Chapter 21: The First incident

Xu Qianghua wanted to put the money in different offshore accounts to use to short Xu Company's stock in the stock market.

Today was the day the police would raid the company's headquarters and arrest several employees working for a particular shareholder, including the shareholder himself.

Always looking for sensational stories, reporters quickly descended on the scene to capture the arrests on camera.

This event caused an uproar in the city where Xu Qianghua lived, as such a dramatic incident hadn't occurred in years. The news spread rapidly, causing Xu Company's stock to crash within hours.

In his last life, Sister Meiying had managed to mitigate the damage by holding a press conference immediately after the arrests. She explained that the company was not involved and that the arrested shareholder had acted independently.

This slowed the company's stock value decline but couldn't stop it entirely. Investors lost trust in the company and rushed to withdraw their investments.

To make matters worse, competitors seized the opportunity to spread fake evidence against Xu Group. Busy dealing with the fallout, Liu Meiying didn't anticipate that other shareholders had already sold their shares at rock-bottom prices and then shorted the stock.

The fake evidence further damaged the company's reputation, leading to the loss of crucial contracts. Eventually, the company filed for bankruptcy, rendering Xu Qianghua's and Liu Meiying's shares worthless.

In the aftermath, Sister Meiying managed to sell her remaining shares at a very low price. She was devastated, believing that the other shareholders wouldn't resort to such extreme measures. She locked herself in her room for a while, deeply affected until the game merged.

But in this life, everything changed.

First and foremost, Liu Meiying sold all their shares and resigned as CEO of the company. A new president, likely the son of one of the shareholders, was hired to run the company.

Xu Qianghua, keeping tabs on the situation, noticed that this new CEO seemed clueless about managing the company and only came in for the first day, and then a week later.

'It seems that there are not a lot of changes. Now we just have to wait until the police come in, and then wait for the stocks to fall and follow the trend' Xu Qianghua thought as he looked at his terminal while sitting on a large sofa in the main living room.

After about one hour, the news article he was waiting for came out. In it was a picture of the shareholders and employees being arrested.

"Huh, the new president is the son of the shareholder who is being arrested? Interesting" Xu Qianghua said out loud, quickly figuring out who appointed him to the new position.

"It makes sense. After all, the shareholder was the second highest after me, and with the clause of not talking about the shares buyout by the other shareholders, they wouldn't speak out about this until the next month's shareholder's meeting. But it won't matter after today, as they will most likely sell their shares after this incident" Xu Qianghua muttered as he read the article.

But then, a new article popped up, surprising him. It detailed all the illegal activities the arrested individuals had engaged in over their lifetimes, with enough evidence to ensure they would stay in prison for years.

Seeing this, Xu Qianghua remembered when Liu Meiying revealed the evidence she had on the shareholders. "I kept collecting more so that when you take over, we can use this to get the shares back and make the company ours" she had explained.

'So in our past life, she had ways to deal with them but didn't because she was waiting for me to take over' Xu Qianghua thought.

He closed the terminal and went to a room on the ground floor. The room was similar to a study but smaller and with fewer books. It was Liu Meiying's office, which she used when not at the company.

Today, Liu Meiying was sitting in this room, focused on her personal holographic computer, unaware that Xu Qianghua had entered. He quietly came behind her to see what she was doing and saw her shorting Xu Group stock with the money from selling their shares.

Xu Qianghua then lifted her, sat where she had been sitting, and placed her on his lap. Surprised by his arrival but she didn't say anything, continuing to work as Xu Qianghua put his hands on her stomach.

Watching the holographic screen, he saw the stock price for Xu Group plummeting rapidly. 'In this life, Sister Meiying isn't there to take care of the company, so no one will be able to slow down this drop. And with the new CEO arrested, even if he wanted to do something, he'd have to get out of prison first' he thought amused by the turn of events.

Redirecting his thoughts, Xu Qianghua asked Liu Meiying, "Sister Meiying, did you post the evidence that would put every single shareholder in jail?" He then lightly bit one of her earlobes.

"Yes," she moaned, biting her lip. "I gave it to different news channels using various names and reasons."

"Good job, Sister Meiying," Xu Qianghua said, squeezing her shoulders appreciatively.

"Mmm," she sighed, closing her eyes. After a few seconds, she added, "I did this because if they're stuck in the police station for a while, by the time they get out, they won't be able to sell their shares for much money."

"Yes, you're so smart, Sister Meiying," he said, gently flicking her erect nipples.

Her body shook a little but she kept working and said, "If I had more time, I could have taken all the money those bloodsuckers had and left them broke and homeless."

"Mmm," Xu Qianghua murmured, bringing her head to the crook of his neck and lightly biting her skin.

She moaned and stopped working, curling her toes.

Xu Qianghua didn't do anything more, knowing this was a critical moment and that distractions could impact their final gains. However, he still whispered, "After this is over, how should I reward you, mother-in-law?"

Liu Meiying bit her lip, trying to control herself. After a moment, she replied, "We can talk about this after we're done."

"Alright," Xu Qianghua agreed, nodding.

Both of them fell silent as they watched the stock graph for Xu Group plummet without stopping.