Empire of Shadows

In the evening, Lance’s car was parked outside William’s villa. He and Emily were already waiting for him at the door.

After hugging them both, William said with some embarrassment, “They knew you were coming, so they came along too.”

Although he said it was a bit embarrassing, Lance saw Emily’s face glowing with radiance!

She was a vain woman, there was no doubt about that, but Lance didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.

Everyone has their own thoughts and personality, and they need to express their emotions and other things. For Emily, the advancement of her family was his greatest joy.

Now, she would sometimes go back to live in the Priliccia District because she was more familiar with the social circle there.

In the past, she was not the core of the social circle. She would probably sit in a position closer to the edge, occasionally saying a few words, letting people pay attention to her for a minute or two before others would take the attention away from her.

She could only smile and occasionally express her thoughts, but not all the time.

But now, it was completely different.

Since she and Councilman Williams’s wife had attended some more high-end social occasions together, she had become the undisputed core of the community’s social circle.Even her seat had moved from the edge to the very center.

She would lie lazily on that sofa chair, showing off her clothes and accessories, and then everyone’s eyes and attention would be focused on her.

No matter who was speaking, as long as she didn’t like it, she could interrupt others’ words at any time, and no one would feel uncomfortable because of it.

Even if they did, they had to hold it in.

No matter what she said, those ladies had to laugh and praise her, although they would not bring her any actual material value.

But the emotional value they provided surpassed everything!

The one who changed her life was not William. She knew who it was!

If everyone in the entire family was fanatical about Lance, then if you were to make a ranking of their fanaticism, Emily would definitely be at the top.

She held Lance’s arm and complained about William a few times, “He wishes everyone knew you were here now!”

Lance turned his head to look at her. “I think this is more like your idea, Emily.”

William laughed out loud after hearing this. “You guessed it right. They had a gathering tonight…”

The state of William’s family was getting better and better, so those in the family were more eager to have frequent contact with them. This was human nature.

Even if they couldn’t get anything from William, what if they needed to ask them for a favor in the future?

So now the family activities had become more frequent. In addition, he and Emily had moved into a new big house, so they would also often hold family gatherings.

Lance was not unhappy about this. After all, they would all become a family soon, and at the same time, the “local” label on him would become clearer and clearer.

As soon as he entered the lawn, people kept coming up to greet him, shake his hand, chat, and talk briefly. This was not much like a family gathering, more like an informal social event.

First were the older ones, then those who were about his age.

Barbara and Patricia came out of the room together. When the girl saw Lance, she screamed, ran over, and hugged him.

They hadn’t seen each other much during this time. Lance had a lot of things to do. Patricia didn’t care about the gazes of others, hugged Lance’s waist, and took a deep breath of his scent.

The familiar scent seemed to make her whole person relax at this moment.

William and Emily looked at all this with satisfaction, without any intention of lecturing them.

The others also looked on with smiles.

It was no longer a secret that the Lance Family had replaced the Five Families to become the most powerful gang in Golden Port City. The newspapers had fucking reported it!

And everyone knew that the police chief and deputy chief both listened to Lance. The next mayor and Lance were also in a cooperative relationship. This stabilized the Lawrence family.

There were many low-level civil servants in the Lawrence family. Without any other force’s bonus or promotion, these low-level civil servants would most likely only be low-level civil servants for the rest of their lives.

But because of this relationship with Lance, they would soon get a promotion opportunity and begin to occupy a certain important position in various departments of Golden Port City.

These changes brought not only the improvement of their personal power, social status, and influence, but also the improvement of the entire family!

Their agricultural products will be more competitive—

The Lawrence Farm does not just refer to a single farm. It is more like a trademark. At the same time, the farms, ranches, and plantations around the Lawrence Farm will also sell their agricultural products to the Lawrence family to be transported together to Golden Port City and nearby cities for sale.

Without the intervention of a greater force, this kind of sale is the most basic competition.

But when the strength of the Lawrence family is enhanced, they will have more initiative in the market!

For example, they could casually find a reason to say that a competing brand or even a shopping mall was unqualified in some respects.

Some stupid rumors, some procedural suspensions of sales or shutdowns for inspection, could allow the Lawrence Farm brand to expand rapidly and go out.

After more than a hundred years of waiting, they finally had a chance to rise, and the person who created this opportunity was Lance.

