Empire of Shadows

When two evenly matched sides are persuaded to stop, it’s called mediation.

So what do you call it when one side is being unilaterally beaten and is persuaded to stop?

It’s called admitting defeat.

A person is being held down and beaten by another person. He doesn’t want to continue to be beaten, so he calls his elders to have the beater stop. This is a sign of admitting defeat.

In a confrontation and a battle, there is no reason to be spoken of, just do it!

Now if they look for someone to mediate without winning back a round, people will only think that the Perez family is scared!

At this time, someone knocked on the door from outside again. It was Bob. “Can I come in?”

Just as Frank was about to speak, Robin pointed at the newspaper in front of him.

In fact, Frank didn’t want to hide the newspaper. He hadn’t done anything to feel guilty about, but subconsciously he had stuffed the Tide Newspaper into the drawer, for fear that these bastards would come in and see it.

After making sure there was no problem, he took a deep breath. “You can. Come in.”The door opened. Bob stood at the door and poked his head in. He first looked at Robin, and after confirming that there was no one else, he asked, “They also want to come in.”

Frank signaled that it was okay, and only then did Bob push the door open and make way for the others to come in.

More than a dozen people came.

“We noticed that you weren’t quite right at breakfast. What happened?”

Frank glanced at Robin. This bad news shouldn’t come from his, the head of the family’s, mouth.

Robin loosened his shoulders. He walked to the window, opened it, and lit a cigarette. “Ted is finished.”

“And it didn’t achieve the result we wanted. Now if we have the senator go and mediate, it will give people the feeling that we are no match for the Lance Family and have taken the initiative to sue for peace.”

“Those who are waiting to see us make a fool of ourselves will laugh us to death.”

The expressions of the people in the room were all different. They asked for some more details about what had happened and the result. Some people had even left and made a phone call.

In the end, they confirmed that Ted had indeed rushed into Lance’s manor for Milo, and had indeed died there.

“What a fool!” the lawyer brother pushed up his glasses. “To rush into someone else’s lair on someone else’s turf. How was he chosen to be a direct descendant?”

The choice of a direct descendant was definitely agreed upon by most of the people here. A direct kinsman who had mainly promoted this matter interrupted him and changed the subject. “It’s meaningless to discuss this now. What should we do next?”

“Continue to go to war with the Lance Family?”

“Is it appropriate to do so?”

“And, will Congress, the Presidential Palace, allow us to do so?”

He glanced at the others who had also advocated for Ted’s election to the direct line. Soon they began to discuss these issues, leaving the lawyer brother’s words hanging in the air.

The lawyer brother didn’t really want to find trouble with them, but just said it casually.

Ted could have done better, for example, he could have opened fire in the city and created a huge riot.

This way, no matter how capable Lance was, it would have been very difficult for him to suppress it.

The speed at which the public spontaneously spreads news is sometimes faster and more outrageous than the newspapers.

Maybe they had only fired a few shots, and after being modified by some people to satisfy their own fantasies, it had become a large-scale firefight, and then it had become that the two sides had used explosives, and in the end, they might have lost several thousand or tens of thousands of people!

This was all possible. After all, the public’s imagination is processed on the basis of the results they have heard, and it will only become more and more outrageous!

But for Ted to be so stupid as to attack Lance’s manor, it could only be said that he was either really too stupid, or his actions had been controlled by his hatred.

Or it was that his determination and desire to take revenge on Lance had already surpassed his loyalty to the family!

No matter which one it was, for the current Perez family, it was a very bad situation.

They had to, as soon as possible, before the matter fermented, solve the problem.

The room fell into a dull silence. Bob wanted to speak several times, but in the end, he held it back.

If you want to blame someone for this, it must be him.

If he hadn’t been so confrontational with Lance, perhaps there would have been no subsequent events.

Frank could see that his good brother had always wanted to say something. “Bob, speak your mind.”

Everyone’s gaze was focused on Bob. His dark circles seemed to have become even darker. The only thing that hadn’t changed was his shiny hair.

“We can continue to make a move on Lance. This time, with a little more momentum, we can turn ‘we seek the senator to mediate for us’ into ‘the senator takes the initiative to mediate for us’.”

“Although doing so may not necessarily be able to cover up Ted’s failure in Golden Port City, at least we have not shown weakness!”

“We can gather more people and make a bigger noise. Naturally, they will take the initiative to come and mediate for us.”

“In addition, during this period after the mediation, we can’t just do nothing. We have to continue to put pressure on the Lance Family.”

Frank tilted his head back and thought. The others were also thinking about what he had said.

There was some constructiveness.

This was perhaps the best way to save the face of the Perez family now. On the one hand, it was to tell people that they admitted to one failure, but would not accept failure.

At that time, to gather a thousand or so party members would also be a deterrent to the gangs or forces that were waiting to see them make a fool of themselves.

After all, their core was a violent gang. These people were villains.

