Homo Sapiens

They stood in line for over an hour.

Fang Xinwu and his two companions finally entered the outpatient department. Inside were six doctors and over a dozen intern nurses.

After making the rounds with all the doctors, Fang Xinwu received his physical exam report.

[Upper left wisdom tooth is impacted and misaligned. Mild oral inflammation present, likely related to the wisdom tooth. Recommendation: Patient should have the aforementioned wisdom tooth extracted as soon as possible...]

[Early-stage fatty liver. Recommendation: Cease smoking and alcohol consumption, reduce intake of high-sugar foods...]

[Moderate anxiety disorder, possibly related to frequent travel to and from the Golden Triangle Region. Recommendation: Patient should reduce travel to high-risk areas and take more recreational trips to island destinations to alleviate mental stress...]

After reading the report, Fang Xinwu’s impression of the Qingye Hospital doctors had improved dramatically. Not only was their handwriting as neat as a printed font, but they had also included a host of suggestions, which seemed incredibly professional.

He even saw the physical exam reports in the hands of some of the poorer residents. The doctors weren’t telling them to buy expensive medicine or undergo major surgery. Instead, they gave a lot of ”appropriate” advice.

At the very least, the recommendations were tailored to each individual’s financial situation.

This approach provided the greatest possible care for the poor, allowing them to enjoy at least some medical services.

Fang Xinwu left the hospital with a complex expression, growing quiet and withdrawn on the way. After all, this whole scene felt vaguely familiar.

Before he knew it, he found himself back at Old Ma’s Sichuan Cuisine Restaurant.

He simply nodded to Old Ma, who was busy greeting customers. Many of the Chinese expatriates living in Dongzhi frequented the establishment.

A boisterous, heavyset man greeted him in Sichuan-accented Mandarin with an air of instant familiarity. ”Brother, where are you from?”

”Over in Yunnan,” Fang Xinwu replied with a smile.

The heavyset man chuckled and said, ”So, Yunnan! Being close to the action has its perks, I see. My name is Zhang Dasheng, I’m in the lumber business.”

”My business is over in Siam. I mainly transport diesel to the Golden Triangle, though it’s been pretty hard to get in lately.”

The moment he heard Fang Xinwu did business in the Golden Triangle, Zhang Dasheng’s enthusiasm cooled considerably. After all, people from that place were not to be trifled with, and he wanted no part of it.

The other two men at Zhang Dasheng’s table also wore forced smiles. They clearly didn’t want much to do with Fang Xinwu, lest they get caught in any potential crossfire.

Zhang Dasheng, however, didn’t let his feelings show too obviously, and the two continued to make idle chitchat.

Suddenly, one of the merchants, a man called Lao Bai, brought something up. ”Dasheng, what’s your take on this new Jin from the Qingye Group?”

”Jin? You mean that corporate scrip the Qingye Group started issuing recently?” Zhang Dasheng asked, unsure.

Lao Bai nodded. ”That’s the one. I heard they’re doing a full rollout starting January 1st next year. After that, when dealing with the Qingye Company, they’ll only accept Jin. Should we take it?”

Zhang Dasheng thought for a moment. ”If Qingye Bank actually keeps its promise and allows the Jin to be freely exchanged for gold, then I suppose I could accept it.”

That’s right. One of the Jin’s anchors was gold. The currently announced exchange rate was 500 Jin to 1 gram of gold.

The Qingye Group had the confidence to use gold as an anchor because, in the process of consolidating industries across Hongsawaddy, it had acquired 273 tons of gold from various sources.

The warlords and prominent families, in particular, were all fabulously wealthy. On top of that, Hongsawaddy had a significant number of gold mines.

Thus, in the process of confiscating their wealth, the Qingye Group had obtained 273 tons of gold, 1,352 tons of silver, and large quantities of high-grade jadeite and rubies.

It also took control of numerous mines, including 27 gold mines with total estimated reserves of around 162 to 185 tons.

