Chapter 2

The driver said nothing more, but there was something hard to read in the way he looked at me as I got out.

Maybe he thought I was useless—young, yet forced to live by selling my blood.

When I got home, I changed clothes and went back to browsing job listings online.

The economy had been in a serious downturn for years. I’d interviewed at several companies, but none of the salaries they offered seemed acceptable. I had no idea where my future was headed.

Just as I was lost in those thoughts, I got an unexpected call.

It was Zhao Lei, the young man who sold blood.

He hesitated. “Brother Qun, I need to ask you a favor. Could you come to the hospital?”

I was surprised. We weren’t close. Why was he calling me for help?

But we’d sold blood at the same place, and I agreed. I went straight to the hospital where he was staying.

It was strange. We hadn’t seen each other for only a few days, but Zhao Lei had become so gaunt he was almost unrecognizable.

His eyes were vacant, his cheeks a sickly yellow. He looked like a tuberculosis patient.

I was alarmed. “Xiao Zhao, what happened to you? Is it because you had too much blood drawn—”

“No.”

Zhao Lei didn’t answer my question. He pointed to a pile of dirty clothes under the bed and said that he’d been on an IV in the hospital for days, with no one to look after him. He wanted me to go out and buy him a change of clothes.

It was a small favor, so I agreed at once and went to buy him a set of pajamas.

When I returned, Zhao Lei was sitting on the hospital bed, peeling fruit, looking troubled.

He accidentally cut his little finger. The wound was deep, and a lot of blood ran out.

I hurried to find some gauze and scolded him for being so careless.

“Brother Qun, there’s something I want to tell you.”

Zhao Lei didn’t seem to care about his injured finger. He looked up at me, as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t.

“You’ve been going there to sell blood lately, right?”

I was puzzled, but nodded. “Yeah.”

Zhao Lei seemed preoccupied. He murmured in acknowledgment, then suddenly asked a question that came out of nowhere.

“Did Dr. Yang sign a contract with you?”

“Huh?” I was startled. “How did you know about that?”

“Nothing. I was just asking.”

Zhao Lei smiled, handed me the apple he’d finished peeling, then yawned and said he was tired and wanted to rest.

I felt there was something he hadn’t said, but he looked so sick that I didn’t press him. I left with my mind full of questions.

Outside the hospital, I was about to head home when I ran into a familiar face carrying a lunchbox and hurrying toward the entrance.

It was the middle-aged taxi driver who had driven me before.

I went over to greet him and said what a coincidence it was. Was he here to see a doctor?

“Why is it you again?” The driver stared at me for a long moment before saying he was visiting a patient.

Then he turned and stepped into the elevator, looking so rushed that he didn’t notice the newspaper tucked under his arm slipping to the floor.

“Hey, wait…”

I picked up the paper, intending to return it, but the elevator doors had already closed. I gave up and casually opened it.

The instant I did, I froze.

The front page carried a report about a middle-aged woman who had disappeared on her way home after donating blood and was later found murdered in the wilderness.

“So the case really made the news.”

Remembering what I’d heard outside the blood station, I shivered without meaning to. I folded the paper, feeling even more uneasy.

The case had happened days ago. Why was the driver still carrying that old newspaper?

He often picked up passengers near the place where that woman had been murdered… Could he be the killer?

The thought startled me. I hurriedly tossed the paper away, shook my head, and laughed at myself.

I was young. Why was I always assuming the worst of people?

A few days later, I finally scraped together my younger brother’s tuition and went to the bank to send the money home.

On my way back, bored, I stopped by the hospital to see whether Zhao Lei was doing any better.

His face was still deathly pale, but his spirits seemed much better.

I sat and chatted with him for a while. Thinking of the strange driver, I half-jokingly said, “Oh, right. Did you meet an odd taxi driver on your way back from donating blood? He kept saying Dr. Yang’s station wasn’t legitimate and told me not to go back.”

“Forget him. He’s crazy. Don’t pay him any attention!”

