12 Hours After - Chapter 161 - Fake News, Part II

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

‘There is an old saying that if a prime minister’s dog dies, they pay respects to the deceased, but if he dies, they don’t pay tributes. When he is alive, they are under the influence of authority, and when a dog dies, they go to offer their condolences to the family in mourning. But when he dies, no one will be there; it points out the nature of those who stick to him according to their own interests.’

In retrospect, I had met a lot of people like that since I started the Invictus Investment.

‘Hang Sang-hoon bought a bitcoin with that amount he won the Lotto, and he had a big hit.’ When the rumor spread, suddenly I got a call from a college colleague, and he asked me, “Why don’t you invest here while I have a good investment item?”

An old elementary school classmate who I did not remember came to my company after a few years and said, “There is a good piece of land on Jeju Island. Why don’t you buy it?”

I fended them off with a firm determination, as I didn’t want to deal with flies running at my money. Three years had passed since then. Naturally, I had made relationships with so many people, both those involved in work and those not involved in work. They were not like my old classmates saying, “I heard you won a lotto. Let’s share it together,” but there were quite a few people gathered by their interests.

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‘Maybe this false news of “Han Sang-hoon is bankrupt” will be an opportunity to uncover the true connections that will stay be by my side even when I’m not good.’

Lee Won-jae told me, “If this is a lie, I’ll cut it off from my position.”

As I heard that, instead of saying, “It’s a novel,” I cleared my voice “Ahem,” for a moment and said to him in a dull and slightly gloomy way. “… Well, when does that article come out?”

“Yes?” Lee Won-jae looked a little surprised.

“Well… even if that article comes out… I can’t help it.” I said to him after that.

“Yes? Then…”

And what would follow after that was an unvoiced “Is this true?”

However, he didn’t say anything more.

I spoke to him, “… thank you for calling anyway. I have a meeting, so I need to say goodbye.”

“Oh, yes, sir.”

I hung up the phone and laughed. I didn’t say yes or no, but this was good enough to be misunderstood that I had lost a lot of money investing in China. There would be a reaction in either direction after the article was published. I decided to watch it for a while.

————————–

That evening, the news came out in the end. [Han Sang-hoon, who had been on a roll, took a big loss from investing in China.]

I didn’t know how Lee Won-jae accepted my response, but he didn’t seem to have cut the article. I read the article and the comments. As expected, such comments were written:

– He had been on a lucky roll, but now he is bankrupt.-

– An overnight millionaire can be completely ruined in a moment. He who lives by luck dies by luck.-

-Have you seen anyone who’s been rich after winning the Lotto? So is he. We’re going to go to the abyss of life because of the good times.-

– The recent dumpling and makgeolli companies which he bought are also losing stock price support. He has been lucky enough to win, but now he is showing his real ability.-

Of course, there were favorable comments.

– He has earned a few billion dollars, and I’m sure he is richer than you, no matter how much he lost.-

– When he acquired Kai Games and Hyun Young Pharmaceutical it was a really good choice… but he can’t always win.-

– The Great Chinese Depression was really hard for anyone to predict. I guess Invictus Investment got caught up in it, too. Han Sang-hoon has the ability, so he’ll make a comeback.-

– There are so many people who commit suicide and lots of companies which went bankrupt in Yeouido; an investment company can’t help it.-

I thanked them very much for writing good comments, those who had never seen me at all. But most of the comments were reacting like ‘That son of a bitch is ruined. That’s great. It’s good.’

But in the eyes of the public, this article that I had lost a lot of money must have been read with great confidence, since all the people who had invested in it lost money. They didn’t imagine that I had put up a short sale on assets in China.

‘It wasn’t really a disaster, but it was a huge hit.’ I had made more than thirty-three billion dollars in profits, but it was only me and four key members of the Invictus Investment gathered in the conference room who knew the fact. Even Secretary Park, who had gathered people in the conference room, didn’t know that. I had proceeded with this project in secrecy, as I did not want this information to get out in advance.

Of course, a few working-level officials who had made investments in the company would know to some extent that we made money by putting up a selling position, as they were the ones who pushed the sell button themselves. But they did not know that we were all in on the sale position.

‘Usually, to take a selling position is a common way to hedge when avoiding risk.’

They would have been thinking only to the extent of it, ‘Because of CEO Han, the company must have lost a little bit less.’ Other departments would not have thought that we had all taken the selling position. Only five people, including myself, knew that I had become the richest person in Korea at this time. There was no one about to open their mouths, since I had put down the order to keep silent on all media about any investment contents in China.

