Magical Girl Fan Bingbing

The warehouse was dimly lit, with only a few cheap industrial light tubes overhead emitting a cold white light. The air was filled with a pungent, fishy smell, like a mixture of the odors of a seafood market and a chemical laboratory.

Jiang Ran followed Chu Ying inside, and the first thing she saw was the remains of magical beasts on the ground, marked with seals by the security guards.

Those were the corpses of several black iron-level magical beasts, dismembered into pieces, their internal organs emptied, leaving only grayish-white shells piled in the corner like a pile of discarded garbage.

As Chu Ying walked, she explained to Jiang Ran that the production process involved separating and purifying the magic crystals from the remains of magical beasts.

Jiang Ran's gaze lingered on the surroundings for a moment.

He had even personally killed the highest-level World Serpent, so the Black Iron Beast was no different from a stray dog ​​on the roadside in his eyes.

However, at this moment, Jiang Ran's thoughts were somewhat complicated.

Realizing that her thoughts were not quite right, Jiang Ran quickly looked away.

Chu Ying led him further inside. Deeper into the warehouse, a separate space had been partitioned off, filled with various bottles and jars and simple equipment. Several handwritten formula notes were also pasted on the walls, the handwriting so messy it looked like a primary school student's homework.

"This is the kitchen."

Chu Ying gestured with her chin towards the equipment, which was very rudimentary, basically cobbled together from ordinary experimental equipment bought online.

Jiang Ran looked around, his gaze sweeping over the things he couldn't name.

As a former Shining-level Magical Girl, Jiang Ran's perception of magic far surpasses that of ordinary people, and even after retiring for many years, this intuition has not completely disappeared.

There were still some residual magical fluctuations nearby.

"Teacher? What's wrong?"

Chu Ying noticed that Jiang Ran's gaze was somewhat lost in thought.

"It's nothing." Jiang Ran snapped out of her reverie and casually asked, "How much magic essence can a hideout of this size produce at once?"

Chu Ying shook her head. This was just a small workshop, and the quality of its products was not high. The monthly sales were around several hundred thousand yuan. As for the profit, that depended on the chef's skills.

Jiang Ran did a quick mental calculation. This number would be very tempting for an ordinary person, but it was far from enough for Jiang Ran.

The cost of a full organ transplant, plus subsequent maintenance and treatment, is conservatively estimated to be at least an astronomical figure.

"But that's just the lowest end," Chu Ying continued. "A bottle of the salt-grade can sell for over 200,000, and the crystal-grade is even more outrageous, starting at least at 500,000 per bottle, and there's no market for it."

"Is that exaggerated?"

"Yes, but chefs who can make crystal-level magic essence have either gone out of business or been recruited by various laboratories." Chu Ying's tone was tinged with emotion.

Jiang Ran didn't reply; his gaze fell on the handwritten recipe notes on the wall.

Although the handwriting was messy, Jiang Ran could still roughly understand the contents. It was a very crude magic extraction process with complicated steps, low efficiency, and several obvious safety hazards.

Based on Jiang Ran's previous understanding of magic, this process wasted at least 60% of the magic power in the raw materials.

In other words, if someone can optimize this process...

Jiang Ran interrupted her thoughts again.

"Let's go, teacher." Chu Ying clapped her hands. "The technical team has already processed the evidence here. We should go back now."

"it is good."

Jiang Ran followed Chu Ying out of the warehouse. The sunlight outside was a bit dazzling, and he subconsciously squinted.

On the way back, Chu Ying was driving, seemingly in a bad mood, because she felt she had lost face in front of her teacher for failing to catch Chef Avenger.

"Teacher, where did that Avenger hide?" Chu Ying asked sullenly. "The intelligence said he was in the warehouse."

Jiang Ran sat in the passenger seat, her fingers unconsciously stroking the crystal ribbon in her pocket. "Perhaps she's more cunning than you think."

