Chapter 36

Chapter 36

On the same day that *Prince of Beggars* officially completed filming, *Prince Transformation* also announced that it had passed the review and would be scheduled for a prime slot on Xinhai TV on December 15th.

To beat *Prince of Beggars* to air, *Prince Transformation* gave up the highly advantageous winter break slot.

A massive wave of attention surrounding its scheduling topped the charts on various social platforms simultaneously, directly suppressing the hype around the official announcement of *Prince of Beggars*.

Yu Mingze carefully watched the official posters and teaser trailer for *Prince Transformation*, and was so angry he almost threw his tablet: "Just look at the plot, look at the character design, this is clearly copied directly from our original script!"

Yu Mingze was so furious he wanted to hex Zhou Yueze.

However, the hype built by *Prince Transformation* with hundreds of trending topics didn't last long before it was overshadowed by another sudden revelation.

#YeMingzhaoSuesMotherForAbandonment#

Yu Mingze was dumbfounded when he saw this news. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief and turned to Ye Mingzhao, asking, "Did you really sue her?"

Not only did he sue, but he deliberately chose to announce it on the same day *Prince Transformation* revealed its release date, completely overshadowing *Prince Transformation*.

Zhou Yueze had spent millions on marketing on all major platforms, but could only helplessly watch as the topic #YeMingzhaoSuesMotherForAbandonment# rapidly climbed in popularity, furiously pointed at the head of the publicity department and cursed: "What am I paying you for if you can't even handle this?"

"I don't care what tricks you come up with, the hype for *Prince Transformation* must not be overshadowed by anything!"

Zhou Yueze looked at his cowering subordinates in front of him and once again felt the frustration of being overshadowed by Ye Mingzhao.

"Using the controversy of suing his own mother to promote a TV series..."

Zhou Yueze couldn't understand how Ye Mingzhao dared to do such a thing. Was he crazy? Wasn't he afraid that netizens would accuse him of being greedy and heartless, not even recognizing his own family?

Was it to further provoke him that she deliberately involved herself?

Zhou Yueze couldn't understand. In recent days, he had intentionally hired internet trolls to spread negative comments about Ye Mingzhao, accusing him of being snobbish and disowning his biological mother. He also had the trolls pretend to be Yu Mingze's fans, going to the official account of "The Beggar Prince" to protest against Ye Mingzhao playing the lead and second male roles. However, these comments seemed to have no impact on Ye Mingzhao at all.

The official account of "The Beggar Prince" kept deleting comments and banning users, but there was never an official response.

Zhou Yueze originally thought that Ye Mingzhao was trying to play dead, but he didn't expect Ye Mingzhao to deliberately choose the day when "The Prince's Transformation" announced its release date to make a big move.

Zhou Yueze never dreamed that Ye Mingzhao would choose this moment and this method to counterattack him.

Seeing the topic suddenly top the trending list, Zhou Yueze felt as if he had been struck by a bolt from the blue.

Coming back to his senses, Zhou Yueze specifically clicked into the topic #Rumor: The Lead Actor of "The Beggar Prince," Ye Mingzhao, Sues His Birth Mother for Abandonment#. He eagerly wanted to see the comments where netizens would criticize Ye Mingzhao for being unfilial. But things did not go as he wished.

Indeed, some netizens felt that Ye Mingzhao's decision to sue his birth mother was inhumane, believing that "there are no bad parents in the world," and that no parent would willingly abandon their child. They must have faced insurmountable difficulties, and Ye Mingzhao should understand the hardships of his birth parents—among these were the trolls Zhou Yueze himself had hired to steer the conversation.

However, more netizens stood by Ye Mingzhao, arguing that his birth mother's act of abandoning her child in a garbage dump was not only a crime of abandonment but also attempted murder.

"Who would throw a newborn baby into a garbage dump on a cold winter night? Even if you left the child at an orphanage, I'd admit you still had a bit of conscience."

"How could someone have the nerve to come forward and claim kinship after twenty years? Does she think that since Ye Mingzhao has been raised by the Ye family, she can now reap the benefits?"

"I looked up information on Ye Mingzhao's birth mother. Her other son is a participant in the costume design competition for 'The Beggar Prince.' His family background states that they run a clothing factory. When I searched for their factory, it was established twenty-three years ago... A family capable of running a clothing factory back then shouldn't have been so poor that they had to abandon their own flesh and blood."

"The facts prove that not everyone is fit to be a parent. Can irresponsible beasts refrain from having children?"

"Even beasts know how to raise their young; these people are worse than beasts."

