Empire of Shadows

The wail of police sirens kept ringing. The originally somewhat chaotic Port District instantly quieted down.

Everywhere, there were police arresting the rioters.

In fact, to say ”arresting” was not quite right. It should be said that they were driving them away. Police cars were driving away these parading and demonstrating workers, not letting them regroup.

The reporters stared in stunned silence at this suddenly erupted conflict, and the suddenly dispersed parade and demonstration. They knew very well that ”power” was intervening.

A mysterious power had destroyed everything here.

Looking at the people on the ground who were either handcuffed, or had their legs broken, their arms broken, or were knocked out on the ground, the reporters were excitedly and frantically taking pictures.

They could clearly do something, for example, to help those who were seriously injured and could not get up, but now they were only concerned with searching for useful materials for their own news.

”My leg is broken!” a worker in his forties, his face pale, sat on the ground, seeking help, but the passing police did not even look at him.

At the very beginning, his pain was not as intense as now, but as time went on, the degree of pain in his leg began to increase.

Around him were people who were about the same as him, or people who were lying face down. He tried to ask those police for help, but the police just stood there and looked at him.A reporter quickly walked over. He had thought that he was here to help him, but he soon found that he had thought too simply of the matter.

That reporter just stood in front of him, constantly pressing the shutter, recording his painful expression!

He cursed, ”Get the hell out of here, you son of a bitch!”

But it had no effect. The reporter was still taking pictures of him. Many of the people around him who were in a similar situation were like this.

Those reporters were like cold, bloodless machines, without a single bit of the warmth of humanistic care!

”Fuck!”

”I’m going to die. Can someone fucking come and save me!”

A grown man in his forties began to cry. The intense pain and fear were tormenting him.

After an unknown amount of time, the sound of an ambulance rang out. He finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Soon he was put on a stretcher and sent to the ambulance.

There were already two people in the ambulance. He was the third.

It was clear that these doctors would first take care of those whose injuries looked more serious, and would send them to the ambulance first.

This worker’s leg was bent at an angle that was impossible to occur naturally, and was accompanied by swelling, and a bluish-purple color, so he had been chosen.

After getting on the ambulance, maybe it was when he was being put on the stretcher, or when it was bumpy, his broken leg was affected, and a more intense pain began to attack him.

He couldn’t stand the pain and began to shout loudly. This kind of pain, he swore, was more painful than being killed!

”I have a special painkiller here. One shot, after reimbursement, is only three dollars and fifty cents. Do you want one?” the doctor asked.

This worker nodded repeatedly. ”I need it, I need it so much. Please give me a shot immediately!”

The doctor had a nurse take out a form. ”Before I give you the painkiller, I have to register you first. It will be quick.”

”Your name?”

”Auge...”

”Where do you live?”

”I live at...”

”Your own house?”

The man named Auge had a moment of clarity in his mind. He was stunned for a moment, but just at this moment, a dip in the ground had caused the ambulance to have another violent jolt.

People who have never had a broken bone will not understand the exquisite pleasure of when the broken part seems to lose its gravity for a moment due to the jolt, but in the next second, it falls down hard!

This exquisite pleasure, in that instant, had destroyed all of Auge’s ability to think. ”Yes, yes, my own house!”

”Just fucking give me the painkiller!”

The doctor smiled and injected the prepared painkiller into his body. In less than thirty seconds, he suddenly let out a sigh of relief, and his whole person seemed to have relaxed.

He had never realized that just by ”not being in pain,” a person could be so comfortable!

Everything that had caused him pain was suppressed. The unprecedented comfort made him feel so comfortable that he was about to fall asleep!

Seeing that he was no longer shouting, the doctor smiled and withdrew the needle.

These special stainless steel needles were not cheap, and had to be reused. The syringe was also made of glass, and would be put back into circulation after being sterilized.

The car soon arrived at the hospital. Auge also received all the medical services. He had an X-ray, and several surgical experts analyzed it. In the end, he had signed the papers in a daze and had confirmed the surgery.

It was already a little after eight in the evening when he woke up. He had woken up from his coma. When he turned his head, he saw his wife and daughter sitting by his bed with their eyes swollen from crying.

Seeing him wake up, the mother and daughter immediately showed a look of pleasant surprise. His daughter even ran out to call a doctor.

Auge looked at his wife and daughter, and his heart was filled with infinite guilt at this time. He really shouldn’t have come.

What did these things have to do with him?

The union?

The Labor Federation?

