Chapter 172

Chapter 172. Divide and Conquer

"You people are going to pay for this! Do you have any idea what happened after our Youngchae used that hair dye you sent for viral promotion? Her face swelled up like a balloon!"

When I pushed forward with the classic tactic of turning the tables, he snorted.

"Heard about that already. But I talked to our lawyer a little, and he said we ain't got no problem."

Dae-hun had already reported that part to me.

It was the excuse he'd used when canceling the contract.

Apparently, that bastard and I had similar imaginations.

At least it meant I could keep the story consistent.

"How is there no problem? Do you have any idea how much financial damage we've suffered? Not to mention the physical and emotional damage Youngchae went through."

"The products we sponsored to you were one hundred percent natural. And the products currently on the market got P-P-X-D written right there on the ingredient label. If it's written on the label, then we're completely innocent."

They listed it on the ingredients?

Did that mean they could keep promoting the old natural image as long as the actual ingredient list mentioned it?

The moment he started talking law, I ran out of things to say.

"And compared to the others, we're pretty honest. Other bastards use PPXD and still sell it as natural. What does 'natural' even mean in the first place?"

"You should know better than me. You're the ones advertising it as natural and selling it that way."

"Look at this little bastard, acting all innocent while running his mouth."

I didn't care what was technically legal.

I didn't need to.

No matter how he tried to justify it, 〈Bad Product Busters〉 was going to call them out for it.

And once that happened, all hell would break loose.

"So you're the guy who called us last time, huh? Because of you, one of our marketing employees is furious. Absolutely furious!"

"What does that mean?"

"It means he's angry!"

Lee Woosung shoved me and told me to get out while he was still "asking nicely."

Choi Gyu-sik stepped in to stop him, but the old man was surprisingly strong.

"I heard you people going on about advertising-slot costs and all that. We'll let it go if you just pay the basic cancellation penalty, so stop sticking your nose in and get out."

"If we pay the penalty, of course you're supposed to let it go."

Lee Woosung kept pushing me.

When Choi Gyu-sik repeatedly stepped in, Woosung suddenly shoved him too and snapped.

"And who the hell are you?! You look like this punk's lackey. Just because you're strong, you think you can barge into someone else's workplace and cause trouble? Aigoo! Aigoo! Two young bastards are attacking a helpless old man!"

Lee Woosung screamed dramatically.

Unfortunately for him, the factory was mostly empty because it was a rare holiday.

No one was there to hear him.

"I'm a director. I came here because of a film project and happened to run into you. We didn't come with bad intentions, so please calm down."

"No bad intentions? You're threatening people by saying someone's face swelled up! If that's not a bad thing to say, what is it? A compliment?"

I'd heard he had built himself up from nothing.

I hadn't expected to confirm it through something this exhausting.

"I'm serious. We came because we're considering buying dye in bulk for a film. I'm sorry we entered without saying anything."

"R-Really?"

Pure-hearted Choi Gyu-sik and pure-hearted Lee Woosung somehow began resolving things amicably.

Park Chan-deok could handle his own film just fine.

Still, I suppose it was good that we avoided an even bigger fight.

"What's the movie called?"

"Ah. You know Director Park Chan-deok, right? It's his next project, 〈Listen to the Sound of Blue〉."

"What?!"

The moment he heard the title, Lee Woosung grabbed the back of his neck.

He didn't seem like he had high blood pressure or anything.

His acting deserved Hollywood recognition.

"W-W-What does that Do Jun-hyeok bastard have to do with that movie?"

"What? Ah, he's actually the person who just recommended the lead actress."

"You rotten son of a...!"

The massive Lee Woosung sprang forward like a flying squirrel and grabbed me by the collar.

"You dare...! Cancel my advertisement, and now you dare steal my daughter's role too?!"

"What?"

I stole his daughter's role?

Lee Woosung began trembling like a leaf.

Then he raised one of his short arms into the air.

At that moment, Jo Gwang-jo's 〈Searching for People, Searching for Ginseng〉 started blasting from the phone in his pocket.

His ringtone.

Lee Woosung quietly released my collar and answered.

"Hello?"

"Aaaaaagh! Dad! Send me money! Money!"

Apparently, Lee Woosung had bad hearing, because his call volume was turned all the way up.

It wasn't even on speakerphone, yet the voice on the other end rang out as though begging everyone nearby to listen.

"My one damn daughter is a bottomless pit. A bottomless pit, I tell you. I sent you money yesterday!"

"That bastard Park Chan-deok suddenly told me to audition! Just wait until I find out which bitch it is. I'm going to bury her!"

"What're you gonna spend the money on? Buy a knife and go stab somebody?"

Lee Woosung said it in a completely unserious tone.

His daughter screamed again.

He flinched.

"A-All right, all right. How much? Another million won enough?"

"Send five million!"

"Damn brat... I'm hanging up!"

Lee Woosung ended the call immediately and sighed.

"Damn headache... Trouble inside and outside the house."

"My condolences."

"Why are you still standing here? Get out before I call the police!"

Only then were Choi Gyu-sik and I finally thrown out of the factory.

Choi Gyu-sik stayed silent for a while.

The moment we got back into the car, he burst out laughing.

"See? I told you. You don't follow Do Jun-hyeok into factories."

"I can't laugh. This is serious. Some lunatic just said she'd bury our Youngchae. I'm too anxious to sit still."

Choi Gyu-sik answered,

"From what we heard, Lee Woosung's daughter must be that actress Lee Ye-won, right? Her personality doesn't sound great. If her behavior and the PPXD issue both come out, then this ends up helping you enormously."

"That does seem to be how it's turning out."

"Hasn't your business always worked like this? Do Jun-hyeok's business, I mean. What, can you see the future or something? Hahaha."

