Hongyuan Bioengineering Group (Mandarin: 鸿园生命工程集团, pinyin: hóng yuán shēngmìng gōngchéng jítuán), or H Corp. is one of the 26 Wings of the City, overseeing District 8. District 8 serves as the setting for Intervallo V: Nocturnal Sweeping and Canto VIII: The Surrendered Witnessing.
The entirety of District 8 is contained within a single gargantuan building called Hongyuan (Mandarin: 鸿园, lit. The Vast Garden). District 8's Nest lies at the center of the structure, while the Backstreets form the periphery of the building. Different areas of Hongyuan have different taboos imposed upon the residents within.[1]
The structure of Hongyuan is a remnant of an old H Corp., and is still under the effects of its Singularity.[2] Within it, the wealth of the residents is measured by the amount of space they own, in a scale referred to as "rooms". Rooms are redistributed by the Singularity during a period called "restructuring day": the process of restructuring redistributes space based on the residents' net worth, and involves the buildings within the complex shifting and moving at great speed and force.[3] Those who do not have any residence or find themselves without enough room will be thrown around by the movement of buildings, typically to their deaths.
District 8 does not make use of cars; instead, a common method of transportation is the "Palanquin". In District 8, a Palanquin refers to a car chassis manually carried by people stationed beside each wheel.
Historically, the company has been controlled by the Family Hierarch of Daguanyuan, a building complex located at the very top of the Nest, where the members of the most prestigious families of the District reside. Among them, the Jia family has always been the most influential, surpassing the previously prestigious Shi family. By the time of the events of Canto VIII, Family Hierarch and head of the Wing was an elder of the Jia family, Jia Mu.
Prior to the ascent of Jia Mu, the other families of Daguanyuan had been overshadowed for a time by the Kong Family, which aided Jia Mu during the Family Hierarch Evaluations, allowing her to claim the title, and which led the research of the Bioengineering Group up until around two decades before the events of the main story. The Kong family's work, which focused on high quality Boluses, brought the company to City-wide notoriety.
The family's glory would reach a premature end by the hand of Jia Mu: together with a group of H Corp. researchers, the Hierarch began working on a new Bolus, which she claimed would create a thirteenth Heishou Pack, that she would then present at the Kong family headquarters. In truth, Jia Mu had created a Bolus that would generate Cuckoospawn Humans, or Niaojia-ren (鳥鴶人), violent and sentient creatures from the Outskirts, which began killing all in attendance at the Bolus' unveiling. As the presence of non-human sentient being within the City is forbidden by a taboo of the Head, a group of Arbiters and Claws, led by Garion[4] was summoned to suppress the creatures and annihilate the Kong family, which was held responsible for having brought them to the City.
After the Kong family's fall, the Jia family would take the role of leadership from them. The incident left behind one survivor of the Kong family, the descendant Jia Qiu, who would leave Hongyuan for many years, returning only in 985 to participate to the Family Hierarch Evaluation as a member of the Jia family.
H Corp.'s Singularity is called the Bolus (Mandarin: 丸药). H Corp. manufactures Boluses that contain "essences of treatment".[5] These Boluses can be used in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:
Treatment involves selecting the appropriate technique from a myriad of choices to address the specific deficiency in status to be addressed. Heavy and/or frequent use of Boluses can lead to a variety of side effects, generally causing unsightly mutations. District residents will typically refer to victims of these side effects as "regulars".[6] Bolus treatment may also be utilized to produce directed mutations, such as those applied to Heishou Pack members.[7] Notably, these treatments are seen as different from the ones administered by K Corp. for this reason; K Corp. ampules work by "restoration" of the body to its original state, while the Bolus works more via "transformation" or "evolution".
The Boluses are also used to create the Heishou Packs, with each pack having a secret recipe for the Bolus needed to become one of them. According to Garion, those who ingest these Boluses gain traits and abilities akin to creatures in the Outskirts.
H Corp. also offers a Life Insurance policy, which allows for the resuscitation of a person after death, provided that the brain is left intact. The procedure can result in "'losses' in the process of information transference",[6] and can allow for the subject's personality to be modified according to the clients' requests,[8] as was the case for Xiren.
 Intervallo V: Nocturnal Sweeping
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Heishou Pack
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 Canto VIII: The Surrendered Witnessing
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Jia Family
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| Jia Xichun Family Hierarch, H Corp. Executive Director |
Jia Mu Former Family Hierarch |
Jia Yuanchun Q Corp. affiliate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jia Zheng Jia Baoyu's father |
Lady Wang Jia Baoyu's mother |
Jia Baoyu Family member | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jia Huan Family member |
Daguanyuan's Jia Huan Family member |
Jia Qiu Family member | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Xue Family
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| Xue Baochai Family member |
Xue Pan Family member |
Shi Family
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| Shi Huazhen Family member |
Shi Sijing Family member |
Shi Yihua Family member |
Wang Family
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| Wang Dawei Family member |
Wang Qingshan Family member |
Wang Ren Family member |
Wang Zhao Family member |
Other
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| Lin Daiyu Xue Baochai's servant |
Wei Jia Xichun's servant |
Xiren Hong Lu's servant |
Zigong Jia Qiu's student |
Night Drifter Xue family assassin |
I Corp. - 
M Corp. - 
