Empire of the Ring

Mineral exploration expert Park Youngsun’s joining in the team was like having wings on Youngho’s back. There were not many mineral experts with such knowledge and education like him in the world. Youngho was just lucky to have him.

Geology was divided into many categories of study and Park Youngsun was the one who majorly studied applied field of the study such as energy deposits and geological features. He had plenty of field experience as well.

Park Youngsun returned to Korea and submitted his resignation at Korea Resources Corporation and then came right back to Baku with his belongings. This time, he was not alone because he brought his daughter with him. Such gesture was an expression of his determination for work and faith in Youngho and his business.

He began to live in one of the villas at the farm’s reservoir but he always joined Youngho’s family for dinner at the mansion. It was because the father and daughter did not know how to cook for themselves and another intention was to make his daughter get used to the life while he was gone for a long-term business trip to Atyrau, Kazakhstan.

However, worrying about her was a premature action. She was a bright and smart girl and she instantly got along with Zeynep. Once the school resumes, she would be going to the international school where Zeynep attended. She also became good friends with Zeynep’s friends from school who visited the farm’s reservoir every day, so it looked like she would do well at school too.

She used to follow her dad around overseas often, so she was used to talking to foreigners in English. Because of her existence at the farm, Zeynep now had a good friend.

Park Youngsun, seeing the farm’s family-like atmosphere and great environment, was relieved about his decision to move here with his daughter. Also, since the security company was owned by the farm, there was one less thing to worry about his daughter’s safety.

After finishing dinner, Park Youngsun opened his mouth carefully to talk to Youngho while taking a walk.

“Look, boss. Forgive me if I’m being rude, but I have to ask what I’m curious about.”

Youngho knew what he was going to say. He must be stunned to see Youngho’s real wife, Fatima and his son Leon, when he arrived at the farm.

“You’re about to ask about Katya and Rena, aren’t you? I saw you being shocked when you arrived at the mansion for the first time but I haven’t been able to clear things out for you.”

Only after Youngho explained his relationship to Katya and Rena briefly, Park Youngsun smiled.

“I thought you’d be that kind of rich people who meet any woman they like. I’ve had this question in my throat for the past few days, and I wasn’t sure what to believe. I almost regretted bringing my daughter here.”

Youngho laughed hard since he was reminded of someone close to him.

“You know about Jongil, right? He had misunderstood my relationship with Katya and he is still being teased by me for that. I’ll clear this out for you, I don’t turn my eyes to other women except for my wife Fatima. If I made a mistake, it would not be my will at all unless I was being drugged or something.”

“I apologize for judging you without even trying to hear your side of the story.”

“No, please don’t feel bad. I’m glad that you had come clean and told me your honest heart, Dr. Park.”

“Could you clarify another thing for the last time? I heard the villagers calling your wife the Archduchess and respecting her…”

Since he had become part of the farm family, Youngho told him many truths about the farm and the Serbian people. It seemed that Park Youngsun had not become a doctor in vain. Whether it was a branch of study or life, development and improvements started from making questions. He must have read books because he was curious, and once he knew one thing he was greedy to know another. A habit of being curious had accumulated knowledge in his brain and made him a doctor.

Park Youngsun was relieved from many questions he had from asking them to Youngho, and he tried his best to blend in as a member of the farm family.

***

At Kazakhstan’s Atyrau national airport, a Cessna airplane was making its way in, it was the airplane that Youngho’s group was on board.

Kim Chun parked his car with a proud face even when the engine of the airplane had not turned off yet. He then loaded the group’s luggage to his car.

“Mr. Kim, branch president. Can anyone get in here?”

“Mr. Kim, I would have to give my title to someone else if I can’t make my way in here when Boss of Zeynep Corporation had come.”

Ilkwon smiled at Kim Chun’s proud attitude. Since he had a wide circle of acquaintances, he was a perfect fit for a branch president. He was using his connections from the time he was a teacher since many of his former students worked at government offices.

He treated everyone as his students even if they were only with him for one semester and asked them to do favors for him. He treated people well with meals or drinks since Youngho had given him enough budgets for such expenses.

“Boss, in a month, you’ll be able to use the runway of Arirang Farm. Since the region is dry, construction of drain and other extra things could be omitted. We’d just have to even the ground and deposit concrete.”

Youngho was glad to hear the news since he would soon be able to sneak into his farm without letting the government know about his visit.

“Mr. Kim, let me introduce a new face to you. This is a geological expert Dr. Park Youngsun.”

“Doctor, it’s an honor to meet you. I’ve heard about you from Boss in advance and had been waiting to see you.”

“I’m pleased to see you, Mr. Kim. I’ll need a lot of help from you.”

“I’ll be needing your help instead Dr. Park. Please assign the land where grains could grow as soon as possible.”

Kim Chun, with his easy-going personality, could get along with anyone easily. After introducing and greeting, he treated everyone as if he was an old friend.

He drove his recently bought four-wheel drive vehicle to the farm site with everyone else. In the car, he entertained the group with his eloquence.

“It still gets hot in here in the summer since it goes up to 86 degrees.”

“Well, grains would grow well because of the sunshine.”

“Whatever grows well here if there was water.”

Atyrau was hot as Baku even though the place was viciously cold during the winter. Since it was not a humid region, the heat was bearable. They drove for more than three hours on the paved road and had just gone on to the unpaved road.

“Boss, doesn’t it feel like the road is more stabilized now? I leveled the ground with a bulldozer.”

