Chapter Summaries

Li Jun and his trained men subdued the gang that stormed Ward 721, then were taken to the police station for questioning. In the interrogation room, Captain Li demanded that Li Jun explain what had happened.

• The buzz-cut man and his gang tried to flee Ward 721, but Li Jun’s men blocked the exits and beat them down.
• Li Jun sat on the tower of a man who had kicked in the ward door and smoked while waiting for the police.
• Captain Li arrived and ordered everyone taken away, with the injured men sent for examination before giving statements.
• At the municipal police department, Li Jun called himself a law-abiding taxpayer and urged Captain Li to skip the routine questions.
• Captain Li stopped his young officer from arguing and demanded that Li Jun tell him exactly what had happened.

In the interrogation room, Li Jun defended his visit to Hou Jun’s sister and his men’s actions at the hospital as lawful and well-intentioned. Captain Li challenged his account by asking why the men carried hammers and wrenches, but Li Jun claimed they were mechanics from his auto repair shop.

• Li Jun asked for a cigarette and said he had visited Hou Jun’s sister because Hou Jun owed him money and she was seriously ill.
• A young officer accused Li Jun of bringing dozens of men to the hospital to cause trouble, while Captain Li asked about Li Jun’s earlier role in taking Hou Jun’s sister from Ankang Hospital.
• Li Jun admitted taking her from the hospital and argued that he had prevented harm and uncovered wrongdoing there.
• Captain Li asked Li Jun what his relationship with Hou Jun was, and Li Jun insisted they were only creditor and debtor.
• Li Jun claimed his men had intervened to stop a violent disturbance at the provincial hospital and deserved praise for their actions.
• Captain Li questioned why Li Jun’s men carried hammers and wrenches, and Li Jun said they were mechanics from his auto repair shop.

Captain Li shifted the investigation from Li Jun to the tattooed men who had tried to seize Hou Xiaoya, but their leader refused to talk. He ordered questioning paused and arranged for the close-cropped boss to share a temporary holding cell with Li Jun and his group.

• Captain Li ended his questioning of Li Jun and focused on discovering why the tattooed men had gone to the hospital for Hou Xiaoya.
• The tattooed men claimed their boss had ordered them to take a sick girl but had told them nothing about her identity or destination.
• After nearly two hours, a young hoodlum confirmed that the men had followed orders without knowing the reason behind them.
• The close-cropped boss remained silent during questioning and repeatedly demanded a lawyer.
• Captain Li stopped the interrogation, sent the officers to eat and rest, and ordered the boss placed in the same temporary holding cell as Li Jun and his group.

Li Jun and his men terrified the buzz-cut leader into agreeing to confess. The man revealed that an anonymous dark web client had hired his crew to abduct Hou Xiaoya, but Captain Li was left with no clear lead on who had ordered the attack.

• Officers placed the buzz-cut leader in cell No. 7 with Li Jun and his men, who surrounded him and pressured him to talk.
• After more than two hours, the buzz-cut leader asked to confess and begged to be moved to another cell.
• In interrogation room No. 2, the buzz-cut leader confessed that an anonymous dark web client had ordered Hou Xiaoya's abduction from room 721 of the Provincial Third People's Hospital.
• He said the client had promised payment in bitcoin and arranged for Hou Xiaoya to be taken to an abandoned parking lot, but he knew nothing about the client's identity.
• Captain Li considered the anonymous communications and bitcoin payment, realizing the case led into a deeper, difficult-to-trace darkness.

Recordings exposing Ankang Hospital’s organ trafficking and plans to sell Hou Xiaoya as a specimen ignited a nationwide public outcry. Captain Li ordered the task force to trace the recordings and prepare to arrest the people involved.

• Qin Ming’s recording exposed Ankang Hospital’s false diagnoses, financial exploitation, organ trafficking, and plan to sell Hou Xiaoya to a Southeast Asian collector.
• A second recording captured Wei Guangyuan ordering Deputy Director Qian to suppress the scandal, arrange an accident for Qin Ming, and bring Hou Xiaoya back.
• Netizens and news outlets spread the recordings, demanded action, and targeted Ankang Hospital and people who had promoted it.
• Captain Li received an urgent summons, then ordered the task force to cancel leave, trace the recordings, prepare the field team, and apply for arrest warrants.

Captain Li’s large-scale raid failed to catch Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming, who had fled before police arrived. At the Municipal Mental Health Center, Captain Zhao found Qin Ming murdered and his body split vertically in half, making clear the killing had been staged as a message.

• Captain Li dispatched teams to arrest Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming, secure Ankang Hospital, and check on Qin Ming at the Municipal Mental Health Center.
• Captain Li’s team found Wei Guangyuan’s villa empty, while Deputy Captain Wang reported that Qian Zhiming had fled his home with a suitcase.
• The North City Branch secured Ankang Hospital and took its staff in for questioning.
• The Western Suburbs Branch reported that officers had found Qin Ming’s corpse, split vertically in half, in his isolation ward.
• Captain Zhao examined the scene and angrily rejected the idea that Qin Ming had died by suicide.

