Magical Girl Fan Bingbing

"I didn't expect to have such an unexpected gain."

After hiding the RV in a secluded spot, Jiang Ran drove his secondhand car, which liked to cough twice, home.

As soon as the car entered the main road, a record from that gold necklace flooded Jiang Ran's mind—the complete meeting minutes of the Magical Girl Investigation Team of the Tianhai City Public Security Bureau in the conference room on the third floor.

Chu Ying probably never dreamed that her carefully organized five-person strategic meeting would have a sixth brother listening in from the sidelines.

And that person is the target they are looking for.

As Jiang Ran drove, he processed the meeting's contents, from Amber's technical analysis of the gold necklace to Little Deer's database comparison results, and finally to the three investigative directions proposed by everyone. He absorbed every detail completely.

It has to be said that Chu Ying's girls are indeed quite capable; these methods are more than enough to deal with ordinary criminals or wild magical girls.

Unfortunately, I ran into him.

Jiang Ran awakened during the Demon Alliance period. At that time, there were no special talent classes, and his information only existed in the Demon Alliance archives. During the chaotic period after the Demon Alliance disintegrated, many files and secrets were lost in the chaos.

They were either destroyed in the war against the monsters or buried in some unknown corner, where no one could find them.

Therefore, there could not be any record of the magical characteristics of Souseiseki in the official database.

As for Leng Qiaoqiao, we'll just remind her to be careful later.

Jiang Ran smiled slightly, storing the meeting's content deep in her mind.

However, despite this, after being targeted by Chu Ying, the distribution channels have indeed become the most pressing issue.

Under the crackdown, the underground market for magic essence in Tianhai City almost came to a standstill. The middlemen who were still active either went into hiding or were turned into informants by the Public Security Bureau, which shows that Chu Ying's work has indeed achieved remarkable results.

……

It was completely dark when the car entered the old residential area.

Jiang Ran groped her way up to the third floor in the dark, took out her key, and before she could even insert it into the lock, the door opened from the inside.

"Dad!"

Jiang Li stood at the door, wearing a cartoon-patterned loungewear set and fluffy slippers. Her hair was wet, indicating that she had just taken a shower.

"Why did you come here again?" Jiang Ran asked as she changed her shoes.

"My mom's experiment has entered a critical stage again. She's been staying in the lab every day and hasn't come home lately. She asked me to come stay with you for a few days." Jiang Li naturally took the backpack from Jiang Ran and tossed it onto the sofa. "She said she'll pick me up when she's done."

Jiang Ran nodded, walked into the kitchen and took a look. There were two bowls of instant noodles on the stove. One bowl was already empty, and the other was still steaming.

"I saved this for you," Jiang Li said, following behind. "There's nothing in the fridge, so you'll have to make instant noodles for now."

Jiang Ran felt a warmth in her heart. "Next time, send me a message before you come, and I'll prepare a big meal for you in advance."

Jiang Ran picked up his instant noodles and sat down at the table. Jiang Li also moved a chair and sat opposite him, resting her chin on her hands as she watched him eat.

"Dad, are you working overtime again today?"

"Yeah, something came up at school."

"You're lying." Jiang Li pouted. "It's the weekend today, so there are no classes."

"Tutoring."

"What kind of extra lessons does a PE teacher give?"

Jiang Ran looked up and found her daughter staring at her with a scrutinizing gaze, her bright eyes, just like Song Mingyue's, filled with disbelief.

"Alright, stop interrogating me." Jiang Ran picked up a braised egg from the bowl and stuffed it into her daughter's mouth. "You're only satisfied if I admit to seeing other women, aren't you?"

With a braised egg in her mouth, Jiang Li temporarily gave up asking questions and changed the subject.

"Dad, I need to tell you something. Mom's been under a lot of stress lately, and she often complains to me after get off work. If you go and comfort her, it'll definitely be effective."

"What's wrong?"

"It seems that their research institute needs a lot of magic essence, but the monthly quota approved by the higher-ups has already been used up and is far from enough." Jiang Li said, gesturing as she spoke. "The entire research institute is making phone calls every day to coordinate with other units, trying to borrow some from them, but they don't have enough either."

Jiang Ran paused, her chopsticks still holding the noodles. "What does the research institute use magic essence for?"

"How would I know? It's just an experiment, I guess." Jiang Li shrugged. "Mom said that magic essence can only be extracted from the corpses of magical beasts. There are only so many invading magical beasts, and we can't necessarily kill them all. The production can't meet the demand at all, so we have to implement a quota system. Once it's used up, we have to wait until next month."

"She also said that there is a nationwide scramble for magic essence. Although their research institute is of a high level, it is not ranked high in the quota allocation and there is never enough."

Jiang Ran didn't reply, and kept her head down eating her noodles, but her mind was already racing.

