A Wall Street Genius’s Final Investment Playbook Chapter 68

"Let Sean handle the markup."

This was Pierce's directive at the tail end of the eting.

‘Markup' refers to the skeleton of an Excel docunt.

A rough draft indicating chart placent and data positioning.

Based on that draft, Dobby and I were tasked with creating an Excel file that would perfectly satisfy Pierce.

Originally, markup was under the purview of Jeff, Pierce's right-hand man and VP.

But today, for so reason, it was passed on to .

Apparently, Pierce had important matters to discuss with Jeff.

While I was sweating over deciphering Pierce’s atrocious handwriting, I overheard their conversation from above.

"The Swanson deal in progress still needs our support."

"You an Epicura, sir?"

"Exactly. dallion is increasing its stake and requesting a eting…"

The mont I heard this, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

‘Epicura… I've heard that na sowhere before…'

Even as a regressor, I don’t rember every single corporate na in the stock market.

But my instincts were strongly signaling that this was crucial information.

I struggled to recall the details, and just then, a key clue was given.

"It seems even Epicura is anxious. They’re rushing the sale of Harbor Lobster and requesting a revaluation of Toscana Garden."

Toscana Garden.

The most famous Italian restaurant chain in Arica.

The mont I heard that na, a small, involuntary laugh escaped .

I suddenly rembered how I knew Epicura.

‘Right, that’s what it was.'

I couldn’t believe I had forgotten such a significant event.

Well, I had so excuse for it.

This wasn’t an incident in biotech but in the food service industry.

It wasn’t my field of expertise, so I hadn’t recalled it imdiately.

But on reflection, this was exactly the kind of incident I had been searching for.

An event that would shake not only Wall Street but the entire United States.

An incident that even the general public, typically indifferent to stocks, would take interest in, sparking heated discussions.

If I could make a na for myself through this incident…

The Theranos board would undoubtedly reach out to out of curiosity.

I couldn’t afford to let this opportunity slip away.

***

"May I take charge of that project?"

The mont Ha Si-heon spoke, a chilly silence descended upon the conference room.

Pierce and Jeff, who had been exchanging an animated discussion just monts ago, were left speechless, staring at Ha Si-heon.

Their expressions were anything but ordinary.

Pierce’s face hardened, and Jeff, his right-hand man, turned deathly pale.

"No way…"

Jeff managed to mutter, only to be t with Ha Si-heon’s resolute response.

"Yes. I’d like to use my selection privilege for this project."

Jeff involuntarily closed his eyes tightly.

He felt as though he’d just been handed a death sentence.

‘So, it’s co to this, after all.'

Jeff was well aware of the deal between Ha Si-heon and Pierce.

Once a month, Ha Si-heon was granted the right to choose a project of his liking.

In return, Ha Si-heon consistently provided information with an 80% accuracy rate.

Thanks to this, Pierce had achieved record-breaking performance and was on the verge of an executive promotion.

Just a few more months, and Pierce would be an executive, and Jeff himself could be promoted to MD.

He’d finally be able to work independently, free from being soone else’s subordinate.

Everything had been progressing smoothly towards the end…

And yet, at this critical juncture, Ha Si-heon made an unexpected move.

‘No way… Pierce wouldn’t actually grant his request, would he?'

Jeff cast an anxious sidelong glance, gauging Pierce's reaction.

Deep furrows appeared on Pierce's brow.

Eventually, he asked a question in a calm voice.

"Do you know that Epicura is in the food service industry?"

"Yes, I'm aware."

"It's far removed from your field of expertise…"

Even if Ha Si-heon’s 80% accuracy rate continued to hold, it was strictly within the realm of biotech.

Yet, the project he now desired lay in the food service industry.

Epicura was a food service managent company with nurous franchise restaurant chains under its umbrella.

Moreover, it was embroiled in a complicated power struggle between its managent and hedge funds.

In this domain, Ha Si-heon’s strongest assets—his dical background and algorithms—ant nothing.

‘Why on earth…?’

"I’d like to gain experience in a different industry."

"Experience, huh. Is that really all?"

"To be honest, the appeal of working with a company that owns renowned brands is also a factor."

"Epicura isn’t that big of a deal, though!"

Jeff, unable to hold back, interjected into the conversation.

"It's rely a Fortune 300 company!"

Jeff’s remark didn’t an Epicura wasn’t a significant company.

Rather, it implied that it wasn’t prestigious enough to justify Ha Si-heon using his selection privilege.

However, Ha Si-heon responded calmly.

