Chapter 216: Plastic Surgery

Chapter 216: Body Modifications

"What are you all doing crowded around the computers?"

Yue Lingchuan pushed open the office door and saw everyone huddled around their screens, prompting his question.

"Brother Yue!" Wei Zhengyi looked up and greeted him. "We're still working on that case we just took over."

Yue Lingchuan stepped forward. "The one about the victim who froze to death reported this morning?"

Wei Zhengyi nodded. Yue Lingchuan glanced at the text on the computer screen—a post about an editor’s son being critically ill and urgently needing money, offering ¥50,000 for a kidney—and couldn't help raising an eyebrow. "Found anything?"

Zhou Qiming summarized their findings so far. The more Yue Lingchuan listened, the deeper his frown became. "This sounds serious."

Zhou Qiming sighed. "Exactly. But the leads we have now are limited, so we thought of posting a bait message online to see if anyone would reach out."

He added, "I figured if they really want kidneys, they’d prioritize young, healthy people without genetic diseases, right? I listed my stats clearly—if they’re serious, the chances of picking me should be higher."

Yue Lingchuan scanned the description—183 cm tall, 75 kg, in good health—and nodded, though he cautioned, "But this way, they control the next move. Just waiting around isn’t a solution."

"That's why we're trying a different approach."

From an empty corner, another computer had appeared at some point. Shen Qingye, sitting behind it, looked up at the sound of voices. "I just searched some blogs and found a situation similar to Chen Yingchao’s case, except it’s a girl."

"A girl?" The group quickly gathered around, examining the information. Sure enough, it mirrored Chen Yingchao’s situation.

The girl clearly had a habit of documenting her life. Her series of posts detailed what she ate and did, and from her writing, it was evident she struggled financially. But in August, she suddenly started flaunting new clothes, jewelry, and visits to a cosmetic clinic—all seemingly expensive.

"In one of her earlier posts, the company name was visible, and it happens to be a local business here. The photos also included images of her, so finding her should be straightforward."

"Unlike Chen Yingchao, though, she doesn’t seem to have any side effects. Her blog is still being updated."

Luo Kaiyang speculated, "So, she might have sold something from her body too, just like Chen Yingchao?"

Shen Qingye nodded. "We’re short on leads right now. We can’t just wait for them to contact us. If there’s even a slight possibility, we should check it out—it might uncover something."

Everyone agreed. The next morning, Jiang Cheng and Luo Kaiyang stayed in the office, waiting to see if anyone would reach out, while Shen Qingye, Zhou Qiming, and Wei Zhengyi drove to the company mentioned in the photos to investigate further.

Yue Lingchuan wanted to join them, but his workload was overwhelming, leaving him no choice but to watch them leave, frustrated.

·

Upon arriving at the company, they went straight to the supervisor. The manager was clearly surprised by their visit but cooperated fully once he understood their purpose.

Before long, they located the girl. When the manager brought her in, she looked completely confused, with no idea why she was being summoned.

"Hello, Feng Qiuyu, right?" Shen Qingye spoke first.

The girl froze for a moment before nodding slowly. "Y-yes, Officer...?"

Shen Qingye gave a slight nod and gestured to the sofa opposite. "Have a seat. Don’t be nervous—we just have a few questions for you."

Feng Qiuyu had long hair cascading over her shoulders, large, bright eyes, and a high nose bridge, making her quite beautiful.

At Shen Qingye’s words, she relaxed slightly but soon grew puzzled again. Still, she obediently sat on the sofa and hesitantly asked, "What... what did you want to ask?"

Shen Qingye paused for a moment before asking kindly, "We’d like to know—have you had any medical procedures recently?"

"Medical procedures?" Feng Qiuyu looked utterly confused. "No... why?"

Shen Qingye looked at her for a moment, then said, "Just to clarify—not every surgery requires cutting into the body. Some procedures that don’t involve incisions are still considered surgeries."

"For example, egg retrieval surgery."

At these words, Feng Qiuyu’s expression changed abruptly. She managed a strained smile and stuttered, "I... I don’t know what you’re talking about..."

Seeing her reaction, Shen Qingye immediately understood and softened her tone. "Don’t worry, we’re not here to blame you. You didn’t break any laws."

Although organ trading is widely condemned, neither China’s civil nor criminal law explicitly bans the sale of human organs, and the Ministry of Health has not issued any administrative regulations prohibiting it.*

"We’re here because of a case we’re investigating. We’re just looking for some information and hope you’ll cooperate."

Shen Qingye spoke gently, and Feng Qiuyu peeked up nervously. Only after seeing Shen Qingye’s calm expression did she slowly relax. "R-Really? I won’t get in trouble?"

Shen Qingye nodded. "Really."

Feng Qiuyu hesitated. "Then... can I ask how you knew about me...?"

Shen Qingye replied, "We read your blog and noticed that in August this year, you received a suspicious payment. After that, your blog content changed compared to before."

"Given the case we’re working on, we suspected that you might have..."

Before she could finish, Feng Qiuyu understood and fell silent for a moment before asking, "If... if I tell you, can you keep this between us?"

Shen Qingye assured her, "Of course. Earlier, when we spoke to your manager, we only mentioned that you might have some clues related to a case and asked for your cooperation. Anything you don’t want shared stays private."

After another pause, Feng Qiuyu finally spoke. "Do I... look okay?"

Shen Qingye was taken aback but nodded after a moment. "Very beautiful."

Feng Qiuyu gave a bitter laugh. "But before... I was actually very ugly..."

She began recounting everything, and Shen Qingye learned the full story behind her decision to donate eggs.