"Hmph, once I catch him, I'll definitely let him taste the power of the Great Memory Restoration Technique." Chu Ying gripped the steering wheel. "Recently, we've received a strict order from above: we must reduce the magic crime rate in Tianhai City this year. I've been working overtime for two months straight."

"Take a rest," Jiang Ran said.

"Thank you for your concern, teacher." Chu Ying smiled. "By the way, what were your thoughts after today's visit, teacher?"

Jiang Ran remained silent for a few seconds.

"It's quite shocking."

He was telling the truth, but what shocked him was not the remains of the monsters or the rudimentary equipment.

As the car entered the city, Chu Ying dropped Jiang Ran off at an intersection and then hurriedly returned to the Public Security Bureau.

Jiang Ran stood by the roadside, watching Chu Ying's car disappear into the traffic, and then took out the crystal ribbon from her pocket.

In the sunlight, the chibi-style superheroes on the ribbon looked somewhat comical.

Leng Qiaoqiao.

Jiang Ran remembered this student. He was somewhat aloof, but very serious in physical training classes, and one of the few students he had truly dedicated himself to teaching.

She failed to awaken as a magical girl, dropped out of school and disappeared without a trace, and is now a criminal who produces magical elements.

Why did she choose to embark on such a path of no return?

If she had awakened back then, would she be wearing a uniform and carrying out missions now, just like Chu Ying?

Jiang Ran put the ribbon back into her pocket and turned to walk towards home.

……

That evening, Jiang Li was doing her homework in the living room, while Jiang Ran sat next to her pretending to watch TV, but in reality, her mind was churning over the things she had seen in the warehouse during the day.

That crude formula process, those wasted raw materials, those containers with residual pale blue liquid.

He closed his eyes, and the images automatically rearranged in his mind, as if the experience he had accumulated on the battlefield twenty years ago had been awakened from a long-dormant instinct.

If we could use magic to directly guide the extraction, instead of relying on those inefficient and dangerous physical methods...

If the magic crystals are first separated from the tissue using a resonance method before distillation...

If the purification process isn't just simple filtration, but rather involves layering based on differences in magical frequencies...

A process far more sophisticated than the notes on the wall gradually took shape in Jiang Ran's mind.

And the purity of the final product...

Jiang Ran suddenly opened her eyes and found that her palms were covered in sweat.

Jiang Ran watched her daughter's back as she hunched over her desk, and the snake tattoo on her chest felt faintly hot.

The large purple snake seemed to tighten its grip even more.

He could feel his time slipping away, like sand in an hourglass, each grain falling silently.

……

A few days later, Jiang Ran received a call from the hospital, asking him to come in for a follow-up examination.

The results of the follow-up examination were worse than the last one.

"The rate of organ failure is accelerating." The old doctor's expression was even more serious than before. "Mr. Jiang, at the current rate, the optimistic estimate has shortened from three years to two and a half years. You really need to seriously consider your treatment plan."

Jiang Ran calmly asked, "What's the minimum cost for a full-body organ transplant?"

The old doctor carefully considered his words: "Considering that not all organs can be matched with suitable donors, we need to add the cost of the artificial organ, plus the subsequent recuperation and recovery. The price will be at least... more than ten million."

The numbers hit Jiang Ran like a boulder.

His monthly salary plus part-time income adds up to less than 20,000 yuan.

Even if he didn't eat or drink, it would take him hundreds of years to save up that much money.

He only has two and a half years left.

It was already dark when she left the hospital, and the streetlights cast a long shadow of Jiang Ran.

He sat on a bench outside the hospital for a long time, watching the passersby, then took out his phone and entered Leng Qiaoqiao's name on the school's staff website.

Click to search, and a student file will appear before your eyes.

Leng Qiaoqiao is an orphan with no relatives and currently lives in an old house left by her parents.

Jiang Ran took out his car keys and drove into the night towards the address that wasn't too far away.