After learning that recordings of his conversations with Deputy Director Qian had been leaked, Wei Guangyuan fled toward a smuggling boat with his aide A Cheng. Their escape stalled when a seemingly broken-down car blocked their remote route, leaving Wei Guangyuan waiting alone as A Cheng went to investigate.

• Wei Guangyuan received an anonymous warning that recordings of his conversations with Deputy Director Qian had been posted online, and he confirmed the exposure on social media and news sites.
• Wei Guangyuan ordered A Cheng to meet him in the underground garage and decided to escape by a back road to an abandoned dock, where a smuggling boat awaited.
• A Cheng drove Wei Guangyuan along a route that avoided checkpoints and cameras, reporting that they were making good time toward the dock.
• The sedan stopped less than half an hour from the dock when a car appeared to be blocking the road, and Wei Guangyuan suspected the obstruction was no coincidence.
• Wei Guangyuan ordered A Cheng to check the vehicle, and A Cheng left him alone in the sedan as he approached it in the darkness.

A Cheng tried to clear the road for Wei Guangyuan’s sedan, but the two stranded motorists ambushed him. A second attacker stunned Wei Guangyuan as he attempted to escape, leaving both men unconscious beside the running car.

• A Cheng approached the broken-down SUV and offered the two men money to move it.
• The chubby man persuaded A Cheng to help push the SUV, and A Cheng joined him and Skinny Monkey.
• Skinny Monkey circled behind A Cheng and knocked him unconscious with a stun device.
• Wei Guangyuan saw the ambush and tried to get out of the sedan, but a tall figure blocked him.
• The tall figure used a stun baton on Wei Guangyuan, leaving him unconscious in the doorway.

Qian Zhiming tried to flee with his hidden cash after receiving a call claiming Wei Guangyuan had arranged his escape. He avoided the waiting sedan but was knocked unconscious by a boy with a stun baton near the community’s back gate.

• A caller claiming to work for Wei Guangyuan told Qian Zhiming to meet a black sedan outside the community.
• Qian Zhiming packed millions of yuan in cash and suspected Wei Guangyuan planned to silence him rather than rescue him.
• Qian Zhiming escaped through a concealed route and headed for the community’s back gate.
• A boy used a colorful ball to distract Qian Zhiming, then stunned him with a baton.
• Qian Zhiming collapsed unconscious as the boy stood beside him holding the baton.

After Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming were confirmed to have fled, Captain Li Xiangyang ordered a citywide lockdown and an exhaustive search. With no leads after several days, he recommended escalating the manhunt to a nationwide wanted notice.

• Investigators found signs that Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming had packed valuables and left voluntarily, while surveillance footage failed to show where either man went.
• Captain Li Xiangyang ordered checkpoints across Jiangcheng, screening of departing passengers and vessels, and searches of lodging establishments.
• Police searched the city for several days, but found no trace of the two suspects or their vehicles.
• Captain Li concluded that the suspects had probably escaped Jiangcheng before the search began and recommended listing them as Class B wanted fugitives with a nationwide reward notice.

At an abandoned dock, K delivered the missing Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming to two organ traffickers and asked to watch them be tortured while conscious. The traffickers accepted the deal and loaded the unconscious men into a van.

• K arrived at the dock in a black SUV and opened its trunk to reveal the bound, unconscious Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming.
• Two organ traffickers complained that the captives were old and their organs might be worth little.
• K said the men were his enemies and that he wanted them tortured and dismembered while still conscious.
• The traffickers agreed and said they would use little anesthetic so the victims could feel the process.
• The traffickers and their accomplices transferred Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming into a van.

K demanded to watch the captives be killed to prove he was not a police officer. After severing Wei Guangyuan’s little finger, he convinced the traffickers to consult their boss about letting him observe.

• K insisted that he watch Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming be killed, despite the traffickers’ objections.
• Skinny suspected K might be a police officer setting a trap, and the accomplices surrounded him.
• K cut off Wei Guangyuan’s little finger and tossed it to High Cheekbones and Skinny as proof of his ruthlessness.
• Skinny accepted that K did not look like a cop but said he and High Cheekbones needed their boss’s permission before allowing him to observe.
• K wiped his dagger on Wei Guangyuan’s clothes and waited by the SUV while the traffickers prepared to report to their boss.

K submitted to the workshop’s security procedures and was transported blindfolded to its hidden location. After the blindfold was removed, he found himself in a spotless observation room facing a fully equipped operating room, where Skinny proudly asked if he was satisfied.

• Skinny told K the boss had agreed to meet him but required him to surrender his phone and undergo a search.
• K handed over his phone, and the scar-faced man removed its SIM card and drove away with it.
• The high-cheekboned man searched K with a metal detector; K surrendered his dagger, and Skinny gave him an opaque blindfold.
• Skinny and the high-cheekboned man led blindfolded K through a bumpy van ride and several secured doors to a room.
• They removed K’s blindfold, revealing a pristine observation room overlooking a sterile operating room, and Skinny asked if he was satisfied.

