Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Seeing his son kneeling on the ground, Zhou Heting felt ashamed. "I have failed to teach my son properly, causing Mingzhao and the Ye family to suffer."

Chairman Ye said nothing, while Liang Huiwei smiled and took a sip from her teacup. "What are you talking about, Director Zhou? The world is all about profit and gain. We don't feel wronged."

Elder Ye frowned, and just as he was about to speak, Liang Huiwei continued, "Uncle, I know you mean well, but decisions regarding the company are made by all shareholders and directors through voting. Even though he is the Chairman, he still has to respect everyone's opinions. He also has to be responsible for the interests of the shareholders and investors."

Elder Ye's expression changed.

Zhou Heting struggled to speak. "Brother and Sister-in-law, are you saying you won’t forgive us?"

Before Chairman Ye could say anything, Liang Huiwei smiled again. "This is just business; there’s no question of forgiveness here. Do you believe you've done something wrong to our Ye family?"

Zhou Heting couldn't respond to that.

It was Elder Ye who chimed in. "Of course, there was. But that’s in the past now, and neither Mingzhao nor the Ye family suffered any real losses—"

At this point, Chairman Ye interrupted with a smile. "It’s getting late. Why don’t we have a simple meal at home?"

With that, Chairman Ye got up and left.

The day after the Zhou family left the Ye family in defeat, Zhou family business issued an announcement of new share issuance—

*

"Company CEO and Chairman Zhou Heting promises that over the next month, he will repurchase shares from the secondary market in a manner permitted by laws and regulations. The shares purchased will not exceed 1% of the company’s total stock, with each share priced at..."

The news immediately caused a stir in the investment market.

Closely monitoring the secondary market, Ye Mingzhao immediately instructed the Ye family business’s finance team to start buying up shares.

A few days later, the Ye family business completed its third major purchase, raising their stake in the Zhou family business to 15%. At the same time, Zhou Heting also absorbed 3% of the shares in the secondary market, bringing his holdings to a substantial 23% of the company's total stock.

In the meantime, after tough negotiations, Zhou Heting struck a deal with other shareholders and executives holding company stock. One goal was to lower the stock price and raise the acquisition cost for the Ye family business, making it easier for Zhou Heting to accumulate shares. On the other hand, the executives and other shareholders could cash out at the highest point and then repurchase the shares at a lower price. This way, they could earn a significant profit without changing their shareholding.

This move aligned perfectly with the interests of the shareholders and executives, and it was a crucial step for Zhou Heting to rally support within the group.

The continuous selling by internal shareholders immediately impacted the Zhou family business's rising stock price. As the K-line chart plummeted, retail investors who had bought Zhou family business stock at its peak were left devastated.

"How could this happen? Both the Ye and Zhou family businesses have been aggressively buying in the secondary market. With both sides scrambling for shares and driving up the price, why has it suddenly dropped so much?"

"When the Zhou family business issued new shares, the stock price didn't fluctuate much. Why is it dropping so much now? Is someone cashing out at a high point deliberately?"

"A rising blue-chip stock has nosedived without warning. If this isn't someone selling off shares to cash out, I'll eat my hat!"

"Are you kidding me? I bought in almost at the peak, and now my stock is stuck. I've lost hundreds of thousands."

At the same time that retail investors in the secondary market were lamenting, Ye Mingzhao made his move.

Media outlets close to both Ye family business and Starjoy Media joined forces, accusing Zhou family business of manipulating the stock price crash.

"Isn't this a blatant manipulation of stock prices? Is no one going to do anything about it?"

"Suspicions arise that Zhou family business’s internal shareholders and executives are selling off shares and dumping stock."

"Rumor has it that a major shareholder of Zhou family business has violated regulations by cashing out and leaving."

Panic spread.

Zhou Heting watched the overwhelming press statements and continued to sell off shares. Billions of sell orders poured into the market over several days, completely disorienting the retail investors in the secondary market.