So they had no dissatisfaction with Lance at all. A family interest group with Lance and William as the core was slowly taking shape.

“I know you two really need to be together, but shouldn’t you put it off for a little while?”

“The second half of the night belongs to you alone, but now he belongs to all of us!”

Barbara’s voice made Patricia a little embarrassed. She glared at her sister, but it had no deterrent effect.

She let go of her hand that was hugging Lance and stood to the side. “We just haven’t seen each other for a while, so we were a little carried away!”

Barbara nodded perfunctorily. “Yes, yes, I’m also getting carried away now!”

As she spoke, she also hugged Lance, and it was a very solid hug.

A polite hug is that kind of “hollow” hug. The parts of the two sides above the shoulders will not have much direct contact, especially between opposite sexes.

But Barbara’s hug was very solid. She was almost pressed against him. But fortunately, she also let go very quickly, otherwise Patricia would have been fuming!

Recently, Barbara’s market has been good. The Legend of Angel Lake was very well received at the film festival and has begun to be shown on a larger scale.

As the silly and sweet female lead of this movie, her portrayal of the character was very successful. Of course, it could also be said that it was her true colors.

She perfectly expressed the core of a horror movie when a silly and sweet girl makes a choice—

Hiding in a tool shed by the lake, facing Jason who had been chasing and killing everyone, she did not choose the shears that could easily cut through bones for trimming branches.

She also did not choose the steel rod that could be easily inserted into the soil, let alone those hunting knives that looked very well-maintained.

Instead, she chose a baseball bat that everyone could not understand…

But the audience liked her because she was beautiful, sweet, had a good figure, and was a little bit… of a bitch.

For the people of the Federation, being a bitch is not a bad thing. This can also explain why they prefer cheerleaders to ordinary girls.

In short, this movie had brought her a lot of resources. Many production companies were already in talks with her for cooperation. She was going to be a big star.

But she knew very well who had given her all this. It was precisely because she had really entered this industry that she realized that the praise people gave her for her beauty and figure was worthless in this circle!

Every day, outside the doors of the production companies in Creek Valley City, there were dozens, hundreds, or even more girls who were younger, more beautiful, had better figures, and were more willing to go all out, waiting for an opportunity.

But the opportunity was highly unlikely to favor any of them. It wasn’t that they weren’t outstanding enough, but that there was a layer between them and success that they couldn’t break through on their own.

Hugging Lance’s thigh was the key!

Seeing that Barbara had let go of Lance, Patricia’s little fist finally loosened. She glared at Barbara, who just returned a smile.

Then many other people came over to shake hands or hug Lance.

At this time, there was still a while before dinner. People spontaneously gathered around Lance and William to chat.

“I read today’s newspaper, but I still find it hard to believe that all the casino franchise licenses are now in your hands, including the Golden Port Casino, right?”

Someone still found it hard to believe and couldn’t help but ask.

Lance held his wine glass and nodded. “Yes. In fact, besides these casinos and licenses, I’m also considering taking over some of the legitimate businesses from the Kodak family.”

The others moved closer, listening with serious expressions as Lance continued, “If I don’t take these businesses, there’s a high probability that they will be divided up by the Bay Area. But you know, there’s still some friction and conflict between me and the Bay Area.”

“I’m not very interested in running these companies, but I also know that they shouldn’t be allowed to collapse casually.”

“So at that time, if any of you… are willing to be a manager and manage these companies for me, you can come to me.”

“By the way, the casino is also short of managers.”

“Bandy only opened three casinos. In the past, the market was indeed only that big. Opening too many would increase the cost but not the revenue.”

“But as this place will be transformed into a semi-commercial and semi-military port, there will be more opportunities and people pouring in. So I plan to fully open all five casinos, which will also require a lot of people…”

Hiring strangers from outside, how could it be as worry-free and convenient as hiring these own people?

And many of them were themselves civil servants or middle class, all with rich experience. It would not be too difficult to manage Lance’s enterprises and casinos well.

As for whether anyone would interfere randomly?

Lance believed they would not. Even if someone was bold enough to mess around on his turf, then Lance wouldn’t mind making this guy the chicken!

Hearing that there were a large number of opportunities, and good ones at that, many people were suddenly a little tempted.

William became a councilman by relying on Lance. Could they also, by virtue of their “kinship” with Lance, go a step further?

(End of a Chapter)