The Famous Millionaire

As Sonjong answered so clearly and quickly, Hyunwoo instantly felt that Mr. Kang was a dependable personality with fine character.

Mr. Kang’s name was Hwasik Kang.

His biggest strength was his rich experience and knowledge. He seemed slow-witted because of his stammering, but Sonjong’s description of him made Hyunwoo look at him differently.

Sonjong said, “Mr. Kang was such a fine worker that those who worked with him were scared a bit because he found out the problem once he got down to business.”

Mr. Kang always lagged behind when it came to promotion competition. His stammering was one reason, but he didn’t know how to flatter his boss.

“In other words, he is a very capable person,” said Hyunwoo.

“Yes, he is. I heard he even received a job offer from a famous law firm.”

“Why didn’t he accept the offer?”

“Basically, he is a rich man. I heard he inherited a huge amount of land from his parents, so he didn’t need a law firm job that would stress him out.”

Only then did Hyunwoo come to realize why Mr. Kang insisted on receiving 500,000 won per month. All he wanted was to find a job to pass time.

He also had a good character with a strong sense of responsibility. Once he was tasked with an assignment, he would carry it out by all means.

“Besides, he has a wide network of people in Ansan. If he had wanted, he would have been promoted a long time ago, but he had no such ambition,” Sonjong continued.

“Wow, how wonderful he is!”

“I think just hiring him would bring us lots of benefits, to say the least. You can save the commission fee of a licensed customs agent by hiring him.”

“Commission fee?”

“Yes. If you hire Mr. Kang, a specialist in customs clearance, you don’t need to use the licensed customs agent. If you use Unipass, it’s free!”

Hyunwoo’s eyes widened at that.

In fact, the commission paid to the agent was very expensive, costing over 10 million per month because of the large number of import items from Vietnam, but Sonjong insisted on using the existing licensed customs agent because if something went wrong with the customs clearance process, Hyunwoo might incur a lot more financial damage.

Come to think of it, Mr. Kang was like a lump of luck that Hyunwoo should never lose.

The next day Hyunwoo headed directly to Ansan Customs Office to relay his message that he would like to open a bonded warehouse as soon as possible. He also wanted to see Mr. Kang once again about hiring him.

“I would like to scout you as the advisor of KOVE DREAM, Mr. Kang,” said Hyunwoo.

“Oh, you don’t have to. It looks like our chief forced you to hire me. You don’t have to, so please don’t feel any burden because of me,” said Mr. Kang.

“No, I’m serious. I think if I open a bonded warehouse, you will be of great help to us.”

“Of course, I think I will.”

“That’s why I need your help so much. As the advisor, I hope you can take care of the customs clearance process of our products.”

Mr. Kang seemed to agonize over that for a moment, thinking that Hyunwoo might feel some burden of hiring him because of his boss’s recommendation, but he finally gave in when Hyunwoo strongly pressed on again.

“Got it. Let me accept your offer, but give me only 500,000 won per month. In return let me do my work as much as I see fit.”

Though Hyunwoo insisted on paying him a monthly salary of one million won, Mr. Kang wouldn’t budge a bit.

“When you retire this weekend, you can come to work at KOVE DREAM starting next week,” said Hyunwoo.

“Sure. As for the bonded warehouse, you had better open it as soon as possible. They will hold a judging committee on the approval of the new applications for the bonded warehouses at the end of this month. You must submit the application before the meeting is held.”

“Actually, there is a new warehouse under construction now. It will be completed in two months. Don’t you think we can submit the application then?”

“You had better apply for it now with the existing warehouse. When you have a new large warehouse completed, you can just make the necessary adjustment for that. The sooner, the better,” Mr. Kang advised.

“Got it.”

As Mr. Kang advised, Hyunwoo submitted the application.

The next Monday Hwasik Kang reported to the KOVE DREAM office and exchanged brief greetings with the staff then he immediately began handling the application of opening a bonded warehouse.

Sonjong was right.

Hwasik’s job performance and responsibility were more than Hyunwoo expected. He prepared all the paperwork necessary for the application and submitted it to the customs office on the same day.

