Chapter 46

Chapter 46

"The Zhou family business has applied for an emergency trading halt with the exchange."

The head of the Ye family business's finance department rushed over to report the news as soon as he received the message.

Ye Mingxi burst into laughter, "He's run out of options."

As per regulations, a listed company undergoing major asset restructuring can only suspend trading for up to one month. In other words, even if the exchange approves Zhou Heting's trading halt request, he only has one month to operate.

Ye Mingzhao, with a deep look in his eyes, curled his lips, "Suspending trading at this point is already too late."

Hearing this, everyone looked at Ye Mingzhao, utterly confused.

Ye Mingzhao then looked at Chu Hengyi.

Chu Hengyi, not surprised, raised an eyebrow, "When did you discover it?"

Ye Mingxi was completely confused, "Discover what? What kind of riddle are you two playing?"

Chu Hengyi calmly spoke, "I've acquired 4.99% of the Zhou family business's shares."

Everyone gasped in surprise.

Ye Mingxi was shocked, "When did you acquire them? How come we didn't know anything about it?"

Chu Hengyi glanced at Ye Mingzhao and said indifferently, "I keep a low profile."

Although his micro-operations in trading weren't as precise as Ye Mingzhao's, Chu Hengyi, having lived through a rebirth, had his own advantages. So, while the Zhou family business was crashing the market and the Ye family and Zhou family were fiercely sniping each other, attracting the attention of all parties involved, Chu Hengyi quietly entered the scene and absorbed 4.99% of the Zhou family business's shares.

The reason I chose 4.99% was to stay under the 5% disclosure threshold and avoid alerting the Zhou family.

Ye Mingxi was dumbfounded, "That's 4.99%! Even at the bare minimum, wouldn't that cost several billion?"

It was known that after Chu Hengyi returned to the Ye family, apart from the real estate and stocks and funds transferred to him by Ye Mingzhao, the Ye family didn't give Chu Hengyi much cash—just an unlimited black subsidiary card. But if Chu Hengyi had used that card, they would have known.

Hearing Ye Mingxi's question, Chu Hengyi looked calmly at Ye Mingzhao.

Ye Mingzhao explained, "When the Zhou family business's stock price plummeted due to the scandal involving Zhou's film company, I bought up stocks at a low price and then sold them at a higher price when the Ye family business launched a takeover bid for the Zhou family business. Then, when the Zhou family business crashed the market again, I re-entered at a low price to buy more stocks..."

So, buying 4.99% of the Zhou family business's shares didn't require billions. If timed correctly, only 700-800 million would be needed.

Chu Hengyi's eyes revealed a hint of amusement as he personally admitted, "It cost me 750 million in total."

The capital Chu Hengyi used to acquire the Zhou family business's shares was the second bucket of gold he earned from shorting Zhou's film company.

Chu Hengyi's initial capital for shorting Zhou's film company came from leveraging his reborn advantage to buy undervalued blue-chip stocks and futures. At that time, Ye Mingzhao preempted Chu Hengyi by driving up stock prices, earning 300 million through a series of maneuvers.

Chu Hengyi, having been preempted by Ye Mingzhao, entered the market late, faced higher costs, and with less precise micro-operations and capital compared to Ye Mingzhao, only made less than 200 million.

Speaking of this, Chu Hengyi looked at Ye Mingzhao again, subtly expressing, "I could have made even more if not for..."

Ye Mingzhao looked away.

Ye Mingxi secretly marveled, not expecting that Chu Hengyi, without formal education, could display such high financial talent and trading skills. No wonder he's from the Ye family!

On second thought, such a talented financial genius had been wasted by the Chu family for more than two decades, and even had to drop out of school and work to support those vengeful parasites. Ye Mingxi was so angry that his teeth itched.

"Sooner or later, the Chu family will have to pay the price!"

Our family has always been too lenient. We actually allowed the Chu family to live freely outside all this time.

Ye Mingzhao and Chu Hengyi looked at each other, understanding without words.

Chu Hengyi took the initiative to speak, "What do you need me to do?"