No wonder the Public Security Bureau is cracking down hard; it turns out they want to take back the magic essence that has leaked into the public for their own use. Jiang Ran's current actions are tantamount to stealing meat from the mouths of the authorities.

Jiang Ran suddenly remembered that there seemed to be a note in A-Qiang's address book that said the number of the Tianhai City Biological Research Institute.

At the time, Jiang Ran didn't pay much attention, after all, Brother Qiang's network of connections was indeed extensive, and his contact list included some official institutions and personnel.

As for why an ordinary person would have the phone number of an official, that's a question you shouldn't even ask.

Now, considering what my daughter just said, the name suddenly seems interesting.

A research institute with a semi-official background appears in the contact list of a magic element middleman.

What does this mean?

This indicates that the research institute is already supplementing its magic essence through unofficial channels when the official quota is insufficient.

Since they're all magic elements anyway, when the research results are written into a paper, who can tell whether the data in the paper was researched from legitimate or illegitimate magic elements?

Some graduate students or professors are willing to go to great lengths to write a paper, even resorting to photo editing and data fabrication. Buying some magic essence from small, unlicensed workshops for experiments is already quite pragmatic.

More importantly, the research institute is a legitimate organization with the legal qualifications to possess and use magic essence. Products shipped from them do not need to go through the underground market, so the police have no reason to investigate.

Such a perfect shipping channel.

"Dad?" Jiang Li waved her hand in front of his eyes when he didn't speak for a while. "What are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking about your mother."

"Really?" Jiang Li's eyes lit up instantly, and she leaned forward. "Have you finally come to your senses and are going to try and win my mom back?"

Jiang Ran tapped her, "Go to sleep after you finish your homework. You have school tomorrow, Monday."

"Tch, you'll regret it when someone takes advantage of Mom."

Jiang Li pouted, dried her hair, and dawdled back to her room.

Goodnight, Dad.

"Good night."

……

After the light in her daughter's room went out, Jiang Ran sat in the living room for a while. Only after confirming that Jiang Li's breathing had become even did she take out a newly bought SIM card from her pocket and put it into her spare phone.

He opened the notebook filled with A-Qiang's contact information and found the line: Tianhai City Biological Research Institute, Commissioner Lin.

It was followed by a phone number.

Jiang Ran glanced at the time; it was 9:40 PM.

It wasn't too late; people who do scientific research should still be awake at this hour. He went out onto the balcony and started making phone calls.

beep - beep - beep -

The phone rang four or five times, but no one answered.

Jiang Ran didn't hang up and waited for a while.

"Who?"

A deep male voice came from the other end of the phone, his tone wary and somewhat impatient.

Jiang Ran didn't introduce himself, but said directly, "I have a batch of high-purity magic essence. If you need it, I can supply it reliably."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

How did you get this number?

"Distribution channels." Jiang Ran's answer was brief. "You don't need to know who I am, you just need to know that my goods are pure, plentiful, and stable."

The man on the other end of the phone seemed to be weighing something. After a while, he spoke again, his tone changing from wary to probing.

"What is the purity level?"

"Purity exceeds 90%, crystal grade."

"...Crystal-grade with a purity exceeding 90%?" The man's voice changed noticeably. "Only officially registered and approved factories can supply goods of this purity. Are you sure?"

"Sure."

"How is it prepared?"

"It's an exclusive process; I cannot disclose the specifics."

"What about residual impurities?"

"Invisible to the naked eye, but detectable by instruments."

After a few questions, the attitude on the other end of the phone changed noticeably.

"You've got some nerve. Don't you know how serious the crackdown is in Tianhai City right now? All the chefs in the city have either fled or been arrested. And you, you still dare to call and sell." The man chuckled. "Besides, this level of purity isn't something an ordinary chef can make. Your company's management seems a bit lax."

He seemed to regard Jiang Ran as another corrupt official in a qualified organization, someone who was stealing from his own position.

"Where there is demand, there is a market," Jiang Ran replied simply.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, then the man's voice came through again, "My surname is Lin, you can just call me Commissioner Lin."

"Tomorrow at 2 PM, there's a coffee shop called 'Muzha Xianyin' opposite the east gate of the Tianhai City Institute of Biology. Take a corner seat on the second floor."

He paused, then added.

"If your goods are really as pure as you say, I can sign a long-term contract with you on behalf of the research institute."

"it is good."

Jiang Ran hung up the phone, turned off her spare phone, removed the SIM card, and put it back in the drawer.

He leaned back on the living room sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling for a while, then sent the good news to Leng Qiaoqiao, asking her to bring the two bottles of magic essence over tomorrow to sell together.

Shortly after, Leng Qiaoqiao sent a reply.

"You found a distribution channel so quickly? You're truly amazing, Teacher Jiang."

"By the way, I just gave some money to a few individual customers who bought from me before. It wasn't much, just one or two pieces each. That should be fine, right?"