I Became the Youngest Daughter of a Chaebol Family-Chapter 28: The Wolf of Wall Street (3)

“U.S. stock prices are overvalued.”

That’s what I told Ha Yeong-il the next day, when he asked me why.

– ...

There was a brief silence from Ha Yeong-il on the other end of the line.

– Why do you say that?

“It’s not just me. Isn’t that what everyone’s thinking?”

And it was true.

The Plaza Accord had driven the value of the dollar way down. America’s trade deficit had deepened, and interest rates continued to climb.

Logically, the stock index should start to fall soon. With all those negatives stacking up, the idea that stock prices kept rising made no sense.

And yet—Wall Street was in an unbroken bull run. Prices had risen to the point where even the optimists were beginning to wonder:

‘Isn’t this a bit much...?’

And then—pop.

That was how Black Monday came to be.

The perfect moment to short the market.

***

Ha Yeong-il couldn’t fully grasp what I meant.

Of course he couldn’t. The U.S. market should continue rising.

Right now it was early August... and Black Monday would hit on October 19. Even counting strictly, that left 60 days. Conservatively speaking, it would take at least 50 days for widespread fear to take hold.

“Normally... I’d just sit back and collect my cut. But the plan’s changed. I want to go in harder.”

Hot breath slipped from my small lips. My body trembled with a heat that seemed to rise from the depths of my soul.

My eyes gleamed from excessive excitement, and I surrendered myself fully to the golden specter that had begun to possess me.

“We start the full short on October 19. Monday. Pile up all the bombs over the weekend and blow them up in one shot.”

The stock market closes on weekends. So Monday ends up absorbing all the weekend’s tension in one big burst.

That effect had reached its peak on October 19—Black Monday.

And I planned to make it even worse.

– ...I understand. But... why October 19, exactly?

“That’s just how my math works out. I’ll tweak the timing depending on how the issues evolve, but give or take a week, that’s the date.”

That statement was as close as one could get to declaring omniscience.

But I believed I could do it.

I was confident that even if I intentionally magnified the bubble using butterfly effects, I could still time the collapse perfectly.

Not because of future knowledge—but because I believed in myself.

The one who’d once been Wall Street’s most unhinged mad genius.

The one who could read the flow of a chart with her eyes closed.

If I was still that person—if the me in this life, Yoo Ha-yeon, was still the same as the nameless self from my previous one—

Then I could do it. And I had to.

Because that’s who I am.

“Call Uncle Joo-seong. I need to leverage his contacts. You all get ready too.”

I swept my gaze around the room, eyes heavy with calculation, landing on each of the secretaries.

Their skeptical stares seemed to challenge me—how many people still couldn’t see the flow of global capital?

But I wasn’t like them.

I had always seen further.

“Expand the investment banking division. Call up every client and bring in more funds. Ring the newspapers and dig up anything that could be spun as good news. The key is to increase volume. Got it?”

As the room scattered into motion, a single girl—me—let a faint smile creep onto her lips.

I would prove myself.

Standing atop the mountain of gold I had built—

I would say that Theseus’s ship was still intact.

That was how I would prove the continuity of my self.

***

In most cases, the heart of finance refers to Wall Street in New York.

Any issue born there spreads across the global financial market.

But... the reverse was also true.

If the world markets trembled, Wall Street couldn’t help but waver too.

“When I give the signal, hit Tokyo and Hong Kong first. Once they start shaking, Wall Street will feel it.”

Unlike Korea’s closed-off stock market, Tokyo and Hong Kong were deeply tied to the U.S.

And more importantly—they were the only markets I could realistically touch.

– What exactly do you mean by that?

“Well, until I give the go-ahead... keep going long until October. It’s fine even if we lose a little. More important is amplifying the signal that we’re going long.”

– ...You’re trying to inflate the bubble further.

“Exactly. All we’ve got is a million dollars right now, so we leverage that, spin it, and just keep passing the word around. Drag out contract negotiations as long as possible—make it seem like we’re about to close.”

Right now, even if I dumped all my assets into the market, it wouldn’t make a dent.

Even with heavy leverage, same result.

But this was still a world where trades happened over the phone.

That meant I could send signals.

“Focus especially on cheap junk bonds. Doesn’t matter if we look sloppy—in fact, play up the amateur angle. Make it obvious.”

Because as always, when a clueless rookie starts gambling on high-risk speculative assets—it’s a textbook sign the peak is near.

– ...Will that be okay? You might not have money left for the short when the time comes.

I answered with a cheerful laugh.

“Don’t worry, I’ve scouted a few funds already. If we invest through them, even with leverage, we won’t lose.”

