“In Hannam-dong, Chairman Jo’s residence is known as the most expensive house in the country.
Haerakwon. From the former chairman to the present, this place has been truly the stronghold where only the top figures of Jangkyung can enter.
In the kitchen there, Mrs. Jinju cooked noodles.
Chairman Jo, who hasn’t had much of an appetite lately, sought out bibim-guksu as soon as he returned from his business trip.
Jung Sook tapped the table twice with her hand, irritatingly.
“Oh, it’s not good enough? You still don’t understand the chairman’s taste. Add more spice! Put in more hot peppers! Huh?”
Mrs. Jinju silently took out a few more peppers.
The secret to her long years of service here, raising a successful son, was that she was not one to mince her words.
If we were to list all the things she had seen and heard, it would not be enough to spend two days straight.
Madam’s mental state was unstable, and Kim Young-ha, who was the chairman at the time, also passed away soon due to illness, so the house quickly fell into disarray.
In the noisy summer of that year, the chairman changed.
Originally, Jangkyung’s chairman position belonged to Madam. She was the only daughter of the late Chairman Kim and naturally thought that Madam would take over the position.
But for some reason, Dale Swih, who had entered this house as a son-in-law, rose to the position of chairman.
A person who was a team leader at a rival company took over the position of Jangkyung’s Group Strategy Office head, passing on corporate secrets, and married his daughter. Now he even took over the position of Jangkyung’s chairman. Rumors spread throughout the household that summer.
Chairman Jo, or rather, the current Chairman Jo, was so power-hungry, dictatorial, and ruthless in pursuit of his own interests that he could be terrifying.
Mrs. Jinju vividly remembered when he first brought a young girl and a middle-aged woman who looked just like him to the house.
Due to an unfortunate accident, the girl had been hospitalized for over a month, and her appearance had subtly changed, and she even suffered from amnesia.
Although she wrapped her up in the excuse that the girl had been in the hospital for more than a month, no one could deny that she was not the girl.
‘Mom. Mom!’
The girl, who used to murmur that every time she saw Jung Sook, now occasionally called her mom in front of Chairman Jo.
It was frightening. Everything that happened in this house.
After briefly regaining her composure, Madam fainted several times afterward and is now in her sixth year of hospitalization.
But we all know, don’t we? No matter how much we try to keep our mouths shut, there are no eternal secrets in the world.
Employees working here each signed a contract to keep the secret in exchange for money, but human mouths are not so heavy.
The truth must have flowed somewhere through someone’s mouth and already spread somewhere in the world.
Jung Sook sternly raised her head.”
“Honey, when the bibim-guksu is ready, can you make lunch for Inyeong? She’s too skinny. Okay with galbijjim that Inyeong likes?”
Mrs. Jinju, while adding more spicy peppers as Jung Sook suggested, silently nodded instead of answering.
The next day, Chairman Jo briefly went to the office in the morning due to the aftermath of a long business trip and immediately returned to Haerakwon.
In his youth, he, too, was not in perfect health, having devoted himself to supporting Chairman Kim.
Unlike other chaebol leaders who started from birth, he had a history of numerous hardships.
During the time when he was known as Vice Chairman Jo after marrying Kim Hayoon, he never had a peaceful day, constantly resisting the opposing forces trying to pull him down.
Born as the child of a poor fisherman, he had to grow up receiving the care of the townspeople instead of his mother.
Thus, for Jo Sehun, the greatest values in life were money and power.
He had run toward only that one thing.
Even seducing Cha Yoonhwa for his livelihood, abandoning his son and daughter and returning to Korea, and marrying Kim Hayoon despite knowing that she had someone else’s child—all of it was for that reason.
He lived as a dog for his father-in-law, Chairman Kim, and did everything as ordered, clearing away anything that bothered him.
In front of burning desire, there was no hesitation…
‘I hope we get a divorce.’
When Inyeong revealed her ambition to become an artist, her wife Kim Hayoon demanded a divorce.
‘I already told Father. Get a divorce.’
A sarcastic laughter followed. What was there to do?
After living like this for so long, am I supposed to just let that slip by?
What he wanted was the pinnacle of Jangkyung for him and the astronomical inheritance property that would be inherited by his wife when Chairman Kim died.
Although he expressed his repeated refusal to Kim Hayoon, if it went to court, he was likely to lose.
The background surrounding his wife was too powerful, and he was just a Vice Chairman Jo who cleaned up Chairman Kim’s mess.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
