Empire of Shadows

After saying goodbye to Major General Bruney, Lance went to William’s office.

The office was also rented by Lance. People knew about the relationship between William and Lance, so no one stopped him along the way.

It wasn’t until Lance directly pushed open the office door that William’s female secretary hastily straightened her skirt.

William sat in his chair, somewhat at a loss. He looked at Lance. “I can explain.”

Lance just frowned, then walked over and sat down opposite him, signaling for the secretary to go out and close the door.

“I really can explain!” After the secretary had left, William once again emphasized that he could explain why his secretary was tidying her skirt in his office.

Lance rejected his idea of explaining. “I’m a man too. I have eyes. I know what you’re doing.”

“I think the biggest problem right now is not you and her fooling around in the office, or going a step further…”

Just as William was about to “correct” Lance’s words, Lance raised his finger to stop him. “I don’t care if you’re cheating, William.”

“But you have to be more careful.”“Today it was me. What if it had been someone else?”

“People find out that the municipal councilman for the Empire District is messing around with his secretary in his office, and that’s as far as you’ll ever go in your life.”

“I’ve invested a lot in you, and the Lawrence family has invested in you. It will all go down the drain.”

“That is your biggest problem!”

“Next time, lock the door, or find another place.”

“Don’t let me find you messing around in the office again!”

Emily was already showing. Her belly was gradually getting bigger. Because she was not young, the doctor had advised that even during her safe period, she should not engage in any sexual activity.

If she were to have a miscarriage, it wouldn’t just be the child in her belly who would suffer, but she herself as well.

The Federation was one of the countries with the most advanced medical technology in the world, but even so, difficult births and accidental miscarriages still took the lives of many people every year.

At first, Emily would help William relieve himself with her hands or in some other way, but this game of watching someone else enjoy themselves while she got no pleasure and felt uneasy was called off by her.

Power is the most potent aphrodisiac in this world. William had endless energy every day. He was already in his forties. He couldn’t, at this age, still have to rely on himself to solve the problem.

The secretary in the office had been teasing him. In the past, with Emily helping him solve his desires, he might not have been so sensitive.

But as his desires accumulated step by step, he now needed a way to vent. Those small details that he hadn’t noticed before could now be noticed by him.

From William’s perspective, his secretary was like a bitch in heat, sticking her ass out and wagging her tail. No matter the time or place, he just needed to stand in the right position.

William’s face was a little hot. After all, Lance was still his son-in-law, but he had no temper after being told off by Lance like this.

He could only nod with some depression. “I won’t mess around with her in the future.”

Lance didn’t seem to buy it. “So you’re planning to go to a prostitute?”

“If you’re caught messing around with your secretary, they’ll just think you couldn’t resist the temptation.”

“But if you’re caught with a prostitute, you not only have a moral problem, but you’ve also broken the law.”

“Remember what I said. You can do what you want, but don’t mess up your job and your image.”

“If you lose those, you’re worthless!”

As he spoke, Lance thought for a moment and gave him a number. “If you really have to spend money to solve it, call this number. They’ll arrange it for you.”

Although the Lance Family did not operate an escort business, there were some self-organized escort companies that were under their protection.

This era was like this, or rather, every era was like this. Money was the standard for measuring everything.

Even if a woman stood up on the strength of taking off her clothes and became rich, then when she put on her clothes, people’s minds might still retain the image of her without clothes, but at least on the surface, they would respectfully call her “madam.”

But for those women without money, no matter how noble their morals were, there would still be people who would viciously call them “bitches.”

The reason why a truth is a truth is that it will never change, no matter when.

Some are willing to work twelve hours a day in Lance’s factory, sweating all over, to earn 42 a month.

But there are also some who, without being forced, lie in bed and spread their legs, earning 42 a day. This is their choice. Lance respects their choice and also protects them from harm.

The person in charge of managing this part would do a good job for William. They also had high-class escorts.

Those young and beautiful girls would be in a secret room as agreed. She would be blindfolded, or even wear a hood.

There would be no communication during this process, and she would not see who the person was.

After it was all over, the “agent” would take her away, and that would be the end of it.

It couldn’t be said to be absolutely safe, but at least it was much safer than in the office.

William put away the card. Although he said on the surface that he wouldn’t do so, Lance was sure he would.

Some things, it’s either zero times or countless times.

This was different from his socializing at City Hall in the past. This was his own initiative.

William had never felt that time passed so slowly, and was so tormenting.

Even when he was sitting on the cold bench at City Hall before, he had never been in so much pain.

All sorts of explanations and solutions to possible subsequent problems kept popping up in his mind, but in the end, they were all shattered one by one, because he had indeed done some things he shouldn’t have.

