When I went home for Chinese New Year, I spent a million times more money on my foreign wife.

The convoy drove away from the Bund, with three black Maybachs heading east along the riverside avenue.

Chen Yue sat in the back row, her phone pressed to her ear, speaking very quickly.

"How much can be accessed from the Snow Palace Foundation's global account right now?"

The fund manager on the other end replied with a number.

"Not enough. Pull out the reserve funds from the Polaris offshore account, send them through the Swiss channel, and transfer them all into the trading account within fifteen minutes."

After hanging up, Chen Yue dialed a second number.

"Director Li, this is Chen Yue. My brother wants to acquire Langfeng Group and needs to go through the green approval channel for cross-border mergers and acquisitions."

There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"Langfeng? That luxury goods group from the Rooster Country?"

"right."

"How big of a move?"

"Acquire with all our might."

Two more seconds of silence.

"What does your brother mean?"

"Um."

Director Li didn't ask any more questions: "I'll handle the approval process. You don't need to worry about foreign exchange controls. I'll give you the approval within half an hour."

Chen Yue hung up the phone and turned to look at the car in front of her.

Through the car window, she could see Chen Yang sitting in the passenger seat, one hand on the armrest and the other holding Katyusha's hand.

-

Paris, the capital of France, is home to the Langfeng Group headquarters.

At 2 a.m., the entire building was brightly lit.

In the board's emergency meeting room, twelve directors sat around an oval table, each with the same set of data displayed on their screens—a real-time stock price chart of Langfeng Group, a nearly vertical red downward line.

"Who did this?"

"I don't know. At least six offshore funds are selling off their holdings simultaneously, with order volumes forty times higher than usual."

"Even more outrageous. Put options on the Chicago, London, and Frankfurt exchanges were swept up in the last nine minutes, all in the same direction—downwards."

The CFO wiped the sweat from his brow: "Since the market opened, the market value has evaporated by seven billion US dollars."

The meeting room door was pushed open, and an assistant rushed in, clutching a freshly printed document.

"China has just approved a special approval for a cross-border merger and acquisition. The approving authority is China's highest-level commerce authority, the approved entity is Snow Palace Venture Capital Fund, and the target of the acquisition is Langfeng Group."

There was a five-second silence around the long table.

The middle-aged man at the head of the group stood up from his chair: "Snow Palace? The Snow Palace that we arranged for us to sit in the last row tonight?"

No one answered.

He grabbed the phone on the table and dialed the direct line to the Shanghai office.

When Duval answered, his voice was weak.

"Duval, who did you offend tonight?"

"I...I was just following protocol—"

"Standard practice? Your standard practice cost us 50 billion dollars in one night! Ekaterina Ivanova, heiress to the Ivanov Energy Group, you put her in the back?"

Duval's breathing came through the phone, heavy and disordered.

"You're fired. Pack your things and leave the office now."

The call was disconnected.

-

Shanghai, the main venue of Fashion Week.

Duval stood in the empty backstage area, his phone screen still displaying the words "Call Ended".

His assistant whispered, "Mr. Duval, a group of people have arrived at the door. They say they are legal representatives of the Snow Palace Group and are demanding to take over the venue."

Duval did not speak.

He took his name tag off his neck and placed it on the dressing table.

-

4:17 a.m.

Chen Yue's phone rang.

"Mr. Chen, the latest shareholding ratio has been released. Snow Palace Fund holds a total of 31.4% of Langfeng Group's shares through six offshore entities. In addition to the shares that were snapped up in the secondary market today, your brother, Mr. Chen Yang, is now the largest individual controlling shareholder of Langfeng Group."

Chen Yue handed the phone to Chen Yang.

After listening, Chen Yang said two words: "That's enough."

He hung up the phone and looked at Katyusha, who was sitting on the sofa flipping through a magazine.

"I've finished buying."

Katyusha paused her flipping through the magazine and looked up.

"Bought them all?"

"Controlling stake".

Katyusha closed the magazine and stood up.

"Then I'm going to replace their design director. There were three pieces in tonight's show that used traditional Eastern patterns, but the design description said 'exotic inspiration.' They copied our work and didn't even dare to mention the names."

Chen Yue chimed in from the side, "Sister-in-law, I've looked into those designers. They didn't just copy patterns. One of them, Martin Brown, publicly stated in an interview three years ago that 'the Eastern market is only fit to consume, not to create.'"

Katyusha nodded: "Smash it."

"What?"

"Their work, all the samples exhibited tonight, will be destroyed. And the contracts of these designers will be terminated."

Chen Yue glanced at Chen Yang.

Chen Yang: "She has the final say."

Chen Yue picked up the phone and went out onto the balcony to begin making arrangements.

-

The next morning at 10:00 AM, Langfeng Group's flagship store in Shanghai.

The six-story building was temporarily cleared out, and all the sales staff and security personnel were replaced by people from the Snow Palace Group.

Chen Yang led Katyusha into the private jewelry room on the top floor.

One wall of display cases showcases Langfeng's century-old collection of top-tier jewelry, each piece with its own independent constant temperature and humidity system and bulletproof glass cover.

In the very center, a platinum crown rests quietly on deep blue velvet.

The crown is woven from 723 white diamonds into a vine-shaped framework, with a flawless pink diamond of 200 carats set in the very center. Its facets refract a pale pink band of light under the lamp.

This crown originally belonged to a European royal family and was entrusted to Langfeng for restoration and preservation; it has never been displayed to the public.

Katyusha stood in front of the display case without moving.

Chen Yang said to the manager next to him, "Open it."

"Mr. Chen, this item is subject to a special custody agreement—"

"I am the controlling shareholder of this company. Open it."

The manager hesitated for two seconds, entered the password, and the glass cover rose.

Chen Yang took the crown off the velvet tray and turned around.

Katyusha stood there, sunlight streaming in through the French windows and falling on her blonde hair.

Chen Yang raised the crown with both hands and gently placed it on Katyusha's head.

The pink diamond sparkled on her forehead.

The entrance was crowded with reporters from all over the world who had come to see the news. The sound of camera shutters clicking was deafening, and the flashes of the lights turned the entire room a stark white.

Katyusha did not avoid the camera.

She stood there, wearing the 200-carat pink diamond crown, with the Bund skyline behind her.

Chen Yue stood at the back of the crowd, her phone vibrating incessantly. She glanced down—thirty-seven major fashion media outlets worldwide were simultaneously pushing out news updates, with almost identical headlines.

"Langfeng Group changes hands, a new Eastern tycoon crowns his wife."

Chen Yue turned her phone over and held it face down in her hand, then looked up at the center of the crowd.

Katyusha reached out and touched the crown, then turned her head and said something to Chen Yang.

"It's a bit heavy."

Chen Yang reached out and adjusted her position.

While reporters outside were still snapping photos frantically, Chen Yue had already begun answering her first call from the board of directors at the Paris headquarters.