sung-ho’s mind.

“CEO Jung probably likes sports, right?”

“Well... didn’t he suddenly acquire a baseball team and lead it to victory? He’s still being talked about by a lot of baseball fans. I heard that even the players, coach, and staff were all handpicked by CEO Jung Jin-ho.”

“Really?”

So that’s how it was.

“Then contact Tottenham and have them send a proposal to Kwangwoon too.”

***

“CEO-nim. This is an official request from the EU.”

The EU had made us a proposal once before and then immediately retracted it.

But after the Beirut port explosion caused insurance companies to collapse one after another, the entire European market was once again shaken severely.

“Europe is known for being a welfare state, after all. That’s why their social spending has always been very high compared to other countries.”

“You mean they’ve implemented a lot of citizen support policies?”

“Yes. Other countries are also pouring out money right now to stimulate the economy, but the EU has spent far more. To maintain employment, provide unemployment benefits, and recently they even used a recovery fund equivalent to 1,100 trillion won in our currency.”

If they had held back on that spending, they might’ve been able to cushion the blow from the current financial crisis to some extent.

“What does the EU want us to do?”

“They’ve laid out a few regulations. Also, there are a few markets that are in urgent need, and it seems they want us to focus funding there.”

I checked the request sent from the EU.

The investment directions were more detailed than expected.

In one market, 10%; in another, 20%, and so on.

They were just saying they needed our help, but in reality, it was no different from saying they’d use our money however they pleased.

Even our employees immediately noticed it.

“CEO-nim. Isn’t this a bit shameless?”

“I understand that some regulations are necessary, but this is no different from saying they’ll spend our money however they want.”

In short, it was a proposal completely devoid of conscience.

“CEO-nim. It might be best to withdraw from EU investments.”

“Yes. They’re the ones in need of help, but judging by this absurd proposal, it doesn’t seem like they’re all that desperate.”

There’s no need to invest while being treated this way.

So I was about to close the document.

“......?”

But my hand wouldn’t come off the paper.

As if my fingers were glued to the page, no matter how much force I applied, it was useless.

‘What’s going on?’

Could it be because of something else?

My intuition seemed to want to show me something more here.

So I didn’t resist and accepted it.

And I opened the document again.

“......?”

Then, something strange happened.

The letters written on the document flared up with a whoosh! and burned away into dust, disappearing completely.

The page I was looking at now.

The next page.

And the one after that.

The letters were vanishing.

Eventually, not a single character remained on the thick stack of papers.

“.......”

I just stared blankly at the empty document.

What could this mean?

“CEO-nim?”

The staff tilted their heads in confusion as I kept staring at the document in silence.

To their eyes, the letters were probably still there.

But somehow, my intuition had made all the letters disappear from the document.

‘Why is it showing me this?’

I couldn’t make sense of it at all.

This was the problem with my intuition.

Sometimes it showed me these random visions for no apparent reason.

‘Surely, it’s not telling me to send this back to the EU as a blank?’

The moment that thought crossed my mind,

“!?”

A powerful shiver ran from my fingertips and spread through my entire body.

‘Wait. Is it seriously telling me to send it back blank?’

Immediately, another jolt of electricity surged through me.

‘What is this, some kind of Sun-wook’s empty food box tactic?’

No matter how I looked at it, sending back a stack of blank paper didn’t make sense, so I tried to back off from the idea.

But my damn intuition pushed me even harder.

It felt like my whole body was paralyzed.

I tried to force my way out of it, but it was no use.

“C-CEO-nim, are you alright?”

“You’re sweating…”

In the end, I raised the white flag.

‘Fine. I’ll do it.’

Then, the paralysis disappeared and my body returned to normal.

“Department Head Seo.”

“Ah, yes, CEO-nim.”

“Please send this back to the EU.”

“Pardon? Just like this?”

“No. Erase every single word from it. Make it completely blank and then send it back.”

“......Huh?”

Department Head Seo blinked in confusion.

The other staff looked just as shocked, frozen in place as they stared at me.

I knew it too.

It was a ridiculous move.

Even after reconsidering it, I was about to call it off.

“I’ll send it right away.”

But the department head had already rushed out of the meeting room.

***

“...What is this?”

“It’s the file sent by Kwangwoon.”

“I know that. But why isn’t there a single word in it? Are you sure we received it properly? Wasn’t there some file error?”

A reply had arrived from Kwangwoon regarding the document the EU had sent.

But there wasn’t a single word written in it.

Even though there were this many pages.

“We’ve checked multiple times. But they insist that this is the correct file. They intentionally matched the page count exactly with the document we originally sent, but didn’t write a single word.”

Are they crazy?

That would be the natural first thought.

But before long, Charol felt a chill run down her spine as she stared at the blank pages.

This empty space.

A document with not a single word.

It felt like a silent threat letter.

Kwangwoon had even matched the page count of the document the EU sent, returning it completely blank.

It was a threat without writing a single word.

“.......”

Charol swallowed dryly.

Even when they first sent the EU’s proposal, she had doubts as to whether Kwangwoon would accept it.

Even to her, it had seemed far too one-sided, as if they were trying to use Kwangwoon’s money however they pleased.

And now, Kwangwoon had rejected the proposal.

With this terrifying, silent threat.

“Shouldn’t we just ignore it? I don’t think it means much.”

“No way. Do you know what kind of company Kwangwoon is? They’ve got the global market in their grip. Would a company like that send something like this just for a prank?”

This was clearly a message directed at Charol.

And she felt like she understood what it meant.

Whatever you're imagining.

We can show you fear enough to fill every inch of this blank space.

That’s what it seemed to be saying.

“From the time of Deutsche Bank, to COVID, and now Beirut, there’s nothing Kwangwoon hasn’t been involved in. And remember what you said before? That this Beirut incident might have been aimed at Europe. They’ve done it once, doing it again wouldn’t be difficult.”

Just like they used Beirut to shake the European market, Kwangwoon could strike again.

“If not that, then it might be a threat directed at me.”

It could just be paranoia.

And there’s no one she could ask for help with this.

If she said Kwangwoon sent a stack of blank pages and asked for help, the world would only laugh at her.

Perhaps Kwangwoon was counting on that too.

To isolate Charol both mentally and publicly.

Since becoming President of EU, it was the first time Charol had ever truly felt fear.

“.......”

What should she do about this?

Should she really just ignore it?

Then what about the consequences that might follow?

She couldn’t even predict what Kwangwoon would do next.

“President?”

“...Call the others. We need to hold a meeting. We’ll have to completely revise the proposal to send to Kwangwoon.”

In the end, Charol raised the white flag.

It seemed she had picked the wrong opponent.