Chapter 2918

Howard de Rothschild is a very pragmatic person.

Although he is the helm of the entire Rothschild family, he has always been able to bend and stretch.

If a person has sufficient value to him or to the Rothschild family, even if that person is a beggar, Howard will treat them with courtesy.

At present, his request is that the short-video platform take down all videos related to the Rothschild family, so that the scandal involving the Rothschild family has nowhere to spread.

Therefore, as the patriarch of the Rothschild family, he can even humble himself to meet the person in charge of North America for the short-video platform.

Know that the head of a family with trillions of dollars in assets and a corporate executive worth hundreds of millions of dollars are worlds apart; normally, the latter wouldn't even catch the eye of Matt Rothschild, let alone Howard.

Yet now, Howard urgently hopes to meet the North America head of the short-video platform.

Moreover, he believes that his status is so exalted that if he personally goes to meet the other party, it would certainly count as utmost sincerity, and if this reaches the ears of the Ye family patriarch, the other party will certainly feel his sincerity, possibly even leading to deep cooperation.

Soon, the Rothschild family contacted the North America head of the short-video platform, and after he revealed his identity, the platform's head was indeed greatly shocked.

He did not expect that this matter would actually prompt the Rothschild family patriarch to personally intervene.

He immediately reported this to the overall head of the short-video platform, who, upon receiving the news, first contacted Ye Chen through the contact information left by Tang Sihai and called him.

When Ye Chen received a call from Yanjing, China, while in prison, he roughly guessed the situation, answered the call, and heard a refined middle-aged man's voice on the other end: "May I ask if this is Young Master Ye?"

Ye Chen grunted: "Who are you?"

The middle-aged man hurriedly said: "Young Master Ye, hello, I am the founder and current CEO of the short-video platform, my name is Zhang Qishuai, and Tang Sihai gave me your contact information a few days ago, asking me to report major events directly to you."

Ye Chen asked him: "You're calling me now because of the Rothschild family matter, right?"

"Yes." Zhang Qishuai explained: "The Rothschild family contacted our North America head, saying that Rothschild patriarch Howard wants to meet and discuss cooperation, and he dared not decide on his own, so he immediately reported to me, but frankly, the Rothschild patriarch's influence worldwide is great, and I also dare not make a rash decision, so I called to disturb you, hoping to seek your opinion."

Ye Chen said lightly: "Just tell them to reply to the Rothschild family that we have nothing to cooperate with them on, and if they want us to delete video content on the short-video platform, then there is even less room for negotiation—let them give up that idea."

Zhang Qishuai said somewhat hesitantly: "Young Master... the Rothschild family and similar conglomerates have enormous influence in the West, even to the point of affecting laws and Western government decisions, their lobbying group is number one in the world, if they lobby the government to sanction us, it could greatly impact our North American business..."

"Don't worry." Ye Chen said lightly: "No matter what they do, even if one day we must withdraw from the American market, it's fine—at least we have upheld our bottom line so far, the North American people will see this, and when the time is right, we can make a comeback, but once we lose our bottom line, we lose the support of the North American populace; we run a mass-oriented short-video platform, and once we lose popular support, even if the local government does not target us, we will lose the soil for growth."

Saying this, Ye Chen added: "I understand your desire to consider the big picture and fear that all efforts will come to naught, but you must remember: if one day we must choose between the North American populace and the government, we will always choose the former, always put the people first."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Qishuai's doubts completely vanished, his voice grew louder by several degrees, and he exclaimed loudly: "All right, Young Master, I understand! I'll reply to them right now!"

At this moment, the Rothschild family, although anxiously awaiting the North America short-video platform head's response, were not sitting idle, but were discussing how to handle Bruce Wayne-Stan.

This person posted two videos in a row, clearly intending to fight the Rothschild family to the death, making the Rothschild family's core members grit their teeth in hatred.

To them, they wished they could send someone right now to Brooklyn Prison to take out Bruce.

However, as the situation continues to escalate, the person the Rothschild family now dares not move against is Bruce.

