Chapter 575: Nerve — Way Too Bold

As everyone knows, organs need to be matched.

The more people there are, the higher the probability of a match.

Moreover, what's valuable on a person isn't limited to organs.

"I don't think so."

Soon, a team member spoke up to rebut:

"People engaged in the organ trade domestically are basically middlemen."

The speaker paused briefly, seemingly organizing his words, then continued:

"Take the kidney-selling workshop case our S Province busted a couple of years ago — kidney sources weren't scarce at all; there was a large group of young people eager to sell their kidneys."

"Those rent-seekers only needed to take a cut in the middle to reap enormous profits; there was no need whatsoever to do anything like kidnapping."

His words sparked a low murmur of discussion among the group; clearly everyone was very interested in this topic.

On the black market, a patient has to pay 200,000 to 500,000 yuan for a kidney.

And a healthy adult male kidney has a uniform domestic price of 35,000 yuan — from this one can see how enormous the profit margin in between is.

Nationwide each year there are nearly 1 million kidney disease patients relying on dialysis to stay alive, yet fewer than 4,000 legal kidney transplant surgeries are performed annually.

Where there's need, there's demand.

It is precisely this enormous demand that has led to the rise of underground black-market middlemen.

Most importantly, the middlemen don't have to worry about kidney sources at all.

After a round of discussion, everyone agreed that the "organ trade" possibility could also be ruled out.

The meeting room fell silent once more; every face wore a contemplative expression.

After a while, Captain Xu spoke up to ask:

"Have we checked the school bus itself? Why does the school have a school bus shuttle service?"

Even for a special-education school for the hearing-impaired, students can get to and from school on their own.

If students have mobility difficulties, parents can drop them off and pick them up, or students can attend as day students.

So this question isn't an out-of-left-field one.

There must be certain reasons for the school to have a school bus.

"That aspect was what I investigated."

A team member raised his hand, then answered:

"This school once received a charitable donation for school bus support, and the school uses that bus specifically to pick up children from impoverished families living in the suburbs."

He then added:

"The school bus was donated four years ago; I checked, and the donation itself is clean, and that school bus driver was also hired four years ago."

"During those four years, this school bus driver has held the driver's post the entire time, with no mistakes or accidents occurring in that period."

He didn't state a conclusion, but everyone present heard it — the school bus and the driver themselves had no issues.

If the driver had really done it, he wouldn't have needed such a long stretch of time.

In four years, the driver had countless opportunities to drive the school bus into a surveillance blind spot and carry out the crime.

Therefore, even if the driver was being coerced by someone else, that must have happened recently.

"Next, go investigate the school bus driver's recent movements, as well as his account information."

Captain Xu said, looking at that team member:

"At present, that driver is a major suspect; we can't rule out the possibility that the driver acted in collusion with others."

This is a very important breakthrough, and also the most critical lead so far.

Since the whereabouts of the missing female students can't be found for the moment, the next step is to conduct a detailed investigation of the people involved.

Captain Xu then assigned another team member, pairing the two of them together — this would also boost work efficiency.

After another while, the meeting room was wreathed in smoke; nearly every officer had lit a cigarette, and the atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive.

Everyone fell into deep thought, trying to find a breakthrough from other angles.

After roughly the time it took to finish a cigarette, one of the team members said in a puzzled tone:

"Why were all the ones taken female students? Coincidence, or deliberate?"

"Also, the school bus only picks up girls — was that the driver's doing on purpose, or the school's arrangement?"