Lee Hyun-woo’s suggestion to go out for some fresh air was genuine.
They simply walked after leaving the hotel.
Only the bodyguards following behind Park Min-sook were on high alert, ready for any possible mishaps.
Lee Hyun-woo, not paying any attention to this, smiled slightly and initiated the conversation.
“Did everything go well today? The visit to 【Mido Hotel】 earlier?”
“Yeah, from now on, if tourists using 【Seorabeol Hotel】 in Korea use 【Mido Hotel】 in Japan, they’ll get a certain amount of discount.”
“Wow, you’re doing business well.”
“I learned it from you. This is my first time incorporating a method of growth through competition and cooperation. And we can do this thanks to your company’s cloud service.”
Lee Hyun-woo nodded.
From now on, we have to think about collecting and utilizing vast amounts of data regardless of the industry.
From her words, it sounded like they were sharing customer information between the two hotels, which would require ‘save’ and ‘load’ functions.
The internet connects businesses from different countries like this.
What is needed here is efficiency, large capacity, and reprocessing capabilities.
“In the future, we plan to continue partnering with other hotels. That will require a massive accumulation of data that can be accessed anytime. 【Jungle】’s cloud service seems to have set the stage for this.”
The cloud business was so useful that the business prospects looked very bright.
Lee Hyun-woo suggested even broader industry exchanges.
“What about airlines?”
“What?”
“You can link with airlines. Some places already do this, if you create package deals based on detailed customer information, it would be more effective.”
“Oh… that’s another possibility.”
Of course, travel agencies actively develop such products, but doing it from a high-end hotel perspective is on another level.
“And there’s the duty-free shop we talked about earlier. Although it’s a public enterprise now, if you win the bid and operate it in the future, you can easily create combined products.”
“Are you a magic wand or something?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“You come up with things faster than anyone else and think of things others haven’t even considered. And you tell me about them.”
“Do I?”
Thoughts kept coming.
Even in a previous life, someone might have done this, but it feels like I can create something new from anything I see.
“Instead, it’s a magic wand I can only wield until I’m forty.”
“Forty?”
“Yeah, didn’t I tell you? My dream is to retire before then.”
“Oh, I think I heard that. But that’s a modest dream.”
“What are you talking about? That’s the hardest thing.”
When a workaholic tried to stop working, they realize how difficult it is.
“It’s not just about me traveling; I have to do it with my wife and kids. That requires a certain level of financial capability, doesn’t it? To bear that burden until I die. Don’t you agree?”
“Well… yeah…”
“You were born with a silver spoon, but I wasn’t. I was born with a dirt spoon, so I have to earn as much as I can and then travel the world as if it were a daily routine with the money I’ve saved.”
“Our magic wand even creates new terms. Silver spoon, dirt spoon. Interesting.”
Listening to her, Lee Hyun-woo smiled broadly.
Using terms that aren’t commonly used these days earned him such compliments.
“And you?”
“Me?”
“What’s your dream?”
“Me? Hmm… originally, it was to expand the hotel, venture into other businesses, grow them, and eventually be recognized for my business talents like my oppa…”
“…….”
“But now, it’s starting to change.”
Lee Hyun-woo’s eyes widened slightly.
For some reason, he felt that she was revealing her heart once again.
So his heart fluttered.
He almost asked how it changed and why.
What kind of conversation would follow?
- You said you wanted to retire before forty and travel the world with your family. Shouldn’t we do it together?
If she answered like this, how should Lee Hyun-woo react?
‘I’m getting old and overthinking.’
In reality, he was well over fifty.
If it weren’t for that, he might have approached her without any calculations.
But now, he had to consider dating her and even beyond.
Being the daughter of 【Guseong】 was not something to think lightly about.
Looking back, he felt it again.
‘If I date Ah-young, I’ll always live with this mindset.’
He felt he needed to think a lot about this.
The next day, Kim Tae-hyun arrived.
Then the three of them met Son Jung-yi.
The one leading the conversation was, of course, Lee Hyun-woo.
“Japan has a population 2.5 times that of Korea, right? We can attract a million users faster than 【Jungle Korea】.”
He spoke as if there was no point in entering the Japanese market otherwise.
Son Jung-yi nodded in agreement with Lee Hyun-woo’s words.
“Exactly. That’s why we’ve been focusing on promotions. A million users are just a matter of time. Now I’m looking beyond that.”
“Beyond that?”
“Going from a portal site to online shopping.”
“Online shopping…”
Although it was slightly discussed in the previous two meetings, Son Jung-yi was more proactive today after the meeting in Japan.
“We’re already holding meetings every day to establish a delivery system. My dream is to enable receiving goods within a few days with a single click. Is it too ambitious to hope to achieve that in Tokyo within two years?”
Lee Hyun-woo smiled slightly at his response.
Even in his past life, Son Jung-yi loved online shopping, and it seems similar this time around.
However, there were many things to point out.
‘He’s talking as if establishing a logistics infrastructure is easy. 【Amazones】 incurred so many losses doing that.’
Lee Hyun-woo saw logistics infrastructure as something 【Jungle】 would attempt someday once they secured enough funds.
However, transportation, warehousing, logistics systems, and human resources.
None of these were easy, so it wasn’t feasible now.
There were other points to critique, but he kept them to himself.
