Homo Sapiens

Modu.

Donghua Group.

Wu Xinlan arrived at the president’s office and knocked on the door.

”Come in.”

After opening the door, Wu Xinlan saw Wu Heguang, his hair streaked with white, and immediately said, ”Uncle.”

”Have a seat. It couldn’t have been easy,” Wu Heguang said gently.

Wu Xinlan shook her head. ”It was nothing. I treated it like a vacation. The only thing is, I wasn’t able to get a clear read on Li Qingye.”

”...” Upon hearing the name Li Qingye, a complex look filled Wu Heguang’s eyes. He then sighed and said, ”Forget it. He must still be holding a grudge about what happened back then. It’s perfectly normal that he doesn’t trust me. If only Zhong Hua had listened to me, things wouldn’t have ended up like this.”

”Uncle, do you think what happened to Yang Tianci has anything to do with Li Qingye?” Wu Xinlan asked, a bit hesitant.

Wu Heguang shook his head. ”I don’t know. What happened with the Siamese Xu Clan and Yang Tianci has become an unsolved mystery. If he was really behind it, then all we can do is watch what happens next with Du Shuping’s and Yang Haibo’s families.”

Although Wu Heguang was trying to sound casual, he had in fact recently ramped up his personal security to the highest possible level.

And sending Wu Xinlan to Tuwah Port was also a move to get a read on Li Qingye.

After all, the biggest winners from Li Zhonghua’s death were the families of Du Shuping, Yang Haibo, and Wu Heguang.

Following the principle of ’he who benefits most is the most suspicious,’ it was clear that they could all become targets of Li Qingye’s revenge.

”By the way, Uncle, a while ago Li Qingye hired a law firm in Xiangjiang to take over his Xinxin Group shares. What’s the status of that?”

Wu Heguang shook his head. ”What else could be done? The shares had to be returned to their rightful owner. The Yangon Embassy has already confirmed Li Qingye’s identity. He’s the primary heir to those 5.8% of the original shares. That’s indisputable.”

Then he laughed. ”But it doesn’t matter. Xinxin Group is just an empty shell now anyway.”

The two of them talked for a while longer when there was a sudden knock on the office door.

”Come in.”

A refined young man walked in. Seeing Wu Xinlan was also there, he immediately smiled and greeted her, ”Cousin, you’re back in the country? Have you graduated?”

”Cousin Zhao Lin. I’ll let you and Uncle talk.”

Wu Heguang waved his hand. ”Take a few days off to rest. I’ll arrange a suitable position for you.”

A moment later, only Wu Heguang and Kong Zhao Lin remained in the office.

”President, a company in Luzon has sent us a letter of intent. They want to set up a synthetic ammonia plant in Luzon and intend to purchase a batch of equipment and auxiliary materials from us,” Kong Zhao Lin reported concisely.

He flipped through the letter of intent. The contents all seemed like a very normal business proposal.

Donghua Group had previously been in the chemical industry, and after acquiring Xinxin Group’s equipment R&D subsidiary, it now had the capability to manufacture chemical equipment.

And manufacturing equipment for synthetic ammonia production was one of Donghua Group’s business lines.

But when he saw the project’s total investment, even he, who was usually very composed, felt his breath quicken.

This was a synthetic ammonia plant with a total investment of 400 million US Dollars, with a planned annual output of 500,000 tons of synthetic ammonia. Of the total, equipment procurement was 160 million US Dollars, installation engineering was 73 million US Dollars, construction was 52 million US Dollars, and other miscellaneous fees were 50 million US Dollars.

The project was required to be completed within 24 months.

The other party was already working on the infrastructure, so Donghua Group would mainly be responsible for supplying, installing, and commissioning the equipment. The contract was for 233 million US Dollars.

Despite Donghua Group having swallowed up many of Xinxin Group’s assets, as a private enterprise with a foreign investment component, it had difficulty getting approval for certain projects in Huaguo. Coupled with the increasingly tense international situation in the past two years, Donghua Group was feeling pressure from all sides.

