Empire of Shadows

The Gold Label Distillery’s factory was burned to the ground, which had caused a huge news story on the Indeno State side, and the Department of Defense had also learned about this.

It wasn’t that Gold Label Distillery was an industry of the Department of Defense, but that they had also undertaken a part of the production and transportation of ”military supplies.”

It was clear that now they had no way to continue to produce these military supplies. Their orders could only be temporarily transferred to others, for example, the current large producer, Lance.

Because the gentlemen would not wait for him to rebuild the factory, and then to continue to share the money from his national defense sales. The gentlemen were not willing to wait for a minute.

On the fifth day after the fire, the Department of Defense had confirmed that Gold Label Distillery had no way to complete the Department of Defense’s orders, so they had called Lance.

For contracting the defense orders of Gold Label Distillery, Lance had not refused.

Although he earned less, it was still earning, wasn’t it?

Elvin had done a very good job on these matters. Lance trusted him very much and did not ask much.

He was chatting with Roger.

The scale of the Empire Chamber of Commerce had expanded a little more, especially this time they had sold a portion of the scarce medicines and had made a large profit.The official selling price of the more than one million worth of medicine was now about three million, especially the special anti-inflammatory drugs and special painkillers. They were in great demand on the battlefield. No matter how much, there were people who could take it.

This was just on the surface. On the black market, the price of these two special medicines would be even higher!

A special medicine of more than three dollars could be sold for twenty. The war had brought many changes. While ordinary people were feeling these changes, some people were already counting their money.

”...More than half of this batch of goods has already gone out.”

Roger was grinning from ear to ear. After being an ordinary person for a lifetime, he had not expected that in his old age, he would suddenly become a capitalist.

Perhaps this was what people called the ”Federation Dream,” but he felt that to use the Federation Dream to describe everything he had now was not very accurate.

It should be more accurate to use the ”Lance Dream.” Because without Lance, there would be none of what he had now.

”We have already established relationships with some international brokers. In the future, if there are any scarce supplies, we can directly sell them to them, and the price will be very reasonable.”

”They wanted to invite us over to be a guest, but I declined.”

Lance listened and nodded. ”You can just handle these matters yourself. Your life experience and qualifications are enough for me to be at ease with you.”

”You just have to remember, don’t take risks, whether it’s in business, or in social life. You have to make sure not to take risks.”

”Those who invite you, you arrange for some of your subordinates to go, and after these people come back, you have to observe them. Don’t let them be in important positions.”

Roger nodded and agreed. He knew what Lance meant.

There were many kinds of brokers. Some helped capital to find power, and some helped power to find capital. This was the most common.

But besides these, there were more brokers who were active in this world.

Some of them could help people to buy people, some could help people to get all kinds of precious animals, some knew the great thieves and ruthless bandits in the underworld, and could get any jewelry that a client wanted.

Naturally, there were also people who could obtain all kinds of scarce supplies and exchange what they had for what they needed.

You have to have money, or an exchangeable interest.

Lance had had Roger have limited contact with them, but not too deep.

These people, for the sake of money, could do anything, including their methods of corrupting others. And this was precisely the reason why these brokers were able to have their own place on the international stage—

They could see into people’s desires, and make use of them.

People like Roger were just ordinary people. They might not be able to withstand the corrosion of these brokers. Lance did not want this old fellow to eventually fall at his hands.

After they had finished talking about this, Lance asked with some curiosity, ”I haven’t heard about your family’s situation. For me to have you work at such a high intensity, will they have any complaints?”

After hearing this, Roger laughed heartily. ”Of course not!”

”They feel that I, this light bulb, have finally been lit up in my later years!”

”Lance, it’s not just me, my family, my children, and the others in the chamber of commerce, are all sincerely grateful to you and for everything you have done for us!”

”Actually, I have long wanted to invite you to my home for a meal, but I always felt that it would be a bit too presumptuous...”

Lance shook his head and said, ”Of course not. We are friends. Between friends, there is no such thing as being presumptuous or not.”

He glanced at the desk calendar. ”Tonight, your wife might be willing to go into the kitchen for me?”

Roger was overjoyed!

A family banquet is of great significance to the people of the Federation. Whether it is the inviter or the invitee, as long as they know that Lance has gone to his home for dinner, and no one else, just him and Roger’s family, then in the future, when people look at Roger, their eyes will be a little different from now.

The fact that Lance could come to his home for a meal meant that he was also one of Lance’s ”confidants.”

This was not a simple family banquet. This was a shining ladder to a higher class!

”I’ll call her right now, and also to notify the children to come back...”

Roger went to the lounge next door. There was a phone in the lounge, instead of using the phone on Lance’s desk.

After about two or three minutes, Roger came back with a look of joy on his face. He sat back down opposite Lance. ”She is going to take out her best dishes. Maybe you have eaten those ingredients, but you have definitely not eaten those tastes!”

