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"Even if you didn't say it, I knew. You chose to leave Ye Corporation at a time like this because Ye Mingyi couldn't tolerate you, didn't you? And you still had to put on a cheerful face and go act because you were worried that if you stayed in finance, it would bring criticism upon the Ye family too, right?" The more Yu Mingze spoke, the more wronged he felt on Ye Mingzhao's behalf. "You considered the bigger picture and looked after everyone's dignity and feelings, but who was thinking about you?"

"It's true that Ye Mingyi is the Ye family's real young master, but you were taken in too! His miserable fate isn't your fault. Why should he take all his resentment out on you? If he openly went head-to-head with you, I could at least respect him. But what was this supposed to be?"

"What kind of man was Ye Mingyi?!"

Ye Mingzhao quietly listened to his friend's complaints, then patiently explained, "You've all misunderstood Ye Mingyi. He wasn't targeting me. I just didn't want to keep working at Ye Corporation."

Ye Mingzhao spoke with complete sincerity. After learning the original plot, he truly had not planned to remain at Ye Corporation. But it was not as Yu Mingze and the others had imagined—not because he feared Chu Hengyi targeting him, nor because he was afraid the Ye family would make things difficult for him. He wanted to retreat in order to advance, gaining more room to maneuver.

He knew that after the Chu Hengyi of the original novel entered Ye Group, he relied on the experience and knowledge he had accumulated before his rebirth to achieve many accomplishments. He successfully reversed the prejudice all the employees—including Chairman Ye, the other senior executives on the board, and the major shareholders—held toward him. Meanwhile, Ye Mingzhao became the foil and stepping stone for Chu Hengyi to display his talents.

Chu Hengyi used what he had learned from Ye Mingzhao in his previous life to deal with Ye Mingzhao in this life, successfully earning the trust of the Ye family. Yet behind the scenes, Chu Hengyi continuously leaked Ye Group's trade secrets, provoking Ye Group's competitors into repeatedly attacking the company. He then sat back and reaped the rewards of their conflict, not only driving Ye Group into bankruptcy but also swallowing up its competitors.

And that was precisely what Ye Mingzhao could not tolerate most. He regarded the Ye family as his greatest support, everyone in the Ye family as his blood relatives, and the growth of Ye Group as the cause he would devote his life to. He would not allow anyone to destroy his blueprint, including the so-called fated male lead, Chu Hengyi.

Thus, Ye Mingzhao's departure from Ye Group this time appeared to be because he did not want to contend with Chu Hengyi or put the Ye family in a difficult position. But secretly, he had left behind his own informants. His goal was to keep a close watch on Chu Hengyi and obtain solid proof of his betrayal. As for winning people over and sowing discord, those were merely incidental.

He would not take the initiative to speak ill of Chu Hengyi, but neither would he cover for him. As for why everyone could see that Chu Hengyi bore him deep hostility, Ye Mingzhao could only say that if everyone thought so, there was nothing he could do. Perhaps Chu Hengyi's hostility toward him was simply too obvious.

Ye Mingzhao blinked, and the smile on his face deepened. His slender fingers tapped the script's cover as he said with a smile, "Let's not talk about unhappy things. Let's discuss business. I'm more interested in the second male lead's role."

"Huh?" Yu Mingze froze. "You want to play the villain?"

Chapter 4

Ye Mingzhao truly was more interested in the villain's role.

Although Yu Mingze kept insisting that the male lead of this drama had been modeled after him, Ye Mingzhao knew the truth perfectly well. The innocent, kind, upright, and intelligent male lead Yu Mingze envisioned was nothing more than an illusion Ye Mingzhao had carefully maintained. He had been acting that role for more than ten years already. There was no need to perform it again in front of a camera.

In comparison, Ye Mingzhao was far more interested in the villainous second male lead, who had always struggled in the slums yet wanted to seize every opportunity to climb up from the bottom.

The story began when the male lead returned from an overseas business trip and unexpectedly discovered that a taxi driver looked exactly like him. Wanting to surprise his fiancée, the male lead had a sudden idea. He swapped clothes with the taxi driver and asked the driver to assume his identity and visit his fiancée. If the taxi driver successfully fooled her, the male lead would reward him with another twenty thousand yuan.

