Senchuan City is a highly developed coastal city. With twenty-eight years of rapid development, its urban area has continuously expanded and updated. Finance, high-tech industries, and surrounding electronics have become the city's flagship development projects, attracting manpower from all over the world to come for employment, leading to the continuous expansion of the urban area.
By now, the urban area has reached 896.3 square kilometers in size, with a permanent population of 10.347 million, of which 7.413 million are migrants, accounting for nearly 70% of the city's total population.
Haiwei Group, also known colloquially as the Shen Group, has subsidiary companies spread across the country and abroad, involving industries ranging from energy to daily necessities, electronic technology, clothing trade, real estate, and more. Recently, it suddenly announced investments in small and medium-sized electronic technologies over the past five years, causing widespread puzzlement among various sectors and investors.
Haiwei Group's president, Shen Guantian, took over the position of the group's agent from his critically ill father at the age of 19. With his own efforts, he eliminated internal tumors within the group, salvaged several investments that could have jeopardized the group, and strategically defeated and merged two competing companies within three years, achieving the current prosperity of Haiwei Group, making it a dark horse in the domestic business world.
In addition, his pursuit of a 25-year-old genius village girl from a rural background who attended Tsinghua University for three years has become a legendary tale. This story was written into a novel by a certain internet writer and gained immense popularity. If it weren't for Shen Guantian's decisive action in buying the company holding the rights to the book at a sky-high price, this tale would have almost been adapted into a TV series or film, becoming widely circulated domestically and internationally.
Shen Guantian has three daughters and one son, among whom his second daughter has inherited her mother's genius intellect and Shen Guantian's cold and logical mind, earning Shen Guantian's favor. He has repeatedly stated in public that "my second daughter will become the next head of Haiwei Group."
The subsidiary of Haiwei Group in Senchuan City is a key company for the development of small-scale electronic technology, pouring a large amount of resources into it. Over the past five years, it has attracted many talents to gather in Senchuan City.
Originally, there was a large factory in the Fukumao District of Senchuan City. Five years ago, it suddenly invested heavily and acquired two adjacent factories, merging them into Haiwei Mini Industries, covering an area of 30,000 square meters. In the center of the factory area, a large mini-community covering an area of 3,800 square meters was built, claiming to showcase various small electronic technology products developed by "Haiwei Mini Industries," which puzzled many investors.
At a time when the global industry is desperately shifting from capacity to product optimization, Haiwei Group suddenly entered the field of small-scale technical industry, specializing in the development of modern industrial miniaturization projects, producing miniaturized devices such as mini smartphones, mini cars, mini manned aircraft, mini TVs, and computers that are practically unusable for humans. This behavior is considered very unwise, and many investors cannot see who the target customers of this project are.
However, soon after, many large foreign conglomerates followed suit and announced the development of small-scale technology in various places, making it even more difficult for domestic and foreign investors to understand the situation.
Not only did external investors fail to understand, but even within Haiwei Group, many high-level executives harbored doubts about the president and the board of directors' decisions, including Shen Guantian's most valued second daughter, Shen Jiayi.
"Now, I'm afraid everyone understands why our Haiwei Group has invested all its funds in building mini industries, right, my third uncle?"
In the central mini-community of Haiwei Mini Industries in Fukumao District, the top floor of the tallest mini office building, in the most spacious and luxurious office, Shen Jiayi stood by the huge French window, watching the busy ascent and descent of numerous hexacopters outside.
At this moment, she looked tired, with a hint of worry between her brows.
Behind her, a tall, thin man in a blue suit, wearing a small red flower on his chest and sporting a flashy goatee, was lounging on the large sofa in a laid-back manner. He was Shen Guantian's younger brother, Shen Liansheng, Shen Jiayi's third uncle.
"Hey, my dear niece, don't hold any grudges. Even my brother thinks this matter is too confidential, worrying that you might be too emotional and affect the company's layout."
"Call me president!" Shen Jiayi turned around, feeling some disgust towards her uncle's frivolous attitude. "So, the president sent you to the subsidiary company in Senchuan City to oversee Haiwei Mini Industries. The results obtained will then be fed back to the headquarters and disseminated to other subsidiaries?"
"The inside information that all humans will shrink into bean sprouts was obtained by the president alone, and only the president's prestige can convince all the directors of the board, which is why Haiwei Mini Industries exists. If it were anyone else, they would probably be dismissed and kicked out of the board of directors at the first opportunity. At the same time, to prevent the leakage of information and to protect the company's survival, apart from the board of directors, only a limited number of high-level executives who are loyal and calm enough are informed. Fortunately, the president included me, his least favorite younger brother, in this list of high-level executives."
"So, I'm part of the other batch of high-level executives who are not loyal and calm enough, right?" Shen Jiayi tapped lightly on the glass window behind her. "With a population of 10 million in Senchuan City, our shelter currently accommodates only 3,983 people. If this information had been disclosed to the government in advance, and the government had taken the lead in gathering the citizens, there wouldn't have been such chaos today."
