The Secret Investment Formula of a Chemical Genius - Chapter 159



Only Krnovel

Episode 159 Warning

The next day.

President Larry Selden sent us a car as promised.

Entering the White House following the secretary.

“Isn’t this place like a real maze?”

Taekang nodded slightly at what he said.

Office of the Special Envoy, Office of the Vice President, Office of the Chief of Staff, Office of the National Security Advisor, Office of the Spokesperson, Office of the Deputy Spokesperson… … .

There are a whopping 15 rooms on the first floor of the West Wing of the White House.

Senior White House officials were moving busily between the room and the lobby.

Even among them, there were some who frequently appeared in the media.

Taekang looked at them with a curious look, as if he was looking at celebrities.

“Here it is.”

The place the secretary guided us to was the Roosevelt Room, right next to the Oval Office, the president’s office.

“Oh! I’ve seen this place on the news often.”

“Is that so?”

President Larry Selden smiled faintly as he watched Taekang in admiration.

“It’s been a few days since I last saw you.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. President.”

After shaking hands briefly with him, I sat down at the table.

“How have you been?”

“I toured various places in Washington, D.C. and learned a little more about American history. The Washington Monument was particularly impressive.”

No one harbors ill feelings toward foreigners who study their country’s history.

Larry Selden smiled brightly, seemingly satisfied.

“Washington is the birthplace of democratic history.”

In a friendly atmosphere.

We resumed negotiations in earnest.

“Ms. Han Yu-jin.”

“Go ahead, Mr. President.”

“It’s the suggestion I made before. Do you still think the same way about it?”

“Of course.”

“I thought about it carefully, but would a 10% stake in the exchange be better for Han Yu-jin?”

“That wouldn’t be bad either.”

10% stake in the exchange vs. 49% stake in CZTERA US corporation.

Between two choices.

As if it didn’t matter which one America chose.

I nodded without any hesitation.

“… … .”

A subtle tension runs through the Roosevelt Room.

As if trying to find out what’s inside.

A pair of rusty eyes stare at me.

A moment close to an instant.

After a few seconds,

Larry Selden smiled brightly again as if nothing had happened.

“I would also like to transfer my stock in the exchange as Han Yu-jin wants, but I am the President of the United States. I have no choice but to prioritize the national interests of the United States.”

“I understand.”

“Thank you for your understanding. After a long meeting with officials, we have decided to give Mr. Han Yu-jin a stake in CZTERA’s US corporation.”

President Larry Selden gestures toward his senior adviser, Jeffrey.

He quickly placed the documents he was holding down in front of me.

“Please read it.”

Taekang and I stood head to head, and we looked through the documents thoroughly as if we were dissecting them.

“Except for the special provisions added here, I don’t see any particularly toxic clauses or tricky parts. What do you think?”

“i think so too.”

The two of us exchanged glances and nodded.

“Have you looked at everything?”

“Yes. I didn’t see any particular problems.”

“Well, that’s good.”

After overcoming the biggest hurdle in negotiations, discussions proceeded relatively smoothly thereafter.

Give what you have to give and receive what you have to receive.

A marathon tug-of-war lasting over 6 hours.

Even at the ripe old age of eighty, President Larry Selden negotiated with passion.

“You can sign here.”

I accepted the fountain pen that Senior Advisor Jeffrey offered me and signed the contract.

The same goes for President Larry Selden.

We exchanged the documents we were holding once again and finished signing.

“It’s all over.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“In two days, we are planning to hold a press conference at the White House. Would you like to attend and grace the occasion, Han Yu-jin?”

“Do you plan to announce it yourself rather than leaving it to a spokesperson?”

“I think there will be a lot of questions, so I think it would be better if I did it myself.”

Taekang licked his lips after hearing President Larry Selden’s words.

… … That means we need a screen.

“Yes, that’s right.”

It’s a whopping $200 billion contract.

That’s about the level of service.

After concluding the negotiations, we quietly left the Roosevelt Room.

* * *

“There were two?”

“maybe.”

“Oh, that old man is really something. He played a game of wits with you until the very end.”

Senior Advisor Jeffrey.

Another copy of the document was held in the hand of the female secretary standing right next to him.

Perhaps, inside it was a document containing special terms that were different from the contract terms we initially received.

virtually.

There are two copies of the documents prepared for today’s negotiation.

If I had reacted just a little differently, the contract that was offered to me would have been different.

Taekang, who had been sticking out his tongue, soon started laughing.

“But in the end, it turned out just as you expected.”

“Because he’s a politician.”

No matter what country.

The word politicians hate the most is ‘adventure’.

Most of them absolutely hate situations they cannot control.

Probably, even now that the contract has been completed.

You must be hesitating inside.

However, I did not think that they would pursue adventures by giving up the cash cow called the exchange, which had a sure return.

I turned around, staring blankly at the White House.

* * *

White House Rose Garden.

People were busily moving around, preparing for the press conference.

A podium, a microphone, and numerous chairs in front of it.

As time goes by.

The seats that were available began to fill up little by little.

People of different races, nationalities, and ages.

A significant number of journalists in attendance are from outside the United States.

The same was true for SBC Washington correspondent Shin A-young.

“Amy, do you know what’s going on at the press conference today?”

“Well, I don’t know either.”

Amy from CCN, who became friends while attending the same Pilates studio, shrugged her shoulders.

That’s weird.

A sudden press conference that wasn’t originally scheduled.

Unlike his predecessors, who loved to appear in the press.

