Got them! (Bonus chapter for reader Want to Eat Crushed Ice's generous tip)

After accepting the pill, Zhang Youzhi asked the question that concerned him most.

"Where's Li Douyu?"

"How would I know? I came here to find her. I was going to stabilize her myself." Number Two gave Zhang Youzhi a suspicious look.

"Doesn't your company have some magical gizmo that predicts where emotional disasters happen? Use it to pinpoint her location," Zhang Youzhi said.

"We can only predict emotional disasters within a general area. Right now, for instance, we know that three individual F-class emotional disasters are happening in Songjiang City, a group C-class emotional disaster is brewing, and an individual S-class emotional disaster is lurking somewhere. But we have no idea where any of them are."

"Otherwise, we would've found you back when your cancer was still in its early stages. We wouldn't have had to go to all this trouble," Number Two replied.

"Fair point." Zhang Youzhi sighed.

If they could predict exact locations, the government's armed forces would probably have already raided the place where the missing children were being held, rescued everyone, and stopped the emotional disaster brewing in this city.

He remembered that the White Jade Capital Company had government backing.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"I'm leaving. My shift's over. You've accepted the pill, which means Li Douyu can be stabilized. With the biggest threat out of the way, none of the remaining problems are really problems. Figure it out yourself. I don't believe you can hold off on taking that pill and let Li Douyu discover the truth about your death, then go completely insane."

Number Two had Zhang Youzhi firmly by his weak spot.

With that, Number Two went downstairs, humming a tune.

Zhang Youzhi couldn't shake the feeling that this person had played him.

Possibly more than once.

Looking at the golden pill in the center of the phantom image, Zhang Youzhi took a deep breath.

"I'll take it later. Give myself a few more days off. First, I'll find Li Douyu."

"What the hell? What's going on here?"

Li Douyu hid in a tree, parting the leaves to sneak a look at the courtyard in front of her.

Climbing trees was an essential skill for every Longnan native, and Li Douyu was no exception.

"Boss, how about we lay low for a couple of days? We've been making too many moves lately. The cops are onto us, and several of our snatchers have already been taken down. Every household's keeping a close eye on their lambs now."

The older man addressed as "boss" was clearly irritated too.

"No. We can replace the snatchers, but we're desperately short on lambs these next few days. We have to keep the supply coming."

"But, boss, it's hard to find lambs on their own now. The cops are blasting warnings over loudspeakers. Making a scene and playing dumb doesn't work anymore. That's how our snatchers got caught."

"Then grab them by force!" the man said viciously.

The other man clearly wanted to say more. He gave the boss a fearful look, then finally gritted his teeth and spoke.

"Boss! We really can't make another move right now. I guarantee that if we start snatching lambs openly, the cops will trace us back here after three attempts at most."

"Then what do you suggest?" the man roared in a low voice, still startling a few magpies.

"How about this, boss? First, we find a way to move the lambs we already have. Let's get out of Songjiang and head to the smaller county towns. Have the snatchers lure them in slowly. We'll trick a few eventually. We always used to move on after every job. We can't let money blind us, or we'll be as good as dead."

The man calmed down and eventually even patted his shoulder.

"You're right. We can't keep fleecing the same sheep."

"Move them out first."

Up in the tree, Li Douyu understood. These two are human traffickers! This must be the trafficking den that policewoman keeps telling me about.

Li Douyu took out her phone and sent the policewoman her location.

Then she watched the two men walk away.

Should I follow them? Li Douyu asked herself.

From their conversation, Li Douyu could tell that this trafficking ring was anything but small. It was very likely one of those massive trafficking organizations that operated all over the country. Unlike the little trafficking dens that often appeared on the news, this organization already had a hierarchy and a chain of vested interests, perhaps even a complete "sales" system.

Those two men might not be the ones calling the shots, but they were at least high-ranking members.

"This has nothing to do with me. Nothing to do with me," Li Douyu told herself.

Then she sent the recording of what she had heard, along with her own analysis, to the policewoman. She turned off her phone and sat in the tree meditating for a while, only climbing down once she felt a little better.

"I'm here to find Zhang Youzhi, not play Ultraman," Li Douyu muttered as she walked along the roadside.

"Wait. What if Zhang Youzhi was kidnapped by these traffickers? Who says traffickers don't abduct adults? What if they cut out his kidneys and sell them? His kidneys are worth a lot."

Zhang Youzhi had often bragged to her that one of his kidneys was worth two hundred thousand.

Frightened by her own theory, Li Douyu looked in the direction the two traffickers had driven off. There were no streetlights, only an expanse of pitch-black darkness. It was deeply unsettling.

"Goddammit, Zhang Youzhi, you'd better be dead, or I'll cut your kidneys out myself and feed them to Black Lump!"

Li Douyu turned on live location sharing with the policewoman, found a shared bicycle, and rode into the darkness in the direction the two men had gone.

Clearly, the snatchers were getting desperate too. Thanks to the police warnings, every household was keeping its children indoors, and police patrols filled the streets and alleys.

These itinerant traffickers had clearly managed to thoroughly infuriate this major city.

But the "hooks" above the "snatchers" had ordered them to catch more lambs quickly, or have their fingers chopped off.

With no other choice, the snatchers began considering targets they ordinarily wouldn't have deemed suitable lambs. Even so, they could count the isolated targets they found on one hand.

But there were still a few. Besides physically and mentally immature elementary school children, some late-developing middle school students had also become targets.

For instance, this young couple in red and blue school uniforms, who had climbed out of school to sneak off on a date.

Judging by the boy's height, he was a middle school student at most.

He was only five foot three. What high school boy these days wasn't at least five foot seven?

The girl, on the other hand, looked like an early bloomer. She had curves everywhere she ought to, filling out her red school uniform until it looked almost too tight.

But none of that mattered. The snatchers would teach these two kids through practical experience that climbing walls and dating too young were wrong.

In the dimly lit park.

Sensing strangers approaching, Nanmen Yingyun opened her eyes.

"Let's split up and give them a chance to make their move. These people seem a little timid. Maybe it's because we're together."

"Okay." Wen Xuanjing was a little nervous, but he remained perfectly still on the park bench.

"I'm going to the bathroom. Wait here, and I'll give you a kiss when I get back~" the girl said loudly. After teasing the blushing boy a little, she skipped toward the public toilets.

What. A. Chance!

A man and a woman posing as a married couple appeared from somewhere and headed straight for the public toilets.

Three other men approached as though drunk, laughing and joking with their arms around one another's shoulders. They casually made their way behind the boy, who seemed completely oblivious.

Soon, a scream rang out from the toilets. It sounded like the girl.

"Got her. Move!" The three men lunged at the boy together.

"What are you doing! Hey! Ah-"

The poor boy barely managed a few words before a wet rag was pressed over his mouth and nose. The strong fumes of a benzodiazepine sedative instantly entered his body through his esophagus and windpipe and took effect. The boy slowly crumpled to the ground.

Soon, the woman emerged from the toilets with the girl over her shoulder. She gave the men a disgusted look and refused their requests to grope the girl.

"Hurry up. The police will be here any minute," the woman ordered. Following her example, one of the men hoisted the boy onto his shoulder. The group of seven quickly disappeared from the park.