They might not be very good at fighting on the Lance Family’s home turf, but on their own turf, dealing with others was absolutely no problem.

This was indeed a good idea.

Frank put his head down. “What’s the meaning of the second sentence?”

This meant that Bob’s first proposal had been passed.

He breathed a sigh of relief. “The meaning of the second clause is that, although we’ve temporarily made peace with him, we can still send people to sabotage his operations.”

Robin frowned. “We don’t have any reliable allies in the south. It will be very difficult to strike a blow to the Lance Family’s business.”

Bob shook his head. “They are not the only gang in the south. There are many other gangs.”

“This time they crossed the state to Indeno State to burn down our farm. In fact, they were also provoking the local gangs. We can send people over to persuade them to fight with the Lance Family.”

“Gentlemen, we are not short of money.”

“We can provide them with money, firearms, ammunition, anything they want, and they only need to do one thing.”

“That is to fight, to fight with the Lance Family!”

“We provide them with all the convenience.”

“And we can also sell our wine over there.”

Everyone fell into thought again. What he said still had some truth.

After all, a person who could become Frank’s good brother, besides being a real brother, was at least not a fool.

“We can give it a try, but let’s not consider it for now.”

“The seaside is full of smuggled liquor. The price is lower than ours. We have no market over there.”

“Let’s mobilize our men first. After we have solved the most difficult problem we are currently facing, then we will consider other things.”

“So, does anyone object?” Frank looked at the others. The gentlemen in the room looked at each other and finally all shook their heads.

A few days later, the news that Ted had suffered a great loss in Golden Port City and had not even been able to come back alive began to spread.

The contest between the Lance Family and the Perez family, and the outcome that people had guessed, had once again become uncertain.

The Lance Family did not look weak at all. They had slapped the Perez family in the face twice, but they still had no good solution.

And on this day, two large packages from Golden Port City had sent the Perez family into a rage!

“What is this?”

Robin asked with some curiosity when he saw the butler and his men pushing two small carts towards the house.

The butler also shook his head. “This was sent from the south. It is said that it must be opened in front of the master. There is a paper box with some things inside, not very heavy.”

“But this large cabinet is very heavy. Maybe there is something displayed inside?”

The butler’s guess was not without reason. The shipping label also said “artwork.” Maybe there was a glass cabinet inside.

Robin felt curious. The Perez family didn’t have any particularly good friends in the south. Who could have sent this?

He didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure, but he wanted to follow and watch the fun. Soon the things were sent into the house.

Frank also knew about this in advance. He didn’t have the butler send it to his study or collection room. What if there wasn’t something good inside?

So they were unloaded in the main hall. Frank stood on the side of the railing on the second floor, with one foot on the ground, looking at the butler in the main hall on the first floor. “You can open them.”

Many family members had gathered here to watch the fun. They first opened the small box.

Inside was a box about one meter square. The box was full of flour or some kind of powder. In short, it gave people a very dry and choking feeling.

At the butler’s request, a brave man went to touch it and found that there was nothing special. The butler said that he would find someone to figure out what it was.

Then they opened the second cabinet, and then they saw the wooden crash frame, and then they saw the contents of the frame.

A whole set of… I don’t know what to say, but anyway, a whole set of lifelike equipment?

Robin was very interested in these things, at least more interested than the box of white powder next to him.

He walked to the front of the display case, opened the case, and touched the things that looked like some kind of animal leather.

A whole set.

A hat, a leather jacket, a pair of leather pants, a leather wallet, and something that was covered, I don’t know what.

“What kind of animal skin is this?” he leaned closer. “Pigskin?”

“Who would use pigskin to make things?”

These leathers had gone through a complete process. Because they did not need to be colored, filled, or hardened, after the overall tanning, they only needed to be made into these shapes according to the style, sewn well, and then put on the mannequin inside for drying.

These leathers felt very delicate to the touch, and were not as rough as pigskin. And they were soft but tough. Robin had never seen this kind of leather before.

Frank, on the second floor, looked at these things with a strange sense of familiarity. Countless memories were rolling in his mind. After rolling for an unknown number of times, a memory from the very depths surfaced.

That was when he was a child. When he went to visit his grandfather’s exhibition, he had seen a similar set of things. At that time, he had even tried on the pair of leather boots, and then he had asked his grandfather what it was.

“Human leather goods.”

He said a sentence. Robin looked back at Frank. “What did you say? I didn’t hear you clearly.”

As he spoke, he raised his hand and lifted the thing that was covering it. Then, the moment he turned his head, this guy, who could kill without blinking, let out a scream!

Ted’s face had been completely peeled off. Some stuffing had been used inside to make him look like a swollen ball.

It had no eyes, it was a void, but the more of a void it was, the more scary it was!

Robin cursed a lot of swear words, rolled and crawled back a long way, and kept rubbing his hands on the ground.