To my surprise, Zhao Lei had been talking and laughing normally, but suddenly he sprang upright, visibly agitated.

I was startled and asked what was wrong.

Zhao Lei said nothing. He looked upset, then lay back down and refused to say another word.

I felt awkward, so I quietly left the room.

After that day, Zhao Lei seemed to vanish from the world.

He stopped contacting me. He didn’t answer even when I called him.

Worried about his condition, I made a point of going to the hospital to ask after him.

The nurse on duty told me Zhao Lei had signed himself out the day after my visit. A middle-aged man surnamed Yang had come to pick him up.

“A man surnamed Yang? Wasn’t that Dr. Yang?”

I was puzzled. Why had Dr. Yang suddenly taken Zhao Lei away?

Another week passed. On the day of my regular blood donation, I rode my electric scooter to the station.

Zhao Lei wasn’t there this time. The big dog was.

As before, it sat by the road, fixing me with a stare that sent a chill down my spine.

When it was my turn, I remembered what the nurse had said and casually asked, “Old Yang, do you know where Zhao Lei went?”

“Why are you asking about him?”

To my surprise, Dr. Yang’s hand trembled as he drew my blood. He looked up abruptly.

His eyes, behind his glasses, were razor-sharp. I felt cold all over.

I wiped away my sweat. “No… I was just curious. It was a passing question.”

Dr. Yang’s face returned to its usual blank expression.

“I don’t remember him. I see so many people every day that I forget them quickly.”

“Oh,” I said. I didn’t ask anything else, but my suspicions only grew.

If he didn’t remember Zhao Lei, why had he reacted so strongly just then?

The nurse had clearly said a man surnamed Yang had taken Zhao Lei away…

I left the station with a head full of questions.

Just as I got on my scooter, I heard a fierce bark behind me.

I turned. Somehow, the big dog from the blood station had gotten loose. It was charging toward me from the end of the road.

I panicked. I couldn’t stop in time, and my scooter slammed straight into it.

The dog was knocked to the ground. It let out a howl, then lay there retching.

“Damn it!”

I fell too. I scrambled to my feet, cursing as I went to check on the dog—and froze in place.

I didn’t know what it had eaten, but its belly was swollen.

A mass of slimy flesh and clotted blood spilled from its mouth, along with… half a bloodied finger!

There was a clear cut across the fingertip.

The more I looked, the more familiar it seemed.

I thought of Zhao Lei.

The last time I visited him in the hospital, he’d accidentally cut his little finger while peeling fruit.

The wound was in exactly the same place as the severed finger.

“Could that… be his finger?”

My mind rang. One horrifying thought after another surged into my head.

The woman who had met a gruesome end near the blood station. The driver’s warning. Zhao Lei’s sudden disappearance. The finger the dog had vomited up…

When I put it all together, my scalp went numb.

I was so frightened I didn’t even bother with my scooter. I ran around the dog and bolted down another road.

Fortunately, it didn’t chase me.

Maybe it had eaten too much; it was still lying there, retching.

I didn’t dare look back.

Fear filled every cell in my body. I ran for my life.

I hadn’t gone far when a taxi at the intersection started honking at me.

The window rolled down, revealing the rugged face of the middle-aged driver.

He waved. “Young man, get in!”

“You?” I froze, but fear left me no time to think. I yanked the door open and scrambled into the passenger seat as if I were fleeing for my life.

Before I could settle in, the driver floored it and sped away from the road.

I was still panting hard.

Only when the big dog had disappeared from the rearview mirror did I stare blankly at the middle-aged driver.

“Sir… why are you here?”

“To find you, of course.”

He glanced at me. “I told you last time not to go back there, but you wouldn’t listen. Scared now, are you?”

I tried to calm my racing heart. “How… how did you know about all this?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he asked whether I knew a young man named Zhao Lei.

I nodded blankly. “I do.”

The driver lit a cigarette, took a few deep drags, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

“I told him the same thing I told you, but the kid wouldn’t listen. Then something happened.”

