16. If It Cannot Be Avoided
After coming up from Busan and spending a day at home, I went straight to work at the Yeongdong Agricultural Research Institute.
“Representative I. You must have had a hard time.”
Director Heo Mun-hoe greeted me happily.
“Not at all. It was nothing.”
“Did you secure the Japonica early-maturing variety?”
As expected, Director Heo Mun-hoe was a researcher through and through.
Right after the greetings came talk of rice.
“Yes. The Yukara rice was already snatched away by Principal Researcher Hong Seong-u.”
“Haha. I’m one step too late. I’m truly relieved that you secured it.”
“I was lucky.”
“Luck? I almost think that meeting Representative I was the will of heaven.”
Professor Heo Mun-hoe’s face broke into a broad smile.
We were almost there with the new high-yield rice variety now.
Early-maturing Japonica.
Advancing the growth period to express Indica characteristics.
That would be solved through a combination with Yukara rice.
“But how did you bring it? If you had been caught, you would have suffered a terrible ordeal.”
“I think you would have to ask my younger sister about that.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“It means I don’t know either. My younger sister brought it hidden.”
A look of puzzlement rose on Director Heo Mun-hoe’s face too, but was soon erased.
“Haha. At any rate, it has safely made it into our hands now, so that settles it.”
Beyond Director Heo Mun-hoe’s face, yesterday’s memories surfaced.
—But why won’t you tell me?
—How did you hide the rice seeds?
—Yeah.
While I was worrying about how to hide the rice seeds and bring them in from Osaka Port, my younger sister Gyeong-suk told me to just trust her and snatched them away. Since there was no suitable alternative, I decided to wait and see, but remarkably, we were able to enter Korea without arousing even the slightest suspicion.
—It’s a secret.
Well, she was the sister who had even smuggled in a laundry baton, so a mere handful of rice seeds…
When I was still curious, the bright laughter of my younger sister laughing happily echoed vividly in my ears.
It was something possible because the times were still quite lax.
That’s right.
All’s well that ends well.
*
A rolling snowball gradually grows larger on its own.
We put out job postings and busily hired people, and before we knew it, the company gradually took shape and began to roll forward on its own.
That is the essence of a company.
In the end, it is not the president who moves, but the many people within it.
The president merely indicates the direction of that movement.
If the president must personally coordinate all of that movement, then it is not yet a business, but merely a trade.
Before I knew it, the scale of work gradually grew and began to take on a life of its own.
After returning to Korea, I had been busily going back and forth between Yeongdong Foods in Yeongdeungpo and the agricultural research institute in Yeongdong, so before I knew it, September was drawing to a close.
At the Yeongdong Agricultural Research Institute, they were in full swing developing a new high-yield rice variety by combining the Yukara rice I had brought with Taichung No. 1, a traditional Taiwanese variety.
Since we already had the development formula for the high-yield rice and its combination, we were in a situation where we could practically aim for the next stage of development: namely, developing the taste.
The oil-pressing company in Yeongdeungpo had also entered its final stage of conversion into a food company. Once Bak Min-seok and the ramen machinery, which would soon return to Korea, were safely brought in, we would be able to begin production immediately.
Although the ramen business had started late, its progress would proceed much faster, so I had been commuting to Yeongdeungpo every day recently.
“Hello.”
When I opened the door and entered the Yeongdong Foods office, a man with a plain impression greeted me.
“Hello, CEO.”
It was Factory Manager Gim Chun-sam, who had worked at the existing oil-pressing company for a long time.
“Today is the first day for the new hires, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
I had foreseen that the factory’s scale would expand in an instant, so I had ordered Gim Chun-sam to secure additional manpower in advance.
The reason I had acquired a cooking oil company was simple.
Leaving aside the technical aspects such as ramen manufacturing techniques and packaging methods, the core of the process, if you thought about it, was the deep-frying process.
Frying noodles extruded from wheat flour dough in oil and drying them.
That was why I had acquired the oil-pressing company.
Because with the oil-pressing company’s foundation, we could convert it directly into a ramen manufacturer.
Far in the future, ramen would come under attack and non-fried noodle varieties would emerge, but for now, such technology didn’t exist, and even if it had, non-fried noodles would have significantly increased production costs, making them unsuitable.
The core of the ramen I was trying to make was that it had to be delicious yet abundant in quantity, and most importantly, cheap.
“Let’s go.”
I went out to the empty lot where the factory workers were holding an all-hands meeting.
In the empty lot were about a hundred women wearing headscarves and men in work clothes. There had been roughly twenty existing employees, and seeing them standing face-to-face with the newly hired people, awkward with each other, was a somewhat pitiful sight.
“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am I Dong-ho, president of Yeongdong Foods.”
I climbed onto the platform and spoke loudly without a microphone. Even so, my voice would have reached the corners.
“You are all here to earn money. I will not speak at length. Yeongdong Foods will succeed. And after that success, I will make sure to take care of all of you. Please help us greatly.”
As I spoke, I bent my waist at a ninety-degree angle.
I bowed to them sincerely. The reason they had seemed pitiful to me for that brief moment, rudely so, was none other than this.
Among them here and there were young friends barely four or five years older than my younger sister, and regardless of age, the people’s faces were etched with suffering and exhaustion.
I had arrogantly felt sympathy for them for a moment.
I was deeply ashamed of that.
It was an immense rudeness to the heroes of each household, who represented their own families and struggled desperately to live even slightly better.
It was not a one-sided favor of mine to fill their stomachs, but rather each side helping the other. Inwardly, I bowed my head once more.
*
“Hmm… Representative I. Do you truly intend to meet him?”
“Yes. It is something that cannot be avoided.”
We sat facing each other in Director Heo Mun-hoe’s office, drinking tea.
“Ha… I’m sorry. I’ve needlessly put you in a difficult position because of me.”
“Not at all. Even without you, Director, it was an inevitable meeting sooner or later.”
Director Heo Mun-hoe’s face was full of apology.
Director Heo Mun-hoe was not merely an agricultural researcher or professor.
Because it was a country chronically short of rice and suffering from hunger, Director Heo Mun-hoe, a pioneer of agricultural research, had been one of the Central Intelligence Agency’s special management targets even while serving as a professor at Seoul National University’s College of Agriculture. For such a man to suddenly move to a private agricultural research institute, rumors were bound to arise.
“Still, the KCIA is too dangerous a place.”
“I will do my best to talk things through.”
I smiled and consoled the worried Director Heo Mun-hoe.
The Central Intelligence Agency’s contact was simple and clear.
Professor Heo Mun-hoe had moved to a private agricultural research institute; they would confirm whether it was for the sake of the nation. Therefore, they wanted to meet that representative.
I decided to consider it fortunate.
Now I had to walk the path of a businessman in earnest.
And in 1962, the Republic of Korea inevitably demanded of businessmen: stain your hands black.
Both the ramen business and the rice research were proceeding smoothly.
That was precisely why I had to meet him.
“When is the day they requested to meet at the KCIA?”
I asked Director Heo Mun-hoe.
“Three days from now. September 30th.”
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