”I’m looking forward to it!” Lance affirmed, and then he brought up another topic. ”Have you read the news recently?”

Roger seriously recalled the recent news. He said with some caution, ”I have.”

Lance raised his hand to calm his emotions. ”You’re a little nervous,” he said, opening his cigarette case and gesturing for Roger to take one. At the same time, he also took one.

After the two had lit their cigarettes, Lance continued, ”The Federation has some ideas about the Yalan region. There are rich resources there, but the local people don’t know how to use them efficiently.”

”At the same time, its geographical environment is too important for the Federation!”

Roger, while smoking, was nodding.

When it was Lance’s birthday, he had also gone to attend. After all, as the president of the chamber of commerce, he and his family had been very lucky not to have been frightened by the bombardment.

But this did not mean that they could not feel that the Federation, in the bombardment, was not as strong as they had imagined.

The shells would take people’s lives, would destroy the buildings here, and would make everything beautiful become terrible.

Until this moment, he still remembered that he had gone to the docks. The docks were the area that had been bombarded more.

He had seen the craters on the ground, the bricks that had been blown away, and the dark red blood on the ground.

He had seen the workers, with tools and hammers, trying to get the shrapnel that was embedded in the walls out.

He had also seen the dark red bloodstains on the walls.

Everything was like hell on earth. He had heard that a shell had exploded in a crowd.

Dozens of people, in an instant, had all fallen to the ground.

The circle of people where the shell had landed, almost none of them could be found in one piece. They were first cut into pieces by the shrapnel, and then had been torn apart by the airwave. It was too tragic.

Until now, Roger did not dare to go to the port. He had heard that many people had stepped on pieces of flesh or something. This was definitely the most terrifying page in the history of Golden Port City.

And it was precisely because its ”after-effects” were so great that people had been constantly discussing it, and then had brought out ”Surprise Attack on Golden Port” as a proof.

Some people insisted that if Yalan was in the hands of the Federation, perhaps all of this could have been avoided.

Of course, they still had to have a naval admiral who was willing to send out patrol ships to work!

There was actually no hatred between the federal people and the Yalan people, but their position was very important, and the federal people would not give up.

”The federal government will occupy Yalan, and then turn it into a part of the Federation, and then it may expand by four or five states.”

”From Mr. President’s point of view, these things are very easy to do!” he used his fingertips to randomly draw a few times on the desk, as if he were signing. ”He just needs to take his pen and write his name at the end of a document, and someone else will handle the rest for him.”

”But, this is not something that can be solved in one go. This requires a long process.”

Roger, at this point, still had not understood what Lance was saying. He felt that Lance, at times, behaved like those well-known politicians.

He seemed to have said something, and yet he seemed to have said nothing. However, this also made him become more respectful and serious.

”We need to go to the Yalan side to work for a period of time. The Empire Chamber of Commerce, you, me, and you can also recommend some people.”

”Of course, it’s not that you must go. You have a choice.”

This matter was related to the competition of the congressmen.

For the congressmen, they might just be making a one-dollar bet, betting on whose men could complete the mission faster and better.

But for the person who was in charge of these matters, this might be a very big deal.

Lance attached great importance to it.

Senator Cleveland could not be a senator for his whole life, but he, Lance White, had a chance to be Lance White for his whole life!

At this time, Roger realized the reason why Lance had asked about his family and children. It wasn’t that he was planning to use this to threaten him, but that he was telling him in another way that this trip might be a little dangerous.

He frowned, smoking hard. Lance did not disturb him.

He felt a little pain in his fingers, and only then did he realize that his cigarette was finished.

He quickly stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray, and then asked, ”What is my job?”

”Will I also need to charge forward with a weapon?”

He laughed as he spoke. ”I hope they don’t feel a sense of honor in killing an old man, and I’m not very good at it!”

Lance smiled and shook his head. ”Why would you think that?”

”You are just representing the Empire Chamber of Commerce, selling cheap and affordable federal products to Rapa, and by the way, providing some jobs for the local people.”

”This is no different from what you are doing in the country, and it’s even easier.”

These things were not complicated, but Lance had his own things to do. He couldn’t always take care of the side of private trade, and also some of the propaganda work.

He had to have someone he could trust to help him. Roger was the candidate he had chosen.

Hearing that he didn’t need to rush to the front and have a firefight with others, Roger’s interest was clearly high. ”If that’s the case, I can give it a try!”

”Then it’s settled.”

”A little later, I will tell you what to do...”

In the evening, after Lance had finished his work, he and Roger had gone to his residence.

In the past, Roger had lived in an ordinary community in the Empire District. He had bought a detached house, but it was not a villa. The family lived together, and it was a bit crowded.

