A luxury hotel on Yeongjongdo, Incheon.
I was sitting across from Mao Qin.
Beyond the glass window, the sea was visible, and on the table, untouched coffee was growing cold.
“We received the last sample safely.”
“We’re the ones who should apologize for getting it to you late.”
Mao Qin apologized once again for failing to deliver the previous sample.
“That was an unavoidable situation. The entire shipment disappeared—what could you do? We should be understanding.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
Mao Qin lowered her head slightly.
At my words, some of the tension that had been in Mao Qin’s shoulders seemed to ease.
“By the way, we ran some tests with the sample you sent.”
“Ah! That was the part I was most curious about too. How was the response?”
Mao Qin’s eyes sparkled.
She had the expression of someone waiting for the results of an exam.
“Heh heh.”
I let out a brief laugh, paused for a moment, then continued.
“Fortunately, the response was hot. It was impressive.”
“Really? That’s wonderful.”
Mao Qin’s face brightened.
It was the first time I’d seen her smile like that.
“Exactly.”
“I was secretly very worried that it might not suit Korean tastes.”
Mao Qin really had been anxiously waiting for this result.
“I had a lot of worries too, but the response is genuinely good. We distributed one million units, and they were gone in an instant. We’re getting an enormous number of inquiries asking when they’ll come in again.”
“Really?”
No.
Not at all.
They weren’t released into the market at all.
Every sample we received was incinerated at high temperature.
The ones we stole last time, and the ones we received this time as well.
Not a single unit of D-Sand was distributed.
I received them, and I incinerated them.
Not a single unit of D-Sand leaked out.
Even so, I was lying to Mao Qin.
I was telling her it sold well, that the response was explosive.
I was telling her D-Sand’s effects were good.
On top of that, I was going to sign a contract too.
On very favorable terms.
“So I’d like to formally propose a contract.”
“A formal contract?”
Mao Qin’s eyes went round.
“We formally request delivery. The price will be 8 yuan per unit, and we’d like 10 million units supplied every month.”
“T-ten million units?”
Mao Qin was shocked by an order far larger than she had expected.
She had expected one million, maybe two million at most.
This was ten times Mao Qin’s estimate.
She was stunned by the enormous volume, but only for a moment.
In her head, she began calculating how much they could earn.
Eighty million yuan a month.
With that money, it would help the Triad rise again.
It could become the foundation for their revival.
But there was a major problem.
The Triad’s factory.
With the factory’s current production capacity, they couldn’t produce ten million units in a month.
Even making the one million samples had been a frantic race against time.
And now they had to produce ten million units.
Impossible.
“Wouldn’t that be too much?”
Mao Qin cautiously tried to dissuade me.
But it didn’t work at all.
“Too much? This is us being as conservative as possible. Honestly, we were going to start at fifteen million units, but we decided to take a more conservative approach and watch the market response a little longer.”
“I-is that so?”
Mao Qin looked me over once.
My attitude, as if ten million units were truly nothing, seemed to make her even more uneasy.
“There isn’t a problem with supply, is there? If it’s not possible, please tell us in advance. If the goods disappear midway like last time, it’ll put us in a very difficult position too.”
At those words, Mao Qin’s expression stiffened.
Mao Qin quickly started thinking.
She wondered whether she should accept this deal or not.
Right now, the factory’s limit was one hundred thousand units a day.
Even if they ran it nonstop all month, that was three million units.
They could only hit three million if there were no problems whatsoever at the factory.
To produce ten million units, even a rough calculation meant they had to increase output by 3.3 times.
And if the Daehun Faction increased its order later, they still wouldn’t be able to meet the volume.
At least five times.
To be safe, ten times.
They didn’t have the production capacity, so they couldn’t simply accept no matter what.
Her heart was screaming that she had to accept immediately, but she couldn’t ignore reality.
“We’ll have to confirm that part. It’s connected to the Chinese side.”
For now, Mao Qin made an excuse.
“Ah… I see. That’s quite unfortunate. We saw enormous potential this time… but I suppose we may not be able to sell because there’s no supply.”
