Empire of Shadows

Councilman Wade and the Wade family are definitely the representative political force in Golden Port!

They and the Williams family were once the largest plantation owners, slave owners, and planters on this land of Golden Port…

There is a very exaggerated saying that Councilman Wade once said that one-third of the land in Golden Port once belonged to the Wade family, but in the later process of urbanization, it gradually became the city.

The earliest group of residents in this city were all their former slaves, workers, servants, and maids…

Perhaps with the continuous increase of the outside population, the proportion of these people in the entire city’s population is constantly decreasing, but the social status of these people is constantly improving.

In the eleven districts of Golden Port, the eleven city councilors are almost all their people!

This is also one of the reasons why they can firmly control Golden Port. They are all their own people, and outsiders simply can’t do anything!

Whether it’s the people in City Hall or the city councilors.

The reason why the mayor has not made any major moves so far is that he is trying to find a way to dismantle one of the two major political forces. Whether it is the Wade family or the Williams family, as long as one of them is moved away, it will be much easier to deal with the remaining one.

But it takes a lot of cost to move Councilman Wade out. The mayor has been operating this matter for some time.Political favors, the transfer of benefits, and the exchange of personal relationships…

Seeing the look of surprise on the secretary’s face, the mayor took out a cigar. He would only enjoy this when he was in a good mood.

“If he respects and executes the transfer order, once he leaves Golden Port, the people around him will lose their core, and it will be difficult to unite closely again.”

“If he refuses the transfer order, then he will offend the people who could have eaten the benefits I promised. Offending so many dignitaries in this state, even if this place was once his family’s farm, his subsequent days will not be too good.”

“This is a dilemma. No matter how he chooses, we will gain a huge advantage.”

“And I think he…” He took a drag on his cigar, the smoke swirling in his mouth for a few moments, feeling the constantly emerging taste, which was quite interesting, “…he will compromise.”

This is actually a “good thing” for Councilman Wade. On the surface, his status in the government system has been promoted.

A city councilman who needs to be “self-funded,” and the actual ruler of a city, everyone knows which position is better!

And he doesn’t need to waste his own resources and personal connections. This part of the expenditure is all the mayor’s. He only needs to nod his head to have all of this!

He can get a lot of things if he agrees, but he will have a lot of enemies if he refuses. If his brain is not a problem, he should know how to choose.

Choice is always the most difficult hurdle in the path of life.

From the moment of birth, choices constantly appear before us. After walking through a period of life’s road, we have to face a choice.

Every choice will affect our future, life, feelings, career, everything!

Everyone says they won’t regret it, but how many people really don’t regret it?

Mr. Jobav finally made a decision. He had convinced himself.

Lance had used that kind of method to disrupt his promotional activities, so Lance was no longer his friend or a promising young man. They were enemies.

He dialed the number the mayor had given him. His heart began to pound, thumping.

When the call was connected and a gentle voice came from the other end, his somewhat agitated emotions surprisingly calmed down.

“I’m Jobav. You may have heard my name.” He adjusted his sitting posture and lit a cigarette.

The number of cigarettes he had smoked today was equivalent to the number of the past two or three days. He needed this, needed nicotine to relax him and help him make some decisions.

“Mr. Jobav, I’m glad you could call me. So is there anything I can do for you?”

They both belonged to the mayor’s camp, so they knew each other.

Now that the call had reached the Professor’s hand, the Professor also roughly understood Mr. Jobav’s meaning.

There was actually nothing complicated about the cooperation between gangsters and capitalists. One gives money, the other solves trouble, that’s all!

Mr. Jobav licked his lips, “I need your help.”

“I’ve run into some trouble recently…” He stated some of his demands. He was not asking the Wolf Gang to take the initiative to attack Lance and his people.

He just hoped that when they held their canvassing and promotional activities, they would not be harassed by similar situations again.

No one would be making a scene or fighting at the event, and in the end, everything would not be turned into a mess.

After listening to Mr. Jobav’s more complaint-like demands, the Professor asked softly, “Mr. Jobav, we can do all the things you mentioned.”

“But I also have a question for you. You should know that we and the Lance Family are in a hostile relationship.”

“Once we work for you, Lance and his men will also see you as an enemy. Is it okay even so?”

“After all, I heard that you had a good relationship before, and you are both from the Empire.”

Mr. Jobav, who had already made a decision, would definitely not hesitate anymore. He gritted his teeth and mustered up his courage, “It doesn’t matter. When he disrupted my event, we were no longer friends!”

A look of relief appeared on the professor’s face. What he was most afraid of was that this Mr. Jobav neither wanted to completely tear off the mask nor wanted them to help deal with Lance’s people. That would make things very difficult for them.

