Chapter 310 - Chapter 304
Chapter 310: Chapter 304
Hyunwoo was so startled to hear that news that he almost got goose flesh.
He could hardly believe his ears. How could Morgan develop a Toughtex engine on his own? Hyunwoo registered all the relevant patents on Toughtex. If Morgan developed Toughtex, he must have gotten around the registered patents.
“Nonsense! Something is wrong there.”
But Morgan Energy began a massive publicity campaign to promote its discovery of a new Toughtex. They even announced that they secured a factory site in China to build a factory there.
Morgan Energy’s big news flipped the equation. The upward trend in the stocks of Samryong Motors stopped while Morgan Energy stocks, which had been falling freely, instantly shot up, going up by 27% overnight.
Obviously, the news was true. Though Hyunwoo could hardly believe it, he had to admit it.
He had to cope with it and create another Toughtex brand that was totally different from Morgan Energy’s.
What flashed into Hyunwoo’s mind was a car powered by solar energy.
He encouraged the research staff of the Solar Cell Research Institute and pressured them by visiting there every day.
His father Duyoung observed the changing efficiency of solar batteries in different environments.
Even back home Duyoung continued to do the research. Not only at home but also in the vacation homes he often used, Duyoung installed a set of test equipment for solar cells.
But it was not easy.
Hyunwoo let out a sigh and said, “Whew! This job of doing research is far from easy.”
Then Yu Zuung, who was looking at a dinner menu for delivery, giggled at him. Usually, there was a housemaid preparing food for Hyunwoo and Yu Zuung. But as both took leave today, they were alone in the house.
They felt a bit empty. It was about time they had a baby by now, but they hadn’t yet.
As Yu Zuung hadn’t gotten pregnant yet, they visited a hospital together for medical checkups, but both were normal physically.
Of course, they tried hard to make a baby, but she could not get pregnant.
She was pretty stressed as she couldn’t have a baby. What was the point of being the world’s richest man without a baby?
But she tried to calm down by all means because she felt it might be more difficult to get pregnant if she felt more and more nervous.
She tried to find more time to do workouts while cutting down her entertainment activities. And she tried to laugh as often as possible, even when she felt under the weather.
“Just relax, honey. You and I can’t make a baby out of the blue, right? Just get rid of useless thoughts in your head. By the way, what do you want for dinner?” asked Yu Zuung.
She was right. The more he thought about it, the more he felt nervous.
Putting down his laptop, he approached her.
At that moment, they were staying in a country villa.
Hyunwoo had more than 500 villas around the country. Most of them were rented out to the general public by a real estate management company called Blue Pine.
Of course, Hyunwoo was the owner of Blue Pine, but nobody knew it.
“How about having boiled pig’s feet?”
“Oh, I love that, too.”
Yu Zuung called a nearby restaurant to get it delivered.
It was almost 11 pm when the food was delivered to the villa. As both had to work until late at night that day, they were just now having dinner.
“Looks like I had too much.”
“Me, too. Shall we have a walk outside?”
“Sounds good.”
Both went out for a walk for an hour and came back.
Hyunwoo felt he had better hit the sack now.
“I feel tired. How about going to bed now?”
“Let me clean this up first. I’ll see you in a minute.”
The next morning, Yu Zuung got up earlier than Hyunwoo to prepare breakfast.
She usually prepared toasted bread for breakfast.
After having a quick breakfast, Hyunwoo took a flash drive out of his laptop, which contained the test results of solar batteries.
He noticed the restaurant’s ads flyers on top of solar batteries. The flyers had magnetic pads in the back. Yu Zuung obviously put them there while she was putting up the food.
That might change the test outcomes.
But he didn’t take that too seriously because solar batteries would not be broken by that. Some of the test data could be briefly affected by that.
He connected the USB to the laptop again and compared the test results as usual.
Today there were some changes in the test value. Most likely the saved power amount was reduced as the ads flyers hid the solar cell from the sunshine.
He didn’t care, though, but an idea flashed into his mind at that moment.
“Ads flyer? Magnet? Magnetic field?”
Magnets created a magnetic field. Electricity also created magnetic fields. Magnetic and electric fields interfered with each other. Hyunwoo felt perhaps that magnets affected solar cells.