Ruan Cuimei, seeing the endless stream of insults online, trembled with anger.

She slammed her phone onto the sofa and tore at her hair forcefully. "It's not like this! It's not like this! I'm a victim too! Why are they only blaming me? Why aren't they blaming the real culprit?"

She called Zhou Yueze, "Didn't you say that as long as I came forward to acknowledge my son, even if Ye Mingzhao didn't acknowledge me, the Ye family would recognize me as his mother?"

Zhou Yueze was exasperated. "They already recognized you, didn't they?"

Ruan Cuimei screamed, "They're suing me for abandonment! They want to send me to prison!"

Was this the kind of recognition Ruan Cuimei wanted? If it weren't for Zhou Yueze secretly approaching her and covertly pressuring her, saying that acknowledging Ye Mingzhao would only benefit her, how could she have gone to acknowledge her son so willingly?

"I don't care! You told me to do this! If you don't help me, I'll tell everyone what you did!" Ruan Cuimei hysterically shouted on the phone, "I can't go to prison! There's no way I'm going to prison!"

Ruan Cuimei wasn't stupid. She knew that Zhou Yueze had secretly manipulated her into acknowledging Ye Mingzhao with ill intentions. Now that something had gone wrong, how could Zhou Yueze think of staying out of it?

Zhou Yueze was already overwhelmed by the hot search and hearing Ruan Cuimei's threat only added to his frustration. "It's your own incompetence! You can't even handle such a small matter."

"And you think you can expose me?" Zhou Yueze was almost amused by Ruan Cuimei's stupidity, "Did you forget that your family's clothing factory still owes the bank over twenty million? Do you believe that with one phone call, I could—"

Before he could finish, Ruan Cuimei interrupted, "Mr. Zhou, please do me a favor. I was wrong; I shouldn't have said that. Help me—I really don't want to go to prison."

Ruan Cuimei was filled with regret. If she had known how things would turn out, she never would have listened to Zhou Yueze's manipulation and gone to acknowledge Ye Mingzhao.

That ungrateful child is too vicious. He actually sued his own mother. Why didn't he freeze to death in the trash heap?

Though Ruan Cuimei harbored deep resentment, she knew she couldn't say the wrong thing at this critical moment. "I know I shouldn't have abandoned him, but I had no choice! As a single woman, how could I possibly raise a child? Besides, if I hadn't abandoned him, he wouldn't have had the chance to be adopted by the Ye family..."

Zhou Yueze secretly despised Ruan Cuimei's actions, but he was too overwhelmed by the hot search to want to cause more trouble that might affect the normal promotion of *Prince Transformation*.

So, while recording Ruan Cuimei's words, he tried to calm her, "Just wait for the trial. We'll get a good lawyer, and if your attitude is good... there aren't many cases of people being sentenced for abandonment in this country."

Even so, Ruan Cuimei remained anxious. Although cases of people being sentenced for abandonment were rare, they weren't unheard of. Even if she didn't go to prison, with the situation being so public, how could she ever face people again? She felt like everyone was talking about her behind her back, and the thought made her skin crawl.

Ruan Cuimei didn't even dare to leave her house now, feeling like her neighbors were pointing and whispering about her whenever she went out.

But staying at home wasn't any better, as her husband and son also ignored her.

Jiang Shangyun had run away from home the night she appeared on set and hadn't answered his phone or replied to messages since. He didn't even attend the finals. Jiang Fu, although still at home, didn't speak to Ruan Cuimei and spent his days sighing over his phone.

Nosy netizens had dug up the Jiang family's clothing factory's social media accounts. A large number of netizens flooded the official account, leaving abusive comments, asking if they knew that their boss's wife was a heartless woman who had abandoned her own child.

Some netizens even pieced together a timeline, deducing that Ruan Cuimei had given birth to Ye Mingzhao before marrying Jiang Fu. In other words, Ruan Cuimei had an illegitimate child with another man, then chose to abandon her son and leave for Shen City, marrying her current husband, Jiang Fu, shortly after.

—Because Jiang Shangyun had once revealed his basic information when he participated in the costume design competition. He was 19 years old, born in June. Ye Mingzhao was 21, born in winter.

This meant that Ruan Cuimei had married her current husband less than a year after abandoning her son.

According to veteran employees of the Jiang family's clothing factory, after marrying Jiang Fu, Ruan Cuimei brought a large dowry of hundreds of thousands to invest in the factory, purchasing the most advanced production lines. The Jiang family's clothing factory took off from that point, making a fortune in foreign trade by taking on many garment orders from foreign brands during the demographic dividend period.

