Chapter 137: Chapter 137

‘Being fired’ doesn’t just mean losing your job.

It carries a meaning far beyond ‘no paycheck starting next month.’

Getting fired means that all the long efforts, loyalty, joys and sorrows, time, and human relationships one has devoted to the company have turned into mere bubbles.

A financial crisis can break a person, but a mental crisis can render them unable to rise again.

Lim Yang-wook knew many people who were ‘unable to rise again.’

After the disbandment of the Publishing Management Task Force, Lim Yang-wook and his colleagues were thrown out of their nest at Baekhak Publishing and cast into the concrete urban jungle.

The cruel law of the jungle shows no mercy. Financial difficulties, divorce, serious illness, depression, difficulty finding jobs, jumping off the Han River bridge…

Of course, not everyone met an unfortunate fate. But some did. That is the cruel law of nature.

With this, Baek Seol now had a reliable executor, the head of the Book Distribution Division was happy with his promotion, and Baekhak Publishing could continue its usual operations (siphoning off public library Keep reading on NovelHub - where stories come alive!

However, as is always the case in power struggles, someone inevitably ends up bleeding.

The ‘Publishing Business Division,’ one of the two pillars of Baekhak Publishing, suffered a severe blow.

Just the fact that CEO Kim Sang-guk and the head of the Publishing Business Division were ousted together was already a fatal wound. The news that the head of the Book Distribution Division had been promoted to COO was the final nail in the coffin.

It meant the collapse of the bureaucratic cartel that linked .

Previously, the head of the Publishing Business Division had tacitly held the dual role of COO, but now the situation had changed. The dominance that the Publishing Business Division held within Baekhak Publishing had completely crumbled.

As Baekhak Publishing’s inner circle collapsed, the head of the Publishing Planning Division, Woo Ki-tae, trembled as he sought out Lim Yang-wook, while all the employees anxiously focused on the final personnel decision.

Who would take the vacant position of ‘Head of the Publishing Business Division’?

The last survivor of Kim Sang-guk’s faction, Head of Publishing Planning Division Woo Ki-tae?

Or the strongest returnee ever, Lim Yang-wook, Head of Publishing Management?

– You should take it, sunbae.

– Th-thank you, Yang-wook…

Fortunately, thanks to Lim Yang-wook’s generous concession, the Publishing Planning Division narrowly avoided the blade of purges, or rather, the scalpel of surgery.

However, Baekhak Publishing before and after the surgery had become a completely different entity, thanks to the divine hands of Dr. Kim Myung-woon, who could be compared to the legendary Chinese physician Hua Tuo.

Kim Myung-woon didn’t just cut people out of Baekhak Publishing.

He placed the right talents in the right places.

New titles were created: the DT Promotion Team, the Content Business Division, the Innovation Management Office, the OSMU Management Team, and so on.

Talents from all over Baekhak Group, loyal to CEO Baek Do-hyun, parachuted in like a special forces unit. And they began their ‘terraforming’ work.

In the blink of an eye, a subsidiary of the group was absorbed into CEO Baek Do-hyun’s sphere of influence.

The crown prince of Baekhak Financial Holdings fumed with rage, frothing at the mouth, but he had three younger siblings.

Like their father, these younger siblings were eager to bring down their older brother, or older sister.

As long as these younger siblings, Keep reading on NovelHub - where stories come alive!

And so, the internal strife at Baekhak Publishing quietly came to an end.

In the midst of this power struggle, Lim Yang-wook quietly maneuvered, sometimes deeply involved, but in the end, he remained in his position as Head of the Publishing Management Department.

However, power is an invisible thing. Although Lim Yang-wook’s official title remained as Head of the Publishing Management Department, his authority had risen to an incomparable level.

After all, wasn’t he the kingmaker who had placed his lord in the CEO position?

Thus, the once-crippled figure who had been sealed in the underground parking lot finally regained more power than he had ever had in his prime.

And the first thing Lim Yang-wook, the strongest returnee, did with his newfound power was…

– We need to expand into the comprehensive agency business.

It was the business expansion he had dreamed of.

