Empire of Shadows

An old security guard at the factory gate watched the flames in the warehouse area dye the sky red, his small eyes filled with terror!

He was an old employee of Gold Label Distillery, having worked for this factory as a security guard since his twenties. In all these years, he had seen two major fires, and the losses caused by each were extremely heavy!

The most terrifying thing was the liquor in the warehouse!

It was precisely because of losing two fires that the company had moved the warehouse from next to the production workshop to a farther place, just to avoid a terrible incident if another fire occurred!

In his mind, he thought of the last fire, a scene like hell on earth!

He had a few burn scars on his body, also from that time.

At this moment, compared to the other young and middle-aged men running towards the warehouse, his first thought was to run!

Run as far as possible, far away from here!

No one noticed, in the dark of the night, the old security guard in the factory gate’s guardhouse, who always had ”the factory’s honor is my life” on his lips, ran out of the factory without looking back.

In fact, it wasn’t just him. Some of the old employees in the factory, knowing that the warehouse was on fire, their first thought was not to fight the fire, but to run as far away as possible!No one knew where this fire had started. By the time they discovered it, the warehouse was already engulfed in flames.

Along with the sound of containers exploding, the warehouse continuously emitted ”booming” sounds of deflagration.

Many people used water hoses to spray into the warehouse, but it didn’t seem to have much effect. And at this very moment, suddenly, the roof of the warehouse was, by a violent explosion, completely blown into the sky!

The shock wave from the huge explosion made the people around the warehouse feel as if a wall had hit them squarely. Then, they saw an incredible scene!

A large amount of flames ”flowed” out of the warehouse along the water on the ground. People screamed and began to flee in all directions. With the continuous explosions of the warehouse, a rain of fire kept falling...

At 12:15 AM, Mr. Richard suddenly sat up, panting heavily. His eyes in the dark were exceptionally bright.

He looked back at the small, luminous bedside clock on the bedside table. Since people had discovered this thing that could glow in the dark, it was rapidly becoming a trend.

Luminous clocks, luminous decorations, and also luminous baseboards and luminous paint. People believed that this luminescence and the radiation they emitted could bring health to people’s bodies.

Because there was an academic report proving that the light emitted by these radioactive materials could kill some harmful cells.

Some foods with added luminous materials were also being launched on a small scale, but people could only see them in those modern magazines, because things like ”luminous steak” and ”luminous milk” were only provided for the rich.

Not being able to afford it meant having the qualification to buy, but not having enough money.

Many poor people didn’t even have the qualification to buy, so there was no question of whether they could afford it or not. They didn’t know the price, nor did they know where to buy it, but they knew that some people could eat it, could drink it.

The Opera Emperor had even mentioned in an interview that before he went on stage to perform an opera, he would drink a glass of luminous milk to replenish his energy...

Mr. Richard was one of those who was qualified to buy, but he felt a little uneasy about those radioactive cuisines that went into his stomach. He had only used these in some of his decoration designs and clocks.

Seeing that it was only 12:16, he rubbed his cheeks and took a sip of water from the glass on the bedside table.

He had had a damn nightmare. In the dream, the Lance Family had retreated from Indeno State in defeat, had lost to him, and had also caused the Lance Family’s business in Likalai State to be challenged.

Lance had lost all his foundation, had become a stray dog, and had disappeared.

Then one day, the moment he got out of the car, Lance had appeared in front of him and had pulled the trigger on him.

He couldn’t feel the pain in the dream, but it could make people feel fear. The submachine gun in Lance’s hand seemed to have infinite bullets. The bullets had completely torn him apart, torn him into pieces.

Whether it was his body or his soul, it was all the same, so he had been frightened and had woken up.

Fortunately, it was all a dream!

After swallowing a mouthful of water, his mood improved a little.

Psychologists say that people’s dreams at night are an extension of their experiences during the day. This also proved from the side that their offensive against the Lance Family now was fatal!

Thinking of this, he picked up the phone and dialed an internal number.

There was someone on the night shift on the first floor of the villa, his bodyguard.

The call was answered at the first opportunity, and a familiar voice came from inside, ”Sir?”

”Yes, it’s fine. I just wanted to ask, is there any strange movement at night?”

The bodyguard grinned and said, ”It’s very quiet, sir. I can even hear the sound of rats breeding!”

This was clearly a little humor. Mr. Richard laughed twice. ”I hope you didn’t disturb them!”

He paused for a moment. ”Alright, I’ll continue to rest.”

”Okay, good night, sir.”

After hanging up the phone, Richard lay back on his bed. Just as he was about to fall into a dream, the sudden, harsh ringing of the phone made him glance at the gorgeous and colorful dream in the distance, and he turned his head and woke up.

He already had some unease in his heart. Generally speaking, no one would call someone else so late after twelve o’clock, unless there was something very urgent.

”This is Richard.”

”Mr. President, it’s bad. The warehouse is on fire, and the production plant also seems to be on fire!”

