Empire of Shadows

In the grand study of the Tita family estate, this was once Sarif’s favorite place to be.

There were many bookshelves, filled with many books. Sitting here was like sitting in a small library.

He fit the stereotype and prejudice of those people very well—those who have not received higher education often prefer to make themselves look cultured.

He indeed had not received a higher education, and he did indeed like to make himself look more cultured. There was nothing wrong with that.

There were also many tables, chairs, and sofas in the study. He also liked it when family members sat together to discuss problems when they had them.

At this moment, sitting in his former position was his eldest son.

Sarif’s cousin, Bosen, sat next to him.

A large family is like a super-complex corporate group. They don’t just operate one kind of criminal business.

Families of this level often operate several, or even a dozen, kinds of criminal businesses. So many criminal businesses involve a lot of content, and one person cannot handle it all.

So basically, the core members of the family will take on some of it.Just like Francisco’s uncles and aunts. When Paul was around, he was only responsible for some of the core businesses. The other businesses were also handled by these brothers and sisters.

Bosen’s role in the Tita family was similar to that of a second-in-command and a steward. He didn’t have much of an emotional attachment to inheriting the position of family head.

Sarif was a family head who didn’t pay much attention to seniority, so for the core level of the Tita family, there was no clear class hierarchy.

Everyone was a relative. Although the bulk of the income was on Sarif’s side, they could still get a lot of benefits in their hands, and there were no complaints.

“Bandy wants us to stop. His attitude is very firm. If we don’t stop, we are very likely to be targeted by them.”

“So, I want to hear your thoughts.”

In the past six months, the Tita family’s losses had actually been quite severe.

People always say that the marketplace is like a battlefield, but in fact, the firefights between gangs are the real battlefields.

Bosen at this time also chimed in, “If it’s just dealing with that bunch of sons of bitches from the Cassia family, our problem is not very big, because Francisco and Alberto will do it with us.”

“But if you add the Bandy family, our pressure will be very great. They have a lot of influence in Golden Port. At that time, it may be multifaceted.”

“So, we discussed it, and we still need to see what everyone thinks.”

Over the past six months, many of the family’s peripheral and core members had been wiped out. To replenish them would require at least three to six months.

And winter was coming soon. It was not very convenient to replenish manpower after winter set in, so in fact, they would need to recuperate until late spring or early summer of next year before they could have the ability to resist pressure.

Sarif’s son also said with a somber face, “My father’s death has left me heartbroken. Every night when I close my eyes, my mind is filled with thoughts of revenge.”

“But our current situation is not very good. When my father went to negotiate this time, many of the people he took with him also died. We now…”

He glanced at Bosen, who continued his words, “We can now mobilize at most a hundred or so men.”

“If this group is all gone, then we will have no resistance at all.”

A family member in the room said, “I can transfer some more people from other places, about twenty.”

A few other people also said that they could still squeeze out some manpower. On the matter of taking revenge on the Cassia family, they were united.

Bosen shook his head. “I have an idea now. I must talk to you all frankly.”

“The Cassia family is now in internal turmoil. I think if we give them too much external pressure, it is very likely that their family’s internal turmoil will end prematurely.”

The others all nodded after hearing this, agreeing with his view.

External pressure is often the best choice to divert internal problems. In the face of the family’s survival, it is an inevitable choice to give up some personal grievances and unite to overcome difficulties.

Seeing them all nod, Bosen continued, “The gunmen of the Cassia family are all cheaply hired from Yalan. What they lose is only money. If we are determined to continue the war with them, our own pressure will also be great.”

“This will cause the family to suffer heavy losses.”

“After all, after the war starts, it’s not just our people who will suffer losses, but also our industries.”

“So our idea is to let them continue their internal turmoil. As long as their internal turmoil doesn’t end for a day, and they fight among themselves, their strength will continue to decline.”

“And we can regain our strength through recuperation and become strong again.”

“They are getting weaker, and we are getting stronger. The gap in strength will soon be wiped out, and we can even surpass them.”

“And a temporary truce can also deal with Bandy for the time being. After we become strong again, Bandy won’t be able to continue to ask us to do this and that like he does now.”

The others fell into thought after hearing this. Bosen and Sarif’s son looked at each other. They believed that everyone would most likely accept this result.

In fact, to say there was hatred, that was certainly there. But to say that they couldn’t wait a single day, that was not necessarily the case.

Sarif was indeed dead, but Rick was also dead. To a certain extent, it seemed that they had gained a little.

Of course, it was wrong to think this way. After all, a family head had died. But from a higher perspective, it was indeed like this.

A weak leader of the Five Families and a strong leader of the Five Families had been exchanged. Isn’t that the weak one taking advantage?