President Larry Selden doesn’t appear in front of the press very often.

Unless it’s something so special that the President needs to step in…

In other words, to rephrase this:

That means today’s press conference is that important.

But the White House simply notified the press corps that there would be a presidential press conference, without giving any indication of what topics would be discussed.

This damn cheap metal chair!

It’s not like I don’t have money.

At press conferences held in the White House Rose Garden, this cheap metal chair invariably appeared.

Cheap doesn’t just mean cheap chairs.

It’s like there’s a screw missing in the middle.

The chair was always unbalanced and wobbly.

As if trying to trick me.

Politics and the media.

A relationship like yours that is too distant to be close.

Other reporters also adjusted their posture several times as if they were uncomfortable in their seats.

Some time passed like that.

“The President is entering.”

The reporters all stood up.

President Larry Selden smiling brightly under the bright sunlight.

It doesn’t seem like bad news.

Shin A-young guessed that the press conference today might be about the shooting incident that occurred at St. Lurie High School two days ago… … .

Looking at the President’s expression, it didn’t seem like that was the case.

Just as I was about to sit back down.

Why are those people here?!

Two men following the President.

A man with a blunt face whose thoughts you can’t tell.

A large man who reminds you of a professional wrestler with a smiling expression.

oh my god!

There are two people that no Korean can ignore.

Then someone grabbed her hand.

I glanced back and saw Amy motioning for me to sit down.

Oops!

Before I knew it, all the other reporters were seated.

He was standing alone, looking embarrassed.

Shin A-young, who was startled, sat down.

Amy whispered in my ear.

“what’s the matter?”

“Do you know those two people standing behind the President?”

“Who is it?”

“Do you know Han Yu-jin?”

“of course!”

“That’s the guy standing behind President Larry Selden. Behind him is Lee Tae-kang.”

“Those two people!?”

Jamie’s eyes shook violently.

Shin A-young smiled bitterly when she saw that.

Among people, there are some who sometimes have difficulty distinguishing faces of different races.

CCN’s Jamie is one of those people.

At first, even though I greeted him several times, he ignored me as if I didn’t know him.

At first I thought she was a racist white supremacist.

But later on, as we became closer little by little, I found out…

Jamie simply had trouble distinguishing faces of people of different races.

They look the same or something.

But most of the other reporters here, unlike Amy, were able to distinguish faces properly.

“Han Yu-jin?”

“Have you always been friends with President Larry Selden?”

“What’s going on?”

While the reporters were making a fuss.

“The weather is hot today.”

President Larry Selden, standing on stage, slowly opened his mouth.

“Like summer.”

The reporters, who had suddenly shut their mouths, turned their attention to Larry Selden’s mouth.

“The high today was 91.4°F (33°C), which is a whopping 22.6°F higher than the year before. The Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and from the Precambrian to the Cenozoic eras, it went through numerous glacial and interglacial periods before reaching its current stable climate about 10,000 years ago. The Earth’s climate has changed over a period of thousands to tens of thousands of years, so it’s only natural that humans, who don’t even live for 100 years, don’t feel the climate change. But!”

President Larry Selden spread his arms wide.

“You must be feeling it now. The world we knew is changing little by little.”

A passionate look from a president like you’ve never seen before.

“Last year, the GDP loss due to abnormal weather events such as droughts, floods, and wildfires was a whopping $1.6 trillion. The damage was so enormous that it accounted for a whopping 2% of the world’s total GDP. And I recently received a research report that said that if time goes by like this, the GDP loss rate will exceed 7% by 2050.”

“… … .”

“… … .”

“Food prices will skyrocket, and there will be a billion refugees who cannot find drinking water. The world economy will collapse, and the discontent that gradually builds up will lead to conflicts and wars will occur more frequently. In fact, the climate crisis is now becoming a real threat to our lives, beyond a simple environmental issue.”

President Larry Selden glanced around.

“But we cannot sit here and give up. As we always have, we will overcome this crisis.”

“How do you say that?”

The front row.

President Larry Selden smiled broadly in response to a question from an impatient reporter.

“The main cause of the current climate crisis is the carbon dioxide we have released into the atmosphere. Zero emissions are not enough. Beyond that, negative emissions are the only solution.”

President Larry Selden turns around.

He gestured toward the expressionless man, as if asking him to come forward.

“And that technology has been perfected by Han Yu-jin here.”

Han Yu-jin nodded her head slightly toward the reporters.

“We plan to create a CCUS cluster by investing $200 billion over five years in the San Joaquin Valley region of California, centered around CZTERA.”

“… … !”

“… … !”

Most reporters, including Shin A-young, were shocked by the astronomical scale of the investment.

“3 years! The United States will achieve carbon neutrality within 3 years.”

Reporters were left speechless by President Larry Selden’s series of shocking statements.

Previously, the United States had declared that it would reach complete carbon neutrality around 2050.

The majority of people, given the current situation, believed that goal would not be reached.

But President Larry Selden took it a step further, announcing a bold plan to push up that carbon neutrality timeline by a full 25 years.

“Furthermore, five years after the CCUS cluster is completed, the U.S. will have a negative carbon dioxide emissions footprint, surpassing our original goal of carbon neutrality.”

President Larry Selden turns his head slightly.

He looked straight ahead at the camera that was taking his picture.

As if looking at someone beyond the camera.

“And I hope that ‘other countries’ will follow ‘the United States’ and reach carbon neutrality quickly.”

At the corner of his mouth.

A cool smile appeared.