Everything is ready, except for Li Peng.

Inside the operating room, Li Qi had already regained consciousness.

In fact, he had woken up halfway through the ambulance ride, but he held his breath and remained completely still, terrified of being discovered by the two nurses.

Having been reborn for only a week, his physique had undergone earth-shattering changes that even left him secretly astonished.

After being wheeled out of the ambulance, he had silently estimated the time in his mind.

From the very moment he was sent flying by the car, he knew his guess had been correct.

The most depraved thing had happened: Taihe City truly possessed a shocking, horrifying underground organ-trafficking network.

This only deepened his resolve to smash this gang to pieces. In the China of his past life, this was one of the things he hated most.

Countless innocent youths, blooming like flowers, mysteriously vanished simply because their medical profiles matched someone else's during a routine check-up.

He knew the hospital would contact Li Peng immediately, and it would take several dozen minutes for Li Peng to receive the call, arrive at the hospital, and sign the papers with money.

This window of time was crucial. He had no idea whether the Niuxin Town police substation had managed to catch the informants, nor whether they could unearth the mastermind behind the scenes and find evidence of Wang Yue purchasing organs.

Yet, the moment his elder brother Li Peng signed the brain-death declaration and the organ donation agreement, and he himself walked out of the operating room alive, the network operating within this hospital would inevitably be completely swept into the net.

For now, he only needed to wait in peace. He trusted Tian Miao and Zhou Guodong not to let anything happen to him.

However, an unexpected turn of events arrived instantly.

Barely twenty minutes passed when the door of the operating room was suddenly pushed open, and the footsteps of several people approached from afar.

Not daring to open his eyes, Li Qi only heard the junior nurse's voice.

"Director Liu."

"Are the blood test results out?"

"They are out. All indicators are completely normal. The patient's state of health is truly enviable."

"Prepare the anesthesia."

"Ah? This..."

"What 'this'? Time and tide wait for no man.

The patient is injured so severely that he could die at any second.

Once his breathing stops, what shall we do if we miss the chance for organ transplantation?

As physicians, healing the wounded and saving lives is our bounden duty. There is yet another vibrant life waiting for us to save. We must race against time."

The operating room instantly bustled with activity as the sounds of preparing various instruments echoed through the air.

Li Qi's mind went completely blank.

What should he do?

Despite calculating every single possibility, he never anticipated that the other party would be depraved to such an unthinkable extent—daring to harvest his kidneys even without the family's signature.

Did these people have any regard for the law whatsoever?

Meanwhile, Tian Miao, pacing anxiously outside the operating room, was gripped by mounting tension.

She had witnessed with her own eyes several doctors in white coats walk into the operating room from the opposite side, among them Director Liu Xianming.

The last time she came to Hospital 203, he was the very person she had interviewed.

Over the years, he had completed nearly a thousand organ transplant surgeries, making him an authority not only in Ning Province but across the entire northeastern region.

Just like Li Qi, she had thought of that terrifying possibility: the other party was actually going to excise Li Qi's organs directly without any authorized signature from his family.

Were they not even going to put up a pretense anymore?

Tian Miao knew she had to take action at this moment.

Otherwise, if things dragged on for another dozen minutes, Li Qi would undergo preoperative preparations and be anesthetized. Once his organs were removed, the doctors could easily tamper with his abdominal cavity and claim he died from the traffic accident.

Li Qi would die instantly, and afterwards, even calling upon expert pathologists for an autopsy would leave no way to uncover the truth.

She was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, her palms drenched in sweat.

Should she immediately have Guo Guohua arrest them?

Yet without a shred of evidence at present, acting rashly would render Li Qi's painstaking efforts all for naught.

Taihe City's custom-tailored organ trafficking chain would continue to exist, devouring one vibrant life after another.

Just as she remained indecisive, a dozen fully equipped guards suddenly marched in synchronized formation to seal off the entrance of the operating room, beginning to clear out all bystanders.

The family members waiting outside the other operating rooms, including Tian Miao, were urged away from the entrance of Operating Room Number Three.

Setting up a cordon, the guards watched with stern, guarded expressions, preventing anyone from coming near.

Tian Miao's head buzzed incessantly.

It was over!

The situation had completely derailed from their initial expectations. The adversaries were in such desperate haste that they had left no time for any reaction.

If she rushed in right now, the most she could capture would be Liu Xianming's procedural flaws. To a doctor of his rank, such a minor trifle was entirely negligible; in the end, forget a conviction, it wouldn't even count as professional negligence.

After all, in that particular field, Liu Xianming's scalpel was their lifeline, and countless people would surely clear the path for him and sweep the matter under the rug.

Yet if she did not rush in now, Li Qi would be disemboweled and his kidneys carved out.

Tian Miao decided she would wait no longer. Nothing in this world combined could outweigh Li Qi's safety; she was going to charge into the operating room to save him!

Right at that instant, from some distance away, she suddenly heard a chorus of gasps erupting from within the operating room, followed by the sound of something dropping to the floor.

Li Qi had sat up!

If he didn't do something soon, the anesthetic needle would be plunged right into his blood vessels.

That truly would be the end of the line...

"Ah!"

"What is going on?"

"Why did the patient sit up?"

"Who administered the sedative?"

Clatter.

Nurse Li, holding the surgical tray, was so startled that she dropped the tray onto the floor and stammered,

"Sister Zhang said to ad-administer the normal dosage, fearing we'd miss the timing for the surgery.

Yet at that dosage, an ordinary adult would still fall into a deep sleep for at least three hours.

This isn't right."

Liu Xianming suddenly waved his hand, motioning for everyone to quiet down.

For he noticed that Li Qi had merely sat up without saying a word or making a single move.

A pair of large, lifeless eyes stared blankly ahead, as though he were sleepwalking.

Emboldened, he approached Li Qi and waved a hand back and forth in front of Li Qi's eyes.

Li Qi showed no reaction whatsoever.

He waved his hand again, this time closely observing Li Qi's pupils, only to find that Li Qi's eyes did not follow the movement of his hand.

His entire person was trapped in a dazed state.

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Liu Xianming spoke.

"I presume the patient has a habit of sleepwalking. The sedative forcefully suppressed his consciousness while awakening the region of the brain responsible for sleepwalking.

The human brain is simply too mysterious; up until now, we've only researched less than one percent of it.

Xiao Li, go quickly and fetch a fresh set of instruments.

Xiao Zhang, to prevent him from thrashing and interfering with the anesthesia, administer another half-dose of sedative.

Make it quick!"

The operating room descended into a flurry of activity once more. Although the medical staff found it bizarre, since Director Liu Xianming said everything was fine, they supposed it must be fine...

A few minutes later, Nurse Zhang approached Li Qi holding half a syringe of sedative, preparing to inject it.

Li Qi suddenly waved his hand.

"Now beginning the seventh set of broadcast gymnastics, first movement, stretching exercise, ready~ begin.

One, two, three, four..."

Clatter! He casually batted the syringe away, sending it crashing heavily against the door of the operating room with a loud smack.

Nurse Zhang let out a startled shriek.

"What on earth is wrong with you?

Are you awake or aren't you?"

Listening to the commotion and chaos inside the operating room, Tian Miao slowly began to relax.

Though she had no idea how Li Qi had pulled it off, she knew he was doing his utmost to buy time.

Now, they were simply waiting for Li Peng to arrive.

At that very moment, the sound of footsteps echoed up the stairs.