Homo Sapiens

Some chose to stay, and naturally, some chose to leave.

Of the 27 interns who came over, 8 chose to return to Huaguo, 6 chose external employment contracts, and the remaining 13 chose internal employment contracts that included immigration for their entire families.

The spiky-haired young man who had applied alongside Wang Haoran and Mu Ziying was one of those who chose an external contract.

He was now back in his ”hometown,” resting in a hotel in Rongcheng.

In the hotel room.

”What’s the situation?”

”They didn’t find any problems. At least, the aviation production base in Mandalay is clean.”

Across from the spiky-haired youth sat a plain-looking middle-aged man. His gaze was calm as he looked at the voice recorder on the table. ”Then keep at it. Try to develop a network among your colleagues.”

”I’m already working on it. I’m currently in contact with two internal employees who have confirmed they’re immigrating with their families. I’m just worried they’ll be transferred out of their positions,” the spiky-haired youth said helplessly.

The middle-aged man wasn’t surprised. ”Standard procedure. The moment you chose the external contract, it meant they wouldn’t trust you easily. For now, you can only gather information indirectly. Take it slow, don’t rush.”

”I understand,” the spiky-haired youth nodded.

The middle-aged man gave him a few more instructions before heading downstairs with the voice recorder.

In the hotel parking lot, he got into an ordinary Volkswagen.

In the back seat was another man with slicked-back hair, wearing glasses.

”Came up empty?”

The middle-aged man tossed the voice recorder over. ”That’s to be expected. The pieces have just been placed. We need to be patient.”

The slick-haired man placed the voice recorder into a specially designed briefcase. ”The higher-ups seem to be taking this very seriously, sending three teams over.”

”They have to take it seriously. Through their new medicine, Hongsawaddy has acquired quite a few production lines. Even though they’re mostly second-hand and outdated, some of them can still be converted for special purposes.”

The slick-haired man took off his glasses and wiped them. ”Why not try to communicate with them directly?”

”We’ve tested the waters. The three major groups may seem to have different origins, but they’re basically one big family. We can talk about economic cooperation, but on any other matter, they just give us the same unified runaround,” the middle-aged man said with a helpless shrug.

”What role does this Li Qingye play in all this?” the slick-haired man asked a critical question.

The middle-aged man shook his head. ”Unclear. He rarely meets with outsiders. The only recorded external visitor is Jiang Haitao, the Vice President of Xinxin Group.”

After putting his glasses back on, the slick-haired man’s eyes glinted as he speculated, ”A scientist? A puppet? The boss behind the scenes?”

”The ’scientist’ identity is likely the most authentic one. At the very least, the new antibiotic he invented is a top-tier achievement in the medical field in recent decades.”

The slick-haired man rubbed his chin. ”Judging by how he dealt with those people from Xinxin Group, he must have some say within Qingye Group. The question is just how much.”

”Regardless, the guy is definitely a handful. With his level of technical skill, if he were to do something...” The middle-aged man’s expression involuntarily grew grim.

”Speaking of which, why would Du Jianxin do something like that?” The slick-haired man’s eyes narrowed slightly.

”It’s just not human nature! He shouldn’t be the type of person to lose his mind over a few words. And what about Du Shuping, Yang Haibo, Yang Tiancheng, and the others who fled to Luzon? It seems all news of them has gradually vanished too.”

The middle-aged man fell silent. He knew what the slick-haired man was implying.

There were indeed many irrational elements in this whole affair.

They had been caught completely off guard before, but now, after re-examining everything, they discovered many things that defied common sense.

But with no one left to testify, they couldn’t find the truth without finding the key person, Du Jianxin.

Although, based on motive, a certain someone was a suspect.

But that person had a blood feud with Du Jianxin’s family. Why would Du Jianxin obediently follow that person’s orders and do something so self-destructive?

Suddenly, a thought flashed through the slick-haired man’s mind. ”Old Zhang, you don’t think... that Du Jianxin wasn’t the real Du Jianxin at all?”

”What?” Old Zhang’s eyes went wide.

The slick-haired man’s eyes grew brighter. ”If that hypothesis is true, then everything makes sense. A man with a happy family and immense wealth—what reason would he have to throw it all away? It goes against human nature. Unless, none of it had anything to do with him.”

”Your guess has some merit, but you have no proof,” Old Zhang said, throwing cold water on the idea.

The slick-haired man shook his head. ”Of course I know that. Du Jianxin has probably been... dealt with by now. I’m just incredibly curious how he managed to swap someone out without anyone noticing.”

”You can go to Hongsawaddy and ask him,” Old Zhang joked with a deadpan expression.

”I’d like to live a few more years, thanks. We just need to pay more attention to this person from now on. He is indeed very dangerous,” the slick-haired man cautioned.

Old Zhang remained expressionless. ”Stop worrying about things you can’t control. In matters like this, you and I are just small fry. It’s more practical to worry about what’s for lunch.”

”I’m worried about you! Your team is in Hongsawaddy. Tell them to be extra careful. If he really was the one pulling the strings behind that incident, then this man is absolutely ruthless and cunning. I don’t want to be the one delivering an urn with you.”

The further the slick-haired man spoke, the more solemn his expression became.

The car twisted and turned for over twenty minutes before pulling into a farmhouse restaurant in the suburbs.

What none of them noticed was that after the car parked in the garage, a few cockroaches crawled out from under the vehicle and scurried up to a hidden corner on the roof.

A moment later, several wasps appeared next to the cockroaches. The two sides completed an information exchange, and the wasps flew away.

Likewise, the spiky-haired youth resting in his hotel room had no idea that on his ceiling, cockroaches had already relayed every word of his conversation back to their source.

No one could escape the surveillance of the Homo Sapiens Company’s Security Division.

Especially after a person was placed on a priority watchlist, their entire life became a one-way mirror to the Homo Sapiens Company.

「Three days later.」

「Hongsawaddy.」

「Dongzhi City.」

As the head of the Hongsawaddy Branch’s Security Division, Yang Mengjiao had already received a detailed intelligence report.

”Branch Chief, should we eliminate these bugs?” asked Wu Tiehu, formerly of Hongsawaddy’s intelligence department, a fierce glint of killing intent in his eyes.

Yang Mengjiao shook her head. ”You can’t kill all the cockroaches. Kill this batch, and a new one will show up soon enough. Do you know what an ecological niche is?”

”So you mean we should let them stay, Branch Chief,” Wu Tiehu said with a deep frown.

”Organisms evolve. When they find that the previous batch of cockroaches has been exterminated, they’ll do everything they can to find out why. The next time, they’ll be even more covert,” Yang Mengjiao said, putting down the file in her hands.

”Therefore, we can’t just kill them directly. That would be the stupidest thing to do. The real strategy is to let them stay put, feeling secure, and then use these ’cockroaches’ to feed them certain information.”

”I see,” Wu Tiehu said, a look of sudden realization on his face.

Yang Mengjiao shook her head. ”You all still have a long way to go. Don’t always be yelling about killing. We are the new humanity. We need to be more civilized, lest we frighten the neighbors.”

”Your reprimand is justified, Branch Chief. My considerations were shortsighted,” Wu Tiehu quickly apologized.

She glanced at a section of the report and sneered inwardly.

’So what if they know? All they can do is watch. The boss isn’t afraid of them figuring it out at all.’