Empire of Shadows

Is there anything more captivating than the feuds and romances of the city’s upper class?

The answer is: no!

Yes, no.

People have known this for a long time. Otherwise, why would the stories adapted for classic novels and operas almost always be about the upper class?

Things like a poor boy falling in love with a noble girl, or a poor girl falling in love with a handsome prince.

Stories about the queen and the prince with poison on the side, or a fallen noble being framed and eventually reclaiming everything…

What?

Don’t the poor deserve to have love between them?

Don’t conspiracies and schemes exist between the poor and the poor?

No, they do exist, but the love of the poor, the conspiracies and schemes of the poor, are not interesting.What people like to see are epic love stories, like starting a war to destroy a country for a beauty, not pawning one’s own pants to buy a wooden ornament for the girl next door.

Being interested in the feuds and romances of the upper class is perhaps a kind of beautiful wish of ordinary humans—

They cannot, in terms of money or status or power or anything else, be similar to these upper-class people, except for their emotions.

Everyone has rich emotions. This is the common ground they can find, a point they all have.

Although many people already knew about the conflict between Mayor Williams and the Bay Area, for the middle and lower classes of society, this was still a very distant story.

Now, the story that had been shrouded in mist was beginning to unfold completely before the public. They had no reason not to be excited. Finally, there was a big news story!

Mayor Williams stood in front of the reporters and the camera, remaining silent for a period of time.

No words, no actions. Everyone was staring at him, until some people were almost unable to bear it.

Just as they were about to ask what Mayor Williams wanted to say, he rubbed the corner of his forehead. “This is a problem I’m not even willing to face.”

“Our city is rotting.”

“I don’t know how I should describe these problems to you. I want to do something for you, to do something for the people here.”

“But the things I do will harm the interests of some people. They want to stop me, want to embarrass me.”

“And even want to blackmail me!”

“After the old industrial district is demolished, a larger residential community will be built. There will be more free public facilities, more cheap houses to reduce people’s living costs.”

“The better the city develops, the more opportunities our residents will have. Job opportunities, other opportunities, will all increase.”

“At the same time, the demolition and construction have also provided more jobs for the city. But for such a good thing, some people are still deliberately making things difficult for me, because they have not gotten the interests they want!”

“They have inflated the price of land that is worth less than 1,500 an acre to 20,000 an acre.”

“They hope that City Hall will use the taxpayers’ money to pay for their greed. I do not accept such extortion.”

“Fine, I don’t want their land. Let them keep it.”

“We can do what we want on the land that has been cleared with our cooperation, to build our beautiful home.”

“Seeing that they could not achieve their goal, they colluded with those refugees and launched this inhuman terrorist attack, trying to destroy all our plans!”

“This is an extremely despicable and shameless act, gentlemen!”

“More than twenty federal citizens have been killed in this incident. Because of their greed and ambition, these people have lost their lives.”

“What happened today, besides these people, there is another group of culprits, the refugees!”

“Before, some people said that the influx of refugees was the root of the cholera. I didn’t quite agree with this view. After all, it wasn’t their own will that they came here.”

“But now I think that I was too naive. I didn’t realize the seriousness of the problem!”

“When their motherland is facing the attack of invaders, their land is being burned by the enemy’s flames, their homes are being destroyed by the enemy, their relatives, friends, and compatriots are being slaughtered.”

“They, on the other hand, have fled to the Federation!”

“They have given up on revenge, given up on seeking an explanation from those invaders, given up on the idea of joining the war to protect their homes and relatives, and have fled to the Federation.”

“I cannot understand their spiritual realm!”

“In my eyes, this is no different from treason!”

“I once naively thought that they needed help, but now it seems that they actually don’t!”

“We should expel them…”

At this moment, a reporter suddenly interjected, “Mr. Mayor, some people say that the Williams family has a history of keeping and using slaves for generations. Is it because you treated the refugees like slaves that this incident broke out?”

Mayor Williams frowned. “Some people say that the Williams family once owned thousands or even tens of thousands of slaves. Yes, that’s right, we did!”