Ye Mingzhao looked at Chu Hengyi and got straight to the point, "The Ye family business has already made the fifth bid and holds 25% of the shares in the Zhou family business. Combined with the 4.99% you hold, we can surpass Zhou Heting and become the largest shareholder of the Zhou family business. Even if Zhou Heting submits a suspension application to the exchange now, we can still call a special shareholders' meeting and demand the dismissal of the entire board of directors."

Chu Hengyi looked at Ye Mingzhao steadily and smiled slightly, "Are you asking me to join your side?"

Ye Mingzhao subtly raised an eyebrow and corrected, "To stand by the Ye family's side."

Chu Hengyi neither agreed nor disagreed, "Does the Ye family business want to buy the 4.99% of shares in the Zhou family business from me?"

Chu Hengyi had invested all his assets into purchasing shares of the Zhou family business, and it was certainly not for long-term holding. This was clear to Chu Hengyi, and Ye Mingzhao surely understood it too.

Before Ye Mingzhao could speak, Ye Mingxi had already said excitedly, "Don't worry, given how well you've done, Dad will give you a price you’ll be very happy with."

The three of them walked out of the trading room together, and Ye Mingxi couldn't wait to barge into Chairman Ye's office, "Dad, big brother, I have some great news to tell you..."

Chairman Ye and Ye Mingchen turned around in unison, only to see Ye Mingxi with a look of excitement, declaring with great fanfare, "We now own 30% of the Zhou family business and are their largest shareholder!"

"What did you say?" Ye Mingchen, who had just been watching the market trends, asked incredulously, "How is that possible? Didn’t we just finish our fifth bid?"

"The hero of the hour is right here!" Ye Mingxi said, pushing Chu Hengyi forward with a look of pride, "He secretly acquired 4.99% of the Zhou family business's shares."

At these words, Chairman Ye and Ye Mingchen instinctively looked at Chu Hengyi.

Chu Hengyi nodded slightly, "I hope the Ye family business can offer me a fair price."

Chu Hengyi had no interest in holding onto the Zhou family business's shares for the long term. He simply wanted to be a speculator, make a quick profit, and get out.

Of course, if Ye Mingzhao hadn't precisely controlled all his moves, Chu Hengyi might not have been willing to sell the shares to the Ye family.

Chu Hengyi's eyes flickered as he thought to himself, "If Zhou Heting hadn’t suddenly called for a trading halt, he might have waited for the opportunity to sell at a high point while the Ye and Zhou families were fighting each other."

It would have been unnoticed, and no one would have realized how many shares he held.

Except for one person.

Thinking of this, Chu Hengyi's peripheral gaze swept towards Ye Mingzhao.

Ye Mingzhao looked back, his dark and deep pupils reflecting Chu Hengyi's figure. Chu Hengyi also turned his head and gave Ye Mingzhao a slight smile.

Noticing the interaction between the two young men, Chairman Ye nodded with satisfaction. He looked at Chu Hengyi with some surprise and said delightedly, "This is only right."

At this moment, whoever could control more shares would seize the initiative to take over control. Since Chairman Ye had decided to acquire the Zhou family business, he wouldn't be stingy with the reward at this critical juncture. Better not to let the situation drag on.

Even more so when the shareholder in question was his own son!

"Since this project is managed by Mingzhao, let Mingzhao set the price."

At these words, Chu Hengyi gave a slight bow to Ye Mingzhao and said in an exaggerated manner, "Please guide me."

Ye Mingzhao's eyes sparkled as he said with a smile, "How about we buy all the shares in your hands at today's closing price, is that okay?"

As the saying goes, 'A father knows his son best,' and Ye Mingzhao certainly understood Chairman Ye's thoughts. To keep Chairman Ye happy, he'd gladly open his wallet.

At the end of the day, the Ye family is the Ye family, and the Ye family business is the Ye family business. Although the two are mostly aligned in their positions, in Ye Mingzhao's eyes, the Ye family's interests will always come before the company's.

Chu Hengyi, neither surprised nor shocked, asked, "When will the money be paid?"