“You did a great job, Mr. Kim. Once the runway is completed, you can work on paving the road here. We can delay waterway construction but the road should be the priority so that workers could commute easily and farm materials could be get transported easily.”

“Well, there are not a lot of workers commuting these days since the temporary lodging in the farm is all completed. I always sleep for the night whenever I visit the farm.”

He explained the lodging construction progress and the Koryoin workers that he picked as employees. The accommodations for the workers was done about eighty percent, so it would be completed by the end of the summer and the construction of the village for the Serbian descendants had just begun. The village would be built with the capacity of a thousand families.

“This is a rocky region, it must have been difficult to get rid of them.”

“Well, it was not a problem. This is a region where wild foxes and wolves appear even during the day time. So, we decided to use some of the rocks as building materials and the rest of them would be used to make stone walls. More rocks would be better for us.”

A village of thousand families would need public facilities like a public hall, a security department, general merchant stores for daily necessities and foods, and bars and restaurants for people to gather and entertain themselves.

It was the size of a small city and Kim Chun was confidently saying that he would be building stone walls that would surround the whole village.

***

Arirang Farm was too vast, it took too long to look around the farm on a car. There they either needed a road that penetrated the farm or an airplane was needed to look over the whole area.

The size of the current site was huge enough but Youngho submitted a developmental plan to the government to develop the whole region that encompassed the land where the waterway passed and arterial roads passed.

If the permission was issued, he would have land that was about half of the size of Seoul. Youngho asked if the permission would be possible and Kim Chun’s answer was great.

“I made it clear that our company would be leaving the land if other companies came near our region. I also showed the related officials the photos of our facilities and construction process. I said we’d be willing to give up the deposits we made.”

‘Man, Kim Chun made a bold move.’

It was only bluffing and Youngho admired his boldness as a branch president of Zeynep Corporation.

“So, how did they take it?”

“Their faces turned pale as if they had already planned for other companies to join the region once it’s developed by us. So I pushed them even more and told them that you’d be visiting this week and if they don’t have the answer by then, we’ll have to make our decision too. Well, I don’t know if I went too far though.”

He had gone too far but this kind of verbal threats worked well in underdeveloped countries. Kim Chun made a bold move that if the government would not give the land that he wanted, he would not be cooperative to the government anymore. So, they would have to wait and see how the government reacted to them but it was highly likely that they would agree to Kim Chun’s request since they were desperate for investors who would develop their wasteland.

Even if the government gave the nearby regions to other businessmen, it would also not be a big problem since Youngho would stop the waterway and charge them a high cost for using the facility. Nothing could be done in the region without a water source.

“Dr. Park, how does the land look in your eyes? I have not thought about the possibility of farming since I only thought about the size of the land.”

“There are traces of meadows here. If there are plenty of water, it is not a bad land at all. The ground around the runway had a wide thick layer of rocks, so that is not plausible for farming. If you can make grain storage units and village over there, that would be suitable.”

“That’s great. Let’s return to Baku for now and we can come back and get to investigate the land once the runway and accommodations are completed.”

“I’d like to stay here for a few days and look around the region. I can’t sit back and wait thinking that it would be a great farm one day.”

Since he had been traveling to the most remote places around the world for the past decades, he did not feel uncomfortable at the farm’s environment.

“Dr. Park, why don’t you just take off today? You’ve been working hard until now, you could go on a trip with your daughter if you want. If you don’t want to, you can go fishing and hunting with me and stay relaxed for a while.”

***

Youngho had been traveling so often now that he had an airplane, Zeynep and Szechenyi had become sulky. Knowing that Youngho had an airplane, they were waiting for their turn to fly on it, but they did not have a chance until now.

Youngho knew that it would get worse if he waited too long, he picked a clear day without wind and flew them around Baku where there was no regular air route. As they stepped out of the flying school, Zeynep asked.

“Oppa, why is the runway of the flying school so short?”

“Yeah. It doesn’t have to be so long since they only have light aircraft. That is considered long.”

“Then, can you take off and land near the farm’s southern river? That place is almost flat. If you cut some grape trees, I think you can have a much longer runway than what school has.”

Zeynep’s innovative idea hit Youngho’s head hard. He had not thought about making a runway on Zeynep Farm yet, but she was indeed right. He hugged her with joy.

“So, it was Zeynep’s idea?”

“Yeah, sure it is. I’m just amazed at how she came up with that idea. The only problem now is that she’s insisting to learn how to fly, even Szechenyi too. I feel like she’s going to run away I don’t agree with her.”

“Why don’t you teach her then? She won’t dare to fly alone, don’t you think? Many European high schoolers learn how to fly when they want to. Why not our kids?”

“I’m scared of Fatima. I don’t know if she’ll agree to this idea.”

“Hey! We should buy another airplane that can hold eight people. It’s safer since it can fly longer.”

Jongil was taking a further step now.

The light aircraft’s runway distance was about 300 meters long. When it took off, it was about 280 meters long and when landing it could be shorter. Since the farm had plenty of room, if he could make a kilogram-long runway, one could take off and land on it with closing his eyes.

Because of Zeynep’s bright idea, he could have an airfield of his own at the farm. If he was traveling to a foreign airport, he could get an exit stamp at the Baku’s airport in advance. If he made a runway and hangar and hire a professional engineer, he would be able to travel anywhere whenever he wanted. The plan was set up at an instance.

A few days later, the noise of bulldozer could be heard from near the river of the farm. Zeynep Farm’s time of aircraft was now beginning.