I Became the Youngest Daughter of a Chaebol Family-Chapter 78: Middle Schooler Yoo Ha-yeon (4)

Seeing Si-hyun’s reluctant expression about the Hollywood trip, I smiled faintly.

“Then would you rather spend another six months in Russia?”

“...Still, America is better than Russia. I’ll go.”

Tap, tap. I lightly patted Si-hyun’s shoulder.

“Yup-yup, I’m going too, so don’t worry too much.”

“Phew, getting promoted really is tough. I already have to manage what’s on my plate, and now I have to escort you too.”

The chief secretary sighed faintly.

I ignored her cheeky comment and started rummaging through the coat she had taken off.

Hmph.

“By the way, don’t you have any souvenirs or something?”

“Oh, souvenirs... I have quite a few. They’re in my bag.”

—Rustle.

Pulling out various items from her bag, Lee Si-hyun tossed me a film roll.

“This one’s a personal gift.”

I glanced at the film and nodded.

“Oh, you got your hands on a rare one.”

Lee Si-hyun smiled proudly.

“Right?”

“The Odessa Steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin, huh?”

“Yes. It’s an early production, so it’s kind of rare. I got it cheap. I thought you’d like it.”

Soviet cinema stands in stark contrast to Hollywood. Though they did produce some art films, unlike American cinema—which operates on capitalist logic—Soviet films were fundamentally based on propaganda.

And since they were once a superpower that shook the world, their film industry developed independently. Their most iconic invention? Montage technique.

—‘I don’t know what kind of expression I should make in moments like this...’

Instead of replying with “Just smile,” they’d say, “I’ll edit around it, so keep your face blank”—a cold materialist’s method.

The essence of montage is that Odessa Steps sequence. Watching it makes even the most vile capitalist feel an overwhelming urge to overthrow Tsarist Russia and rescue the Russian people.

It’s an excellent tool for indoctrination.

Of course, while the ideology it conveys is problematic, the technique itself was artistic, so it was secretly studied in the film world. I’d seen it too, of course...

Even Hollywood already knew it. I mean, it was made in the 1920s. It would be weirder if they didn’t know it by now...

Still, it’s a little sad.

Why doesn’t future knowledge work when it comes to art?

“Hm... I guess I don’t have any talent for film.”

“What, are you going to make a movie or something?”

“Yeah. As a club activity.”

Lee Si-hyun blinked. She looked like she couldn’t believe what I was saying.

“I mean, the kids aren’t really into solving math problems. I even introduced Fermat’s Last Theorem, which is going to be proved soon, and not a single one of them got excited.”

I do know the rough process of the proof, but I’m not shameless enough to steal that. The first proof comes out next year, and the full proof is in 1995. Not too far off anyway.

So I just gave a general overview... and the kids started avoiding me.

“Ugh... Miss, don’t tell me you were solving math problems in front of the kids? No wonder you don’t have any friends.”

Si-hyun recoiled, wrapping her arms around herself as if disgusted, and bluntly scolded me.

“...I was just scouting for someone useful. It’s not like I’m completely socially blind. And I left out the hard parts of the proof...”

“Isn’t making friends usually about shared hobbies or something?”

“Honestly, math is a hobby. I’m actually more interested in the economic side of things, like moving money.”

You know what math, history, and music all have in common? You’ll starve to death if you don’t do them as a hobby. So math counts as a hobby. Probably.

“...I can’t talk to you.”

Lee Si-hyun shook her head.

—Clack.

“Here. This is your real present from Russia.”

A mountain of stacked documents.

Looking at the blood and sweat the Soviet Union had poured into them, I beamed.

“Wow! Ahaha, these are Soviet companies, right?”

“Yes, yes. I went on a shopping spree with the companies you picked out, Miss.”

As I gleefully skimmed through the companies she’d delivered, Si-hyun stared at me, then took off her jacket.

‘What’s this? Flirting?’

Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Under Si-hyun’s snug tank top, a faint white scar was visible.

A scar.

“...Did it hurt?”

“Phew, it’s a badge of honor. Public safety wasn’t great over there.”

I ran my hand over her defined eleven-line abs and examined the scar. It was small enough to go unnoticed from afar, but since it was on her abdomen, it must’ve been close to fatal.

...Hmm.

I felt kind of bad.

“I’ll send someone else next time.”

“No, I’ll go. I’ve gotten used to it, and I managed to build some local connections. It’d be even harder for someone else.”

“Hmm. Still, you’re a woman. No matter how much you train, you’re still physically weaker than a man...”

I tilted my head and asked,

“...Don’t you have any wishes or something? Honestly, you didn’t just show me that scar for no reason, right?”

