Empire of Shadows

In a person’s life, there will always be a moment, a dazzling ray of sunlight that illuminates a period of that life, even if it’s just for an instant!

Loraine looked directly into Lance’s eyes, her own welling with tears, so much so that Lance appeared blurry and indistinct to her. “I didn’t take it!”

“I have never taken anything that belongs to anyone else!”

She almost cried it out, the sense of grievance in her heart like a bursting flood, and large tears rolled down her cheeks.

A sensitive and fragile girl had been framed, talked about, and threatened by a teacher who didn’t know the truth. Now it seemed she wanted to cry out all her grievances!

The vice principal’s face was also very grim. She sighed lightly. “Mr. Lance, although I am also unwilling for such a thing to happen, the fact is, we found the item her classmate lost in Miss Loraine’s schoolbag.”

Lance glanced at her sideways. “Call the one who said she lost her things over. I’ll ask her.”

The vice principal hesitated for a moment, but still did as she was told. The girl’s father was a Socialist Party public opinion representative, and at the same time a successful businessman.

These two relationships might be a bit reversed. Looking at it the other way, he was first a successful businessman with his own business, so he became a public opinion representative—representing the workers who worked for him.

This kind of character had political influence, financial resources, and could also frequently talk with people within the Socialist Party. Although not a particularly big figure, after stripping away other things, he was definitely much more formidable than her, this vice principal.It was just that… she glanced at Lance and the people standing behind him, and still picked up the phone. “Bring the girl who lost her things to my office.”

She hung up the phone and remained silent. Logically, out of courtesy, she should have brought Lance some coffee and pastries.

But it seemed she didn’t plan to do so. She was going to use this method to express her inner dissatisfaction with Lance!

About seven or eight minutes later, the sound of footsteps came from outside the door. With a knock and the vice principal’s “come in,” a teacher and a very pretty blonde girl came in from outside.

She was wearing a beautiful gemstone butterfly hairpin on her head. It was very pretty and should be very much to the girls’ liking, and the price was not cheap.

“What is your name?” the vice principal asked. She had not asked the girl’s name before. She had just treated it as a very simple matter.

“Aishe, Madam Principal,” the little girl glanced at Lance with some timidity. No matter how slow she was, she also knew that Loraine’s “parent” had arrived.

She had framed Loraine, and was instinctively a little guilty, but what she showed was a kind of timidity, fear.

The teacher behind her reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her an encouraging look. “We are all here. No one can hurt you.”

Aishe nodded, but still didn’t dare to look at Lance much.

In fact, Lance was very handsome, so handsome that it was a bit dazzling. If it were any other time, she would definitely have stared at him, but now, she didn’t dare to.

Lance exuded something that made her afraid. She now felt a little like she needed to pee!

“Aishe, why did you lie?” Lance asked directly.

On the one hand, he believed Loraine. The way Loraine had behaved just now was indeed the emotional change of a child who had been extremely wronged. Unless she had the acting skills of an award-winning actress, she couldn’t be faking it.

On the other hand, he had a premonition that this matter was not aimed at Loraine.

She was just a sensitive, fragile, and somewhat self-abased girl. She would not be a threat to anyone, nor could she possibly harm anyone.

But now they were doing this to her. There was only one possibility.

The target was him, Lance.

So he believed that this girl named Aishe had lied.

“I… didn’t, sir,” she still kept her head down and didn’t dare to look at Lance, stubbornly denying Lance’s question.

Lance was some distance away from her. “Come here to me.”

The teacher behind her took a deep breath. “You don’t have to do that.”

Lance glanced at her, and then his gaze fell on Aishe again. “Have your family or your teachers ever told you not to be a liar?”

“In fact, you have no reason to join such a game at all, but you have joined in. No matter who asked you to do this, you have become a part of the game.”

“You have to bear your responsibility, Aishe.”

Aishe was silent for a moment and walked to a place not far from Lance. With just one reach, Lance could touch her.

“Someone asked you to put your hairpin in Loraine’s schoolbag, without her knowing. You did as you were told, and then told the teacher your things had been stolen.”

“And you succeeded. Now they all think that Loraine is the thief. You are just a little bit away from destroying her!”

He made a gesture of a small distance with two fingers. “I have no intention of pursuing your responsibility, Aishe.”

“You are still a child. You cannot distinguish what is good and what is bad in this world.”

“I just want to know who asked you to do these things, and then I want to ask him, why?”

“Now, before I get angry, tell me the answer.”

