FY - 17

Monday was overcast, and the temperature was mild.

Zhou Yan wore a black cotton maxi dress. Two thin straps hung on her slender shoulders, exposing a large area of skin that was dazzlingly white even without sunlight.

She held an umbrella, standing in a phone booth outside Fangcaoyuan residential area, waiting for the black market middleman to pick her up.

These egg-trafficking criminals were extremely cautious. After receiving Zhou Yan’s call about the cosmetic loan, they didn’t say much, only briefly introduced some procedures, stating that key details required an in-person meeting. They claimed that meeting in person would allow for approval of a higher loan amount based on appearance.

Zhou Yan agreed and, under their guidance, arrived here.

About twenty minutes later, a middle-aged woman approached. She was slightly overweight, not very tall, and had dark skin.

Zhou Yan waited for her to draw near before speaking first: “Chen Xiaomi?”

“Mm-hm,” Zhou Yan replied.

The woman scrutinized her twice, seemingly quite satisfied, accompanied by a few nods.

“Follow me.”

With that, she turned around and walked back the way she came.

Zhou Yan followed.

Fangcaoyuan residential area had only about twenty buildings. Zhou Yan’s home was in the building closest to the main south gate; stepping out of her building meant stepping out of the complex. She hadn’t had the chance to walk to the buildings further back, so she hadn’t known this area was quite gloomy.

Upon reaching a building entrance covered by tree shade, the woman swiped a card to enter, glancing at Zhou Yan during the process.

Zhou Yan wanted to appear naive, which would be more like a college student fresh out of school, but without Si Wen, her acting wasn’t that good, so she simply acted as herself. It didn’t raise any suspicion.

This was a standard two-bedroom apartment, and it seemed someone was living there.

The sofa covers had yellowed, some areas were black, and it looked like they hadn’t been washed in a long time. There were leftover meals on the dining table, and a pile of plastic bags and insect-like debris on the floor; it was impossible to tell what they originally were.

The environment was too poor, full of bacteria.

The woman led her to sit on the sofa and asked her, “What year are you in?”

Zhou Yan: “Fourth year.”

The woman nodded: “At Normal University?”

The branch campus of Normal University was right nearby, so it was normal for her to ask that. She probably distributed many small advertisements in this area.

Zhou Yan: “I’m a student of economics at South China University.”

The woman nodded, examining her face: “You’re quite good-looking, why do you want plastic surgery?”

Zhou Yan: “Looks depend on who’s looking. There are always people who think I’m ugly.”

The woman smiled and asked again, “Haven’t you smoked or drunk recently?”

Zhou Yan smoked and drank every day: “No, I never touch those things.”

The woman saw her fair skin and good-student demeanor, chatted a bit more, then took a form from a drawer: “Alright then, fill out this form, and give me your card number; I’ll transfer the money to you.”

Zhou Yan didn’t take it immediately: “Is that all? How is the interest calculated, and how do I repay it?”

The woman explained to her: “Forty percent.”

Zhou Yan frowned: “Doesn’t the state stipulate that the annual interest rate cannot exceed twenty-four percent?”

The woman shrugged: “That’s how it is here. We don’t check ID cards, we don’t check credit, approvals are the fastest, and limits are the highest, which can solve many people’s urgent needs. A little more interest is within the borrower’s acceptable range.”

Zhou Yan: “What if I can’t pay it back?”

The woman told her: “If you can’t pay it back, you can choose our charity project.”

This was the key point. Zhou Yan asked: “What charity project?”

The woman handed her another form: “You can donate eggs to offset the debt. We’ll assess your egg quality based on your personal attributes, and then calculate how many eggs you need to donate to offset your debt.”

Zhou Yan acted like a novice: “Will donating eggs harm my body?”

The woman laughed as if she’d heard a joke: “Of course not. Women ovulate their entire lives. We’re just putting the eggs your body would expel anyway to good use, providing them to those who need them.”

“Then, how much are my eggs worth?”

The woman reached for a calculator and typed out a string of numbers for her: “Does this number work for you?”

She used the phrase “does it work for you.”

Which meant there was room for negotiation. It seemed to be a truly lucrative business.

Zhou Yan wasn’t really there to sell eggs, so she agreed. Only: “Is it okay to take so many at once?”

The woman seemed accustomed to this question and showed no surprise: “It’s fine. If you’re really scared, you can do it in batches. Stay with us for a few days first, then we’ll retrieve them.”

She was getting to the crucial point. Zhou Yan asked again: “Do you keep them here?”

The woman pointed towards the window: “Not here, in the building next door. We’ve rented four floors for dormitories.”

Zhou Yan finished asking her questions, picked up a pen, and before the tip even touched the paper, the door was kicked open from outside. Two criminal police officers rushed in, bypassed Zhou Yan, and quickly, accurately, and forcefully apprehended the woman.

Wei Lian entered shortly after, issuing commands to his team over the walkie-talkie, ordering them to attack the building next door.

Only after being restrained did the woman belatedly glare at Zhou Yan, her eyes vicious, as if she could devour her whole.

Zhou Yan’s reaction was calm. She showed no reaction even when Wei Lian thanked her for her help and gave a thumbs-up for her leaving the door open.

There are no unsolvable cases in this world, only cases that people don’t want to solve.

The criminal investigation team had always been efficient when they didn’t fool around. This operation was fully prepared, and Zhou Yan’s timely assistance was just right. In less than four hours, the entire egg trafficking market was completely busted.