He paused, his voice turning dark.

“Now it’s your turn. If you keep selling blood to that man surnamed Yang, you’ll end up just like Zhao Lei.”

“What?”

My whole body went numb. My mouth fell open.

It was a long time before I could look at the driver’s strange face and ask, trembling, “What do you mean? Is that what happens to everyone who comes here to sell blood?”

“Not everyone who sells blood ends up that way. His real targets are people with rare blood types.”

The driver lowered his voice. “Like the woman you saw in the newspaper.”

My heart jolted. I immediately remembered the article, and my whole body began to tremble. I almost bit my tongue.

“Was that woman killed by Dr. Yang too?”

“You’re not completely stupid.”

The driver gave a self-mocking laugh. “There are many unfortunate people in this world who suffer from all kinds of illnesses. If they’re poor and seriously ill, all they can do is wait to die. Rich people are different.

“When the rich fall ill, they’ll do anything to keep themselves alive. They’ll even reach their claws toward the poor.

“If one of their organs fails, they’ll find a poor person whose blood type is a close match, then figure out how to make that person’s organs their own. With medical techniques, your bone marrow, organs, even pancreas could be replaced.”

He paused, his voice turning more chilling.

“What Dr. Yang wants from you depends on what his buyer is missing.”

I fell silent.

Each wave of fear struck my heart like an electric shock.

So that was it…

“Then Zhao Lei was… because of the same thing?”

“His situation is a little different from yours,” the driver cut in coldly. “What you should be worrying about now isn’t Zhao Lei. It’s what will happen to you. That man surnamed Yang is treating you well only because he has his eye on your organs.”

“No. No, that can’t be true! You’re lying to me!”

I was so agitated I couldn’t believe it. I shook my head frantically.

“If Dr. Yang is that kind of person, why hasn’t he done anything to me yet?”

“Before a doctor operates on a patient, there’s a lot of preparation. The more difficult the surgery, the longer the preparation takes.”

The driver looked at me. “Yang hasn’t touched you because he isn’t ready yet.

“It’s better to keep your organs in your body until they’re needed than to preserve them in a machine. But sooner or later, he’ll come for you.”

I listened, stunned.

I remembered how Dr. Yang always told me to get plenty of rest and take care of my health after each blood draw… My face stiffened.

Damn it!

I pulled out my phone, ready to call the police.

The driver said coldly, “Don’t bother. Unless you have direct evidence, calling the police won’t help. You’ll only expose yourself and make Yang act sooner.”

My fingers went stiff. I was so terrified I dropped my phone onto the seat.

“What am I supposed to do, then? Can I only run away from this city?”

“Heh…”

He laughed meaningfully and glanced at me again. “If I’m guessing right, that man surnamed Yang made you sign a long-term blood donation contract, didn’t he?”

“I nodded blankly. I was about to ask how he knew when the driver gave a strange laugh.

“From the moment you signed that contract, you were already trapped.”

“When you signed it, he took your ID information and recorded details about your family. He may even have slipped an organ-donation consent form in front of you while you weren’t paying attention.”

The driver’s voice grew hoarse.

“If you run away from the city now, I’m sure you’ll ‘have an accident’ on the road. Then he can produce the organ-donation form and legally take everything inside you.”

I couldn’t say a word. The twitching at the corner of my mouth betrayed the terror in my heart.

After a long while, I looked at the driver. “Why do you know all this?”

He took the last drag of his cigarette and said that he used to sell blood at that station too. He’d almost signed the same contract as me.

But he had been luckier. They discovered he had hepatitis, so Dr. Yang let him go and found another “substitute.”

“Unfortunately… that substitute was my son.”

Pain crossed the driver’s face. The hand holding the steering wheel trembled slightly.

“Not long after, my son had an accident. That man surnamed Yang came with the contract and took his organs, perfectly legally. I’ve been secretly investigating the blood station ever since.”

I nodded numbly, overwhelmed with regret.

If I’d known, I never should have signed that damn contract…

What was I supposed to do now?…