Siheyuan: I just came across and wanted to chase me away

"Stop talking nonsense! Explain yourself!" the team member shouted sternly.

Just then, a noise came from the back door, and another team of team members brought in a man in a black jacket. "Team Leader Tong, this kid was sneaking around trying to escape through the back door, but we caught him. He was carrying this too." A team member handed over a ledger, which was filled with dates and place names, clearly a record of the handover of the child.

The man in the black jacket struggled, saying, "I don't know anything! I just came to pick up my medicine!"

Tong Ren opened the ledger and pointed to one of the lines: "On the 15th of last month, three children were handed over from the abandoned factory in the south of the city. Did you pick them up?"

The man's expression changed drastically, and he could no longer speak.

Tong Ren ignored him and ordered his team, "Take all the children with you, take good care of them, and send them back to the station for a doctor's check-up. Bring Wang Ran and this man back to the station for interrogation as well!"

The team members responded immediately and carefully picked up the children. The youngest baby was wrapped in the arms of a female team member. Perhaps feeling the warmth, the crying gradually subsided, and the little hand grasped the female team member's clothes as if it were a lifeline.

As he left the clinic, dawn was breaking. Smoke began to rise from the breakfast stalls at the alley entrance, wafting the aroma of fried dough sticks, a stark contrast to the musty smell inside the clinic. Tong Ren glanced back at the tightly closed clinic door, knowing that this was just a small outpost shut down, and the network behind it still awaited their investigation. But at least the children were safe, and they would soon be back with their parents—a thought that eased his tense nerves slightly.

Gu Nan watched as Gu Bei began cleaning up the scene. He bent down and dragged the unconscious Xiao Bao to a corner. With a flick of his finger, he vanished from the spot—his body was stored in his personal space. This kind of thing couldn't be publicized. This was a new society; dragging an unconscious person around in broad daylight would surely be mistaken for madness and the police would be called.

After Gu Nan left, Gu Bei dragged the haphazardly laid corpses from the warehouse to the center and piled them up. He walked to the door and called out in a low voice, "Hei Zi, come in."

Hei Zi strolled in leisurely, sniffed the air, and frowned: "What? Wasn't everything resolved? Why did you make me smell this blood?"

Gu Bei glanced at the pile of corpses, his tone turning serious: "These can't be left as a trace. Gu Nan's current situation is already delicate. If the higher-ups find out he has so many lives on his hands, do you think he'll be arrested and investigated?"

Hei Zi pouted and waved his hand: "Alright, I know. Go and tidy up other things. I feel uncomfortable standing here like this."

Gu Bei knew Hei Zi's abilities, and it was safest to leave this task of cleaning up traces to it, so he turned around and went to check the warehouse for any missed clues.

After Blackie had walked away, a faint black aura emanated from its body. It lightly stomped its paw on the ground, creating a deep trench. It swiftly tossed the corpses into the trench one by one, its movements swift and efficient. Although the stench of blood made it somewhat nauseous, it considered it nothing for Gu Nan's sake. After dealing with the corpses, it filled the trench with soil and even gathered some weeds to cover it, making it appear indistinguishable from its surroundings.

When Gu Bei returned, he saw that the scene had been cleaned up and nodded: "The last step is to set up a small explosion to completely destroy this place, so that no one can find out anything."

Meanwhile, in the police station's interrogation room, Tong Ren stared at Wang Ran across from him, his brows furrowed. This operation had not only rescued more than a dozen abducted children but also unearthed several children's corpses in the backyard of the hideout. Their small bodies were curled up, a sight that made one's heart clench. This was far more than just a human trafficking den; it likely involved an even more disgusting organ trade.

He cleared his throat and tapped the table: "Name, place of origin, and what your group has been up to. Tell us honestly. The accomplice who was just arrested has already told us everything he needed to say."

Wang Ran hung his head, his fingers digging into the edge of the table. He knew Xiao Bao was the mastermind, but Brother Bao had saved his life years ago, a debt he couldn't forget. But with the child and the body right there, there was no point in denying it. He took a deep breath and suddenly looked up: "I confess."

From the very beginning, when he followed Xiao Bao into these heinous deeds, Wang Ran knew that sooner or later the truth would come out. Those in this line of work never get a good night's sleep; they always feel like there's a pair of eyes watching them from outside. Until the sirens pierced the clinic's night, he felt a numb sense of relief—but he never expected it to happen so quickly. Ultimately, it was because Brother Bao's entire gang was wiped out that he lost his backer, like a kite with a broken string, and that's why he stumbled so quickly.

The incandescent light in the interrogation room was blinding. Wang Ran looked up, his eyes bloodshot, but his gaze held a desperate resolve: "I confess. I did everything." He licked his chapped lips, his voice hoarse but firm, "Whatever punishment you want, whatever sentence you want, I'll accept it." From the moment he was arrested, he had made up his mind to take all the blame upon himself—Brother Leopard had been kind to him, and he dared not shirk his responsibility.

Tong Ren sat opposite him, his fingertips lightly tapping the table, his gaze sharp, having long seen through his thoughts. He sneered, his voice filled with undisguised mockery: "Don't think you can handle this all by yourself. Such a huge operation, from kidnapping to transportation, to contacting buyers across the country, do you think you, a small clinic owner, can manage it all? Tell me, who's behind this?"

Wang Ran twitched his lips, revealing a mocking smile that was more like a grimace: "Who's behind me? It's just that I'm greedy and want to make money." He paused, deliberately emphasizing his words, "As for those buyers... we in this business follow 'rules of the trade.' How can we sell out our customers? If we ruin our reputation, we won't be able to make a living in the future." This was half true and half false, both to absolve Xiao Bao and to give himself a pretext for "loyalty."

Tong Ren stared at him for a long time, seeing that his eyes were rigid, like a stone that could not be warmed, and knew that further interrogation would not yield any results. This Wang Ran looked weak and scholarly, but he was quite stubborn and determined to protect the person behind him.

“Fine, I won’t reveal who the mastermind is.” Tong Ren shifted his position, leaning slightly forward, his tone calm yet carrying an undeniable pressure. “First, tell me how you operate? How do you abduct children—by drugging them or by force? How do you contact buyers—by coded messages or through middlemen? And what about those children who weren’t sold, or those who got into trouble… what do you do with their bodies?” He spoke the last few words very softly, yet they pierced Wang Ran like ice picks.