It seemed that Chu Hengyi's straightforward question caught Ye Mingzhao off guard, as a flash of surprise appeared on his face before he replied, "One month."

Chu Hengyi countered, "How about two weeks?"

Ye Mingzhao agreed, "Fine. But you'll have to sign a 'consistency agreement' with the Ye family business first."

Ye Mingzhao paused slightly as he continued, "I intend to call for a special shareholders' meeting on behalf of the Zhou family's largest shareholder."

This so-called 'consistency agreement' meant that no matter what motion the Ye family business proposed at the temporary shareholders' meeting, Chu Hengyi, as the holder of 4.99% of the shares, must remain in alignment with the Ye family business before the formal transfer of shares.

Chu Hengyi raised his eyebrows slightly and agreed decisively, "Deal!"

*

"What did you say? The Ye family business is convening a temporary shareholders' meeting as the largest shareholder of Zhou Group? When did they become the largest shareholder of Zhou Group?"

Upon receiving the notice, Zhou Heting's mind went blank. He had just submitted an emergency suspension application to the exchange, and now the Ye family business was convening a temporary shareholders' meeting as the largest shareholder. Zhou Heting couldn't understand how the Ye family business had managed this, as they only held 25% of the shares. How had they become the largest shareholder of Zhou Group?

"Chu Hengyi quietly acquired 4.99% of Zhou family's shares while we were fighting with the Ye family!" Zhou Yueze said, his face turning ashen. "He must have done it on purpose. He chose 4.99% to avoid having to disclose publicly, which would be required if he exceeded 5%. He bought the shares while we were competing with the Ye family, so we didn't notice, and he could stab us in the back."

"Now that the Ye family business and Chu Hengyi have joined forces to convene a temporary shareholders' meeting within Zhou Group, they will definitely propose a board restructuring motion. There are 22 members on our board, and with their current shareholding, they will demand that we vacate half of the board seats."

At that point, the control of Zhou Group might fall into the hands of the Ye family business.

"Dad, what’s our next move?" Zhou Yueze asked urgently.

He hadn't expected the Ye family to strike so ruthlessly. Because of a minor conflict, they were actually going all out against the Zhou family.

Zhou Heting's face was filled with embarrassment. Of course, he couldn't allow the Ye family business to take control of Zhou Group's board. But in this situation, unless he could find an ally strong enough to rival the Ye family business, someone who could enter Zhou Group as a white knight, he would have no choice but to watch the Ye family take away the legacy he had built over half his life.

Even if he found a white knight, he would still lose absolute control of Zhou Group. This was something Zhou Heting couldn't accept.

After a long silence, Zhou Heting closed his eyes tightly and said, "Make arrangements. We need to talk to the Ye family."

"A formal discussion."

*

At the same time, the news that the Ye family business had become the largest shareholder of Zhou Group spread through the financial market instantly.

"I thought Zhou Group was going to engage in a prolonged battle after submitting the suspension application to the exchange. I didn't expect the Ye family business to quietly acquire 30% of Zhou Group's shares. How did they manage that?"

"I heard that the youngest son the Ye family just recognized secretly absorbed 4.99% of Zhou Group's shares while the two families were fighting. Since it wasn't enough to require a public disclosure, neither family noticed."

"No wonder the Ye family business moved so quickly to convene a temporary shareholders' meeting."

"To be honest, the timing of Zhou Heting's suspension application was perfectly timed. Immediately after the Ye family business became the largest shareholder, he filed for a major asset restructuring with the exchange. It seems like the Ye family business barely lifted a finger."

This sarcastic comment made one wonder if Zhou Heting would be so angry he'd pass out upon hearing it.

"It's really quite sad when you think about it. The Zhou and Ye families had such a good relationship for decades, and now they're enemies over an actor. I wonder if they regret it."

"To be fair, this all started because Zhou Yueze wasn't honorable. Zhou's film company has so many celebrity artists under its banner, but he had to pursue the Ye family's enemy. That person is related to the human traffickers who tore the Ye family apart for over two decades. Anyone would have a hard time swallowing that. I wonder what he was thinking."

