Chapter 99: Singapore Was a City of the Future
Yang Sobo remained silent for a while. His eyes, whose depth I couldn’t fathom, swept over from head to toe.
Unless he knew that I was living a second life, it would have been hard for him to find any contradiction in my answer.
At last, Yang Sobo nodded. He had accepted my response.
“Right. That insight. That’s your greatest weapon.”
“I’m rely trying to seize an opportunity when it cos. I never want to go back under the Cheongnyangni bridge again. I haven’t forgotten that you were the one who gave that chance, sir.”
At my words, a faint smile ford at the corner of Yang Sobo’s lips. But Yang Sobo, who had built an empire of gold, was not soone to be taken lightly.
He looked at with sharp eyes and asked,
“So, you said you were interested in my businesses. Once I leave this land, they’ll all turn to dust anyway. What is it that you want?”
His question was a test. A final trial from an old tiger trying to asure just how far this fledgling could see, and how big his vessel truly was.
I didn’t hesitate for even a mont. In my head, I had already finished laying out the plan for dismantling Yang Sobo’s empire and making its heart my own.
“Your businesses are not just a collection of companies. It wouldn’t be wrong to call them a single organic lifeform, complete with veins and a nervous system. What I want is that entire lifeform.”
“The entire thing?”
“I want your trading company.”
At my answer, Yang Sobo’s eyebrow twitched.
“Oh? A trading company. There should be plenty of other things that make money.”
“Money can always be earned again. But gaining overseas routes and people is a different matter. Your trading company isn’t just a company—it’s the network itself that connects Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan. I want that path.”
I didn’t bother hiding my ambition and laid it bare. The more I did, the deeper Yang Sobo’s gaze beca.
“That alone isn’t enough. Even if you have the road, if you can’t get your hands on the information flowing along it, you’ll only have half of it. Hand over the hotels and entertainnt houses in Myeong-dong to .”
“…….”
“That place is the heart where all power and information in Seoul converge. I will take that information network as well.”
At my audacious demand, all expression vanished from Yang Sobo’s face. In its place, a chilling cold settled in.
“One last thing.”
If I were going to be frightened and retreat at that sight, I wouldn’t have brought it up in the first place. Instead, I t his eyes directly and said,
“I also want the illegal remittance organization that you operate.”
“An illegal remittance organization, huh…….”
At that mont, the air in the office seed to freeze solid. I could even hear Zhang Wei swallowing his breath.
Yang Sobo’s gaze sharpened like a blade glinting with frost.
“……You’re crossing the line now.”
“You can never deal with people like Jeong Tae-soo if you only move within the boundaries of the law. Sotis, you need power that leaps beyond the rules. If it had the strength of ten in your hands, I can make it wield the strength of a hundred in mine.”
From the start, I had every intention of taking these three things, no matter what price I had to pay.
Under normal circumstances, I would have also coveted the smuggling routes, but since I had already forged ties with Han Do-gyeong, there was no need to overreach.
“Heh……. Everything…… you’re asking for everything.”
“Yes. Everything.”
Yang Sobo let out another shallow sigh. Then he pressed his lips shut. A deep silence enveloped the office.
After a short while, as if he had reached a decision, a low but weighty voice cut through the stillness.
“I’ll think it over.”
“Yes. It’s not an easy decision to make.”
I nodded and changed the subject. I had no intention of overturning his decision. The Yang Sobo I knew existed only up until the mont he left the Republic of Korea.
After he left Korea, I never heard his na anywhere again.
“By the way…… have you decided where you’ll go?”
“I’m thinking of Hong Kong or Taiwan.”
Hong Kong and Taiwan. The centers of Overseas Chinese capital, and the places where his network functioned most powerfully. It was a natural choice.
But there was an even better option.
“It’s not a bad choice, sir.”
I paused briefly and t his eyes.
“There’s a better place.”
“A better place?”
“Singapore.”
At my words, Yang Sobo let out a hollow chuckle.
“Singapore? Hah. That tiny island? Baek Min-woo, you still don’t know the world very well. Asia’s money gathers in Hong Kong, and the spirit of the Overseas Chinese lies in Taiwan. How could a place like Singapore ever compare to those two?”
