Chapter 313: Chapter 307
When he watched the news on Shanghai Motor’s development of a Toughtex engine, Hyunwoo recalled what happened to the stocks of Morgan Energy.
Right after Mr. Morgan escaped after his Toughtex engine scam broke out, the stock price of Morgan Energy plummeted. Not only the stock price of its headquarters in New York but also that of its corporations in China, Japan and Korea lost its value by half immediately.
Shanghai Motors took over its China branch at that time.
Hyunwoo didn’t pay much attention to that takeover because he didn’t think the direction of Morgan Energy’s business was important as the era of internal combustion engine was around the corner.
In hindsight, it was Hyunwoo’s mistake.
Come to think of it, the purpose of Shanghai Motors’ takeover was not just to buy Morgan Energy’s China branch.
Its main purpose was to obtain Morgan Energy’s patent on Toughtex.
When Hyunwoo sold STM to Morgan, he also transferred its patent for Toughtex to Morgan.
Hyunwoo had to stay alert again. If Shanghai Motor’s development of its own Toughtex engine was true, that would mean the end of Samryong Motor’s dominance in the electric car market.
Hyunwoo quickly responded. He had to check the veracity of Shanghai’s Toughtex engine.
Hyunwoo said to the executives of Samryong Motors, “Purchase Shanghai Motor’s latest Toughtex model and analyze it. You have to carefully examine whether they violated our patient rights and performance characteristics.”
“Got it.”
The technical team of Samryong Motors quickly responded.
The results of their analysis quickly came out as the Toughtex engine itself was not complicated.
First came the bad part of the news, “There was no infringement on our patients.”
Hyunwoo frowned at that. If that was the case, it would mean the start of an indefinite competition between Samryong Motors and Shanghai Motors.
Then came the promising news.
“The new engine of Shanghai Motors had no reliable durability. Its core is damaged when its new model drives up to 1,000km. Accordingly, they have to change the Toughtex engine often.”
Hyunwoo smirked as he was convinced that Shanghai Motors just imitated Samryong’s Toughtex. If that was true, it would never win any favorable reaction from the consumers.
But he couldn’t afford to be complacent.
In fact, the fact that Shanghai Motors developed the engine durability of up to 1,000km was a big achievement as it suggested that the contraction ratio of Toughtex and its core was pretty low.
They would probably make up for its shortcomings within a short period of time.
Hyunwoo gave the new business team a special order.
“Develop a variety of Toughtex engines for airplanes and ships and sign the relevant contracts. Never sign any contract that expires within ten years.”
In the meantime, Hyunwoo heard very good news from STM Research Center, something he had been longing to hear for a long time.
“Sir, we have finally succeeded in raising the efficiency of organic solar cells by using magnetic fields.”
“Really? Let me come to your place right now.”
He canceled all his appointments in the afternoon and headed for the center.
The researchers were all excited. In particular, the research head briefed Hyunwoo on the successful outcomes as soon as he arrived.
According to him, the existing solar cells had low efficiency because they had no control over the activities of electrons, but the magnetic fields solved the problem.
“So, how much efficiency did you witness?”
“Its efficiency increased by 21%. Currently, the polysilicon solar cell has the highest efficiency of 17%. And compared with existing organic solar cells, its efficiency is ten times as high.”
Hyunwoo’s jaw dropped at such a big difference.
But the thing was how to commercialize the new test results.
“When do you think we can make the products with such high efficiency?”
“The key technique is to control the strength of the magnetic field emitted by the magnetizing film, which is very simple. In addition, we have secured mass production technology for graphene, a transparent electrode. If we use the roll-to-roll method, we can mass produce right now. If we hurry up, we can mass-produce the products in four months.”
Hyunwoo’s heart was full.
“Do you think our new product is competent enough, even compared with polysilicon solar cells, right?”
At his asking the research head responded, “Absolutely. This is an innovative discovery. I can guarantee you that this will give the world more of a shock than the Paekdu Project.”
Hyunwoo now had no reason to delay the production.
He gave them the name ‘Jahwa Solar Cell’ to the new product and had them proceed with it in the name of M Project secretly.
M Project was entrusted to STM.
STM established an energy business team and began the construction of a factory. As there were many factory sites that Hyunwoo purchased a long time ago, they chose one near Dangjin where STM’s first factory was located.
The factory was built quickly.
Hyunwoo directed Samryong Motors and Blue Sky to develop new products as part of M Project.
“Develop airplanes and cars that can run indefinitely with only solar cells without any outside battery charging.”
The research teams of Samryong Motors and Blue Sky worked on the development of new products immediately with great excitement.
