Griffin Firm

In the time following the dream, Xu Yi and the foreigner colluded in their depravity, wantonly murdering dozens of young women in Puxi City just to concoct spices imbued with a spiritual fragrance.

They constantly experimented with different refining formulas, yet they never once succeeded.

Finally, the day came when their crimes were exposed, and their perverted atrocities were dragged into the light of day.

With no place left for two such deviants in the Chinese Settlement, the foreigner had no choice but to take Xu Yi and flee into the British Concession.

Because their actions were so heinous, the public outcry was massive, and the uproar showed no signs of subsiding.

Fortunately, the foreigner's family held significant influence; by spending money and pulling strings, they finally managed to calm the situation.

In the end, the foreigner decided to take Xu Yi and run away to the Nanyang to lay low for a while.

On the night before they were to leave Puxi City for the Nanyang, the two could no longer restrain themselves and murdered one last woman.

They hadn't scouted the location beforehand, and they were caught red-handed on the spot!

At the very end of the dream, Xu Yi only saw himself being skinned alive by the enraged mob...

"Haa..."

A maddening sense of suffocation filled his entire body and mind, and Xu Yi snapped his eyes open!

He saw the ceiling of the Lingtong Hall security dormitory still above him, and as the complex stench of sweat in the room drifted into his nostrils, he felt no disgust this time—only a sense of profound relief.

"It was just a dream..."

Xu Yi stood up shakily and glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table.

It was only six in the morning.

Unable to sleep a wink, he got up and walked out of the dormitory, gasping for air. He reached the open ground of the Big Factory District, pulled the piece of soft jade belonging to Jing Tao from his lapel, and pressed it to his nose, inhaling deeply.

The scent of Jing Tao soothed Xu Yi's restless spirit.

The convulsions caused by the nightmare gradually subsided.

"Why did I have such a dream?"

Xu Yi walked toward the 38th Shop District, his sweat-soaked clothes clinging to him in the cold morning mist, making him feel uncomfortable.

"The first time I used the Shadow Wood incense burner, I saw that scene filled with incense burners, each one stuffed with 'human incense.'

In this dream, that scene filled with human incense appeared again."

Xu Yi's eyes lost focus as he became immersed in recalling the dream.

He compared the two scenes repeatedly, finally arriving at an incredible conclusion—

"The 'me' I saw in the smoke of the Shadow Wood incense burner.

And the 'me' in this dream.

They are the same person."

Xu Yi's heart skipped a beat.

"This... how is that possible?"

Xu Yi could not understand it, nor could he accept it.

"At least the 'me' in the dream was skinned alive; he is completely dead, and everything is over.

The nightmare...

is already over.

He is dead...

I...

will not encounter him again."

Although Xu Yi thought this to himself, his heart did not feel at ease.

He arrived at the mutton soup shop he frequented, spent 6 copper coins on a large bowl of mutton soup and three flatbreads, added green onions and chili, and buried his head in the food until he was drenched in sweat.

A newsboy happened to pass by the shop, so Xu Yi spent 1 copper coin to buy a newspaper.

In the parlance of the trade, newsboys who hawked on the street were called "street-sweeping newsboys," and they usually sold papers from more than one publisher.

Xu Yi specifically asked for the Zhabei Wind Gazette. The boy rummaged through his dark green canvas bag for a moment before handing over a copy.

The moment Xu Yi scanned the headline, his pupils gradually constricted—

<Fire at Griffin Firm Warehouse! Stevenson Griffin, eldest son of the Griffin family conglomerate, narrowly escapes with his life! The man is suspected of involvement in multiple vicious homicide cases.>

"The foreigner didn't die?!

He survived even that?!

How is that possible?!"

Xu Yi continued reading.

<Stevenson Griffin has suffered extensive burns over his entire body and remains in a deep coma. As of the time of this publication, he is still undergoing emergency treatment at a hospital in the British Concession.>

Our reporter will continue to follow this incident.

Xu Yi did not notice at all that his face was twisted with ferocity, his eyes burning with the intent to kill!

This stress-induced state of his lasted for a long time before he slowly began to relax.

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

"The foreign devil knows what I look like, and he saw how I was dressed.

Once he wakes up in his hospital bed, all he has to do is use his connections to search, and he will quickly be able to identify me and track me down."

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

I'm afraid that won't be easy..."

"I should gather some information on him first, then decide on a plan."

Xu Yi had learned the whereabouts of "Bao Dating" Old Zhang from Duan Hu, so he headed straight there.

After walking for about half an hour, deep into an alley in the front section of the 38th Shop District, he reached the end and found Old Zhang by the wall of a small courtyard, leading a group of children in morning exercises.

There were about sixteen or seventeen children, all of them pitifully small; despite having the faces of eleven or twelve-year-olds, their bodies were barely a meter tall.

Xu Yi's arrival startled the children, and they scattered in a flurry, running inside the gate.

Old Zhang greeted him with a beaming smile:

"The sun has just turned a sliver of red! Mr. Xu, good morning!"

Xu Yi cupped his hands in a salute toward Old Zhang and responded with the code:

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

He immediately brought up the names "Stevenson Griffin" and "Griffin Firm."

"Ah, that."

Old Zhang said with a smile:

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

He rattled off the details as if spilling beans:

"If you want to talk about this young master, you have to mention his family's business."

"The Griffin Firm, officially named the 'Griffin Far East Trading Company,' was founded by an English rogue named Alfred Griffin.

--That is, Stevenson Griffin's father.

Before this rogue made his fortune, he had reached middle age without amounting to anything.

Because he had killed someone and caused trouble back home, he couldn't survive in England anymore. It just so happened that the East India Company was recruiting local thugs to serve as pirates at sea, so this fellow went along with them.

When Alfred Griffin worked for the East India Company, his main business was trading Kunlun slaves—that was a business so lucrative it was beyond belief!

In just a few years, he had saved up his first pot of gold.

Later, as luck would have it, Puxi City opened its ports, and this rogue caught the wave of the opium trade. He accumulated quite a bit of capital through it, started his company, and hired staff.

He bought houses one by one and opened shops stall by stall!

Then, he got lucky again and married the daughter of a wealthy English merchant. From then on, he swallowed up many smaller companies and established a joint firm in the British Concession—the Griffin Firm.

Alfred Griffin, that stinking rogue, transformed himself into a big boss in high society.

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

They mainly exported tea and silk, purchasing them from Jiangnan to sell to the high society of London.

At the same time, they imported hardware and machinery from England to sell to the machinery companies in Puxi City.

--That is the facade they put on.

In reality, they are still secretly trafficking opium and are even involved in the smuggling of antiques.

Those damn foreign devils—the bricks and tiles left behind by the ancestors of our Great Yan Dynasty are all being shipped off to England by them!

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