"What was he thinking? That a hero is still vulnerable to a beautiful woman! Who knows what charm that young actor, who enchanted Zhou Yueze, possesses."

"In the end, it's Zhou Heting's failure as a father. He's been too lenient and doted on his son."

"It’s like the saying, 'When the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will be too.' Zhou's film company was just exposed in a sex trafficking scandal, and the Zhou family is the largest shareholder of Zhou's film company. There's nothing clean about this."

"A pretty face brings disaster, huh?"

*

At this moment, Chu Qingyi, who was being painted as a "male siren," was also having a rough time.

He didn’t know what bad luck he had run into. First, Ye Mingzhao caught hold of the fact that the Chu family was related to human traffickers and recorded his confession of being aware of it, leaving the Chu family with no way to deny it.

He lost the house he was about to inherit, and his elder brother Chu Hengyi was also out of the picture. The Chu family’s eighteen years of hard work had gone down the drain and provoked the Ye family thoroughly.

With no great supporter left, Chu Qingyi had no choice but to cling to Zhou Yueze as his lifeline. He had hoped to become an overnight sensation with *Prince Transformation* and smoothly enter the entertainment industry. But everything was set, and *Prince Transformation* was pulled from the airwaves because of Jujunjie's drug scandal. His own image collapsed after the recording was exposed.

Two months of work went down the drain, and before Chu Qingyi could even mourn his misfortune, Zhou's film company was hit by another scandal—forcing its artists to entertain clients. All the artists signed with Zhou's film company were dragged down, and Chu Qingyi, who had just signed, was no exception.

Furthermore, since he was specially signed by Zhou Yueze, rumors spread that he had slept his way into the company.

Chu Qingyi was unable to defend himself and was harassed by paparazzi. They not only blocked him at the company entrance but also tried sneaking into his school, waiting outside his dorm. When they couldn’t find him, they interviewed his classmates and teachers, causing dissatisfaction throughout the school.

Chu Qingyi had seen anonymous posts on the school forum cursing at him, saying he had tarnished the school's reputation. Even his usually supportive counselor talked to him on behalf of the school, urging him to fix the situation fast to avoid damaging the school’s reputation. Otherwise, he would be expelled for misconduct.

Chu Qingyi felt incredibly unlucky. None of this had anything to do with him!

He suspected that all of this was secret revenge from the Ye family. Otherwise, how could so many people kick him when he was down at his hardest time? He used to be very popular at school.

Everyone liked him and even called him "Little Ye Mingzhao."

Thinking of Ye Mingzhao, the culprit, Chu Qingyi's eyes turned redder.

He couldn’t understand the world's favoritism toward Ye Mingzhao.

Ye Mingzhao's luck was truly extraordinary. Even though he was an orphan unwanted by his biological parents, he was adopted by the prestigious Ye family and became a young master of a wealthy family that ordinary people could never aspire to.

Chu Qingyi had heard various rumors in school. It was said that because of Ye Mingzhao's fragile health, he was pampered by the Ye family since childhood. The stocks, funds, and real estate under Ye Mingzhao's name amounted to hundreds of millions, wealth that ordinary people could never dream of in their lifetime.

If Ye Mingzhao were truly a blood relative of the Ye family, Chu Qingyi wouldn’t have complained. But Ye Mingzhao was clearly an unwanted orphan, of lower status than him, yet he had enjoyed the privileges of the Ye family for so many years by occupying the position of their son.

Chu Qingyi felt very wronged. Even if his second uncle was the human trafficker who took Chu Hengyi away, his family had long lost contact with the second uncle. But surely the eighteen years of care from his father weren’t fake?

Chu Hengyi was truly an ungrateful person. How could he forget the kindness and care his parents gave him over eighteen years just because of something that happened long ago?

If his father’s intention in adopting Chu Hengyi wasn’t pure, he still saved Chu Hengyi’s life and allowed him to grow up safely. If it weren’t for his father’s moment of soft-heartedness, Chu Hengyi would have died in the deep mountains, and the Ye family would never have known where their son’s remains were, let alone have a family reunion.

