Chapter 252: Eve of the Stock Crash

After finishing the talk about the movie review, Shen Guodong brought up another matter.

"These past two days some newspapers and magazines have started publishing unfavorable remarks about Miss Liu, and some paparazzi have dug up her past prostitution."

Chen Mo furrowed his brow: "How's Liu Piaopiao? Is she affected?"

"The bodyguard said Miss Liu's mood has seemed off these days, but she has a few other sisters‑in‑law with her, so nothing serious has happened."

A cold glint flashed in Chen Mo's eyes: "Send people to those short‑sighted newspaper and magazine offices, make them issue a public apology. If they refuse, use some methods to make them comply."

It's already autumn, the weather is dry; in places like newspaper and magazine offices, there's so much paper that an accidental fire at night is quite normal.

"I understand, Mo Ge, I've already sent people to do it."

"Hmm, also, investigate who is behind this, focus on those film companies and people in the entertainment circle."

After it's clarified, wait for me to handle it back.

If the Triad Society wanted to mess with Chen Mo, they wouldn't target Liu Piaopiao, nor often use newspaper notices as a method.

Chen Mo thought the most likely reason is that Liu Piaopiao is now popular, affecting the interests of some people in the entertainment circle.

Wherever Liu Piaopiao goes, Chen Mo has people assigned to protect her; anyone with eyes knows she has backing and is not to be trifled with.

Anyone daring to strike Liu Piaopiao must have some support and doesn't consider Chen Mo.

Chen Mo wants to see who in Gangdao he can't afford to offend.

After the stock crash, Chen Mo's net worth is at least a hundred billion Hong Kong dollars; unless he opposes the entire Gangdao government, there's no one in Gangdao he dares not to provoke.

After hanging up with Shen Guodong, Chen Mo thought for a moment and called Liu Piaopiao again.

At a time like this, he should say a few comforting words.

"Mo Ge, I'm sorry… my past has embarrassed you," Liu Piaopiao burst into tears as soon as she got Chen Mo's call.

Chen Mo hurriedly comforted, "No need to apologize to me, that's not embarrassing! I've already had someone handle it; it'll be fine in a few days!"

This matter indeed has little impact on Chen Mo.

Even if Liu Piaopiao was once a 'Miss', so what.

He's not marrying Liu Piaopiao as a wife; he's just keeping her.

Among the big brothers mixing in the Triad Society in Gangdao, many have taken a 'Miss' as a wife.

Take Lian Haolong, his wife also used to sell herself, and Jiang Tiansheng's woman still shoots Category III films.

Chen Mo is just supporting a woman; what's so embarrassing about that.

"Wow—" With Chen Mo's consolation, Liu Piaopiao cried even harder.

Chen Mo, on his end of the call, wore an exasperated expression; are girls this hard to soothe?

"Stop crying!" Chen Mo's voice unintentionally rose a few pitches.

"Uh......" Liu Piaopiao's sobbing abruptly stopped.

Hmm, being direct works better.

"Since you became popular recently, have you offended anyone?"

"No… none! In the past few days I've just taken a few interviews, and a few production crews asked me to act, but I declined, so I shouldn't have offended anyone!"

Liu Piaopiao's sudden rise left her clueless about entertainment industry rules, with no professional manager around, how could she know what would offend people?

Seeing no answer, Chen Mo stopped further questioning.

"Ignore what's in the newspapers; it'll disappear in a few days. Don't let it bother you; just do what you normally do."

I'll be back soon; when the short‑sighted appear again, I'll deal with them for you.

It's just a bit of scandalous material, what's the big deal!

It just means Chen Mo still doesn't know who's behind the mischief; otherwise settling it would be a matter of minutes.

After hanging up with Liu Piaopiao, Chen Mo no longer cared about the matter.

The matter was left to Shen Guodong to handle; basically no accidents should occur.

In the next few days, Chen Mo only took Gang Sheng and Qiu Di around for fun.

In the trading room, Jimi kept people watching Henry and Pite, as well as market fluctuations.

It lasted until the 16th, which was Friday afternoon.

"Mo Ge, the stock market is fluctuating; the decline speed is much faster than yesterday."

Receiving Jimi's info, Chen Mo quickly arrived at Merrill Lynch's trading room.

"How much has it dropped now?"

"Boss, the S&P 500 opened at 298 points today and is now down to 290 points, still falling."

Chen Mo frowned, stared at the Bloomberg terminal, and calmly said, "Hmm, keep watching, no need to act."

Although Chen Mo now seemed to have everything under control, a hint of nervousness lingered inside.

Even before coming to New York, he had been monitoring the US stock market for months, confirming that this life's market changes match those of his previous life.

But hasn't he already entered the market!

The market now has an additional 60 billion short positions; who knows if that will cause uncontrollable changes.

The butterfly effect, no one can predict.

If his 60 billion short positions prematurely trigger a crash, the next two days are weekend, and the market will be closed.

Then the exchange and brokerage firms will have time to react.

At that point they'll have time to devise strategies and conduct targeted market rescue, and Chen Mo's profits will be heavily damaged.

Inside the trading room, everyone was extremely nervous.

"Boss, we can close positions now. Closing now would lock in about $470 million profit."

"No! Keep waiting!" Chen Mo calmly refused.

Less than $500 million profit, far short of Chen Mo's expectations.

Time passed minute by minute, the numbers on the Bloomberg terminal kept falling.

"Boss, it's already fallen to 287 points."

"Keep waiting!"

"Boss, the index has started to rebound, it's now 289 points—should we close the position?"

"Wait!"

"Boss, it's started falling again."

Chen Mo's heart was also conflicted now.

He hoped it would fall more, yet also hoped it would fall more slowly.

The more it fell, the more Chen Mo would earn.

But if it fell too fast, it would easily trigger a market crash early, and Chen Mo would earn less.

Watching the numbers on the Bloomberg terminal jump constantly, Chen Mo clenched his fists, his palms beginning to sweat.

Even though Chen Mo was a transmigrator and had studied the current stock market for a long time, he was confident nothing major would happen.

But when the critical moment actually arrived, he still couldn't help feeling nervous.

Now, every point of fluctuation in the S&P index represented tens of millions of profit for Chen Mo.

Time finally arrived at 4:15 p. m., and the futures market closed.

"Boss, today's closing price is 280 points, the day's drop reached 6.01%."

Chen Mo let out a hard sigh of relief, his tightly clenched fists slowly loosening.

Although the final closing price was two points lower than in his previous life's memory, it did not trigger a market crash prematurely.

It was a scary but safe outcome—this was exactly what Chen Mo hoped to see.

"Good, I'm very satisfied with this result; everyone go get a good rest."

In the trading room, everyone could hear the excitement and a hint of tension in Chen Mo's tone.