“……”
I had only spoken naturally, but Mao Qin flinched as though she had been struck by the facts.
Then I should hit her some more.
“Is there no other way? In any case, it seems like there’s plenty to spare on the Chinese side. Tens of billions of units circulate in a single day, and yet ten million a month isn’t possible?”
“There’s a limit to the quantity we can bring in, so I’ll check again.”
She shrank further.
“Understood. Please let me know once you’ve confirmed.”
“Yes. I’ll let you know right away.”
Mao Qin, who had been intimidated, had completely wilted.
“You brought D-Sand over with such confidence that I assumed you had plenty of supply. That’s why we went all out with promotions and events too. I never imagined supply would be the issue.”
“I’m sorry.”
Mao Qin lowered her head as she had at the beginning.
On her face, expectation and anxiety, greed and fear coexisted.
And from her expression, I knew.
She would not be able to turn this contract down.
Her greed would ensure that they built the factory.
.
.
.
After parting with Alex, Mao Qin immediately called the Triad chairman, Zhang Tian.
As soon as he picked up, Mao Qin’s voice came through.
“Uncle! Uncle! This is huge.”
Mao Qin’s excited voice rang vividly.
“What’s so huge?”
Zhang Tian forced himself to calm his rising excitement and asked back.
“The Daehun Faction formally proposed a contract…”
“They proposed a contract?”
“They want us to supply ten million units every month at 8 yuan each.”
“Really?”
Zhang Tian was also startled when he heard Mao Qin’s words.
It was an enormous number.
“Waaah~~~~~~ Isn’t this amazing?”
“That’s good. Truly good. Your hard work paid off.”
Zhang Tian offered his niece clumsy praise.
“We can earn 80 million yuan a month.”
“Eighty million yuan?”
This time, Zhang Tian also swallowed his breath.
Ten million candies and 80 million yuan had completely different impacts.
Eighty million yuan felt far more direct.
That was enough money for the organization to catch its breath.
They could establish a foothold for a comeback.
He saw hope.
“But…”
“But what?”
At Mao Qin’s words, Zhang Tian urgently asked back.
“The factory doesn’t have that much production capacity. Even if we run it at full power, three million units is the limit.”
“Th-that’s true, isn’t it?”
Only then did Zhang Tian grasp the situation.
It wasn’t something he could simply be happy about.
With the current factory, three million units a month was the limit.
To make ten million units, they had to expand the factory.
If they only expanded the factory, every problem would be solved.
But the problem was money.
The Triad’s financial situation was not that good right now.
There were many places money had to go, but what came in had absurdly decreased.
The money that should have come in wasn’t coming.
Claiming that revenue had dropped, tribute payments had also decreased.
As the money the organization handed out decreased, the members’ thinking seemed to be changing too.
Everyone seemed to be preparing to fend for themselves.
It made him angry.
When they were making money, they had invoked the Triad’s name to do it.
But now that the Triad had shrunk, he was working with bastards whose first thought was to escape.
Bastards without a shred of loyalty.
It hadn’t been like this when they were still in China.
But after moving their base to Southeast Asia, this phenomenon had worsened.
Whether because of the vast region or the different cultures, he did not know.
But rather than the name of the Triad, the power of each country and region had grown stronger.
The branch chiefs in each region were constantly aiming for the central power based on their local forces.
It was a movement close to rebellion.
If the organization still had power, he would impose fitting punishment, but right now, he did not have that strength.
That was how bad the Triad’s situation was.
That was precisely why they were clinging to D-Sand and Korea.
As long as D-Sand took root in Korea, money would begin to circulate.
They would be able to breathe, and recover their strength.
At that point, they would no longer have to rely on the paltry tribute the branch chiefs paid.
He could blow them away in one stroke.
So no matter what, the D-Sand factory had to be expanded.
But the Triad had no money.
After agonizing over it, Zhang Tian decided to use his personal funds.
He decided to dispose of his family’s assets.
Even if he had to do that, he had to build the factory.