The reporters at the scene were immediately in an uproar. In fact, that era was not that long ago, thirty or forty years. But thirty years was enough to make many of the younger generation see “slavery” as history, not something that had happened not far away.

Their uproar was imaginable. To talk about slavery at this time, was it really appropriate?

Mayor Williams’s gaze was very calm. “But after the slave emancipation movement began, we released all the slaves and respected the legitimate rights and interests of every federal citizen.”

“Our family currently does not keep any slaves, nor have we ever treated anyone like a slave.”

“The era of slavery is already a thing of the past, a microcosm of an era. Almost all the major families in the Federation had the habit of keeping slaves, not just us.”

“We cannot, because of what our ancestors did, have to bear their responsibilities and bad names. That is not fair to us.”

The reporter interjected again, “Can you list some people?”

Mayor Williams glanced at the reporter sideways. “Next time you ask a question, it’s best to raise your hand first, and then speak after I have agreed.”

“You now look very much like a representative of the capital interests, but I will still answer your question.”

“The family of Mr. President, the family of His Excellency the Speaker of the Senate, the family of His Excellency the Majority Leader of Congress, the family of the Speaker of the House, the Secretary of State… how many more do you want to know?”

“Are you planning to find trouble with them?”

“I can talk about such families for days!”

“I have not denied that these things have happened, nor have I thought that these things are right or wrong. That is history. What we need is just to face it, not to stand on a special position and wear colored glasses to argue whether we are right or not!”

“Our ancestors, relying on the vile things they did to the original inhabitants of this land, only then did we have a place to stand. Do you now also have to bear the consequences of the bad things your ancestors did?”

“Fuck, remember his name and the newspaper. Don’t let this kind of person in next time!”

Some reporters began to applaud and cheer, but some people’s faces were not so natural.

The reporter who had asked the question was escorted out by two security guards. It wasn’t that he was so obedient as to be willing to leave with the security guards.

It was that the security guards had a red armband on their left arm. When he went out, his face was pale. He was considering when he would, because of what his ancestors had done, commit suicide in shame!

After the person had left, Mayor Williams calmed down for a while and continued, “I want to do something for everyone. I want to continue to expand the scale of the city, to accommodate more population, to add some infrastructure, to make people’s lives easier and freer.”

“Where was I just now?”

“I’m getting old. Being interrupted for a bit sometimes makes me forget what I was going to say.”

The reporters all pointed it out in a jumble of voices. Only then did he say with an apologetic smile, “We should expel these refugees. They have brought instability to the city. They sell their bodies, they steal, they rob, they occupy vacant houses that no one lives in. I don’t even know how many excessive things they have done.”

“These people are making our city more and more unsafe. They have betrayed their own motherland, betrayed their faith, and now, just for a little money, they can commit such vile atrocities.”

“Capitalist gangs, refugees, have become the cancer of this city!”

“I once thought that the gangs were the biggest trouble we needed to solve, but now it seems that it is no longer our biggest trouble.”

“I used to think that the corrupt police were the most difficult problem we had ever faced, but now you look at those police officers. Has any of them taken a bribe from you?”

“It wasn’t until I stood here that I realized that our enemies were never those we thought they were, but were hidden under their harmless surface!”

“They want to force me to compromise, but today, I stand here, and I promise you with the honor of the Williams family that I will not back down!”

“The moment the people elected me as mayor, I had to fight for those who trusted me!”

He waved his fist. “I know you are very interested in what happened this afternoon…”

“I have already had Chief Bruce come over. He will, through his perspective, tell you what he has experienced, and ultimately restore a truth!”

“I don’t mind that some people are trying to make me bow my head through purges and struggles, but all of that must happen within the rules, within our tolerance.”

“If they try to use the lives and safety of the people to force me, I will only fight them to the very last moment!”

Soon, Chief Bruce walked in from outside. He started from when he received James’s call, and of course, some of the details had been modified, and he continued until he said, “When the workers, under the command of some people, refused to stop their atrocities and began to charge our police force in an organized manner, I authorized them to open fire…”

(End of a Chapter)