The old employees didn't know Ruan Cuimei's background and thought she was a lady from a wealthy family.

But the eagle-eyed netizens, through various pieces of information, discovered that Ruan Cuimei's family circumstances at the time couldn't have afforded a dowry of hundreds of thousands. Her hometown was a small county in the southern part of the country, and the money for her university entrance exam fees had been borrowed from villagers. During university, Ruan Cuimei had been very frugal, rarely buying new clothes, and had even turned down a stable job assigned by the school to work as a secretary in a private company for a higher salary.

This decision was quite rare in an era when stable, government-assigned jobs were highly valued.

Then, colleagues who had worked with Ruan Cuimei at the same company recalled her cohabiting with a manager from Hong Kong during her time there. These people mentioned in the comments that the manager was already married, and when his wife found out about Ruan Cuimei's pregnancy, she had come from Hong Kong to catch the cheating couple.

Because such incidents were rare and socially taboo at the time, those who experienced it still remembered it vividly.

Everything was now clear.

Through the netizens' careful investigation, they not only unraveled the entire past of Ruan Cuimei abandoning her son but also uncovered that Ye Mingzhao's biological father was Lin Feng, who had been the general manager of a certain jewelry company back then—the same Lin Feng who is now the CEO of the Gu family's jewelry company.

"Wasn't Lin Feng, who was the general manager of that jewelry company back then, the groom who married into the Gu family?"

"So, Ye Mingzhao's biological parents were having an affair during their marriage, knowingly being the 'other woman,' and then they abandoned their own child when their illicit relationship was exposed?"

"I heard that when Lin Feng's wife caught wind of the affair and confronted the mistress, she gave Ruan Cuimei a million yuan! To be fair, the Gu family's matriarch was surprisingly generous. Back then, a million yuan was a fortune! At that time, the average salary in Xinhai City was only around 400 yuan. A house in the suburbs cost less than 1,000 yuan!"

"Could it be that the money Ruan Cuimei used to purchase the production line for her husband's garment factory was the one million yuan from the Gu family?"

"I'm puzzled! How can someone who had an affair, knowingly being the 'other woman,' have the face to come out and try to reconnect with the child she abandoned twenty years later?"

"Does the boss of the Jiang family's garment factory know about his wife's colorful past?"

Ruan Cuimei couldn't bring herself to look at the online comments, but she couldn't resist checking them. When she saw uninformed netizens accusing her of being a mistress, she could no longer hold back.

"I was never aware that I was the 'other woman'! I was not a mistress! It was Lin Feng who deceived me. I had no idea that he was already married when we were together."

In a moment of impulse, Ruan Cuimei logged into her Weibo account to defend herself.

She blamed everything on Lin Feng, portraying herself as the innocent victim of his deception. Every word was filled with resentment towards Lin Feng for his deception.

"I hate him! I hate them all! What did they take me for? They tricked me into having a child because Gu Tingjun, the Gu family's only daughter, couldn't have children. So, they intentionally deceived me into getting pregnant. When I was six months pregnant and unable to have an abortion, they showed up. It was called catching the cheating couple, but in reality, they just wanted me to give birth to the child."

"That one million yuan was what I deserved. It was compensation for my lost youth and emotional damages. I was a pure and innocent female college student, an intellectual, who should have had a bright future and an honorable life, but I was shamelessly deceived by them."

In her emotional Weibo post, Ruan Cuimei laid out the entire ordeal of how she was tricked into having a child, only for Gu Tingjun to unexpectedly get pregnant and treat her child like trash.

Ruan Cuimei, being a college-educated woman, wrote with great emotional appeal. At the end of her post, she painfully confessed that she regretted abandoning her own child. But she couldn't help it.

"As soon as I see him, I'm reminded of how his biological father deceived me. I can't face this child, nor can I face that past."

"I hate his father and I hate him too. They are the stains on my life. And back then, I was still an unmarried young woman. Those who lived through that era should know how conservative society was. An unmarried woman giving birth in those times could hardly survive. The malicious gossip alone could have drowned me."

"So, the immature me made the biggest mistake of my life. I abandoned that child, naively thinking that without him, I could pretend nothing had happened. But I was wrong. For the past twenty-one years, I have been tormented by guilt and self-judgment every moment..."

"I know I owe that child an apology. But I had no choice. If it weren't for that manipulative man who deceived me and that fickle woman, none of this would have happened."

In her post, Ruan Cuimei directly pointed the finger at the Gu family's jewelry company. Clearly, she intended to divert the netizens' attention toward Ye Mingzhao's biological father's family.

