Credit: Alfred Palmer/Flickr Commons

Rain falls gently around me, shading a second layer of grey over the world. Perhaps in a place like this, it is better that not a ray of sunshine penetrates the tight blanket of smog. Better that God cannot see what is happening here, what I am doing.

In lieu of God, my SOUL lingers only a few feet from me as it always does, a fist-sized blue glimmer in a dark embrace, cataloguing my every action, recording every facial expression as it weaves around me like a mindless vagabond.

It doesn’t bother me like it bothers some people - then again, I don’t live for the SOUL, and I don’t make it out to be something it is not. Studded with tens of thousands of nano-cameras, the blue disc is nothing more than surveillance. A storage space that retains memories the human mind has neither the capacity nor the desire to hold.

As I walk through the alleyways of Shanghai’s largest black market, I make note of the people without attempting any direct contact. Vendors line the alleyways with their VR-porn, counterfeit jewellery, and "prescription” drugs.

Striding along, I begin to see kidneys, hearts, brains, sometimes eyeballs. The experienced vendors sell them in pairs, although some mix and match in large tubs of formaldehyde.

I’ve already waded through more than my share of organ black markets; New Delhi, Kuwait, though most of the important organs I bought in the U.S., back home in New Jersey. Some things you can skimp on quality, while hearts and lungs, livers and pancreases - and clean blood - they’re worth the extra dimes.

Today I am here in Shanghai to pick up one specific thing. After this trip, I am finished walking the surface of these hells, buying and trading things that should never be treated as a commodity.

Love makes us do stupid things, not knowing the whys but knowing that it’s worth it.