The Kane Family was one of Gotham's four great families, just like the Wayne Family, and the two families were also linked by marriage.
More than a decade ago, the Kane Family's supplies and the Wayne Family's industry had been the jewels of Gotham. They still were now, though they had suffered some minor fluctuations because of environmental regulations.
The Wayne Family was doing relatively well. Wayne Enterprises had transitioned long ago; only their ancestral century-old steelworks had been shut down.
But the Kane Family had not had it so easy. Even ACE Chemicals, their largest plant, had temporarily closed, while industries both upstream and downstream from the Kane Family had fallen into crisis one after another.
Yet after that auction attack, the Kane Family had miraculously recovered.
Perhaps the turmoil from that attack had driven the stock market into a frenzy. People had practically started falling from the sky, but amid all that red and blood, the cash-rich Kane Family—
—had directly acquired several companies and fully recovered in one gulp.
Now the old master of the Kane household even had the leisure to admire the artifacts soon to be donated to the Gotham Museum.
"Dad, Mom wants you upstairs." Miss Kate impatiently kicked open the door to her father's collection room.
The place looked like a replica of a museum hall, filled with display cases containing all kinds of items. Photos of Philip Kane's youthful expeditions around the world hung on the walls.
It was also a collection of memories. Well, it was where an old man reminisced about the past, because Mr. Philip was sitting on the floor without a shred of dignity, rolling tobacco leaves in his hands.
"Got it." Philip answered helplessly, placing the finished cigarette on a nearby cabinet. Hundreds of cigarettes were already