Griffin Firm

In the time that followed in the dream, Xu Yi and the Foreign Devil conspired together, running amok through Puxi City and murdering dozens of young women, all to make a spice with a fragrant, spiritual essence.

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They kept trying different extraction formulas, but never succeeded.

Then, one day, their crimes came to light, and their perverse deeds were exposed for all to see.

The Chinese Settlement was no longer a place the two degenerates could hide, so the Foreign Devil could only flee to the British Concession with Xu Yi.

Their crimes were so heinous that public outrage was immense, and the uproar could not be quelled.

Fortunately, the Foreign Devil's family had considerable influence. They spent money and pulled strings, and at last the situation began to calm down.

In the end, the Foreign Devil decided to flee with Xu Yi and lie low in Nanyang.

On the night before they left Puxi City for Nanyang, the two could no longer restrain themselves and murdered another woman.

They hadn't scouted the place beforehand and were caught red-handed!

At the end of the dream, Xu Yi saw only himself being flayed alive by an enraged crowd...

"Haah..."

A suffocating sense of madness consumed him, and Xu Yi suddenly opened his eyes!

The ceiling of Lingtong Hall's security dormitory was still above him. The dormitory's sour, sweaty smell wafted into his nose. This time, he didn't feel sick at all; instead, it made him feel strangely comforted.

"So it was a dream..."

Xu Yi staggered to his feet and glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table.

It was only six in the morning.

He couldn't sleep another wink. Getting up, he left the dormitory and gasped for air in the open space of the Big Factory District. He pulled Jing Tao's soft jade from inside his lapel and pressed it beneath his nose, inhaling deeply.

Jing Tao's fragrance soothed Xu Yi's restless spiritual essence.

The panic brought on by the nightmare gradually subsided.

"Why would I dream something like that?"

Xu Yi headed toward 38th Shop District's main street. His clothes, soaked with sweat, were chilled by the damp morning mist, making him uncomfortable.

"The first time I used the [Shadow Wood] incense burner, I saw that scene: incense burners everywhere, with 'human incense' stuck inside them.

That same scene appeared again in this dream."

Xu Yi's eyes were unfocused as he sank into memories of the dream.

He compared the two scenes over and over, finally arriving at an unbelievable conclusion—

"The person I saw in the smoke from the [Shadow Wood] incense burner back then...

And the person I saw in this dream...

They were the same person."

Xu Yi's heart skipped a beat.

"How... could that be?"

Xu Yi couldn't understand it. He couldn't accept it.

"At least the version of me in the dream was flayed alive. He's dead for good, and it's all over.

The nightmare...

It's over.

He's dead...

I...

Won't see him again."

Although Xu Yi told himself that, it didn't ease his mind.

He went to the mutton soup shop he frequented and spent six copper coins on a large bowl of soup and three flatbreads. He added scallions and chili, then ate until he was drenched in sweat.

As luck would have it, a newspaper boy passed by the shop, so Xu Yi spent one copper coin on a newspaper.

In the trade, newspaper boys who hawked papers on the street were called "street-sweeping newsboys." They usually sold more than one newspaper.

Xu Yi asked for the Zhabei Wind Gazette by name. The boy rummaged in his dark green canvas bag for a moment, then handed him a copy.

The moment Xu Yi scanned the headline, his pupils slowly shrank—

"Fire at the Griffin Firm warehouse! Stevenson Griffin, eldest son of the Griffin Family's business empire, narrowly escapes with his life! The man is suspected of involvement in multiple vicious murders."

"The Foreign Devil didn't die?!

Even that didn't kill him?!

How is that possible?!"

Xu Yi read on.

"Stevenson Griffin suffered extensive burns over his entire body and is in a deep coma. As of the time this newspaper went to press today, he was still being treated at a hospital in the British Concession.

Our reporter will continue to follow this story."

Xu Yi didn't even notice how twisted his expression had become, his eyes murderous!

He remained in this near-panicked state for a long while before gradually calming down.

Xu Yi breathed in the cool morning air of 38th Shop District, unconsciously savoring the mingled scents of the various breakfasts in the breeze.

"The Foreign Devil knows what I look like. He saw what I was wearing, too.

Once he wakes up in his hospital bed, he can use his connections to search for me. It won't take long for him to figure out who I am and find me."

"Could I sneak into the hospital in the British Concession and kill him for good?

That won't be easy..."

"I'll find out more about him first, then decide what to do."

Xu Yi had learned from Duan Hu where Bao Dating—Old Zhang—lived, so he went straight there.

After walking for about half an hour, he followed an alley in the front section of 38th Shop District all the way to the end. Beside the wall of a small courtyard, he spotted Old Zhang leading a group of children through their morning exercises.

There were about sixteen or seventeen children. They were all pitifully small; their faces looked like those of eleven- or twelve-year-olds, yet they were less than a meter tall.

Xu Yi's arrival startled the children. They scattered and ran inside.

Old Zhang, however, greeted him with a beaming smile.

"The sun's just beginning to rise! Good morning, Mr. Xu!"

Xu Yi clasped his hands toward Old Zhang and returned the coded greeting.

"The east is bright! Mr. Zhang, I'd like to ask you about something."

He immediately gave the names "Stevenson Griffin" and "Griffin Firm."

"Oh, him."

Old Zhang said with a beaming smile,

"That's the eldest young master of the Griffin Firm!"

He rattled off the details:

"To talk about the eldest young master, we have to mention his family's business."

"The Griffin Firm's official name is the Griffin Far East Trading Company. Its founder was an English hooligan named Alfred Griffin.

"In other words, Stevenson Griffin's father.

"Before he made his fortune, that hooligan had reached middle age without amounting to anything. Then he killed someone in his hometown and got into trouble, leaving him unable to stay in England. Just then, the East India Company was recruiting local hooligans to serve as pirates at sea, so he joined them.

"While Alfred Griffin worked for the East India Company, his main business was trading in Kunlun slaves. It was a business more profitable than any other!

"It didn't take him long to earn his first fortune.

"Later, Puxi City happened to open its port, and the hooligan got into the opium trade, where he amassed considerable capital. He set up a company and hired employees.

"He bought up houses one by one and opened shops one after another!

"He also got lucky and married the daughter of a wealthy English merchant. After that, he swallowed up several small companies and established a trading conglomerate in the British Concession: the Griffin Firm.

"That rotten hooligan Alfred Griffin had transformed into a respectable big shot of high society.

"After arriving in Puxi, Alfred Griffin's Griffin Firm began transitioning to legitimate import and export trade.

"It mainly exported tea and silk, buying them in Jiangnan and selling them to London's upper classes.

"At the same time, it imported hardware and machinery from England and sold them to Puxi City's mechanical companies.

"That was just their public face.

"In reality, they still dealt in opium and were also involved in antiquities smuggling.

"Those damn foreign devils even shipped the bricks and tiles left behind by our Great Yan Dynasty's ancestors all the way to England!

"As for the Griffin Firm in the British Concession here in Puxi City..."