Homo Sapiens

Peng City.

Xinxin Group Headquarters.

Su Ruoyu, who had been appointed in a time of crisis, wore a somber expression.

Evidently, Xinxin Group had not escaped the recent turmoil unscathed. After all, Du Shuping, Yang Haibo, and their associates held nearly 50% of the company’s shares.

With the downfall of the Du and Yang Families, Xinxin Group naturally became collateral damage.

Looking at the report in his hands, Su Ruoyu rubbed his temples. The only senior executives left in the company were the old guard who had sided with Li Zhonghua back in the day.

Of the hundred-plus senior executives there once were, only seven remained. The others were either in prison or had fled the country. Su Ruoyu sighed and said,

”Things have come to this. It’s not a good time to call a shareholders’ meeting. We must restructure the group’s management as quickly as possible.”

Another executive thought for a moment and proposed, ”President Su, why don’t we ask *him* to come back? After all, he’s now the company’s largest shareholder. Combined with our employee stock, our stake can reach around 46%. It would give us a legitimate reason to reorganize management.”

Su Ruoyu considered it and nodded. ”It’s inconvenient for me to go to Hongsawaddy right now. Which of you is willing to make the trip?”

Everyone exchanged glances for a moment before a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair spoke up. ”I’ll go!”

”Then Haitao, you go,” Su Ruoyu said, his expression complicated.

Jiang Haitao nodded.

Among everyone present, he was the most suitable person for the task, mainly because Jiang Haitao had a relatively good relationship with Li Zhonghua.

The others, while they hadn’t colluded with Du Shuping and his cronies, had also never spoken up for Li Qingye or the Li Family. They belonged to the neutral faction within Xinxin Group.

As for Su Ruoyu, he truly couldn’t leave. Xinxin Group was facing severe internal and external threats, and no one else could hold down the fort.

Moreover, Su Ruoyu felt extremely guilty about what had happened back then. Especially after last month, when Zhu Ziming, his former secretary, had ”committed suicide” in East Japan by taking 36 bullets to the back. From that, he knew Li Qingye was already aware of many things.

If he were to go see Li Qingye now, it would be truly awkward for him.

Jiang Haitao and Su Ruoyu were some of the last vestiges of Li Zhonghua’s old faction remaining in Xinxin Group.

Over the years, if not for the shares they held and the support of some employee shareholders, they would have long been kicked out of management by Du Shuping and his cohort.

Carrying some internal company documents, Jiang Haitao hastily boarded a flight to Yangon in Hongsawaddy.

After arriving at Yangon International Airport, Jiang Haitao and his assistant, Zhang Qin, spent just over an hour passing through an expedited security check to obtain internal travel passes for Hongsawaddy.

”President Jiang, the car is arranged.”

At the airport entrance, the two of them got into a taxi.

The airport was surrounded by rice paddies, and a few kilometers away lay Yangon City—or, to be precise, the Yangon New District. But Jiang Haitao, having never been to Hongsawaddy before, was unaware of Yangon’s transformation.

”This place seems full of life.”

The driver smiled and replied, ”The area near the airport is the new district. The old district is more or less the same as before.”

”Your Mandarin is excellent!” Jiang Haitao said with some surprise.

The driver grinned, showing a set of pearly whites. ”Heh, I’m one of the Kachin People. I know some Mandarin. There are a lot of foreign visitors in Yangon, so the company hires drivers who can speak Mandarin, English, and Thai.”

”Then how did you know I was Chinese?”

”The company’s system is linked with the airport’s. We’re specially matched with foreign guests.”

Jiang Haitao understood. ”That’s great service. Very convenient for foreign visitors.”

”Heh, ’Service First’ is Yangon’s city slogan,” the driver replied with a chuckle.

A short while later, the vehicle entered the Yangon New District.

Seeing the sparse traffic on the streets, aside from a large number of taxis and buses, Jiang Haitao remarked, ”It seems Hongsawaddy has also been hit hard. There aren’t many people out on the streets.”

”Uh... Sir, I think you might be misunderstanding something.”

”Am I? I don’t see many private cars. Surely there must be quite a few people in Yangon who own them, right?”

The driver was stunned for a second, then burst out laughing. ”Haha, you’ve misunderstood, sir. There aren’t many private cars on the street mainly because the fuel prices here are extremely high. Driving a gasoline car isn’t cost-effective. It’s better to just take a taxi or the bus.”

”Fuel prices? But don’t taxis run on fuel too?”

The driver explained, ”In Yangon, gasoline is 50 yuan per liter. My car runs on natural gas, which is 5 yuan per cubic meter, and the company provides a subsidy on top of that. A liter of gasoline and a cubic meter of natural gas get you about the same mileage.”

”I see,” Jiang Haitao said, finally understanding.

In reality, because Qingye Group, the Development Group, and the United Group had acquired methane fermentation technology from the Homo Sapiens Company and exchanged for large quantities of Crystal Sponge, Hongsawaddy had already built numerous methane fermentation plants.

Considering that oil had to be imported while methane could be produced locally, Hongsawaddy directly employed a strategy of preferential treatment through price manipulation.

Currently, on the Hongsawaddy market, gasoline was 50 Jin yuan per liter, and diesel was 45 Jin yuan per liter.

In contrast, methane gas was only 5 Jin yuan per cubic meter.

Additionally, a 500% environmental tax was levied directly on imported private gasoline cars, whereas natural gas vehicles could be imported normally.

Of course, construction vehicles from certain engineering companies could still receive special fuel subsidies, but besides the three major groups, no other companies could obtain them.

The gasoline cars currently on the roads in Hongsawaddy were all holdovers from before. As for newly imported ones, not even the middle class could afford them, let alone anyone but the wealthy and large corporations.

What’s more, there weren’t many ”organic” millionaires in Hongsawaddy anymore. The previous ones had either been physically eliminated or were now secretly controlled by the Homo Sapiens Company.

The small fraction of wealthy individuals who kept their heads down were being jointly hunted and squeezed by the three major groups, to the point they had almost become an endangered species.

As a result, the number of people driving private cars had indeed decreased dramatically.

Many employees of the three major groups, even mid-level managers with good incomes, preferred to take taxis or rent from car rental agencies. These were all internal corporate businesses, and employees received discounts.

For example, the taxi Jiang Haitao was in, traveling from the airport to the Yangon New District, cost 15 yuan for a trip under ten kilometers. An internal employee would only pay 7.5 yuan.

Under the pressure of high fuel prices and high taxes, combined with the internal discounts, the vast majority of employees preferred to use buses, trains, taxis, ferries, and rental cars rather than buying a gasoline-powered vehicle.

Even if they were to buy a car, they would purchase a semi-domestically produced one from Gem Automobile, Yangon Automobile, or Qingye Automobile.

This Gem Automobile is a subsidiary of the Hongsawaddy Development Group, with its production line acquired from Transvaal’s Agrale Automobile Company.

Yangon Automobile is a subsidiary of the Hongshawa United Group, and its production line was acquired from the Mitsubishi Group.

Qingye Group, on the other hand, bought some production lines from Dongfeng Group, and also procured some from Lifan Automobile and Zotye Automobile.

However, these auto plants mainly focused on developing functional vehicles. The Development Group’s Gem Automobile even had its factory located in Siam.

Apparently, the Homo Sapiens Company had no intention of fully rolling out the automotive industry in Hongsawaddy. Instead, the plan was to establish it in Siam after taking control of the country.

These semi-domestic auto plants were only meant to temporarily satisfy the internal demand for construction and transport vehicles.

At the same time, because the new medicines were selling so well, it was a good opportunity to fleece foreign countries and bring their production lines back home.