Shen Liansheng shook his head with a smile. "No, no, no. Your qualifications are completely sufficient. What the president wants to avoid is precisely your situation. If you had known about this in advance, you would definitely have tried various ways to warn the government and the public, using various measures to prevent this disaster in advance. But you should know, how credible is this information before it happens, and how many people would believe it?"
Shen Jiayi was originally angry that such a major decision of the company was made because they knew in advance that humans would shrink. And this information, which could have been helpful to everyone, was concealed. After the disaster occurred, how many people were bitten to death by ants in their sleep, had their blood sucked dry by mosquitoes, or were eaten by the cats and dogs they had raised with their own hands, all because they were kept in the dark.
After the shrinking disaster occurred, she mobilized a large number of personnel to rescue those isolated and helpless individuals around her, witnessing too many tragic deaths. Clearly, the company knew what would happen but quietly laid out plans and waited silently for the disaster to come.
Now, it seems that the series of strategies previously announced by the company, including establishing small ecosystems in various subsidiary companies and relocating all employees' families nearby, seemed overly wasteful of company resources. However, in reality, they were all aimed at ensuring the loyalty of the company's employees to the maximum extent possible when the disaster struck.
But setting aside her emotional thoughts just now, Shen Jiayi indeed understood the reasons why her father secretly laid out these plans.
The message that "all humans in the world will shrink" obtained solely by the company's president could not be verified. If it were simply announced, the government would not believe it, and more people would think the company's CEO had gone mad.
Investors would also think the company was finished, leading to a massive sell-off of stocks, while other competitors would kick the company when it's down, employing various tactics to accelerate the collapse of Haiwei Group.
In the end, before humans shrank, the unfinished "Haiwei Mini Industries" would become the gravedigger of Haiwei Group.
Her father couldn't leak even a bit of information to prevent further rumors that could hinder the development of Haiwei Mini Industries. Perhaps many people would doubt such rumors, but those who had been forewarned would subconsciously prepare for the possible shrinking disaster. In that case, after the shrinking disaster occurred on April 6th, more people would be better prepared. But as a consequence, Haiwei Group would be sacrificed.
In the choice between saving humanity and preserving Haiwei Group, her father chose the latter, which was understandable.
But Shen Jiayi was different; she didn't really want Haiwei Group. So if she had been informed in advance, she would have done anything to save more people, even if it meant destroying Haiwei Group.
So her father, considering her character, anticipated that she would leak the information if she knew about it in advance. Therefore, he kept her in the dark, believing that his siblings were all in the know, and only she, the outlier, was excluded.
Shen Jiayi took a deep breath and pondered the whole matter with the mindset of a bystander. Although her father restricted her access to information, he still left her as the general manager of Haiwei Mini Industries, transferring her to Senchuan to preside over the operation six months before the disaster struck. The purpose was to allow her to maximize the advantage of the early layout of Haiwei Mini Industries and save more people.
"I understand now, Uncle Three! I won't let emotions get in the way anymore!" Shen Jiayi's voice returned to its usual coldness, devoid of any emotion. "Manager Shen, how many personnel can be deployed by your security department responsible for safety? I need to rescue as many survivors in need of security shelter as possible."
Shen Liansheng immediately stood up when he saw his niece's demeanor. He knew that his niece was the least sentimental at this moment. "General Manager, the company's temporary control regulations have already taken effect. The security department needs at least seventy percent of its personnel to maintain order throughout the shelter to ensure the normal operation of our company and the security order of external refugees. The security personnel available for deployment were all dispatched by you yesterday."
Shen Jiayi nodded. "The order in the shelter is our foundation. I understand. Also, I've investigated those light pillars that appeared yesterday. The temporary shelters that rose up seem to be very advanced in terms of facilities. They appear to have been built in recent years or even a decade ago. Does your department have any relevant information about the contractors for municipal engineering projects?"
Shen Liansheng shrugged. "No, the contractor information for municipal engineering projects is all in the government building. But you also know that the government building is now surrounded by mutated wild dog packs, and the response team has classified that area as a Level 7 danger zone. We dare not approach to investigate."
"According to the survivors' speculation, the builders may be worshippers of Darwin's theory. I hope your department will follow up on this aspect. Additionally, the mysterious gems that were collected need to be analyzed and studied for their properties and components as soon as possible by the research and development department. Once there's a report, send it to my office immediately."
"No problem."
At that moment, there was a knock on the office door, followed by a brisk walk by a man in black uniform. This man was the Number 2 who had gone to meet Tom and the others earlier.
"You're back? What's the situation?" Shen Jiayi asked.
Number 2 shook his head. "I'm sorry, Miss. We were attacked by mutated cats while evacuating. Sparrow 0036 was damaged and crashed. Number 3 and I were thrown out of the cabin and landed on the outer wall of a tall building. If it weren't for Sparrow 0019, which you dispatched later, to pick us up, we would probably have died there too."
"Is Tom dead?"
"I don't know. We searched around but didn't find the wreckage of Sparrow 0036. We couldn't determine the crash site. To avoid being attacked by mutated cats again, I ordered the aircraft to abandon the search and return."
"You've worked hard. Go rest and get treatment."