Homo Sapiens

「September 17th.」

Mary went to work, just like any other day.

After parking her bike, she and her colleague, Lingdang, were stopped by the manager. "Mary, go change out the price tags."

"Oh, is the price of rice going up again?" Mary had grown used to it.

But the manager didn't answer, instead urging her, "Hurry up. The supermarket is probably going to be busy today."

As she picked up the newly printed price tags, Mary glanced at them casually.

'Up to 250? ...' she thought instinctively, then her eyes widened. '25? Was there a printing error?'

She called out to the manager, "Sir, is this tag a misprint? It should be 250 Pesos per kilogram, right?"

"It is 25. Headquarters sent a special notice this morning. Now hurry up and change the tags."

Hearing this, Mary and Lingdang were stunned for a moment, then smiles broke out on their faces. Although they could eat at the company cafeteria and buy rice with an employee discount, the current rice prices still put immense pressure on their families.

The two of them went about their work with a new spring in their step, quickly replacing the old price tags for rice, soybean oil, flour, and seaweed blend oil with the new ones.

They also quickly used their phones to tell friends and family to come to the supermarket and buy.

Many of the supermarket employees were tipping off their contacts.

At 7:30 in the morning, the moment the supermarket opened.

"Here's my ID! Give me 50 kilograms of glutinous rice."

"Three bottles of soybean oil..."

"F*CK... Who stepped on my flip-flop..."

"Don't push! Our supermarket has plenty of stock!"

The citizens, who had caught wind of the news, were worried Fengrao Supermarket was only running the promotion for a day or two, so they started panic buying.

Even the ID checks and the purchase limits per person couldn't dampen the citizens' buying fervor. They had clearly been traumatized by over a month of high grain prices.

Not far from the Fengrao Supermarket was the Jiahai Grain and Oil Wholesale Market.

After hearing his subordinate's report, the head of the sales department's expression changed. A growing sense of unease filled his heart, and he quickly called his boss, Fan Ao Ka.

Half an hour later, a rushed Fan Ao Ka arrived. He stood at the entrance, gazing at the surging crowds at Fengrao Supermarket, his expression shifting between dark and light.

"Boss, why don't we cut our losses and lower our prices too?" The head of sales was already scared.

Their company currently had 130,000 tons of rice in stock, with an average cost of 53 Pesos per kilogram.

Fan Ao Ka refused without a second thought. "Impossible. At Fengrao Supermarket's prices, we'd lose 28 Pesos on every kilogram of rice."

His eyes were filled with disbelief and wishful thinking. "Fengrao Supermarket must be bluffing. This has to be a conspiracy. Their stock is probably almost gone. Yes, that must be it. They can't fool me."

Soon, Fan Ao Ka's phone began ringing off the hook. His partners were getting restless.

In fact, all across Luzon, the companies and speculators who were also driving up the price of rice and grain oils were shocked by Fengrao Supermarket's sudden price drop.

Of course, this bunch hadn't given up yet. They were still gritting their teeth and holding on.

Their costs for rice, flour, and cooking oil were clearly not low. Faced with Fengrao Supermarket's rock-bottom prices, which were even lower than usual, if they followed suit and sold off their stock, the prices would only plummet further.

At that price, they'd lose their shirts.

Therefore, they preferred to believe Fengrao Supermarket was engaged in some conspiracy rather than believe its inventory was actually sufficient.

The vast majority of them, including the foreign-owned enterprises controlled by ABCD, all chose to tough it out.

Now, they planned to see who had more patience and more chips to play—them or Fengrao Supermarket. It was a waiting game to see who would break first.

...

That evening on the Manila television news.

The news footage showed Gafei and Old Du appearing together in a large hall.

A host's voiceover began, its tone measured and rhythmic, "After difficult negotiations, the Homo Sapiens Company has finalized an agricultural product procurement partnership with the Hongsawaddy Development Group, the Hongshawa United Group, and the Hongshawa Qingye Group..."

"Before the end of this year, Hongsawaddy will supply the Homo Sapiens Company with 5 million tons of rice and 2 million tons of soybeans. Next year, both parties will continue to expand the scope of their cooperation..."

"And now for the detailed report..."

At the same time, the official website for Fengrao House published the detailed procurement specifics.

[... The company will purchase 5 million tons of rice from Hongsawaddy at a price of 2,400 Jin yuan per ton, along with 2 million tons of genetically modified soybeans at the same price ...

Ancillary contract: The Homo Sapiens Company will transfer iron bamboo cultivation and processing technology to the three major Hongsawaddy groups, conditionally transfer two medium-sized shipyards, and undertake the construction of 15 methane fermentation plants with supporting facilities. ...]

It looked as if the Homo Sapiens Company had been forced to sign a treaty under duress.

Although the ancillary contract stated that the Hongsawaddy side also needed to pay for the procurement and construction, the deal was a barter arrangement.

But everyone in Southeast Asia knew that under Hongsawaddy's Jin yuan transaction model, the Homo Sapiens Company was definitely getting the short end of the stick.

In reality, however, the Homo Sapiens Company was just using this opportunity to transfer a portion of its already public-facing technology to its Hongsawaddy Branch through this transaction.

At the same time, it legitimately secured a stable channel for its grain supply.

What's more, the contract between the Homo Sapiens Company and the three major Hongsawaddy groups was not just for this year's transaction, but a long-term contract spanning five years.

To the outside world, it was obvious that for Hongsawaddy to be willing to supply grain to Luzon at a low price for five consecutive years, the Homo Sapiens Company must have paid a huge price.

This conveniently allowed the Homo Sapiens Company and Gafei to play the victim in Luzon for all it was worth.

Look, the Five Great Families and the Homo Sapiens Company were taking a loss just to buy grain so everyone could eat. For the people not to support them would be an injustice against heaven itself.

This instantly stirred the public's sympathy and their shared sense of righteous indignation.

And as ship after ship of rice and soybeans arrived at Manila Port...

The price of rice in Luzon instantly collapsed.

A stampede of panic selling dragged the price of rice in the Manila Region down to 18 Pesos per kilogram that very day.

The speculators holding large quantities of high-priced rice were slaughtered in this trap.

On the top floor of the Jiahai Company office building, Fan Ao Ka was completely dumbfounded. He put down the TV remote with a trembling hand.

The company executives standing to the side didn't dare to breathe.

"AHHHH... My money!" Fan Ao Ka screamed madly, then swept the computer and files off his desk before wailing:

"Waaaah... I don't believe it..."

"Boss, my condolences... but if we sell off the inventory now, we can still mitigate some of the losses. We haven't reached the point of bankruptcy yet," the head of sales said, bracing himself.

"Heh heh... It's over... I mortgaged the rice to the bank and borrowed 600 million Pesos..."

"What?" The head of sales finally understood how the company had afforded to buy so much rice. It was all borrowed from the bank.

This loan was clearly the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Suddenly, Fan Ao Ka's expression became crazed. "It's gone! Everything is gone!"

With that, he rushed toward the rooftop. The others didn't dare to stop him, watching helplessly as Fan Ao Ka leaped from the roof of the 8-story building.

Fan Ao Ka's fleshy body free-fell through the air, then smashed heavily onto the concrete sidewalk below.

Blood bloomed like a flower, painting a picture of sordid sin.

Passersby screamed in terror or panicked at the sudden shower of gore.

Tonight was destined to be another sleepless night in Manila.

Many of the speculators who had been wiped out chose to jump from buildings, throw themselves into the sea, or eat a bullet, putting an end to their greedy lives.

And another storm was now, inevitably, on its way.

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