Chapter 44

Chapter 44

After the New Year, the Ye Group continued to aggressively acquire shares of the Zhou Group in the secondary market, quickly completing a second significant stake acquisition.

During this period, Chairman Zhou Heting convened consecutive shareholder meetings and board meetings within the Zhou Group. He proposed the implementation of a "poison pill plan," aiming to dilute the shareholding percentage held by the Ye family by issuing a large number of new shares, thereby increasing the acquisition cost for the Zhou Group.

It's a standard defense move used by many public companies facing hostile takeovers.

However, Zhou Heting's proposal met strong opposition from many minority shareholders. They argued that Zhou Heting's proposal severely infringed upon their interests.

"You not only want to dilute the Ye family's shareholding percentage but also dilute ours. Is this so the Zhou family can seize more shares in the process? If we don't buy the new shares, will ours also get diluted? In that case, I'd rather sell my shares to Ye Linyuan at a high price."

Zhou Heting did not expect his proposal to be met with such opposition from minority shareholders. At the end of the day, he was acting in the best interest of the Zhou Group. The Zhou Group was the result of his decades of hard work. How could he stand by and watch its control fall into the hands of outsiders?

"These minority shareholders are incredibly shortsighted," Zhou Yueze, who had followed Zhou Heting back to his office, said indignantly. "They are trying to curry favor with the Ye family, thinking that selling their shares to Ye Linyuan will bring them the most benefit. They don’t realize that the Zhou Group’s success today is entirely thanks to you, Father. Without the Zhou Group, what would these shareholders amount to?"

Zhou Yueze was seething with anger. "They rush to take advantage when there are benefits, but now that the Zhou Group is in trouble, they start to complain instead of standing together."

Zhou Heting glanced at his son, his expression equally dark.

Zhou Yueze was about to say more when a jarring ringtone interrupted his thoughts.

Irritably, Zhou Yueze answered the call. "What is it?"

It was unclear what was said on the other end of the line, but Zhou Yueze's expression shifted uncertainly. After hanging up, he turned to Zhou Heting. "Dad, there's trouble at the company. I need to go deal with it."

Zhou Heting looked at his son. "What's the matter?"

Zhou Yueze's face darkened further. "The *Prince Transformation* series was pulled from broadcast, causing huge losses for the company. Additionally, the scandal involving Jujunjie and widespread rumors have severely damaged the company’s and its artists’ reputations. Many of our projects have ground to a halt, and the shareholders and investors are very dissatisfied. They're convening a shareholder meeting to hold me accountable."

Zhou Heting frowned.

Cursing inwardly, Zhou Yueze knew this was a case of people kicking him when he was down. When the Zhou Group was doing well, these shareholders and investors had fawned over him like lapdogs. Now that the Zhou Group was in trouble, they were trying to stab him in the back instead of helping.

None of them were any good.

In a hurry, Zhou Yueze left the Zhou Group and drove quickly to the office building of Zhou's Film Company.

Several shareholders had already been waiting in the conference room for some time. As Zhou Yueze approached the door, he overheard the discussion inside. "The company has suffered huge losses, largely due to Executive President Zhou Yueze's mismanagement. I’m not trying to criticize his abilities, but I believe we need to select a more responsible and capable leader to guide the company out of this mess."

"And then there’s the issue of *Prince Transformation* being pulled from broadcast. We invested so much money into that project, and now the drama can’t be aired. Mr. Zhou should bear the responsibility for this loss."

Unable to listen any longer, Zhou Yueze forcefully pushed open the conference room door and demanded in a stern voice, "Who dares to challenge my authority?"

"I heard that the shareholders at Zhou's Film Company are plotting to remove Zhou Yueze from his role as Executive President. He must be in a real mess now," Yu Mingze said with a malicious laugh, sitting on the sofa in the second-floor private room of the nightclub. The thumping DJ music filled every corner of the bar.

"He had it coming! It’s karma for Zhou's Film Company ripping off your show and promoting a human trafficker's relative and a drug user as the male leads," Ye Mingxi, the second brother, clinked glasses with Yu Mingze. "But speaking of which, what’s your family’s reaction to the Zhou family’s misfortune?"

*

Yu Mingze shrugged dismissively. "What do you think? On New Year’s Day, Zhou Yueze and his father did come to our house, saying that relatives should keep in touch. But in reality, they wanted to borrow money from us."

The thought of it disgusted Yu Mingze. Zhou Yueze had gone out of his way to promote Chu Qingyi, the relative of a human trafficker, as the male lead, even copying his show and assembling a team to compete against him. These actions showed that Zhou Yueze had no respect for him as his fiancé. If it weren’t for Jujunjie's drug scandal causing *Prince Transformation* to be pulled from broadcast, Yu Mingze’s *Prince of Beggars* would have suffered huge losses.

Now that the Zhou family was in trouble, Zhou Yueze and his father were trying to make amends. But even though the Yu family had always wanted to maintain this marriage alliance, they couldn’t swallow this insult.

As for Yu Mingze, he wouldn't even consider it. If not for his family elders' strong opposition, he would have canceled the engagement already.