And indeed, Ruan Cuimei succeeded.

The curious netizens, following her mention, stormed into the official account of the Gu family's jewelry company and Lin Feng's personal account. Within just one hour, tens of thousands of comments flooded the comment sections of both accounts.

Finally, the Gu family's jewelry company and Lin Feng, who had been trying to stay hidden throughout this storm, were pushed into the spotlight.

"You really have a way of handling things. Just by tossing out a little bait, they started tearing each other apart..."

At the wrap-up party of *Prince of Beggars*, Yu Mingze was too busy scrolling through his phone to even drink his wine.

Seeing the trending topics like "#Rumored *Prince of Beggars* male lead Ye Mingzhao's mother being prosecuted for child abandonment," "#Ye Mingzhao's mother denies being a mistress," "#Ye Mingzhao's mother accuses Gu family's jewelry head of deceitful marriage and child," "#Ruan Cuimei: The one million yuan was what I deserved," and "#A real-life drama mirroring *Prince of Beggars*—the male lead's real-life story is even more dramatic than the villain's," which were overshadowing the official announcement of *Prince Transformation*'s release, Yu Mingze laughed heartily.

"They got what they deserved!"

"They wanted to take us down!" Yu Mingze sneered. "Just look at who our male lead is. With one move, we turned their millions in marketing dollars into nothing!"

Yu Mingze, with exaggerated humility, poured a cup of wine for Ye Mingzhao and respectfully said, "A toast to the hero."

Ye Mingzhao smiled upon hearing this and modestly said, "We should also thank Zhou's film company for keeping the story in the spotlight."

"Of course, we have to thank them!" Yu Mingze said with a big laugh. "If they hadn't bribed the media to keep hyping this up daily and hired the paparazzi to tail us around the clock, the netizens might not have cared so much. Maybe the hype would have died down after two or three days."

In the end, Zhou Yueze had dug a pit for himself. If he hadn't worked so hard to promote and stir up attention, they wouldn't have been able to capture the entire internet's focus with just one hot search.

Every time Yu Mingze thought about how Zhou Yueze had shot himself in the foot, he felt so vindicated that he wished he could down a few more drinks. But there was just one thing he couldn't figure out: "Since we all know that Zhou Yueze is behind these dirty tricks, why not buy a related hot search today and expose his misdeeds to the world?"

"Why the rush?" Ye Mingzhao said with a smile. "Patience is key; things will fall into place if we play it cool. As long as we have something on him, aren't we in a good position?"

Ruan Cuimei hadn't even received the court summons yet, and the trial was still far off.

From the official announcement of *Prince Transformation's* release date to its actual broadcast, there were still many days in between.

Someone had carefully orchestrated such a brilliant drama and had the patience to wait for the best timing. He should also leave a little suspense, and once the show starts, it won't be too late to stir things up.

Yu Mingze had clearly misunderstood Ye Mingzhao's meaning and suddenly realized, "Oh, right! Our *Prince of Beggars* has only just wrapped. It hasn't been reviewed or scheduled for release yet! We can bring this up again once we're successfully scheduled."

By then, they could expose Zhou Yueze's true colors while using *Prince Transformation* to boost *Prince of Beggars'* publicity. It was a win-win strategy that only someone as clever as Ye Mingzhao could have devised.

Feeling quite pleased with himself, Yu Mingze poured another glass for Ye Mingzhao.

Ye Mingzhao raised his glass, and in the brief moment as he drank, his eyes swept across the people at the wrap-up banquet who had various expressions.

Most people, though silent, had expressions that showed they felt vindicated. From their eyes, you could tell they were at least on the same side as the crew. So, when Yu Mingze spoke bluntly about the conspiracy, they couldn't help but nod in agreement, feeling the same sense of camaraderie and shared enmity.

A few others nodded along, but their eyes darted nervously, betraying their hidden agendas.

Some might slip away during or after the banquet, under the pretense of needing a bathroom break, to warn Zhou Yueze.

As the glass hid the corner of Ye Mingzhao's mouth, a barely noticeable smile appeared.

He wondered how Zhou Yueze would react when he learned about the "conspiracy" within their crew.

Would he scramble to protect Ruan Cuimei, his pawn, to stop her from lashing out in desperation? Or would he take drastic action to eliminate her as a threat? Ye Mingzhao was waiting to see.

He hoped Zhou Yueze would find a cleverer way to pass the buck, so the game could drag on a bit longer—he was done playing games with amateurs.