Empire of Shadows

Frank slowly put down the phone. He looked at the several old brothers in the room. At first, there was still a bit of a smile on their faces.

After all, watching Frank lose face was actually a very interesting thing.

It wasn’t that they wanted Frank to lose face, but that they had placed themselves in a higher position.

It was like the gentlemen who would occasionally wear ordinary clothes and wander through the streets and alleys, find a small restaurant where they would most likely never sit down in their lives, sit down, and then wipe the shiny, greasy tabletops, and order a meal that they would absolutely never eat, and eat it with great relish.

They saw this as a contrasting life experience, hiding their identity and showing a low profile, which was roughly the same meaning.

For so many years, besides a few people who could make Frank lose face, no one else could do it, but Lance had done it.

This made everyone find it very funny.

But as they laughed, they could no longer laugh, because Frank’s face had grown very long.

He had been willing to lower his stance to talk to Lance in person, and he had even proposed what he considered to be a perfect solution. But not only had Lance not appreciated it, but he had also given him a “punch.”

The gentlemen in ordinary clothes were willing to eat cheap food at a roadside stall, which did not mean that they could tolerate the shopkeeper serving them a basin of shit!Under Frank’s gaze, everyone remained serious.

“I hear Lance also has some businesses in Golden State?” He was really angry. He had already respected Lance very much.

To personally make a phone call was a sign of respect. If it had been someone else, even the former five major families of Golden Port City, he would not have personally spoken to their leaders unless it was absolutely necessary.

But what had his respect gotten him in return?

Humiliation, contempt!

He looked at a young man in the corner, a member of the Perez family, twenty-three years old, just married, and Frank’s fourth child.

His hair was slicked back, shiny and bright, and his attire also looked very exquisite.

When he was born, the status and power of the Perez family were already very stable. He had not experienced any arduous battles since he was a child.

Because he had no good learning ability, he had entered the family’s gang to do things.

Like Frank’s eldest son, who was now a successful lawyer, and had married a girl from a political family, and was working hard to enter the political arena.

Some of his other children worked in the family’s business. They had studied business management in college.

There was also one who was doing research, with a fanatical love for those magical phenomena.

In terms of education, this “fourth son” was actually the most useless among his siblings, compared to the abilities and achievements of the others.

But he was also Frank’s favorite, because since his high school years, he had always been by Frank’s side.

Sometimes, ability and the like are not important at all for a successor. What is important is who the person who decides who the successor is, likes.

The fourth son was also a smart child. He immediately stood up, handsome and upright. Frank was very satisfied with the state of his children. “Robin, this matter is yours.”

Robin nodded. “Leave it to me!”

Frank let out a heavy sigh of relief. A fight with the Lance Family would not produce results in a short period of time. After all, their power had not yet covered the Lance Family’s side.

So even if he really wanted to solve it through force, he would not say that he would immediately arrange for people to go and make a move. Doing so, besides sending people to their deaths, would not have any meaningful ending.

He would first pull out Lance’s businesses here, let Lance suffer a heavy loss, and then force them to take the initiative to attack, creating a “pocket” and packing them all up at once.

He was not the kind of young man who knew nothing. He knew very well that if he rushed to Likalai State with his men to open fire with Lance, it would be tantamount to crashing head-on into an oncoming train.

The advantage of the territory was too great!

Just as in the city where the Perez family was located, on his turf, even if Lance’s strength was very strong, he would not be his opponent.

Because the public security, the procuratorate, and the judiciary all had his connections and network. Even if he didn’t make a move himself, and let the police do it, they could, with a random reason, break these people up and lock them up.

Then to deal with them would be much simpler!

When Lance’s side couldn’t stand it and wanted to come over and make a move, what awaited them would be destruction.

As for them not making a move?

That would be exactly what Frank wanted. He had destroyed Lance’s business, and Lance didn’t even dare to fart. Who was strong and who was weak was already clear at a glance.

And it was almost time for the joint conference. At the joint conference, he would tell those people what he had done, but the Lance Family had not dared to respond, so in this round, they had won.

As for fighting over…

From beginning to end, he had never had such an idea. In a situation where he had all the advantages, to deliberately take the initiative to enter the other party’s home court, he was not that stupid.

After the meeting, Frank instructed Robin a few more times, and then let him leave.

Robin had his own men. Soon he left with his men and gave them their tasks.

It was not a very difficult matter to investigate the businesses of the Lance Family in Golden State, or in other places.

Because with the help of government agencies, the governments of various places would help them with the query. Soon they had figured it out. Lance already had more than thirty movie theaters in Golden State.

There were also some in other places. Lance had been acquiring these movie theaters. As long as the price was right, he would spend the money to buy them.

Robin, while having his men investigate the other movie theaters, also came to one of the movie theaters in the city where they were.

