Page 26

Chapter 20

Compared to Chu Hengyi, who had only recently been reborn and still had weak connections and influence, Ye Mingzhao had lived with the Ye family for eighteen years. He was clearly far more experienced and intimidating when it came to driving up stock prices.

He only needed to create a little momentum to make countless self-proclaimed well-informed people rush in to snap up shares. Besides, according to the original novel, the reason this stock had soared through its price limits was ultimately because speculative capital from all over had scrambled for shares wave after wave after seeing favorable news. Ye Mingzhao, who knew the plot well, was merely going with the flow and making something that was bound to happen in the original novel happen ahead of schedule.

Although the amount Ye Mingzhao invested was practically negligible compared with the loose speculative capital moving through the entire secondary market, his highly targeted moves still successfully caught the attention of major speculators. It made them turn their attention early to Lanhe Yaoji, this "monster stock" destined to shock the domestic financial market. Their early entry also drove Lanhe Yaoji rapidly from 1.26 yuan to 2.68 yuan.

The cost of buying up shares instantly more than doubled.

With one casual move, Ye Mingzhao disrupted the carefully planned arrangements of Chu Hengyi.

While Chu Hengyi stared at the stock price as it instantly broke through three yuan and questioned his entire life, Ye Mingzhao had already completed a series of moves: buying at the bottom in advance, selling with pinpoint precision at the peak, and cashing out safely.

But he did not stop there, because the original novel had also described how the male lead, Chu Hengyi, used his rebirth perspective after earning his first pot of gold to continue trading foreign exchange and international futures.

Perhaps to emphasize just how impressive the male lead's operations were, the original novel had given this section an extremely detailed description. From analyzing the international backdrop, recalling the historical movements of the foreign exchange and international futures markets, to the precise data for how high various currencies and international futures products rose, it described from every angle how Chu Hengyi had used his first pot of gold and his foreknowledge from rebirth to snowball it into a second fortune.

Thanks to the original novel's exhaustive descriptions, Ye Mingzhao, who had successfully awakened, was able to stand on Chu Hengyi's shoulders and see a higher, farther view.

There was an old Chinese saying: if Heaven grants you something and you refuse it, you will suffer the consequences.

So Ye Mingzhao continued following in the footsteps of the male lead, Chu Hengyi, using this unexpected windfall to invest in foreign exchange and international futures right alongside him.

Of course, Ye Mingzhao's trading experience and methods were more seasoned and sophisticated than those of the newly reborn Chu Hengyi, and he had a sharper instinct for data. Under his scalpel-precise operations, Ye Mingzhao's paper profits were naturally far more impressive than Chu Hengyi's.

When he finally cashed out, the four million yuan of starting capital in Ye Mingzhao's account had become three hundred million yuan, just as he had hoped.

Looking at the funds in his account that had suddenly skyrocketed, Ye Mingzhao curled his lips.

A horse does not grow fat without grazing at night. In the financial market, the best way to reap massive profits was indeed to uncover someone else's hand.

"What are you thinking about? You look so happy." Yu Mingze handed Ye Mingzhao the script he had revised yet again and asked curiously.

"Nothing." Ye Mingzhao smilingly accepted the script and flipped through it casually. His hyperthymesia imprinted the revised contents directly into his mind.

"I made some changes to Fu Shen's family background." Yu Mingze did not take Ye Mingzhao's evasion to heart and eagerly continued, "In the original version, I wrote Fu Shen's father as a drunken, abusive, gambling, useless drunkard, while his mother was a weak, honest, pitiful woman who did not know how to resist. But it was hard to explain why such a family could raise a scum like Fu Shen, whose methods were so extreme they bordered on insanity."

"So I revised the setup. Fu Shen's father still drank, abused his family, and gambled, but I added an even more inhuman element. Because he was a gambler, whenever he lost money, he would use his wife to settle his debts. And because of that, he believed his wife had cuckolded him. He did not dare fight back against those creditors, so he drank himself into a stupor. Once drunk, he would abuse Fu Shen's mother. Fu Shen and his two siblings were born under such circumstances."