Aishe did not speak. She bit her lip and lowered her head. The person who had asked her to do this was her father. She couldn’t just tell everyone that it was her father who had asked her to frame her classmate, could she?

The more she showed this “stubborn” look, the more it showed that there was a problem with her.

She wasn’t wronged, just afraid. This wasn’t right!

Lance grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer to him.

The vice principal immediately stood up. “You can’t touch her…”

Before she could finish her sentence, someone from Lance’s side strode over, stood in front of her, pointed at her chair, and shouted, “Sit back down!”

At the same time, he lifted the hem of his clothes and rested his hand on his handgun.

The vice principal’s eyes widened in disbelief as she watched all this happen. This was not at all what she had imagined would happen!

When faced with a danger she had not expected, in the end, she still chose to follow her heart and slowly sat back down!

Although she had sat back down, she had not completely compromised.

“You’re crazy, you’re all crazy. When people find out what you’ve done…”

Lance was a little impatient. “Make her shut up.”

The next second, a cold gun barrel was stuffed into the vice principal’s mouth. She saw danger in the eyes of the person in front of her!

If Lance told him to shoot, he would really shoot!

And at this very moment, she finally understood that the school, which might be a sacred place for some, was not for Lance and his group!

Lance would not be so easygoing or even respectful to her just because she was the vice principal and might know many big shots.

Nothing, nothing at all. In Lance’s eyes, she was just an ordinary person!

Aishe’s teacher was also blocked between him and Aishe. The other person’s eyes were filled with something that made her teacher feel fear. He didn’t dare to act recklessly and could only beg Lance not to hurt the girl.

Lance didn’t take them seriously at all. He just looked at the girl, lifted her chin, and covered her cheek with his hand. He could feel Aishe’s body trembling slightly.

“I didn’t really want to do this, but sometimes our kindness is taken as weakness.”

“Aishe, you have beautiful eyes, more attractive than your gemstone hairpin. They are as dazzling as the stars.”

“But your lies have made them dim, making them unworthy of your beauty.”

“Do you need me to help you gouge them out?”

“Or, are you planning to make them shine again?”

Lance’s thumb pressed on her eye. She closed her eyes, but she could still feel the slight pressure, which made her eye socket swell.

Aishe’s legs were tightly clamped together. She was about to lose it and peed a little.

Her face was only left with a distorted look of terror. Her body was also trembling violently, and she began to cry, to shed tears.

It was just that her tears were different from Loraine’s. Her tears were full of fear and regret, while Loraine’s tears were only pure grievance.

As the pressure on her eyes grew stronger and stronger, she wanted to dodge, but Lance’s hands held her face tightly, leaving her nowhere to hide!

All kinds of complex emotions made her unable to control her inner emotions anymore. She didn’t want to be blind!!

“It’s not your fault. I just want to know who asked you to do this. Tell me!”

Lance asked again. Her emotions seemed to have found an outlet. Her lips trembled as she said the person’s name, “It was Daddy…”

The pressure on her eyeball disappeared in an instant. She gasped for breath, looking at Lance’s eyes as if she were looking at a monster!

The vice principal and her teacher looked at her in disbelief. Lance took out a handkerchief and wiped his hands, and by the way, he also helped the girl wipe her tear-streaked face.

“See, telling the truth is not difficult.”

Although he knew the answer, his face was not good.

This was a “setup.” If they had, at the school gate, subconsciously thought that the school was a safe place and, according to the stupid security guard’s request, had only brought two people in, he might be lying on the ground now.

There were gunmen in this school, but now the other party probably didn’t know that they already knew the truth. So he had to find these people.

He stood up and walked to the side of the vice principal’s desk. The vice principal said with an embarrassed and ashamed look, “Mr. Lance…”

Before she could finish, Lance had already picked up the phone. Only then did she realize that Lance was not here to say anything to her.

The call was quickly answered. “Come to… the school. There might be gunmen here who want to ambush me. We have to find them.”

“I’ll stay in the school for now and won’t go anywhere. Be quick.”

He then hung up the phone and glanced at the vice principal. “Give me her father’s information.”

At this time, David had not left immediately, because the door of the administrative building was blocked by Lance’s convoy.

Some people had followed Lance to the principal’s office, but some people had stayed downstairs.

It was basically impossible for them to know David, and David did not know them, but David did not dare to take the risk.

He wasn’t stupid. What if someone thought he was suspicious?

He planned to wait a while. Since he had already decided to give up this mission, then he could completely wait for Lance to leave before he left.

It was just that he didn’t know that he had already been exposed.

(End of a Chapter)