Empire of Shadows

The few directors in front of the sergeant, who were clearly problematic, remained silent. He knew what these people were waiting for. Their

The few directors in front of the sergeant, who were clearly problematic, remained silent. He knew what these people were waiting for.

Their lawyers.

The Liji Group had its own legal department. Soon, a lawyer pushed open the door from outside and stated his identity.

“I am the head of the corporate group’s legal department. If you have any questions, you can consult me. My clients will not answer any of your questions right now.”

Several lawyers who followed began to demand to see the police officers’ credentials and to understand the evidence collection process through the people around them.

This was very much in line with the lawyers’ approach. They needed to know if the evidence collection process was reasonable and legal, and also what evidence the police had obtained.

The larger the corporate group, the more filth of all kinds existed, and the job of the legal department was to protect the interests of the corporate group and reduce the leakage of some scandals.

The sergeant could tell at a glance that he wouldn’t be able to get anything of value. He put away his notebook and pen. “Did this Mr. Steven Johnson offend anyone recently?”

Just now he had asked, “Have you offended any ruthless people?” But now, the subject had become “Steven Johnson.”He was very confident in his assessment of the relationships behind this murder case; it was definitely not just Steven who was involved.

He had died, and then been distributed among these directors. This showed that everyone had participated.

So the things that these people had all participated in together were not private matters, but could only be official business.

The Liji Group’s reputation had always been not very good. If you didn’t consider its profitability, then this was a morally corrupt company.

The sergeant himself had heard many rumors about it, such as… poisoning others’ fish ponds, setting fire to the fields of farmers who were unwilling to sell their agricultural products to them before the autumn harvest, or putting poisonous snakes in others’ pastures.

Whether it was the capital at the very bottom, or the capital at the highest point of this world, the means by which they obtained profits had always been like this: by hook or by crook.

If you are willing to give, you must give. If you are not willing to give, I will force you to give. This is capital.

What warmth, what responsibility—they were all just ways and means they used to disguise themselves and deceive the public.

So the sergeant was highly certain that this was an official matter, not a private one.

The lawyer and the executive president stood in a corner. After a brief communication, the lawyer said, “As a publicly listed company, we will definitely have many competitors. And who created all this is precisely your responsibility, not ours.”

“The Liji Group pays a huge amount of taxes every year. These taxes support a large number of civil servants, including you, the federal police.”

“So now it’s you, and your people, who need to tell us what exactly happened.”

“It’s not you asking us what happened.”

“This is your job, not ours.”

“In addition, before the case is clarified, the company does not want to hear all kinds of rumors spreading in society. If your leaks or omissions lead to the leakage of the case, we will reserve the right to sue you.”

Being a police officer in the Federation is fucking hard.

You have to be careful when dealing with criminals, because you don’t know if this criminal has a powerful gang or criminal group behind him.

You also have to be careful when dealing with victims, because the victims often don’t necessarily play the role of the “weaker party.”

The sergeant took a deep breath, puffing out his whole body. He looked at the lawyer for a while and then stood up with a smile. “Alright, if you remember anything, remember to contact me in time. This is my number.”

“I can guarantee that we will not disclose this case to the outside world. We all hope to solve the case as soon as possible, so no matter what you think of, remember to contact me. This is very important for the investigation.”

He took out a business card and placed it on the table. His fingers rested on the business card, his body slightly tilted. He finally emphasized, “Anything.”

As he spoke, he turned and walked outside. The “evidence” that had been inspected was all taken away by him. After all the police had left, the office door was closed again.

“Is that Steven?” the lawyer lit a cigarette. This case also made him feel a bit of pressure, especially since he had seen Steven just yesterday when he got off work.

Now, he had become like this.

The president nodded. “It’s him, if there are no accidents.”

The lawyer pursed his lips. He knew that Steven had been helping the company handle some dirty work, and sometimes it was indeed necessary for some people to handle this kind of thing.

Many times, the legal lawsuits he handled were cases that were absolutely impossible to win, such as various cases of unilaterally tearing up agreements and contracts, and cases of direct breach of contract. These cases could simply not be solved through legal channels.

Only by relying on people like Steven could they be properly solved.

You can’t win legally, but you can win physically. That’s still a victory.

“Who did it?”

The directors all shook their heads. They didn’t know who did it, and at the same time, it could have been anyone.

Steven had done too many bad things, or rather, the Liji Group had done too many bad things. Who knew if it was some farmer who had been driven to bankruptcy by them who had suddenly awakened?

Then he had taken up arms and decided to take revenge on them, and had killed Steven, who was mainly responsible for some of the dirty work, and mailed him to them.

