Chapter 491: Juyoung Hong (18)
After all, Saudi Arabia drained all the oil stored in the Alafe oil complex and dumped it on the ground. They could dig oil again, but if the oil storage and refinery facilities were destroyed, it would take a lot of money and time to restore them.
But the problem wasn’t just that.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A chain of explosions occurred in the Moyadi oil field.
In the end, Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company made the decision to block the drilling holes that they had excavated with huge money because that was the only way they could stop further explosions.
Anyway, Saudi Arabia suffered huge losses from the explosions and fires at the large oil fields and oil complexes. Aside from the financial loss, it would take them a considerable amount of time to restore them.
The problem was that the Saudi Arabian government determined that the Yemeni Houthi rebels were responsible for the explosions and fires, and characterized their acts as terrorism. That meant that the Saudi Arabian government had to delay recovery work until they cracked down on the rebel group.
From the standpoint of Saudi Arabia, which prided itself as the hegemon of the Middle East, just standing idle without doing anything about the terrorist group would humilate them and disgrace their reputation.
Anyway, Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the simultaneous terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia plunged the world into chaos. And the biggest consequences were experienced by Asia, which imported all of its oil from abroad.
***
The retaking center of Kyeongmun High School where I was to retake the exams.
In fact, I would not give it such a grand name because I alone was there to take the exams. But there were as many as five test monitors.
I quickly tackled the problems one by one.
I noticed several problems designed to cloud my judgement, but I had no problem at all solving them because they were too easy.
So I solved all the problems faster than originally planned.
Doksu Koh, the math teacher in charge of seniors, originally thought I must have cheated.
In his eyes, it was impossible for me, who was always at the bottom of my class, to achieve the top scores.
But when he witnessed me solving the problems quickly, he could not help but open his eyes wide. When I worked on a math problem, it took me five seconds to understand the question, and I solved it without any hesitation. So I answered the question in 10 seconds.
I decided that I would clear his suspicion by working out the problems one by one, even though I could answer them using mental arithmetic.
But Koh seemed to discover my intentions when I purposely worked out the questions to take 20-30 seconds per question.
In the end, in less than 10 minutes, I solved all the math problems without any mistakes.
Moreover, Koh purposefully raised the difficulty of the test beyond high school freshman level for me. It was not easy at all for anybody to solve all the problems within a limited testing time.
Anyway, not only Koh, but also other test monitors admitted that Juyoung Hong, who was rumored to be an idiot son of the Myongjin Group chairman, was not stupid at all.
During the weekend two days after I took the test again.
In my house in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul.
Somebody was supposed to visit my house, so my father, mother and I were waiting for him. It was none other than Principal Jang who appeared.
As soon as he came in, he lowered his head to my parents, then expressed apologies for not trusting their son. He also said he was sorry he could not show his exemplary attitude as an educator to them.
But my dad said, “That’s fine.”
And my mother cut in, “I understand your feelings.”
Of course, it wasn’t just the students and teachers in the school who were shocked by my top scores in the retaken exams. My family members were also shocked because they had never seen me studying hard. Besides, when my father noticed I changed, he didn’t force me to focus on studying any longer.
Nonetheless, I got A’s in all subjects, and ranked first among the freshmen in school.
Principal Jang said, “You must be proud of your son. I don’t know why, but the teachers monitoring his retake even thought that your son might have hidden his real academic talent until now. Some of them are very confident that he did.”
Back then I was really behind my classmates.
For example, I could not remember anything as soon as I closed an English word book, even though I tried to memorize it for several hours.
That’s why I gave up studying and found a role-playing game that inevitably rewarded me for my work, whether it was a level-up or a miscellaneous item.
Anyway, the principal talked with my parents for some time, and I just listened in on the conversation.
I was content with watching my parents smile whenever the principal praised me.
That evening.
Knock! Knock!
Someone knocked on my door and showed up.
It was my sister.
She said, “You are an alien! I am now fully convinced that you are an alien! By the way, don’t you feel sorry for my brother who will come back later if you pretend to be so smart? Just think of my real brother who can be stupid all of a sudden!”
“Whew…”
With a tray of juice and fruit in her hand, she shouted at me like that.
Probably my mother let her come to see me because she was smiling from ear to ear after Principal Jang left.
So I beckoned to her to get closer to me.
Then I said, “Hey, human. You had better watch your language. Otherwise, I won’t spare your brother!”
At first, I tried to make excuses, then ignored her teasing, but this time I decided to respond to her strongly.
She then snapped, “Gosh! Are you making fun of me?”
She put down a tray of juice and fruit next to me, then ruffled my hair a bit.
So I stretched my hand to her.
“Again?”
“Yep.”
In response to my answer, she opened her hands wide.
Then I dropped something on it, which was none other than diamond stones.
But she said jokingly, “Gosh, why are you giving me these stones again?”
If I had given her only one or two, she would have thought they were diamonds.
But she took them as simple stones from the beginning because I gave them to her in bulk.
I didn’t even bother to correct her.
“You didn’t throw away what I gave you last time, right?”
“How can I throw them away when I’ve received something from you for the first time?”
“Keep them well!”
“Okay, got it.”
Of course, I had some real gifts reserved for my family.
In other words, several of the best craftsmen from Debius were making jewels with great care. They were making a necklace for my mom, earrings for my sister, and tie pins for my father and brother.
Anyway, after she left my room, I took out the documents that Taesok Oh had sent from Sierra Leone, and reviewed them.
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