The two quickly changed clothes. Dressed as the male lead, the taxi driver went to meet his fiancée, only to stumble upon her affair with the male lead's best friend and business partner. Panicking, the pair grappled with the taxi driver, who was playing the male lead. They accidentally shoved him to the floor, and his head struck the corner of a table, blood spilling everywhere.

Seeing this, the fiancée and her lover decided to go all the way and silence him for good. At the critical moment, the male lead's parents came to the door. They immediately discovered their son lying unconscious on the floor and hurriedly sent him to the hospital.

At the same time, the male lead who had exchanged identities with the taxi driver also ran into trouble. A group of debt collectors cornered him and demanded money. Only then did he learn that the taxi driver's father was not only an alcoholic but also a gambler. Naturally, the male lead did not want to deal with such a mess, and he told the debt collectors that he was not the taxi driver. But they assumed he was trying to deny the debt and beat him badly. One blow happened to land on the back of his head, and when the male lead woke up, he had lost his memory.

Meanwhile, the taxi driver woke up in the hospital, quietly slipped out of his room, and returned home. Only then did he discover that the male lead had lost his memory. Having long grown tired of his old life, the taxi driver suddenly had an idea. He wanted to replace the amnesiac male lead, return to the hospital, and continue living as a wealthy young master!

The taxi driver was the role Ye Mingzhao wanted to play.

Yu Mingze looked at Ye Mingzhao with some difficulty. In his view, the villain's character was completely unlike Ye Mingzhao's. Ye Mingzhao was gentle, kind, upright, perceptive, uncontentious, and always willing to help others. He was like a sun that constantly gave off light and warmth wherever he went.

And the villain in the drama? Paranoid, gloomy, greedy, insane, willing to use any means to achieve his goals, and increasingly deranged as the story progressed.

"Have you not read the later parts yet? This villain becomes absolutely awful in the end. You can't play him." Yu Mingze tried to dissuade Ye Mingzhao. "In the later stages of the plot, in order to seize the male lead's family fortune, this villain even hires people to kidnap the male lead's parents. He hints that the kidnappers should kill them, creating the illusion that the male lead's parents were murdered by the kidnappers. He even works with the male lead's fiancée to try to kill the male lead and silence him..."

When Yu Mingze wrote this character, it was meant to highlight the male lead's honor, innocence, and kindness. That was why he had made the villain vicious and utterly deranged, while giving him the same harmless-looking face as the male lead.

For such a highly contrasting, explosive role, Yu Mingze had originally planned to invite a trained actor with both skill and experience. Ye Mingzhao had never acted before, nor did he have that sort of personality. How could he possibly portray the villain's madness?

Besides, even if he performed the role well, it would do nothing for Ye Mingzhao's public image. One misstep could even produce the opposite effect. Since his friend had already decided to pursue acting, Yu Mingze naturally wanted to plan things carefully for him. Having Ye Mingzhao play the male lead as himself was the choice that would maximize the benefits.

Yu Mingze pleaded earnestly, trying to persuade Ye Mingzhao to change his mind. Ye Mingzhao merely smiled gently. "...Let me try, all right?"

Yu Mingze: "..."

Inside a hotel at Hengzhou Film and Television City—

Yu Mingze and Ye Mingzhao, who had just gotten off the plane, hurried to the casting audition for the Beggar Prince production.

The entire corridor was packed with actors who had come to audition. Yu Mingze led Ye Mingzhao to the door. The young assistant leaning against it and yawning stiffened, then hurriedly straightened up. "President Yu."

Yu Mingze asked, "Are they all here?"

The assistant nodded and was just about to say something when Yu Mingze pointed at the room and asked, "Has it started?"

The assistant hurriedly replied, "It just started. They're auditioning the male lead right now."

Yu Mingze turned to whisper to Ye Mingzhao, "Wait outside for me first."

With that, Yu Mingze pushed the door open and entered. A row of people sat inside, all members of the Beggar Prince creative team. An actor stood in the center, auditioning. When he saw Yu Mingze enter midway through, he stopped performing at a loss.