Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

Gun-Ho received a book from Jae-Sik Moon.

“Hmm. Finally, Professor Jien Wang’s book has been published. It’s thick.”

Gun-Ho opened the book. On the other side of the cover page, Professor Jien Wang’s profile was listed. It said that he obtained his Ph.D. from Yale University and taught at Yale. He is currently teaching at Zhejiang University in China. There was a brief profile about the translator who translated this book into Korean too. He was an instructor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Gun-Ho turned the first page over. There, he could see the name of the publishing company and publisher, etc. The publishing company was GH Media, and the publisher was Jeong-Sook Shin; the chief editor was Jae-Sik Moon. The name of the design team’s leader—Jeong-Sook Oh was shown there too. The price of the book was 15,000 won. Maybe given the thickness of the book, it was priced high.

“Let me see if there is any book review on this book in a newspaper.”

Gun-Ho searched the Internet. The three major newspapers: Chosun, Joongang, and Donga Ilbo were making an issue of the book. Even a small newspaper in a province was talking about the book. Maybe because the author was a college professor in China, who used to teach at Yale University. Moreover, the economy prospect in China for the 21st century as the book title indicated is closely related to people in Korea.

“I hope it sells very well.”

Gun-Ho opened the book while saying that. There were many charts and diagrams, it certainly looked not a fun book, unlike a novel.

Gun-Ho asked for the general affairs manager.

“How many workers do we have, who is above team leader?”

“We have 62, sir.”

“Then, please buy this book, 62 of them from online and hand it to all of them.”

“It’s Economy Trend in China for the 21st Century.”

“Tell them to read it and make a book report. The one who submits the best book report will be awarded.”

“Yes, sir.”

The general affairs manager made a note about the name and the publisher of the book while standing in front of Gun-Ho.”

“GH Media? It’s one of our companies?”

The general affairs manager seemed to be delighted.

Gun-Ho went on a business trip to China. He was carrying the book that Professor Wang authored. He was carrying several Korean versions of the book. Once a book was published, the publisher usually sent the book to the author by mail. Gun-Ho wanted to bring it to Professor Wang himself.

Once he arrived in China, he didn’t go to Suzhou City where Min-Hyeok was, but he went to Hangzhou Jien Wang was living in.

Gun-Ho was thinking of calling Jien Wang and asking him to come to the hotel where he was staying, but he decided to visit him to his workplace instead, which was his research office at Zhejiang University.

“Professor Wang? It’s me, Gun-Ho Goo. I just arrived in China and I am on my way to your research office.”

“What? You are coming to my office? I am in the office by myself and writing a paper. I will be here waiting for you.”

When Gun-Ho and Jien Wang met, they hugged each other.

“It has been a while.”

“Guess what? I brought you the book you wrote. It’s a Korean version that has just been published in Korea. The publishing company will send it to you soon by mail, but I wanted to give it to you myself. I brought two of them.”

“You could just send them by mail. It is kind of heavy to carry.”

Jien Wang looked delighted, he was smiling.

“The Korean language is so beautiful. It is a phonetic language. I am envious of it.”

“The Chinese language contains profound meaning.”

“The Chinese characters are not easy to use on the Internet, and it is hard to write a foreign language in Chinese. If we want to write a foreign name such as Obama or Trump, we have to make it with Chinese characters. That’s difficult.”

“We have 24 letters in the Korean language.”

“Exactly. I am so jealous. It’s so easy to learn. You know what? There are three things that Chinese people will never know in their entire lives.”

“What are they?”

“First, since the land of China is so big that they won’t be able to visit them all before they die.”

“That makes sense.”

“Secondly, we have so many different cuisines in each province that they won’t be able to taste them all before they die.”

“Hahaha. Really?”

“Can you guess the third one?”

“I don’t know.”

“Chinese people die without knowing all of the Chinese characters. Even I sometimes encounter a Chinese character that I don’t recognize because it is rarely used.”

“Hmm. That’s a bit sad.”

“Well, I have my good friend here who came all the way from Korea. I will have to have a drink. I will buy you a drink today. I received a royalty from GH Media.”

“That was already several months ago.”

“Well, I at least want to buy you a drink, President Goo. You helped me to publish my book in Korea. Let’s go and have Shaoxing wine.”

Professor Jien Wang took Gun-Ho to a shabby bar at Hubin Lu.

“I come to this bar sometimes after work. I enjoy drinking by myself. My favorite menu here is a bottle of Shaoxing wine with a seasoned eggplant.”

“This seasoned eggplant and water parsley taste similar to a Korean dish. I like them.”

Gun-Ho ate a lot because he really liked those seasoned vegetables. They sautéed the vegetables with a little bit of oil, and they were really good. A pork dish came out.

“This pork dish is a special order for you, my friend. You eat pork, right?”

“Sure. It’s good.”

The port was sautéed with sliced onions.

Gun-Ho thought that the bar was a type of bars where a professor with not much money would come just like Jien Wang.

“I once wrote something while I was drinking at this bar. I sent it to a newspaper. The title is ‘thinking of my friend.’”

Jien Wang took out a newspaper from his bag, it looked a bit dated. Jien Wang’s writing was in the newspaper.

Gun-Ho started reading it. In the writing, Jien Wang talked about his Korean friend—Gun-Ho as well. It talked about how he met Gun-Ho for the first time, and how Gun-Ho was developed into a successful businessman. He also talked about how kind Gun-Ho was to him when he attended a conference in Korea along with Korean people’s sense of public order and cleanliness.

“Thank you, my friend. You talked good about me.”

“I really meant it.”

Gun-Ho truly appreciated it.

“Let’s keep our friendship forever.”

“Sure. We will be friends until we die.”

Gun-Ho was feeling good and enjoyed his drink with Jien Wang that night.

Gun-Ho headed to Suzhou City to see Min-Hyeok. Min-Hyeok seemed to gain some weight.

“You gained some weight. Maybe because Chinese food here is a bit oily.”

“I think that’s because I ate too many dish when I drink with customers as part of my sales activities. My fiancée already nagged me.”

“What did she say?”

“She said I need to lose weight. She even gave me some kind of pills that would help me lose weight.”

Min-Hyeok showed a bottle of pills to Gun-Ho, which said Jianfei.

The factory in China was doing great, it was vibrant. Min-Hyeok gave a brief report to Gun-Ho on the company’s current loss and profit status. Gun-Ho could see how hard Min-Hyeok had been working because of the stock option.

“You have been working so hard.”

“Yeah. I actually need some extra money, so I worked as much as I could. I am expecting to get some extra income from the stock option at the end of this year.”

“Is it because of your wedding?”

“I will have to find a place to live with my fiancée. The rent is too high, so I am thinking to buy a home in Suzhou City. I will live with my wife right after we marry next spring.”

“Do you think you would get a good dividend this year?”

“If things go well as expected, the ordinary income will be 2 billion Korean Won. My stock option is 5% of it, so I will receive an extra 100 million won. There is a condo complex in Suzhou City and it is called Cui Yuan Huayuan. It is close to our factory. I think I can buy a 25 pyung condo there with a loan. It costs 150 million won.”

“The price of the condo will increase in the future?”

“I think so.”

“Did your fiancée see that condo already?”

“No, she hasn’t yet. Her name is Dingding. She will quit her job at school in Shanghai once we marry.”

“Dingding? The teaching job in Shanghai International School is hard to get, isn’t it?”

“Since she studied in the U.S., she can easily find another job here too. She was already offered a position from Suzhou International School.”

“Really? That’s great.”

Gun-Ho thought Min-Hyeok was doing really good with his life.