Empire of Shadows

The atmosphere in the city was a bit gloomy. People didn’t know what was happening, but they could feel that the raindrops were already pattering down.

Hitting the ground, hitting the puddles, and also hitting people’s faces.

The feeling of walking in a heavy rain, with dark clouds covering the sky and making the world seem like night, was particularly terrible.

Mayor Williams’s gaze returned from the window outside. He had already received the full news that Lance had sent people to the school to make a move.

He held a cigarette between his fingers, but he had not taken many puffs.

The long, slowly burning white ash fell from the cigarette butt with a gust of wind.

He looked down and let the ash drift out of the window.

“The spearhead of every matter points directly at Hoff, but Hoff is just a front-line character. The people behind him are the key.”

He walked from the window back to his office chair and sat down. The office was very luxuriously decorated, but it was a low-key kind of luxury.

These desks, chairs, and cabinets, which looked like “old furniture,” exuded a kind of nobility that ordinary people could not fathom.Perhaps if an ordinary person came in, they would have a very strange feeling, which was that Mayor Williams must be a good mayor. You see, how simple his office is.

James, sitting opposite him, nodded. “I don’t like the current political environment. Everything is linked to money. The capitalists are too corrupt, and yet we have no good solution.”

Hoff’s decisive “escape” had made Mayor Williams feel some emotion, a very special emotion. He lamented that a regional opinion leader like Mr. Hoff, in Golden Port City, Likalai State, was already considered to be in the middle class of the upper class, yet was still just a front-line figure.

Is money really that important?

He asked himself.

Then he agreed with this view.

Money is very important!

James, as his son, understood his father’s thoughts. As he became a municipal councilman, he also began to have more feelings.

“In the past, when I was still learning by your side, I was often very puzzled.”

Mayor Williams turned his head to look at his son, his attention focused on him, signaling him to continue.

After James adjusted his sitting posture, he lit a cigarette. “The puzzling part was, why you, Councilman Wade, and the others would sometimes lament the invasion of capital into the political arena.”

“At that time, I didn’t understand. But after I became a municipal councilman, I finally understood.”

He began to count on his fingers. “City Hall gives me seventy-nine dollars a month…”

Mayor Williams couldn’t help but laugh. He raised his hand and waved it as if shooing away a fly. “Come on, you know, that has nothing to do with me. All the municipal councilmen in the Federation get this price!”

James was also laughing. “I know. I’m not complaining about you. I’m just stating this fact.”

“I have an office of about twenty square meters in City Hall. It can’t even fit a sofa set.”

“I have to rent an office, and it can’t be too small, because I have my team to take care of.”

“I rented a floor of an office building in the city center, which costs 220 a month.”

“I also have eleven people under me: a driver, a secretary, a clerk, a front desk…”

“On average, each person takes about seventy-five from me a month. Eleven people, that’s more than 800.”

“I also have five cars, and I need to take care of their maintenance and fuel costs. Although it’s not a lot, it’s still several dozen a month.”

“And then sometimes we also have to hold some political activities, from one or two hundred to three or five thousand.”

This kind of political activity in the jurisdiction was actually quite frequent, especially for newly elected municipal councilmen. They needed to communicate more with the public to understand this district and what they needed.

If you gather the citizens, you can’t just have them sit in a row in the park. Even if James could do that, he would also need to let these people have a drink of water and something to eat.

And when they left, it would be best if they could also take some with them.

This had already become a bad habit in the political arena. As long as you had close contact with the voters, you had to let them get something.

This was still referring to the worst case. For a person like James, who had the “burden of the Williams family,” he would spend money to rent a venue and hire some security guards. The price would be very high.

He didn’t want people to say that “the Williams family can’t even afford this little money!”

“And then there are the expenses for business trips.”

He waved his fingers, talking to Mayor Williams about some of his discoveries and changes in his work. “My average monthly expenditure is between two and three thousand. If there are any political activities, business trips, or the like, it will basically exceed five thousand.”

“Even if the monthly average is 2,500, that’s 30,000 a year.”

“Father, thirty thousand!”

“For a municipal councilman to maintain his job well, to let people see his ability and ambition, he has to invest 30,000 or even more a year!”

“But our salary is less than a thousand a year.”

“Without the capitalists and their money, we are nothing!”

This was James’s own experience. After he began to serve as a municipal councilman, he finally felt this… he didn’t know how to describe it, the feeling of being completely powerless without money.

Mayor Williams looked at his son with great gratification for his great progress in this aspect. A smile appeared on his face:

“It’s good that you have these insights. It shows that you are really taking your job seriously.”

“Money is like a noose, tied around the neck of every politician.”

