We were at Taeseong Foods' main factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.
It was the beating heart that produced the food ingredients Taeseong sent across the nation.
An odd tension hung over the place from the entrance onward.
Senior Department Head Song Jae-woong and Manager Lee Jae-hyeon stood on either side of me.
I had plainly asked them to provide backup from headquarters, yet they had insisted on coming to the site.
Apparently, they disliked the prospect of my taking all the credit.
Outwardly, of course, they offered the feeble excuse that they 'did not want to leave an employee to bear the burden alone.'
"……Isn't this far cleaner than expected?"
Manager Lee murmured, adjusting their glasses.
Lee was right.
The factory yard was immaculate, and every truck waiting at the loading bay had impeccable paintwork.
Even the characteristic rank smell of a food factory seemed to have been rigorously suppressed.
Only a faint scent of disinfectant lingered in the air.
Senior Department Head Song, too, looked puzzled while studying the chart.
"Baek, are you sure the division head ordered this? This is one of the group's model facilities. It seems the rumors about President Gu Jong-su being a perfectionist were true."
Instead of answering, I stared expressionlessly at the enormous main factory building.
There was more to this place than met the eye.
If anything, such an excessively perfect scene was clear proof that something was being desperately concealed.
"Only the entrance to a slaughterhouse ever looks grand. Let us go inside."
The moment we stepped into the main building's lobby, heavy footsteps rang out as though someone had been waiting for us.
"Hahaha! Well, look who it is! What brings our honored guests from the RD all this way without notice?"
A portly middle-aged man approached with his arms spread wide.
It was President Gu Jong-su, the head of Taeseong Foods.
As befitted a powerful figure who enjoyed Chairman Choi Man-ho's full confidence, he looked utterly relaxed and self-assured.
After a brief handshake with Song, the highest-ranking member of our party, he immediately fixed his gaze on me.
Despite the friendly smile on his lips, his eyes gleamed coldly behind his glasses, like a snake assessing its prey.
"Are you the famous Baek Do-jin? Top of your class at Hanguk University, straight into the Strategic Planning Office, then an exceptional assignment to the RD while still a mere employee. Impressive. Oh, you're the new recruit who pleased Director Oh by selling off Taeseong Pharmaceuticals to those foreign bastards. But I hear it has become a roaring success now? Haha, though that is hardly your fault."
It was an unmistakable provocation.
He had placed malicious emphasis on 'selling off.'
It was a transparent attempt to reduce my achievement to a deal with a lucky vulture fund.
"You flatter me. Baek Do-jin, Restructuring Division Team 1. I am here on Division Head Oh Se-dong's orders for a routine on-site inspection and cash flow review."
"An inspection……. Very well. If you intend to cleanse Taeseong's blood, how could I refuse to cooperate? Let us go to my office first."
We followed his haughty lead to the office.
Once we had settled onto the heavy leather sofas, a secretary quietly served tea and withdrew.
Gu gave a signal with an unpleasant smile.
Dozens of meticulously bound reports were immediately stacked into a mountain on the table before us.
"Here. Three years of raw material import ledgers, production yields, and Korea Food and Drug Administration certification documents, all perfectly organized. I will open our entire real-time inventory management system to you as well. Examine whatever you like. Turn Taeseong Foods upside down, and you will not find a speck of dirt."
Song and Lee hurriedly opened the thick ledgers.
I did not spare the books a glance.
Instead, I met Gu's eyes behind his glasses as he maintained his easy composure.
"President Gu. I would rather see the actual site than these superficial books. I mean the production lines and, above all, the 'raw material warehouse.'"
His eyebrow twitched faintly at my request.
He soon burst into hearty laughter and patted my shoulder.
"Well, well. What an enthusiastic young man! Very good. I will show you. But do not be disappointed. The chairman himself visited this factory and praised it as 'Taeseong's crown jewel.'"
He gestured toward Song and Lee.
"Come along, both of you. Since our young friend insists on seeing the site."
They exchanged bewildered looks, then rose awkwardly.
The three of us followed Gu as he strode ahead arrogantly.
The factory interior he led us into was a flawless 'showroom.'
State-of-the-art automated equipment, the finest available in 1998, operated without pause.
Employees fully outfitted in dustproof coveralls inspected the products with mechanical movements.
"Look. Every ingredient is recorded in the computer system the moment it is added. Each sack of flour, each drop of cooking oil is managed without a single discrepancy. Everyone complains that the IMF crisis is killing them, but we remain profitable thanks to these rigorous controls."
Gu continued his explanation with the proud bearing of a victorious general.
But my gaze had settled on a faint, ingrained 'oil stain' on the floor in a corner of the production line.
According to the books, they used the finest soybean oil.
Yet the faint trace in the air belonged to low-grade waste cooking oil, with its distinctive, nauseating burnt odor.
"What do you think, Baek? Surely you can report to the division head that 'Taeseong Foods has no problems'?"
He approached and whispered confidentially.
There was now unmistakable mockery in his voice.