The ticket seller at the movie theater was yawning. The afternoon was always sleepy. Seeing these well-dressed gentlemen come over, the ticket seller also forced himself to sit up straight.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. Today we are showing ‘…’ and ‘…’. The ticket price is forty cents each.”

The ticket seller, seeing that the few gentlemen at the door did not seem to be taking out their money immediately, added, “These movies are all legitimate movies, with a running time of more than an hour, and they are very good. You definitely won’t lose out!”

A few years ago, when the film industry had not fully developed, many movies, after removing the time for displaying the dialogue, the real running time was often only seven or eight minutes, ten minutes.

With the addition of the dialogue, it could be stretched to half an hour.

How exciting can a plot of seven or eight, ten minutes be?

Some even just recorded some circus performances, and then recorded what the host said, what the performers said, what the audience said, and then played it once.

Although the ticket price was only five cents, many people felt that it was not worth it, because they had spent the money but had not understood anything.

This had also led to a period where people, when watching a movie, would ask for the real running time, not the running time with the dialogue.

After listening, Robin smiled, took out two dollars, paid for all their tickets, and asked, “I see there aren’t many people here…”

The ticket seller explained while tearing the tickets, “It’s Tuesday. It’s normal for there to be few people.”

“By Thursday, the number of people will start to increase. On the weekend, we don’t even have enough tickets to sell.”

He neatly tore off the tickets and handed them to Robin. “The movie has just started. You can still make it if you go in now. Your showtimes are on it. I suggest you choose one to watch first, and then go to the other side after it’s finished. This way you can watch two movies for one ticket.”

When there were few people, they would use this method to attract moviegoers, to ensure that it would not be empty on a non-weekend day.

Robin smiled and led his men into the movie theater. There were two large screens here. They randomly found a side and sat down.

After watching for a short while, he felt very bored.

The movie was about the story of a rich man who had fallen on hard times. He couldn’t find a single bit of a sense of substitution. Maybe he had never fallen on hard times.

After a simple walk around the movie theater, the group of people soon left.

In the evening, after dinner, Robin stood up from the side of the dining table. He walked to his wife, who was sitting on the floor, and kissed her on the cheek. “I have something to go out for. I’ll be back a little later.”

“If I can get back before ten o’clock, I will definitely come back.”

“If I can’t, I’ll go and spend the night at my father’s. You don’t have to wait for me.”

His wife responded to him, and then he walked to the door, put on his clothes, and after saying goodbye to his wife again, he left the room.

His subordinates had already arrived outside the door and had been waiting for him.

As soon as he got close to the pickup truck for tonight’s job, he smelled a strong smell of gasoline.

“How much did you load?”

“Forty gallons.”

Robin, who had gotten into the car, whistled. “That’s enough to burn them all!”

After dinner in the evening was the peak period for the movie theater. After people had finished eating, they would watch a one-hour movie and then go home before nine o’clock.

This was one of the cheapest forms of entertainment for ordinary people, on par with “having a drink” as the treasure of the poor!

Because it was Tuesday, even at the peak time, there were not too many people at the entrance of the movie theater.

A few pickup trucks were parked on the street next to the movie theater. Robin was sitting in the passenger seat. Through the rearview mirror, he saw that the subordinates in the back row were already ready, and then he nodded slightly. “Let’s do it.”

His subordinates immediately pushed open the car doors and walked towards the movie theater with their “briefcases.” The Perez family was not doing this kind of thing for the first time. They would also do things like bullying and dominating the market.

Unlike the small gangs who wanted to use these to extort, their purpose in bullying and dominating the market was to monopolize.

Their briefcases were all specially customized. They looked like briefcases, but in fact, inside was a gasoline can, which could hold about four gallons of gasoline.

Although the ticket seller was very strange why a group of guys who looked like elites were coming to watch a movie with briefcases, with the thought of being able to sell one more ticket and make one more profit, he sold the tickets to these people.

After these people had entered the movie theaters on both sides, they directly started to pour gasoline from the very back—because the seats in the movie theater were stepped downwards, so you just had to find a suitable angle to pour the gasoline.

A young couple who were watching a movie, the young man suddenly raised his head and sniffed. “Honey, do you smell gasoline?”

The girl nodded slightly. “Yes, I smell it too.”

They looked back at the few people standing in the back row. The young man couldn’t help but ask, “Hey, what are you doing?”

One of the black shadows took out a lighter, lit a cigarette, and then casually threw it on the ground.

In the screams of the man and woman, the flames, almost in a flashover, quickly ignited more than half of the movie theater. In an instant, the two were engulfed in flames. They screamed and ran outside, along with the other moviegoers!

When a guy who was on fire ran out of the main gate of the movie theater amidst the screams of the people, people finally realized that something terrible had happened here!

The fire truck came very quickly. After all, this was Golden State. It arrived at the scene in less than fifteen minutes, but the fire in the movie theater could no longer be extinguished.

There were too many flammable materials in here. The entire interior of the movie theater was burning fiercely.