K learned that the organization ran a sophisticated custom organ-harvesting operation and that its boss was a doctor with a disturbing fixation on conscious patients. As Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming became paralyzed but remained conscious, the doctor prepared to begin the operation.

• Skinny and the high-cheekboned man explained that the organization fulfilled custom organ requests through a sterile operating facility.
• K watched the boss sniff Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming and learned that the strange doctor led the organization.
• Skinny and the high-cheekboned man told K that the doctor kept patients conscious so he could talk with them during operations.
• The doctor injected Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming, then signaled to K through the glass as the drugs took effect.
• The doctor picked up a scalpel while Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming lay unable to move.

Wei Guangyuan regained consciousness immobilized beneath surgical lights and realized he had been captured and tortured until he revealed his hidden accounts and access information. As he heard Deputy Director Qian being tormented nearby, the captor noticed Wei was awake and told him he would be next.

• Wei Guangyuan slowly woke beneath glaring surgical lights, unable to move or focus his eyes.
• Wei Guangyuan recognized Deputy Director Qian Zhiming pleading to be killed nearby.
• Wei Guangyuan recalled being captured after his car broke down and tortured until he disclosed his accounts, passwords, keys, and contacts.
• A steady-voiced captor taunted Qian Zhiming and announced that he would have to bite himself next.
• The captor leaned close to Wei Guangyuan and said he was awake and would have his turn soon.

K watched the doctor torture Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming before removing their corneas and having their bodies taken away. When K tried to leave after the transaction, Skinny told him the doctor wanted to meet him, so K waited in the observation room.

• The doctor showed Qian Zhiming and Wei Guangyuan their exposed organs while making cruel comments about their health.
• K asked why the doctor was doing more than removing the requested corneas, and Skinny called it the doctor's personal hobby.
• The doctor removed the corneas and sealed them in chilled containers, then watched K through the glass.
• Two men carried away Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming's bodies, and Skinny said the organization would dispose of them privately.
• K declared the transaction complete and asked to be taken back, but Skinny and the high-cheekboned man blocked his way.
• Skinny told K the doctor wanted to meet him, and K sat down to wait.

Xie Yunchuan tested K with a sudden scalpel attack, then offered him a place in his organ-trafficking operation. K rejected him and called him a dumbass, leaving Xie Yunchuan facing K’s blunt contempt.

• Xie Yunchuan introduced himself to K and attacked his eye with a scalpel during their handshake.
• K stayed motionless as the blade stopped just short of his eye, then said he had not reacted in time.
• Xie Yunchuan praised K’s composure and asked him to work for him, but K refused.
• Xie Yunchuan defended his operation as a way to allocate organs to powerful and valuable people.
• K listened to Xie Yunchuan’s speech and called him a dumbass.

Xie Yunchuan tried to recruit K into his operation, but K rejected him and criticized his use of Skinny and High Cheekbones. K left the observation room, while Xie Yunchuan watched him go with an unreadable expression.

• Xie Yunchuan invited K to join his enterprise and offered to help him take revenge on his enemies.
• K refused and said Xie Yunchuan’s operation was not a great enterprise because Skinny and High Cheekbones seemed too unstable to trust.
• Xie Yunchuan explained that the two men only pretended to be addicts out of fear, and threatened to burn them alive if they truly became addicted.
• K declined Xie Yunchuan’s invitation again, saying he had more important things to do.
• Xie Yunchuan formally introduced himself, and K gave his codename before leaving with Skinny and High Cheekbones.
• Xie Yunchuan watched the door close and rubbed the scalpel in his pocket.

K secretly tracked Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming to Xie Yunchuan’s hidden organ-trafficking facility, then anonymously reported its location to the police. He drove away expecting a major raid while concealing his role in exposing the operation.

• K returned to the abandoned dock, retrieved his phone, and drove away under Skinny and the high-cheekboned man’s watch.
• K stopped beneath an old scholar tree, dug up a buried phone, and confirmed it was receiving the location of Wei Guangyuan.
• K revealed that he had planted a miniature tracker in Wei Guangyuan and hidden a signal relay in the van to locate Xie Yunchuan’s facility.
• K called 110 from an unregistered SIM card and reported the underground organ-trafficking operation and its coordinates.
• K destroyed the SIM card, drove toward the city, and left the police to respond to the anonymous tip.

Lin Feng visited Hou Xiaoya in the hospital, where Monkey vented that Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming had escaped, and Lin Feng hinted their escape might not save them. Meanwhile, K paid a smuggler and boarded a fishing boat bound south into dangerous waters.

• Lin Feng brought fruit and supplements to Hou Xiaoya, who thanked him for helping her leave Ankang Hospital.
• Monkey complained that Wei Guangyuan and Qian Zhiming had escaped, and Lin Feng calmly suggested that getting away might not be a good thing.
• Monkey took Lin Feng's words as a promise that the fugitives would eventually face retribution.
• K met a smuggler at a remote harbor, paid for passage, and followed him aboard a fishing boat.
• The boat departed with K and the other passengers, heading south as K silently calculated the route and its risks.