Empire of the Ring

At Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, Youngho and Jong-il appeared.

They had come just in time to attend the building dedication ceremony of Arirang Hotel in Moscow.

Sergey welcomed the two with a bright smile.

“By the way, what is this fur business?”

“You will understand why I’m doing this when you see the wolf skins. I’m going to work as a broker for my farm’s residents.”

The quality of life of the residents was directly related to the farm’s development. He did not mind being a broker for them.

“You’re having so much fun running the farm.”

Jong-il added words to Sergey’s remark.

“Don’t mention it. He’s so into this medieval play. I’ve been pressured by him so much, so I ended up taking the director of the intelligence department of the farm. He’s given me a company in debt and told me to run the department with the money I make from the company.”

It was something Youngho did not mention but it sounded like a good plan. If Jong-il was going to voluntarily run the department, Youngho did not have to worry about its expenses.

It was indeed what Jong-il would offer since he did not want to just take a company from his dear friend.

“I heard the shipping industry is suffering these days. You’re not losing money, are you?”

“We’re running tramp steamers and short-distance deliveries to target a niche market and it’s been going well so far.”

“I should call you CEO Park.”

“Oh, that’s flattering to hear but I only have the title. I can’t even do anything by myself.”

Jong-il was proud but acted modestly before Sergey.

After the two arrived at Yaniv’s mansion, Youngho had a chance to talk to Sergey in private. Since he was a great business adviser and friend, Youngho shared the new change in his business.

“I see. You’re not only going to live well by yourself but want to share your wealth with your friends? That’s something you can do only when you’re at the starting stages. It’s not going to be easy when the companies get big.”

“Well, I’m still keeping the best for myself. Jong-il is still complaining that I gave him an empty grain.”

“Still, that must’ve been a difficult decision to make. I admire your determination. This is why I like you. Well, anyway the companies would still belong to Zeynep Corporation. You’re not going to stop doing partnerships with us right?”

“Oh no, why indeed. Nothing’s going to change. My friends are only taking profits from those companies and they won’t leave me even if I pushed them away.”

“I envy your friendship. It’s great to see and it’s certainly a blessing to have trustworthy friends around you. I’m also blessed to have you around.”

***

“Wow, these wolf skins are in the best qualities and they were insanely well dressed and sewed. I can display these at my store right away. Why don’t you sell all of this to us? They’ll make great profits and we’ll gladly take a seller’s commission.”

It would be a huge gain since Sergey was not going to buy the skins at retail prices but was willing to take the seller’s commission only. Other furriers would not offer such a deal since they would buy skins locally and process them on their own before selling. But, the fur products that the residents made were in great qualities that it could be sold just as they were.

Sergey complimented the Serbians for their techniques.

“I’ll appreciate it thousand times if you’d do that. I’ve been worried that there was not much left for the residents because this year’s wheat crop was terrible.”

“When you don’t have teeth, you fight with your gums. As far as I know, the Serbian immigrants lived in difficult environments when they were in Serbia. They have much more than what they used to have now.”

“People’s desires have no end. When they sit, they want to lie down. I want to let them make more if there’s any chance. Their quality of life has improved but the farm towns don’t even have a lot of funds now.”

The costs for education, medical expenses, and daily necessities were quite large and in order to run the farm properly, Youngho needed to save funds for the farm. Since he could not feed them forever, he was figuring out ways to let them live on their own. The drone factory, train car components factory, and carpet production were such things. The wolf skin and fur business would be added to the farm’s residents’ own businesses.

When he planned and developed Arirang Farm in the beginning, he did not think about receiving immigrants.

He was only going to produce grains and secure the land. However, as he unexpectedly took in immigrants, he could not help but involve in different businesses to support them.

The reason why he invested an astronomical amount of money to make a small-scale city and tried to establish infrastructures so that the residents would be able to live on their own was to recover what he invested in and to make them live in prosperity.

As the farm would be established as a wealthy kingdom, by the time Leon grew up and take over the farm, it would have become an autonomous state that possessed several global corporations.

Arirang Farm was a place of a dream that was continuously growing.

***

Arirang Hotel in Moscow was finally in business.

Since it was located in a cold region, the construction got delayed during the winter, so its grand opening was postponed until now.

Among the businesses that Youngho started with Yaniv, this was the largest one. Yaniv was only a shareholder and did not involve in the management department, so it was convenient for Youngho.

The only reason Youngho drew Yaniv’s involvement was that the hotel was located in Russia. Any businesses in Russia could not ignore the influence of local mafias. Many people would fail their businesses terribly and leave the country when they ignored the mafias’ existence. There were nothing mafias could not do in Russia.

If Youngho had started his business alone, he would have gone through a war against mafias every day and bailed in exhaustion. He did not think it this way in the beginning but he was fortunate to meet Yaniv. He had met Yaniv for a drink one time and ended up saving his life, so Yaniv had been taking care of Youngho’s businesses ever since. He was very fond of Youngho and starting the hotel in Moscow was Youngho’s fourth business partnership with Yaniv.

So far, there had not been a major conflict with him and any businesses Youngho suggested were a great success.

