July 1st, 1997, the monumental day of Hong Kong's return to China, also marked a turning point in my business.
Despite operating the IC chip restoration factory conservatively for the past three weeks, worried about attracting unwanted attention, it consistently generated billions of won in net profit every week.
I deposited all the profits into the collateral account, and Chairman Zhao Yang, seeing the increasing balance, started increasing his investment.
After three weeks, the collateral account held 500 million yuan, and the investment amount had exceeded 400 million yuan.
"Hehehe, Hong Kong is back. We start tomorrow, right?"
Maru replied nervously,
"Yes, I've recruited the daigong (personal shoppers), and we'll start smuggling the boards from Hong Kong tomorrow morning."
Maru had come to Shenzhen to help me, timing his arrival with the Hong Kong handover.
"I'll take care of the factory, so you go to Hong Kong tomorrow and oversee the shipment of the boards."
"Alright."
I rubbed my hands together excitedly.
"It's finally beginning."
We had 5 billion won worth of restored IC boards piled up in our Hong Kong warehouse, and another 40 billion won worth was on its way by sea.
Roughly calculating, 5 billion won worth of boards could generate 50 billion won, and 40 billion won worth could generate 400 billion won.
"We're moving from billions to hundreds of billions. Park Sol, you're the best."
Maru said incredulously,
"You're not even acknowledging anything below billions anymore? How is that hundreds of billions?"
"You get the idea. Don't nitpick, it's tiring."
"Yes, yes."
I glared at Maru, who answered halfheartedly, and said,
"Anyway, once this is over, I'm buying my dream house. A two-story house with a basement and a large yard."
"That's surprisingly modest. I thought you would buy a mansion."
I chuckled.
"I'd love to, but it's expensive. I need to reinvest the profits. It's not like I lived in the dormitory because I couldn't afford a house."
I had been living in the company dormitory, busy working, even after becoming a multi-billionaire.
I had been drinking, working, and thinking about making money, but I hadn't spent anything on myself.
"It's time for me to move out of the dormitory. It's not appropriate for a multi-billionaire to live in a company dormitory. It's embarrassing."
Maru nodded.
"You should buy a house, meet new people, join some clubs, make friends, find a girlfriend… That would be nice."
I chuckled at his words.
"A girlfriend? You should be the one finding a girlfriend, not me."
Maru suddenly flinched and looked at me nervously.
"I'll take care of myself. You should be the one worrying about yourself."
His suspicious behavior made me narrow my eyes.
"What's with that reaction? You usually just sigh and say, 'I wish.' Do you have a girlfriend?"
Maru avoided my gaze and said, flustered,
"No, I don't have a girlfriend."
"Something's fishy."
Maru waved his hands.
"Stop it. It's late. I need to get up early tomorrow to go to Hong Kong, so I'm going to bed."
He abruptly ended the conversation and went to his room. I watched him suspiciously.
"I think he has a girlfriend… Should I go back to Korea once this is over?"
The smuggling operation went smoothly.
The daigong carried bags of restored IC boards back and forth between Hong Kong and Shenzhen by boat.
The customs officials turned a blind eye for a 10 yuan bribe, and I looked at the growing pile of boards in the factory and shouted,
"We're operating 24/7 from now on. Hire more people if we need more hands, and buy any equipment we need."
Once I started releasing these restored IC chips into the market, the word would spread throughout Shenzhen.
People would try to replicate our business, and since the process was simple, they would figure it out quickly.
The price of restored IC boards in China would rise, and they would start looking for overseas suppliers, but by then, it would be too late.
"We've been preparing for this for two months, investing hundreds of billions of won. They can't compete with us. Hehehe."
Even with my resources and meticulous planning, it took a month from acquisition to production. How could those small fry compete with us?
By then, we would have complete control of the restored IC chip market in Shenzhen.
I smiled and said,
"Let's make some money."
The sudden surge in the supply of restored IC chips, which had been trickling out before, created a huge reaction.
For factory owners in China, labor costs were negligible, so the biggest factor in determining the production cost was the price of raw materials.
As long as the product worked, they would use the cheapest materials possible. But the problem was semiconductors.
Semiconductors were the essence of modern technology, and only a limited number of companies could manufacture them.
The performance of memory chips varied greatly depending on their capacity, but the performance difference between older and newer models of other IC chips wasn't that significant. But if semiconductor companies discontinued the older models and only produced the newer ones, the factories had no choice but to buy the more expensive, newer models.
"What? N7540 for 5 yuan? That's all?"
Li Chuang, who was having a drink with a friend who owned a neighboring factory, was shocked. His friend chuckled.
"That's right. It's only a quarter of the price of genuine chips. My profits have increased significantly."
Li Chuang said suspiciously,
"How can they sell them at that price? Are they stolen?"
"They're not stolen, they're secondhand."
Li Chuang was taken aback.
"Secondhand? There's no such thing as secondhand IC chips. It's a scam."
"There's a defect rate, but it's only about 10%. It's worth it at that price."