The sound of an explosion suddenly coming from the receiver had made Mr. Richard’s hair stand on end. He was so startled that his sleepiness had instantly disappeared. He scrambled up. ”You’d better not be joking with me!”

He actually knew that this was not a joke, but he hoped that the other party could tell him that this was actually a joke.

In the silent receiver, besides the heavy breathing, and the faint sound of screaming, there was no answer.

He cursed, ”Fuck!”

”How did it catch fire? Have you called the fire department?”

”We have, but they said they need time to assemble.”

”Than this group of sons of bitches, fuck!”

”I’ll be right over. Notify the other members of the board!”

He casually changed his top, and wearing his pajama pants, he went straight downstairs.

Two bodyguards were sitting by the sofa, chatting. The first moment they saw Mr. Richard, they stood up.

Mr. Richard nodded slightly. ”I’m going to the factory. You come with me.”

The two bodyguards did not refuse. One of them went to get the car, and the other cautiously probed, ”Did something happen?”

These bodyguards needed to protect Mr. Richard personally. They both trusted each other very much, so Mr. Richard did not hide anything and recounted the matter of the factory being on fire.

The bodyguard did not know what had happened in the last fire. In his eyes, it was just a fire. It would be fine after the fire truck came.

It was just that he didn’t understand what terrible consequences would be caused by those high-proof alcohol piled together!

And also the barrelled wine in the production workshop, or the wine that was fermenting.

The boiling point of alcohol is very low, only seventy-something degrees. As long as the temperature of the wine reaches seventy-something degrees, the alcohol will begin to accelerate its evaporation.

Once these evaporated, gaseous alcohol is ignited by an open flame, a deflagration will occur in an instant and an explosion will be produced, and it will also cause more alcohol to start to burn.

The last time there was a fire, the entire factory had turned into a sea of fire.

The thought of this made Mr. Richard shudder!

It wasn’t just the problem of burning and exploding, but also that if it once again caused heavy casualties, they would very likely be driven out of this city!

The sky above the vicinity of the distillery had already been dyed red. The sirens of the fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances in the distance were ringing incessantly. The city, which had been completely silent, also seemed to be reviving in advance.

By the time Mr. Richard had rushed to the main gate of the distillery, his vision had gone black.

The entire production workshop was burning with raging flames, and the sound of explosions was constantly coming. Some of the houses had already collapsed—

Ever since a genius had claimed to have invented steel-structured prefabricated parts, the people of the Federation had been very keen on this kind of a construction method that could always create miracles.

Just like playing with building blocks, you assemble the steel-structured prefabricated parts according to the drawings, and then weld them fixed. A large building can be built overnight. The ”Federation speed” refers to the astonishing construction speed of steel-structured buildings!

It has too many advantages, but it also has a disadvantage, and it is a fatal disadvantage, that is, it is not resistant to high temperatures.

Once a high temperature occurs, the steel structure will become soft, and if there is enough gravity, it will collapse faster and easier than a concrete frame structure.

Looking at the constantly collapsing factory buildings, at the flames flowing everywhere like a flood, Mr. Richard had in an instant fallen into a state of tinnitus.

He stared blankly at the constantly burning factory buildings, at the firefighters on the side who were helpless against it. It seemed that everything was destined!

The firefighters had actually arrived long ago, but after they had seen the situation at the scene, they had not considered putting out the fire. The only thing they did was to prevent the fire from spreading.

Pouring water on those buildings was of not much use. On the contrary, it would increase the fluidity of the flames, so the best way was to let them burn themselves out.

For a whole night, people had been counting the injuries. This time, because it had happened at night, and the first place to catch fire was the warehouse, the casualties were not considered serious.

Besides the few who were missing, it could be said that not a single one had died in the fire. They had all ”died because the rescue was ineffective,” not because they were burned to death.

As many as a hundred people were injured. When the warehouse had exploded, a large amount of burning, hot alcohol had, along with the explosion, splattered out. Many of the people who were fighting the fire nearby had been hit.

The hot alcohol had quickly ignited them, which was also the main source of casualties.

Because the warehouse explosion had come so quickly, the production workshop’s side had enough reaction to evacuate. In terms of the number of casualties, the number of casualties this time was the least among the three fires.

But...

The sky gradually brightened. Some people, after getting up, had felt that something was strange, especially the people who lived near the distillery. They had smelled a stronger aroma of wine, as if the entire world was filled with the smell of liquor.

This was not a huge city. Soon some news began to spread among the crowd. The distillery was fucking burning again!

Before work, a large number of people had gathered outside the distillery, looking at the distillery, which had been burning all night and was left with only ruins. People’s emotions had become complicated.

Ninety-five percent of the people were looking at this matter with a hint of pity and pleasure.

For them, the distillery had burned down again. Although it was pitiful, it was also satisfying.

Because they were making too much money!

Everyone was poor, but you were so rich. This was not being one of the group!

Now that’s good, they were one of the group.

The mayor had also come in the morning. In fact, he had known this news in the middle of the night yesterday, but for some other reason, he had not come immediately.

