Magical Girl Fan Bingbing

Just as Jiang Ran left Song Mingyue's office, she received a call from Leng Qiaoqiao.

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded a little guilty. "Teacher Jiang, I managed to get the second batch of materials through my connections, but... the quantity might be a bit small."

"How much less?"

"You'd better come over in person."

Since it concerned his future and life, Jiang Ran didn't ask any more questions, hung up the phone, and went straight to the agreed location.

The RV was hidden in a small, abandoned warehouse in the north of the city, surrounded by old factories waiting to be demolished. Weeds grew to waist height from the cracks in the cement floor, and you could hardly see a soul in the world.

Large warehouses are easy for the police to spot, while small warehouses are inconspicuous because there is not enough space to operate if you want to make magic elements. Normal people would not choose such a place.

Jiang Ran walked into the warehouse, and before she even opened the car door, she heard Leng Qiaoqiao shouting into the phone in a disguised voice.

"I don't care about your difficulties or excuses, I just want my goods! If you can't deliver the goods, don't expect to get a single penny from me!"

Jiang Ran pushed open the door and saw Leng Qiaoqiao throw her phone onto the sofa, then grab a bag of potato chips and start frantically munching on them in a fit of rage.

"What's going on?"

Upon seeing Jiang Ran arrive, Leng Qiaoqiao slowed down her chewing of potato chips, a look of guilt appearing on her face.

"The Public Security Bureau has suddenly intensified its crackdown for some reason. Now, not only are the supply channels for goods being cut off, but even the channels for sourcing them are almost gone."

She contacted several of her old suppliers in the industry, but either the phone was unreachable or they said they had no stock.

"A friend in the underworld told me that the police crackdown has extended from the market and civilian sectors to politics." Leng Qiaoqiao tossed the bag of potato chips aside. "You know what I mean."

Jiang Ran nodded.

Monster corpses should only be handled by the authorities. After magical girls kill monsters, the corpses are collected or destroyed by the authorities. This is a clearly stipulated rule.

As for where those monster corpses that flowed into the black market came from, just don't ask the Warrior of Light such dark questions.

By cutting off the supply at the source, the Public Security Bureau has essentially purged its own people first—a ruthless move indeed. Ordinary people are virtually no match for those magical beasts, meaning the production of their corpses will be firmly controlled by magical girls and official agencies; no matter how rich you are, you can't buy them.

Leng Qiaoqiao walked to the partition door at the back of the RV, opened the freezer, and found about a third of the monster's corpse inside, which was smaller than the half-monster she had found last time.

Jiang Ran peeked out and immediately frowned.

"With this little material, I can make at most three bottles."

"Three bottles aren't enough. Commissioner Lin is pressing us urgently, saying we need at least ten bottles." Leng Qiaoqiao was also anxious. She had just started to enjoy a good life, and now she was going to be poor again overnight.

"Don't rush."

Jiang Ran sat down on the sofa, crossed her arms, and began to think.

He had actually anticipated that the materials would be cut off at the source.

The police department will use this tactic sooner or later, because if they don't address the root cause, they will never achieve any real results.

It's like a swimming pool that's being filled and filled at the same time; who knows when it will finally reach the bottom.

For an ordinary person, facing such a desperate situation, all options would have been exhausted.

But Jiang Ran is no ordinary person.

"Qiaoqiao, that small batch you sent out earlier might make a big difference."

Leng Qiaoqiao looked at him blankly, with half a potato chip still in her mouth.

"what?"

……

Tianhai City Public Security Bureau, Magic Element Management and Law Enforcement Team, Magical Girl Investigation Detachment.

Chu Ying convened another plenary meeting.

In addition to reporting on the progress of their respective investigations, Chu Ying herself made an important new discovery at this meeting.

Once everyone had arrived, the meeting officially began.

The team members reported one by one on the investigation work that had been assigned previously, and the results were as expected.

Yuque and Youlan's vehicle search still couldn't find the white RV. There were simply too many RVs matching the criteria in Tianhai City, including those from other areas; even after narrowing down the search, it was still a despairingly large number.

Xiao Lu's monitoring of the channels has made some progress, but it's all small fry, and has nothing to do with that mysterious magical girl.

Amber's task of screening students in the special talent classes has also hit a bottleneck. There are dozens or even hundreds of magical girl special talent classes of all sizes in the city, with each class having anywhere from dozens to hundreds of students. Screening them one by one would be a considerable workload.