M Project proceeded as planned. As the research head guaranteed, the factory was completed in four months, and the pilot products of Jahwa Solar Cell were produced.
The efficiency of the pilot products was as high as 21%.
Hyunwoo didn’t yet disclose the new solar cell to the world. The research head was anxious to publish in a world peer journal, but Hyunwoo kept it a secret.
Hyunwoo didn’t do it intentionally because of the sensitive reaction of the oil-producing countries. The oil prices were falling drastically due to the Toughtex engine. If Hyunwoo disclosed the news about Jahwa Solar Cell, it would deal a fatal blow to them.
In that case, they could take some extreme measures to challenge Hyunwoo’s projects.
So, he delayed the timing of the disclosure as late as possible.
But the time had come to disclose Jahwa Solar Cell, he thought.
As soon as it was disclosed, the new products based on Jahwa Solar Cell would be sold worldwide.
Hyunwoo disclosed the new product through the research head.
The world was pleasantly shocked to hear it. They praised it as another great discovery on the heels of the Toughtex engine.
All the major media including TV networks and dailies around the world gave a special coverage of the new product.
In the past, solar energy cells were not sold widely mainly because they were expensive.
That problem was solved by Hyunwoo’s new product. Its price was only 30% of polysilicon solar energy batteries at the same electricity generation level.
Accordingly, Jahwa products sold like hotcakes. Like the new Super Car models of Samryong Motors, one year’s worth of Jahwa products took only one month to sell out.
Hyunwoo couldn’t be happier these days because he succeeded in whatever business he started up to now.
And the happiest news was awaiting him this time.
While he was busy with taking care of various business stuff, he got a call from Yu Zuung in the early afternoon.
He felt a bit strange initially because she knew he was really busy around this time.
Hyunwoo quickly answered the phone.
Then she was a bit sobbing, which made Hyunwoo nervous with concern.
“What happened? Anything wrong at home?”
Controlling her sobbing with effort, she said, “I’m pregnant!”
At that moment, Hyunwoo felt as if he heard something falling down in his heart with a bang.
He couldn’t speak as he was so deeply touched at that moment.
“Are you listening to me? I’m pregnant.”
When Hyunwoo didn’t reply, she repeated it again in a loud voice.
Only then did Hyunwoo nod strongly and replied, “Great! Congrats, honey! Let me race to you now.”
“I’m in the hospital now. I’m preparing to go back home.”
“Got it. Let me come home right now.”
Hyunwoo cancelled all his schedules in the afternoon.
The quick-witted chief secretary, sensing what’s going on, already started to cancel his appointments.
When he arrived home, his parents were already there.
She showed him an ultrasonic picture and said, “This is our baby.”
In his eyes, it looked like a black dot. As it was so vague, he wasn’t sure if it was a baby at all.
But the ob/gyn doctor clearly said it was their baby.
“The doctor said I’m three weeks pregnant.”
Hyunwoo made a bright smile at that. He hugged her in the presence of his parents.
Startled to see that, Juyong and Jisook dissuaded him and said, “Oh my god! Be careful, son.”
“This is the most important period for a pregnant woman.”
Only then did he let go of her.
“Really?
“It’s best to be careful when she is in the early stages of pregnancy. Remember how hard it was for her to get pregnant.”
A little later, his relatives began to arrive one by one. Everybody came after hearing the good news about her pregnancy.
“Congrats! I know you were having a hard time.”
“Don’t do any housework from now on. Be extremely careful, okay?”
Everybody wished her the best of luck.
She was so happy to hear their well-wishes.
“Thanks so much. I’ll give birth to a beautiful baby.”
Hyunwoo now realized that the happiest thing in the world was to see the birth of his own baby.
Around the same time, at Incheon International Airport, a man was entering the airport secretly.
It was Youngwoo Cho.
Born in North Hamgyong Province in North Korea, he crossed the Tumen River with his sister 15 years ago at the age of 13. After many twists and turns, he arrived in Moscow and joined a Russian Mafia.
He was nothing more than an expendable to the mafia.
He was trained as an assassin by the mafia group and actually sent to carry out the assassination of a government figure when he was 19.
The assassination was done successfully, but he was arrested by the Russian police.
He survived, though. Russian Overseas Intelligence recognized his excellent capabilities and raised him as a spy.
He met the spy agency’s expectations. Whenever he was sent to its operations, he pulled off successfully. And this was his ninth mission.
He had only one thought in his mind, which was also his mission this time.
‘Secure the best of Hyunwoo Jang’s precious things to get the upper hand in dealing with negotiations with him.’