CHAPTER 162: CHAPTER 161. FIRST SEASON OF HARVEST

Even though they called it a tea party—and there were teas and snacks around—Yonghwa opened it with a corporate vibe.

"Let’s start with numbers."

"Right," Sarah chuckled at the disparity between the topic and the atmosphere.

As if they had been waiting for it, Hajin took out a small notebook in which he tracked their progress and handed it to Sarah. Sarah flipped the pages briefly before facing the table again. Everyone looked at her as if it was a real corporate meeting, all while stuffing their mouths with delicious patries.

How could she take this seriously?

Sarah shook her head helplessly before pulling a plate of macarons toward her. "HS might call itself a group, but it’s not actually as vast or complicated as other groups," she started. "There are only three companies under the group; HS Jewelry, HS Fashion, and HS Stone."

Sarah laid a napkin in front of her and took three macarons from the plate, placing them one by one on the napkin. The founder didn’t like dividing the group’s power, so he only gave power to his successor. The siblings didn’t even get a company of their own, but worked as one of the executives--unless they decided to leave the industry altogether. That was why having lots of affiliates would only be headache-inducing.

"As the regular practice here, each company owns a percentage of other companies’ shares," Sarah continued while tapping each macaron, her gaze flicking toward the others. "Which one do you think is the key company?"

While each company owned other companies’ shares under the same group so they would be chained to each other, the three companies didn’t own shares in equal amounts. The company that owned more shares of the other two companies became the key company, because owning shares of that company meant owning shares of the other two companies. The biggest shareholder of the key company, thus, became the biggest shareholder of the entire group.

"Wouldn’t it be HS Jewelry?" Sua stroked her chin. "Isn’t that what HS is known for? I mean, the group was built from selling that."

Indeed, the founder--Sarah’s great-grandfather--was a jewelry peddler at first, selling to foreigners during the occupation. Moreover, the jewelry line was HS’s original product, unlike the fashion line where they only brought existing luxury brands into the country.

"I thought so too, but...that wouldn’t be interesting, wouldn’t it?" Suoh said, looking at Sarah with narrowed eyes.

It would be too obvious, and Sarah wouldn’t need to make it sound like a quiz.

"It’s HS Stone," the head of the table said calmly amid the kids who were working hard to think of the answer.

"Oh, come on!" Sua slammed the table in protest.

Even Suoh pouted. "That’s not fair if you join the game, Hyung..."

"When did it turn into a game?" Sarah rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Big Boss is correct. The key company is HS Stone."

Unlike the other two, HS Stone was focused on material, not product. It was the company in charge of managing HS-owned mines and procuring precious stones to be used for HS Jewelry’s contracted artisan. Over time, it was also taking over some quarries, which was one of the reasons why the chairman wanted to slowly branch out into construction five years ago.

As for why the controlling shares were put into this particular company instead of the one that started it all...Sarah had no idea. Her grandfather was a man of few words, she was told, and rarely explained his decision even to his successor. If Sarah were to guess, however, she would assume it was because the old man didn’t want people to buy too much of the controlling shares, and it could be kept within the family.

"So, you only need to gather HS Stone’s shares?"

"The family-owned shares are always those of HS Stone," Sarah nodded, starting to pick up the macarons and feeding them to Hajin. "With mine, my mother’s, and what I got as compensation from Mason, I have six and a half percent now--legally anyway."

"Is that big for HS?" Sua asked.

"The second biggest," Sarah replied, glancing at the notebook. "The chairman had fourteen, though."

Of course, the old man also had other shares in the other two companies, but at the end of the day, HS Stone was where everything was at stake.

"How many is it on his side?" Yonghwa asked.

"We should assume everyone in the family, unless I managed to get what the first wife had. Some executives might be loyal to him, especially those who are afraid they would get booted out if the management change," Sarah narrowed her eyes.

