Homo Sapiens

August 2nd.

Manila City.

The sky had just begun to lighten, and many people were already up and starting their workday.

Mary was up at the crack of dawn to make breakfast for her two children. Afterward, she rode her bicycle to take her younger son to the North District First Primary School.

This was a private school owned by the Fernando Clan, primarily providing education for the children of Homo Sapiens Company employees, clan members, and middle-class families.

Her younger son was able to attend school here thanks to her older daughter, Julie.

After dropping off her son, she pedaled her bicycle to her job at Fengrao Supermarket.

As soon as she arrived at the supermarket, the manager shouted, "Mary, you and Lingdang go change the price tags on the shelves."

"What's getting a price hike now?" Mary knew the supermarket's unwritten rule: they would rush to change prices when something in the market went up, but if something went down, they would be a beat slower to react.

Picking up a large stack of freshly printed price labels, Mary saw that the first items to be hit were rice, flour, soybean oil, and palm oil.

Her colleague, Lingdang, gasped quietly, "The price increase on rice is so high."

The two chatted quietly as they walked.

When they reached the grain and oil section, Mary pulled the old price labels out from the tag holders and inserted the new ones.

Cianlan Fragrant Rice / 56 pesos/kg

Mindoro Glutinous Rice / 41 pesos/kg

Southern Island Japonica Rice / 38 pesos/kg

...

The prices of various types of rice had risen by different degrees, with an average increase of about 13%.

In reality, the price hikes for grain and oil at Fengrao Supermarket were the smallest in Manila.

At another large wholesale grain and oil store not far from Fengrao Supermarket, prices had already been inflated by 20%.

As the region with the strongest foreign influence, the most compradors, and the highest concentration of Converts, Manila instantly became the eye of the storm for soaring grain prices in Luzon.

「In the warehouse of the Jiahai Grain and Oil Trading Company.」

The boss, Fan Ao Ka Hook, was leading his men to inspect the warehouse's fire and water-proofing facilities. He had recently imported a large shipment of over twenty thousand tons of fragrant rice from Siam.

It was currently peak typhoon season in Luzon, and he was extremely worried about the warehouse storing all this rice. His chance to strike it rich all came down to this.

"Boss, the market price for rice has already surged by twenty percent. Should we sell?" the head of the sales department asked cautiously.

Fan Ao Ka rolled his eyes. "Are you an idiot? International grain prices are climbing nonstop. Siam, An Nan, and Tianzhu have all announced they're raising their rice export prices and reducing export volumes. What money is there to be made by selling now?"

"The boss is brilliant!" another lackey chimed in, eager to kiss up.

Fan Ao Ka patted a stack of rice sacks. "Don't sell until the price has doubled. In fact, I'm going to reduce the supply to our stores even further."

"But, what about Fengrao?" the sales head asked, still feeling a trace of unease.

"What's there to be afraid of? Is it illegal for me not to sell rice? This is a free market," Fan Ao Ka said, waving his hand dismissively.

Comprador merchants, Convert groups, and foreign-owned enterprises with the same idea as Fan Ao Ka were all rapidly reducing their rice sales while gradually jacking up market prices.

Affected by the sharp rise in rice prices, it wasn't just grain that saw price hikes in Manila; cooking oil, white sugar, meat, eggs, and other non-staple foods all followed suit.

Similarly, in other cities across Luzon, signs of rising prices for grain, oil, and agricultural products also appeared.

It was as if Luzon had suddenly returned to the era of its last food crisis, with insufficient domestic grain production and soaring external grain prices.

But this time, would the outcome be the same as the last?

Homo Sapiens Company, through Fengrao Supermarket, increased the market supply of grain, but it also initiated a purchase-limit mode, and the prices weren't low either.

But in the entire market, only Fengrao Supermarket had an adequate supply of grain, so the public could only grit their teeth and buy food whose price changed daily.

This situation continued for over a month.

「September arrived.」

The second-season rice crop in Luzon began to enter its harvest period.

At this time, the average price of rice in the Luzon market had stabilized at 56 pesos per kilogram for indica rice, 58 pesos per kilogram for glutinous rice, and 80 pesos per kilogram for fragrant rice.

These prices were already nearly double what they were before.

And the worse news was, due to the impact of typhoons, this year's second-season rice crop in Luzon would see a yield reduction of about 12%.

At the same time, bad news came from Luzon's rice procurement negotiations with Siam, An Nan, and Tianzhu; it seemed there were huge disagreements on price.

All this unfavorable news made the rice speculators in Manila even more confident. Many of them believed that Luzon's grain prices still had room to rise.

Just then, a war to snatch up rice began all over Luzon.

Foreign-owned enterprises, comprador merchants, and Convert groups began organizing grain acquisition teams to buy up paddy rice from the countryside at high prices.

Even some of the agricultural cooperatives under Homo Sapiens Company were "secretly" selling rice to these people.

「Inside the cooperative in Macaron Village.」

Fan Ao Ka said with a grin, "Brother Carter, 45,000 pesos a ton is already the highest price in Manila. Don't you want to go live in the Free World?"

After speaking, he pulled 500,000 pesos from his leather bag and stuffed them into Carter's hand.

Carter pocketed the money without a change in expression, then replied in a serious tone, "Alright. 45,000 a ton, but I only have 500 tons."

"Haha, a pleasure doing business with you." Fan Ao Ka flashed a smug smile.

At that moment, his heart was completely consumed by greed, and he was pouring his entire fortune into snapping up local rice.

There were quite a few people who thought just like Fan Ao Ka.

In the first half of September, about 75% of Luzon's rice crop was harvested, which was also the most frantic period for these speculators.

Many of them, like Fan Ao Ka, bet their entire fortunes, engaging in an all-out rice buying war against Homo Sapiens Company in Luzon.

Even ABCD gritted their teeth and squeezed out over a billion US Dollars to secretly acquire rice in Luzon.

Apparently, ABCD also wanted to use this harvest to cover their massive losses in the financial and soybean spot markets.

「September 15th.」

The average price of rice in Luzon hit a new high, reaching 78 pesos per kilogram, officially breaking the 200% increase mark.

At this, the speculative merchants became even more rampant.

Some even clamored that Luzon rice would rise to 100 pesos per kilogram in October, and 150 pesos per kilogram by the end of the year.

Seeing the situation in Luzon, rice producers in places like Siam, An Nan, and Tianzhu grew even more audacious, making the procurement negotiations between the two sides all the more difficult.

After all, they could all see that Luzon was short on grain bargaining chips. If not for the five great families joining forces to suppress prices and continuously release grain through Homo Sapiens Company, the price of food in Luzon would have spun out of control long ago.

Therefore, outsiders were all speculating on when the five great families would be unable to hold on any longer, as that would be the moment to harvest Luzon.

Just as the speculators were running wild, proclaiming that Luzon's grain reserves were about to bottom out,

「In the underground conference room of Neihu Manor.」

Gafei put down the assessment report in his hands. "So, in other words, all the fish have taken the bait?"

"Yes. They've shown their hand. Now it's our turn to play our cards," Zhang Jerry said with a malicious grin.

Xu Yingming also smiled and said, "The second-season rice in Hongsawaddy had a bumper harvest. They can currently supply us with 7 million tons of rice. The first shipment of 500,000 tons will begin arriving at Manila Port the day after tomorrow."

"Then what are we waiting for? Launch the full-scale counterattack the day after tomorrow. I want to enjoy watching them go into freefall," Gafei joked with a touch of wicked delight.

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