“Sergey was so happy to obtain great furs. Should I go to Kazakhstan to hunt wolves too?”

“Mr. Yaniv, you often go hunting with the president. If you bring your hunting gang and dry out the wolves in Kazakhstan, farm’s residents will lose their jobs because of you. Why don’t you go hunt for tigers in Siberia instead?”

“Tigers? That’s a great idea. Do you want to join me?”

“If you let me know, I’ll be glad to join anytime.”

“Alright. Let’s try that this winter.”

Tigers were protected in Russia but Yaniv was not a man to care about such a rule. If he was determined, he could do anything. There was no one in Russia who would stop him.

“By the way, do you like the exterior of the hotel building?”

“It’s so great. It’s got the Moscow vibe and other building owners are jealous of it. You saved my face, Lee.”

When Youngho first suggested the partnership, he disliked the idea since a hotel business was not big enough for a mafia boss but it seemed that he had learned that a hotel business was a great way to establish a different social reputation.

He had been maintaining a close relationship with the president, so he was trying hard not to get involved in illegal businesses but coming from a mafia basis, he was struggling to reform his image.

“Mr. Yaniv. I distributed my companies to my friends recently. They’re not completely independent but they’ll run the businesses on their own from now on. So, I was wondering if you’d be interested in exchanging your share of the warehouse complex in Vladivostok with my share of the offshore oilfield. How do you feel about that?”

“I already heard about it from Sergey. You’ve made a big decision. It’s great that you’re peacefully doing business with your friends. The profit you make from the oilfield is way more than what you make from the warehouse complex. Will you be fine with the exchange?”

“There’s nothing for me to lose. You’ve just given that to me to be generous. It was not mine from the beginning.”

“I can’t let that happen especially since it’s between you and me. I’ll talk to Sergey. We’ll settle the balance properly. You take what you deserve.”

He was nice enough to comply with Youngho’s decision and Youngho was appreciative of his generosity.

***

“What? You can’t give me this much. You and Mr. Yaniv would lose money this way. I can’t take this.”

“The offshore oilfield will produce for more than a decade from now on. According to my calculation, your share adds up to more than 50 million dollars. After deducting our share of the warehouse complex, giving you 20 million dollars still gives us more. Boss agreed with this, so you can take it freely.”

Youngho had given away something to his friends and now he was grabbing more.

He reluctantly took it from Sergey.

“Okay. I’ll have to say thank you to Mr. Yaniv in private.”

“It’s a proper business. You don’t have to thank us. Aren’t you going for tiger hunting this winter? If you bring Zeynep to the trip, Boss will be exuberated. You know how he is with Zeynep.”

“Of course I should. I’m glad that she grew comfortable around him now.”

Zeynep did not feel comfortable around the mafia boss but ever since Yaniv made a contribution to Arirang Foundation, she had been talking to him often on the phone. Her intention was to get more out of him but it eventually made her feel friendlier toward him.

“He doesn’t have any children and thinks Zeynep as his granddaughter. Please keep that in mind if you want to thank him.”

***

Russia was a country world of its own for mafias.

They did not care about laws if they decided to do something.

At one time, it was estimated that there were 6,000 mafia organizations and five million mafias in Russia, and they controlled 1,500 government-operated enterprises and 400 banks, and tens of thousands of companies.

It was known that their numbers had been reduced due to the government’s strict mop-up operations but in fact, their numbers had been increasing because of mobile, scattered mafia groups.

Some economists said that mafias controlled 40 percent of Russia’s economy and since this was the reality, it was impossible to do businesses without mafias’ involvement. They were organizations that trained elite groups and send them to take parts in governmental bodies to maintain their powers.

Although they were thought to be criminal gangs, many Russians also considered them as a minority privileged class. The Russian definition of mafias was ‘an organization that is maintained through illegal means of gathering among those who wish to monopolize interests in certain powers and resources,’ and they were called red mafia.

The absence of clear legal regulations on ownership, confusion in commercial practices, and incompetence of security authorities were combined to make it difficult to distinguish between businessmen and mafias.

Lately, there had been countless new-born mobile mafia groups that were scattered around. In the past, even mafias had its own culture and grad of ranks and organizations communicated with each other that they were controllable.

Mafias with big names like Yaniv were now all adopted new identities as businessmen and he did not really care about some small shot groups. He had thought that they would automatically creep and cross to him.

However, even though the hotel’s owner was already rumored to be the godfather of Southern Russia, a gang group that ignored and threatened the hotel to pay bribe appeared.

It was such a rash group. Its members did not fear death being junked up and acted on instincts.

Zeynep Security Service was in charge of the hotel’s security but Youngho asked for Yaniv’s men from Volgograd to patrol around the building. If they decided to throw firebombs and attack the building, the hotel would be closed down and the business would suffer major damage.

Sergey was also aghast but he was helpless.

A nonsensical thing was happening that a small reckless mafia group was dragging down a mega mafia organization’s business. Because the group was mobile and scattered, its leadership group was not even exposed yet. It seemed that Youngho would be in a war against a bodiless group.

He was not going to sit back and watch this since the business with more than 100 million dollars of investment was being hindered.