"I'm not worthy? And you are?"
Zhang Wenhao's eyes narrowed coldly. "You're nothing but a loser who can't even keep his own wife. It's a tragedy that Churan has to be with someone like you. With me, she can have anything she wants."
Ye Chen's expression turned cold. In a low and icy voice, he said, "You have two choices. First, kneel and apologize to Churan, and publicly take back what you just said. Second, I'll make sure your family's company goes bankrupt—completely. You decide."
"Hahahaha! Are you out of your damn mind?" Zhang Wenhao burst into arrogant laughter, clearly amused. "Who the hell do you think you are? You think you can bankrupt my family's company? Do you even know our valuation? You think you can crush us with a word?"
Ye Chen said nothing, just looked at Zhang like he was staring at a fool. He pulled out his phone and made a call.
"Within three minutes, I want Zhang Wenhao's company to go into bankruptcy liquidation. Unleash all their debt exposure."
Three minutes? To bring down a multibillion-yuan corporation? Zhang Wenhao couldn't believe the absurdity.
"You lunatic," he sneered. "What do you think this is? Some fantasy drama? What are you—some secret billionaire from the internet?"
Then he gave Ye Chen his own "ultimatum."
"I'll give you two options. One, kneel down and apologize, and divorce Churan. Two, I'll have some people cripple you and make you watch as I live happily ever after with her. You've got one minute to decide."
Ye Chen looked at his phone and replied calmly, "You've got one minute left. Still not going to change your mind?"
"Get lost!" Zhang Wenhao spat. "You've got thirty seconds to kneel or you'll regret it for life!"
"Twenty seconds…""Ten seconds…""Five…"
"Time's up!" he said smugly, signaling to his bodyguards to rough Ye Chen up.
But just then, his phone rang.
It was his father. He quickly answered, "Dad? I'm at the banquet already. Are you—"
Before he could finish, his father roared through the phone. "YOU IDIOT! What the hell did you do?! Our shareholders are dumping stocks like mad! We're down more than 80%! All our partners pulled out, the banks are demanding repayment—our entire cash flow is frozen! We're DONE! BANKRUPTCY is the only outcome!"
Zhang Wenhao's face turned pale as a ghost, drenched in sweat.
He muttered, "We're finished… completely finished…"
Then came the wail of police sirens from the phone, followed by shouting, the sound of a door getting kicked open, and cops yelling for cooperation.
Zhang's legs gave out. The phone slipped from his hands and shattered on the ground.
He collapsed on his knees in front of Ye Chen. His body trembled, the color drained from his face.
The bodyguards, seeing this shocking turn of events, dared not take another step forward.
Zhang Wenhao, trembling in horror, looked up at Ye Chen and whispered, "Who… who are you? You did all this, didn't you?"
The onlookers around them were stunned. Zhang Wenhao, after one phone call, suddenly kneeled before Ye Chen, the live-in son-in-law of the Xiao family? What happened?
Ye Chen leaned down slightly and whispered, "I gave you a choice. You chose wrong."
"I was wrong!" Zhang Wenhao began kowtowing madly. "Please, I'm sorry! I made it all up! Churan and I never had anything—she's innocent! I lied about everything! Please spare me and my family!"
The crowd was dumbfounded. Was this the same arrogant heir who'd just been boasting moments ago?
Zhang looked at Ye Chen again. That calm face now seemed more terrifying than a demon's.
In just a few minutes, he'd wiped out the Zhang family's empire.
Ye Chen shook his head. "You should be grateful. At least I left you alive. Otherwise, your whole family would've vanished from this world."
Zhang Wenhao shivered violently.
Ye Chen added coldly, "Let me make it clear—I am that super tycoon you joked about. If you dare leak my identity, you and your father won't live to see tomorrow morning."
Then, he casually slapped Zhang Wenhao's face and walked into the banquet hall without a backward glance.
Zhang didn't even dare lift his head. He lay on the ground, paralyzed with fear.
Seeing Ye Chen disappear into the hall, he scrambled up and crawled after him like a dog.
Inside, he spotted Xiao Churan in the crowd. He instantly fell to his knees before her, kowtowing.
"Churan! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have spread lies about you! You got the Empire Group deal on your own—it had nothing to do with me! Please, forgive me!"
Xiao Churan, startled, backed away in shock—only to fall into a warm, familiar embrace.
She turned her head and saw it was Ye Chen.
Tonight, Xiao Churan looked radiant after carefully dressing up—like a blooming star in the center of everyone's attention.
Seeing Zhang Wenhao rushing toward her, Ye Chen had stepped in just in time to catch her and glare at Zhang with such cold fury that Zhang rolled away in terror.
Xiao Churan, blushing, asked, "What's wrong with him…?"
Ye Chen held her gently and said softly, "Looks like he lost his mind. Don't bother with him."
Though married, the two rarely had such close contact. Feeling his warm embrace, Xiao Churan blushed all the way to her ears.
She quickly stepped away and mumbled, "Um… the chairman of Empire Group should be here soon. I'll go take a look…"