No matter how you look at it, this was a life-saving kindness.

A life-saving kindness, plus eighteen years of upbringing—could it be that Chu Hengyi felt no familial affection after so many years of living together?

How could he be so eager to leave them behind? To return to the Ye family without looking back?

When his parents returned to their hometown, they cried sadly. After all, Chu Hengyi was a child they had raised for eighteen years. Even if they said harsh words and felt hatred in their hearts, there must have been some emotional attachment.

Whenever he thought of this, Chu Qingyi was filled with hatred. Rich people really are heartless. If he had known this would happen, he should have been more cautious. If he hadn’t slipped up and spoken rashly on the phone, even if Ye Mingzhao had discovered their connection to the second uncle, they could have claimed ignorance.

If that had happened, he would still be Chu Hengyi’s younger brother, the Ye family’s third son. Even without currying favor with Zhou Yueze, plenty of resources would have come his way.

How could he be in such a situation now, being bullied, insulted, ostracized, and harassed?

The more Chu Qingyi thought about it, the more indignant he became. To make matters worse, the other shareholders of Zhou's film company unanimously believed that the recent troubles at Zhou's film company were because Zhou Yueze had insisted on promoting him.

The cancellation of *Prince Transformation*, the blacklisting of the company's artists due to drug use, and Liu Rumei's revelation that the company's shareholders forced artists to accompany clients for drinks... Due to these reasons, most of the projects that Zhou's film company had invested in were halted. Instead of reflecting on their own actions, they blamed Chu Qingyi's fate for the troubles.

"He's a jinx. Ever since Zhou's film company signed him, things have been nothing but chaos."

"Exactly! I don't know what kind of spellbinding charm he poured into Mr. Zhou's mind. Looks-wise, he’s just okay, nothing special. There are plenty of artists in our company who are better-looking than him. Why did Mr. Zhou choose him over others?"

"If it weren't for trying to promote him, we wouldn't have offended Ye Mingzhao."

"He should compensate the company for the losses."

Chu Qingyi was shocked, scared, and felt utterly wronged. He thought things would improve once this rough patch was over. To his surprise, the Zhou family business got taken over by the Ye family.

Chu Qingyi complained that the Zhou family was useless and couldn't even compete with the Ye family, but he had no choice except to cling to Zhou Yueze like a lifeline.

However, Zhou Yueze was also in a difficult situation, unable to protect himself, let alone have the mood and energy to take care of Chu Qingyi.

Zhou Yueze even started believing the gossip going around. If it weren’t for pushing Chu Qingyi into the spotlight, he wouldn’t have greenlit *Prince Transformation*, wouldn’t have offended Ye Mingzhao, wouldn’t have cast the addict Jujunjie as the second male lead, and wouldn’t have chosen the troublesome Liu Rumei as the female lead... so many things wouldn’t have happened.

He even considered terminating Chu Qingyi’s contract and sending him packing.

"Did you really invest in *Prince Transformation* just to promote me?" Faced with Zhou Yueze dodging responsibility and trying to burn bridges, Chu Qingyi finally snapped.

He had long suspected Zhou Yueze’s hidden feelings for Ye Mingzhao but chose to ignore them.

After all, if many things were exposed, there would be no turning back. But now, Chu Qingyi had to take a gamble.

"You just wanted to use me to provoke Ye Mingzhao." Tears blurred Chu Qingyi's eyes, and he could only try to evoke Zhou Yueze’s pity: "You’ve never loved me; it’s always been one-sided, my own foolish obsession..."

Looking at Chu Qingyi's tear-stained face in front of him, Zhou Yueze suddenly had a vision of Ye Mingzhao begging for mercy in front of him.

One was the moon that he could never reach, and the other was a readily available substitute right in front of him.

After being overshadowed by Ye Mingzhao for so long, Zhou Yueze felt a surge of anger and resentment welling up inside him. He viciously pushed the still-crying Chu Qingyi onto the bed.