Chen Ling had never been here.
Except in the memories he inherited, when he was dragged here by Chen Tan and others to be buried.
But for some reason, when he stepped onto the land of the mass grave, an unusual sense of familiarity welled up in his heart... This familiarity was not one, but two.
He looked at the graves buried under the snow, and broken memory fragments welled up in his mind, as if two completely different memories converged here.
One was Chen Ling's...
The other was Chen Yan's.
He shuttled through the graves by intuition, as if searching for something.
Finally, he stopped in front of a mound of earth with no wooden plaque or any markers.
He stared at the mound for a long time, then knelt on the thick snow. The pale snow swayed in his vision. In a trance, the memory belonging to Chen Yan became clearer...
...
"Name."
"Chen Yan."
"Age."
"15."
"Number."
"39180."
On the cold operating table, Chen Yan answered carefully.
A strong light shone from above, making it impossible for him to open his eyes. He could only see blurred figures moving around the operating table.
"The person matches, correct."
"Such a young age, yet suffering from this disease... Tsk."
"When will the operation begin?"
"Wait a little longer. The heart over there hasn't arrived yet. If we fail, we can't fudge our way through here."
"The price of hearts on the black market is so high now. Did those parents really obtain the heart we requested?"
"Obtain my ass. They're just a poor family. Even if they sold their house, they couldn't afford it."
"Then where did the heart come from?"
"Hehe... Don't you know?"
"What?"
"They plan to use their eldest son's heart to save this youngest son..."
"Really? Is that necessary?"
"The couple was diagnosed early on and said they couldn't have children, so they picked up a child on the street to raise, planning to rely on him for retirement... But who knew that a few years later, for some reason, they got pregnant again and gave birth to a youngest son. The couple, who had already resigned themselves, were overjoyed and immediately treated the youngest as the apple of their eye..."
"Tell me, if you were them, would you choose a wild child picked up from the street or a biological son finally blessed by heaven?"
"Tsk..."
Hearing this conversation, Chen Yan lying on the operating table suddenly opened his eyes!
He struggled to sit up and looked at the two speaking, his pale little face full of shock and disbelief.
"You're saying... whose heart is that?!"
"Your brother's," the bone knife-clad doctor in a sterile suit casually blew on his nails, "What, didn't your parents tell you?"
"Otherwise, do you think your family could find a suitable heart with their meager money?"
"Brother..."
Chen Yan stayed on the operating table for a long time. It wasn't until the two doctors beside him began to push him to lie down that he came to his senses and struggled like crazy!
"I don't want it... I won't do it! I won't have the operation!!" Chen Yan's voice was tinged with sobs, "I don't want my brother's heart! Let me go! I don't want his heart!!"
" The heart is already on its way. Whether you want it or not is not up to you."
" I'm begging you, please tell my parents... tell them I don't need a heart anymore... I don't want to go back to school, I don't want to perform on stage... I don't want anything! Let them leave my brother alone... I'm begging you..."
" Lie still... lie still!!"
No one knew where Chen Yan got the strength, but he actually broke free from the grip of two adults, flipped off the operating table, and stumbled toward the operating room door!
Just then, the door automatically opened, and a figure walked in carrying a mysterious metal case.
Chen Yan crashed into him and fell to the ground.
" Got the heart," the man said.
" Not bad. Those parents looked like cowards, but they worked efficiently." The bone knife doctor took the metal case in surprise, a smirk curving his lips.
Chen Yan sat stunned on the ground, the metal case reflected in his glassy pupils. His lips and face were deathly pale, his body trembling uncontrollably...
" No... I don't want it..."
A syringe gently pierced his skin.
The bone knife doctor squatted slowly behind Chen Yan, his narrow eyes narrowing like a viper...
" You don't want it? Hehehe..."
As the liquid in the syringe was injected, Chen Yan felt his head grow heavier, his consciousness fading like an ebbing tide... Just before losing consciousness, he vaguely felt someone lean close to his ear and whisper like a demon:
" Did you really think... we'd transplant that heart into you?"
Chen Ling jolted awake!
The cold wind whipped snowflakes into a whirlwind across the mass grave, howling eerily.
His eyebrows and hair were frosted white by snow, the biting chill seeping through his clothes to his bones... Yet cold sweat still poured down his body.
[Audience Expectation +5]
" Ayan..."
He stared blankly at the snow-covered mound beneath him, trembling as he raised his hand to start digging.
His palms scraped through layer after layer of ice and snow, turning red from the cold. Below was soil frozen rock-hard. He could barely think now, his mind filled only with this lonely mound and Chen Yan's struggling face.
As he dug deeper, a second wave of memories flooded in uncontrollably...
...
" Damn, why is it raining so hard?"
" Be careful. The mountain paths are muddy—don't slip."
" Why did we have to come all the way here to dump the body? Couldn't we just bury it near Ice Spring Street?"
" Idiot. Burying it near the street would've been smelled by stray dogs eventually. Once discovered, the Enforcers would have to exhume it, and then they'd have to investigate... Qian Fan said this mass grave is full of bodies—no one will notice another."
" Do we have to split the payout with Qian Fan's crew for this job?"
" For business on Ice Spring Street, even the Enforcers take a 30% cut... Otherwise, why do you think they help us?"
" 30%? That's highway robbery... Did they milk every last asset from this kid?"
" Kidneys, liver, corneas, bone marrow, blood... The bone knife doctor took everything usable. Now he's just a shell... You should've seen him after surgery—he was a bloody mess. Disgusting..."
" Too bad we don't know where those parents buried his brother. We could've exhumed him for another haul..."
Two figures in raincoats carried a black cloth bag, struggling through the storm-lashed mountain path to the mass grave.
They found an empty spot, dropped the bag, and one pulled out a shovel, digging smoothly... Once the hole was deep enough, they casually tossed the bag in like garbage.