Pu Yijiang smiled, "Kani has started to step into the human market."
"Human market?" Jiang Ye frowned, "Clubs? Bathhouses? Foot massage parlors?"
"No, the human market here refers to the buying and selling of human bodies."
Jiang Ye was startled.
"I saw a fleeting look of surprise in your eyes," Pu Yijiang smiled. "I'm glad Jiang Ye Star doesn't have such illegal dealings, but throughout the universe, on some corner planets, this kind of thing is very common."
"So you mean... harvesting kidneys?"
"Kidney harvesting is just the tip of the iceberg. A healthy person is worth about a million. Every part from head to toe has value. I've been tracking and investigating this market for 6 years," Pu Yijiang said with an expert's tone. "6000 milliliters of blood can be separated into plasma, red blood cells, platelets, and clotting factors, to be transfused to patients on the operating table. Ligaments scraped from bones can be transplanted into the knees of the injured. Hair can be made into wigs, or restored to amino acid raw materials for food fermentation agents. Bones can be donated to medical schools, and the value of internal organs is even more considerable."
"Why does such a business still exist?" Jiang Ye was confused. "Don't current medical technologies allow for printing body tissues? Aren't artificial hearts already mature? Even if someone is cut in half, they can be saved. Why would they need to take raw materials from others?"
"Your Excellency the Commander lives a life of nobility, and you have countless riches. But do you know that there are still many poor planets in this universe? And even more impoverished regions on those poor planets. Even in the wealthy cities of wealthy planets, the poor still constitute the vast majority," Pu Yijiang said. "They lack the funds to develop sufficient medical technology, nor can they afford expensive human printing. Some places can't even afford half a box of anti-inflammatory medicine. I did research on Edward Star last year, where in some villages, cold medicine is given as gifts during New Year's, because the price of half a box of Banlangen granules is five times a villager's daily income. It's a world of disparity."
Jiang Ye fell silent, his brow furrowed.
He recalled his childhood, how Earth was also disparate. Some places discarded food in thousands of tons annually, while others saw millions starve to death.
After so many years, it was still the same.
He suddenly realized that Jiang Ye Star was developing quite well. Although it couldn't compare to those old, incredibly wealthy planets, at least there were no mass death events.
"Kani initially just went to cemeteries at night, dug up new graves, and stole un-rotted corpses to give to medical schools as teaching materials. Later, his business grew, and he opened three human bone factories, processing leg bones into flutes and selling skulls to some churches. His business flourished. The planet's police wanted to arrest him, but they faced a problem. These bones were dug up by his subordinates from abandoned graves, at most it was considered theft, and he could be released by paying a bail. Moreover, once it went to court, Kani could easily get away with it because those graves had no surviving relatives to press charges."
"Twenty years later, Kani transformed himself into a wealthy magnate on Jia Star, establishing the Kani Human Corporation with eighty thousand employees and a private army of three thousand men armed with revolvers."
"Kani Human Corporation's business branched out. For example, they collected orphans from various states on Jia Star and sold them to neighboring planets to fill the voids in some families. Or, some remote villages on Jia Star would suddenly be hit by mysterious epidemics, causing large numbers of people to fall ill. Kani's men would then go and sign contracts with the villagers, taking away truckloads of kidneys, hair, corneas, bones, and blood. The states on Jia Star had a high degree of autonomy. Some local governors prohibited his company from entering, so Kani's mercenary teams would arrive in imposing carriages. Day or night, thousands of revolvers would unleash deafening roars on the streets, causing glass cups on tables several blocks away to jump, creating such a commotion that everyone in the city felt they could die at any moment."
"Another ten years passed. In the top floor of the luxurious hotel on Second Avenue in Ridge City, Jia Star's largest city, the body of Scott Kani was discovered by a hotel cleaner. His back was stabbed countless times, the wounds so dense they resembled a fish with its scales scraped off. He was found in a rose-colored bathtub, with a small yellow duck floating above his head. Thus ended his wicked life. The case became a cold case; no one knew who sent the assassins. The Jia Star police seemed to know something, but remained tight-lipped about it. Immediately after, Kani's son, Walter Kani, took over the Kani Human Corporation."
"This story is so long," Jiang Ye couldn't help but interrupt. "Are you planning to narrate a four-generation family saga to me?"
"It's almost finished. These are all necessary details." Pu Yijiang felt hot and took off her jacket.
Jiang Ye subtly averted his gaze; the "waves" were truly terrifying.
"The second-generation Kani expanded the family business, rapidly advancing into the interstellar human market. The second-generation Kani had a notorious quote: he said that every planet was an inexhaustible treasure trove. If a planet had ten billion people, then it had ten billion spare kidneys. If one were more heartless, one could say it had twenty billion spare kidneys."
"Holy crap," Jiang Ye couldn't help but curse.
"He also had another infamous quote," Pu Yijiang paused. "Jia Star has many black wildebeests that roam the grasslands. Once, Kani attended a banquet, and someone next to him said, 'My marksmanship is very accurate. I practice shooting on wild beasts when I encounter them on the road.' Kani smiled and replied, 'My marksmanship is also very accurate, except I practice on people.'"
"The second-generation Kani's business lasted for a hundred years, growing bigger and stronger, heading towards glory, until it was suddenly sanctioned by the Galactic Empire's Iron Fist. All human factories were shut down, the entire supply chain was severed, and all storefronts were closed. Some employees were sentenced and exiled to asteroid regions. Kani himself was fined ten times, each time for four hundred billion," Pu Yijiang said. "There was supposed to be an eleventh fine, as the Galactic Empire's principle for such villains was to squeeze oil even from wood, but Kani didn't pay the eleventh one."
"How could he not pay? Could a local villain like him confront the Galactic Empire? Isn't that like carrying a lantern to the latrine?" Jiang Ye was bewildered, then suddenly thought of something. "Did he run out of money?"
"No, he fled and joined the Galactic Separatist Alliance, donating his remaining fortune to this terrorist organization," Pu Yijiang said. "After that, the second-generation Kani disappeared without a trace. No one knows where he is, nor if he is still alive."
Jiang Ye pondered.
"Why didn't the Galactic Empire simply sentence him to death and confiscate all his assets? Wouldn't that be simpler and more convenient?" Jiang Ye asked. "With the Galactic Empire's absolute power, what kind of waves could his ridiculous revolver squad stir up?"
"That's where the difficulty lies. Jia Star, where Kani was located, was extremely primitive, with laws like a sieve. His dealings couldn't be sanctioned by his home planet. The Galactic Empire's ironclad principle is not to violate the autonomous laws of each planet and resort to private retribution, so they couldn't forcibly execute Kani and confiscate his property. Although his crimes were heinous, the law is above all else. If people could be executed and their property confiscated at will, such terror tactics would be easily abused, leading to more severe consequences."
Jiang Ye's expression was complex.
Sometimes, confusing matters were unavoidable.
"Now, what I'm about to tell you is," Pu Yijiang smiled, "the third-generation Kani is on your planet."
Jiang Ye almost stood up, as if the sofa had suddenly become incredibly hot.
Pu Yijiang bent down and pulled a small red leather safe from under the sofa.
Jiang Ye turned his head away; her bending over was too dangerous.
The safe was opened, and Pu Yijiang pulled out a dossier paper and handed it to Jiang Ye.