In addition, I said one more thing today: “Don’t deny the news that our company has lost money.”

With this, I’d become a temporary loser who had been dealt a huge loss after investing in China. The truth would come out soon anyway, but by then I intended to take a look at other people’s feelings. But it went faster than expected.

“Oppa. Is this true?”

The person who lived with me, Ah-young brought her smartphone first. I was embarrassed. To be honest, she was not the subject of this test, because I couldn’t imagine her leaving me for any reason. I shook my head.

“No, that’s not it. It’s fake news.”

Ah-young narrowed her eyes and said, “Really? You’re not pretending to be okay in front of me, are you?”

Ah-young used to ask me, “I heard that China is difficult these days. Is your company okay?” Now that such news just came out, she could misunderstand.

I strongly denied it. “No. Look at the back. There’s a story about how I went to the cathedral to borrow the power of faith. I went there to play because you asked me to go. I think the reporter invented this.”

Ah-young looked at her smartphone more, and only then did she nod. “Ahhh…”

Ah-young looked surprised at the first part of the article and rann to me. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Hooo, thank God. I was starting to think I would have to sell my apartment building again.”

The very apartment I used to live in. Both Ah-young or I had moved to this penthouse for quite some time, but she was still receiving the monthly rent there.

I told her, “Why did you sell it? You said it was your parents’ legacy.”

The building was the last legacy left for Ah-young before her mother died of cancer. It meant more to her than just property.

“No, but, if you were ruined, I was going to try to sell mine to help. I could get ten million dollars if I sold it in a hurry. I was wondering if you could get back on your feet with that.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” I said, waving my hands. But inwardly, I was happy, since her words seemed sincere.

‘Ah-young has passed.’

As we had lived together for a year, I knew that the scenario of ‘So now you’re a beggar, then I’ll leave. Goodbye!’ was almost impossible with her mind and heart.

However, I got calls from my parents after Ah-young.

“Is that true? Your mother is worried.”

“Is the news true? Your father is worried.”

“Oppa, is that true? Really? Our parents are worried.”

My family was just talking about their great worries, whether I had been ruined or not. I was extremely grateful to them. ‘As expected, my family loves me.

‘Among the families of the heads of large corporations, it is said that even parents, brothers, and sisters are fighting because of money.’

However, my family was far from that. It was a good thing, though.

———————————-

The next day, I went to work as usual. In front of the president’s office, Secretary Park was waiting for me.

“Are you here, boss?” He was much the same as usual.

“Secretary Park,” I spoke to him.

“Yes?”

“Did you see the news?”

“To be honest, I don’t see it often,” Park said with a slightly awkward smile.

“Really? Um…” I thought for a moment and decided to play a joke on him. “Somehow our company might get tough.”

But when I said that, he said, “Oh, I saw that news; we’ve lost a lot of money investing in China…”

“Yes. Did you see that?”

“Yes.” Secretary Park nodded shortly. He probably watched the news yesterday and decided not to show me his reaction, just in case I would be depressed.

‘This guy’s reliable, too.’ I told him, thinking about it. “By the way, our company might be ruined. And you might get fired.”

Secretary Park said, slightly lowering his head, “I see… In any case, I’ll stand by you until the end. I’ve been working on good terms, so I can work for a few months without pay…”

At any rate, this guy’s reaction wasn’t funny.

I said with a smile, “It’s a joke, man. How could we be ruined? Our company will go for another thousand years.”

——

A few hours after going to work, I got a call from Ji-hoon, my former secretary who was running a startup company. “I saw my article about you… Are you okay?”

I played a joke on this fellow, too. “No, it’s not okay. Maybe I’ll have to get back the investment I made to you.”

“… are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, that’s… That’s how it turned out. If you do, I’ll return the investment right away. I’ll try my best to help you. Due to your advice not to buy an office… huh…”

As he said that, he noticed something a little strange. I already told him a few months ago, “Business will be bad. There will be a big incident.”

I was the one who had given him a warning.

“Ha-ha-ha. You saw it. I can’t lose.” I couldn’t stand it, and I laughed.

“Huh… on the person who called… I was worried about you!” Ji-hoon grumbled. I could feel the present secretary and the former secretary, thinking of me from the bottom of their heart.

‘Both of you have passed.’ That was why I had kept them at my side.

I thought, ‘Well… after all, there’s no one stabbing me in the back. Is it because they don’t believe the article is true? I thought it was a funny trap… but I’m sorry no one got caught…’

——

But that was only for a short time. A few days later, the trap caught more big fish than I thought it would.