Hello once again.
I wanted to thanks i'mthenewCAKEPIG for reviewing the last chapter~!
Please enjoy the next chapter, dear readers and reviewers. And please drop a review by if you got some free time on the hand.
Chapter 4:The Grace of being informed about the torture
Opium. A poison that gives people the chance to forget the hard times of life, to escape from their present nightmares. And England had almost the whole monopoly on the Asian product for several years now.
"By the 1880s, China was in the midst of a major opium boom, particularly in the rugged southwestern provinces of Szechwan and Yunnan. Observers claimed that China's leading opium producing province, Szechwan, was harvesting 10,000 tons of raw opium annually. In 1881, the British consul at Yichang estimated the total opium production in the southwest at 13,525 tons, a figure that at first seemed exaggerated.
Although estimates varied widely, by 1885 China was probably growing twice as much opium as it was importing.
The East India Company was responsible for this export, but they were so involved with the British government by the time of the Opium Wars, that it doesn't make sense to talk about the opium traders as anything but "England".
Business was booming. The market was growing almost every year due to a number of causes. First, the population of China was increasing rapidly at this time-roughly doubling from 1750 to 1850. Second, the number of per capita users was increasing. Third, per user consumption was increasing.
The Chinese government had made opium illegal in 1796. For the 40 years following the enactment of the law, the government did nothing much to enforce it. When the government did finally try to enforce the opium ban, it led to the two Opium Wars, although in fact they are pretty much just one war with a long cease-fire in the middle.
In the latest news, dating from 1887, Sir Lau, president of the head of the British branch of a trading company, Kunlun, would have been involved with Shangai's mafia and take a big part in the Opium Affairs. Also..."
Grace stopped reading, tired and bored. She had read countless of articles about opium trades since a week, only to prepare herself for some "mission" the Queen had given her. With a silent sigh, she posed her head on the table, her hands under her legs which were dandling under her chair.
It had been a month since she had become "Grace Wortley" and she started to get used to her new life. She had no remembrance of what happened before she met John, but, she knew this was a whole new experience in life for her and she was ready to put everything in play to keep her actual position. Had she ever been so greedy? And such a liar? She wasn't sure if it was the case or if she had gotten bad influence. But from who? John promised he never lied, Sebastian was the same. Ciel wasn't a person to lower himself to lie and hearing lies from Lizzy's mouth was unthinkable. So, she came to the conclusion that she was indeed a greedy liar.
But, she didn't feel guilty about it, because the Queen, Ciel and John, who were her three moral meters, approved of the actual situation. So, apparently, the fact she was greedy and a liar, wasn't something she'd be going to be punished for.
Suddenly, a yellow skinned hand grabbed the papers that were in front of her eyes and a happy voice said:
"Oya, oya~ Would she be the new little Queen's dog?"
Grace jumped up from her chair and stared at the individuals who were standing in front of her. It was a Chinese man with a Chinese woman clinging to him. Well...clinging didn't exactly describe how the woman was attached to the man, it was more like a sensual hug she shared with him, while he was reading the papers, hiding his face from her.
Grace, who had learned some tricks from Ciel's behavior, glared at the man and tried to grab the papers back from him, her sharp blue eyes flashing in irritation.
"Give it back! I need to study this!"
The man lowered the papers for her to reach them, with a smile plastered on his lips. A shiver went down Grace's back; his smile looked even creepier than that of Sebastian. And that woman who showed her legs was really scary when she was staring at her with her big yellow eyes.
The man's eyes were closed, not showing their color to Grace. His lips, thin and elegant, kept on smiling, while his long fingers caressed the woman's cheek. He wore Chinese clothes and reminded Grace of someone she had seen recently on a picture.
Then it struck her. He smelled weird. Opium. In shock, she pointed at him and stammered:
"L-Lau!"
The named "Lau" smiled even more and ruffled the Chinese girl's hair.
"My, my, aren't I well known by the Queen's dogs."