Every year he had to pay extra for the union fees. The union and the Labor Federation only recognized his organizational relationship after he had paid. He had not gotten any actual benefits from the union and the Labor Federation. On the contrary, he had paid more.

After experiencing such a painful torment, he seemed to have grown a lot.

”I’m sorry!” he said, his throat a little dry and sore.

His wife’s eyes filled with tears again. She held his hand in hers. ”It’s all over!”

Her gaze shifted to her husband’s leg, which was in a splint and a cast. ”How do you feel now?”

Auge also raised his head slightly and glanced at his injured leg. ”I feel great!”

He wasn’t lying. He didn’t feel any pain. Were the painkillers so powerful now?

His wife also showed a smile. Just as she was about to say something, his daughter came in from outside with a doctor.

The doctor walked to the side of the bed and checked the condition of the surgical site to see if there was any seepage or bleeding. Then he listened to his heart and lungs, and after asking a few questions and confirming that he had no fever, he left.

Auge lay there motionless, looking at the ceiling. ”It’s all like a dream!”

He could still remember that he had been waving his arms in the crowd and shouting loudly, with a ferocious look on his face.

Then someone had hit him hard on the calf with a wooden stick that was as thick as an arm. He had almost immediately lost his balance and had fallen to the ground.

Then he had been beaten a few more times with sticks and steel pipes before they had left him.

These people... were too terrible!

”The people who hit me, have they been caught?” he tilted his head and looked at his wife.

The woman nodded. ”They’ve been caught.”

Auge’s expression changed slightly. ”Are they Lance’s men?”

His wife shook her head. ”They are some refugees. I don’t know much about the specifics, but anyway, you guys had a conflict, and many of the refugees were arrested.”

”Refugees?” A look of astonishment appeared on Auge’s face, but it soon turned into disdain. ”Then they are also Lance’s men. He’s too cunning!”

The surgery had consumed a lot of his energy. In the evening, after a little something to eat, he had fallen asleep.

His wife was just about to go home and pack some things when a doctor found her.

”Madam, you already owe the hospital 900. The subsequent medical expenses are about 300 to 400 for the follow-up treatment.”

”You have to find a way to pay this money.”

The woman looked at the doctor in a panic. She had never come into contact with such a large sum of money in her life. She looked at him in disbelief. ”This money... shouldn’t it be paid by...”

She was stuck for a moment. She didn’t know who should pay, but just instinctively felt that this money shouldn’t be paid by them!

The doctor looked at her and, seeing that she couldn’t say anything for a long time, could only wait for Auge to wake up and talk to him. ”I will talk to your husband, but for such a large sum of money, you have to be mentally prepared.”

Auge’s wife returned home with a heavy heart. She packed some clothes, and then returned to the ward. She would be staying here for the night.

As for their daughter, she had gone back. She still had school tomorrow.

In the middle of the night, Auge was woken up by intense pain. This ward was not the kind of high-class ward where there was only one hospital bed.

This was just an ordinary ward, a large room with about twenty hospital beds inside.

The moment Auge had cried out in pain, it had woken up some of the people who were originally sleeping very lightly. Their curses and Auge’s cries of pain were intertwined.

Soon the doctors and nurses had come over. They came to the side of Auge’s bed. The doctor checked his wound and, after confirming that the surgery was still very successful, he said, ”The pain is certain. Everyone will be in pain after the painkillers wear off.”

”You have to learn to endure and overcome it. After two or three days, the intensity of the pain will decrease.”

Auge was covered in sweat from the pain. ”I can’t take it anymore, doctor. Give me another shot!”

The pain of a broken bone was indeed unbearable, not to mention that both of his calf bones had been shattered.

The doctor was indifferent. He just wanted to make one point clear. ”Mr. Auge, at present, almost all effective painkillers are addictive. I must inform you before I give you the medication.”

”Besides this, you also have to pay for the cost of the extra painkillers yourself.”

Auge nodded desperately. ”I can, I accept!”

The doctor nodded. After a while, a nurse brought a painkiller shot, and he injected it into Auge’s body.

A few seconds later, his eyeballs began to tremble, and he began to roll his eyes.

After more than ten seconds, he finally recovered. It was so comfortable!

After the doctor had confirmed that he was fine, he left. Although the ward had quieted down, some of the people who had been woken up could no longer sleep.

Everyone was chatting.

His wife looked at her husband with some worry. After hesitating again and again, she finally asked, ”Honey, the doctor asked me this afternoon, who will pay for your treatment?”

”We already owe the hospital over 900...”