"Do not waste your energy. I hear you enjoyed some success with the pharmaceutical company, but this is a different world. This is not a game some brat like you can overturn just by sniffing around. If you get too eager, you will only disgrace Director Oh instead. Wouldn't you agree?"
I absorbed his provocation in silence, then spoke slowly.
"Yes, it is a truly impressive factory, President Gu."
"I believe we have seen enough for today's inspection. Let us return and compile the report."
"Hahaha! An excellent decision. A clever young man indeed."
Apparently certain that I had submitted, he patted my back and laughed heartily.
After a brief exchange of handshakes and farewells, we climbed into the car bound for headquarters.
As the Hwaseong factory receded beyond the windows, Song sighed in relief.
"Whew. What a relief. You were so confrontational, Baek, that you had me worried. With a factory that perfect, we almost accused an innocent man, didn't we?"
Lee agreed.
"Exactly. There is a reason the chairman values him so highly. We should submit a report to the division head stating that this on-site inspection revealed no problems."
I said nothing about the foolish relief I saw in the rearview mirror. A faint sneer touched my lips.
'Looking perfect means hiding everything perfectly.'
To elites raised like hothouse flowers under Taeseong Group's shelter, that flimsy stage set would look like the whole truth.
But it could not fool the nose I had honed on the bloody hunting grounds of hostile M&A.
***
At the same time, in the president's office at the Hwaseong factory, the smile vanished from Gu Jong-su's benevolent face the moment our car disappeared completely from view.
"Arrogant little bastard. A Strategic Planning business card and a secondment to the RD, and he thinks he can swagger in here?"
As he irritably loosened his tie, the factory manager standing nearby spoke cautiously.
"Sir. Still, he left without a fuss and failed to find a single fault. It seems he was completely taken in by the showroom we prepared."
"Taken in? Didn't you see that bastard's eyes?"
Gu hurled the fake ledger from the table.
"He took down Executive Director Hwang at Pharmaceuticals in one stroke. Do you know where he was looking when we toured the production line? At the old waste-oil grime near the vent."
"Pardon?! B-but we made sure both the computer records and everything visible were perfectly in order……."
"My instincts come from twenty years in this business. They tell me that bastard has caught a scent."
Gu paced the room like a crafty snake.
He had sent us away empty-handed today, but there was no telling when another surprise inspection might come.
"Factory Manager."
"Yes, sir!"
"Tonight, send the entire night shift home. Keep only our core people here, and lift the restrictions on Underground Sector 3."
"U-Underground Sector 3? We still have mountains of imported flour past its expiration date and industrial additives down there……."
"That is why I am telling you to move it now, you idiot!"
Gu shouted, veins bulging.
"Bring in every truck from the logistics subcontractors tonight. Move all the real raw materials hidden underground to the secret warehouse in the Pyeongtaek area. Not one gram of that trash is to remain in this factory!"
The factory manager turned pale, then nodded vigorously.
"U-understood! I will contact the subcontractor's dispatch director immediately and have ten heavy trucks standing by for tonight!"
"Remember. Not a soul can know we are moving it."
Gu smiled unpleasantly as he watched the red sunset fading beyond the window.
'I did not come this far to be brought down by a brat like him.'
***
Late that night, in the executive office at Rubicon Group headquarters in Gwanghwamun, the city lights were going out one by one, but CEO Joo Yun-ha and Director Kim Jeong-gon's eyes were sharper than ever.
"Director Kim, have we finished buying up the receivables held by the logistics subcontractors serving the Hwaseong factory?"
At Joo's question, Kim closed a thick folder and nodded.
"Yes. The promissory notes Taeseong Foods gave them as payment had become worthless one after another in the aftermath of the IMF crisis. The presidents of those logistics subcontractors were already on the verge of collapse. Just when they were gasping for their last breath, we converted dollars into won and bought every one of those distressed receivables at full face value, paying cash."
The logistics market in 1998 was hell itself.
As an ecosystem sustained by promissory notes collapsed, truck drivers could not even find money for fuel and had to abandon their steering wheels.
Into that despair, Rubicon had appeared like a savior, carrying overwhelming amounts of cash.
"Taeseong Foods……. To be honest, I wondered at first why the chairman was so intent on targeting a food company."
Joo murmured, turning toward the window.
"But after seeing Tau-Max rake in cash by the truckload every day, I finally understood his intentions."
Kim adjusted his glasses and agreed.
"Exactly. What good is cash pouring in until the heart bursts? We need enormous 'blood vessels' to carry that blood throughout the country. Taeseong Foods spent decades opening channels to tens of thousands of retailers across the country and building its direct-delivery distribution network. That is the 'perfect vessel for overflowing cash' the chairman is after."
"That will not be all. I am sure he has another venture involving food in mind as well."
As the two men said, this was more than a simple corporate acquisition.
It was the hunting strategy of a bird of prey, intent on swallowing the most valuable prize, the entire 'distribution infrastructure.'
The chilling insight of the young leader they served made both men swallow hard again.