The lawyer could see that these people might have some guesses in their hearts, but they were unwilling to say.

Since they were unwilling to say, the lawyer didn’t have to insist on getting involved in this matter.

Having dealt with many cases, sometimes “not knowing” is safer than “knowing.”

“I have other work to do. If you think of anything, have someone record it.”

“Don’t accept interrogation from the police when I or other lawyers are not present, and don’t make any promises. You should act as you are now, knowing nothing.”

He stood up and left as he spoke. Only a few directors were left in the room.

“Could it be the Lance Family who did it?”

The vice president was a little uncertain, because the most ruthless character they had encountered recently was probably Lance.

They hadn’t mentioned this to the sergeant because they didn’t want to expose some information for the time being.

Once they said who it might be, the police would definitely investigate around these possible, suspicious targets.

For example, investigating whether they had a motive, and what the motive was.

In this process, the media would also quickly follow up. Before long, people would know that the Liji Group, in order to default on the penalty for breach of contract, had tried every means to interfere with judicial fairness.

This matter, if done “under the table,” was not a problem. Almost all corporate groups were doing it.

Using money, violence, and other means to constantly interfere with judicial fairness.

But you can’t bring it out and say on the table, “I’m doing this, and because I’m doing this, I’ve encountered retaliation.”

The loss of face is a small matter. A setback in the financial market would be a big deal.

Losing face is nothing more than some people thinking they are shameless.

But if the stock price falls, then everyone’s net worth will shrink.

And what they lose is not just their own wealth and net worth, but possibly also their lives.

Some shareholders are not on the board of directors, but this does not mean they are not special.

If you lose the money of the stock traders on Detran Street, at most they will point their fingers at your nose and call you a moron.

But if you lose the money of these big shots, they will just send you to the bottom of the sea.

So the best thing to do now was to not expose the trouble that could cause the stock price to fall, then solve it, and finally give everyone a result, not a beginning, or a process.

The executive president nodded and said, “It’s not impossible. From my understanding of some of his deeds these few days, it’s not impossible.”

“But we still have a few other suspects, for example…”

He talked about some of the actions before the Harvest Festival. They had caused some small farms that were unwilling to cooperate with their strategy to have no harvest, losing a large sum of money.

Those farmers in the countryside didn’t have much of a high culture. It was also possible that they had done it.

“The most crucial thing now is to find out who killed Steven, and then we will consider how to solve this matter.”

He looked at the chairman of the board, who nodded slightly in agreement with his view. He then began to assign work.

The vice president’s job was to find out if this was done by the Lance Family. If it was, he was to talk to Lance.

If not, then he was to continue to keep an eye on the lawsuit.

And he himself and the other directors would go and deal with the other possibilities.

Within the company, besides a few directors and the security guards, not many people actually knew about this matter. The executive president had already had people unify their story.

If anyone asked, they would say that some dead cats and dogs had been mailed over to intimidate the directors, and that the police had been called.

This kind of thing had also happened before. Those farmers who were dissatisfied with the Liji Group would do this, and some had even mailed them cow dung.

Steven’s work was also temporarily handed over to someone else, on the grounds that the company had sent Steven on a long trip, and it might take some time before he could come back.

Besides the insiders, no one inside or outside the company knew that a director had died, and had even returned to the company in a special way to meet with others.

Back in his office, the vice president had the secretary send in a pot of coffee and a bottle of liquor. He needed this now to soothe his emotions, and at the same time, he needed to pull himself together.

So alcohol and coffee were a good combination.

Caffeine and alcohol could help him find that energetic feeling for a period of time, although the price was that he would feel more tired after the excitement was over.

He got the number for the Wanli Firm from the branch office, but Lance was not there at the moment. The person who answered the phone was a young man named Elvin. He said he would pass the call on to Lance.

A dozen minutes later, Lance hung up the phone.

“Their vice president is looking for me, wanting to have a chat.”

The others all looked at him.

The remaining bodies had already been disposed of. They had found a small factory that produced pet sausages and, in the middle of the night, had dumped the rest with the raw materials. Now they had become pet sausages and were being sold in stores.

After a few days, unless those police officers could find key human tissue fragments from the shit of who knows how many dogs, this case could never be solved.

This was an era without DNA testing. Even if they suspected it was Steven, without more direct evidence, they could not confirm that it was Steven.

Historical fracture marks, dental records, surgical records, etc., but these were about to be completely destroyed.

If you were to say that to charge them, they had to have sufficient evidence, then as long as they themselves did not admit that they had committed a crime, then this city, and even the prosecutors of the entire Golden State, could not do these things.