This huge order would definitely give Donghua Group some breathing room.

He did a quick calculation; the entire project would only yield a profit of about 13% at most. But if he didn’t take it, other companies would definitely be scrambling to get it.

He also discovered that the other party didn’t just want to build a synthetic ammonia plant; they also planned to build supporting factories for sulfuric acid, nitric acid, potassium sulfate, and phosphate compound fertilizer.

These factories would also require a substantial investment.

”Zhao Lin, have they found partners for their other supporting fertilizer plants yet?”

Kong Zhao Lin immediately replied, ”Not yet. I hear they’re still in negotiations.”

”Contact them as soon as possible. I want to speak with their person in charge. If we can secure this project, the Group will be able to comfortably weather the economic recession of the next few years.”

”Understood. I’ll contact them right away.”

Seeing Kong Zhao Lin about to leave, he quickly added, ”Wait. When you’re on the phone, you can hint that if they expand the cooperation, we can offer them some... benefits.”

”I understand,” Kong Zhao Lin nodded.

In less than a week, Kailuo Company and Donghua Group had completed their partnership negotiations. During that time, Kong Zhao Lin had slipped the person in charge several million US Dollars, finally securing the massive project.

Kailuo Company would purchase 670 million US Dollars’ worth of chemical equipment from Donghua Group and pay 310 million US Dollars for installation engineering, for a total cost of 980 million US Dollars.

The contract stipulated that Kailuo Company would first pay a deposit of 98 million US Dollars. Donghua Group would then have to deliver all equipment within 10 months. Kailuo Company would make monthly payments proportional to the equipment delivered. Once the equipment installation and commissioning were completed within 16 months, Kailuo Company would make a further payment of 200 million US Dollars.

If either party failed to complete their obligations or make payments on time, it would be considered a breach of contract. The breaching party would be required to pay the other party a penalty of 30% of the total contract value—that is, 294 million US Dollars—in addition to 300 million US Dollars for project losses.

Of course, clauses for terminating the contract due to factors like force majeure were all clearly written out. It also stated that in the event the breaching party could not pay the penalty and compensation for losses, their company shares or other assets would be used as payment.

Although such a high penalty and compensation for losses made many of Donghua Group’s shareholders hesitant, the potential profits were also enormous.

Besides, as long as they completed the project on time, it was projected to bring the company nearly 100 million US Dollars in profit.

The timeline was tight, but not impossible to meet.

Therefore, the vast majority of shareholders, and even the New York Trust Company (under the Morgan Consortium) backing them, approved the project.

The Morgan Clan even used some of its connections to investigate Kailuo Company’s actual situation.

Kailuo Company was a joint venture between Luzon’s Lopez Clan, Duterte Clan, and Tusun Clan. Their plan was to build Luzon’s largest fertilizer production base to supply the island’s agricultural needs.

Based on this information, the Morgan Clan didn’t believe Kailuo Company would be unable to afford the 980 million US Dollars.

After receiving this intelligence, Wu Heguang’s last shred of doubt vanished, and he quickly signed the contract.

What they didn’t know was that the Lopez Clan, the Tusun Clan, and the Duterte Clan had already been so thoroughly infiltrated by the Homo Sapiens Company that they were nothing more than empty figureheads.

Li Qingye’s entire goal was to make Wu Heguang take this poison-laced bait, allowing him to completely devour the Donghua Group that Wu Heguang had painstakingly built over more than a decade.

Of course, during those 16 months, he wouldn’t be relying on this one plan alone. He had a series of other auxiliary plans in place to ensure his opponent would be utterly powerless to fight back.

His plans against the others were also unfolding one by one.

For example, Yang Tiancheng, who was now the president of the New Nanyang Company, was silently helping Li Qingye send the entire Yang Clan to hell.