Yangjing Creek

Jin Baogen was dismissive when he heard the first half of the statement, but by the second half, his entire body had tensed up.

In this day and age, a good job like this is truly hard to come by.

Jin Baogen would never allow himself to be fired.

"Brother... Captain, you can rest easy!"

Jin Baogen patted his chest in assurance:

"No matter who I might let down, I could never let you down, nor could I let this job down!"

Xu Yi felt relatively at ease with Jin Baogen.

He knew the kid inside and out; he knew that while his personality was a bit flighty, his mind was sharp, and at the very least, he wouldn't botch a task.

His understanding of Jin Baogen's past was the very reason Xu Yi was willing to arm him with a firearm.

Jin Baogen had handled guns back in his hometown, and now that he possessed his own Unicorn Ox and had become the second-in-command of the factory security team, he felt as if he had reached the pinnacle of his life, his very gait bouncing with pride.

How he walked, however, was something Xu Yi would not see.

After hiding a portion of his ammunition in Jing Tao's office on the second floor of Lingtong Hall, Xu Yi left the factory.

A moment later, Xu Yi was leaning against the wall of a dark alley outside the Big Factory District, loading his Unicorn Ox before tucking it into his back waistband.

He filled the Gun Brand Pistol with seven rounds and tucked it into the left side of his front waistband.

He tightened the ammunition pouch strapped to his waist, then took out Ye Miao's sachet and held it to his nose.

The intoxicating fragrance swirled through his nasal cavity, activating his spirituality, and a black-and-white vision unfolded before Xu Yi.

Then, he took out a lighter and ignited the incense in the Shadow Wood burner.

Upon smelling the incense from the Shadow Wood burner, his spirituality underwent a marvelous transformation, and a spark of divinity was born.

He suppressed his accelerating heartbeat, pulled the small black cloth bag given to him by Yan Luo from his pocket, took a deep breath, and opened it.

As the beeswax was exposed to the air, a scent that defied description enveloped Xu Yi.

He inhaled the fragrance, and in an instant, he felt as if he were adrift in a sea of clouds, his entire being weightless.

Suddenly, countless legendary celestial maidens appeared around him, and their melodious, heavenly laughter wrapped around him...

"Hmph!"

Xu Yi let out a low growl, nearly shattering his molars, and with eyes wide with rage, he slammed his head against the wall, finally using the pain to regain his reason, guard his heart, and violently break free from that mysterious state.

Xu Yi clutched his forehead in pain.

"Damn, that is some fragrant stuff..."

Xu Yi struggled to focus his attention, concentrating entirely on the beeswax.

Immediately, a trail of waxy yellow light appeared.

Xu Yi gripped the beeswax in his hand and followed the trail of light forward.

He headed west along the 38th Shop District, turned into a side path next to building number 37, crossed a small stone bridge where opium peddlers were hawking their wares, and stepped onto a dirt road.

He passed through three chaotic and foul-smelling alleys, turned a corner at the end of the muddy path, and his field of vision suddenly opened up—

Before him appeared a wide but silted tidal river with sluggish water, more than half of it covered in reeds, connecting to the moat of Puxi City on one side and the estuary of the Green Shore River on the other.

The moon was bright tonight, and as Xu Yi looked toward the other side of the river, he saw the rolling, shimmering tide heading toward the sea.

It was already 8:00 PM, yet on this narrow waterway, one could still see small wooden boats being rowed, scattered sampans, and even some roofless barges—these were foreign contraptions, many equipped with engines.

The banks on both sides of the river were not built of stone but were mostly natural earthen slopes covered in reeds and calamus, breeding who knows how many mosquitoes.

Scattered across the slopes were a large number of low-lying Jiangnan-style farmhouses, tiled houses, and thatched huts—this was the area locals called "Black Clothes Alley," usually a gathering place for outsiders with almost no law and order, where gangs sprouted like mosquitoes to suck the blood of the common folk.

Between the tiled houses, there were indeed larger stilted buildings and teahouses, and markets could be found within the alleys.

This was Yangjing Creek.

—This was the crime scene of the Beeswax Female Corpse Case!

What struck Xu Yi was that in such a dilapidated place, a short walk toward the south bank would lead to the British Concession.

A short walk toward the north bank would lead to the French Concession.

The two concessions were ablaze with lights, while the lights on the Yangjing Creek were bleak; occasionally, the melodious singing from a grand ballroom in the concessions would drift over on the night breeze, bringing a sliver of prosperity that did not belong to this place.

That prosperity quickly dissipated into the croaking of frogs, leaving no trace behind.

"Across the river, they still sing 'The Flowers of the Rear Courtyard'..."

Xu Yi muttered to himself, then quickly shut his mouth.

The waxy yellow trail of light guided Xu Yi forward.

Even though he tried to avoid it, those odors uncontrollably forced their way into his nasal cavity—

The earthy, fishy smell of the river, the rot of water plants, the stench of garbage, the aroma of food wafting from the roadside stalls... these pungent, complex scents drilled into his nose, torturing him to no end.

Before long, Xu Yi was guided into a cluster of graves beside the riverbank.

Looking at the flickering ghost fires in the darkness, Xu Yi was not particularly afraid, for he had long known that both banks of Yangjing Creek were the traditional burial grounds of Puxi City, scattered with many earthen mounds and coffins, making them no different from a mass grave.

Xu Yi took his Gun Brand Pistol in hand and pulled the slide back slightly; with a low "click," the pistol was chambered.

The range of his black-and-white vision was very short, so whenever Xu Yi saw humanoid shapes faintly appearing outside his field of view, he quietly steered clear of them.

A moment later, he crossed the burial grounds, followed the course of Yangjing Creek, entered a back alley from a certain lane, and pressed himself against the city wall, moving along its base for about ten minutes, guided by the waxy yellow tassels of light.

Suddenly, he saw the waxy yellow tassels of light vanish into a two-story "Foreign Warehouse."

A so-called Foreign Warehouse was a depot built and operated by a foreign firm.

That perverted serial killer is a foreigner?

The rear of this warehouse was less than 20 meters from the city wall, and its frontage was barely 10 meters from the river, where a large pier with iron pilings had been built, clearly intended for mooring cargo ships.

It was not the time for loading or unloading, so there were only three guards in the warehouse playing cards on a broken wooden crate.

Xu Yi quietly snuck into the warehouse, his light footsteps completely masked by the swearing of the guards as they played.

Xu Yi walked along several large cargo containers toward the back, until he reached the depths of the warehouse where even the lamplight could not reach, where a large, discarded iron shipping container sat quietly against the wall.

The waxy yellow tassels of light finally disappeared into the container.

In his spirit-activated black-and-white vision, he tiptoed to the side of the container door and found it unlocked; wafts of an unidentifiable, exotic fragrance drifted out from the gaps in the door.

A single breath was enough to make Xu Yi nearly lose his soul.

What a heart-piercing, refreshing fragrance it was!

Xu Yi felt everything before his eyes turn rainbow-colored; in that instant, he recalled every beautiful thing he had experienced since coming into this world, and all of it was so vivid and real, as if he were experiencing his first encounter with the world as a living being—

The first time he saw the sun, the first time he experienced the dew, the first time he spoke, the first time he embraced the fragrance of nature...

By the time Xu Yi came to his senses, his entire face was covered in tears.