Homo Sapiens

Modu.

Inside the Donghua Group headquarters building by the Huangpu River.

After wearily dealing with several parts suppliers, Kong Zhao Lin finally returned to his office. He rubbed his temples and picked up the now-cold coffee beside him, taking a sip. ”Haaah...”

Without Wu Heguang to keep things in order, the various factions within Donghua Group left Kong Zhao Lin physically and mentally exhausted.

”President Kong.”

”Come in.”

Vice President Huang Kang, who was responsible for communicating with the inspection company, walked in holding a document, a grim expression on his face as he reported:

”President Kong, Kailuo Company is demanding that the two inspection companies perform one final inspection. If we still can’t guarantee the equipment meets the standards, Kailuo Company will move to sue us according to the contract.”

”Why are they changing their minds again?” Kong Zhao Lin was completely numb to it all.

Huang Kang spread his hands helplessly. ”President Kong, they’re getting anxious too! Our equipment has been failing inspection for so long, they’re seriously doubting our technology.”

”Damn it! Where exactly is the problem?” Kong Zhao Lin grabbed his hair in anguish.

The two of them discussed it for a while. They knew things couldn’t go on like this, but they had no solution. The ball was now in Kailuo Company’s court.

Watching the sun set outside the window, Kong Zhao Lin felt a sense of powerlessness, as if he had reached the end of his rope.

”I’m tired. I’ll call a meeting with the executives at headquarters tomorrow. Let’s call it a day.”

Huang Kang tried to comfort him. ”Don’t lose heart, President Kong. Maybe the equipment will pass inspection in a few days. You need to take care of yourself. The company is relying on you now.”

”Thank you for your concern, President Huang. See you tomorrow,” Kong Zhao Lin replied listlessly.

After the two parted ways, an agitated Kong Zhao Lin got into his Tesla, planning to head home and clear his head.

While stopped at a traffic light, it seemed to him that the countdown was unusually slow, making him even more irritable.

This stretch of road had relatively little foot and vehicle traffic, which was due to the somewhat remote location of the Donghua Group headquarters.

When the light finally turned green, he slammed on the accelerator and sped forward. But from his perspective, all the other cars seemed to be moving in slow motion.

Kong Zhao Lin felt like he was only going about 40, which made him instinctively stomp on the gas again.

A sharp turn was just ahead.

The surrounding drivers, seeing the Tesla roar past, immediately started cursing.

”Fuck!”

”Driving that fast? In a hurry to get reincarnated?”

”He’s done for. A normal person can’t take a turn like that at this speed.”

”A Tesla again?”

”Holy shit! He’s not even slowing down?”

Kong Zhao Lin’s Tesla suddenly shot onto the sidewalk, smashed through the guardrail, and plunged headfirst into the Huangpu River.

The surrounding drivers and pedestrians watched, stunned.

Huang Kang, who hadn’t yet left the headquarters building, had just hung up with Li Xinyi from the equipment manufacturing plant when his secretary rushed in.

The secretary said in a panic, ”President Huang, President Kong’s wife just called. She was asking if President Kong had left for home in his car.”

”He did. Why?” Huang Kang replied, confused.

GULP! The secretary’s face grew even paler. ”Someone just called President Kong’s wife and told her that President Kong’s car lost control and plunged into the Huangpu River.”

”What? Is this a joke?” Huang Kang jumped in shock.

But the secretary gave a frantic shake of the head. ”It’s true.”

Huang Kang sat there, stunned. He felt like for Donghua Group recently, it wasn’t just raining, it was pouring. It was as if Misfortune’s mother had opened the door for Misfortune—they’d hit rock bottom.

The secretary looked at him, at a complete loss, waiting for him—the highest-ranking vice president in the company—to make a decision.

After spacing out for a moment, Huang Kang first made a few calls to confirm whether the news was true. He didn’t dare report it to Wu Heguang or Wu Xinlan until he had confirmation.

Finally, more than two hours later, the car was pulled from the water.

Huang Kang and Kong Zhao Lin’s wife rushed to the scene. The moment she saw the license plate, Kong Zhao Lin’s wife’s vision went black and she fainted.