But ever since he had joined the Empire Chamber of Commerce and had started to work with Lance, he had now changed to a large villa. His children also had their own villas, and they were right next to his.

All these changes had come from Lance. He was sincerely, from the bottom of his heart, grateful to this young man.

Soon the convoy had stopped outside Roger’s villa. His wife and children were already at the door to welcome them.

When Lance got out of the car, Roger’s family members immediately came up to him.

They did not have those neurotic moral purity, and did not think that Lance was evil, bad just because he was a gangster.

Everyone was very enthusiastic, including Roger’s children.

”Alright, let’s go in!”

”I hope I haven’t disturbed anyone!”

Lance’s convoy was still very recognizable in Golden Port City. Some of the people nearby had left their villas and were looking in this direction. They might just be pretending to be passing by, or had other things to do, but in the final analysis, they wanted to see Lance.

Roger smiled and had his family make way, and escorted Lance into his villa. He could already imagine that tomorrow, many people in the community would contact him, and would ask him why Lance had come to his home, and at such a special time as dinner.

Lance, as he walked towards the courtyard, could see that Roger had indeed made a lot of money. Such a villa would cost at least twenty thousand.

Of course, now it might only be 15,000, because of the bombardment of Golden Port City, some of the locals had moved out of here overnight.

This had also led to a sharp drop in the housing prices in Golden Port City, but not including the Bay Area.

The housing prices in the Bay Area were still so firm. For the rich, they would not sell their houses. They were not short of this money.

The real price drop was in the Priliccia District, where the middle class was concentrated. Many of the middle class had moved to places further away from the coastline, or even to Creek Valley City, or had simply moved away.

However, not all real estate prices were plummeting. The housing prices in the Xilin District, because it was far from the coastline, had seen a clear increase.

In short, a villa that was still worth at least 13,000 or 14,000 now was still a lifetime for many, many people.

Roger’s wife had prepared a very sumptuous dinner. His children were also very accommodating, and the atmosphere at the dinner table was very harmonious.

However, Roger did not, at the dinner table, talk about the matter of him going on a long trip in a while. He felt that this might make Lance feel that he was putting pressure on Lance.

So they had talked about nothing at dinner.

After Lance had left, he had finally talked to his family about this.

”Is it dangerous?” his wife was very worried.

In the minds of the people of the Federation, Yalan had only two impressions—a paradise for men, and full of danger!

Sex in Yalan is a very cheap social resource. In the Federation, if you want to sleep with a girl, you at least have to have some aspect that attracts her, including having money.

You can be very humorous, you can be very strong, you can be very rich, you can have a good old man, and you can also be very big.

In short, you need to have a strength that can attract people.

But in Yalan, as long as you are a person of the Federation, you have countless sexual resources. Those girls who are as beautiful as models will prostrate in front of you, of course, with their butts facing you.

What they want is to leave Yalan, and for you to also buy a ticket for them when you buy a boat ticket back.

And the danger... is because of the rampant gangs in the various countries of Yalan, the existence of warlords, or the fact that some countries are constantly having coups.

People who have not been to Yalan are filled with a sense of fear for that place.

Roger smiled and shook his head. ”Lance’s men will protect me, and Lance will also be going with me.”

”Although we all think that place is very dangerous, do you think he will go to such a dangerous place?”

”You don’t have to worry too much about my safety. I’m just thinking...” he looked at his children as he spoke, ”maybe this is an opportunity.”

”For one of you, it is.”

Roger was very old, and his children were not young either. They were all married, and also had their own children.

He was not sure if his relationship with Lance could be inherited by his children. He had been thinking about these problems recently.

A friend of his had died, a natural death of old age. Of course, he had still been in a lot of pain when he had died, not at all peaceful.

Attending his friend’s funeral had given him some new feelings. Their generation was dying!

One day, he would also die. Although many times he had avoided this problem, it was useless to avoid it.

He had to think about his children. Would the relationship between Lance and him be extended to his children?

Without Lance’s support, it would be very difficult for them to find a new way out in Golden Port City. So at this very moment, he hoped that a child could stand up and go to Yalan with him, to work for Lance.

The two boys were both silent. The only daughter also did not speak. They all did not want to go.

Roger was a little disappointed. ”You can think about it, before I leave here.”

”What others give you is always theirs. When they don’t give it to you, you won’t get anything.”

”Only what is your own is truly and completely yours. No matter what others decide, it cannot change the fact that you own it.”

The three children all nodded. As for whether they could take it in, he also couldn’t make a decision for them.

On Monday of the second week of July, the Department of Defense had appointed a new naval admiral as the commander of the Golden Port naval base. Admiral Miles had been transferred, but his new post had not been mentioned.

Lance, who had seen the news, had guessed that he might have reached some agreement with Congress.

A naval commander had been changed, but for Golden Port City, there was no difference.