“The bad news is that it not only cannot be untied, but it will also get tighter and tighter.”

“But the good news is that whether the noose will hang you or not depends entirely on yourself.”

“The budget for every general election is rising at an astonishing rate. A few times before, it only took seven or eight million to handle a general election.”

“But the last time, and it was a mid-term election, they had already spent 17 million.”

“What about next time?”

“How much will be spent?”

“Some people speculate that it may be over 25 million, and every time it rolls over, there will be a significant increase.”

“No one knows if it will stop, but everyone knows that its role will become greater and greater!”

“So great that it can affect the final result.”

James nodded. “Yes. So from here, Hoff’s escape is not strange. Lance exposed him. Whether for himself or for the people behind him, he had to disappear.”

“To protect those capitalists!”

Mayor Williams agreed with his point of view. “This is also why I let Arthur focus on business. If we rely on external wealth, one day, we will also become the front-line figures of others.”

“They will use the wealth that we cannot come up with to force us to bow our heads and then follow their arrangements.”

“From a municipal councilman to the president, it’s all like this.”

“But if we have our own money, we can do whatever we want. No one can threaten us with elections and funds!”

James did not deny it and nodded. “That’s right.”

“Hoff ran away, so he ran away. There are other front-line figures in Golden Port City. Lance will dig them out one by one!” Mayor Williams raised his eyebrows.

“Charles can’t escape. He has woven a huge net, and everyone is caught in it.”

“When they are strong, this net will be their strongest barrier, protecting them from harm.”

“But when their situation becomes precarious, this net can also prevent any of them from escaping!”

“This time, the entire city’s structure will undergo a huge change. This is also an opportunity for us, an opportunity to completely not rely on others!”

A light flashed in Mayor Williams’s cloudy eyes. People have different thoughts and demands at different times.

In the beginning, he felt that as long as he could maintain the status and reputation of the Williams family, it would be enough.

But with the departure of the Wade family, he began to want to become the mayor, and constantly changed his thoughts, wanting to put the brand of the Williams family on Golden Port City!

Now, his ambition was no longer limited to this city.

If, from this change in the city’s structure, he could get more benefits for his family, then in the future, to make a run for governor would not necessarily be impossible.

The election for governor, to put it bluntly, was still a competition within Likalai State. As the mayor of Golden Port City, he had a natural advantage.

In addition, with huge political power and wealth, it was not impossible for a “Governor Williams” to appear!

Listening to his words, James was also a little moved, but soon he frowned again. “Arthur’s side…”

Before he could finish his sentence, the phone on the desk suddenly rang.

The gazes of both the father and son were focused on the phone. For some reason, they both felt that this call might not be so simple.

The weather outside, which had originally had some sunshine, suddenly became a little gloomy. The sky was still bright, but the sun was gone.

It was going to snow again.

At this time, in the old industrial district, a large number of factories were facing demolition. There was no cheaper labor than the refugees.

The weather was still very cold, but the demolition site was filled with a sense of fiery activity.

The refugee workers were swinging heavy sledgehammers, knocking down the already damaged factory buildings. They had to completely clear all the vacant places, and then there was a lot of construction work.

The community, the buildings, could be left to the real estate developers and construction companies to bid for and do, but the roads were planned from the very beginning and could be built first.

Looking from the air, the densely packed workers were gathered together, transforming this piece of land bit by bit.

Several refugee workers were gathered together. They were wearing patched-up cotton clothes. A few of them were panting heavily. Every breath would cause a large amount of white mist to be spewed from their mouths.

The expressions on the faces of these few people were a little different from the expressions of the others. Besides them, some other people around had also stopped their work at this time.

They exchanged glances with each other. Soon, they seemed to have made a decision.

One of them suddenly shouted, “Let’s take a break. We’ve been working for half a day!”

The people around him also started to shout. “Yeah, we’ve been working for half a day. We’re exhausted. We need a break!”

The demolition work in this area was the responsibility of Arthur’s company. This… was clearly a big money-maker, and it didn’t require any technical work. Mayor Williams was still taking good care of Arthur.

Of course, Arthur himself was also very competitive. He never came to the construction site to give random commands, and he didn’t even take the initiative to interfere with the company’s operation, although the company was under his name.

The federal government did not prohibit officials and their families from doing business. The fact that Mayor Williams had contracted the project to Arthur was in line with the standards of federal law.

As long as there was no power-money transaction between them, and Arthur could meet the standards of demolition as agreed, then no one could accuse Mayor Williams of using his official power for personal gain.

Who else to give the project to? Can’t you just give it to your own son?

There is simply no such law!