But if Mr. Jobav and Lance had already fallen out, then everything would be fine, “I will arrange for people to go over as soon as possible. I can assure you that they will not succeed so easily this time!”

The moment he heard this sentence, Mr. Jobav suddenly felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted, and he let out a heavy sigh of relief.

He sat at the table, looking at the sky outside the window, his mind a complete blank!

The next morning, an old man took a razor and stropped it back and forth on a strop cloth a few times. He looked in the mirror and shaved off the not-so-much stubble on his face.

He wiped his face clean, put pomade on his not-so-much hair, and then changed into a new set of clothes and left his home.

Ever since they had followed Bolton, their lives had been significantly better. Although it was only `$10` a month, for an old person who no longer had much desire to spend, that `$10` was very precious!

And sometimes they could also discover something and get `$3` or `$5` or so from Bolton. In short, everyone’s life was very good!

This made the old man have no worries about his old age. Every day was the happiest day of his life.

After he had tidied himself up, he walked out of his house, his face full of smiles as he faced the rising sun. Before long, he arrived at an intersection not far from the apartment where he lived.

There was a coffee shop here, the very cheap kind. A five-cent coffee plus a five-cent pancake and a two-cent fried egg, this was his breakfast in the morning.

The owner of the coffee shop would also very thoughtfully give him some bacon bits. Although not much, it also gave the fried egg a more varied flavor.

At this time, there were already a few old men sitting here. When they saw him, they also smiled and greeted him.

They were all old men living in the vicinity. They had nothing to do in their spare time, so they would sit here for most of the day.

After greeting them, he found a place to sit down and began to talk about some news from the newspaper, as well as international affairs.

The men of the Federation were full of a desire to explore politics. Their recent hot topic of discussion was whether the Federation would be drawn into the war of the four nations if it broke out.

This proposition was very large, and there was a lot of room for expression. Everyone participated very actively.

Just as he was tasting the inferior coffee and preparing to take a bite of the rolled-up pancake dipped in egg yolk, the discussion of everyone stopped. Their gazes were all fixed on the road.

The traffic light at the intersection had just turned red, and a few cars had stopped behind the stop line waiting for the light. The old men’s gazes were focused on the people in those cars.

The attire of these people was not like that of the Empire people, and they had not seen them before. More importantly, these people all had tattoos.

It was already July, and the temperature had risen. Many people were bare-chested, wearing a sleeveless jacket, or even not wearing one.

This exposed the tattoos on their bodies. An old man took out his glasses, put them on, and looked over, “Is that a wolf’s head?”

Another old man said with a grave expression, “It is a wolf’s head, and it looks the same as the wolf heads Mr. Bolton mentioned!”

The few old men simultaneously looked at one of them, their faces also showing a look of envy. That old man laughed and stood up, quickly ran to the public phone booth on the side of the road, and dialed Bolton’s number.

Bolton was also in a coffee shop, but a more high-end one. The owner of the coffee shop had specially connected a phone to the seat he liked to sit at.

And this seat no longer served other people, only Bolton.

Now Bolton also had a few young subordinates around him. They stood on the street outside the coffee shop, wearing uniform T-shirts, smoking and chatting.

A calm and unhurried day. Bolton looked at the sunlight outside the window, then focused his attention on the newspaper.

His breakfast was very rich.

A twenty-five-cent cup of coffee, two fried eggs with a side of bacon and ham slices, and finally a fist-sized bread cube that had been toasted at high temperature.

Dipping the bread cube in egg yolk and then wrapping it with a slice of ham or bacon, and putting it in your mouth, the taste was simply indescribable!

The first thing to touch the mouth and taste buds was the bacon, which was slightly焦 on the surface and had a rich oily fragrance, or the ham slice with its special fragrance and salty taste.

Next was the egg yolk with garlic powder. The salty taste of the bacon or ham complemented the blandness of the egg yolk very well, making the texture and taste rich and mellow.

Finally, there was the toasted crispy bread cube, which was very delicious to chew on with a crunch!

But Bolton was a civilized man. He would not make those sounds. He would eat with his mouth closed, enjoying this delicacy by himself.

Being a… rich person, a person of status, was indeed a very happy thing!

He was flipping through the newspaper until the phone suddenly rang. He picked up a napkin and wiped his lips, then picked up the receiver.

“Mr. Bolton, the Wolf Gang’s men drove several cars from the Port District along… road and came in. They are heading in the direction of… I don’t know what their destination is. It looks like there are at least twenty or thirty of them.”

Bolton frowned after hearing this, “This news is a bit important. You can get an extra `$20` next month!”

The old man laughed so hard his mouth couldn’t close. He smoothed his few strands of hair, “Thank you for your generosity…”

Before he could finish his praise, Bolton had already hung up the phone, but for the sake of the extra `$20`, he didn’t feel at all that he was being disrespected.