Bruce exposed two major scandals of the Rothschild family in one breath, and the evidence is solid; in this situation, if he suffers any mishap, the Rothschild family cannot escape responsibility, and the public will surely blame the Rothschild family.

By then, not only will the two scandals remain unresolved, but they will become three, with an additional life added.

At this moment, Howard's eldest son received a call, then said with a solemn expression: "Father, the short-video platform side has refused our meeting request."

"Refused?" Howard furrowed his brow, asking: "I, Howard de Rothschild, humbled myself to meet a North America head, and he actually dares to refuse?"

"Yes..." the eldest son said helplessly: "We have clearly stated that it is you who wishes to meet them, yet they still refuse."

Howard pondered for a moment, then said coldly: "Not an immediate refusal, but a refusal after a few minutes—it seems they reported the matter to China, and it appears the Ye family does not wish to see me."

Saying this, Howard gritted his teeth: "I never expected that Ye Changying would have been dead for so many years, yet the Ye family remains as obstinate as ever; with their meager strength and lacking someone like Ye Changying to gather and mobilize resources, before the Rothschild family they are nothing but jumping clowns, yet they dare to continue opposing the Rothschild family—this is sheer overconfidence!"

In the Rothschild family, a young person said in the video conference: "Grandfather, the short-video platform has developed extremely rapidly over the past year or so, possessing a large user base worldwide; although not yet listed, the current market valuation estimated by the capital market is already around four hundred billion US dollars."

"Four hundred billion?!" Howard exclaimed in disbelief: "Are you sure? A mere short-video platform actually has such a high valuation?!"

The other party nodded and said: "Now short-video is sweeping the globe; in this process, China's short-video platform has left others in the dust, our old-line internet companies have failed to keep up with their pace, and now short-video has become the traffic entry point for all industries; whoever does business is trying to obtain traffic and realize monetization through the short-video platform; they empower e-commerce, virtual services, and value-added services immensely; four hundred billion US dollars is actually a conservative estimate; if given a bit more time, they might even surpass Facebook's eight hundred billion US dollar market valuation."

"Damn!" Howard exploded in rage: "How could a company of this scale fall into the Ye family's hands? The Ye family's own size is at most one or two hundred billion US dollars, right?"

The other party said helplessly: "Grandfather, that's just how the internet industry is—if you're on the windfall, you can rise overnight; you know Zuckerberg of Facebook, didn't he build his company to an eight hundred billion US dollar market valuation?"

Howard smacked his lips, cursing: "Damn! Really, the Ye family struck gold! If the short-video platform lists successfully and truly reaches a four hundred billion US dollar market valuation, wouldn't the Ye family directly become the number one family in China?!"

"Yes." The other party lightly nodded: "This is already a settled matter."

Howard resentfully said: "It seems whether a family can rise is not determined by having one or two outstanding talents; Ye Changying was so formidable, yet he couldn't bring the Ye family to the top position in China, but now the Ye family, by acquiring a short-video platform, has easily achieved that."

Just as Howard was fuming, his eldest son received another call, then said nervously with a tense expression: "Father, public opinion is fermenting rapidly; Washington has already established an investigation task force, preparing to immediately go to Brooklyn Prison for on-site investigation, and moreover, the New York Prison Administration and the FBI want to take over Brooklyn Prison, and the takeover team has already set out!"

Howard said with a dark face: "It's getting bigger and bigger..."

Saying that, he hurriedly said: "Do you have Bruce Wayne-Stan's contact information? I want to call him!"

……

At this moment, Bruce Wayne-Stan was sitting in his office, recording his third video.

To focus on recording the video, his phone had already been switched to flight mode, but what he didn't expect was that the landline on his desk suddenly rang.

He impatiently picked up the phone and said angrily: "What is it?"

Howard endured and introduced himself: "Hello Bruce, I am Howard de Rothschild, patriarch of the Rothschild family, I have heard of your matter, and I deeply regret it..."

Bruce, furious and defeated, cursed: "You old fool, what's your regret got to do with me! Don't think I don't know what's in your head—you just want me to retract my words, huh? I tell you, I will absolutely not give you this chance; this time, I want to fight you to the death, you die I live, fish die net broken!"