CH125 | VOC

“Howdy. I’m Kim In-ha.”

“Nice to meet you,” the Saseong inspector replied. “You’re the new owner, I hear.”

“That’s right. I look forward to working with you.”

“Well, the disposal team must have contacted you, but according to our security regulations, all disposal procedures must be conducted under our supervision.”

Kim In-ha glanced at the four inspectors who had arrived with the 10 tons of defective semiconductors and smiled affably. “Of course, I’m well aware of that. Don’t you worry, I’ll make sure everything is done by the book.”

“We have 10 tons today. How long will it take to process?”

“It’s too much to finish in one day. We’ll need until tomorrow.”

The inspector nodded. “Alright. Let’s unload the goods and start the process.”

The inspectors unloaded the drums, opened each one, took photos with a Polaroid camera, labeled them, and recorded the information in their notebooks.

Kim In-ha said to his brothers, “They’re taking photos and recording everything, so don’t even think about touching anything. Got it?”

“Hyung, you’ve told us a million times. We know, don’t worry.”

“You idiots, if we’re caught, we’ll lose everything. Just listen to me.”

“Alright, alright.”

As Kim In-ha was bickering with his brothers, the inspector approached him.

“Let’s begin. We’ll start with drum number one. But first, we need to inspect the shredder.”

Kim In-ha, who had been informed by Park Sol in advance, nodded. “Alright.”

The inspectors climbed onto the shredder and started their inspection.

Kim In-ha said to the lead inspector in a friendly tone,

“Those blades look dangerous. Aren’t you scared? You could lose a finger.”

The lead inspector frowned slightly. “It’s our job.”

“You have a tough job. I respect that.”

“It’s nothing.”

Kim In-ha watched them silently, his heart pounding.

‘We can’t get caught.’

If the inspectors discovered the modified shredder, it was all over.

They would lose the money and their contract with Saseong.

Just then,

“Inspector Kim, there’s a problem with the gap here.”

Kim In-ha’s face turned pale.

“What? What’s the problem?”

He looked at the lead inspector, who was approaching the shredder with a grim expression, and grimaced.

“Shit, are we screwed?”

“Hyung, calm down. They haven’t said what the problem is yet,” his brother said.

“Th-that’s right.”

He regained his composure and approached the shredder. “Wh-what’s the problem? I thought we checked everything.”

The inspectors discussed the issue among themselves and then said to Kim In-ha,

“Sir, the gap between the blades…”

“What about it?”

“It’s too narrow. At 0.1 cm, the shredding process will take too long. Widen it to 0.3 cm. That should be enough. We won’t be able to finish by tomorrow at 0.1 cm.”

Kim In-ha was relieved.

The problem was just a simple setting, not the gap between the drums.

He asked cautiously, just in case, “Is there anything else? This is my first time…”

“No, that’s all. Just adjust the blade gap to 0.3 cm, and we can start.”

Kim In-ha smiled brightly. “Alright. My apologies. Hey, you idiot! Come here!”

The temporary worker in charge of the shredder came running.

“Yes, sir!”

“Why is the blade gap at 0.1 cm?! I told you to set it to 0.3 cm!”

“You didn’t say anyth— Ouch!”

Kim In-ha kicked him in the shin. “Don’t talk back to me.”

He then smiled at the lead inspector. “My apologies. He’s new to this. We’ll start right away.”

* * *

“Hahahahahaha!”

I laughed, holding up the shredded material from Kim In-ha’s shredding company.

“Exactly 30% intact!”

300,000 defective Saseong semiconductor chips were finally in my hands.

It was 5% of the 6 million chips Chairman Wang had requested for six months.

“How thoroughly did the inspectors check?”

Kim Jin-ha smiled. “They inspected the shredder meticulously, but they didn’t pay much attention to the shredded material. They only watched us feed the chips into the shredder.”

“Really?” I grinned. “Then we can widen the gap a bit more.”

30% wasn’t enough.

We had to be bold.

“Let’s increase it to 50%. Even 70% if we can.”

Park Jong-bum said in surprise, “Isn’t that too obvious?”

“They’re not even checking, they’re too focused on feeding the chips into the shredder. Mr. Kim, can you do it?”

Kim Jin-ha thought for a moment and nodded. “It shouldn’t be a problem. The shredded material falls into a ton bag under the shredder. We just have to layer some properly shredded material on top before they check.”

I said excitedly, “Excellent. Very good.”

