Empire of Shadows

The scantily clad girl gathered the playing cards on the table with her slender fingers. Around the gambling table sat several gentlemen who looked either rich or noble.

Beside them, there were also various girls and women keeping them company.

These women were all very outstanding. They might have been the dream lovers of many, the goals they pursued.

But here, their faces were all filled with caution and a desire to please, serving the people around them.

“Are you just going to let it go like that?” a gentleman with some gray in his hair, sitting in the number one seat, looked at Mr. Bowen in the number three seat. “Do nothing, just let him owe you a favor, and that’s it?”

Mr. Bowen settled his losing chips, feeling a little sullen.

This matter had quickly become known to everyone, because a columnist from Golden Port Today had also published an article titled “Darkness Under the Sun.”

He had exposed some of the things behind the Dream Crystal Modeling Agency, such as providing high-end call girls for some celebrities and political figures, and even forcing some young girls to do some terrible things.

This reporter, named “George,” also talked about the possible problem of human trafficking behind this and linked it to the tens of thousands of missing teenagers each year.

As soon as the report was published, it caused a huge public outcry.Almost everyone had come into contact with similar things. A child from a certain family in the neighborhood would suddenly disappear one day and could never be found again, as if they had never existed.

They might guess that these children had gotten lost on their own and then encountered something bad.

They might also consider whether they had been forced into the dark world of human trafficking.

But a guess is always just a guess. Humans are very stubborn animals.

Sometimes people clearly know that something is wrong, but before they personally verify that it is indeed wrong, they will insist that it is not.

Just as people guessed there was kidnapping, trafficking, and human trade behind this, but before they found real evidence, these guesses only existed as the “worst-case scenario.”

Now, a corner of the dark curtain had been lifted.

The Golden Port police were very effective this time. They immediately controlled all the staff in the Dream Crystal Modeling Agency and interrogated them.

The whole operation was very fast, so fast that it gave people a very special feeling, as if… they had solved the case first, and then the report came out.

But in fact, the report came out first, and the case was solved later.

A large amount of criminal evidence was found. The general manager, besieged from within and without, chose to commit suicide with some of his management in his own villa.

The court, with unprecedented speed, tried all the criminals and gave them very heavy sentences. The entire Golden Port, and even Likalai State, felt that this was a successful upholding of justice.

People began to highly praise the speed and attitude of the police and were also discussing these matters.

In public opinion, besides discussing the matter itself, the praise for the federal government and the city hall even outweighed the criticism.

Of course, some people planned to dig deeper into this case, but it was destined to have no result, because these related personnel would soon die in prison.

Because of a kidnapping conflict in the prison, and because some criminals were very angry about the crimes of these people, they beat them to death by mistake.

This was quite normal.

All crimes involving women were the most looked down upon in prison, not just looked down upon, but because for these criminals…

When they are in prison, they cannot take care of their families. So it is also possible that someone will harm their families. The women of those families, their wives, their daughters, could all be the targets of these people’s harm.

If their tastes were heavy enough, their mothers were not impossible either.

According to the statistics of some institutions, single-parent families with women living alone with their children have a higher probability and possibility of being harmed than sound families.

Everything seemed to be very perfect.

George’s news was also reprinted by the Federation Daily and The Federal Post, gradually sparking greater discussion across the country.

Because it involved the tens of thousands of missing people each year, and the crime hidden under the sun, this was the most popular sore spot for the Federation people. Many people believed that George had a high probability of winning a Golden Newspaper Award this year.

It is worth mentioning that the Golden Newspaper Award is not a “sole winner award,” which means that many people can receive this honor, not just one person.

Several days had passed, and all the loose ends had been dealt with. Mr. Bowen was playing cards with some friends in his spare time.

His friend couldn’t help but bring up this topic.

The gentleman in the number two seat raised his hand. “Give us some private space. Thank you for your service.”

The girls, including the dealer, all took the initiative to leave the table. After bowing, they even left that room. The only people left in the entire room were those at the gambling table.

Bowen picked up the poker cards and began to shuffle them with a swish. “I’ve learned through other channels that the Lance Family is developing very rapidly.”

He was trying to cover up the real reason for his compromise, but the others clearly had no intention of letting him off so easily.

“Alright, stop with the deceptive talk. Say something meaningful.”

“Why did you compromise?”

Bowen began to deal them cards. “Compromising was the best I could do.”

“It was Wade who called me.”

“And do you remember?”

“The last time Cleveland came, he also spoke with Lance alone, as well as the Secretary of State and the Attorney General.”