In short, the white RV and the mysterious magical girl seemed to have vanished into thin air after that, without a trace.

Xiao Lu even began to doubt whether they had really been deceived by that Bald Qiang.

However, Chu Ying firmly stated that the magical girl must exist.

Because she had irrefutable evidence.

Then, Chu Ying picked up a transparent evidence bag from the table and held it up in front of everyone.

Inside the evidence bag, a dreamlike blue crystal is sparkling under the light.

"This was seized by the city precinct during a routine search and was immediately handed over to me after it was discovered."

Chu Ying placed the evidence bag in the center of the table and passed it around for everyone to see.

"The people in the forensic department told me that the purity of this evidence reached over 99%, a level that is difficult for even regular factories to produce."

The evidence was passed around among the team members, and everyone who handled it showed a look of shock on their faces.

To the untrained eye, this magic crystal would probably just be a pretty crystal.

But as magical girls, they could clearly sense the almost unreal flow of pure magic inside the crystal, as if they were directly touching a deep spring that had never been polluted.

This is something that machines cannot make; machines cannot create such near-artistic works.

The case became several levels more complicated with the appearance of this crystal.

Little Deer immediately raised her hand and spoke up: "Captain, this isn't your average magical girl anymore, we have to go all out!"

Others also expressed their views, stating that the problem must be eradicated completely at its source.

"The source has already been cut off." Chu Ying put the evidence bag back, her voice calm. "The headquarters has put pressure on the local government, and the effect has been immediate. After cleaning up a group of internal traitors, it is now almost impossible to find sellers of monster corpses on the black market. The only ones left are those with a little stock that they have accumulated, and once they are sold, they are gone."

"Then let's intensify our efforts," Little Deer said, "and completely shut down the breach."

However, Chu Ying shook her head.

"No, we'll leave an opening on purpose."

Why?

"If the monster corpses are completely unavailable on the black market, that mysterious magical girl might resort to desperate measures and try to steal them. If a conflict were to break out between the two sides in the city or a densely populated area, the consequences would be unimaginable."

The expressions on the faces of the people in the conference room changed.

They had considered this possibility. A magical girl who could produce 99% pure magic essence was definitely not to be underestimated. If she were pushed to the limit and a fight broke out in the city center, the mere thought of the scene would send chills down their spines.

"So, we'll continue using monster corpses to build our base," Chu Ying continued. "As long as she's still buying monster corpses, the two ends of this line—the inbound and outbound—are the easiest places for her to be exposed. We'll keep a close watch on the entire underground trading network in Tianhai City, leaving no stone unturned."

She stood up and placed her hands on the table.

"From now on, all investigative resources will be focused on this aspect."

Operation codename: Never the Air Force.

Little Deer blinked: "...Did you come up with this name, Captain?"

"Any objections?"

No, no.

After the new tasks were reassigned, everyone was about to adjourn the meeting when Xiaolu raised her hand again.

"Captain, does that mean we're just abandoning all the previous investigations? We've investigated quite a few targets these past few days; if we give up now, all our efforts will be wasted. Or should we hand over the remaining work to other departments of the Public Security Bureau and ask them to assist us?"

Chu Ying pondered for a moment, then shook her head.

"I will handle the remaining investigation myself. You can focus all your efforts on the new direction."

Enlisting the assistance of other departments within the police force would certainly speed up the investigation by leveraging numbers, but it could also easily alert the suspect. Since the target is a magical girl, ordinary security guards are no match for her. If word gets out and the target either runs away or completely backs down, all our previous efforts would be wasted.

The team members left the meeting room one after another, and Chu Ying sat alone in the main seat, flipping through the investigation results of the magical girl special classes in various schools that Amber had previously compiled.

The vehicle investigation led by Yuque and Youlan has almost run out of hope, and the channel monitoring led by Xiaolu is the current focus. The only remaining area that hasn't been investigated is the special class students led by Hupo.

Chu Ying flipped through the list, her eyes scanning line by line from top to bottom.

Each line is followed by the student's basic information, whether they have awakened, whether they are registered, their current status, and their whereabouts.

Her fingers slid slowly along the paper, turning page after page.

Then, Chu Ying's gaze was drawn to the list of faculty and staff at the top of the table, where she saw a familiar name.

Chu Ying's sharp eyes and cold expression softened instantly.

"Let's start with you, Teacher Jiang."