Homo Sapiens

After spending over a week in Black Tiger Canyon, Li Qingye disguised himself, assumed a new identity, and headed directly for Bamana.

As the capital of Hongsawaddy, Bamana was developing quite well.

Originally, there were no direct roads, railways, or waterways connecting Kachin State and the Bamana District.

However, during the wave of major infrastructure construction at the end of last year, Qingye Group built two expressways connecting the two areas.

Li Qingye’s motorcade was currently on the expressway from Lei Gu, the capital of Kachin State, to Bamana. The two cities were actually very close, with a straight-line distance of only about 105 kilometers.

This expressway cut directly through the Benlong Mountain Range, reducing a journey that would have required a detour of about 300 kilometers down to just 127 kilometers.

The motorcade arrived in Bamana in less than two hours.

Sitting in a specially modified minibus, Li Qingye looked at the prosperous scene outside the window. ”Looks like this place has become a lot more prosperous.”

Mao Siqiang, who had been sent over from the Hongsawaddy branch to act as a guide, replied in a low voice, ”This is all thanks to the company’s support.”

”I hear there’s a new drug launch event today?”

”Yes, it’s over at Jade Plaza.”

”Let’s go have a look.”

The motorcade soon arrived near Jade Plaza, but they didn’t drive directly there. Instead, they first stopped at the Jade Hotel.

Only after switching to a small, low-profile SUV did they proceed to Jade Plaza.

Upon entering Jade Plaza, they saw it was bustling with people. Many, however, were wearing masks. Although the new test strips kept many infectious diseases out of the country, a lot of people still chose to wear them.

The plaza was enormous, with 40,000 square meters of open space alone. It was surrounded by the headquarters of Qingye Medical Company, Qingye Hospital, Qingye Bank Headquarters, Hongshawa Mining Company, the Hongshawa Investment Foundation Headquarters, and the Hongshawa Industrial and Commercial Association Headquarters, among other institutions.

Mao Siqiang explained to him, ”Due to geographical constraints, Bamana’s future development will focus on financial services, medicine and health, and transportation.”

”Let’s go.”

They entered the Qingye Medical headquarters, a conventional 20-story building, albeit one with a very large footprint.

Using a special passage through the back door, the group entered a small private suite on the third floor.

Through the suite’s one-way glass window, they could see the second-floor conference hall.

At that moment, the conference hall below was filled with over two thousand industry professionals and members of the press who had come for the launch event.

Li Qingye flipped through the list of participating companies in the internal documents and noticed something interesting. ”Sanofi, Novartis, Roche, Bayer... all these European pharmaceutical companies came?”

”Johnson & Johnson wanted to come through their Huaguo Branch channel, but they canceled later,” Phil explained quietly.

”Forget it. They’re competitors, after all.” Li Qingye wasn’t surprised by this.

Homo Sapiens Company’s attitude towards these European and American pharmaceutical companies was extremely cold, and there was very little business cooperation between them.

Recently, Qingye Medical had earned tens of billions of Jin Yuan worth of materials from selling rapid test strips around the world, which made the European and American pharmaceutical giants green with envy and full of resentment toward Qingye Group.

Many regions and companies were forced to recognize the value of the Jin Yuan, even giving rise to a specialized re-export trade.

Zhengda Company from Siam, for instance, had recently engaged in re-exporting. On one hand, they purchased large quantities of specific-effect drugs and test strips from Qingye Group to sell to other regions and companies; on the other, they helped Qingye Group procure designated materials and equipment.

By profiting from the price difference on both ends, they had made several hundred million US dollars.

However, Zhengda Company was not without rivals. Homo Sapiens Company, for example, was also openly reselling test strips and specific-effect drugs.

At this new drug launch event.

Xie Bin from Zhengda Company and Harry from Homo Sapiens Company had both come to participate in person.

Around 3:30 in the afternoon, the conference officially began.

The person hosting the event on stage was Tian Hemeng, the Vice President of Qingye Medical Company. After some opening remarks, she got straight to the point.

”Our company has always been dedicated to developing drugs to combat diseases. Recently, a research team led by our company’s Chairman and Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Li Qingye, has successfully developed two brand-new viral antibiotics through full-gene sequencing and supercomputer simulations...”

Martin, the General Manager of the Roche Southeast Asia Branch, felt a flicker of surprise. ’Another one of these new viral antibiotics?’

”Viral antibiotic” was a new term currently being discussed in the global medical community, mainly referring to special antibiotics like ”Ai Qingling” and ”Rabies Killer.”

As the developer of this class of antibiotics, Li Qingye had cemented his status in the medical field with this technology, earning him the title ”Father of Viral Antibiotics.”

Of course, the praise from the Western academic world was not entirely well-intentioned; it was mostly steeped in greed and malice.

For example, there were assassinations disguised as academic exchanges, or technology theft. Some medical scientists with ulterior motives even chanted the slogan, ”This technology belongs to all of humanity.”

Li Qingye scoffed at all this so-called praise; he wasn’t about to be a fool.

Back when he was studying at Jiangcheng University, a few of his more cynical and nationalistic professors had educated them on some of the painful lessons of the last century.

For example, new penicillin culture medium technology and low-cost vitamin synthesis technology developed by Huaguo scientists were all freely ”borrowed” by European and American pharmaceutical companies because of a lack of attention to confidentiality and patents.

Of course, Li Qingye knew full well how Westerners operated; when they sang your praises, they were likely up to no good.

Just like right now, the Western medical community was stirring up a storm of talk about the Nobel Prize, as if the prize would be his for the taking the moment Li Qingye made the technology’s principles public.

Indeed, if Li Qingye were willing to publicize the technical principles, the West would absolutely not be stingy with a medal. They would even erect a statue of him ”saving the world with medicine.”

But the question was, did Li Qingye look like the kind of fool who could be so easily tricked?

After the series of ordeals he had suffered, his personality had become extremely self-centered. Coupled with the vast number of ancestral memories he possessed, Li Qingye had become exceptionally rational—so rational as to be cold and ruthless.

Even if the Western medical community praised him to the heavens, he wouldn’t feel a shred of gratitude. He would only think that this bunch of characters was up to no good.

「...」

While Roche’s Martin was lost in his thoughts,

The representatives from other companies were also speculating about what Qingye Medical’s new drug could be.

Among them, Xie Bin from Zhengda Company was the most eager, since his company had made a fortune through re-exporting.

As for Harry from Homo Sapiens Company, he appeared calm and composed. As a relatively high-level Spider Web Manager, Harry understood the secret relationship between Qingye Group and Homo Sapiens Company, so he naturally knew what new drug was being launched today.

Tian Hemeng didn’t keep them in suspense and directly announced the first new drug:

”This was developed based on the genetic targets of Ebola. It is an antibiotic specifically for Ebola—Antitoxin No. 3, a specific-effect drug. Its therapeutic effect is similar to Antitoxin No. 1, Ai Qingling, and Antitoxin No. 2, Rabies Killer.”

Ebola? The crowd exchanged glances, looking somewhat disappointed.

Although Ebola was devastatingly lethal, it was not very contagious and usually only broke out on a small scale in the Africa Region.

It was clearly a niche drug, much like Rabies Killer for treating rabies, with a very small market.

And considering the economic situation in Africa, there were probably very few patients who could afford Antitoxin No. 3.

Of course, some charitable organizations, or international health organizations like the Red Cross, might purchase some to buy goodwill in Africa.

Tian Hemeng was not surprised by the crowd’s reaction, but she still announced the price. As expected, it was very high, with a retail price of 10,000 Jin Yuan per box.

”Next, I will announce the second new drug...”