The customs officer directly tabled it as one of the approval items to be screened by the judging committee without reviewing it or asking for any additional paperwork.

That meant Hwasik’s paperwork was perfect.

“Wow! You’re really super!” said Hyunwoo.

“No worries. I’ve been doing it every day for a long time.”

“By the way, can we use Unipass to file the declaration? Right now, we pay almost 10 million won for the licensed customs agent’s commission.”

“Let me take care of that. Looks like our items don’t include anything that needs a quarantine inspection, and all the import products need little paperwork,” said Hwasik.

“Can you help us with that, Mr. Kang?”

“Sure, why not?”

Hwasik perfectly handled the customs clearance work. He also obtained the Unipass rights in one day then started to process the import declarations without going through the licensed customs agent.

***

Hyunwoo stopped by the office of Ani & Funny.

These days Ani & Funny was driving on without a stop.

Thanks to Jinhon’s Duckling Fly, the animation work Garbage World was gaining great popularity around the world, and Tuti & Angelica was also becoming a great hit.

In particular, the change in animation characters was very effective. Since Garbage World’s Season 2 featuring the characters invented by Yu Zuung debuted, it was maintaining an upward trend steadily.

So, Hyunwoo made a new challenge every time.

Recently, he came up with the idea of making the picture book of Garbage World targeting preschool boys and girls.

Some looked down on his idea, but his plan was quite ambitious. For his target audience was not Korean children but those around the world, including the United States, Japan, and China.

The sales revenue kept growing. In less than one month since the picture books were on sale, almost 100,000 were sold despite there only being three types of picture books.

Thanks to the popularity of the picture book, several publishing houses offered publication contracts at a high price.

Hyunwoo had no reason to reject such offers. He entrusted the Vietnamese branch with making the picture books of other animation works.

The brisk and prosperous business of Ani & Funny filled the office with laughter.

Nobody in the office frowned or complained.

Suddenly, one staffer made an annoying complaint.

“This guy is really driving me nuts,” said Jihoon Kang.

“What’s the matter? Who is annoying you?” asked some of the staff.

“This guy always posts hate comments on our animation series. I just have no idea why this guy is going after us.”

Actually, that guy was familiar to Hyunwoo. As Hyunwoo habitually checked the status of the animation series in Story Mecca whenever he found the time to do so, he knew well that this notorious guy was an online troll.

That guy used the pen name Yenam Noh.

Even that nickname gave the impression that he was full of resentment and rebellion against society.

In fact, there were so many people who habitually left hate comments in Story Mecca, but Yenam was peculiar in some respect. Instead of presenting any analysis of any specific work, his comments were filled with emotional reaction, which he showed from the very first of the Ani & Funny animation series.

Hyunwoo giggled at Jihoon’s frustration, “Hey, just ignore him. If we don’t respond, he will fizzle out at the end of the day.”

But Jihoon said angrily, “We should not forgive this guy. He will never stop doing this.”

“So, do you want to report him to the administrator of Story Mecca?”

Actually, Story Mecca was pretty generous to the readers’ comments posted on its website.

Jihoon gave up, after all.

“Damn it! I would like to rain abuses on him if I could.”

“No, don’t do that. You might be in trouble for that, hahaha,” said Hyunwoo.

Hyunwoo found something interesting in Yenam’s hate comments.

Be it a novel, webtoon or animation, any work that received his hate comments gained the most popularity. On the other hand, his hate comments could not be found on unpopular works.

How can he find out popular works just to leave hate comments? Hyunwoo wondered.

That was confirmed because he left malicious comments on the very first of Tuti & Angelica animation series. He always left hate comments on other popular works.

In other words, it looked as if he was searching for not only the most popular works but also other series that could make a hit in Story Mecca.

Hyunwoo regarded Yenam’s peculiar behavior as extraordinary. He felt Yenam had some sort of special talent in reacting to the kind of work that might gain popularity.

Hyunwoo’s eyes opened wide instantly.

Yenam Noh. This guy must be an enormous hidden talent!