Lance looked at him and shook his head slightly. “Regarding this matter, a final piece of advice for you: don’t get her pregnant, and certainly don’t let her try to have the child.”

“If she tries to do that, I will have someone sink her in Angel Lake.”

“You know, none of us will let an accident happen to your career. If someone tries to destroy you, then we will destroy her first, before she can destroy you.”

This was his final warning. Once there was a child, many things would become complicated and irreversible.

William nodded repeatedly. He knew how to handle it.

After skipping this embarrassing topic, Lance talked about some matters concerning the Lawrence Farm.

The Lawrence Farm was a relatively large-scale farm in the entire Likalai State. In addition, the crops produced by the surrounding farms were also entrusted to the Lawrence Farm for sale. So in terms of material supply, Lance would have more of an advantage than others who did these things.

Direct from the farm to the military camp, with no middleman to earn the price difference.

However, William didn’t know much about this. He gave Lance a phone number, his younger brother’s number, Deans.

The “general manager” of the Lawrence Farm, specializing in the sale of agricultural products to the surrounding cities and regions.

The two made an appointment to meet in the evening.

It was almost the Holy Farmer Festival, which was also the harvest season of the year. A large amount of crops would soon begin to be harvested. He had to sell these crops as soon as possible.

Every day of stockpiling would increase the cost by a point. Selling it a day earlier could not only avoid some storage risks but also earn a lot of money.

Then Lance did not stay any longer and left directly.

He actually didn’t think this was a bad thing. Just as he had told William, what made him feel that this was a “trouble” was that William was so careless.

I hope he can learn a lesson from this incident.

A little later in the evening, in Lance’s villa, he met Deans.

After the two shook hands, they sat down in the living room. After they were served coffee, only the two of them were left.

Deans inevitably asked about Lance and Patricia’s wedding plans. In fact, July and August were the good days for a wedding, but the end of the year was not bad either.

The overall plan had not changed. Around November or December, Lance would marry Patricia.

“I didn’t really want to have a grand wedding, but it seems that I can’t do that,” Lance said, a little helpless.

Just the Lawrence family alone was a large group of people. A “friends and family group” of a hundred people would only make the wedding scale larger.

If he didn’t invite others, then those who were not invited would feel a little uncomfortable.

But if you invite one, you must invite another. So much so that the scale of this wedding might be the largest in Golden Port City in recent years, bar none.

Deans was very interested in this. The grander the wedding of Lance and Patricia, the more positive the impact on the Lawrence family.

He asked with some curiosity, “How many guests are you planning to invite?”

Lance was not very clear at the moment and could only give a rough number. “Maybe one or two hundred?”

“I don’t know. It needs to be calculated at that time.”

Deans said with emotion, “That must be an enviable wedding.”

As long as one is human, living in this society will be vain. Vanity is not an unforgivable sin. What cannot be forgiven are some of the worse things that arise from vanity.

After chatting for a while, the feeling of strangeness between the two dissipated a lot. Lance also put the topic on business.

“Have you heard about the matter of the garrison?”

Deans nodded. “Yes. I also went to see the warships when they entered the port. It was magnificent!”

He picked up his coffee and took a sip, then said with some emotion, “When I saw those giant cannons and warships, my mind went blank!”

“I simply don’t know who can defeat us, who are so powerful. I am proud to be a citizen of the Federation!”

Very good. A pure-blooded, non-extreme conservative large landowner class heir. This is a part of the mainstream group of the Federation, and his thoughts also represent the thoughts of the mainstream group.

That sense of pride didn’t even need to be carefully detected to come out of his body. It was everywhere.

Lance nodded. “Nearly a hundred thousand or even more naval soldiers will be living here. Their consumption of daily necessities will be an astonishing number.”

Deans keenly captured the meaning in Lance’s words. “You mean… their material supply?”

“Sorry, I don’t really understand this matter. Shouldn’t their materials be supplied by the Department of Defense?”

Lance nodded. “Arms and ammunition and the like are all supplied by the Department of Defense, but food and daily necessities are all procured locally.”

“This is a big business!”

Deans also nodded in agreement. “Yes, at least a big business of several million a month!” His gaze was fixed on Lance, and Lance also met his gaze.

After the two looked at each other for a while, Deans finally said with a smile, “Come on, Lance, we’re on the same side. Is there some good news waiting for me?”

“You know, you’re making me a little restless like this. I really want to know if it’s what I want!”

Lance laughed out loud. “Yes, I’ve just chatted with the commander of the naval garrison. He plans to hand this part over to me.”

“My God!” Deans was completely stunned!

As the general manager of the farm, he of course knew how astonishing the profit of this kind of official bulk procurement was. It could be said that by taking on this business, the scale and grade of the Lawrence Farm could immediately be raised by one level!