I shook his hand. “You did well. It wasn’t an easy task.”

“I just followed your orders, CEO Park. It was nothing.”

I snapped my fingers at Park Jong-bum. “Director Park, give them their reward.”

He handed each of the three brothers a gold bar.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a bonus, separate from your payment. It’s clean gold, laundered and ready to use. Take it.”

As they were examining the gold bars with glee, Park Jong-bum said, “Sir, what about the remaining 70%? We have to extract the gold from the shredded chips.”

I smirked. “Mix in some shredded discarded chips to make up for the 30% we took. It’ll look the same to the naked eye.”

“Yes.”

“Mr. Kim.”

Kim Jin-ha, who had been biting the gold bar to check its authenticity, flinched and cleared his throat. “Just checking if it’s real gold.”

“Of course it is. I wouldn’t give you anything less. Anyway, we’ll provide you with shredded discarded chips to make up the missing 30%. Deliver that to the company I designate.”

“Which company?”

It was time to bring in the supporting cast.

“Hanyoung Tech, the second-largest electronic scrap company in Korea.”

Hanyoung Tech was one of the companies that had colluded with us to win the electronic scrap bids from large corporations.

They hadn’t lost anything from our sample manipulation scheme.

They were the only company that had survived after crossing me.

“Tell them it’s shredded semiconductor chips from Saseong and sell it to them. They’ll buy it, they can’t ignore the gold content. And make sure they give you a receipt. We need the documentation.”

I always eradicated my enemies, root and stem.

That was my style.

“Don’t tell me…”

I smiled. “Hanyoung Tech, those brave souls. I wonder how they dared to steal from Saseong, colluding with the shredding company.”

I didn’t send the 300,000 defective chips directly to Haixin Group.

I leased some floors of the secondhand electronic components department store to various retailers, collecting 40% of their sales as rent.

It wasn’t unusual, as many individual component stores were opening around our department store, but the owners of some of these stores were key players in my plan.

“Remember, the chips came from Hanyoung Tech.”

Woo-hyuk, a second-generation heihaizi and a member of the Park Sol squad, nodded with a serious expression.

“Yes, sir.”

“I’ll make sure you don’t go to prison. You’re just a middleman, and this is China. Saseong’s reach is limited here. Just claim ignorance. You bought them because they were being sold, and you sold them because someone wanted to buy them.”

He thumped his chest. “Trust me, sir. I’ll handle it.”

I put my hand on his shoulder. “But things don’t always go according to plan. Saseong might take drastic measures. So…”

He put his hand on top of mine. “Sir, as long as I don’t get the death penalty, I’m fine.”

“What?”

“I’m willing to go through hell for you, sir. But I have a family, so the death penalty is a bit… Well, you’ll take care of my family if I go to prison, won’t you?”

That’s why I liked heihaizi.

Their blind loyalty and recklessness.

Of course, my meticulous management and generous rewards played a part, but I couldn’t help but feel affection for those who were willing to go this far for me.

I rarely felt affection for anyone, but the heihaizi’s filial piety was touching.

“Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of everything. I wouldn’t abandon my own people, would I? And Haixin Group won’t stay silent either. Saseong is only powerful in Korea, isn’t that right?”

“Of course! Saseong is nothing compared to you in China!”

“Anyway, the chips will go through these retailers to Haixin Group. And we’ll collect 40% of their sales as rent.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And this is important.”

I whispered in his ear, “Distribute about 20% of the chips to other retailers without Haixin Group knowing.”

“What?”

“Give them a taste of the defective semiconductor business. Let them see how profitable it is.”

I needed to put the defective semiconductors on the radar of the greedy Chinese traders.

Once they got a taste, they wouldn’t be able to resist.

The retailers and traders who profited from the defective chips would start placing orders all over the world, and the worker ants, with a guaranteed buyer, would do anything to acquire the goods.

We had chosen to extract the chips through the shredder because small-time operations weren’t profitable for us, but for individual retailers, even a handful of chips was a fortune.

A handful was at least 100 chips.

At 100,000 won per chip for new semiconductors, that was 10 million won. Who wouldn’t be tempted?

Once this plan was in full swing, semiconductor companies all over the world would be plagued by leaks.

The process was different, but the result would be the same as the secondhand electronic components business.

“I understand. I’ll do it.”

“And lastly, Woo-hyuk, what’s our relationship?”

He smiled. “We don’t know each other.”