"Changfeng, is this move of ours a sure thing?"

On the table were premium steaks and high-end red wine, but Zhang Jingshan had no appetite. Excitedly, he said, "With Stella's brake failure crisis blowing up, they've practically crashed in the domestic market. Shouldn't this be enough to cause their stock price to plummet?"

However, Li Changfeng shook his head.

"The key isn't the domestic market; it's overseas. Given Stella's international stature, positive news in the domestic market could boost its stock price. However, a domestic reputation collapse alone won't be enough to shake the Wall Street titans backing Stella. While our market is significant globally, when it comes to the financial arena, it's a different story. Take Amazon or Facebook for example—they have no foothold in our country, but that doesn't stop them from being at the top of the stock market valuation charts."

After pausing, Li Changfeng continued, "Even though the domestic reputation hit won't fundamentally affect Stella's stock price, it could still lead to some fluctuations. The extent of the fluctuation depends on how Stella's top management handles this public relations crisis. If they adopt a humble approach, the impact on their stock price might be minimal."

"Changfeng, the problem is that this isn't just a domestic issue—it's global! Stella's official website has crashed abroad due to overwhelming complaints. And just a couple of days ago, a fatal incident caused by Stella's brake failure was exposed. While Stella initially managed to suppress the news, a few hours ago, it was dug up again on international platforms. The uproar isn't limited to our country—it's global now!" Zhao Jiwei chimed in urgently.

Li Changfeng nodded, "Exactly! What can truly hurt Stella's stock price lies overseas—that's their financial backbone. It all depends on how Stella cleans up this mess. If they fail to handle it properly, and domestic public opinion continues to pile on, it'll add fuel to the fire. Even with Wall Street's giants propping Stella up, they won't be able to contain the fallout from this crisis."

"They've reached this point; surely, Stella has to lower their stance now, right?" Zhang Jingshan questioned.

Li Changfeng shook his head dismissively. "Not necessarily. Stella's arrogance is notorious."

Just as he finished speaking, Zhao Jiwei's phone on the table buzzed with a notification.

"Stella's China branch has issued a response!" Zhao Jiwei announced, quickly unlocking his phone.

Moments later, he froze in shock.

"What? Have they lost their minds?" Zhao Jiwei exclaimed in disbelief.

"What's going on?" Zhang Jingshan asked eagerly.

"Stella's China branch said they would 'never compromise with these so-called rights defenders.' What...?!" Zhao Jiwei stammered.

"Never compromise? Are they insane? Acting tough in such a critical situation?!" Zhang Jingshan was dumbfounded.

Zhao Jiwei added, "This response has triggered widespread public outrage online. The entire internet is now calling for Stella to leave the Chinese market!"

Li Changfeng, however, simply smiled faintly.

"This is normal. Stella's arrogance—especially towards the Chinese market—is ingrained. Their reaction doesn't surprise me. As I said, they don't believe Chinese public opinion can impact them. But this time, they may have miscalculated. Their premature response will likely backfire. If there were no international issues with the brake failures, they might have been fine. But with problems in overseas markets and Chinese public opinion piling on, this crisis could spiral out of control."

Li Changfeng didn't elaborate further but looked visibly excited.

It was precisely the scenario he hoped for.

The best-case scenario would be for Stella to maintain the same arrogance toward all markets worldwide—but, of course, that was unlikely.

"Changfeng, in your opinion, how much could Stella's stock price drop?" Zhang Jingshan asked, voicing his primary concern.

Li Changfeng replied, "It depends on whether Stella can suppress the backlash in overseas markets. If they succeed, the decline won't be significant because many financial giants are protecting Stella. A massive drop would hurt them as well. But if they fail, and global capital starts considering the impact of Chinese public opinion, a capital withdrawal could lead to a 30% drop at most."

"Thirty percent?!"

For a behemoth like Stella, a 30% drop in market capitalization would be a staggering number.

Moreover, once such a decline occurred, restoring their former glory would be a herculean task.

"Stella won't be able to contain this crisis! If they could, Brother Ye wouldn't have led us to short their stock. Thirty percent... If it drops by 30%, how much profit would we make with our 50x leverage?" Zhang Jingshan exclaimed.

"At a 30% drop, the profit margin is 1500%. Do the math!" Li Changfeng replied.

"Damn!"

The realization of potentially turning 4% into 60 times that amount—60 billion—made Zhang Jingshan's breathing quicken.

"Don't get too excited yet. Whether it'll drop by 30% isn't certain. Stella has backing from major players, and the situation is highly volatile. Unless this crisis was orchestrated by those giants to harvest profits, Stella's downfall would hurt them just as much," Li Changfeng warned.

After a pause, he added, "But the possibility of this being a scheme is nearly zero. Something like brake failures can't be fabricated. If they wanted to 'harvest,' there are far more straightforward ways to do so."

"It doesn't matter if it's a scheme or not. Since Brother Ye has gone all-in and staked his entire fortune, he's clearly aiming for massive short-term gains. That's his signature move! I just wonder how 'short-term' this will be—I don't dare ask him, and even if I did, he wouldn't tell me," Zhang Jingshan said.

Li Changfeng nodded in agreement. "Short-term and high profits—that's always been Brother Ye's style."

"Right. We don't need to ask anything. If Brother Ye is willing to throw 10 billion into this, he's definitely thought it through more than we have. All we need to do is monitor Stella's stock price and wait for his instructions."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's finish eating and get back to tracking Stella's movements. Every 1% drop means 2 billion in profit! I can't wait any longer!" Zhang Jingshan said eagerly.

With that, he began wolfing down his food, oblivious to the bemused looks from Li Changfeng and Zhao Jiwei.