Homo Sapiens

March 8th.

In Yangon’s Jade Hotel.

Xie Heping, head of the business negotiation team for BGI Genomics, listened to an urgent report from his subordinate.

”Homo Sapiens Company sold a batch of methane transport ships, a large number of methane gas cylinders, and equipment for constructing gas storage stations to Qingye Group for a total value of 500 million Jin Yuan.”

”Then, Homo Sapiens Company used that money to purchase 300,000 boxes of rapid test kits produced by Qingye Group. The contract order was for 150 million Jin Yuan. Another 200 million Jin Yuan was used to purchase glass bottles and other glass products from Qingye Glass, with the remaining 150 million Jin Yuan kept in reserve.”

Next, the subordinate reported on the transaction between Zhengda Company and Qingye Group.

Xie Heping’s brow furrowed as he listened.

It was clear that Homo Sapiens Company and Zhengda Company had found a way to circumvent the fact that they didn’t have any Jin Yuan and didn’t want to use Gold for payment. They were resorting to barter, using Jin Yuan as the settlement currency between them.

Xie Heping could accept that. The problem was that both companies had accepted a unit price of 500 Jin Yuan per box of test kits. This immediately put all other interested buyers in an awkward position.

Even though after converting to Huaguo’s currency, a box of test kits was only a little over three hundred yuan.

But Huaguo had a massive population!

But soon, more bad news arrived.

Qingye Medical’s production line for test kits could only produce 500,000 boxes per month. Even with an immediate expansion of production capacity, the most they could increase it to was 1.5 million boxes a month.

In other words, aside from the portion that Hongsawaddy kept for its own use, Homo Sapiens Company and Zhengda Company had nearly cleared out Qingye Medical’s entire inventory, as well as a portion of its future production capacity.

This made many people even more anxious.

And anxiety often leads to compromise.

Knowing he couldn’t delay any longer, Xie Heping immediately went in person to Qingye Medical’s Yangon Branch.

He didn’t bother trying to appeal to sentiment or haggle with Tian Hemeng. He directly placed an order for 1 million boxes at a price of 500 Jin Yuan per box.

Chen Dayou, the special task manager from the Bank of China who had come with him, immediately produced the 500 million Jin Yuan that had been stored at the bank.

”Manager Tian, I hope to receive the goods as soon as possible.”

Tian Hemeng replied with a smile, ”Of course. I can arrange for a plane to deliver them to Rongcheng Airport tomorrow. By the way, Manager Xie, if you want to avoid any trouble, it’s best to pre-order. It won’t be this fast next time. I had to specially allocate inventory for you this time.”

”Thank you for the reminder. I will contact our headquarters in Huaguo as soon as possible,” Xie Heping said, his smile strained.

He felt truly frustrated about being strong-armed by Qingye Group this time.

...

With three large orders successively finalized.

Other companies and factions were forced to accept the price, and they also had to wait in line for delivery.

According to their contracts, they had to pay upfront with Gold or goods.

Samsung Company, for example, sold 50 ten-thousand-ton-class transport ships to Qingye Group to raise the 500 million Jin Yuan.

Xiaolin Pharmaceutical helped Qingye Group procure a batch of medical equipment from East Japan. Xiaolin Pharmaceutical didn’t lose out on the deal, as they were able to make a profit from the price difference.

A medical company from An Nan paid with motorcycles and iron ore.

Lancang and Kampuchea agreed to let Qingye Group enter their local markets to develop and promised to provide protection for Qingye Group’s local branches.

Companies from Malaysia and Java paid with palm oil.

Only Xing Island and Xiangjiang, which lacked industrial products and local specialties, could only use US Dollars to buy into the shares allocated to Zhengda Company and Homo Sapiens Company.

Through these transactions, Qingye Group earned 2.3 billion Jin Yuan worth of materials.

Some regions were even forced to increase their Jin Yuan reserves to prepare for possible future secondary purchases from Qingye Group.

Of course, holding Jin Yuan reserves wasn’t really a loss for them. After all, it was genuine paper gold. If they didn’t end up needing to purchase anything from Hongsawaddy, they could just directly exchange it for Gold to ship back home.

The value of the gold standard was made manifest. At the very least, people holding Jin Yuan didn’t have to worry too much about a sudden currency collapse.

Unless Hongsawaddy decided to act shamelessly and dishonor the Jin Yuan exchange agreement. But doing so would be tantamount to suicide, earning them the collective hostility of other nations, and possibly even a siege.

However, the outside world did not know that the gold stored in Qingye Bank’s vaults already exceeded 300 tons and was increasing at a rate of over ten tons per month.

On the other hand, many people overlooked another fact: the Jin Yuan was also anchored to other things, especially Qingye Group’s superior technological products. This would also compel other countries to recognize the value of the Jin Yuan.

At the very least, the rapid test kits had already become a de facto anchor.

After all, one box of test kits was worth 500 Jin Yuan, equivalent to one gram of Gold.

As long as Qingye Group’s products remained irreplaceable, the Jin Yuan would only grow stronger.

...

Xie Bin hurried back to the headquarters in Bangkok.

The miracle AIDS drug he had brought back, Ai Qingling, was now in clinical trials.

It wasn’t just Zhengda Company’s own research team conducting experiments. Their partners, Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, also quickly mobilized their research teams in Bangkok.

It might not have been easy to assemble researchers for other drugs in Siam, but there was no shortage of those studying AIDS.

This was because Siam, through partnerships with these major international pharmaceutical companies, granted them licenses to conduct new drug trials in the country. In exchange, the drugs sold to Siam would be cheaper.

As a result, all the major pharmaceutical companies had set up numerous AIDS laboratories in Bangkok.

Inside Pfizer’s Bangkok laboratory.

The group of drug development researchers who received Ai Qingling immediately split into two teams. One team was responsible for analyzing the drug’s components, and the other for testing its effects.

Dr. Laura was in charge of the effects-testing team.

She opened the simple medicine box. Inside were three blister packs of pills. The three rows of pills were different colors. ’Clearly, these are three different drugs,’ she thought.

Opening the instruction manual, she frowned, because it was only in Burmese and Chinese.

”Bruce, come over and translate this.”

The Chinese researcher, Bruce Du, picked up the manual. ”Instructions for use: This is a three-in-one combination therapy. Take one of each pill at a time, every 8 hours... Contraindications: During the course of medication, do not consume alcohol or take antibiotics. Do not consume grapefruit, kaffir lime, pomelo, or their derivatives...”

”One of each type?”

”Yes, Doctor.”

Laura adjusted the dosage according to the human-to-mouse body weight ratio and administered the drug solution to the mice infected with HIV.

At the same time, she conducted a drug eradication experiment in a petri dish.

Under the microscope, she discovered that all three types of pills had a powerful killing effect on the HIV virus, and the kill rate was visible to the naked eye.

’What an astonishing killing effect. It’s almost like an antibiotic.’

The other researchers strongly agreed.

The experiment continued for four days. The team responsible for analyzing the drug’s components, using equipment like a mass spectrometer, successfully identified the three core components of Ai Qingling.

As soon as Dr. Laura got the analysis report, she saw that they were three brand-new organic compounds, with molecular formulas somewhat similar to streptomycin.

’I’d previously assumed they were just being deliberately mysterious, but now it seems the three types of pills really are three different drugs.’

Bruce spoke thoughtfully, ”This is a bit like cocktail therapy, but their drug’s killing effect is incredibly thorough. I’d guess they designed a three-drug combination to prevent the virus from developing resistance and escaping.”

”A truly remarkable invention.” Dr. Laura had to admit that Ai Qingling’s effects were astounding.