The revised script, regardless of how it differed from the previous version in terms of screen time, at least had marginally improved logic. The Heart Demon transformed from a love-brained character with peculiar thought processes into a super love-brained character with somewhat reasonable thought processes.
While the logic improved, the Heart Demon's love-brain level simultaneously increased dramatically. To put it nicely, he became more devoted, even competing with the male lead for the pinnacle of male virtue, truly exemplifying the ideal supporting male character.
Looking at the script, Shao Yichen momentarily couldn't distinguish which one was more like the male lead—the Heart Demon or the actual male lead.
After pondering for a long time, she finally decided to make peace with herself—weren't both the male lead and the supporting male played by Li Xingyu anyway?
Why overthink it!
And so, the film crew continued shooting according to Shao Yichen's adapted script, proceeding quite smoothly.
As filming approached its conclusion, Shao Yichen finally received another call from Li Qianqian.
General Manager Qianqian on the other end of the line could barely contain her excitement: "Director Shao, the company is going public!"
Shao Yichen thought for a moment, finally remembering this matter. She responded with an "Oh" and noted down the time to attend the listing ceremony.
Before going public, Shao Yichen originally held 100% of the company's shares. After the IPO, her ownership would decrease to fifty-one percent—still over half of the shares, meaning the operational control of the company remained in her hands.
Morning Star Media thus transformed from Shao Yichen's independent film workshop into a large media workshop with Shao Yichen as the majority shareholder.
However, Shao Yichen neither understood nor cared about IPOs, merely attending the ceremony before putting the matter out of her mind.
Unexpectedly, a week later, she received another call from General Manager Qianqian.
"Ms. Shao," she said nervously, "have you been following our company's stock price lately?"
Shao Yichen was puzzled: "Not really... What's wrong? Are we losing money? Has the stock price plummeted and gotten stuck? I knew stock trading wasn't reliable—"
"No, it's not that!" General Manager Qianqian suddenly raised her voice, so excited that her tone nearly changed, "Director Shao! Go check our company's stock price!"
"For three days now, our company's stock has hit the daily limit as soon as the market opens—it's risen for three consecutive days!! If it continues like this, by the end of the week, our company's stock price will double!!"
Shao Yichen: ?!
...An unexpected path!
Faced with this unusual situation, she was momentarily stunned.
Of course, there must be capital forces behind this, that was beyond doubt. But exactly which mysterious capital was it? And why would they target her small company?!
She was completely bewildered, and General Manager Qianqian on the other end of the line was equally confused. After all, before receiving Shao Yichen's favor (?) and rising to become second only to Shao Yichen at Morning Star Media, Qianqian had merely been a distribution department head tricked into taking over a mess, and truly didn't understand this situation.
Fortunately, she had discovered this promptly and was already investigating, though the investigation results would take about another day.
Shao Yichen waited anxiously for a day for the investigation results. The next day, as soon as the market opened, she launched the stock trading app to observe the stock trends in real-time, and sure enough, Morning Star Media hit the daily limit again as soon as trading began!
What on earth was going on?
Shao Yichen was a bit worried.
As she fretted, General Manager Qianqian finally called again, saying that the investigation results had come out.
The reason for Morning Star Media's stock price soaring was that someone was purchasing large amounts of circulating shares.
"But Morning Star Media hasn't had any positive news recently..." Shao Yichen was even more confused, "Which capital firm would buy stocks at the daily limit? Are they that stubborn?"
"Not just one firm." General Manager Qianqian's voice was obviously hesitant, "Now there's more than one entity frantically sweeping up our company's shares—at least two!"
"And they didn't just start buying shares three days ago when the stock hit the limit. Actually, they began purchasing as soon as our company went public. Now the conflict has intensified to a white-hot stage, so they've had to bring their stock purchases into the open."
Hearing this, Shao Yichen understood even less.
She knew she had a system, but others didn't know that! How could anyone be so blindly optimistic about her media company?
She pressed further: "Which two forces are behind this capital movement?"
Li Qianqian answered quickly.
"One force is the South Polar Bear Group, allegedly manipulated by the third son of the inheritor..."
"The other force is Yao Private Equity, behind which the manipulator should be... Xiao Yao, who previously withdrew from the entertainment circle, also known as Le Ziyao."
Shao Yichen: ...
After all her calculations, she hadn't anticipated that the ones making moves would be familiar faces.
Are you two big shots teaming up to target my small company?!
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
With a head full of questions, Shao Yichen first called Nan Rongyu.
"When exactly did you conspire with Brother Lezi—I mean, Le Ziyao! Tell me!" As soon as the call connected, Shao Yichen interrogated him fiercely.
Nan Rongyu: "It wasn't me, it was my third brother!"
"So you did contact Le Ziyao!" Shao Yichen had tricked out the truth with her first attempt.
She recalled that after the award ceremony, the twins did seem a bit secretive, and when Li Xingyu said he wanted to contact Le Ziyao, they did appear to follow him to take a look. Shao Yichen had thought these two were just going to get an autograph, who knew they were secretly planning something like this!
The more Shao Yichen thought about it, the more agitated she became. She took a deep breath and shouted: "Tell me! What exactly are you up to! Is it just because I haven't played games with you and helped you rank up for half a year? I never thought you would...!"
"Ma'am, I've been wronged!" Nan Rongyu was also quite aggrieved, "Actually, we two basically know nothing. The specific plans were all handled by my third brother and Le Ziyao. We just went to get Le Ziyao's autograph and incidentally introduced him to my third brother..."
Shao Yichen: "How many autographs did you get? One? Two?"
Nan Rongyu: "...A whole book."
Shao Yichen slammed the table and stood up: "The testimonial and material evidence are all there. Your crime of secretly communicating with Le Ziyao has been confirmed!"
Nan Rongyu cried injustice, and after some banter, Shao Yichen finally hung up.
It seemed she couldn't get much from the twins—not because they didn't want to tell, but because they truly didn't know anything.
In this whole affair, they probably only served as a bridge, with an effect equivalent to a matchmaker.
Shao Yichen then called the recently retired Le Ziyao.
The call connected quickly, but there was no sound from the other end for a long time, making Shao Yichen a bit uneasy.
"...Hello?" she hesitantly said.
Le Ziyao's pinched-nose voice came from the other end: "Beep, welcome to Xiao Yao's automatic telephone service. Press one for chatting, press two for seeking revenge. If Luo Anan is next to you, please immediately press one-two-three-four-five-six-seven—"
Shao Yichen: ...
Le Ziyao, stop pretending to be an automated customer service, I know it's you on the other end!
She tried to communicate with this automated customer service, but this representative adhered firmly to the setting, resolutely refusing to speak like a normal person. Shao Yichen battled with Le Ziyao through the phone line for a long time before finally giving up.
As she angrily hung up the phone, this artificial customer service finally said one human sentence.
"—If you want to know more about this matter," Brother Lezi finally stopped speaking through his nose, "you should ask Li Xingyu."
"After all, he has been the driving force behind this whole thing from the beginning."
With that, he hung up the phone with lightning speed, and no matter how many times Shao Yichen called back, he persistently played dead.
Author's Note:
First update today! No class tomorrow! That's practically a holiday for me!!
Another update tonight! Thanks to all the little angels who cast emperor tickets or watered me with nutrient solution during 2020-09-28 11:49:05~2020-09-29 12:29:02 period~
Thanks to the little angels who watered with nutrient solution: Yu Yu 3 bottles; Eating Melons Everyday ing, Little Jing 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!