"Fu Shen's father did not subjectively believe that Fu Shen and his siblings were his children. He had even wanted to sell the three of them for gambling money. The Fu family's neighbors all knew about it too. Fu Shen grew up in such a complicated environment. He was ashamed of his parents and relatives. He studied hard from childhood to escape that family, but he could never break free from the blood ties that had humiliated him so deeply. So when he learned that the male lead, Gu Mingchao, had lost his memory, he immediately came up with the idea of replacing him—"

"Director Li, Producer Yu, something's wrong!"

A panicked shout interrupted Yu Mingze's analysis. Assistant director Wang Tong came running over with his phone in hand. "Hurry and look!"

Yu Mingze frowned. "What are you panicking abou—"

Before he could finish, Yu Mingze saw the news on the screen, and his nose nearly twisted with rage. "That bastard Zhou Yueze!"

Ye Mingzhao covered one ear and leaned over. On the small phone screen was a breaking-news alert: Recently, the modern urban idol drama The Prince's Transformation, starring newcomer Chu Qingyi, rising diva Liu Rumei, and popular young actor Zhu Junjie, officially announced the start of production. The drama would be directed by renowned director Ding Ding, with many accomplished actors joining the cast...

At the end, it also mentioned that the drama's investor was Zhou Film and Television Company, which had previously withdrawn its funding from the Beggar Prince production.

"..." Holding the phone, Yu Mingze was practically driven mad with anger.

"Bullshit The Prince's Transformation. He must have thought of making this drama only after reading my script. And he wants to make Chu Qingyi, the relative of a human trafficker, into a star? He can keep dreaming!" Yu Mingze roared furiously and immediately moved to call Zhou Yueze.

Director Li Zhengzheng, who was sitting behind the monitors, and the rest of the crew had also noticed the news. Their expressions were all grim.

In their industry, script plagiarism was not necessarily widespread, but it was certainly very common.

There had been cases before where, after a script leaked, someone else assembled a cast and crew, filmed a similar production based on the original script, and released it first. The plagiarist not only made a fortune, but also left the original creator, whose work aired later, burdened with accusations of plagiarism.

Thus, the moment this news came out, everyone on the crew immediately thought of those cautionary examples. The previously orderly filming atmosphere instantly fell into chaos.

Everyone feared spending months painstakingly making a drama, only to not get a bite of the meat and end up covered in filth instead.

Someone subconsciously looked toward Ye Mingzhao and complained in a low voice, "If we'd known this would happen, we shouldn't have let President Zhou withdraw his investment in the first place—"

Before he could finish, Director Li Zhengzheng stopped him with a look.

But Li Zhengzheng had not been without such thoughts himself. He silently glanced at Ye Mingzhao, resentment quietly rising in his heart. If Ye Mingzhao had not pressed the issue so relentlessly back then, their crew would not be facing such a crisis now.

"Why are you all looking at Zhaozhao?" Yu Mingze also noticed that something was off with the whole crew's mood and immediately stepped forward to defend Ye Mingzhao. "If you want to blame someone, blame that bastard Zhou Yueze for using such filthy methods and doing something so vile! He actually came up with this kind of scheme to retaliate against us. He may not bite, but he sure disgusts people!"

Yu Mingze's head throbbed. He immediately made a fierce declaration. "This isn't over! I'm calling a lawyer right now. I'm suing him for plagiarism!"

"How are you going to sue?" Director Li Zhengzheng furrowed his brow deeply and stopped Yu Mingze's impulsive behavior. "What evidence do you have that his script is plagiarized?"

"Do we even need evidence?" Yu Mingze's face flushed red with rage as he pointed at the breaking news on the phone screen. "Isn't it obvious? We're filming Beggar Prince, and he wants to film The Prince's Transformation. It's only been a few days since he withdrew his funding from our production! I don't believe he could create a whole new script from scratch in that time. As long as I can get my hands on their script—"

"How are you going to get their script? Send someone to steal it?" Director Li looked utterly exasperated. "Can you stop being impulsive? Never mind how difficult it is to defend your rights in a case like this—even if you win, how long will that take? Can you stop them from filming this drama now? Can you stop their drama from being released smoothly?"