"Idiot, your face has been plastered in all newspapers for weeks now." replied gruffly Ciel who came in with Sebastian and John who were bringing some refreshments and sweets.
Grace immediately went over to her butler and grabbed him hand, suddenly timid again in front of the newcomer.
Ciel and Lau seemed to be old acquaintances and chatted like nothing strange was going on. Sebastian added a few words too from time to time, while serving them. The other demon looked down at his soul.
"What is it, Little Mistress?"
The hands let him go in shock and the girl looked away, red of shame.
"N-Nothing."
She felt a hand pat her head and hear the reassuring voice of John tell her it was alright. Then, he took the papers out of her hands and closed the file she was reading.
"She read enough stupidities." announced Ciel. "Let's go to real business now."
All people except for the butlers were sitting on comfortable sofas, enjoying some tea and cake. Grace looked up surprised at the young Lord with her mouth open like that of a koi fish, which made Lau grin.
"You don't actually believe that one of those empty headed journalists said one word of truth in those articles?"
She did believe that, yes. She had no idea how many lies could lie in such a paper. In fact, she took almost everything that was told her, for granted.
'Way to go to be a gullible lady in a dark society. What the hell was the Queen thinking?' thought Ciel irritated.
"Lau has nothing to do with half of everything that's told in this fish wrapper." said Sebastian with his usual smile. "Also, the Queen finally send you a precise instruction about the next investigation."
"Investigation?" asked Grace.
Lau, if his eyes were open, would have blinked. The noble girl didn't seem to understand at all what was going on. Was she stupid or actually hiding her game?
"Ah, there has been quite a lot of disturbances in the opium affairs." explained Sebastian.
"Stocks has been disappearing lately." added John.
"And strange murders have been taking place too."
"The murderer or murderers leave each time a signature behind."
"A small pocket of opium." finished Lau. "Along with a letter written in chinese with those words on it."
He gave Grace and Ciel a paper with the message in Chinese and English traduction. The noble girl made a mental note to learn Chinese as soon as possible.
"Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi." read John out loud. "Isn't that an indirect reference to this man's addiction to opium?"
"Yup." answered Lau cheerfully. "Normally, this is one of the stories that influences our way of thinking in our culture, but this time, it refers to the opium. After all, when people consume opium, they aren't sure who they are anymore, neither where they are or what they are."
"So, it's some sort of insult not only towards England, but also to your own country, am I right?" asked John.
"Indeed. My country has been pressing the Queen to solve this case as soon as possible and thus why you were called here~"
"It's my mansion, Lau." reminded Ciel annoyed.
"Ah, yes." he answered absentmindedly.
Grace was sure that he was just teasing Ciel around, which seemed to work pretty well, since a vein had popped on his forehead.
"Are there any suspects or clues? Or even motives?" asked Grace randomly. "From what I read in the papers, there are many people who's like to gain this huge income of money. Not to mention all the small thieves and criminals who live in the shadows of the streets. East End is a perfect example of a place full of criminality. Kids, urchins, females, men, ol' branch's, die there all'time and opium deal'n is something ya can do a' any corner of an'y street. Ya see dead corpses every morn'n and night in th' streets when ya go work. I mean, Jack th' Rippe' is a goo' example of what happen' in th' streets there. Also, the stench's so strong, that ya can bar'ly distinguish the smell of a rottin' body of th'rest. 'bout opium, I think there's a dent near Brick Lane."
The room went silent. Jack the Ripper was a taboo subject around Ciel, but that wasn't exactly what had shocked the audience. Her language had turned into some slang of the poorer social class of London and her vocabulary had lost all it's elegance. Probably some of her origins came back to her memories, influencing her way of speaking. John suspected it'd only happen when she was nervous and had to talk more than two whole sentences.
Sebastian was the one breaking the silence.
"She gave us some nice directions for a first investigation."
Grace blushed slightly and hid her face behind her cup of tea, sipping some of the warm drink. John smiled warmly at her and patted her head. If the girl could purr, she certainly would have.