"I guess so…"
Seeing his hesitant expression, his friend said,
"The supply used to be very limited, so only a few people knew about it. But it seems like the volume has increased recently. I'm telling you this because we're friends. You can use N7540. There's no difference between N7540 and N7640."
"That's true."
N7540 was an older IC chip used in radios, but it didn't matter for Li Chuang's factory, which manufactured cheap radios.
There was no noticeable difference in performance between the expensive N7640 and the cheap N7540, and no one who cared about such minor details would buy a cheap radio like that.
"Do they have a replacement for G860?"
G860 was the IC chip currently used in Li Chuang's factory for receiving wireless signals.
"Yeah, they have G840. I bought about 2,000 units."
"G840? That's a four-year-old model! Wow, that's amazing!"
Li Chuang became more and more interested.
"If I use secondhand IC chips for all the radio boards, I can significantly reduce my production cost."
"Of course. That's what I'm doing. I can save at least 30 yuan per unit."
Li Chuang's eyes sparkled.
"Tell me where you're buying them. I need to get some."
"They don't accept visitors. You have to call and order, and then pick up the goods when they're ready. I'll give you their number."
"Hahaha."
We operated the factory day and night and sold the 5 billion won worth of IC chips in less than a week.
Word had spread among the factories in Shenzhen that Chunha Trading had all kinds of old IC chips, and we were flooded with orders. Everything we produced was sold immediately.
In just one week, we had sold more restored IC chips than we had produced in the entire previous month, and our inventory was completely depleted.
"Hehehe, turning 5 billion won into 50 billion won is a piece of cake."
Maru said, seeing me laughing in my office, surrounded by stacks of money,
"More ships carrying restored IC boards are arriving in Hong Kong, so the supply will continue to increase. Congratulations, hyung."
"Thanks. Let's go back to Korea soon and distribute dividends based on our shares."
Maru's face lit up.
"Really? Dividends?"
"At least 10 billion won."
"Wow, I have a 5% stake, so that's 500 million won? I never really felt like a shareholder before. This is amazing."
I beamed.
"Maru, you've worked hard. Keep following me, and you'll be rewarded."
"Of course."
Maru chuckled and then suddenly said,
"By the way, hyung, are those companies using our restored IC chips to make electronic products?"
I nodded.
"That's right. That's why they're buying them. Why?"
"Even if we call them secondhand, they're still salvaged from junk. They might work now, but won't they break down easily later?"
I chuckled.
"Of course they will. Think about it. They were taken from broken electronic products, tossed around in junkyards, lifted with grapples, shipped to China by sea, and then heated with a heat gun. Do you think they'll be durable? Their lifespan must be minimal."
Maru's eyes widened.
"And you're selling them anyway?"
"What do I care? They work for now. We'll deal with the future later. What do people expect when they buy cheap Chinese products? They use them until they break and then throw them away. And then they come back to us through junkyards."
This was a historic moment. Cheap Chinese electronic products, which had maintained a minimum level of quality by using genuine semiconductors despite using cheap components for everything else, were about to be transformed into the infamous "Made in China" products known for their short lifespan.
Of course, both the manufacturers and I knew that the durability of these products would be abysmal. The only ones who didn't know were the consumers.
There's a saying in capitalism: there are things that are expensive for no reason, but there are no things that are cheap for no reason.
"I only care about making money. I don't care what happens after that."
Maru sighed.
"I'm never buying Chinese products again."
I chuckled.
"We shouldn't be saying that. We're making money from them."
"Damn it."
As we were talking, the interpreter suddenly rushed into the office.
"Sir, we have a phone call."
"What? Who is it?"
The interpreter stammered,
"It's… Renyi Investment Corporation. Chairman Chen Fei."
My face hardened.
"Chen Fei? Why is he calling? It's still a few days before our meeting."
"I don't know either."
I thought for a moment and then said,
"Ask him why he's calling. Our meeting is still a few days away."
"Alright."
Maru and I followed the interpreter, who went back to his desk, picked up the phone, and spoke to Chen Fei. He then said to me,
"He says he's heard that you're shipping out a huge volume of products lately and asks if the technology is complete."
I frowned.
"Does he have spies or something? How did he find out so quickly?"
"What should I tell him?"
"Hmm."
I thought for a moment and then chuckled.
"Tell him it's complete. And that we should meet soon."
"Alright."
As the interpreter relayed my message to Chen Fei, Maru said worriedly,
"Is that the investment company chairman you mentioned? What are you going to do when you meet him?"
"What else? Tell him to get lost."
"What?"
I led the dumbfounded Maru back to my office and said,
"We need to get the money and go to the bank."
"The bank?"
"Yeah, what are you waiting for?"
Maru followed me, stuffing money into sacks, still confused.
"Why are we going to the bank?"
"To deposit the money into the collateral account and then have a showdown with the chairman of Xinhua Investment."
I smiled coldly.
"That bastard Chen Fei. I'll teach him a lesson."