“How did you do it?!”

He was still a little skeptical. Lance did not tell him the truth. The fewer people who knew about these things, the better. “Anyway, I’ve taken on this matter. Can our farm bear the supply of these ingredients?”

Deans calmed down from his excitement. “I need to see their material needs.”

Lance gave him a simple list. On it were some of the materials needed for each period. He read it very carefully.

“Basically, we have everything they want. What we don’t have, the surrounding farms also grow.”

“I see that their meal standard is ninety cents per person per day?”

His tone was filled with a sense of surprise. This meal standard, to be honest, was very high!

“With this meal standard, many people will be more interested in enlisting!”

The main group of people enlisting now are those illegal immigrants and refugees who want to obtain legal status in the Federation. But if they know that the food in the navy is so good, it will definitely make the already high emotions even more heated!

Lance shook his head. “You can’t look at it that way. You have to lower its standard to fifty to sixty cents, not ninety.”

He had done similar work in another world. If you don’t give a kickback, how can you get such a large order?

A standard meal of ninety cents for a soldier, only a little more than half of it can actually be used on the soldier. The rest is the benefit for General Miles.

But even so, fifty-five to sixty cents would still allow those people to eat very well.

For example, it is stipulated above that each naval soldier needs to have at least one pound of beef and two eggs, as well as one liter of milk every day.

A large amount of protein can help them maintain a better physical condition in their daily training.

Now, the price of a pound of whole-cut steak is about twenty-five to thirty cents a pound. Because of the war, the prices of all foods are rising.

But the price of ground beef is only five or six cents a pound.

Beef patties made of ground beef are beef.

Whole-cut steak is also beef, but the price is more than a dozen or twenty cents different.

Whole wheat bread is bread.

Refined wheat bread is also bread. There is also a difference of a few cents here.

In addition to some other things, there is still a lot of room for profit here.

In fact, besides food, the soldiers’ supplies also include candy, cigarettes, chocolate, chewing gum, and the like. It’s just that these already have a unified supplier, and Lance can’t get a hand in.

What he can get his hands on is only the fresh ingredients.

Listening to Lance’s explanation, Deans frowned and calculated. “If we calculate it this way, our profit is only about ten to fifteen.”

Lance set a keynote for him. “No more than ten. After all, they are right next to us. What if a soldier feels that these are too bad? We will be in more trouble.”

Deans nodded. “In that case… there’s no problem, I think.”

“I need to go back and do a more specific costing. Do I need to submit the costing in the form of a company?”

The “Procurement Act” has provisions on the methods of local procurement by the federal government and the military. In order to avoid power-money transactions, each procurement requires at least one or more companies to participate in the bidding.

However, the capitalists and politicians will not really make a cage and put the power inside.

The “Procurement Act” stipulates that all bidding methods are conducted by secret bid. In other words, after they have done the costing, they will seal it up and submit it to the procurement department.

Then the procurement department will announce whose price is more reasonable, and their final choice—yes, their choice, not the choice with the lowest price.

The department in charge of procurement has the final decision-making power. If the bidding enterprise is dissatisfied with the result, it can appeal to the higher-level department, or even to Congress, but this is just a formality.

Enterprises that really need the “Procurement Act” don’t even have a chance for fair competition, and for those enterprises that are regulated within the scope of the “Procurement Act,” it doesn’t really matter whether they exist or not.

From the very beginning, who could win the bid and who couldn’t was already decided.

When it comes to corruption, the corruption methods and innovations of the Federation are definitely first-class in the world.

Lance was not quite sure. He temporarily made a call to Major General Bruney. The latter told him that it was not necessary to be so troublesome.

Next month, the president would announce that they were entering a pre-war state. At that time, another set of regulations for a special period would be adopted. The military would have its own decision-making power in some procurements.

So Admiral Miles would directly designate Lance or the Lawrence Farm as the supplier to supply ingredients for the entire navy collective.

Deans attached great importance to this business. The monthly sales were about 1.8 million, with a gross profit margin of 18%, which was more than 300,000.

It might not seem like much, but what was precious was not this part of the profit, but the qualification!

The “qualification” and “experience” generated by supplying materials to the military are very important for bulk raw material suppliers!

Some enterprises are even willing to supply goods at zero profit, just to be able to obtain such a title.

With such a qualification, the Lawrence Farm can participate in more government procurement activities in the future. This is something that money can’t buy.

He drove back to the farm overnight. This Lawrence Farm was very loyal. Soon they had a complete plan to ensure the freshness and health of the food, and at the same time to ensure that the price would not be outrageous.

(End of a Chapter)