SFTD -Chapter 253 Rabies Virus (Part 8)

The next day, Zhou Hai drove out from his home toward the office. Now that Lu’s parents and Little Loli had already departed for America, he had moved back to his own place. Fortunately, Fushanhou was fairly close to work.

Just as he was about to turn into the center’s compound, his phone rang. It was an unfamiliar landline number, showing a Yantai area code.

Yantai?

He didn’t know anyone there. Could it be a spam call? He was just about to hang up when he suddenly remembered “Yantai Lan.” He quickly swiped to answer.

“Hello, this is Zhou Hai.”

“Hello, Forensic Doctor Zhou. I’m Lan Xiangrong from Yantai. We chatted before on the internal app of the investigation task force.”

Zhou Hai immediately realized who it was.

“Hello. How did you get my number?”

The other party laughed.

“Looks like Forensic Doctor Zhou hasn’t checked the settings. All of our phone numbers are public on that app. As long as I enter verified identity information, the feature becomes available.”

Zhou Hai roughly understood. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he asked: “You’re calling this early… did you find something?”

The “Yantai Lan” — Lan Xiangrong — instantly became more serious.

“Yes. And we have to thank you for the hospital list you provided, especially the Yantai Lin’s Men’s Hospital marked with an asterisk. Last night, comrades from our criminal investigation team carried out a surprise inspection there and discovered quite a lot.

First of all, they were operating far beyond their approved scope. Those so-called visiting specialists were actually ophthalmologists from the capital, performing surgeries under the title of ‘experts.’ These operations were scheduled twice every month. They would gather patients together for those two days and wait for the doctors to arrive.

They handled cataracts, glaucoma, retinal detachments, and corneal transplants like these. Practically every kind of eye surgery could be done there.

Looking through their records, I discovered that this year alone they had already performed more than ten corneal transplant surgeries. That number is even higher than some major top-tier hospitals in Yantai.”

“Did the criminal investigators trace the source of the corneas?”

“All the hospital administrators have been brought in. They were interrogated through the night, but they don’t actually know much. This director was just a hired manager. Whenever there was demand, they would submit a request through the Lin family’s internal system, and matching donors would then be allocated through the network. If a match succeeded, someone would specially deliver the cornea before surgery.”

Zhou Hai narrowed his eyes. It seemed the donor locations were spread across considerable distances.

“Do they know where the deliveries came from?”

“They said the shipments came from all over — the provincial capital, Dongnan, Suzhou, Xuzhou. They only started corneal transplant operations last year, but apparently Dongnan developed transplant procedures earlier and more successfully.”

“Dongnan? Another hospital invested in by the Lin family?”

“Not sure. Apparently the Lin family has been cooperating with the Zhan family recently. Since this director was only hired staff, he doesn’t know the detailed inner workings. The rest will depend on your investigation.”

After hanging up, Zhou Hai immediately called Wang Man.

Yantai had already uncovered such major findings in just one afternoon and one night, while Dongnan still had no movement at all. That didn’t match Wang Man’s usual style.

As he was thinking, the call connected.

“Forensic Doctor Zhou! I was just about to call you. We’re bringing people over right now and are almost at Dongnan Minglang Plastic Surgery Specialty Hospital. Why don’t you come take a look? During last night’s interrogation, they confessed to some details. We want to verify things at the scene. If it’s true, we’ll need assistance from the provincial department. This case now seems far more extensive than we imagined.”

Hearing this, Zhou Hai realized events were developing exactly according to his suspicions. He couldn’t help growing tense.

“Dongnan Minglang Plastic Surgery Specialty Hospital… they perform transplants there too?”

“Yes. It’s one of the Lin family’s businesses. And not just corneas. They apparently keep part of the donor supply there, responsible for providing organs to the eastern region of Ludong Province.”

Zhou Hai froze for a moment.

“Send me the address. I’m heading over now.”

Half an hour later, Minglang Plastic Surgery Specialty Hospital.

The moment he entered the lobby, he saw Wang Man and the others standing there with two detainees under guard. One was male, the other female, both dressed in white coats and wearing refined, scholarly expressions.

Especially the woman — upon closer inspection, it was obvious she had undergone jaw reduction surgery, a nose augmentation, and even brow lifting procedures.

A living advertisement for the hospital’s work.

As soon as Xiao Zeng spotted Zhou Hai entering, he waved energetically.

“Forensic Doctor Zhou, you got here fast!”

Xu Biao strolled over with his hands in his pockets.

“My Hai-zi gets around fast thanks to Old Wang’s driving skills. Stop trying to get friendly and hurry up — what’s going on? Why all the mystery?”

Wang Man’s expression was extremely serious. He pulled Zhou Hai aside.

“I’ve temporarily sealed off the hospital. Chief Liu wants people from the Health Bureau to come supervise the inspection. That executive director, Wang Zhihua, confessed there’s a storage room upstairs containing some organs that couldn’t be transplanted.”

Zhou Hai froze. His grip tightened around the inspection kit in his hand.

“Organs? No need to call the Health Bureau yet. If they had been doing their jobs properly, illegal operations like this wouldn’t have existed right under their noses. Let’s go upstairs first.”

Wang Man didn’t fully understand the implications, but he trusted Zhou Hai unconditionally. He gestured for Xiao Zeng to bring Wang Zhihua along as they headed toward the elevators.

The massive lobby was filled with people standing around the stairways, cashier counters, and various windows. All of them wore white coats, faces filled with panic.

Beneath the layers of glamorous packaging surrounding this top-tier cosmetic hospital, countless unspeakable secrets were clearly hidden.

Xu Biao hurried over and squeezed into the elevator with them.

The elevator walls were decorated on three sides with ornate carved glass. The luxurious interior looked less like a hospital and more like a palace.

Women’s longing for beauty and fantasy seemed deliberately magnified through every detail of the design. The investors had clearly poured immense effort into creating this illusion.

They arrived on the twelfth floor.

One side contained conference rooms and the director’s office. The other side had three rooms sealed with stainless-steel security doors.

Escorting Wang Zhihua, Zhou Hai and the others headed straight toward them.

Standing before the door, Xu Biao stepped closer for a look. The operating panel beside it actually included fingerprint recognition as well as a password keypad.

He shook his head repeatedly, wearing an exaggerated expression as he leaned toward Wang Zhihua.

“What exactly is stored in there? My god, such an advanced lock system. I assume your security setup has already been registered with the Public Security Bureau? The moment someone tries to force entry, alarms would automatically trigger.”

Hearing Xu Biao’s seemingly casual remarks, Wang Zhihua pressed his lips together and instinctively raised a hand to adjust his glasses, only to notice the handcuffs around his wrists. His head slowly lowered.

Wang Man had no patience for his sorrowful act. He shoved him hard between the shoulders.

“Enough with the performance. You’ve already confessed, so what else is there to hide? Open the door first. Then explain who has access, what’s stored inside, and where the inventory records are kept.”