The previous chairman had given out his shares to his grandchildren equally, except for Mina’s children--since they weren’t born when the old man died. But due to Mina’s whine when she was still his favorite, Ruby and Jasper got some that belonged to the chairman. Perhaps he would take them back if he had to fight for the management.

Sarah already operated under the assumption that she would fight against the whole family anyway. What she wanted was enough power to quell any opposing votes when she brought up the vote for a management change during the shareholder meeting and get rid of the family’s authority within the company.

Of course, that included changing the chairman.

"Meanwhile, we can try to persuade the ones worth staying," Sarah continued. "Promising they wouldn’t get rid off after the management change might make them side with us during the voting."

"Are there any?"

Sarah propped her chin on top of her intertwined hands, smiling deeply at the man on the other side of the table. "Why don’t you make the assessment, Oppa?"

Yonghwa stared at the curling, shining black eyes that reminded him of the girl who asked for his investment five years ago. The girl who, despite looking all depressed, also burning fire inside herself. "And how much you had acquired through others’ names?"

Sarah shifted her gaze to Austin, who was in the middle of stuffing his mouth with a new pie. The poor man coughed in surprise and spent a few seconds relieving his throat with a cup of tea while the twins laughed at him--quietly, because Yonghwa did not support noise over a certain decibel.

"Ahem," after clearing his throat for the third time, Austin opened his own note from his phone. "We had bought everything we could during the fall the other day, but most of it is from the other two companies. HS Stone’s shares are really hard to find in the market."

"Key company’s shares tend to be like that," Sarah shrugged.

"For HS Jewelry, we have eight percent, and 4,9 for HS Fashion--enough to be a major shareholder," Austin continued. "For HS Stones, it’s just a little bit below one and a half percent."

That would put Sarah at almost eight percent. Indeed, still far away from the chairman’s fourteen and what his people had. "Not yet a harvest," Yonghwa hummed.

"It’s only the beginning of the Fall," Sarah said calmly. "The real harvest is after the second chaos."

"I’m still waiting for the order to use the other assets on the list," Austin added.

What he had been doing was buying the one other people sold in the public or from people they knew had the shares and were looking to let them go. Things they could still do with money. But Sarah still kept other assets like different companies’ shares and bonds that were on standby. Those assets were kept to be offered to the people on the shareholder list that Sarah had marked with red ink.

Those were people with HS Stone’s shares.

"You can start the offer from now," Sarah said. "They won’t bite right away since the stock price has been stabilized, but once it falls again, they’ll give you a call themselves."

"Aight," Austin drummed his fingers on the table, happy for another action although he always complained about too much work.

"What about the one you’ll get from Daesung, Noona?"Suoh asked.

The plan hadn’t come to fruition yet, and there would be a legal battle to face before she could get the shares, but Sarah was confident she could get them before the winter ended.

"Around two percent, I reckoned..." she tapped her lips. "I’m planning to get what the first wife has, and...hmm..."

Sarah thought about Amber, wondering if she could persuade her. They were allies on the premise that Amber would be the heiress, the next chairwoman; but would she still be willing to be an ally once she found out that Sarah had been using her?

Well...that was for later.

"...and? Eonni?" Sua asked curiously because Sarah suddenly became quiet.

"Hmm? Ah..." Sarah smiled, shaking her head slightly. "I’m going to get that snake’s shares, for sure. For all I know, he had quite a lot in his name--exactly three percent; a threshold for someone outside the main family members for HS Stone."

Once she got the shares from Daesung, the first wife, and Joseph, she would have just a little below fourteen, toe to toe with the chairman. But...

Sarah was sure Joseph had more. Perhaps the one Daesung owned was also secretly promised to him, but someone careful like Joseph wouldn’t put his eggs in one basket--just like Sarah.

"By that snake...you mean Director Seo?" Sua asked carefully, and the silent Little Bird suddenly perked up.

"Right," Sarah turned toward the hooded girl, who had eaten almost half of the entire party’s cakes. "You said you have something for me regarding him, Birdie?"