"Was my selection privilege limited to biotech?"

There was a subtle edge to his tone.

To Jeff, it sounded like, "After everything I’ve done to boost your performance and bring you to the brink of an executive promotion, are you seriously going to go back on our agreent now?"

And, frankly, it wasn’t wrong.

Jeff couldn’t deny that much of their success was thanks to Ha Si-heon.

But.

On the verge of his own MD promotion, Jeff didn’t want to take on such a risky and uncertain project.

He desperately hoped Pierce would find a reason to reject Ha Si-heon’s request…

As Jeff looked at Pierce with pleading eyes, Pierce finally spoke.

"Of course not. You’re free to choose any field."

Jeff’s heart sank at Pierce’s response.

"I’m just curious about your real reason."

"As I said, it’s for the experience."

"This is not your typical project."

M&A departnt work was broadly divided into two categories: rgers and acquisitions, and corporate advisory.

rgers and acquisitions were relatively smooth. It involved connecting buyers and sellers who already had mutual interest, so major issues were rare.

Even disputes over pricing could usually be resolved through negotiation.

Advisory work, on the other hand, was different.

Sotis, it involved defending against hostile takeovers, essentially becoming a shield for managent under attack.

It was like soone drawing a sword and holding it to the managent's throat.

Goldman would enter such high-stakes battles, where victory and defeat were clear-cut.

Epicura happened to be in precisely this situation.

To make matters worse, Epicura wasn’t even Pierce’s client.

Another MD had passed on the project to Pierce, deeming it too overwhelming to handle.

This ant it was exceptionally challenging, with the slightest mistake potentially spiraling into a catastrophic situation.

And now… Ha Si-heon wanted to get involved?

Jeff felt another wave of dizziness washing over him.

"For the client, this is a matter of life and death. It’s not sothing to approach out of re curiosity."

Pierce’s words hinted at rejection, but Ha Si-heon didn’t back down.

"It’s not re curiosity. From the beginning, I joined the M&A departnt to gain ‘experience.' I made that clear. I requested my selection privilege for opportunities like this. It’s simply that no suitable case had co up until now."

He was implying that he had joined this departnt specifically with cases like this in mind.

Even his selection privilege agreent with Pierce had been crafted for this very mont.

In other words, rejecting this proposal would be a breach of their agreent.

‘No way…'

Surely, he wouldn’t approve this.

Jeff cast another anxious sidelong glance at Pierce.

But… Pierce appeared to be seriously considering it!

This couldn’t be allowed to continue.

“Absolutely not! Assigning a completely inexperienced rookie to such a sensitive matter as a corporate control dispute? That’s nothing short of negligence! Especially Sean—he’s the last person who should be involved!”

Jeff desperately emphasized the risks of involving Ha Si-heon.

At this, Ha Si-heon frowned.

“Why am I especially unsuitable?”

His expression was one of utter incomprehension.

But from Jeff’s perspective, he had no choice but to prevent Ha Si-heon’s participation.

“You’ve caused enough trouble in the past!”

“?”

Ha Si-heon tilted his head slightly, furrowing his brows.

He genuinely seed to have no recollection.

After a brief pause, he spoke again.

“Are you perhaps referring to the incident from early on after I joined? That was a bet initiated by Mr. Pierce himself, wasn’t it?”

“…”

Jeff was montarily at a loss for words at Ha Si-heon’s indignant defense.

It was true—Pierce had been the one to propose the bet against Brent.

"Still, you turned what was just a simple bet into a company-wide upheaval! That was your doing!"

Ha Si-heon had poured fuel on that small spark over and over again, eventually turning it into a massive chaos that engulfed the entire Goldman organization.

It beca the most unprecedented political scandal in Goldman’s history.

That incident had driven Rhinos to leave the company, and multiple MDs from other departnts resigned out of fear of Pierce’s retaliation and transferred to other banks.

And in just a couple of months, Pierce would ascend to an executive position.

When that happened, Goldman would undoubtedly face another wave of ruthless purges.

The one who had nurtured the spark into a wildfire was none other than Ha Si-heon.

And yet, the very instigator of that chaos rely shrugged his shoulders.

“Wasn’t that over six months ago?”

He dismissed an incident that had wiped out nurous key executives at Goldman as if it were a trivial episode from the distant past.

Jeff, stunned, replied, “Six months? What about the trouble you caused more recently?”

“Are you referring to the Genesis incident?”

Once again, Ha Si-heon claid innocence.

“All I did was invest in my own way. It was others who made a fuss about it. That’s hardly my fault, is it?”