Upon hearing Yu Mingze's words, another rich second generation chimed in, "But lately, the Zhou family has been scrambling to borrow money to buy back shares of Zhou's film company."

"Rumor has it they've mortgaged several properties and assets to borrow a huge sum—around ten billion—from the banks."

"They could have borrowed more, but the scandal involving Zhou's film company broke out, sparking widespread outrage. Even the bank presidents who used to be close to the Zhou family didn’t dare make exceptions this time, and could only appraise the Zhou family’s assets at 70% of the market price."

After saying this, everyone turned to look at Ye Mingzhao, who had been sitting quietly in the corner.

One scandal after another hit Zhou's film company, affecting even the Zhou family business. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Ye Mingzhao and the Ye family were behind the acquisition.

However, at the root of it all, it was Zhou Yueze who had repeatedly provoked Ye Mingzhao, even trying to elevate one of the Ye family's enemies to a leading position.

Things had become so ugly that even if the Ye family’s counterattack was somewhat harsh, no one had any complaints.

It was the Zhou family’s own doing. Even though Ye Mingzhao had left the Ye family business, he was still the adopted son of the Ye family. When Zhou Yueze humiliated Ye Mingzhao, everyone thought Zhou Yueze was trying to win over the Ye family’s real young master. But then Zhou Yueze decided to cast the family of a human trafficker as the male lead, thereby offending the Ye family.

For a moment, everyone was confused, wondering what the Zhou family was trying to do.

Could it be that Zhou Yueze had really been enchanted by that guy named Chu Qingyi?

No one dared say it in front of Yu Mingze, but their knowing glances hinted they were all thinking the same thing. They were curious about what kind of extraordinary person Chu Qingyi was, to be able to charm Zhou Yueze like that.

Ye Mingzhao understood everyone's thoughts. In the original story, the secret about the human traffickers’ family hadn’t been revealed, and Chu Qingyi, being Chu Hengyi’s younger brother, was naturally innocent and pure. Zhou Yueze, who initially approached Chu Qingyi with ulterior motives, gradually fell for his innocence and self-reliance, turning into a pawn in Chu Hengyi’s revenge plot.

However, in reality, because of Ye Mingzhao's interference, the original plot and character relationships had been torn apart. Zhou Yueze’s continued decision to heavily promote Chu Qingyi seemed indecisive and confusing to outsiders, indirectly exposing the Zhou family’s malice toward the Ye family.

This led Ye Linyuan to notice Zhou Heting’s schemes and seize the opportunity to launch a hostile takeover when Zhou's stock prices crashed.

"By the way, are you guys really planning to take over Zhou's company?" someone asked curiously.

*

"After all these decades of friendship, why let things get so ugly?"

At the same time that the younger generation was gossiping and watching the drama, Chairman Ye and his wife were hosting Zhou Heting and his son at home, along with Ye Laoye, the family elder, who had been invited by Zhou Heting to act as a mediator.

Ye Laoye wasn’t Chairman Ye’s father but his uncle. Chairman Ye’s parents died young, so he and his siblings were raised by their uncle's family. Over the years, Chairman Ye had always treated Ye Laoye with respect and filial piety.

"I don’t understand business matters, but I remember when Mingyi was kidnapped, you two were in so much pain, yet still had to take care of the family and work. It was Heting who helped you a lot."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Heting, visibly moved, immediately said, "It was my duty."

Elder Ye waved his hand, "There’s no such thing as a ‘duty’ to help. Helping is a kindness, not helping is just doing what’s expected."

"I’ve heard about what Yueze has done." Elder Ye paused slightly, his gaze lightly falling on Zhou Yueze. "Even if I don’t speak from the Ye family’s perspective, I have to say this was too much. There are so many people you could have promoted, why did you have to promote the enemy of the Ye family?"

Before Zhou Yueze could say anything, Elder Ye continued, "And you’ve been going against Mingzhao. No matter what, Mingzhao is our adopted son. As long as he bears the Ye family name, he is a member of the Ye family. By bullying him, you’re slapping the Ye family in the face."

Zhou Yueze’s face turned red as he bowed his head in apology, "Grandfather, I know I was wrong."

Elder Ye could see that Zhou Yueze wasn’t sincere in his apology, but it didn’t matter, "Everyone makes mistakes, but correcting them is the true mark of character. At the end of the day, this is just a conflict between the younger generation. If things escalate to the point where the Ye family has to acquire the Zhou family business, wouldn’t that be too much?"

At the core of it, even though Zhou Heting and his son had harbored ill intentions and tried to stir up trouble between the Ye family members, they hadn’t crossed too many lines. It would be an overreaction for Ye Linyuan to launch an acquisition just to get back at them.

"As people, we should always remember the kindness others have shown us!" Elder Ye earnestly advised Chairman Ye and his wife.

Zhou Heting and his son exchanged glances, and suddenly, Zhou Yueze knelt before Ye Linyuan and Liang Huiwei, "Uncle Ye, Aunt Liang, I know I’ve done wrong recently, and I hope you can forgive me."