Which makes it even better.

In a bull market—you should make money like it’s a bull market.

After giving Ha Yeong-il his rough instructions, I jerked my chin toward Lee Si-hyun.

“We need to inspect the semiconductor lab. Have a car ready—I’ll spend the weekend there. Send a few assistants along.”

I’d need to keep an eye out for my family’s reaction, but everyone already knew I was always popping by the lab, so it didn’t matter.

“...Understood.”

There were still two months left until that day—but with all the groundwork I needed to lay, I had no real breathing room.

***

In the original timeline, Korea catching up to Japan’s semiconductor industry wasn’t considered all that important.

At least, not at this point in time.

“Ha-ha! You came at the perfect time, Young Miss. We’re almost finished now. Just one last hurdle...”

The lab director, full of emotion, clenched his fists dramatically.

He was a researcher, so his arms didn’t exactly look impressive—but the fire in his eyes was real.

“Mm, about a hundred days left?”

“Oh, not at all. Fifty days should be plenty. Ha-ha!”

Just as I expected.

If they needed about fifty more days...

“Then the tech gap is three months... we’ve got just three months left.”

Watching the director smile with pride, I let myself smile too.

“That’s right. The day when we—when Daehwa Electronics—stand at the forefront of the semiconductor industry... is coming soon.”

In the original timeline, a development like this in Korea wouldn’t have made it to Wall Street.

But not this time.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Originally, the 4M memory semiconductor was supposed to be completed early next year.

But thanks to my intervention, that timeline had moved forward.

The gap, once two full years, had now shrunk to barely three months.

At this level, it would strike as a major blow to both the Japanese and American semiconductor markets.

“Can you do me a favor?”

The lab director blinked, momentarily confused, then gave a hesitant nod.

“...Sure. I’ll hear you out, at least.”

“Set the announcement date to October 16.”

He nodded, seeming to understand just enough to go along.

“Ah, I see what you’re getting at. I heard you inherited Daehwa Securities.”

“I haven’t inherited it yet.”

I gave a slight smile, echoing his words with just enough ambiguity.

The lab director was smart enough to fill in the blanks on his own.

He was probably imagining something simple—like me planning to buy Daehwa Electronics stock ahead of the announcement.

That alone would already be insider trading...

But—what I actually planned was far more complex.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freёnovelkiss.com.

After spending a few days at the semiconductor lab and confirming that the schedule could indeed be aligned, I contacted Executive Director Ha Joo-seong, who handled the Japanese-side capital.

“The main attack will be handled by your son, but I still need to inform you. Prepare to short Japanese semiconductor firms. Use funds with completely separate origins.”

– It’ll be difficult... but I’ll do what I can.

“Mm. I appreciate it.”

What I was planning was the equivalent of a tightrope act.

Like ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ pulling out one more Jenga piece from a collapsing tower.

Like trying to expand a beer foam bubble that’s already about to burst.

A mad act where a single mistake could bring everything crashing down.

‘Ha, now this is what it means to be alive.’

I had to both stimulate the stock market further before Black Monday hit—

—and at the same time, fatten the underlying anxiety.

And the bubble had to hold until D-day.

All while avoiding suspicion.

And all with a mere ten billion won at my disposal.

I enjoyed every moment of that tension-laced thrill, filling my days with precision and intent.

Ha Yeong-il, now swaggering through Wall Street with leverage in hand, had quickly raked in a substantial amount of money.

Our hedge fund had practically abandoned any notion of a long-short strategy, instead going all-in on long positions like lunatics.

Especially with the high-efficiency program trading technique I had taught him, the fund had started to build a name for itself.

Our seed money was gradually increasing, though it still wasn’t big enough to draw major attention.

The money flowed—from Hong Kong, to Japan, to Korea—then back to the U.S. in a flash.

Minor media outlets, fed with the stories we’d planted, began slowly releasing pessimistic forecasts, but it didn’t cause any waves.

It was business as usual.

Exactly.

These were things that would’ve happened anyway. Even without us.

All I did... was add a few specks of dust to the inevitable.

Change a single word in a headline to make it slightly more ominous.

Tilt the stock swings just a little steeper.

Introduce slightly better program trading methods to Wall Street...

Trivial things, really—barely enough to nudge the market.

But as each piece of that puzzle slid into place, the outcome would grow into something far too large to ignore.

Friday morning, October 16.

Rustle.

I smiled faintly as I scanned the headline on the front page.

[Daehwa Electronics achieves 4M DRAM memory semiconductor breakthrough... Only 3-month gap with global leaders.]

At last, the final puzzle piece was in place.

Now—it was time to trigger the panic sell.