In the morning, the members of the board of directors, the shareholders, the mayor, the government officials, the worker representatives, the union members, were all surrounding him, saying their own words. In addition, with the tinnitus, in the end, Mr. Richard had closed his eyes and had fallen to the ground.

By the time he woke up, it was more than an hour later. He was lying in a hospital bed. The entire hospital seemed very busy.

His bodyguard, seeing that he had woken up, had, while calling the company’s secretary and the doctor, walked to his side.

”How is the situation now?” he asked.

The secretary who had walked in from outside shook his head. ”It’s very bad.”

Perhaps the secretary had felt that this word was very difficult to describe the real bad situation now. He added, ”Unexpectedly bad!”

”They have found the bodies of those missing people from the fire scene. They are all charred.”

”The families of these deceased are now making a fuss with the company. They are demanding that the company compensate them for the losses beyond the pension.”

”And the injured are already in the hospital, but they have not received any treatment...”

Mr. Richard couldn’t help but ask, ”Why?”

”Because the insurance company has refused to immediately pay their work injury insurance. The insurance company’s side said that they first have to investigate whether this fire was an accident, and whether the injured workers were at their work posts when they were injured...”

Hearing this sentence, Mr. Richard was also silent. It was clear that the insurance company was not very willing to compensate.

According to the current regulations of the insurance company’s compensation, they could provide about four hundred to six hundred for each person.

After statistics, there were about two hundred to three hundred people who had been injured to varying degrees. They would need to pay about 150,000, not to mention that the factory’s insurance also needed them to pay. The total compensation amount would probably exceed 400,000!

400,000, what concept is that?

Not only would all the money they had earned from Gold Label Distillery have to be spit out, but they would also have to add a large sum.

So the insurance company’s side had directly refused to pay. They had to investigate first, and only those who met the compensation clauses would they consider compensating.

Mr. Richard had already guessed that those who were injured because of firefighting would not be on the insurance company’s compensation list, because they were not injured at work, but in a personal act that was not related to work.

And then there was the problem of the fire. If they had found that there were reasons such as arson, there was a high probability that they would also refuse to pay, or rather, they would 100% refuse to pay.

To want to get compensation from an insurance company is not easy. Besides going to court, there is no other way.

Mr. Richard rubbed his temples. ”Besides these matters?”

”Some clients are demanding that we pay a penalty for breach of contract and cancel their orders. The board of directors’ side is also under a lot of pressure. And I hear...”

The secretary was a little hesitant. ”They think that because you have lowered the price too much, it has led to too many of our orders, and we may have to face a sky-high breach of contract compensation.”

Mr. Richard was so angry he laughed. ”Good, very good. Is there anything else that’s worse?”

The secretary pursed his lips. ”The bank is urging us to repay the loan. In addition, the Department of Defense has also called, asking if we can, before the end of the month, to complete the Department of Defense’s second-quarter order and to load the ship.”

”There is one more thing. I don’t know if I should tell you, or if it’s useful.”

Mr. Richard lay back on his hospital bed. ”If you don’t know if it’s useful, then it’s useful!”

”Say it.”

The secretary lowered his voice a little. ”Golden Lion Distillery has announced that from today on, their Copper Lion Whiskey will be raised to 27.50 a bottle.”

In fact, there were still some things that the secretary had not said. For example, many citizens were holding signs and protesting outside the factory and the company.

They were demanding that Gold Label Distillery move out of this city. These people believed that sooner or later, Gold Label Distillery would, with the entire city, be swallowed by the flames!

They did not welcome this bomb to continue to exist in the city!

However, at this time, Mr. Richard’s attention was all focused on the last sentence that the secretary had said. The Lance Family’s wine had started to raise its price.

Almost instinctively, Mr. Richard had associated that this matter might be related to the Lance Family, but he had no actual evidence, and could only remain silent.

The Lance Family’s reaction was so fast, as if they had known the answer in advance.

The news that Gold Label Distillery had had a major fire, and that its inventory and production workshop had been burned down, had spread very quickly. In this day and age, matters related to money all spread very quickly.

Even South Anan State (to the west of Indeno State) had learned of this news, and Christopher had also heard.

Their liquor sales were not bad, and had brought a lot of profit to the family, which had also made him, in front of Leonardo, no longer a mascot, a good-for-nothing.

Leonardo had given him greater power, which had also given Christopher more motivation.

He had, at the first opportunity, summoned his cadres and had discussed this matter with them.

”Gold Label Distillery will find it very difficult to resume production in a short period of time, which has left a vacuum in the market. I think this is an excellent opportunity for us to enter Indeno State!”

His subordinate asked, ”But this way we will have to have a face-to-face confrontation with the Lance Family. Do we have the ability to confront them?”

When he heard this name again, Lance, Christopher still felt his scalp itch a little. He scratched his head. ”We are selling brandy. They are selling whiskey. These are two different, non-overlapping fields...”

Meeting the subordinate’s look as if he were looking at a fool, Christopher smiled in embarrassment. ”If you don’t give it a try, how do you know we are not their opponent?”