He happily returned to the group of old men. They couldn’t help but ask, “How much did you get this time?”

The old man held up two fingers, which made the other old men envious and jealous, “This meal is on you!”

The old man laughed heartily and promised, “Okay, it’s on me, it’s on me!”

Bolton hung up the phone and picked it up again. When the call was connected, he said with some anxiety, “I have something to say to Mr. Lance.”

About ten seconds later, Lance picked up the receiver, “What’s wrong?”

“The Wolf Gang’s men drove their cars in from… road and are heading towards… road. I haven’t received any other intelligence yet. I think this matter is very special and very important…”

Lance raised his eyebrows after hearing this. This would make his eye sockets have a “wide open” feeling, allowing him to concentrate more.

“I know. Have people continue to watch them and report any news to me at any time.”

Lance hung up the phone and walked back to the dining table. A large table of people were all waiting for him.

He sat down in his seat, picked up a napkin and wiped his hands, “The Wolf Gang’s men have come in. After we finish eating, Hiram, get ready.”

“Also, notify all the bars to be careful of being attacked.”

He didn’t seem as anxious as Bolton. Coming in early in the morning, they were not necessarily here for a firefight.

If it were a firefight, choosing midnight would actually be a better time. The night would be a natural protective color, and now many people in Golden Port knew that Lance had many informants here.

Coming in during the day was equivalent to giving Lance a phone call, telling him “we’re here.” So night was the best time for an “invasion.”

Hiram was about to stand up as he spoke, but Lance stopped him, “No need to be in such a hurry. The brothers can handle it.”

“We’ve gotten a lot of liquor recently, Ennio.”

Ennio, who was wrestling with an oxtail, put down the bone in his hand, “Here.”

“You did a good job with the business with Gallio from Fides last time. You can ask him if he wants another batch of liquor. This time, the grade is not low.”

“In addition, you can go and check out other places, for example, Valley City, Goldstar City, the surrounding cities, and the surrounding states. You can try to expand.”

“If you find a relatively good place, we can also consider setting up some processing plants and breweries in places far from the city.”

“Nick’s current farm is still too close to the city. We are running more and more times, and it is very likely that we will be discovered by some people.”

“Before they find out, we have to be prepared for being discovered. This matter is up to you, Ennio.”

“This work is very important to us!”

Ennio nodded. He liked important work, which would give him a great sense of honor, “No problem. I’ll take care of the work I have on hand, and then I’ll do this.”

“Elvin.”

“Uh-huh?”

“Sean is going to school soon. You can take over the work at the firm for a while. I remember you said before that you have a suitable candidate. Let him get in touch with it first.”

“No problem, I will arrange it.”

Lance looked at Morris again, “Continue to collect intelligence that is beneficial or harmful to us…”

He arranged the recent work for everyone, including Mador’s group, who were still continuing to help the gang members with military-style training in batches and stages.

Each time for a week, about fifty people.

Although it was very hard, for the young people, this was actually a very interesting thing.

They ate better, and there were extra subsidies. Everyone had no complaints.

“I heard the Red High Heels’ building is still vacant?”

After the Red High Heels was shut down, no one took over the building. After Sam and Booker committed suicide, in a sense, that building no longer had an “owner.”

According to the laws of the Federation, this building would belong to the Federal Treasury Department.

But it was impossible for the Federal Treasury Department to send employees to manage this kind of ownerless property throughout the Federation. For example, some old people might have a worthless house.

He suddenly passed away in the winter without leaving any will. It was impossible for the Treasury Department to arrange for an employee to come to this area specifically to dispose of this house for a long time.

So for the Federation government, for non-sensitive assets, they would entrust the local authorities to auction them off and then take back the proceeds from the auction.

This method of disposal did not require the Treasury Department’s employees to be spread all over the Federation, and they could still dispose of all the assets.

In Golden Port, several banks have auction qualifications. Lance planned to take this building.

This building was in a prosperous section of the Empire District. Even if it couldn’t be used to open a bar at the moment, it could always have many uses.

Gerald’s movie had completed all the editing and was about to be released. At that time, there had to be a production company name, right?

An individual producer?

Although many movies were like this now, Lance still wanted to set up a company.

This required a company’s office location. Renovating the Red High Heels would be a good choice.

The news about the Wolf Gang continued to come in from Bolton’s side after breakfast, until finally, this group of Wolf Gang members entered Mr. Jobav’s villa.

And with that, Lance completely understood Mr. Jobav’s meaning.

For Mr. Jobav’s choice, Lance completely understood and respected it. This was like two people competing for the same thing.

On what grounds can you compete, but not let others compete?

Everyone has the right to compete, but everyone also needs to be prepared to bear the consequences!

Competition itself cannot possibly be peaceful!