Chapter 44
WG Food's manufacturing plant was operating at full capacity day and night.
The factory had never sounded this energetic or destructive since the company was founded.
Huge automated silver cauldron mixers ran twenty-four hours a day without stopping.
Inside them...
Bongau-tang's special galbitang sauce and rich Hanwoo broth base boiled by the ton.
The deep aroma spread everywhere.
Tens of thousands of pouches printed with the Bongau-tang logo continuously rolled along the packaging conveyors.
Under the night lights...
Forklifts hurried back and forth carrying boxes stacked nearly to the warehouse ceiling.
Han Danghyun had kept his promise.
The one billion won had arrived.
That advance payment had placed the entire company under a kind of hypnosis.
The huge amount of cash visibly sitting in our account had erased every suspicion.
If anything...
It encouraged even greater recklessness.
WG Food was a small food manufacturer that had spent years struggling beneath large-company pressure and a stagnant domestic market.
That one-billion-won figure in the bank account was no longer merely money.
It had become something closer to blind faith.
“Assistant Manager Choi.”
“You hear that factory running?”
Manager Kwon handed me production records.
“I got a report from the production director.”
“Bongau-tang says the inventory we have now isn't nearly enough if we're going to open one hundred and twenty stores at the beginning of October.”
“No.”
“Apparently it's one hundred and thirty now.”
“Wait... it already reached one hundred and thirty?”
“Yeah.”
“So CEO Jeong made a major decision during this morning's executive meeting.”
I swallowed a sigh.
“What decision?”
“CEO Han's financial strength has already been proven.”
“CEO Jeong said we can't lose the trust of such a major partner because we fail to supply enough products on time.”
Trust.
As always...
That was the most important thing to CEO Jeong.
“He signed additional pre-purchase contracts with every livestock vendor he could find.”
“More Hanwoo byproducts.”
“More raw ingredients.”
“Has he already completed the contracts?”
“Yeah.”
“He even ordered us to max out the company's credit line and trade-credit purchases to keep the production lines at full capacity.”
“So move quickly.”
Manager Kwon displayed the sales network on the screen and patted my shoulder.
His voice trembled slightly with excitement.
Sweat had gathered under his shirt collar.
For Manager Kwon...
This project was a golden ladder.
It could prove his abilities across the entire company.
Maybe even put him in the running for an executive position later.
The rest of the department was equally excited.
Everyone stared at the new Bongau-tang purchase orders appearing in real time on their monitors.
“This is ridiculous.”
“We just hit it big with instant rice.”
“And now we've got a fixed supply contract worth billions?”
Im Sanghyeon shouted from the break room, celebrating the company's good fortune.
He brought coffees over and handed them to Manager Kwon and me.
“At this rate, who even needs a major corporation?”
“Forget breaking the record for this year's sales bonuses.”
“If this keeps up, we might get a bonus worth an entire house!”
Even Baek Seoyeon, usually strict and cold, could not hide the smile on her face.
CEO Jeong had apparently spent the entire morning calling the factory manager.
Do not save ingredients.
Give Bongau-tang everything they ask for.
Commit everything.
He kept repeating the same orders.
The company was using the sweet one-billion-won advance as its foundation.
Then borrowing and spending several times that amount...
Tens of billions of won in ingredient purchases and credit payments.
It was building an enormous bubble of destruction with its own hands.
If I had never received that future message...
If I had never created a plan...
WG Food might have disappeared from the world after this incident.
The moment Bongau-tang was exposed as a fraud...
We would have collapsed under the weight of unpaid raw ingredients and debts worth tens of billions of won.
Surrounded by excited cheers...
I quietly drank my coffee.
The one-billion-won bait.
Han Danghyun was cunning itself.
He understood exactly what frightened small manufacturers during enormous contracts.
The burden of initial ingredient costs.
The risk of unpaid receivables.
So Han Danghyun took the roughly one hundred billion won in cash stolen from more than one hundred innocent prospective franchisees through interior margins and franchise fees...
And threw only ten percent of that amount at WG Food.
One billion won.
He called it an advance payment.
Hypnotized by that proof of trust...
WG Food was now purchasing massive amounts of Hanwoo byproducts and raw materials in advance.
Why had headquarters demanded that three months of inventory be produced and stored in advance?
To trap WG Food's cash flow inside ingredients and dead inventory.
Then...
When bankruptcy struck...
We would not even have the strength to fight back.
“What a vicious bastard.”
While everyone celebrated...
I stared at the map covered with Bongau-tang logos and clicked my tongue.
While they built their enormous scheme and inflated the bubble...
My job was to close the noose around them the moment that bubble burst.
And the noose would be...
A contract.
I set down my coffee.
Then placed my hands on the keyboard.
It was time to prepare the next stage.
“Manager.”
Once everything was ready...
I went to Manager Kwon.
“About Bongau-tang's request that we produce and stockpile three months of inventory.”
“Yeah.”
“The main contract only addresses it broadly.”
“For practical purposes, I think we should sign an additional agreement that specifies the actual shipment calendar and who bears the storage risk.”
Manager Kwon looked at me.
“Are you worried about Han Danghyun?”
“Well...”
“The production scale is enormous.”
“I think it's better to make everything clear.”
The company was already floating on excitement.
So Manager Kwon accepted my reasoning easily.
“Good.”
“Just because we received one billion won doesn't mean we should become careless.”
“Yes.”
“Business runs on trust.”
“But if we want that trust to continue, the paperwork should be even clearer.”
“Good.”
“Call Han Danghyun's planning team and prepare an additional agreement.”
“We already said we'd adjust details later.”
