Chapter 186: Crematorium

Seeing this, Chen Ling walked straight out of the courtyard, and the two quickly headed towards a distant street.

Wen Shilin knew he lived there. If Wen Shilin came by later and saw him mingling with the group of ruffians who had once beaten him up, his carefully constructed image would likely collapse.

"What have you found?" Chen Ling asked only after they had walked two streets away.

"You asked us to investigate the organ trade, and after thinking it over carefully, we figured it must be related to hospitals. So, we sent our guys to stake out various hospitals around the city..."

Chen Ling's expression grew a little odd upon hearing this. It seemed not everyone possessed Wen Shilin's sharp journalistic instincts. These ruffians had made the same mistake he had, focusing primarily on hospitals.

"And then?"

"We staked out the hospitals for two days, searched almost every corner, but found nothing... However, something strange happened tonight." The ruffian leader looked around, and only after confirming they were alone, did he speak slowly,

"One of our guys was responsible for staking out the back entrance. Late last night, he saw a few doctors come out, gathered around a stretcher, and they looked very nervous."

"Our guy felt something was off, so he quietly followed. He saw a car parked outside the hospital gate with several people in black clothing standing nearby. They mysteriously opened the trunk, intending to load the person on the stretcher inside... Just then, a gust of wind blew, whisking away the white sheet covering the stretcher."

"And guess what?"

The ruffian leader lowered his voice, "It was a corpse on that stretcher, and it was cut open all over, completely hollowed out, like a pile of mud..."

Chen Ling's pupils constricted sharply.

"Are you sure he wasn't mistaken?" Chen Ling immediately retorted.

"No mistake, our guy swore his life on it," the ruffian leader continued. "He said that when the doctors saw the person on the stretcher, their faces instantly went white with shock. The people in black quickly wrapped the body up, shoved it into the car, and then drove off."

"Did the body have any particular features?"

"The detailed features aren't clear, as it was dark at the time, but he said it was a teenager, probably around sixteen or seventeen."

A teenager... Chen Ling immediately pictured Chen Yan in his mind.

He knew the person the ruffian leader described couldn't be Chen Yan, but the victims' conditions and experiences seemed too similar. Barring any accidents, it was likely the work of the same group.

But he couldn't understand why they would operate so openly at a hospital. Also, the doctors' reactions didn't suggest this was a regular occurrence. Could it be that after the fall of the Seven Districts, with no safe and stable organ supply, they were forced to take risks within the city?

The more Chen Ling thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. He immediately asked, "Where did that car go in the end?"

"Our guys are still tracking it. I came straight to you as soon as I could."

"Let's go, follow them."

Chen Ling set off without hesitation, and the two figures swiftly moved in a particular direction under the cover of night.

Fortunately, vehicles of this era were powered by steam engines rather than internal combustion engines. They were bulky, and combined with the narrow, winding roads of Aurora City's core, their speed was incredibly slow, barely faster than running. This allowed the ruffians to just about keep pace.

Chen Ling and the ruffian leader sprinted along the trail left by the others, but having started too late, they couldn't quite keep up with the car. After racing through a few blocks, the ruffian leader was drenched in sweat, and his pace gradually slackened.

In contrast, Chen Ling beside him remained calm and composed, showing no signs of exhaustion. This secretly astonished the ruffian leader, realizing his boss was no ordinary man.

"It's fine, you can run at your own pace," Chen Ling said, seeing his struggle. "I'll go on ahead."

As soon as he spoke, before the ruffian leader could protest, Chen Ling surged forward like a howling gale, hurtling towards the end of the road!

The ruffian leader was left dumbfounded. He never imagined that his maximum effort was merely a casual display for Chen Ling...

Following the marks left by the ruffians, Chen Ling moved so quickly that he left afterimages. He soon overtook the ruffians who had given up mid-chase due to exhaustion. He continued onward until, outside the main city, even the foremost ruffian was sitting by the roadside, panting and abandoning the pursuit.

A steam car, however slow, was still a car; it was impossible for them to catch it on foot. At this point, their trail completely vanished.

Chen Ling gazed at the dim wilderness in the distance and asked with a frown:

"What's out there?"

"That's... the... outer ring... of the North District," the ruffian replied, gasping for breath. "It's very remote here... hardly anyone lives around... Why would that car drive out this way?"

Chen Ling looked at the dim area in the distance, where only a few faint lights flickered sporadically. He raised a finger, pointing.

"What's that place?"

The ruffian thought for a moment. "A crematorium, probably?"

The word "crematorium" made Chen Ling freeze. He seemed to grasp something, and his expression turned grim. He immediately dashed towards that direction at full speed!

Were these people planning to destroy the evidence?

If Chen Ling's suspicions were correct, then this organ theft at the hospital would surely put the responsible parties at risk. Aurora City wasn't like the Seven Districts, where a body could simply be buried in a mass grave without consequence. If the teenager's corpse from the hospital wasn't handled properly, it could easily be discovered by someone looking into it.

Chen Ling had just managed to find a lead on the organ trade; he couldn't let it be incinerated like this. He swept through the area like a gale, his presence unnoticed in the dim wilderness.

As the crematorium grew closer, Chen Ling could already see the car parked in the open lot, but it was empty.

At this hour, the crematorium was already closed. Aside from a few rooms with lights on, the place was deserted. Chen Ling agilely vaulted over the iron gate, landing silently inside the grounds, and moved like a specter towards the illuminated rooms.

Almost simultaneously, a single drop of blood silently arced through the air over the crematorium's other wall,

That drop of blood accurately landed in a corner of the crematorium. Just as it was about to hit the ground, it transformed into a figure dressed in black, with bandages wrapped around its face.

"A crematorium..." Jian Changsheng's eyes narrowed slightly beneath his hood.

"What exactly are they doing here at this hour?"