NOVEL NEXT Chapter 28 - August's Rows of Trees (1)
Something terrible happened.
A virus-related pneumonia that originated in Wuhan, China, had swept across the world in about six months. As of the present moment, with the spread of infections under control in major countries, the officially confirmed number of infected individuals had exceeded about 3.1 million, and the death toll had crossed 200,000, with numbers still increasing. Developing countries were in a situation where they couldn’t even provide reliable statistics.
Looking at this situation, I felt quite perplexed.
‘The abundance of magic power might have been a harmful environment for microorganisms like bacteria and viruses.’
“The Round Table of Light and Truth,” with which my master was associated, had conducted biological weapon research at the request of the British government before cutting ties with them. However, attempts to created magical diseases had repeatedly ended in failure.
Bacteria were small. Viruses were even smaller. The conditions necessary for circuits to be inscribed into organisms on the scale of micrometers and nanometers didn’t satisfy the minimum requirements. Instead, organisms heavily exposed to magic power and magical power died rapidly, even more quickly than if they had been exposed to ultraviolet light.
If circuits could be inscribed into microorganisms, their small size would mean minimal magic power requirements, allowing them to function significantly even in environments where magic power was almost depleted. That was the British government’s idea, but it turned out to be nothing more than false hope.
Nevertheless, a worldwide pandemic had occurred.
Was the disease being suppressed to this extent due to magic power, which should have grown larger, or was there some unknown factor that had amplified the spread of the disease, which I didn’t know about?
My mind leaned towards the former, but my heart couldn’t quite grasp it. Seeing several bio-companies, including pharmaceutical companies, struggling with reduced yield in bacterial and cell cultures recently, it seemed that the former was likely the case…
Perhaps there were significant errors in the experiments conducted by imperialists.
“Is there something bothering you?”
When I woke up from my thoughts, Suyeon’s face, inspecting my complexion, was quite close.
“Not particularly.”
It was awkward for the leader of the organization to show a lack of confidence. I replied calmly, removing emotion from my expression.
“I was just thinking that we’re unlucky.”
“…I’m sorry. It’s because of my wrong judgment.”
“No, I’m not saying that. You’ve done very well.”
This girl’s apology was related to the Guangdong Three Unions – essentially, the weapons supply contract signed with the Chinese Communist Party.
At the time, there were restrictions on delivery dates for the Chinese orders. But when you thought about it, this delivery date restriction was a condition that acted like a shackle not only on us but also on the Chinese side, who had come to the negotiating table. The instructions from above meant that we had to somehow resolve things before then.
Suyeon had taken advantage of this point. In an atmosphere where the contract seemed to be going smoothly, she repeatedly made concessions, leading the Chinese side, blinded by the ease of the negotiations and the greed in their different pockets, to make ridiculous demands until the very end. It was easy to drag things out because there were so many different items in the deal. Each item had a different margin.
As time went on, Suyeon suppressed her accumulated anger and overturned the deal.
The transcripts of the post-report meeting contained her statements from that time.
“We’ve already made an unprecedented level of concessions. However, you… you’ve crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed. It’s truly an insulting demand.”
“In the future, we won’t be doing business with all of you. Goodbye.”
Suyeon’s pretext was a matter of pride, and for the Chinese, pride was a matter of life and death. The more unreasonable demands they made, the more they themselves would be to blame.
The Chinese, who hadn’t even thought of preparing alternative trade partners, had to hold on to the enraged Suyeon, even if it meant making significant concessions. If they missed the deadline, they would be the ones to suffer.
‘It’s fortunate if it ends with us breaking.’
Performance competition and factional disputes within the Communist Party were notorious for their brutality. Try messing up work with excessive greed while optimistic progress reports had been submitted several times. Could the anger of a direct superior who had wiped out both performance and ill-gotten gains be resolved with just a standard disciplinary action?
As a result, the final negotiation was settled on highly favorable terms.
The strategy itself was simple, but implementation was a separate matter. If actions were as easy as words, then everyone who claimed to know a bit about stocks would be a millionaire. Suyeon’s abilities demonstrated in this negotiation were one step beyond what I had known and trusted.
I cleared my throat and said,
“Let me make it clear. The deaths that occurred this time are not your responsibility. It was just bad luck. No one could have anticipated that the virus would spread so extensively. It was unavoidable.”
“No, it wasn’t. It was well within the range of predictability. We had reliable information.”
“I received that information too.”
“…”
“I’ll say it again; it’s not your fault. This is a decision made by ‘me.'”
“…I understand. I apologize.”
Suyeon briefly lowered her head.
The reason this girl kept talking about taking responsibility was that five of our people who had entered Thailand during the transportation of the goods had died from complications of pneumonia and dengue fever. The journey was treacherous, and the news was slow to spread due to quarantine measures.
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