If there were no accidents, this would probably be the same as the past projects. After the project was over, Arthur would contact the mayor’s secretary, and then get the full payment.

Hiring refugee workers was the current method of making a price difference in Golden Port City, and even in all the cities with refugees. The huge gap between the cost and the actual expenditure could allow every company to eat its fill.

Now people were not afraid of big projects. The bigger the project, the more primitive the project plan, the happier people were!

Because this could get more extra profit from the wage difference. Many companies, when bidding, in order to get an opportunity, from the cost budget, they would even lose money!

But today, now, some things were happening.

The foreman was soon attracted by the shouts of these people. Not being able to hold a hot cup of coffee and eat doughnuts in the office on a cold winter day was like hell for the people of the Federation!

The foreman’s temper would not be too good either. A person with a good temper could not be a foreman.

They and the slave owners of the past were only different in title, and they could not arbitrarily kill these workers.

The foreman walked over here. Seeing the people who were clamoring for a rest, his brow immediately furrowed. “Didn’t you just have a break?”

About an hour ago, these people had already had a break. Now they wanted another break. This made the foreman think that they were obviously looking for trouble.

Rest is contagious. If they wanted a break here, the other workers who were working would, as if they were afraid of losing out, also take the initiative to put down their tools and stop.

It had been fine for the past few days. Why were these people so annoying today?

This terrible weather and having to be out in the cold wind already made the foreman not very happy. Now these lazy bums were also trying to slack off. He was even more unhappy!

“Didn’t you fucking just have a break?” he shouted.

The faces of the few workers briefly showed some strange smiles. One of them suddenly shouted, “Why are you cursing?”

“The wages you give us are so low, only a dozen or so dollars, and you don’t even allow us to rest, and you still curse and insult us!”

“We are also human. We are not slaves!”

“If you had spoken nicely, maybe we could have continued to work for a while. You’re so arrogant. Today we are just going to have to rest!”

A few of the workers threw their tools heavily on the ground. At this time, some of the surrounding refugee workers had gathered around. A few of the older ones even took the initiative to persuade them to stop fighting.

It wasn’t that they were biased towards the refugee side, or the Federation side. They were just afraid of causing trouble and having these foremen fire them all.

In these days, it’s really not easy to find a stable job. And it’s a big winter. Even if it’s only a dozen or so dollars a month, it’s enough to get a family through the cold winter!

It was just that these few old workers didn’t understand at all. It wasn’t that they couldn’t be persuaded, but that from the very beginning, the purpose of these people was to provoke a conflict!

The foreman’s authority was questioned and challenged. He immediately waved his hand and shouted, “You’re fired!”

A few young men immediately rushed over. “On what grounds are you firing us?”

“It’s fine to fire us. Pay us for this month!”

With the physical contact, the conflict between the two sides quickly evolved from a verbal one to a physical one.

A refugee worker suddenly punched the foreman, hitting him so hard that he saw stars. He had been working in the company for so many years. Thanks to Arthur, how could he have ever suffered such a big loss?

He stumbled and sat on the ground, then took out the whistle in his clothes and blew it!

Toot~~

Toot!

The security guards who were warming themselves by the fire in the shelter in the distance heard the whistle and were stunned for a moment. Then their faces became solemn and they ran towards the direction of the whistle. Before they got close, they found that many people had already gathered there.

They didn’t know what had happened in the crowd. They just subconsciously and instinctively pushed through the crowd, wanting to go in.

Just with this one push and shove, someone suddenly screamed, “The Federation people are hitting people!”

Then a few refugee workers began to fight back. The security guards who had been beaten silly also began to fight back. The entire construction site quickly became chaotic!

Under the collective consciousness, soon everyone lost their reason and became simple and fierce.

The number of people in the management company was definitely not as many as the refugee workers. Soon they were submerged in the refugee workers.

Some of the refugees had already realized that something was wrong and had left early. But more of the young people had been controlled in their actions and thoughts. They even began to proactively attack the surrounding Federation foremen and company staff, and also went to snatch food and supplies!

The news of the sudden riot in the old industrial district instantly spread throughout the city. After receiving the alarm call, Chief Bruce personally went to the front line. A large number of police forces, with the police wailing, came to the scene of the old industrial district.

Chief Bruce, who hadn’t even gotten out of his car, took a deep breath and directly ordered the police car to retreat. They had too few people and needed more reinforcements!

And at this time, Mayor Williams was answering the phone that had suddenly rung.

“Arthur is in our hands,” the guy on the other end of the line threw out this “bomb” as soon as he came up.

Mayor Williams pressed the speakerphone button so that James could also hear. “How do you prove it?”

(End of a Chapter)