Homo Sapiens

March 27, 2020.

The world was still in a bizarrely calm state.

In some corners of the world, life went on as usual, like a pool of stagnant water.

But in other places, brand-new transformations had occurred.

For instance, the Old Street District in Hongsawaddy.

As a region bordering Hongsawaddy and Huaguo, this place used to be synonymous with chaos. Gambling, kidnapping, "flour," and organ harvesting ran rampant.

But starting from the end of last year, the Old Street District officially turned a new page.

After more than three months of consolidation, the Old Street District has been renamed the Shan North Region. It occupies the Northern Region of the Shan Plateau, with a status equivalent to Hongsawaddy’s provinces and states.

Fang Xinwu and two of his underlings drove an SUV, heading north to Nankang Town. North of Nankang Town lay the national border, with Ruili on the other side.

He had come this time at someone’s request.

Arriving at the port of entry, Fang Xinwu saw many tightly bundled-up ethnic Chinese crossing from Ruili into Nankang Town. Among them were quite a few nervous-looking individuals, their worried eyes scanning their surroundings.

Meanwhile, Fang Xinwu’s underling, Mao Shuihe, held up a wooden sign with "Fang Xinxin" written on it.

After waiting for a little over half an hour, a young woman pulling a suitcase appeared before Fang Xinwu.

"Brother Xinwu, I’m Xinxin." The girl was indeed Fang Xinxin. Although she wore a mask, her frailty and gauntness were hard to conceal.

Fang Xinwu nodded. "Get in the car."

Mao Shuihe quickly took her suitcase.

The group got into the SUV. Fang Xinxin was very quiet during the drive, silently watching the dense jungle outside the window.

The vehicle headed south along the highway.

Two hours later, they arrived at Xingwei Town, 80 kilometers away.

After a period of expansion and renovation, the small town had now transformed into a small city of considerable size.

However, Fang Xinwu’s vehicle didn’t stop. Instead, it drove toward a nearby mountainous area just west of Xingwei Town, which was at a higher elevation.

After a short drive on a winding mountain road, they reached their destination.

This was a small village built on a high mountain plateau. The entire village had been renovated, and a lot of new infrastructure had been added.

Using poured concrete pillars, steel structures, and iron-bamboo materials, Qingye Construction Company had built a large complex of five-story buildings here in just 46 days.

Coming out of the parking lot, the entrance sign was written in both Burmese and Chinese: Xingwei Town Yunxiang Sanatorium.

"How many in your party?" the receptionist at the main entrance asked with a smile.

Fang Xinwu had already learned about Yunxiang Sanatorium on the official Qingye Medical website before coming. "Four people. One of us requires medical services."

"IDs, please."

Fang Xinwu and the others handed over their ID cards or passports.

The clerk quickly registered their basic information, then asked with a smile, "Which of you requires medical services?"

"This lady. She needs the Package A medical service."

The so-called Package A was the medical package for treating AIDS. If it were for rabies, it would be Package K. The clerk nodded and immediately entered the information.

"One Package A. This is the itemized bill. Please confirm with your signature, then make the payment."

Fang Xinwu took the itemized bill.

[Package A (AIDS Treatment), Medication Fee: 50,000 yuan, Basic Nursing Fee: 1,400 yuan (seven days), Accommodation Fee: 1,400 yuan (seven days), Customized Meal Fee: 700 yuan (seven days)]

[Three standard guest rooms, 7-day stay, Room Fee: 2,100 yuan, Meal Fee: 1,050 yuan...]

[Total: 56,650 yuan. This company does not accept any foreign currency. We only accept Jin Yuan or gold.]

Fang Xinwu directly took out his Qingye Bank card. "Charge it."

The clerk inserted the bank card into the device. "Please enter your PIN."

Fang Xinwu entered the PIN, and the machine printed out a receipt.

"Thank you for your business. Please come again," the clerk said with a smiling nod.