“It’s just a woman. It’s a small matter for us. Don’t let the situation escalate. I don’t think I did anything wrong.”

The others were all taken aback for a moment, and then they remembered this matter.

The gentleman in the number four seat looked at his hand after receiving it and casually tossed two chips onto the gambling table. “What is this Mr. Lance White to that girl?”

“A girlfriend, or a friend?”

Mr. Bowen was a little speechless. “I don’t know, they didn’t tell me.”

“But I think it should just be an ordinary friend.”

If it were a girlfriend, Mr. Bowen felt that the other party would not have compromised, let alone given him the statement “Mr. Lance owes you a favor.”

He shook his head. “Let’s just leave it at that. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

He picked up his hand and looked at it. “Call.”

The gentleman in the number two seat, without even looking at his hole cards, chose to call, and at the same time said, “Has anyone had contact with him?”

“We are not allowed to play in our own garden. This is not in line with the rules.”

“The Five Families, Charlie, can’t we solve this problem?”

“I don’t want to be like Bowen, where next time I’m having a good time, some Lance calls me and says he owes me a favor and asks me to hand someone over.”

The other gentlemen all chuckled softly, which annoyed Mr. Bowen, but what they said was not without reason, so he could only sulk.

The gentleman in the number one seat threw his hand into the muck. “Can’t Charlie handle him?”

“A gang, the police, plus the Five Families, and they still can’t handle him?”

“Since when did Golden Port have such a super-tier organization?”

“How come I don’t know?”

He looked at the others. “I don’t know what you guys are thinking, but my idea is that Golden Port is not allowed to have such a special existence.”

“What about Sidney, what about those councilmen? In the end, the facts have proven…” he poked the felt of the gambling table, making a “duoduo” sound, “we are the masters here.”

Everyone had their own ideas. Their topic quickly shifted from Mr. Bowen’s matter to other aspects.

For example, the ongoing Tanfit War, which was also a topic that the powerful were more interested in recently.

“I heard from someone in the Presidential Palace that the Prime Minister of the Dantra Republic cursed him out in a phone call with Mr. President.”

Mr. Bowen was also interested in this topic. While looking at his hand, he asked, “Who?”

“Did Mr. President curse out the Prime Minister?”

The person who brought up this topic shook his head. “It was them who cursed out our Mr. President.”

The others also became interested. “How did they curse?”

“Starting with ‘son of a bitch’…”

The crowd couldn’t help but laugh out loud after hearing this, because the Prime Minister’s way of cursing was actually not much different from when they cursed.

After laughing for a while, their thinking began to change in other directions. “If our relationship continues to worsen, some trade issues with the Dantra Republic will need to be considered.”

“I hear their local situation is also very tense. Is it possible that some danger targeting Federation people will break out?”

Someone picked up the thread. “Are you trying to prevent it?”

That person didn’t speak. Mr. Bowen threw the cards in his hand into the muck. “I think perhaps a conflict breaking out is the most beneficial for us.”

On the other side of the city, Lance was sitting in a car with Patricia and the Lawrence couple, heading to the Lawrence family farm.

The Harvest Festival was in two days.

The Harvest Festival was a very important holiday in the Federation. Basically, everyone would have a day off, and some towns would also hold several days of “Harvest Festival activities.”

Such as farmers displaying the huge crops they had grown in their fields in the streets along with the parade floats.

The Harvest Festival activities were different in every place. Golden Port, being in the southeast of the Federation, had earlier contact with the world and a more diverse exchange of cultures, so the Harvest Festival was also more lively.

At that time, there would also be horse racing, bull roping, and various other parade activities. It was very interesting.

Every year, the members of the Lawrence family would return to the farm to spend this important holiday with the elders of the family.

Lance, as Patricia’s boyfriend and also William’s partner, it was natural that the three grandfathers in the family had heard about Lance and had specially asked people to bring him back to the farm for a visit.

Along the way, Patricia was telling Lance about the interesting things in the countryside.

She had spent a considerable part of her childhood on the farm, because the elders of the Lawrence family, like the older generation of most families with a certain heritage, were a bit… traditional, rigid, and old-fashioned.

They believed that children who grew up on a farm would have a stronger sense of family and would be more united than children who grew up in the city.

They didn’t like any bullshit spirit of questioning. They hoped that the family could always be united and loving. Only in this way could the Lawrence family continue to develop.

So Patricia had indeed experienced many interesting things in her childhood that children who had not lived on a farm would find difficult to understand.

“I don’t know if there will be many dung beetles on the farm this year. If there are, you’ll see a very interesting scene.”