– It’s not enough to just put authors on TV like celebrities. We need to build a system that can diversify the literary content business, from publishing, translation, media appearances, to media mix. Waiting for proposals to come in isn’t enough. We need to actively create an environment where we can regenerate content.

At 26 years old, as a new employee, Lim Yang-wook had resolved to become the hero who would change the industry.

At 36 years old, after being demoted, Lim Yang-wook thought the industry and everything else was fucked.

But now, Lim Yang-wook was taking the first step to change the industry.

It’s a late start, but at the same time, it’s a significant leap forward.

– We can’t do it alone. But with Baekhak’s strength, it’s possible. A leap that can end the long dark age of the publishing industry and elevate the status of Korean literature on the global stage…

“And when I presented it like that, the board burst into applause—clap, clap, clap—so I seized the momentum and said, ‘We can’t do this on our own. We need to join forces. So instead of whining for help, we need to launch a business together as partners!’”

“And that’s Baekhak Entertainment?”

“Exactly. If Baekhak Publishing and Baekhak Entertainment join forces… we can take over the world! The energy of the universe is surrounding us! When I said that, everyone started clapping and cheering…”

Thus, a subsidiary jointly funded by Baekhak Publishing and Baekhak Entertainment, BH Agency, was born.

Of course, this company exists only on paper; in reality, it’s just the Publishing Management Division moving to the Baekhak Entertainment building to collaborate more actively.

After hearing all of Lim Yang-wook’s explanations, Moon In said,

“So, that’s the reason for moving back to the Baekhak Entertainment building?”

“Then you could have just told me that, why give such a long-winded explanation…”

A vein popped on Lim Yang-wook’s smooth scalp.

“Hey! After I went to all the trouble of explaining it to you…!”

“In the end, it’s just back to Baekhak Entertainment. Isn’t this basically the same as the old Publishing Management Task Force?”

“No, it’s not! It’s different!”

“Ah, well, if you say so.”

Leaving the fuming Lim Yang-wook behind, Moon In packed his belongings into a box and got out of the van.

The Baekhak Entertainment building, which he hadn’t seen in a long time, was still boldly cutting through the clear sky.

This was on a moving day.

The massage chair behind him was precisely kneading his stiff muscles. The gentle massage from a machine worth tens of millions of won made him let out an odd sound.

Thanks to once having toured all of Baekhak Entertainment’s amenities courtesy of Kim Byul, he memorized all sorts of places—like the in-house café, the aromatherapy rooms, and more.

But the massage chair was still the best. The moment he returned to Baekhak Entertainment, it was the first thing he sought out.

It’s a massage chair worth tens of millions of won, but the staff felt too self-conscious to use it, and the celebrities were too busy enjoying better aromatherapy treatments to bother with it, making this chair a hidden gem.

As expected, the facilities at Baekhak Entertainment are far better than those at Baekhak Publishing.

He hadn’t returned by choice, but it seemed like a good decision nonetheless.

He’d heard that Lim Yang-wook’s department had become a bridge between Baekhak Publishing and Baekhak Entertainment.

Since Baekhak Publishing couldn’t always come running to Baekhak Entertainment like Doraemon every time, they decided to go all-in and launch a joint business venture with Baekhak Entertainment.

It reminded him of the early days of the Publishing Management Task Force, but the scale and capital now were said to be incomparable to before.

Of course, this wasn’t something he could really feel firsthand.

The most tangible change for him was that, just like before, he could now freely visit Baekhak Entertainment and use the massage chair, which said it all.

After finishing a full 35-minute massage chair session, he walked out to the lobby.

The lobby was still bustling and dazzling as ever.

As he considered buying a strawberry yogurt smoothie at the cafe while people-watching for a bit, when,

Someone grabbed his shoulder.

“Are you by any chance, Author Moon In?”

A man suddenly bowed to him at a 75-degree angle.

Startled, Moon In quickly bowed his head in return.

“Hello! I’m Team Leader Kim Sung-geun from Management Team 2, in charge of Actress Kim Byul.”

“Could we possibly talk for a moment?”