The third day from the end of the month, Perspective Eye finally made a brief appearance on the front page of the Monthly Ticket Rankings.

For Hong Chang, this moment had been long awaited; after five years of writing, this was the first time anything like this had happened.

He recalled how he used to hover around the 20th spot on the monthly rankings for ages. To think he was now pushing into the top 100—it was enough to make him act this incredibly excited.

No more pointless chatter; the competition was catching up. Hong Chang continued to rally for more monthly tickets, determined to hold fast until May 1st.

The beautiful misunderstanding only lasted about five minutes—then it ended.

Gan Lin ultimately did not help Wang Zhuo, partly because Wang Zhuo possessed impressive stamina and endurance, but mainly because she could not bear that strange scent, especially when confronted by Wang Zhuo’s utterly delighted gaze.

Despite this, Wang Zhuo left completely satisfied. He whistled all the way as he drove Gan Lin back to the school, then turned around and headed for the Second General Hospital.

Reliving the thrill of conquest as he drove, Wang Zhuo unconsciously pressed the accelerator a few extra times. His dust-covered Land Rover exceeded the speed limit twice without him noticing, resulting in flashes from the surveillance cameras capturing his license plate.

Arriving at the nephrology ward with a light heart, Ji Qiong had been waiting in the corridor for quite some time. Seeing Wang Zhuo, she immediately rushed to meet him, her face showing five parts joy and five parts distress.

Wang Zhuo’s mind registered the situation in an instant, and he understood her difficulty. He smiled and inquired, "You ran into someone trying to sell a kidney, didn't you? It’s just money. Tell me, how much are they asking for?"

Ji Qiong nodded, then said with a bitter smile, "They want one million, and they won't even entertain negotiation."

One million? Wang Zhuo let out a soft hiss. After a moment's consideration, he said in a low voice, "Come with me."

Discussing the purchase of a kidney in the corridor of the nephrology department was unwise. The two went upstairs to the hepatology section, found an empty corridor end, and only after confirming no one was listening nearby did Wang Zhuo speak: "Don't worry. No matter how much they demand, we are buying this kidney. I need to know why it's so expensive, and what the source of this kidney is."

Ji Qiong’s heart eased; Wang Zhuo's words were like a soothing pill. After calming down, she slowly recounted the entire sequence of events.

It turned out that in major hospitals capable of performing kidney transplants, many doctors or patients held access to certain grey-market kidney sources. Now, certain individuals specialized in actively recruiting volunteers to sell kidneys through various advertisements. After obtaining the matching results from the sellers, they used communication methods like mobile phones and QQ groups to search nationwide for suitable recipients.

This grey channel had become an unspoken rule within the industry. Hospitals, doctors, patients, and families all knew that buying and selling human organs was illegal, yet they were inseparable from it—some driven by profit, others threatened by disease—everyone utilizing this channel.

This very morning, a "broker" posted a new matching kidney identification number in a QQ group. Coincidentally, this was a highly sought-after kidney source, as several recipients were already waiting in line. Several doctors and patients immediately contacted this broker.

Due to severe inflation in recent years, the expected price for a kidney of this blood type, even after a price hike, should have been around 250,000. However, when several patients required it simultaneously, a situation of highest bidder wins emerged.

Li Yunzhi's primary physician had received instructions from Wang Zhuo and quickly won the bidding war, securing the kidney for 500,000. As luck would have it, the source and the broker were in a city not far from Jiangzhou, so the three of them took the high-speed rail and arrived at the Second General Hospital that afternoon.

"When they saw my mother had a Jiangzhou ID, they suddenly refused to sell altogether and tried to leave on the spot."

Ji Qiong recounted with a bitter smile, "I was nearly frantic with worry and stopped them, asking why. The leader said that people from Jiangzhou were so rich they could buy several kidneys by selling just one house; it was too unfair. Fifty thousand was too little for them."

Wang Zhuo asked, trying to suppress a laugh, "So you asked them how much they actually wanted, and they made an outrageous demand for one million?"

Ji Qiong spread her hands helplessly; that was exactly how it happened.

"Where did they go?" Wang Zhuo asked.

"They already left the hospital. They left me a phone number and asked me to consider it for one more day," Ji Qiong said, pulling out a small piece of paper and handing it to Wang Zhuo.

Wang Zhuo glanced at the slip, carefully tucked it away, and then asked, "What did the three of them look like?"

Ji Qiong thought hard and described the appearance of the three men. The leader was around thirty years old, about 1.70 meters tall, with an average build, and a fingernail-sized black mole beneath his left nostril—he was the easiest to identify. The kidney source was a young man, maybe nineteen or twenty, with dyed yellow hair styled into a messy mop, thin eyebrows, single eyelids, and a small white ring piercing his lower lip.

"You go stay with your mother. Leave the rest to me."

Wang Zhuo gently patted Ji Qiong's shoulder, tenderly smoothed a stray strand of hair from her face, gave her an encouraging look, and turned to leave.

Watching Wang Zhuo's sturdy retreating back, a feeling of reliance welled up in Ji Qiong’s heart. She stood fixedly, her chest slowly filling with an emotion called admiration.

"This kidney source doesn't seem very good..." Wang Zhuo muttered to himself as he walked downstairs, though he knew that given his mother-in-law’s condition, she might not even be able to accept this kidney, and there was no time to wait any longer.

A few minutes later, he exited the hospital gates. After making a quick inquiry to the gatekeeper, he hurried towards the nearest residential area.

No matter how large the hospital, there would always be places offering cheap lodging nearby—small hotels, guesthouses, or reasonably priced apartments.

Soon, Wang Zhuo arrived before this open-plan community. The lower floors of almost every building had been converted into guesthouses specifically catering to the families of patients staying at the Second General Hospital.

Many patients traveled from distant places for medical treatment, which gave rise to these types of accommodations.

Standing beneath a bare willow tree, Wang Zhuo activated his Perspective Eye and looked toward the buildings opposite. Layer