Unexpectedly, the Ye family business, which had been aggressively buying shares in the secondary market, suddenly stopped absorbing them. The trading volume in the market remained frozen for several days, while only the Zhou family business continued to release sell orders.

Ye Mingxi, seeing the market continuously dropping, asked excitedly, “When do we start bottom fishing?”

“No rush,” Ye Mingzhao said with a slight smile.

Of course, they would move only when Zhou Heting started buying shares again.

To gain absolute control of the Zhou family business, Zhou Heting would need to absorb more than 8% of additional shares. Ye Mingzhao’s task was to block him, offering a bid just slightly higher than Zhou’s, ensuring he could never accumulate enough shares!

For the next few days, Ye Mingzhao kept a close eye on the market. As soon as he detected any signs of Zhou Heting making a move, he would place an order at 0.1 yuan higher than Zhou’s bid.

Zhou Heting had originally planned to drive down the price and then swoop in to buy at the lowest point. However, Ye Mingzhao’s sensitivity was far sharper than he had imagined. No matter how Zhou tried to disguise his moves, Ye Mingzhao always precisely counteracted his bids.

If it weren’t for the fact that Zhou Heting was making the decisions himself, he might have suspected that Ye Mingzhao had bribed someone close to him.

*

At the same time, Chu Hengyi was curious about Ye Mingzhao’s precise tactics. “How do you judge Zhou Heting’s bids?”

After all, the trading information in the market didn’t come with names attached. With countless capital players involved in the battle between the Ye and Zhou families, along with a large number of retail investors and speculative funds looking for opportunities, the trading information was incredibly complex and seemingly beyond human control.

Yet, Ye Mingzhao always managed to spot Zhou Heting’s bids in advance, which seemed almost supernatural. As someone who had lived this life before, Chu Hengyi knew he couldn’t do it.

“Gut feeling!” Ye Mingzhao’s eyes remained locked on the market.

He couldn’t really explain it to Chu Hengyi. Ever since he started watching the trading information, various buy and sell orders, trading volumes, and other data formed a visual model in his mind. Having been in charge of the Ye family business’s finance department’s trading operations, he was familiar with the trading styles of various capital players. He could easily identify which bids were made by Zhou Heting and quickly anticipate Zhou’s next moves in his head…

Although he had grown accustomed to Ye Mingzhao’s brilliance in his previous life, witnessing his trading prowess in person still filled Chu Hengyi with admiration.

As they spoke, the current head of the Ye family business’s finance department approached them, happily saying, “Mr. Ye, we have absorbed 5% and can make a public announcement.”

Ye Mingzhao nodded at him.

That afternoon before the market closed, the Ye family business launched its fifth public announcement, officially declaring that their stake in the Zhou family business had reached 25%.

Upon receiving the notice from the Ye family business, Zhou Heting’s face turned ashen. Due to being precisely counteracted by Ye Mingzhao, his total holdings had just exceeded 25.2%. At this rate, it was likely that before Zhou Heting could accumulate enough shares, the Ye family business might surpass him and become the largest shareholder of the Zhou family business.

“Dad, what do we do?” Zhou Yueze looked panic-stricken, completely unprepared for the situation.

“How does Ye Mingzhao do it? How can he always grab the shares we want just before us? Has someone leaked our bids?”

Zhou Heting’s face was dark. “The bids are made by me on the spot. Even if he had bribed someone in our company, they couldn’t react that quickly.”

At the root of it all, he had underestimated Ye Mingzhao’s trading abilities—

He had thought Ye Mingzhao was strong, but it turned out he was even stronger than anticipated.

“What do we do now?” Zhou Yueze’s mind went blank, instinctively becoming an echo chamber.

Zhou Heting’s expression flickered as he looked at the just-closed stock market K-line chart. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and said, “Call the exchange and request an emergency trading halt, using major asset restructuring as the reason!”