His reaction was only natural. No, most people would probably think the sa.
At present, Singapore was nothing more than a small port city with a British naval base.
“Sir. Taiwan is a powder keg that could explode at any ti, and Hong Kong is a city without roots. It’s like sleeping on top of a ti bomb. And both places already have the Triads firmly entrenched. The mont you step onto their land, they won’t be friends—they’ll be competitors.”
Soone who had lost his base and been driven out would be all the more closely watched. I thought to myself as I spoke.
‘Maybe that’s why I never heard Yang Sobo’s na again?’
I stood up, picked up the globe placed on a table in the corner, and set it down on the desk.
“Sir. Singapore sits at the crossroads connecting East and West, the heart of the Strait of Malacca. Every ship in the world passes through there. As global trade continues to grow, the value of that crossroads will exceed all imagination.”
As I said that, I pointed my finger at Singapore, nothing more than a tiny dot at the southern tip of the Asian continent.
“And most importantly…… that place is a city of the Overseas Chinese. There, you won’t be a persecuted minority anymore. You can beco the master who leads that city.”
He was soone who had once reigned over the heads of the Overseas Chinese in the Republic of Korea. Why wouldn’t he be able to do it twice?
I withdrew my hand from the globe and faced him again.
“If Hong Kong and Taiwan are cities of the past and the present, then Singapore is a city of the future. You’re already in a position where you must be driven out by Korea’s leader. Rather than chasing the past and the present once more, now is the ti to move while looking toward the future.”
At my words, Yang Sobo couldn’t say anything for a long while. His eyes shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck within him.
“What on earth are you trusting…….”
Yang Sobo’s words couldn’t reach their end. Countless thoughts must have been tangling chaotically in his mind.
After keeping his mouth shut for a long ti, he finally asked in a cracked voice,
“Just how far…… are you seeing?”
After that, the conversation ended.
Leaving behind his words that he would call for again, I left Yang Sobo’s office. Zhang Wei followed right after, as if he wanted to say sothing, but I rely shook my head and left Yang Sobo’s residence.
A heavy silence settled over the office Baek Min-woo had left behind.
Yang Sobo stared at the globe without moving for a long ti. More precisely, he couldn’t take his eyes off the small island Baek Min-woo had pointed to—Singapore.
Zhang Wei approached and stood beside him without a sound, but Yang Sobo remained lost in deep thought.
How much ti had passed? At last, Yang Sobo opened his mouth in a low voice.
“Zhang Wei.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What do you think about what that child said?”
Zhang Wei hesitated for a mont. But thinking that what Yang Sobo needed right now was an honest opinion, he finally spoke with difficulty.
“……It’s hard to believe. But when I look back on what that child has done so far, I don’t think we can simply dismiss it as empty talk.”
“Right. That’s the problem.”
Yang Sobo lifted his empty teacup.
“Taiwan and Hong Kong……. The mont I step onto their land, they’ll turn into a pack of hyenas. Even so, Singapore? That place is practically a barren wasteland with nothing yet. You’re telling to stake everything I have left on a place like that?”
“……But there was a strange certainty in that child’s words.”
Zhang Wei carefully added his thoughts. After letting out a low hum, Yang Sobo nodded.
Certainty. A firm conviction that it would turn out that way had been carried in Baek Min-woo’s voice.
“I thought of it as nothing more than a small port city, but in that child’s eyes, it must have looked like a massive crucible where the world’s money gathers.”
Yang Sobo turned his gaze back to the globe. Now, that tiny dot felt entirely different from before.
“He’s far too dangerous. He could slip beyond your control, sir.”
“A monster.”
Yang Sobo gave a bitter smile and acknowledged it without hesitation.
“On top of only demanding exactly what he needs, that bastard is a monster in the truest sense of the word. I thought he’d want the Myeong-dong private lending market.”
“It seems he thinks that if he moves together with Cheon Sang-do, he can take it directly.”
“So even without my help, the private lending market would be easy for him?”