“We’re already used to seeing each other’s bare skin, so I figured I might as well say it early.”

As if.

“Don’t lie.”

Lee Si-hyun hesitated for a moment, then answered honestly.

“I guess... I got kind of attached to the people there. It was pitiful. Seeing these elite women who graduated from better universities than I did, selling their bodies on the streets... It just got to me a bit.”

It was a time when professors and military generals drove taxis on the side, and “Russian woman” was a euphemism for prostitute. A period of suffering far worse than Korea’s IMF crisis.

Si-hyun seemed to have developed some emotions witnessing the brutal collapse of a former superpower.

“So, pity?”

“Yes. I guess it turned out that way. I mean... is that not okay? If you say no, Miss, then it’ll just be some cheap pity that ends there.”

There was a faint anxiety in her eyes. Geez, what does she think I am?

“No, no, it’s fine. That kind of thing is a ruler’s privilege.”

“A privilege... is it?”

Exactly. It’s hard for a starving person to be kind.

“People with power can afford to pay more for their conscience. It’s like a luxury. I was worried since you don’t really splurge, but I’m relieved.”

A healthy organization needs proper morality. A cold, ruthless psychopath might be good at their job, but... they won’t ever truly follow me.

I smiled sweetly and praised the chief secretary.

“And honestly, from my perspective, it’s a good thing. You volunteered to go to a rough area, and now it’s a chance to recruit capable talent on the cheap. Those starving Russian friends—try to lure them into working for our company.”

“Ah, yes...”

“If you’re going to do it, go all in! How about becoming the Tsarina who rules Russia’s underworld?”

Si-hyun shook her head at that, but didn’t deny it aloud. By the time we’d already acquired several of the Soviet Union’s key companies, she might as well have been royalty.

Having my secretary be the queen of Russia’s criminal underworld—how perfect is that?

***

Well, Russia is Russia, and the U.S. is the U.S.

In the end, Si-hyun followed me all the way to Hollywood.

“Who comes to Hollywood for a field trip...”

Sighing deeply, she looked a bit dazed as she stared at me in formalwear for the first time in a while.

She couldn’t take her eyes off me. Poor Si-hyun. She didn’t even get a chance to admire my beautiful body while she was busy in Russia.

Deprived of Daehwa Securities’ standard perks, my secretary made a snide comment.

“There she goes with her weird ideas again. All excited about buying MGM, huh?”

I stretched out my arms with a yawn.

Phew.

“Well, yeah. It’s a famous company. And I’ve always liked it.”

The MGM acquisition had been on my mind for a while. Back when I was recruiting Seon-jun oppa, I saw the roaring lion and thought, Yes, this is the one.

Back at Daehwa Middle School, the kids used to play Tom and Jerry when they were bored, so the thought had only grown.

“But honestly, it’s hard to buy it right now. It’s got a lot of debt...”

“Wow, I can’t believe I’m hearing you say you don’t have enough money. You bought Barings, what’s the problem?”

“Well, if I buy MGM, I’d probably be inheriting /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ about $1.4 billion in debt.”

“...”

And unlike Barings Bank—which was outdated but still functional if you took out Nick Leeson—MGM is just straight-up incompetent right now. There’s nothing I can do about that.

Besides, it’s not even my area of expertise.

If a bank lacks money, you can fix it by injecting capital. But a company that just doesn’t know how to work... even I can’t fix that. It deserves to go under.

“What about acquiring a different film company?” ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

“Oh, I’m still going to acquire one. Just not that one. MGM already has another suitor.”

“I heard about it during research. A French state-owned bank, right?”

“Yeah, that one. They’re currently trying to buy MGM. There’s a big name in France—Crédit Lyonnais.”

Crédit Lyonnais.

France’s largest bank had its eyes on MGM.

.

.

.

“Hm, but Miss.”

“What?”

“You said yourself it’s not your area of expertise, and obviously that bank has more money right now. But why would they...?”

“You mean, why would they try to acquire such a random company they don’t even understand?”

Beats me.

“...Yeah. I was just wondering. Maybe there’s some hidden secret behind it.”

A hidden secret. Crédit Lyonnais does have something like that, but not in this case.

“I don’t really know either. Probably just incompetence.”

“...They’re still a French state-owned enterprise. Can they really afford to be like that?”

Exactly because they’re a French state-owned enterprise.

Still, it’s fine. Crédit Lyonnais is going to fall apart soon and be privatized anyway.

If I go after the UK and Germany but leave France untouched... wouldn’t the French feel left out?

Yup-yup, definitely.