With a trembling hand, Huang Kang slowly pulled back the white sheet. He saw the pale, familiar face underneath and quickly covered it again.

Then, he nodded to a nearby police officer. ”That’s him. That’s Kong Zhao Lin.”

”In that case, Mr. Huang, we’ll need you to cooperate with our investigation. We’d like to understand the deceased’s recent circumstances.”

Huang Kang nodded. ”No problem.”

After giving a statement for over an hour, Huang Kang came out and saw Kong Zhao Lin’s sobbing family. He had no choice but to fight his own exhaustion and offer them some words of comfort.

He had just walked out the door and was about to drive home when a sudden chill ran down his spine. He stopped, took out his phone, and called for a designated driver.

Clearly, Huang Kang was too spooked to risk driving while exhausted.

Once he got home, he immediately called Wu Xinlan.

Upon hearing the news, Wu Xinlan expressed immense shock and said she would return to Modu as soon as possible to take charge of the company.

But at noon the next day, Kong Zhao Lin’s father called Wu Heguang, who then learned the news. Unable to handle the shock, Wu Heguang supposedly suffered another cerebral hemorrhage and was rushed to the ICU.

In reality, while Wu Heguang did learn that Kong Zhao Lin was dead, he was alive and well. After all, the biological chip could forcibly control his body; it would be difficult for him to have a cerebral hemorrhage even if he wanted one.

That afternoon, ”Wu Heguang” was declared dead after all rescue attempts failed. His body was placed in the morgue at Ipoh Hospital.

Wu Heguang stared at ”his own” corpse, his expression grim. But he was filled with utter despair, because he had been given a new identity—a lonely old janitor at Ipoh Hospital. He could only watch the events of the real world unfold, powerless to interfere.

Over the past few days, he had suffered a despair unlike any he had ever known. His life was controlled like a puppet on a string, and he thought of suicide constantly.

Unfortunately, the biological chip in his brain monitored his every move, and would even take direct control of his body to make him perform tasks.

After ”Wu Heguang” passed away, Yang Tiancheng, representing the Yang Family, along with Du Shuping and others, personally came to Ipoh Hospital to see Wu Heguang’s body before returning to report what they saw.

Wu Xinlan, citing the immense trouble of transporting the body back to the mainland, immediately decided to have it cremated right there in Xiangjiang.

Donghua Group, already in internal chaos, and the members of the Wu Family who had their eyes on Wu Heguang’s inheritance, did not object to this decision.

Of course, these members of the Wu Family weren’t interested in Donghua Group’s shares, mainly because the company was now facing a bankruptcy crisis.

In this strange atmosphere, Wu Xinlan and Gao Ming returned to the Modu Headquarters a few days later, travel-worn, and managed to barely stabilize the internal situation at Donghua Group.

At the same time, Wu Xinlan initiated a stock buyback. She quickly reacquired shares from company executives and some other stockholders. Combined with the shares she already held, she now controlled 11.3% of Donghua Group’s stock, making her the second-largest shareholder on paper.

Since Wu Heguang was now ”dead” in the legal sense, Wu Xinlan became the de facto chairman of Donghua Group.

This series of changes did nothing to revive Donghua Group’s stock price.

After all, it was already May 26th, leaving only 16 days until Kailuo Company’s contract deadline.

No one believed Donghua Group could fulfill the contract within the deadline. Everyone was just waiting for the company to collapse. They were like vultures circling overhead, ready to carve up Donghua Group’s corpse.

And yet, on the stock market, Donghua Group’s stock, which had fallen below 1 yuan per share, still had some trading volume, consisting mainly of sell orders.

The finance office of the Internal Affairs Department spent only a few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars to acquire a significant number of shares, raising their stake to 53.2%.

Subtracting the 34% under Wu Heguang’s name, which was frozen, and Wu Xinlan’s 11.3%, only 1.5% of the shares were actually still in circulation on the market.

If Li Qingye were to announce their shareholding at this moment, it would instantly trigger a compulsory delisting clause for Donghua Group.