Jang Jae-won couldn’t help but nod as he saw the smiling face of Lee Hyun-woo asking if he could write an editorial.
“If you do… I would be grateful.”
At the same time, a worry surfaced.
“I haven’t told my older brother yet.”
How would his eldest brother, the owner of Sejong Ilbo, react to this? He had come without consulting him.
In fact, the scenario Jang Jae-won predicted was as follows:
Ask through Lee Hyun-woo if they could meet Nostradamus. He knew there was a more than 99% chance it wouldn’t work. So if it failed, he would be content with associating with Lee Hyun-woo, who is at the center of South Korea’s information and communication, while dating his niece, Kim Ah-young.
In the rare event they could contact Nostradamus, he would propose writing an editorial. Again, there was a more than 99% chance it wouldn’t work because Nostradamus had remained anonymous thus far.
Therefore, having come to this stage in an instant, his mind was understandably blank.
From this point on, there was only Jang Jae-won being cooked by Lee Hyun-woo.
“No matter how fun it is to write an editorial, I think I can only post it once a week. There might be times when I take a break. Is that okay?”
“That’s possible. Honestly, the internet version doesn’t have a clear format right now. Just like us, other media companies are creating new forms of media. I can accommodate that much at my discretion.”
“I like it. Creating a new form of media. That’s why I get the opportunity to write an editorial.”
Lee Hyun-woo’s voice was filled with excitement at the thought of doing something he couldn’t do in his past life.
In fact, this form of editorial did not exist in his past life, as far as he knew.
Would a mainstream conservative media like Sejong Ilbo allow anonymous editorials?
In that sense, Jang Jae-won instantly recognized that Lee Hyun-woo was someone who shared his vision.
“Maybe this person wasn’t so successful in his past life.”
Especially because he had a radical mindset that conservative media could not accept.
At best, he might have returned to the U.S. to work as a correspondent again.
Nowadays, Lee Hyun-woo encountered many people living different lives from their past ones.
Designer Lee Hwan recently started a collaboration with his father’s company, and former professional gamer Hong Yo-han is about to debut as a singer.
There was no law that said Jang Jae-won couldn’t become a famous journalist in the future.
“I should help him become that.”
Unaware of Lee Hyun-woo’s thoughts, Jang Jae-won bid farewell and promised to meet again to buy time to organize his thoughts.
“Then let’s discuss the details later. I have to get back to the company. We both have work to do.”
“Of course. Ah, please keep this confidential once again.”
“I will.”
Back at the company, Jang Jae-won had to defragment his thoughts for a moment.
So much information was swirling in his head.
After roughly organizing his thoughts, he went up to see Jang Jae-hong, the owner of Sejong Ilbo.
His much older eldest brother had recently put him in charge of the internet version, Digital Sejong, but he felt he should report anything related to Nostradamus.
When he mentioned that he had recruited Nostradamus in person,
“Nostradamus? Did you really meet that person?”
Jang Jae-hong looked at his youngest brother with deep wrinkles.
“No, I didn’t meet him. But I communicated with him via email.”
“Email? How did you get that?”
“From Lee Hyun-woo. You know the CEO of Jungle, right?”
“Lee Hyun-woo told you?”
“I begged him. On the condition of maintaining confidentiality. To reiterate, I can’t reveal Nostradamus’s identity, even if my life depended on it. Not even to you, brother.”
“Hmm…”
“As you know, Nostradamus is a person who can generate tremendous buzz. Naturally, we can capture the forefront of the burgeoning internet media landscape.”
“The demographic that uses internet media is likely the younger generation anyway.”
“Catching that younger generation is capturing the future. And since it’s internet media, we can experiment like this.”
It was a valid point.
With print newspapers, such attempts were impossible.
Once he considered all of this, Jang Jae-hong nodded willingly.
“Alright. Give it a try.”
“Yes, you can expect great things. Soon, Digital Sejong will attract massive advertising.”
Jang Jae-hong chuckled at his youngest brother’s confidence.
“Indeed, Nostradamus’s predictions are remarkable.”
As someone with sharp eyes for mainstream media, Jang Jae-hong found Nostradamus’s blog posts, which had been making waves since last year, to be quite insightful. The posts had profound knowledge and experience in international trade and finance, something that couldn’t be written without such a background.
He even acquired information quickly.
He speculated that Nostradamus might be a former diplomat well-versed in international economics, but it was still a mystery.
“Such a person is worth having write for us. I should subtly try to bring him into the limelight later.”
The globalization of South Korea is expected to accelerate.
Nostradamus seemed capable of handling anything related to international relations, so he wanted to bring him on board somehow.
Naturally, Jang Jae-hong’s thoughts were based on not knowing that Nostradamus was actually Lee Hyun-woo.
If he had known, would he even consider scouting the successful CEO of an information and communication company?
Soon, Jang Jae-won received a call.
(Send the editorial as soon as it’s ready.)
“Will do.”
Lee Hyun-woo hung up the phone with an excited voice.
“What should I write about first? No, what should I bring up first?”
He first looked at today’s newspaper articles.
Naturally, he referred to Sejong Ilbo,
“Korean companies should stop expanding with other people’s money!”
