Completion

November 27th, Year 17.

The Calamian Islands of Luzon remained sweltering. Personnel from the professional inspection company completed the final acceptance work at the laboratory.

Li Qingye, finding no major issues, instructed Fang Xincheng to pay the completion funds to Xin Hai Company. However, according to the contract, 5% of the final payment was still outstanding.

This was standard industry practice; the final payment was typically settled after the project was formally put into use and had been operational for a period.

The contract between Homo sapiens Company and Xin Hai Company stipulated that the final payment would only be made within 18 months of formal operation, provided no major issues arose.

Back on Calamian Island, Li Qingye convened a meeting with his management team.

"The company's profits from our farmed shrimp and pomfret this year totaled only $420,000 USD. While not a huge sum, at least we didn't lose money. Zaxi, thank you for your hard work."

Zaxi flashed a wide grin, revealing his teeth. "The weather was good this year, and we were quite lucky," he said.

Li Qingye turned to Li Jinglan and instructed, "Jinglan, discuss with Zaxi about giving bonuses to the employees at the aquaculture base."

Li Jinglan paused his note-taking and nodded. "Okay, I'll arrange it as soon as possible."

"Now, for the second matter," Li Qingye's tone turned serious. "You all understand that the company cannot continue like this. We must find new business ventures, or we'll go bankrupt sooner or later."

Li Jinglan and the others wholeheartedly agreed.

Kang Nan, usually quiet, worried his department might be cut. He spoke up, an unusual occurrence. "Boss, how about I take a boat to explore near the Solomon Islands to the south?"

Li Qingye waved his hand. "There's no need. I have plans for the fleet."

Hearing that Li Qingye had a plan, the others remained silent, waiting for him to elaborate.

"You must understand that wild fishery resources in the Pacific, especially the Northwest Pacific, are becoming increasingly scarce. Deep-sea fishing is a dead end. Therefore, shifting to aquaculture is the new direction."

Li Jinglan, who had done his homework, understood Li Qingye's reasoning perfectly. However, aquaculture wasn't an easy path either.

After all, Homo sapiens Company was already involved in farming shrimp and pomfret. These were low-tech, common aquaculture species that only yielded meager profits for hard work.

Li Qingye continued, "Farmed shrimp and pomfret lack depth in terms of value. Maintaining the status quo is sufficient. The species our company will focus on developing next is this..."

The projection screen behind him immediately displayed an image of a fish.

"Eel?" Zaxi frowned, blurting out his question. "Boss, eel farming is very costly, and in recent years, the catch of eel fry has decreased significantly. It's difficult for us to purchase a large quantity of fry."

Kang Nan also chimed in, "Boss, Zaxi is right. Eel fry can only be caught wild; they cannot be bred artificially. Our company has tried fishing near the Luzon Trench before, and the number of wild eels is too low now."

However, Li Qingye was confident. He smiled and countered, "Precisely because artificial breeding is impossible, it's worth our investment. Otherwise, do you think I invested $50 million USD in a laboratory to build biological weapons?"

"Uh..." Li Jinglan suddenly realized that a biological laboratory with such a massive investment must be for research.

"I plan to research artificial eel breeding technology. If we can breed eel fry at a low cost, we will capture a huge market.

Did you know that at its peak, global eel consumption was 220,000 tons? The average price per kilogram of eel was $15-$30 USD, with a total output value of $3.3-$6.6 billion USD. This wasn't the limit of the eel industry, but rather a restriction due to the depletion of wild resources. If low-cost artificial breeding can be achieved, this is absolutely a multi-billion dollar industry."

Hearing Li Qingye's ambitious vision, everyone's breathing quickened. The eel industry was indeed a significant market.

"Moreover, over the past six months, I've studied materials related to artificial eel breeding. I found that the Japanese already possess relevant technology, but their production costs are quite high. What we need to do is find a way for low-cost mass production. I already have some ideas in this regard."

Upon hearing this, Li Jinglan immediately expressed his support. With the situation laid out and the company belonging to Li Qingye, if the investment failed, he could always find another job.

The others also voiced no objections.

Next, Li Qingye began assigning tasks.

First, Li Jinglan would lead a team to Min Nan Province in China to purchase a batch of semi-mature or mature farmed eels and transport them back to Calamian Island.

Zaxi would clear out 6 of the shrimp farming ponds and convert them into eel farms.

Kang Nan would take the fishing boats to the vicinity of the Luzon Trench to attempt to catch some glass eels (the juvenile stage of eels).

As tasks were assigned one by one, the entire company became busy.

This was Li Qingye's objective. Investing in such a large project without any apparent research activities would seem too strange.

Of course, this eel research project was not a sham; he intended to see it through.

On one hand, it served to conceal the true nature of the biological laboratory. On the other hand, it was to find a profitable venture for Homo sapiens Company, preventing them from depleting their resources.

Inside the experimental base.

After passing through layers of security systems, he didn't immediately begin his experiments. Instead, he re-examined the computer systems within the base.

Accessing the underlying data of the computer systems, Li Qingye adjusted his glasses. "Just as I expected."

The system contained quite a few hidden backdoors, some of which could even make the computer actively transmit signals, using nearby phones or laptops to discreetly send information.

These system backdoors were most likely installed by the computer manufacturers, and perhaps even Xin Hai Company was unaware of them.

He re-edited and modified these backdoors, but did not completely seal them off. Instead, he created a fake database, so even if the backdoors transmitted information, it would be false data.

Meanwhile, he reconfigured the servers, designating one small server as an apparent vulnerability while completely sealing off the vulnerabilities in the remaining servers and completely isolating them from the network.

He even locked several fixed frequencies on the cooling fans, cutting off any possibility of transmitting signals outwards.

In addition to the computer systems, he meticulously inspected the operating systems of other equipment. He discovered numerous backdoors here as well, some designed for espionage, others to cause equipment to "fail earlier."

Thinking about the hidden agendas of these scientific instrument manufacturers, he felt fortunate that he had thoroughly destroyed the instrument storage devices and computers from the Jiangcheng laboratory.

If he hadn't been cautious, and if the equipment from the Jiangcheng laboratory had been recovered or thoroughly inspected by those manufacturers, some data related to the Jianmu Factor could have been leaked.

He recorded the devices with issues and quickly cleared out these backdoors. Only then could he proceed with his experiments with peace of mind.

However, when he thought about how many of those manufacturers were suppliers of computer and mobile phone components, Li Qingye's mind went to the issue of phones and laptops.

He instructed Chen Jianxiong, who was in charge of security, to adjust the security measures both inside and outside the research base.

For example, they had originally planned to use walkie-talkies for internal and external communication, but now Li Qingye felt that walkie-talkies weren't safe either.

He had someone go to Huaqiangbei in Pengcheng to purchase a batch of bulk electronic components. They would then DIY wired telephones and set up an internal phone line on Kalagua Island.

As for radios and mobile phones, they could only be used in the dock area. Before going to other areas, these communication devices had to be removed and handed over to security personnel for safekeeping.

By completely isolating mobile phones and the like from the research base, and with such strict security, information leakage from within the research base could be basically prevented.

Of course, these measures were still not enough.

Because in this world, there was another type of espionage called "direct assault."

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