Her eyes were curved into a slit, allowing Lance to feel a joy rising from the bottom of her heart, without any concealment. It was from her heart.

“There will be many dung beetles pushing cow dung and running on the farm. Before, we would each catch one, and then only give them one dung ball…”

Emily couldn’t help but say, “Pat, you are a lady. You can’t always talk about this.”

William was smiling all the while. He held his wife’s hand. “Dear, I think this is very interesting. No one has stipulated that farm children can’t play with dung beetles. I also played with them when I was a child.”

Patricia, having gotten William’s support, made a face at Emily and then continued to say to Lance, “Then these dung beetles will push this dung ball together from different directions. In the end, whoever pushes the dung ball away wins.”

“The winner has the right to choose their food first at dinner.”

There were actually many wild birds on the farm. In your work, if you find two wild birds constantly circling and calling above your head, then you must be careful. There must be a hidden bird’s nest near you.

On the farm, bird eggs were definitely one of the children’s favorite foods.

There might also be some other food. In fact, the Federation people at this time were not as picky as they would be in the future. People ate everything, as long as it was meat.

She also talked about the lambs, calves, and foals she had raised. But that foal had already become a big horse. As long as she had a long vacation and nothing else to do, she would go back to the farm.

She liked the scenery and the leisurely life there.

Lance listened to her talk about those things with a smile on his face. Some of them he knew, and had even experienced, and some he had not, for example, riding a horse.

It took about a day and a half to get from Golden Port to the Lawrence farm, mainly because part of the road was not easy to walk, but overall, the time was not tight.

When the car got off the interstate highway and entered a small road with a sign that said “Lawrence Farm,” they were not far from their destination.

They had rested at a motel last night. The soundproofing was not very good.

William at this time said to Lance with a proud look, “From here, looking south, as far as your eyes can see, is all our land.”

Lance looked out the car window, for the first time having a clearer understanding of the “large landowning class.”

“Including that mountain?”

There was a mountain in the distance, which didn’t look too short.

Williams nodded and said, “Including that mountain.”

Everything around was filled with the joy of the autumn harvest. Among the undulating crops in the wind, you could see many workers working.

They were all farm workers, from the nearby town. One-third of the town’s population worked for the Lawrence farm.

It could be said that they were the undisputed masters here.

There were also some large harvesting machines during this period, but overall, there was still more labor.

During the harvest, even if these crops were not their own, they would also have a heartfelt joy of harvest.

Because the Lawrence family’s harvest was stable this year, their jobs would not be a problem. This was the most simple thought of the working people.

The car gradually slowed down. The country roads were not easy to walk. After another forty minutes or so, they finally arrived at the core area of the “Lawrence Farm.”

It was a large farmstead, just as Lance had expected.

Many people were wearing overalls, large rubber boots, and straw hats, working here.

There were already many other people who had arrived here. When the convoy stopped, everyone’s eyes were fixed on them.

William got out of the car. The people’s eyes were all focused on him. Some called him “Councilman Lawrence,” and some called him “William boy.”

Looking at this group of at least dozens or even more people, the concept of “family” became even clearer in Lance’s mind.

“Good lad, our family has finally produced a councilman. When we go to report to God, we won’t have to look at your grandfather’s sullen face anymore.”

The person speaking was an old man with completely white hair. He was also wearing overalls, not much different from the surrounding farmers.

If it weren’t for Patricia introducing him to Lance as her second grand-uncle, Lance would only have thought he was an ordinary member of the farm.

Although the Lawrence family was not as prominent as the Williams family and the Wade family, it was also a large landowning family with a certain amount of power near Golden Port.

A wrong decision by their ancestors had made them miss the initial golden development of Golden Port, so much so that the Williams family and the Wade family had already crossed the class barrier.

And they were still fucking farming in the countryside.

At the mention of this, the few old men were full of anger, but they couldn’t vent it. After all, it was their fathers’ and grandfathers’ wrong decision.

William then also introduced Lance to the three old men. “This is Lance, Patricia’s boyfriend, and also my partner.”

“The reason I was able to become a councilman this time is all thanks to Lance.”

“He put in a lot of effort” and “it was all his doing,” although they sounded similar, were actually completely different things.

The three old men’s gazes were all focused on Lance. They sized him up.

Because it was their first day meeting and they didn’t know much about him, they didn’t make any comments, but they greeted him very warmly.

“For William to be able to bring you here shows that he already treats you as family.”

“Then you are also our family. I hope you can have a pleasant vacation here…”

(End of chapter)