The content warned that, like Thailand, our financial market could become unstable.
“Reading it carefully, it does have a certain level of writing skill.”
Unlike his blog posts, the objective and mechanical sentences had a well-connected structure.
The following article was similar.
“Bank of Korea Governor also serves as Monetary Policy Committee Chairman.”
With rumors of an economic crisis originating from Thailand, the article mentioned that the government had taken new measures related to currency.
“However, the tone of the articles is different from before, stimulating people’s anxiety.”
Nostradamus’s blog probably didn’t change the media’s stance or influence government personnel policies, but the flow of articles had certainly changed.
Perhaps these two titles were content the reporters were already preparing, or they had written them knowing parts of the government’s planned financial policies in advance.
But…
Could it be that the reason for releasing such articles now was because it was time to send a warning signal to public opinion?
“Releasing information I alone know at the right time is the best.”
Lee Hyun-woo thought that connecting with the trends of the times would attract more attention.
With that, he reviewed his blog posts once again.
“Looking at it now, there are many mistakes. And the impact could have been greater.”
Although he received widespread praise for predicting the future, Lee Hyun-woo felt he didn’t move as much as he had predicted.
In a good way, of course.
By now, at least six or seven large conglomerates should have gone bankrupt, but only two were heading towards bankruptcy after defaulting.
He even thought that the Southeast Asian financial crisis originating from Thailand might not be as severe as in his past life.
“But this exchange rate is not right.”
The dollar slightly exceeded 850 won.
In his view, the foreign exchange market would become unstable within a few months, pushing the exchange rate beyond 1,000 won.
“Then should I start with the exchange rate?”
Having decided on a topic, his hands busily typed away.
“It’s time to prepare for the rising exchange rate.”
And he wrote within the direction indicated by the previous articles, ensuring it did not disrupt the consistency of Sejong Ilbo.
However, Lee Hyun-woo thought it didn’t need to be entirely mechanical.
“After all, this is an editorial, not an article.”
The conclusion was a recommendation to buy dollars at this time.
In a way, it was quite risky content.
If everyone started buying dollars, the exchange rate could rise sharply.
Of course, Lee Hyun-woo was aware of that.
But,
“Hey, just because I write this doesn’t mean the dollar rate will rise immediately.”
He thought he was advising people for the future, not that this one editorial would visibly increase the demand for dollars.
Meanwhile, the next day, Digital Sejong included a short article in the middle of page 5.
“Famous Blogger Nostradamus Appointed as Editorial Writer for Digital Sejong!”
Lee Hyun-woo’s eyes widened as he saw the article.
“Oh? They even advertised through an article.”
It seemed to be Jang Jae-won’s strategy to gather as much attention as possible.
Although he knew internet media still couldn’t wield power on its own.
Of course, unless it was featured prominently on a portal site, an individual editorial’s influence was limited, Lee Hyun-woo thought.
“But what if, by any chance, my editorial affects the exchange rate?”
He mentally calculated.
There were limits, but it wouldn’t hurt if the exchange rate rose to an appropriate level.
At the current exchange rate, export companies couldn’t exert their strength.
After this thought, Lee Hyun-woo sent the editorial he had written the previous day to Jang Jae-won, feeling an inexplicable excitement.
Writing for Digital Sejong felt different from posting on a blog.
Even though it was an online version, Digital Sejong had credibility.
Publishing his first editorial there was quite an exciting prospect.
“I’m doing something I couldn’t even imagine in my past life.”
In fact, the reason Lee Hyun-woo had the leisure to write editorials was thanks to Woo Sang-won, who was solidifying his position as COO.
He handled most matters on his own before reporting, doing it impeccably.
Today was no different.
“Although it’s not a department, I think our company needs a team responsible for finance and accounting, so I’m planning to establish one.”
“Really? Then the finance and accounting team?”
“Yes, and although he hasn’t been with the company long, I’d like Shin Dong-woon, who has Wall Street experience, to lead it.”
“That sounds great.”
After smiling contentedly, Lee Hyun-woo looked at Woo Sang-won’s face.
But his expression was subtle.
It was a face that seemed to have something to say but hesitated whether to say it or not.
“Do you have something special you want to say?”
“Well…”
Judging by his hesitation, it was definitely something difficult.
“Do you know a blogger named Nostradamus?”
Why did he feel like he had been asked this question so often lately?
“Isn’t he a famous blog operator?”
“Yes, that’s right. But he agreed to write editorials for Digital Sejong.”
“Yes, I saw the article too.”
“Oh, you saw it…”
“Yes, but why?”
“It feels like we’re losing a famous person from our blog to a competitor.”
“…”
Lee Hyun-woo barely suppressed his laughter.
And then he thought,
“It might be better to reveal the identity of Nostradamus to some key personnel in our company.”
Lee Hyun-woo didn’t want to waste mental energy and time on unnecessary worries.
His younger brother Lee Jung-woo came to mind, and the person in front of him, Woo Sang-won, was also an ideal candidate for sharing the secret.
Lee Hyun-woo, who always made decisions quickly, finally spoke.
“Director Woo.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t worry.”
“…?”
“I am Nostradamus.”
“…!”