The commander of the fire department in charge of directing the firefighting at the scene could only ensure that the fire did not spread to other buildings. As for putting out the fire?

The best way was to let it burn itself out. When there was nothing left to burn, it would naturally be extinguished.

It wasn’t just this one movie theater. Four movie theaters were set on fire in one night. Soon, the professional manager who was in charge of the business over there called Lance overnight.

“…I don’t know the situation of the other movie theaters now, but I know of four.”

“Our ticket seller said that they saw many people carrying briefcases into the movie theater. It should have been them. And someone smelled a strong smell of gasoline in the movie theater!”

After listening, Lance’s brows furrowed tightly. “Are there any casualties?”

The tone of the Golden State cinema manager was a little low. “Nineteen died.”

“Nineteen?”

Although Lance was mentally prepared, he was still shocked by this number. “Why did so many die?”

“The escape route of one of the movie theaters was blocked.”

At this time, the mainstream movie theaters in the Federation, or rather, all the legitimate movie theaters, all had a large screen and stepped seating.

You enter from the back of the movie theater, that is, from a high place, and then you walk down.

There would be an emergency escape route at the bottom, through a gentle slope that you could run on, and you could rush out.

However, this gentle slope was basically not used. Some places would pile up some sundries here, and one of the four was like this.

They had piled up a large amount of sundries in the escape route, which made it very difficult to pass. Only a few people had escaped. The others were trapped there in the pushing and shoving.

Lance knew their purpose in doing this. Someone had died. Whether it was arson or not, that was a matter for the future.

Now they needed to deal with these dead and injured, and this kind of arson with a clear purpose would make the other moviegoers have a natural fear of the cinemas of the Wanli chain!

The nerves of the people of the Federation are very fragile. They can cry themselves to suicide over a small matter, and they are also very sensitive, and will have all kinds of stress reactions at any moment.

To be honest, even the most fragile cat is not as easily stressed as the people of the Federation!

Although the movie theater was not Lance’s main business, this also represented the face of the Lance Family.

He had already made some arrangements. He had thought that these opponents would, like the fools of the past, drive a car for thousands of miles to come and die. As a result, he had not expected them to do this.

This also made Lance realize that the opponents this time were different from the low-level gangs of the past who had not received much education, had no political resources, and did not know how to really deal with trouble!

They were more treacherous, more cunning, and also more ruthless!

“Temporarily close all the other movie theaters, on the grounds of checking for fire hazards, and then call the police and notify the newspaper that someone has committed arson.”

The manager had originally wanted to say something. He had even made a sound, but was forcefully interrupted by Lance, not letting him say it.

“Listen to me first.”

“I will have a sum of money sent to the company’s account. Go and contact the injured people, with a reporter, and tell them that no matter how much their treatment costs, we will pay for all of it.”

“For the deceased, according to the federal pension standards, pay them a pension. Don’t be stingy with the money. You must do it in front of the reporters.”

“Then gather them together, tell them the truth, turn them into a force, and have them hold up signs.”

“I will contact some of the people in the film industry on my side. They will also give you support. This matter is indeed very troublesome, but if it is handled well, it may not be a trouble for us!”

He took a deep breath. “You can speak now.”

The manager opened his mouth. He didn’t know what to say. Lance had handled the matter cleanly and neatly with the simplest method, and had also given a countermeasure.

His mind was blank for a few seconds before he finally asked, “Aren’t we going to fight back?”

Lance lit a cigarette. “That’s my job. Your job is to take care of my movie theaters.”

“See how much it will cost to demolish those movie theaters and build a new, safe, reliable, and fireproof one.”

“It’s best if you can hype this matter up, operate it a little. Don’t be so stupid as to just pick up the house, understand what I mean?”

The manager nodded. Although Lance couldn’t see it, “I understand what you mean, Mr. Lance.”

“Then I’ll go and do things first?”

“Yes, do as I say.”

He hung up the phone, and then the phone rang. It was Tom’s call. “Your phone is really hard to get through. I’ve been calling for several minutes before it connected.”

“Did you offend someone? Why were your movie theaters burned down?”

He could only think of this possibility. Lance and others had a dispute, and then those people had burned down his movie theaters.

He also added, “Is it those people from the Death Angels?”

“No!” Lance decisively denied this wrong answer. “It’s the people from the Perez family.”

“What the fuck… how did you get into a conflict with them too?”

Lance briefly explained the matter. Tom also had a bit of a headache. “I don’t know what to say. It seems neither of you is wrong…”

“No, they are wrong. They shouldn’t have, without notifying me, transported the wine in. They offended me first, and they still want me to admit my mistake. Tom, get the situation straight!”

Tom gave a bitter smile twice. “Alright, alright, I see. So what are you planning to do now?”

Lance took a drag on his cigarette. “It’s not just him who is a gangster. I am too!”

(End of a Chapter)