Limanan City.
Haitian Agriculture's headquarters was located here. Through Mada's connections, the company had acquired a twelve-story hotel and converted it into a temporary headquarters.
Zhang Wei, who had graduated from Fudan University just this year, felt as if he were dreaming. He had originally come to Manila to look for someone, and after spending more than half a year wandering around the city, he had used up most of his savings.
Half a month ago, he came across Haitian Agriculture's recruitment drive in Manila. At first, he hadn't considered applying, but after a series of unexpected events, he somehow ended up as the company's general manager.
He glanced at the photo on his phone. It was a picture of him with a young man who looked seven or eight parts like him.
Big brother! I'll find you, no matter what. Zhang Wei put away his phone and picked up a document, getting back to work.
He had joined Haitian Agriculture partly for the high salary, but also to find his older brother, Zhang Hao, who had gone missing on Luzon two years ago.
As for why Li Qingye had agreed to make a recent college graduate the general manager of Haitian Agriculture, it was because Zhang Wei had a simple background and hadn't yet been hardened by society.
Although Li Qingye had the support of Ancestral Memory, that didn't mean he liked working with crafty old foxes and seasoned schemers. It was better to have less infighting within the company. Constantly plotting against one another would be exhausting.
A fresh graduate like Zhang Wei was still relatively simple-minded and could still be shaped. His thinking hadn't yet become completely fixed.
Haitian Agriculture was expanding at an incredible pace.
Seaweed Fields, processing plants, staff dormitories, machinery, and the like were springing up everywhere, supported by a steady flow of cash.
Along the coast on the northern side of Limanan City...
Along the shore between Bacchus Town and Coral Town, stretches of construction sites were taking shape as excavators and workers dug one pond after another.
The ponds were all built to standard dimensions, with concrete roads running between them to accommodate transport vehicles. On the side facing the ocean, they were building a fifteen-meter-high seawall.
The soil for the seawall came from the mud excavated from the ponds. Several hundred meters of mangroves or beach also lay between the seawall and the coast.
After all, Luzon was frequently battered by typhoons. If they didn't build proper defenses against them, they would pay dearly later.
The three small towns between the Seaweed Fields were also packed with people.
Fortunately, the Internal Affairs Department had promptly sent over fifty security guards. These weren't Chinese doormen—they carried shotguns and wore bulletproof vests and helmets, making them practically soldiers.
Julie, who had come from Manila to find work, wiped the sweat from her forehead as she looked at the bustling construction site. She was doing her best to adjust to her job as a site inspector.
Not far away stood her superior, Blair, head of the Supervision Department at Homo sapiens Company. He was a one-eyed middle-aged man who looked menacing, but was meticulous in his work.
Julie carefully inspected the construction of several nearby ponds, using tools to test the different sections and check whether they met the design specifications.
She treasured this job. Born in a Manila slum, she had suffered from a young age and had put herself through college by working.
But in a place like Luzon, having a degree still made it hard to get ahead. At least there was still a little hope.
"Does this meet the standard?" the one-eyed man asked.
"Uh... The bottom of Section 7 in Pond 13 isn't strong enough to support..." Julie quickly reported every problem she had found.
The one-eyed man turned to another man. "Wang, go check it again."
Wang Muyi took Julie's inspection report and immediately led a team to recheck each site. He was an engineering inspector whom Homo sapiens Company had recruited from China.
He had done this sort of thing many times already.
Wang Muyi thought Blair was making work for everyone. Julie had been reliable enough so far, but the Supervision Department had a special rule: inspections had to be cross-checked, and a single inspection team couldn't handle an entire project alone.
The others didn't understand how the soldiers worked.
As one of them, the one-eyed man was extremely rigid in how he did things. Even when it meant wasting manpower, he still carried out his orders without hesitation.
But that had its advantages: the inspections were exceptionally thorough.
Once, a foreman had tried to slip the one-eyed man a bribe. He accepted the envelope, then turned around and stabbed the man in the back. He had already taken down several contractors, leaving the rest trembling whenever they saw him.
Before long, Wang Muyi's team returned.
"Director Blair, our findings mostly match the first inspection. Apart from the concrete poured in Section 6 of Pond 14, which doesn't meet the standard, everything else is accurate."
The one-eyed man looked over both teams' reports and gave his instructions. "When you get back, write up a rectification notice and have the construction company make the corrections immediately. After you've checked each other's work and signed off, bring it to my office."
"Understood." Wang Muyi nodded.
"Yes, Director." Julie hurriedly nodded too.
The two inspection teams weren't just colleagues; they were also competitors and watchdogs for each other.
If one team discovered an issue in the other team's inspection area that the other had missed, they could earn a performance point from them. The Supervision Department's performance ratings had five grades: D, C, B, A, and S. The minor concrete-pouring defect just found was a C-level performance point.
In this case, Julie's team had lost a C-level performance point, while Wang Muyi's team had earned one.
If the two teams covered up each other's mistakes, then if something went wrong later, whichever team was designated as the second inspection team would bear full responsibility.
With other companies, an inspection failure might land you behind bars. With Homo sapiens Company, it could cost you your life.
The pressure on Wang Muyi and the others was even greater because the one-eyed man spent all day in his office polishing a revolver.
Of course, Wang Muyi was quite satisfied with his current job. His base salary was 3,000 US dollars a month, and the company covered his meals, accommodations, and flights. With performance bonuses and the like, he estimated he could earn seventy or eighty thousand dollars over the course of a year.
Back home, construction inspectors might get red envelopes from contractors, but there were risks involved. If something went wrong with the project, they'd be finished.
Besides, with a decent, regular income, who would want to risk taking under-the-table money?
Wang Muyi had quit his previous construction contracting company after falling out with them because he refused to sign off on their work.
The company had been so corrupt that it scared Wang Muyi into fleeing overnight with nothing but his belongings. He had come across Homo sapiens Company's recruitment drive in Yangcheng and decided to give working on Luzon a try.
Now, he didn't need to humor the contractors at all. After all, the head of the Supervision Department, the one-eyed man, was utterly unmoved by bribes. With a superior like him, Wang Muyi couldn't turn a blind eye even if he wanted to.
Even if he did, his own subordinates might be the first to rebel. If something went wrong, everyone would share the blame and lose performance points together. But if they caught an issue, they'd earn another hefty bonus.
With Julie's team competing against them, no one wanted to slack off.
As for making life difficult for subordinates, that would bring in another department at Homo sapiens Company: Human Resources.
Homo sapiens Company was gradually rolling out personnel reforms, focusing on employee management. Even the general manager couldn't directly fire an ordinary employee. A department had to submit a request, the Internal Affairs Department had to review it, and both Human Resources and the Chairman had to approve it before an employee could be officially dismissed. And with three departments involved, plus Li Qingye's personal signature required, rigging the process was far too difficult.
Before you continue