Of course, he could be wrong. But they were starting with most research with hope for a 0.01% probability.
He raced to STM Research Center and told its chief about what he witnessed a minute ago.
The chief showed a strong interest in it.
“Of course, that could affect solar cells. Let me intensively work on the role of a magnetic field.”
After seeing him, Hyunwoo headed back to his office.
Then he heard pretty shocking news while watching the TV. It was about the chairman of OneStar, Mr. Morgan.
<Morgan Energy failed to develop a Toughtex engine. Mr. Morgan disappeared for three days. The police are now chasing him, assuming that he siphoned 10 billion dollars by selling stocks.>
Hyunwoo’s jaw dropped at the news. In other words, Morgan created the whole scam to deceive the public and the press with a fake Toughtex engine.
Morgan clearly concluded there was no future for Morgan Energy, so he sold its stocks and escaped somewhere.
Morgan Energy plunged in a big chaos. Though the Super Green gasoline was widely sold around the world, the stocks of Morgan Energy plummeted on the stock market.
With a bitter smile, Hyunwoo murmured to himself, ‘What a swindler! I wonder if he can live comfortably during the remainder of his life. He’ll be caught by the police anyway.’
Anyway, he felt reassured to hear that news because the Toughtex engine his father developed would have a guaranteed future.
He was determined to put spurs to the ongoing research on the solar cells.
***
“Whew~”
Hyunwoo let out a long sigh after getting in his car.
It was already 11 pm. He worked nonstop since 9 am that morning without taking any break.
This kind of hectic schedule had been going on for three days now. Fortunately, he came back home a bit early. A few days ago, he hung out with his school alumni late into the night. Last night, he attended a drinking party last night with broadcasters that he used to know.
Hyunwoo was 46 this year. No matter how much he tried to stay fit, he was physically exhausted.
When he got home, he saw his house was dark with all the lights turned off.
‘Did she go to bed early tonight?’
Hyunwoo cautiously slipped into the house not to wake her up.
When he stepped into the living room, he noticed Yu Zuung.
She crouched on a sofa, apparently weeping.
Startled, he approached her quickly.
“What’s the matter with you? What happened?”
She suddenly hugged him and burst out sobbing, “Why can’t I have a baby? Why? Boohoo.”
He felt the prick of conscience to hear that. Though he tried to stay calm, he couldn’t.
Just like her, he was feeling deep sorrow. Perhaps she might feel it much more sharply.
He felt sorry for her. In fact, she stopped her entertainment activities to get pregnant, but he didn’t make as much of an effort.
He spent most of his time working outside, with various excuses such as work, appointments with VIPs, etc.
Maybe his passion for her had cooled down.
During the honeymoon period, he couldn’t go to sleep until he had sex with her. But not now.
He had sex with her occasionally these days.
Of course, that didn’t mean he didn’t love her.
He hugged her deeply and said, “I’m sorry, honey.”
“No, I’m sorry. I wish I had a baby for you and your parents, but I can’t no matter how hard I try. Looks like I won’t ever have a baby…”
“Don’t say that.”
Hyunwoo cut off her words quickly. He didn’t want to hear her reproaching herself because he felt he was so broken-hearted to hear it.
If one of them was to blame for that, Hyunwoo felt he was the main culprit.
“It’s my fault. I think I should have made more effort on my end. Let me try harder from now on. So, don’t blame yourself.”
But Yu Zuung couldn’t stop sobbing. It seemed the sobbing she held back until then kept bursting out.
He just hugged her quietly.
He felt sad and empty at the same time.
To him, it didn’t matter how much money he had or how high social prestige or reputation he had.
Happiness started from family, to say the least. No matter how big of an achievement one made, one’s life could not be happy when one’s family was not happy.
‘Why didn’t I devote myself to my family?’
In fact, he tried his best on his part. He built many villas around the country to travel and stay with her there.
But he couldn’t take the time out for her.
In hindsight, that was the most regrettable thing to him.
But what’s most important to him was whether he could change his current lifestyle.
With her wrapped in arms still, Hyunwoo called his chief secretary.
“Please cancel all my appointments for the next 15 days. I’m going to take a vacation with my wife.”
“Oh my god! 15 days? That’s a bit problematic. You have an appointment with the President next Tuesday.”