Once the factory was properly built, he would execute every one of the branch chiefs in each region, those old foxes.
.
.
.
And a few days later.
A photo arrived from Mao Qin.
It was a contract.
A contract formally concluded with the Daehun Faction.
A smile passed over Zhang Tian’s face.
Now, for the time being, he did not have to worry about money.
In that case, he had to deal with the bastards plotting rebellion first.
Zhang Tian summoned Heixiang, the Triad’s secret organization.
“From now on, we will execute the traitors.”
******
[We sent one million units of the goods. Please confirm.]
A text came from Mao Qin.
After reading it, I wore a satisfied expression.
The operation was flowing according to plan.
With the help of Scott, Jason, and Chen Zhihao, I had been able to grasp the Triad’s internal situation.
The Triad’s situation was miserable.
It was a Triad that had all but collapsed, with only its name remaining.
The younger members were only watching for a chance to escape.
The seniors who should have been leading them were spouting “back in my day” nonsense and acting like old fogeys.
On the other hand, the regional branch chiefs were obsessed with growing their own forces, not the Triad.
They were trapped in the fantasy that they might be able to swallow the central branch, weakened and seemingly easy prey, and were constantly waiting for an opportunity.
If not for the massive name of the Triad,
if not for the pipelines they had established during their era of glory, it was a situation where they would have collapsed several times over long ago.
When I thought about it, I understood why Mao Qin was so obsessed with D-Sand.
Why she still had lingering attachment to Korea.
I said I understood.
That didn’t mean she was allowed to do it.
How dare they try to sell drugs in Korea.
I created and distributed A-Sand to block the drugs China was pushing in,
and now those drugs were trying to come back into Korea.
But not a chance.
I would stop them.
In any case.
The Triad wanted to supply the drugs, but that was not an easy matter.
There were several problems with the Triad bringing in D-Sand.
The first was the size of the factory.
The scale of the factory was too small.
Its daily production capacity was only around one hundred thousand units.
One hundred thousand units was not a small amount.
It was enough to sufficiently cover the population of our country.
Even so, I ordered an enormous quantity of ten million units.
The Triad, blinded by greed, had no choice but to accept that order no matter what.
Then, inevitably, they would have to expand the factory.
That expanded factory would empty the already strained wallet of the Triad.
That was how desperate the Triad was.
It was no longer an atmosphere where they could do business while throwing their weight around like before.
Another problem was logistics.
The Triad’s D-Sand factory was in Cambodia.
There wasn’t much logistics traffic that went directly from Cambodia to Pyeongtaek.
It was burdensome to hide and send a single container.
If they couldn’t send it directly, they had to spin it around from place to place like laundering money before sending it.
If they did that, there was the possibility of theft, like with the first sample shipment, and the delivery time would grow longer.
Every time they sent goods, the risks and costs increased.
Having to continuously track the goods was also bothersome.
Korean customs was a major obstacle as well.
For now, they had greased the wheels well, but given the nature of Korean civil servants and their rotational assignments, there was no telling when that might change.
There were many drawbacks, but even so, the Triad had no choice but to push goods into Korea.
So the trick they came up with was to split them into batches of one million units.
Moving ten million units at once would be burdensome in various ways,
so it seemed they were using the method of splitting them into batches of one million and bringing them in.
Of course, another reason was that the expanded factory still couldn’t properly produce the goods yet.
They were short on volume, and moving everything at once was burdensome, so they were trying to hold out while maintaining the contract by bringing in small amounts in advance.
The problem was that all of this was visible to me.
And I have a way to stop this.
I immediately called Mao Qin.
- Hello. I contacted you to say we’d sent one million units. Did you receive them?
“Yes. That’s why I’m calling.”
- You’ve already received them? They arrived quickly.
Mao Qin answered with a laugh.
“No, that’s not what matters. What exactly are you trying to pull here?”
As if spitting in Mao Qin’s smiling face, I raised my voice at once.
- What do you mean by that?
Mao Qin asked, sounding slightly startled.
“Did you not check the contract?”
- The contract?
To the surprised Mao Qin, I explained as if admonishing him.