An unrelenting fight must have a target. Rick was already dead, so there was hatred, but it was not that strong.

The discussion of the others quickly came to a result, and the people among them also accepted this idea.

Among them, another cousin of Sarif asked, “Then next year or the year after, what reason should we find to start the war again?”

Bosen pursed his lips. “Maybe by then they will have already weakened to the point of being unsightly, and they will be finished without us having to make a move.”

“If we still need to make a move, we can create an attack, for example, I was attacked.”

“This way, Bandy can’t stop us either. As for whether this is true or not, it’s actually not important, because he will understand that this is our attitude.”

When a person is willing to self-harm to start a war, Bandy actually doesn’t have much of a choice.

“At the same time, I will also contact Alberto and Francisco. We will make a move at the same time. This time we will solve them once and for all.”

The others all nodded, indicating that there were no problems.

Just at this moment, there was a sudden knock on the door. A family member went outside the study. About ten seconds later, he came in with a look of disbelief. “The cemetery just called and said they accidentally broke Sarif’s tombstone.”

Everyone in the room was stunned. Sarif’s son even stood up, his mouth agape, unable to believe this.

For Federation people, a tombstone itself is the last proof and sustenance of a person’s existence.

If this tombstone is broken, for some superstitious people, it is absolutely the worst news.

“Why would they break Sarif’s tombstone?” Bosen was very angry, but that person didn’t know either.

He immediately made a decision. “I’ll go and check the situation. He needs me at a time like this.”

However, Sarif’s son stopped him. “Uncle Bosen, the family needs you more. I’ll handle this matter.”

“After all, the one lying under there is my father. I will definitely handle it properly.”

Bosen considered for a moment and agreed.

Sarif’s son immediately gathered a dozen men, and they took four cars and headed towards the cemetery.

In fact, a long time ago, some of these large families liked to bury their dead in the family cemetery, which was behind the estate.

However, this habit was gradually disappearing, especially for cases like a gangster family where people died at every turn. No matter how large the estate was, it couldn’t bury so many people.

So in the end, most of them would still choose a plot in a public cemetery and buy it as a whole to place the family members.

But it was not ruled out that some forces would continue to bury their family members behind their houses, especially some financial magnates, who were still following this tradition.

Because they believed that doing so would bring them good luck—

It sounds ridiculous, but they believed that if their deceased family members continued to be with them, they would bless them with good fortune.

The Tita family had bought a large plot of cemetery, and Vittorio had given it to the cemetery management company for unified management. The daily cleaning of the ground, wiping of the tombstones, and so on, all needed someone to do it.

In fact, no matter how many people liked a person when he was alive, as long as he died and was buried in the ground, people would soon forget him.

They would no longer go to see him, nor would they clean up for him. So this matter still needed to be done by the management staff.

Perhaps it was when the management staff were doing something that they accidentally broke the tombstone.

Sarif’s son and his group all brought weapons, but they were not too nervous, because behind Bandy’s request for them to have peace talks was also the Cassia family’s idea.

They were busy solving internal problems and had no time to continue the war, so it was highly unlikely that they would make a move casually.

The convoy soon left the downtown area and arrived at the public cemetery next to the Creek Valley District.

Before the mayor had turned against everyone, he had once considered continuing to expand the city circle, so there was a high probability that this place would eventually be incorporated into the city’s internal environment.

Some people had protested, believing that enclosing the cemetery within the city’s boundaries would disturb the peace of the deceased.

This was actually a very strange phenomenon. On the one hand, they believed that their relatives had gone to heaven, and on the other hand, they believed that they were sleeping in their coffins. It could only be said that the Federation people were very careless on the issue of faith.

The convoy arrived at the special small cemetery smoothly. At the same time, they also saw a forklift in the cemetery, and half a broken tombstone.

Sarif’s son’s eyes immediately turned red. He cursed “fuck” and rushed towards the tombstone, so much so that he didn’t even notice that it was terrifyingly quiet around here.

The cemetery was on a hillside. The Federation people didn’t care about the orientation of the tombstones, nor did they care whether they were touched by the sun. Many cemeteries would be exposed to the sun.

Just as this group entered the cemetery, several gunmen suddenly rushed out from behind the bushes on the hillside. They aimed at the people below and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Slaughter erupted at this moment.

Sarif’s son never dreamed that he would be attacked here. They immediately began to organize a counterattack.

But because many people were shot in the first moment, their counterattack was actually very limited.

Watching the family members around him fall one by one, the young man hiding behind the forklift could only accept this fact in the end.

His face was pale as he was brought to his father’s tombstone. He and his father would be reunited at this moment.

