Homo Sapiens

Lima South City.

Haitian Agriculture’s headquarters was located here. Through Mad’s connections, they had acquired a 12-story hotel and converted it into the company’s temporary headquarters.

Zhang Wei, who had just graduated from Fudan University this year, felt like he was in a dream. He had originally come to Manila to find someone, but after drifting around for over half a year, he had spent more than half his savings.

Half a month ago, he stumbled upon a Haitian Agriculture recruitment event in Manila. He hadn’t planned on applying for a job, but a series of events led him, by a twist of fate, to become Haitian Agriculture’s general manager.

He glanced at a photo on his phone. It was a group picture. Besides himself, there was a young man in the photo who bore a strong resemblance to him.

’Big Brother! I have to find you.’ Zhang Wei put away his phone, picked up a document, and got back to work.

He had joined Haitian Agriculture partly for the high salary, and partly to find his older brother, Zhang Hao, who had gone missing in Luzon two years ago.

As for why Li Qingye would agree to let a recent college graduate become the general manager of Haitian Agriculture, the reason was that Zhang Wei had a simple background and hadn’t yet been beaten down by the harsh realities of the world.

Although Li Qingye had the support of his ancestral memories, it didn’t mean he enjoyed working with old foxes and sly veterans. It was better to have less internal strife. If he had to deal with constant backstabbing and deceit, it would be utterly exhausting.

A recent graduate like Zhang Wei was still relatively naive and in a malleable state, his mindset not yet completely solidified.

Haitian Agriculture’s expansion was incredibly rapid.

With the support of a continuous cash flow, seaweed fields, processing plants, employee dormitories, and machinery were all springing up like mushrooms after a spring rain.

On the northern coast of Lima South City.

Along the coastline between Bax Town and Coral Town, a continuous stretch of construction sites buzzed with activity. Under the diligent work of excavators and laborers, pond after pond was gradually taking shape.

The length, width, and depth of these ponds were all standardized. Concrete roads, wide enough for transport vehicles, ran between them. On the side facing the ocean, a 15-meter-high dam was being constructed.

The fill for the dam came from the mud excavated from the ponds. Between the dam and the actual coastline, there was still a buffer of several hundred meters of mangrove forests or sandy beaches.

After all, Luzon was frequently battered by typhoons. Without proper typhoon-prevention engineering, they would suffer huge losses in the future.

The three small towns situated between the seaweed fields were now packed to the brim with people.

Fortunately, the Internal Affairs Department had promptly dispatched 50 security guards. These weren’t your typical gate-keeping grandpas from Huaguo; they were quasi-soldiers armed with shotguns, wearing body armor and ballistic helmets.

Julie, who had come from Manila to work, wiped the sweat from her forehead. Gazing at the bustling construction site, she tried her best to adapt to her job as a supervisor.

Not far away was her superior, Blair, the head of Homo Sapiens Company’s Supervision Department. He was a one-eyed, middle-aged man who looked ferocious, but he was meticulous in his work.

Julie carefully inspected the construction of several nearby ponds, using auxiliary tools to check various sections and see if they met the design specifications.

She cherished this job. Having grown up in the slums of Manila, she had endured hardship from a young age and had put herself through college by working part-time jobs.

But in a place like Luzon, even with a degree, it was difficult to get ahead. Of course, at least there was still a sliver of hope.

”Is this area up to standard?” One-Eye asked.

”Uh... the base strength of section 7 in Pond 13 isn’t sufficient to provide support... also...” Julie quickly reported every problem she had found.

One-Eye turned to another man. ”Wang, you go double-check it.”

Wang Muyi took Julie’s inspection report and immediately led his team to re-examine each point. He was an engineering supervisor Homo Sapiens Company had poached from Huaguo.

In fact, he had already done this sort of thing several times.

Although Wang Muyi felt One-Eye was being needlessly thorough—after all, Julie had been quite reliable these past few days—the Supervision Department had a special rule: cross-checking. No single supervisory team was allowed to complete a project’s inspection work alone.

In truth, they didn’t understand the working methods of a Soldier.

As one of the Soldiers, One-Eye was extremely rigid in his methods. He would execute his orders without hesitation, even if it meant wasting manpower.

However, this had its advantages. The supervision work was exceptionally thorough.

Previously, some foremen had tried to bribe One-Eye with red envelopes. He accepted them all without question and then promptly backstabbed them. He had already taken down several contractors this way, to the point that the remaining ones trembled at the very sight of him.

After a short while, Wang Muyi’s team returned.

”Minister Blair, the findings are mostly consistent with the initial inspection. The only exception is the substandard concrete pour in section 6 of Pond 14. Everything else is accurate.”

One-Eye looked over the reports from both teams and ordered, ”Go back and write up a rectification notice. Have the construction party make immediate corrections. After you’ve both confirmed and signed it, deliver it to my office.”

”Understood,” Wang Muyi nodded.

”Yes, Minister,” Julie also nodded quickly.

The two supervisory teams weren’t just colleagues; they were also competitors and overseers of one another.

If one team discovered a problem in the other’s supervised area that the other team had missed, they could earn a performance point from them. The Supervision Department’s performance ratings were graded on a five-tier scale: D, C, B, A, and S. The small-scale issue with the substandard pour just now was a C-level performance point.

In this process, Julie’s team effectively lost a C-level performance point, while Wang Muyi’s team gained one.

As for the two teams colluding to cover for each other, if a problem arose later, whichever team was the secondary inspector would bear full responsibility.

If a problem occurred under another company’s supervision, one might just end up in jail, singing the blues behind bars. But with Homo Sapiens Company, it wasn’t so certain. A mistake could be fatal.

The fact that One-Eye spent his days in the office polishing a revolver especially piled immense pressure on Wang Muyi and the others.

Of course, Wang Muyi was quite satisfied with his current job. With a base salary of 3,000 US Dollars a month, plus the company covering food, lodging, and flights, and adding in performance bonuses, he estimated he could make seventy to eighty thousand US Dollars a year.

Although working as an engineering supervisor back home might involve foremen slipping you red envelopes, those bribes came with risks. If something went wrong with the project, you’d be completely screwed.

Besides, when you had a satisfying, legitimate income, who would want to risk taking shady side-deals?

Wang Muyi had quit his previous job precisely because he’d had a falling out with the contracting company and refused to sign off on their work.

The main issue was that the contracting company was just too corrupt. It scared Wang Muyi so much that he packed his bags and fled overnight. It was only after he encountered a Homo Sapiens Company recruitment event in Yangcheng that he decided to try his luck in Luzon.

Now, he didn’t need to give the foremen any face at all. After all, the head of the Supervision Department, One-Eye, was completely incorruptible. With a boss like that, he couldn’t turn a blind eye even if he wanted to.

Even if he did want to turn a blind eye, his subordinates would probably be the first to rebel. After all, if a problem arose, everyone would share the blame and have their performance points docked. On the other hand, finding a problem meant a hefty performance bonus.

Plus, with Julie’s team as competitors, no one wanted to just lie flat.

As for making things difficult for his subordinates, that would involve another department at Homo Sapiens Company—Human Resources.

Homo Sapiens Company was gradually implementing HR reforms, with the focus on employee management. Even a general manager didn’t have the authority to fire a regular employee directly. An employee could only be formally dismissed after a report from their department, a review by the Internal Affairs Department, and approval from both the Human Resources Department and the Chairman.

With three departments involved, plus the need for Li Qingye’s personal signature of approval, the difficulty of any under-the-table maneuvering was immense.