Chapter 13: I Want to Start a Business

Early the next morning.

After the helpless Ai crawled out of Shoichi's arms, she nudged him, cursing her own cowardice and incompetence from the previous night, before once again proactively becoming Shoichi's body pillow.

Then, without any lingering attachment, she crawled out of the covers and drew a clear line between herself and Shoichi.

Last night was merely a matter of expediency.

Now, she was being quite stubborn.

Shoichi blinked and reached out to pat Ai's head.

Ai was still enduring.

Although she didn't resist, her expression showed nothing but ongoing struggle.

Ai had not yet lost her fighting spirit.

Shoichi felt quite gratified.

He placed his hand on Ai's head and stroked it repeatedly, conducting a test of obedience.

Although Ai wasn't lashing out, it was clear that her "training" by Shoichi was far from complete.

After breakfast, feeling refreshed, Shoichi did not go to work. Instead, he went to the special villa complex to visit his biological father in prison.

Saburo Sumitomo was leisurely watching television.

Upon seeing Shoichi enter, he merely signaled the butler to pour him a glass of juice.

"How has it been staying in the bank?" Saburo Sumitomo asked.

"Very boring. All day long, I'm either helping others wash their assets or helping companies plan their IPOs. It's not interesting at all," Shoichi said, shaking his head.

It was incredibly dull.

Even idling away the days was boring.

Saburo Sumitomo stroked the kitten in his arms.

*Didn't you used to love this kind of leisurely life?*

"I'm planning to start a business," Shoichi said.

"Starting a business is good," Saburo Sumitomo said with a smile.

The kitten in Saburo's arms glanced at Shoichi before settling back into his arms to lick its fur.

"I plan to open a construction company," Shoichi added.

"A construction company?" Saburo Sumitomo smiled. "A construction company is good."

With the Japanese real estate market in such a miserable state, going into construction showed a complete lack of entrepreneurial sense.

No matter how much money I have, I can't let you squander it like this.

"Aren't you planning to invest in me a little?" Shoichi asked.

"Investing is good, investing is good," Saburo Sumitomo continued, playing the part of a senile old man.

Shoichi gave him a look through his nostrils, knowing his biological father had no intention of supporting his ventures in the outside world.

"I don't want your money," Shoichi said defiantly. "I need your support. A construction company needs a lot of cement and steel; I need the family enterprises to sell them to me at low prices. Also, if the family's construction machinery could be leased to me at a discount, that would be even better."

Saburo Sumitomo glanced at him and said, "The family's industries are currently managed professionally with clearly defined functional departments. It's not as if I can just do whatever I want."

*I don't hold a position in the company; asking me is useless.*

"Besides, do you even have the money to set up a construction company?"

Shoichi smiled and said, "Don't I still have the loans from Sumitomo Bank?"

"Don't even think about it!" Saburo Sumitomo shouted.

To want to start a business empty-handed, and to choose a path toward certain death—wasn't he insane?

"Dad!" Shoichi said earnestly to Saburo Sumitomo. "Now is the perfect time to buy the dip!"

"Real estate won't recover for at least a decade," Saburo Sumitomo said.

If real estate is failing, the construction industry is even worse.

Saburo Sumitomo pulled out a bank card, handed it to Shoichi, and said seriously, "If you want money, just say so. Don't use 'starting a business' to intimidate me."

*This biological father... does he really think I care about this little bit of money?*

"I don't want it. I'll have plenty of money soon," Shoichi said with a pout.

"You'll have plenty of money soon?"

Saburo Sumitomo looked at Shoichi suspiciously.

Setting the cat aside, Saburo Sumitomo said sternly, "You aren't working with outsiders to short the copper mines, are you?"

"How could I!" Shoichi argued. "How could I do something like that? My uncle has been driving up copper prices; how could I possibly go against him?"

"Hard to say."

Saburo Sumitomo shook his head.

Everyone knew that when you had tried to warn your uncle before, he had lectured you.

You've always been a petty fellow; how could you not retaliate?

Besides, he already had other conflicts with the family.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I'm shorting it on my own," Shoichi said in a low voice.

He hadn't contacted any outsiders.

The copper price was bound to crash sooner or later; he just wanted to sneak a sip of the soup.

Saburo Sumitomo nodded.

At least he hadn't contacted foreign enemies; he wasn't a traitor to the family.

"Why don't you pick a different business project?" Saburo Sumitomo suggested.

It was better to find something for Shoichi to do than to let him ruin his own kin.

However, a construction company was absolutely out of the question.

Shoichi slapped the table and said, "Just trust me, okay? I am a one-of-a-kind entrepreneurial genius!"

In the end.

Shoichi's father agreed to help him start his business.

Since Shoichi had his own money, the family would not invest in him, but the construction-related enterprises would enter into close cooperation with him.

However, borrowing money from Sumitomo Bank was out of the question.

If the company showed no results, he wouldn't get a single cent.

He could ruin his uncle, but he couldn't be allowed to ruin the family's own assets.

Just as Shoichi left the villa, Saburo Sumitomo saw a news report on the television.

A former employee of Sumitomo Corporation had leaked that Nakatai, the head of the Non-Ferrous Metals Trading Department at Sumitomo Corporation, had engaged in large-scale illegal trading in the international copper futures market.

Leveraging Sumitomo Corporation's massive influence in the copper market, he had attempted to manipulate copper prices to reap enormous profits. He had influenced market prices through methods such as hoarding large amounts of physical copper and establishing massive long positions in the futures market.

It didn't need to be thought twice to know that copper prices would continue to fall.

Those international short-selling groups would certainly follow immediately.

Saburo Sumitomo's lip twitched. *That little brat.*

...

Since his uncle was about to lose money, Shoichi gloomily bought a confetti cannon to go home and celebrate.

*Bang!*

Ai, who was doing her homework, reacted like a startled cat; hearing the explosion of the confetti cannon, she immediately bristled and jumped up.

Seeing that what Shoichi held was a confetti cannon, she breathed a sigh of relief and began picking the hairpins out of her head one by one.

"Ai, I'm so sad."

Ai looked at Shoichi in silence. *The smile on your face doesn't look sad at all.*

"My uncle's company is having management problems. He's going to lose a lot of money."

This was truly delightful news.

To make a member of a zaibatsu family like you lose money was as sweet as honey.

"I resigned. I won't be able to go to work anymore."

With good news comes high spirits; this was indeed good news.

Shoichi patted Ai's head and continued, "Let me tell you another piece of bad news. My uncle lost money, but I'm going to make a lot of money."

This was truly depressing news.

"And the other piece of bad news is that I'm starting a business."

When it rains, it pours; bad news always comes in clusters.