Chapter 267: The Mysterious Pawnshop
“Pawnshop transactions?”
“How does it work?”
“Do they just pawn their organs for money?”
Fang Xiaocao asked in disbelief, struggling to comprehend this method of trade.
“Yes.”
Taotie nodded.
“Do they take the organs immediately?”
“How do they store them?”
“Can they be redeemed later?”
Fang Xiaocao blinked, puzzled.
Hearing her questions, Taotie shook his head.
“It’s not like that.”
“And not just anyone can go there or even find the place.”
Taotie sighed.
“If it were that easy, do you think the Blacklist wouldn’t have found this pawnshop by now?”
“It’s said that this pawnshop has many agents operating in the world. These agents constantly search for suitable candidates and then send them invitations. Only those who receive an invitation will know how to contact the pawnshop and make a transaction.”
Taotie paused for a moment before continuing.
“Once someone decides to pawn their organ, they must register it. The pawnshop then implants a tracking chip in them, allowing the organ to remain inside their body until a suitable buyer is found. Once a match is confirmed, the pawnshop tracks them down and performs the organ transplant.”
“As for redemption? It’s nearly impossible!”
“There are two types of pawning: ‘live pawn’ and ‘dead pawn’!”
“Those who reach the point of pawning their organs for money are already desperate. How could they possibly afford to redeem them?”
“So, most choose ‘dead pawn.’ Even those who choose ‘live pawn’ rarely manage to turn their lives around. If, by some miracle, they do and want to redeem their organs, they can do so as long as the organ hasn’t been removed yet—just by returning the exact amount of money they initially received, without interest. But if the organ has already been taken, the pawnshop will simply transplant a new one from their inventory.”
“For those who opted for ‘dead pawn,’ if they later change their minds before the organ is removed, they must pay the full market price of the organ to redeem it.”
Taotie shared all the intel the Blacklist had gathered about this pawnshop.
Fang Xiaocao gasped in shock.
“Who came up with this insane business model? Isn’t the pawnshop afraid that people will just take the money and run?”
She asked, still incredulous.
“Run?”
Taotie chuckled.
Shaking his head, he looked at her and asked, “Your Highness, aside from yourself, how many ordinary people do you think could escape the Blacklist’s pursuit?”
Fang Xiaocao blinked. “Very few.”
“For an ordinary person? Almost impossible!”
“To escape, they’d need skills on par with Hummingbird.”
She suddenly froze.
Then, a look of realization dawned on her face.
Right!
The Blacklist was already terrifying enough.
The pawnshop, which was even more mysterious, would be far worse.
Once an organization like that set its sights on someone, an ordinary person had no chance of escaping. Those capable of running wouldn’t have been chosen in the first place, and they wouldn’t even consider pawning their organs.
For people in the underground world, earning tens or even hundreds of thousands was as simple as taking on a few black-market jobs. Why would they ever be desperate enough to pawn an organ?
Seeing that Fang Xiaocao had understood, Taotie smiled and said nothing more.
His princess was a sharp one.
No need for further explanations.
“I’ve heard rumors about this pawnshop abroad,” Tom said, surprised. “But since I’ve never seen anyone from there, I thought it was just a myth. Now it seems real.”
“We have similar rumors in Dahan as well,” Hummingbird added.
Fang Xiaocao’s eyes widened. “What? Your countries also have stories about this pawnshop?”
Tom nodded. “Yes!”
“And the rumors are even crazier than what Taotie described. According to our legends, you can pawn anything, not just organs. You can pawn yourself, your life, even your family members…”
Hummingbird nodded in agreement. “It’s the same in Dahan.”
After hearing this, Fang Xiaocao fell silent, shocked.
“Wow…”
She took a deep breath before saying, “So, aside from the treasure, could the other secret in this mountain be the pawnshop’s headquarters?”
Tom blinked and shook his head. “The headquarters? Unlikely. But this could be a disposal site where they handle bodies and discard useless organs.”
“Think about it. Some people who pawned their organs probably tried to escape. Many were likely gamblers or people at the end of their rope—desperate when they made the deal but later deciding to run.”
“The pawnshop wouldn’t let them go. If they caught them and happened to find a buyer, they’d just drain their blood, remove the necessary organs, and dump the rest.”
“After all, keeping them alive as ‘mobile organ storage’ and blood bags takes too much effort. It’s easier to find new victims.”
Hearing Tom’s explanation, Fang Xiaocao shuddered.
This pawnshop…
It was far too horrifying.
“Tom makes a lot of sense.”
Taotie nodded.
“After all these years, no one has ever come forward admitting they pawned an organ. Many powerful organizations have even offered public rewards to find such people, but no one has ever stepped up to claim them.”
“I suspect it’s because they’re all dead. Even if someone only pawned a kidney, once they’re on the pawnshop’s operating table under anesthesia, they’re nothing more than a slab of meat. The pawnshop can carve them up however they please.”
Fang Xiaocao was stunned.
“That…”
“Alright, that makes sense.”
She nodded, though her expression was grim.
“This pawnshop is too mysterious. We shouldn’t get involved. Let’s just take the treasure and leave. No need to investigate further.”
She forced a smile.
They had no choice but to back down.
They were just a small team.
They couldn’t even handle the Blacklist—let alone something even more terrifying.
“The problem is, they might come after us first,” Tom sighed.
“Exactly. We’ve already stepped into their territory. Even if we don’t seek them out, they might come for us,” Taotie said with a grin.
“If they come for us, then we kill them,” Fang Xiaocao said coldly.
With that, she pulled out her phone.
Opening WeChat, she clicked on the profile picture of Hot Noodles.
[Fang Xiaocao: There’s a mysterious organization called the Pawnshop. Do you have any intel on them in your timeline?]