Choi Gyu-sik hit me right where it hurt.

"F-Future? Come on. If I could see the future, I'd buy lottery tickets."

"True. Still, it'd make a good movie premise. A businessman who can see the future. Mind if I use it?"

"Would that even be interesting?"

"Whew... That bastard Do Jun-hyeok, what a rude piece of trash."

"You met him? Want me to do some background digging and see if we can find anything useful on him?"

The advertising-agency manager handling the WS Soo campaign was already in serious trouble because Universe had suddenly pulled Youngchae from the advertisement.

Lee Woosung had put his own money into the campaign, but that wasn't the only problem.

If word spread that Universe had abruptly backed out of the advertisement, it would become much harder to find another decent model.

People would assume there had been some kind of problem and Universe had fled.

So it wasn't only Woosung Pharmaceutical that needed leverage on Universe.

The agency manager needed it too.

"Forget it. Why go that far? What are we, gangsters? I already gave him a good cursing right to his face. I grabbed that bastard by the collar and shouted, 'You little punk!' He got so scared he couldn't even move. Bet he pissed himself too. Hahahaha! Around Beopseong-myeon, they call me the Hong Geumbu of Yeonggwang!"

Hong Geumbu, my ass.

The only action he was good at was Hollywood acting.

Lee Woosung laughed without a care.

What thick skin.

Sure, you can consider the matter settled after grabbing his collar once.

But what about us?

The manager shut his eyes for a moment in frustration.

"Ah, what about my daughter? She's an actress too, you know. Looks like that bastard Do Jun-hyeok is planning to steal Ye-won's role too. That damn Park Chan-deok is the director, so I can't exactly complain. I just have to sit there and take it... Anyway, if she loses the role, wouldn't it be good if my daughter became the hair-dye model instead?"

There he went again, saying something ridiculous.

The World Boxing Center had agreed so easily because the model was Blue Moon's Youngchae.

If they tried offering Lee Ye-rim instead, the boxing-center advertising manager and the terrestrial-broadcasting manager would be perfectly justified in slapping them from both sides.

They needed someone who could genuinely replace Youngchae.

Otherwise, keeping the advertising contract alive was already unlikely.

"The important thing is making sure we still profit from the advertisement without sinking all the money we've already spent. I'll do my best to find a replacement model."

"Oh, yeah? ...Right, right. I understand now. Protecting the advertisement comes first."

Lee Woosung added,

"Then I'll focus on squeezing every last won of the cancellation penalty out of them. Arrogant bastard. How dare he mess with Lee Woosung? I don't do dirty tricks, but what I'm rightfully owed, I'll collect properly."

Lee Woosung hung up.

He'd kept the manager on the phone for ages.

Yet the manager still couldn't figure out what the actual purpose of the call had been.

Still, Lee Woosung wasn't someone to underestimate.

He really was a self-made businessman.

He'd only pushed businesses that looked profitable, and he'd accumulated a considerable fortune doing so.

Yet he could never win against his daughter.

He'd spent all his time working, leaving his one and only daughter at home watching television.

Now her head was full of dreams.

She'd already extracted hundreds of millions from him claiming she wanted to become a fashion model.

Apparently, now she wanted to be an actress.

People said she was good at acting, but how would anyone know when she'd never even appeared on television?

Anyway, the manager was somewhat shocked to hear that Do Jun-hyeok had stolen the role from Lee Woosung's daughter, Lee Ye-won.

She'd been bragging only a few days ago that she was almost certainly going to be cast.

How had Do Jun-hyeok found out and snatched it away so quickly?

And not just any role.

A role in a film by the famous Park Chan-deok.

The manager had no idea how it had happened.

But one thing was obvious.

Do Jun-hyeok had Lee Woosung firmly in his sights.

This was a massive crisis.

Still, you couldn't abandon the captain just because you didn't trust him.

If the agency didn't support Lee Woosung, it would sink together with Woosung Pharmaceutical.

They had to find a way to survive.

First, they would expose Universe's outrageous behavior to the public.

They were an advertising company, after all.

Their reach wasn't that much weaker than a major media outlet's.

Then Universe would apologize.

And the WS Soo advertisement would proceed as originally planned.

There was no other choice.

Where were they supposed to find someone who could replace Youngchae?

It would be difficult.

But attacking Universe was unavoidable.

Because replacing Youngchae would be even harder than attacking Universe.

Then his phone rang.

"Yes, this is Yeyoung Planning."

The person on the other end remained silent for a moment before speaking.

"This is Do Jun-hyeok from Universe. Do you have a moment to talk?"

He'd come sooner than expected.

Do Jun-hyeok.

From what the manager had heard, he was unpredictable and difficult to control.

He needed to choose every word carefully.

"Ah, yes. Nice to speak with you."

"Did you speak with Mr. Lee Woosung? Did he mention me?"

What should he say?

Pretend he didn't know anything.

A lie sounded most believable when mixed with about seventy percent truth.

"Yes, that's right. I heard Youngchae developed some side effects from the product and wouldn't be able to film the advertisement. My goodness. Is her health very bad?"

"No. She's fine now."

"That's a relief. We're currently looking for another model ourselves, so I think we'll manage somehow."

After saying that, the manager quietly waited for Do Jun-hyeok's reaction.

"Woosung Pharmaceutical's marketing person said finding another model would probably be impossible. Will you be all right?"

"We'll have to do our best... Hahaha."

Did he call just to rub salt in the wound?

The manager forced out a laugh and was about to end the call when Do Jun-hyeok spoke again.

"I'm sorry to reverse things after everything, but... since you said you're having trouble finding another model, I thought I'd risk being rude and mention something."

"It looks like Youngchae may be able to film the advertisement after all."