“If you look at Article 12 of the contract, it says, ‘The goods shall be delivered on the 1st of every month in quantities of ten million units to the location designated by Party A.’ Did you not confirm that?”
- Ah… well, since we were bringing in other goods, we brought these along with them. We thought you’d be pleased to receive them early, so we sent them first… Was that inconvenient for you?
Mao Qin hurriedly tried to talk his way around it.
It sounded like an excuse he’d prepared in advance.
That made me even angrier.
I spoke sarcastically.
“What are we supposed to do if you just dump the goods on us without saying a word beforehand? Do you not consider our circumstances at all? Is it over as long as you send them whenever it’s convenient for you?”
- I’m sorry. We failed to think that far. We thought you would be pleased to receive them quickly, so we sent them… I apologize.
“I am not pleased at all. It only causes problems. One million units? Who do we give them to? Who do we leave out? Or should we split them up into portions the size of an ant’s booger?”
- I’m sorry.
When I raised my voice, Mao Qin apologized repeatedly.
To Mao Qin, who only apologized without offering any appropriate countermeasure, I spoke firmly.
“Take them back, and send ten million units on the 1st.”
- … That—
“What?”
- I’m sorry, but… could you perhaps receive them in smaller batches like this?
Mao Qin asked as if pleading.
“Excuse me?”
- Wouldn’t this be more convenient than receiving them all at once? In exchange, we’ll deliver them ourselves, even to the provinces.
I did not laugh.
Instead, my voice turned cold.
“Team Leader. You’re taking the joke too far.”
- …… It’s not a joke. Could you please consider it seriously?
“What? What did you say?”
- ……
At this point, a hollow laugh escaped me.
“This is truly absurd. If you’re going to do whatever you want like this, why write a contract, and why discuss terms at all?”
- … Ah, it’s not that we’re saying we’ll keep doing this. Just for the time being. How about doing it this way just for the time being?
I had anticipated Mao Qin’s excuse to some extent.
It was within the range I’d expected.
But actually hearing it still made my blood boil.
“Honestly, I’m very disappointed. It makes me think again about whether signing this contract was the right decision.”
- …… It’s not as if receiving the goods in divided shipments for the time being is that difficult, is it?
At my words, Mao Qin actually raised his tone a little?
Oh? Was the Triad temperament coming out?
Looks like his old lawless habits were showing.
Then I should press him down with the law.
The Republic of Korea is a nation governed by law, after all.
“I am someone who values promises, and contracts. If you had said that when we were signing the contract, I would have accepted it readily. It’s not a big deal. But changing your tune after the contract is signed? That’s a different matter. Next time, what clause will change, and how? Will you say logistics costs have gone up, so we should raise the unit price? Or will you say there’s a problem with the factory production line, so we should understand if the quantity is reduced?”
- No… isn’t that too much of a leap? I don’t think this is something to get that angry about.
Mao Qin tried not to back down either.
“Now you’re trying to control not only the contract but my emotions as well? I’m extremely disappointed. If I followed my feelings, I’d want to terminate the contract. But unlike you, Team Leader, I am someone who places great importance on contracts. So I will not terminate it. I sincerely ask that you do the same. Nothing more, nothing less—I earnestly request that you fulfill the contract exactly as written. Then, goodbye.”
Click.
I hung up the phone.
Before I cut the call, I thought I heard something from the other end of the receiver, but so what?
Was that something I needed to care about?
After pouring it all out on Mao Qin, my stomach felt full despite having eaten nothing.
It was as refreshing as drinking cider.
I nearly burped.
I intend to show Mao Qin the terror of a contract.
I intend to show him just how immense the pressure can be from a single line in a contract, the ambiguity of a word, or even one tiny grammatical particle.
This is Korean-style corporate gapjil.
The Daehun-pa is a conglomerate of the gangster world.
Since it’s a Korean conglomerate, it should act like one.
I intend to show that clearly to Mao Qin, and to the Triad.
Welcome.
It’s your first time experiencing K-gapjil, isn’t it?