After all, dreams are free.
Son Jung-yi wasn’t someone who couldn’t prioritize if given something else.
“Logistics infrastructure is good. But isn’t the network infrastructure more lacking?”
“I agree. That’s why we’re rushing to establish high-speed internet.”
“How much progress has been made?”
“As a result of our busy efforts, it seems we can reach the final stage of commercialization, including speed tests, within the first half of the year.”
“That could only have been possible with Chairman Son leading the way.”
“No. It was because CEO Lee encouraged us and even invested equity.”
As soon as Son Jung-yi mentioned Lee Hyun-woo’s name and his intention to invest, the expressions of Kim Tae-hyun and Kim Ah-young, who had been silent, changed slightly.
They had heard through the media but thought it was exaggerated information. It turned out to be true.
“When I raised my voice alone, no one paid attention. But the name value of 【Jungle】 worked again this time.”
“No way. That can’t be.”
“It’s true. To be precise, a new wave has erupted in the media following 【Jungle】’s success in Korea. Recently, 【Japan Keizai Newspaper】 ran a special feature strongly advocating for it. They said that establishing infrastructure costs a lot of money, but they must learn from Korea’s recent success! Perhaps because of that, the government is now sending messages to Japanese companies to hurry and establish network infrastructure.”
“That’s a relief.”
“In the end, establishing network infrastructure is just a matter of time.”
So, does he dream of a logistics system after that?
Lee Hyun-woo looked at Son Jung-yi, who was aiming high, and smiled.
People who look to the future have a connection.
When Lee Hyun-woo talks about ‘change,’ Son Jung-yi reaches out and grabs it.
“I still keep your words in my heart, CEO Lee. In Korea, two public enterprises and one private company established high-speed internet. Using telephone lines, towers, and transmission lines, and cable. All of these are also laid out in Japan.”
He remembers everything I said before.
Lee Hyun-woo nodded, thinking this inwardly.
‘Due to the butterfly effect, I don’t know how others will change, but this person will likely have a similar journey to his past life for a while.’
Now all that’s left is the launch of the portal site 【Jungle Japan】.
That would be tomorrow.
Unfortunately, there was someone who couldn’t see it.
Kim Tae-hyun.
A while later at the airport.
“I should have stayed until tomorrow, but I must go to the production facility for the server this time. Even foreign companies are coming.”
Kim Tae-hyun expressed his regret once again.
Those who came to see him off were Lee Hyun-woo and Kim Ah-young.
Lee Hyun-woo responded to his words first.
“You can see the reaction in Korea. That’s the good thing about the internet.”
“In Korea? How?”
“You’ll see if you log in.”
“Really? Does 【Jungle Japan】 show the number of users if you log in? How many people logged in?”
“No.”
“Huh?”
“You won’t be able to log in. Due to server overload.”
“…….”
“Really. Trust me.”
Kim Tae-hyun gave a faint, wry smile.
“If it’s server overload, it’s like having a server problem.”
“Yes, it means the capacity is insufficient. I checked briefly earlier, and it wasn’t even close.”
“Wow…”
“Anyway, with the success of 【Jungle Japan】, the internet era will arrive in Japan, and there will be a high demand for servers, right? So, the stock price of 【Guseong Electronics】, which prepared for mass production of servers early on, will soar once again. Of course, the performance will be amazing too.”
“You talk as if you have been planning for that to happen.”
Kim Tae-hyun showed an even wryer smile.
Then he said the following.
“Listening to you and Son Jung-yi talk today, I realized many things. Each has their own place, their own domain. And their own dreams.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“In that sense, I had a dream recently.”
“What was it?”
Lee Hyun-woo couldn’t help but ask, seeing Kim Tae-hyun’s expression eager to share.
“Finding Zhuge Liang.”
“What?”
“Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Kongming. Someone who will be my brain and conquer the world. That was my dream, and I got quite excited when I found him recently. I even pictured Liu Bei with Zhuge Liang by his side.”
“Why do you speak in the past tense?”
“I realized today how difficult that path is. I confirmed that Zhuge Liang has really big dreams.”
Kim Tae-hyun’s wry smile had disappeared by now.
Instead, there was regret.
Conversely, Lee Hyun-woo had a bitter smile.
He was sure Kim Tae-hyun was referring to him as Zhuge Liang.
‘I don’t have such big dreams, though?’
It seemed that Kim Tae-hyun had mistaken the conversation he had with Son Jung-yi earlier for grand plans to dominate the network and logistics infrastructure.
‘I told the chairman before, my dream is just to be a filial son, a good husband, and a respected father.’
To Lee Hyun-woo, that was the bigger dream.
On the way out of the airport, this time, Kim Ah-young recalled the conversation between Kim Tae-hyun and Lee Hyun-woo.
‘So, my oppa is Liu Bei, and this person is Zhuge Liang?’
At this point, she couldn’t help but imagine something else.
‘Why do I keep thinking of Sun Shangxiang?’
Perhaps it was because they mentioned figures from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Sun Shangxiang, the younger sister of Sun Quan and Liu Bei’s wife, kept coming to mind.
Of course, in her thoughts, Sun Quan was Kim Tae-hyun, and Liu Bei was Lee Hyun-woo.
Thinking this far, her face turned red.
A woman in love often reacts this way to even the smallest things.