In reality, due to Hongsawaddy’s lack of prospecting technology, the currently operating mines were mostly open-pit or near-surface deposits. The exploration and extraction of mid-to-deep-level deposits were virtually nonexistent.

If prospecting efforts were intensified, more deposits would surely be discovered in the future.

Therefore, the Qingye Group wasn’t worried about running out of gold to back its currency. With its current gold reserves, Qingye Bank could issue roughly 136.5 billion Jin.

In practice, however, not everyone would go to the bank to exchange their currency for gold, so the Jin could be over-issued by a factor of two or three.

And since gold wasn’t the Jin’s only anchor, over-issuing it by two or three times wouldn’t necessarily lead to devaluation.

Moreover, the Qingye Group had another ace up its sleeve.

This ace was the ability to extract gold from seawater using an algae bio-enrichment technique. If they were to scale this up by creating millions of acres of Haitian sea-farms, they could extract tens of tons of gold a year.

Moreover, for the next few hundred years, this would be a virtually inexhaustible source of gold.

This was the true source of the Qingye Group’s confidence in pushing the Jin so forcefully.

After all, the value of fiat currencies like the US Dollar, the Euro, and the Chinese Yuan was simply too unstable.

This was especially true of the US Dollar—a currency backed by a nuclear-powered printing press. It was nothing more than America’s green scythe, used to harvest the wealth of the world.

Meanwhile, the Hongsawaddy Branch currently had no flagship products to sell. The few things it could offer involved technology that was far too sensitive. Therefore, the Qingye Group chose to aggressively push the Jin, even opening up direct, free exchange between gold and its new currency.

Under these circumstances, the entire world would have to acknowledge the Jin’s value as a currency.

As for the risk of gold outflow, the Qingye Group considered it an entirely baseless fear.

After all, as the Jin circulated within Hongsawaddy, the vast majority of it would flow back into the Qingye Group’s hands.

The portion used for foreign trade was mainly for purchasing machinery and equipment—a necessary cost.

Otherwise, were you supposed to take a pile of Myanmar Kyat, which was basically worthless paper, and try to buy things on the international market? You’d have to be out of your mind. Foreign companies weren’t stupid; why would they ever accept the Myanmar Kyat?

The Jin, however, was different.

In a way, it was paper gold—and not like the Federal Reserve System’s paper gold that you can only look at. It was a genuine certificate redeemable for physical gold at Qingye Bank.

As long as these companies weren’t fools, they would absolutely accept the Jin.

After all, gold is more stable than the US Dollar and serves as an excellent safe-haven asset.

If a company were given two choices—to hold 100 million US Dollars in cash or to hold 100 million Jin—it would definitely choose the Jin.

Zhang Dasheng was a living example of this.

As long as Qingye Bank maintained the free exchange channels and the fixed conversion rate between the Jin and gold, merchants and corporations would have no reason to refuse the Jin. In fact, they would be eager to use it.

To stabilize the situation in Hongsawaddy, Qingye Bank planned to issue 50 billion Jin in January and use the funds for a massive procurement of machinery and equipment.

As long as it maintained sufficient gold reserves, the Qingye Bank’s Jin would remain strong.

Hearing Zhang Dasheng’s reply, Lao Bai nodded as well. ”If it’s redeemable, then of course I’m willing to accept it. After all, I’m in the middle of negotiating a big deal right now.”

”What big deal? Come on, Lao Bai, you’ve got to look out for your buddies!” Zhang Dasheng joked.

Lao Bai waved his hand dismissively. ”Nothing’s set in stone yet. The Qingye Group is just putting out a tender for a batch of processing equipment to produce woven bamboo products.”

”They’re in that business too?” Zhang Dasheng asked, curious.

Lao Bai shot him a look that said, ’Have you been living under a rock?’ ”What industry aren’t they in? They even have crematoriums and coffin shops. It’s a full-service operation, from cradle to grave.”

Everyone could only react with a wry smile. It was true; the Qingye Group really did have its hands in every industry.

This made Fang Xinwu, who was listening nearby, feel even more somber. ’The Qingye Group’s influence in Hongsawaddy is growing by the day!’