Feng Qiuyu had always been an ordinary-looking girl—tiny eyes, a flat nose, and even buck teeth. Throughout her school years, she was the butt of boys’ jokes, which gradually made her shy and full of self-doubt.

It wasn’t until college, when she wandered into a plastic surgery clinic one day, that she realized there were ways to make herself beautiful.

Faced with the plastic surgeon’s confident promises, Feng Qiuyu was hooked. She saved up for a long time and first tackled her biggest insecurity—her eyes—by getting double eyelids and an epicanthoplasty. At first, her swollen eyes terrified her, but as they healed and she saw her brighter, larger eyes, she finally felt pure satisfaction.

With her eyes enhanced, her other flaws seemed to fade. Classmates who once mocked or ignored her started talking to her. Naturally, she became addicted to cosmetic procedures.

Her family wasn’t poor, but they weren’t well-off either—especially with a younger brother to support. College tuition was manageable, but anything extra was out of the question. Feng Qiuyu didn’t dare tell them, so she pinched pennies and worked side gigs. After over a year of saving, she finally had enough for dental work.

The more she changed, the more she craved. After graduating and starting work, she should have been happy with her salary. But her school wasn’t prestigious, her grades were average, and her pay was modest. After covering basic living expenses, she had some money left, but her obsession with cosmetic procedures grew. Under constant persuasion from the clinic staff, she wanted a nose job, laser skin treatments, whitening procedures, even breast augmentation...

But she couldn’t afford it.

Just when she felt hopeless, the clinic owner suddenly offered her a way to earn money—as a "favor" for being a loyal customer.

Selling her eggs.

Shen Qingye frowned. "The cosmetic clinic?"

Feng Qiuyu nodded. "Yes. She said they don’t accept eggs from just anyone. They want young, pretty, healthy donors... and the demand is limited. She only referred me because I’d done so many procedures there..."

Shen Qingye said, "So you went."

Feng Qiuyu replied, "They sold it to me like it was nothing—no risks, wouldn’t interfere with work. Most importantly... they said I could earn 8,000 yuan for one retrieval. I thought it was worth it..."

Shen Qingye was silent for a moment. "Walk me through the entire procedure—what's his name? What does he look like?"

"I don't know his full name... I only know his surname is Liu. The boss lady told me to call him Brother Liu. As for his looks... neither ugly nor handsome, just average-looking. He was in his thirties, nothing really stood out about him."

"The boss lady just introduced us. He asked me some basic questions, had me get a medical checkup, and after everything checked out, he gave me some vitamin shots, saying I should rest up and recover for the next week. Then, on the seventh day... he picked me up for the procedure."

"Where did they do the procedure?" Shen Qingye asked.

Feng Qiuyu shook her head. "I don’t know."

"He blindfolded me after we met. Only when we arrived did he take it off."

Shen Qingye frowned. "He blindfolded you, and you didn’t suspect anything?"

Feng Qiuyu stammered, "He told me they didn’t use to blindfold people before, but there was this girl who donated eggs and kept obsessing over whose family got them, which sperm they were combined with, what kind of child might result from that... She harassed them so much they had to move locations to get away from her. He seemed genuine, so I bought it..."

Shen Qingye shared a look with Zhou Qiming, her brows furrowed. Same story they'd heard before—from Chen Yingchao.

Shen Qingye took a deep breath. "How many times have you done this?"

"Just once..." Feng Qiuyu hesitated.

"How many eggs did they get from you that time?"

"What?" Feng Qiuyu looked confused. "What do you mean, how many?"

Shen Qingye’s expression darkened as she studied her. She asked Zhou Qiming and Wei Zhengyi to step out for a moment before continuing, "That man didn’t tell you how many eggs he took from you?"

"N-no..." Feng Qiuyu grew visibly nervous at Shen Qingye’s tone. "I just remember the doctor poking in and out of me repeatedly with a needle. He kept saying I didn’t have many eggs and was having trouble getting any."

Shen Qingye shut her eyes for a second, then fell silent for a moment before asking, "What date was your procedure?"

"The 9th."

"And when do you usually get your period? How long does it last? Is it regular?"

Feng Qiuyu didn’t understand why she was being asked all this, but since they were alone and both women, she answered haltingly. After listening, Shen Qingye said, "So you weren't even ovulating when they took your eggs."

Feng Qiuyu only vaguely understood. She had no boyfriend, let alone a husband, and knew very little about these things. Shen Qingye didn’t go into detail, simply explaining, "You only release mature eggs when you're ovulating. That’s when they could result in pregnancy."

"If you weren’t ovulating during the procedure, where did those eggs come from?"

At Shen Qingye’s grave expression, Feng Qiuyu got chills. "I... I..."

Shen Qingye said, "What he gave you probably wasn’t a vitamin shot—it was fertility hormones."

"And he didn’t just take one egg. It was many."

Feng Qiuyu went pale. After a long pause, she whispered, "But... but I didn’t feel anything..."

Shen Qingye sighed. "That’s because you were lucky."

She gave her the gist of Chen Yingchao’s case, and Feng Qiuyu turned deathly pale, her lips trembling. "I had no idea this could happen..."

Shen Qingye stood and patted her shoulder. "If you have time, get yourself checked out at the hospital—better safe than sorry. And," she paused, speaking earnestly, "you're plenty beautiful as you are. You don’t need to do these things anymore."

"Nothing beats confidence and grace."

Feng Qiuyu sat in stunned silence, speechless for a long time.

Shen Qingye said gently, "Mind showing us that beauty salon?"