…

Jeff was so exasperated by his shalessness that he was rendered speechless.

Ha Si-heon had provoked major investors, pulling in massive amounts of money, only to engage in an insane all-in strategy by funneling it all into a single stock.

Moreover, he’d leaked his investnt plans, turning all of Goldman into a frenzied casino.

And now he was saying it wasn’t his fault, just others overreacting?

“Don’t tell everyone overreacted for no reason! Don’t you rember inciting a survival ga among associates under the pretense of recruiting investors for so sham fund?”

Ha Si-heon had stirred up fierce competition among associates, calling it an investnt recruitnt campaign.

Even in this instance, Ha Si-heon remained composed.

“At the ti, you said it was fine. Now reinterpreting it against feels unfair.”

“Your… your personality is the problem! That tendency to drag everyone around you into chaos!”

Ha Si-heon was a walking disaster.

If there was even a small spark along his path, he’d inevitably turn it into a raging wildfire.

And now, such a person wanted to dive into a corporate control dispute—a situation where sparks were flying in every direction?

Just imagining it was terrifying.

Jeff was once again convinced during this exchange:

This guy absolutely couldn’t be involved in this project!

But Ha Si-heon remained unfazed.

“That was all extracurricular. Have I ever caused such issues in the work itself?”

“…”

Jeff’s mouth was once again left agape.

Surprisingly, Ha Si-heon was extrely diligent when it ca to his work.

He handled tasks swiftly and accurately, and even Pierce was impressed with his ticulousness.

Jeff had expected Ha Si-heon to make a mistake at so point.

But astonishingly, Ha Si-heon only caused trouble outside of the departnt, while internally, he quietly delivered impressive results.

In fact, up until now, neither Pierce nor Jeff had raised any issues with his external antics.

They had decided it was better to let him vent his energy outside the company, as long as he was doing his job well. It would have been hard to argue against his performance.

But in the end, the feared event had co to pass. Ha Si-heon was now preparing to stir up trouble within the departnt.

‘What can I do…?'

Jeff squeezed his eyes shut.

This was sothing he had foreseen the mont the privilege was granted. In fact, it was strange that Ha Si-heon had remained quiet until now.

"So, are you going to refuse my request?"

It seed like the devil who had been promised was finally coming to collect the debt.

‘Even if I stop him here… would he actually accept that?'

Moreover, even if he was stopped here, Ha Si-heon could easily cause chaos elsewhere.

Could they be sure that the project in question wouldn’t cause a bigger problem than Epicura’s advisory?

Just then, Pierce made his decision.

"I won’t stop you from participating, but there are conditions."

"Conditions?"

"There are three basic rules," Pierce said, raising one finger at a ti as he outlined the conditions.

"First, I’ll review all the materials you create beforehand. Second, you won’t speak unless you’re specifically invited during client etings. Third, since you have no experience in this field, you’ll bring in one seasoned associate to assist you."

Pierce had agreed to Ha Si-heon’s participation, but the specific conditions made his intentions clear. Rather than allowing Ha Si-heon to cause chaos, Pierce preferred to give him what he wanted but with a form of control in place.

"If you break any of these conditions, you’ll be imdiately excluded. What do you think?"

He had secured grounds to dismiss Ha Si-heon if necessary. Jeff was concerned whether Ha Si-heon would accept these constraints, but to his surprise, Ha Si-heon simply smiled and agreed.

"Yes, I understand."

After Ha Si-heon left,

"Are you really going to let him do this…?"

Jeff turned to Pierce, but froze when he saw him.

"Don’t worry too much. I’ve got him under control."

Pierce quickly composed his expression, but Jeff had already seen the faint smile on Pierce’s lips.

It was just a fleeting mont, but Jeff knew he hadn’t imagined it.

"Anyway, the actual work will be handed over to an experienced associate, so it shouldn’t be a major issue."

"But this one’s particularly tricky…"

"On the contrary, that might make him more useful."

Pierce’s gaze was intense.

"You know, sothing feels off about this whole situation."

Two months ago, Pierce had t directly with Epicura’s CEO.

From the start, there had been sothing suspicious about the whole thing, but neither Pierce nor Jeff had been able to find a solid lead.

Pierce’s comnt suggested that Ha Si-heon’s bold personality might actually help solve this problem.

"Even so…"

Who could solve sothing that even Pierce hadn’t figured out?

Yet, in Pierce’s eyes, there was a glimr of hope.

"His way of thinking is so unique. Maybe… he’ll discover sothing we missed."