“That’s what it looks like.”
If it were Baek Min-woo, that child, it might indeed be possible. The bitter smile on Yang Sobo’s lips deepened.
“There’ll be severe internal backlash, won’t there?”
“Yes. He’s asking for everything you have, sir.”
“Then this will be a good chance to find out who’s willing to go all the way with . Call a full assembly in four days.”
“Understood.”
Zhang Wei bowed deeply.
“And yet, I couldn’t even bring up the real estate issue.”
Yang Sobo let out a small sigh and lanted. He hadn’t been able to say the most important thing he’d intended to discuss today.
That was how much of a shock today’s conversation with Baek Min-woo had been.
Once more, Yang Sobo fell into thought as he looked at the small dot on the globe—Singapore.
I left Yang Sobo’s house and headed for Myeong-dong.
Cheon Sang-do’s office, which I was visiting for the first ti, was located in a shabby three-story comrcial building.
When I opened the steel door with no signboard and stepped inside, everyone within turned their gaze toward .
Thick cigarette smoke, a musty sll of sweat, and the invisible scent of money mixed together and stabbed at my nose.
Kang Cheol-min and Yoon Ji-seong were the first to greet .
“Boss!”
“Boss.”
I gave them a faint smile in response.
Inside the office were so rough-looking n I hadn’t seen before, as well as a young woman seated at a desk near the entrance, silently flicking the beads of an abacus.
They were probably people Cheon Sang-do had newly gathered after wrapping up the securities firm.
“What’s all this racket…….”
The innermost door opened and Cheon Sang-do ca out. He had been grumbling irritably, but when he saw , he stopped mid-sentence.
A flicker of surprise crossed his face, then it quickly turned into his characteristic sly grin.
“Well, I’ll be damned, President Baek. Co on in, hurry. To think you’d grace a shabby place like this with your presence.”
Cracking jokes, Cheon Sang-do guided into the president’s office. I went in with him and lightly glanced around.
Unlike the flashy securities firm president’s office, it was modest—just an old desk and a single sofa. Yet sohow, it felt even more comfortable, and a small smile escaped without realizing it.
“Go on and have a seat. Ah, would you like a cup of coffee? The coffee at the teahouse down below is sothing else.”
“That sounds good.”
When I nodded, Cheon Sang-do cracked the door open slightly and shouted,
“Miss Kim! Order two coffees from the teahouse downstairs.”
He then plopped back down onto the sofa across from and spoke a bit awkwardly.
“Feels awful empty, don’t it? Worlds apart from when I was a securities firm president. I should put so stuff in here, but no matter what I try, it just don’t look right.”
“I actually like it better. Needless decorations only clutter the eyes.”
At my words, Cheon Sang-do burst into laughter.
“Haha, just as I thought, President Baek really knows his stuff. The kind of business we do, you see, it ain’t about having a fancy signboard or a shiny office.”
He took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and continued.
“Banks and securities firms gotta show off their credibility, so they deck themselves out all grand-like. Folks like us are the opposite. Look like nothin’s there, keep it quiet. That way, flies sniffin’ for money don’t co buzzin’ around. This office is just a shell. The real vault’s gotta be sowhere people can’t see.”
Just then, there was a knock, and a woman called Miss Kim brought in two cups of coffee. She set them down in front of Cheon Sang-do and , then quietly left.
“You were surprised to see a new face, weren’t you? If it’s all n, custors tend to turn around and leave, so you need at least one pretty face.”
“Is that so?”
“She’s a girl I had with back when I was in private lending. She’s real ticulous with her work. She’s married now, got two kids. But the na just stuck, so we keep callin’ her that.”
After that, a bit more idle chatter followed. Taking a sip of his coffee, Cheon Sang-do spoke.
“So, go on then. Tell about your plan. I’m dyin’ of curiosity.”
“I heard Dan Tae-geon has been moving quickly?”
“That’s right. Since that old man Yang Sobo’s been quiet for so reason, Dan Tae-geon’s been muscling his way into the gap. If things keep goin’ like this, even I won’t be able to hold out much longer.”
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