Frank’s face was extremely ugly. Yes, human leather goods, human leather goods made from Ted.

For a first-generation immigrant family like them, this was not just a mockery. It had already risen to the level of a personal insult to the family!

This was like a group of dark-skinned people holding guns and stepping on the corpse of an old federal man, their faces full of a triumphant smile. It was definitely a work that could arouse great anger!

In addition to Ted’s “serene” face, Frank grabbed something by his side and threw it. “Fuck, fuck!”

“Burn it, go and do it now!”

As they were talking, someone from the other side had found a string of ears and a scalp…

A huge humiliation!

Lance had clearly been trying to provoke them. As long as he provoked them, and they lost their reason and broke the rules, Senator Cleveland could use official means to cooperate with him and directly overturn the Perez family!

Now that he had baited the hook and laid the bait, it was up to him whether he wanted to take it or not.

All the older people in the house knew what this meant. The faces of each of them were particularly ugly. In their family’s collection room, there were similar things.

That was once a symbol of their ancestors’ bravery!

But now, it had become a means of humiliating them!

Almost immediately, the cadres, combat captains, and collateral members of the family in the vicinity all began to gather at the Perez family manor.

The last time such a large-scale gathering had occurred was the last time—about seventeen or eighteen years ago, when old Perez had died of illness, and Frank had just come to power. There had been some problems both internally and externally, and the Perez family had faced an unexpected challenge.

Then Frank had decisively summoned these core backbones of the family and had solved the problem with an iron fist.

So this time, their doing so had immediately alarmed many people. Many people wanted to know who had made Frank lose his reason again. So much so that a senator had even called him to inquire about these matters.

“Lance must die!”

This was the slogan he had given to the outside world. At first, the senator behind him had told him not to overact, but soon, when he had found that he didn’t seem to be acting, he had finally realized the seriousness of the matter.

The senator had found him and had talked to him about being calm, about the current domestic situation, and also about how, if he acted recklessly, the people on Lance’s side would find a reason to deal with him.

In short, he had said a lot of things, and in the end, he had barely managed to appease the furious Frank. At the same time, the senator had also seen that human leather goods, which were like a work of art.

In mid- to late June, after several days of fermentation, Frank, on behalf of the Perez family, finally accepted the mediation.

This time, no one dared to speak nonsense, dared to continue to provoke Frank.

Because they had also heard that to make the Perez family stop the war, some people had spent a lot of effort.

At a time like this, if you speak nonsense, not only will you offend the Perez family to death, but you will also offend the people who had put in effort on this matter—

If the matter that they had solved with great effort was destroyed by a few words, they would definitely want this person to die more than anyone else!

So the entire social public opinion, especially the public opinion of the underworld, suddenly became so clean!

No one publicly discussed the comparison of strength between the Perez family and the Lance Family, nor did anyone mention the matter of them doing nothing after their two failures. All of a sudden, everyone had shut up.

This time, Lance did not need to meet with Frank. The two sides were both represented by their agents. They had no overlap in their territory, in their business. The two sides just expressed that this matter was considered a closed chapter, and that was all.

But everyone knew that this matter would not be a closed chapter. It was just paused.

The Perez family could no longer, without reason, make a move on the businesses of the Lance Family. Lance’s side also told Frank the identity of the mastermind behind the scenes.

In fact, he didn’t know if that was true, but he believed that his guess was correct.

Frank, who had gotten the news, couldn’t wait to get his face back from the Death Angels. For a time, many “accidents” occurred in the central region of the Federation, causing many casualties.

So much so that on the invisible interstate highway, more than one firefight had occurred.

After the matter was almost settled, Tom took the initiative to give Lance a call to inquire about his final thoughts on the matter.

“I have already found a way to provoke them, but these people are very calm, much calmer than the ones I have met before.”

Tom said, “You’re saying that what they are showing this time is fake?”

“I’m not sure, but I know that there is a high probability that they have never thought of starting a full-scale gang war.”

Tom was thoughtful. “I will mention this to the senator.”

He paused for a moment. “Anyway, you still have to be careful.”

“In addition, the senator is a little interested in your movie.”

The rumors about Lance’s filming of a movie had finally reached Golden State. The navy had also participated in the filming. This was the first time in history!

And it was said that this script was Lance’s, and Lance himself was the producer. They were very curious what kind of a story a gangster boss could tell them.

As long as it wasn’t Lance directing, they wouldn’t feel that it was unwatchable. If it were Lance directing, Senator Cleveland might have already called him and told him not to cause trouble.

Lance did not reveal the mystery. “The shooting progress is very fast. It can be released earlier than I expected. Maybe we can catch the summer vacation.”

The speed of the shooting was very fast entirely because the funds he had invested had already exceeded 1.5 million. This was currently the undisputed highest-cost movie in the Federation, and even in the world!

To have ten people do the work of one person, naturally it wouldn’t be too slow!

(End of a Chapter)