Another attendant immediately led the group to the sanatorium’s guest room area. Passing through a small park converted from an orchard, they could see many people strolling about.

Fang Xinwu heard many of them speaking Mandarin, and it was clear that a good number were ethnic Chinese.

Before deciding to launch the new drug, Qingye Group’s executives had discussed certain issues, such as the difficulty of getting the new drug into Huaguo anytime soon.

But Huaguo had a considerable number of AIDS patients, and these people would definitely need the medication.

Therefore, these patients had only two channels to obtain the drug: one was through smuggling, and the other was by going abroad.

Considering the extremely high drug prices in Siam and Luzon, Hongsawaddy, as the drug’s place of origin, had a retail price of only 50,000 Jin Yuan, making its cost-effectiveness naturally very high.

The only trouble was that the local social environment in Hongsawaddy was not appealing.

After Qingye Group completely consolidated the Old Street District, its development became an issue. After much thought, Liu Zhifan decided to launch a sanatorium here specifically geared towards patients from Huaguo.

This was the reason for Yunxiang Sanatorium’s existence.

Currently, Qingye Medical has four flagship products: a new type of rapid test strip, the AIDS specific-effect drug—Ai Qingling, the rabies specific-effect drug—Rabies Killer, and a scarless removal serum.

Ai Qingling and Rabies Killer were drugs known to the outside world, while the scarless removal serum was the medication Li Qingye had previously developed to eliminate surgical scars on the Soldiers.

Because the scarless removal serum required low-temperature storage, had to be used in conjunction with other drugs, and demanded strict dosage control, it could not be sold over the counter. It could only be offered as one of Qingye Hospital’s cosmetic surgery procedures.

Many modern surgeries find it difficult to avoid scarring, and can only try to position incisions in concealed locations.

Qingye Hospital, on the other hand, offered scarless cosmetic services—an industry with absolute massive potential.

The pillar industries of the future Northern Shan Region would be gambling, tourism, cosmetic surgery, convalescent care, and pipeline transport.

As for how those guests from the north would pay, it was actually very simple.

At the various ports of entry and cities in Northern Shan, there were branches of Qingye Bank where one could directly exchange gold for Jin Yuan.

Although carrying large amounts of gold out of Huaguo required a declaration, as long as the amount of gold carried at one time was less than 30 grams, no declaration was needed, and one could simply leave the country wearing gold jewelry.

grams of gold could be exchanged for 15,000 Jin Yuan, which was enough for a single person to live on in Hongsawaddy for some time.

Moreover, many of the people coming for treatment rarely came alone; some even brought their entire families.

The amount of gold they could carry also increased with the number of people in their party.

Recently, due to the continuous influx of ethnic Chinese seeking AIDS treatment, Qingye Bank branches at the Northern Shan ports of entry had received over 147 kilograms of gold products within a single week.

Huaguo, for its part, was naturally well aware of this.

But there was no way to stop it. People wanted to go abroad for self-funded treatment; they couldn’t just be forbidden! And carrying gold was also perfectly legal and compliant with regulations.

Unless the Bank of China was willing to release its reserves of billions of Jin Yuan, this influx of gold into Hongsawaddy would be difficult to contain.

After all, there were hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients in the country; forbidding them from leaving was impossible.

The only way to stop this trend of carrying gold abroad for treatment would be to quickly import Ai Qingling through official channels.

However, the process of importing such drugs was often very slow. Huaguo’s requirements, in particular, were extremely strict and cautious, which meant the approval of many new drugs often required several years of back-and-forth.

Furthermore, Qingye Medical’s new drug came with significant side effects, which further increased the difficulty of gaining approval.

Of course, Qingye Medical wasn’t desperate to enter other regions either.

After all, there’s a world of difference in treatment between begging to get in and having others beg you to enter.

Qingye Medical, in a position to be arrogant, would naturally not stoop to making a warm overture only to get the cold shoulder. Wouldn’t it be far better to just wait for others to come begging at their door?

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