The others had no other opinions. Lance also planned to have a chat with him, but not on the phone.

He took out some of the intelligence that Steven had confessed before his death and found the vice president’s place of residence in it.

There was nothing more sincere than visiting in person, was there?

The vice president did not realize that this was done by Lance, although he had some guesses.

He suspected that it might have been arranged by Lance for others to do it, but he didn’t believe it 100%. There would always be some unexpected things.

Steven’s death made him truly feel fear. A colleague had said goodbye to them in such a way. This was something no one had expected.

Today it was Steven who died, so who would be next?

Could it be himself?

In a sense, Steven was much harder to kill than he was, but now Steven was already dead. How long could he last? Could he stop the attacks of these madmen?

He didn’t know.

He had already hired four senior security guards from the Golden Shield company to protect him personally. These people would be arriving soon, but he still didn’t have much of a sense of security.

He had been expecting a call from Lance, but Lance had never called him, which made him very uneasy.

He both hoped that Lance would directly tell him that these were all his doing, and also hoped that Lance would tell him that he actually knew nothing.

This was a very contradictory psychology. After you have offended someone, you will definitely hope that this person is a coward, not a hero.

When he got off work in the evening, the private security team from the Golden Shield company had already arrived at his office. These people, who obviously looked like bodyguards, also caused some discussion among the people in the company.

Because they knew that not only had the vice president suddenly been equipped with bodyguards, but the president, the chairman of the board, and some other directors had also been equipped with bodyguards.

So some reliable and unreliable rumors began to spread within the company, but he was already concerned about this here.

The bodyguards had driven a bulletproof car over. The daily rental fee for this bulletproof car was $50, and the four of them together were $120, an average of $30 per person.

This was not a small expense. People who were not really rich might not be able to afford these people.

Sitting in the bulletproof car, surrounded by elites, the vice president’s emotions calmed down a little.

The car was moving steadily on the road. At this time, what he was thinking about was how to ensure his own safety and interests, not the company’s.

The company would not fall because of such a small setback, but people would.

He had already had some enlightenment. Steven’s death was to intimidate them.

This group of people had used Steven’s death to tell them that they and ordinary people were actually not that different. As long as they were killed, they would definitely die.

The car soon arrived at the villa area. After the car stopped, he got out of the car. The four bodyguards would continue to protect him until the contract ended.

The vice president who had gotten out of the car walked towards his house with a heavy heart. Just as he was about to open the door, the door suddenly opened.

He looked at the smiling young man standing at the door, his mind a little unable to turn.

He lived with his family, his wife, his children.

His children were in college and not here. Usually only his wife was at home.

They were also like ordinary couples. After middle age, they had no more communication. Besides coming back at night to sleep in different rooms, most of the time there was no communication.

He knew his wife had a lover outside, but as long as it didn’t get in front of him and he could maintain his dignity, he actually didn’t care very much.

Just as he would put on a show and also have his own mistress, this was a problem that all upper-class families had to face.

Not everyone could maintain a harmonious family relationship.

They got money, status, prestige, everything, but they would also lose something.

But these losses, in the face of what they got, were not worth mentioning.

The expression on his face at this time was somewhat angry. He thought this young man was his wife’s lover, and he had actually come to the house.

He entered the door with a not-so-good-looking face and then walked towards the living room.

But as he went deeper, he saw more young people.

These young people couldn’t all be his wife’s lovers. His wife couldn’t handle so many.

Just as he was suspecting if these were his son’s classmates, he suddenly noticed that the attire of these people was mostly the same.

A feeling of unease surged within him.

He looked back and saw that the four bodyguards who had been following him had quietly raised their hands, looking at him with innocent faces.

He turned his head back and looked at the person sitting in the middle of the sofa, reading a newspaper, and swallowed.

The young man who had opened the door for him motioned for him to walk over. He could only brace himself and walk into the living room.

“I haven’t seen you guys before,” he said truthfully. “If I or my family have offended you, I apologize to you for these things.”

Lance put down the newspaper and looked at him with a half-smile. “Mr. Vice President, my men told me that you wanted to have a call with me?”

“A call can’t solve our problem, so I came. Face to face might be more conducive to solving the problem, don’t you think?”

Lance had him sit down on another sofa. “You must have a lot to say to me. Now you have the opportunity and honor.”

Hearing this, if the vice president still didn’t know who the person in front of him was, then he would have absolutely no right to be the vice president of a corporate group.

The thing he had worried about most had still happened.

His body began to tremble slightly, his breathing became rapid, and the sweat on his forehead began to secrete quickly. He took out a handkerchief and wiped his face randomly. “Mr. White…”

(End of chapter)