With a gunshot, a lot of blood was splattered on the remaining half of the tombstone. The young man who had lost his life fell on the protruding coffin lid.

He lay there, just as he had lain in Sarif’s arms as a child.

On the other side, Vittorio was on the phone in his villa, with Bandy.

“A child, he doesn’t understand the difficulties of managing a family at all. He will only act recklessly based on his own emotions.”

“That Alberto person is not a good person. Who can believe that he does these things just to repay the kindness Paul once showed him?”

“Anyway, I don’t believe it. But there’s no way around it. Cisco would rather trust him, an outsider, than trust me.”

“If we let them mess around, the family will only get worse.”

Bandy, on the other end of the receiver, kept agreeing with his point of view, which gave him more desire to talk.

In fact, everyone has a desire to talk, to complain, to vent some of the dissatisfaction encountered in life and work.

But there is a lack of good listeners in this world, who can patiently listen to all your complaints and soothe your emotions.

No one can do these things, so when someone is willing to do them, it will make people feel a sense of closeness.

“Vittorio, from an outsider’s point of view, you are the most suitable heir for the Pasoretto family.”

“You have rich management experience, are familiar with family affairs, and also have a lot of face among us, and we are all very familiar with each other.”

“Although Francisco is Paul’s son, he lacks some experience. He still needs to learn, and he is too young.”

“Do you know how absurd and ridiculous it is for me to have to sit at the same table with a child to discuss matters that can change the landscape of this city?”

“You should really have a good discussion and see if there are other opportunities for you to take on this role.”

Vittorio’s whole body seemed to relax when he heard what Bandy said. He liked these words, they spoke directly to his heart.

“You understand me, Bandy. They always think I have a lot of problems, that I’m an ambitious person.”

“God is my witness, I have no selfish motives at all in doing these things. It’s all for the family.”

“Won’t all this be his in the future anyway?”

He had a completely loyal look for the family, but whether it was him or Bandy on the other end of the phone, they both knew he was lying.

This would put him in power. The more promising Francisco became, the faster he would die.

Just as they were chatting, someone suddenly said that Francisco had arrived. Vittorio immediately ended the call.

“I have to talk to him again. We’ll be in touch later.”

Bandy called him not only to make the Pasoretto family give up the idea of continuing to fight as much as possible, but also to hope to form some cooperation with him.

The days of the Five Families ruling the world together were over. Now it was the Kodak family’s sole dominion. He would not give other families a chance to rise again.

He would find ways to make them continue to fight among themselves, or destroy their chances of rising again.

He saw it clearly now. Golden Port didn’t need so many voices. One was enough.

Soon, Alberto and Francisco arrived in front of him. Vittorio’s face was as ugly as it could be when he saw Alberto.

However, he still maintained a polite surface, had the two of them sit down, and also had someone send in fruits and drinks.

The house was full of their people, both inside and out, Vittorio’s people, and Alberto’s people.

Now Vittorio was very impatient with these two people appearing in front of him. He suppressed the thought of telling them to get lost and tried to make his tone as gentle as possible.

“Is there something you want?”

“My dear grandson?”

Francisco said, “I came to talk to you about the Cassia family.”

Vittorio frowned slightly. “I don’t think there’s anything to talk about. We need time to rest, Cisco.”

“We need to recruit some more men to fill the ranks of those we’ve lost, and we need to consider our relationship with the island, and there are many other problems that need to be solved.”

“Going to war will only make us decline faster, not better.”

Francisco glanced at Alberto, then faced Vittorio again. “This is not the tradition of the Summurian people. We take revenge when we have a grudge, not endure it.”

“The Cassia family is almost finished. We can completely give them a fatal blow.”

“I believe the family members will understand my idea. This is a sacred revenge.”

Vittorio’s gaze also turned to Alberto. “Did you tell him to say this?”

He believed that Alberto was behind all this, and his tone was naturally very impolite. “This has nothing to do with you, Alberto. You have no relationship with the Pasoretto family.”

“Whether on the island or here, you are an outsider. I don’t like your attitude of interfering in family affairs.”

Francisco raised his voice a little. “This is my idea!”

Vittorio also raised his voice impatiently. “Your idea?”

“You have never been involved in family affairs, and you have been in school before. What ideas can you have?”

“Cisco, face reality. You don’t understand these things at all, nor do you know how to handle the family’s problems.”

“You should go back to school and study hard. Paul hoped you could go to university. Isn’t it good for you to fulfill his last wish?”

“Why do you still have to meddle in these adult matters?”

“And to be controlled by an outsider who has no blood relationship with us, to oppose these relatives who have been so good to you since you were a child?”

(End of chapter)