In their “dormitory,” the police found four detained girls, including Bubble Tea.

Bubble Tea cried until her eyes were swollen. When she saw Zhou Yan, she completely threw herself into her arms: “Ah—”

Zhou Yan disliked strangers touching her. Her hands were already at Bubble Tea’s shoulders, but she still didn’t pull away, just patted her twice.

Bubble Tea had six eggs retrieved. She was so weak after getting off the beauty bed, which they called the “operating table,” that she couldn’t even stand steadily. They also feared she might suddenly die, so they locked her up, waiting for her to recover before taking more.

The egg retrieval process was excruciating, not much better than childbirth.

The black market middlemen, to prevent them from regretting it later, would take them to the dormitory and retrieve eggs in batches until the required quantity was met.

Previously, the police had only visited the room Zhou Yan went to, and the strong presence of daily life had made them return empty-handed. This was also how these criminals had figured out their methods, which was why they dared to be so rampant.

Now they’d had their fun; once they were targeted, they were completely wiped out in four hours.

________________________________________

News of the egg trafficking black market bust fermented in Qizhou for three days, dominating the headlines. Netizens weren’t satisfied with merely gossiping; they also wanted to know which college students had their eggs harvested.

In the time it took for a meal, hackers had exposed several girls, and Bubble Tea’s photo was prominently displayed.

Manager Huang felt this incident would negatively impact Candy and feared it would attract investigations from the disciplinary committee. So, he fired Bubble Tea without any hesitation.

Bubble Tea packed her belongings in the dormitory without saying a word, letting the other girls who came to gawk at her do as they pleased.

She had just learned to be silent, and she was already eliminated.

And life cannot be replayed. It wouldn’t give her a second chance just because she reformed herself.

She left, went back to her hometown. She hadn’t decided what she would do, but she never wanted to return to Qizhou.

This was a ruthless city, so ruthless that it didn’t allow for a single mistake.

But we are all living for the first time, aren’t we?

How can there be no mistakes at all?

________________________________________

Wei Lian finally cracked the egg trafficking black market case and could finally get a good night’s sleep.

Zheng Zhi, however, was working himself to death, investigating the drug trafficker on the run and his brother who did business in Qizhou. Not only that, but he also constantly wanted to discuss and analyze things with Wei Lian, annoying him beyond measure.

Wei Lian had stepped down from the anti-drug squad precisely because he didn’t want to be involved with anything related to drugs anymore.

Zheng Zhi didn’t understand and kept pushing his boundaries.

During lunch, he finally exploded—standing up and slamming his lunchbox on the table: “Are you never going to stop!?”

Zheng Zhi trembled for a moment, opened his mouth, but still said nothing.

Wei Lian grabbed his cigarette pack and went out.

The others didn’t know what Wei Lian and Zheng Zhi had argued about that caused the fallout. They didn’t dare to look, just ate their meals with their heads down, trying their best to be invisible.

Wei Lian walked to the locust tree outside the squad building, his hands trembling as he tore open the plastic wrapper of the cigarette pack, pulled one out, lit it, and took a deep drag, his cheeks hollowing, making his entire face appear gaunt.

He still remembered the body of the colleague who had sacrificed himself: his limbs were completely severed, the remaining flesh was mangled, and faint, dense bullet holes were visible on his face... He had only glanced at it once before vomiting.

This was the consequence of confronting drug traffickers.

He, too, had once been like Zheng Zhi, eager to bring the murderer to justice, and had tried many methods, even overstepping his authority to “pull teeth from the tiger’s mouth” in the “Golden Triangle” and “Golden Crescent” regions. But all he achieved was angering other forces and causing his partner to lose a leg, forever ending his police career, leaving him confined to a wheelchair, waiting to die. He gained nothing else.

His passion had cooled. After being demoted, he applied for a transfer to the criminal investigation team.

Was he afraid of death?

No. He simply couldn’t bear to see anyone else die.

After chain-smoking half a pack, Wei Lian returned to the team.

Zheng Zhi saw him enter and proactively refilled his tea mug: “Have some water.”

He bowed his head.

Wei Lian took it, signifying that the matter was over.

Zheng Zhi, however, didn’t leave. After a moment of holding back, he still said: “Fan Chang indeed has a cousin, but he wasn’t recorded in our database.”

He placed a kraft paper bag on the table: “When you were investigating the egg donation case, I went to Liu Huo. The local police station’s archives recorded that eight years ago, an unregistered person named He Yi opened an account. The remarks included his reissued birth certificate and a copy of his mother’s household registration identity page.”

Wei Lian was stunned.

Zheng Zhi hadn’t finished: “The mother is Fan Chang’s cousin’s daughter. I confirmed it. Because she died young and her relationship with Fan Chang was too distant, she wasn’t included in Fan Chang’s network, and thus we overlooked her.”

Wei Lian opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Zheng Zhi added: “I’ll listen to you; I won’t investigate further. Let’s transfer this information to the anti-drug squad.”

The atmosphere became increasingly difficult to control, and the plot seemed to be spiraling out of their wishes.

Wei Lian never stopped Zheng Zhi from investigating; he just couldn’t bear to see him investigate. He couldn’t lose another partner. He reached out, wanting to grasp his arm, but Zheng Zhi had already turned and left. His hand found empty air.