Empire of Shadows

After Mr. Charles returned to his cell from the visiting room, the person living below him took the initiative to ask, “What’s wrong?”

The shares in these people’s hands had basically all been taken by Lance. Besides the wealth they originally had, they had completely lost control of the dock investment company.

In Golden Port City, just having money in your hands was actually of no use.

Did Mr. Jobav have money?

He was very rich, but what was his result?

Besides people like Mr. Jobav, what about the others?

For example, the current investors in the New Port District, do they have money?

If they didn’t have money, they wouldn’t have been able to build the New Port District, the new Bay Area, and the New Port Docks. They were very rich.

But what was the result?

In this city, everything revolved around the docks, revolved around power. They had already lost the power they had, like a tall building that had lost its foundation.The more money they had in their hands, the taller this building without a foundation would be, the greater the risk of collapse, and the stronger the resulting loss and destructive power would be.

After all, if a poor person falls, it’s just a fall. But if a rich person falls from the top of a building, it’s not just a fall.

Now, the only person they could rely on was Mr. Charles, and he was a little nervous.

Mr. Charles shook his head. He did not talk about Lance wanting the shares in his hands. On the one hand, he believed that this should be a kind of probing from Lance. He would definitely talk to him.

To talk about how much those shares were worth, but it was definitely not one dollar.

He did not plan to tell these people in prison about his idea of selling the shares in his hands for the time being, to avoid causing some unnecessary trouble.

“My lawyer and I talked about the possibility of parole,” he said, looking at the other’s face, which was full of inquiry and curiosity, and shook his head. “It was not successful.”

In the Federation, if an inmate had been serving his sentence seriously and had shown obvious signs of remorse and repentance, then the prison would believe that he met the requirements for parole, and parole could be granted.

That is, early release from prison.

Mr. Charles’s sentence was not long in the first place. It was possible for him to get out a few days or two or three weeks early.

The guy who had gotten out of his bed showed a look of some regret. “They are really stupid!”

Mr. Charles said nothing, but just forced a smile.

For a whole afternoon, they were all reading in their cells.

At first, these people were in no mood, and they couldn’t calm down to read the boring books. But after being locked up for a period of time, they had begun to adapt to this kind of life.

Because they were not forced to work, their time became more and more idle, so they naturally needed something to pass the time.

Tonight, there was a supply of hot water in the prison. Everyone only had five minutes, with the exception of some inmates.

The ordinary inmates were arranged to take a shower before dinner. They directly stripped naked and rushed into the bathroom, then turned on the hot water. The moment the hot water showered down, these vicious and evil inmates would also show simple and pure laughter.

Hot water could soothe not only physical fatigue, but also mental fatigue.

But happy times are always short. The five-minute hot water supply soon ended. The moment the water pipe no longer had steaming hot water coming out, the relaxed smiles on the inmates’ faces instantly disappeared.

Many people began to curse the prison, curse the prison guards, curse everything.

But they dared not curse the warden.

Cursing the prison guards would not be taken seriously, but if you cursed the warden, you might have an accident if you were unlucky.

A prison guard was tapping the iron door with his baton. “Five minutes are up. Get the hell out of here, you swine, and hurry up!”

The inmates had to leave here while wiping their bodies, because the next batch was about to come in.

This prison held more than three thousand criminals, all from the surrounding cities. Fortunately, the bathroom was large enough. In less than an hour, almost everyone had finished their bathing.

The second to last batch were the gang leaders and the like in the prison, or people who were more famous outside.

For example, a part of the Lance Family was also locked up. Some had come in to take the blame for the family’s business, and some had come in a few years ago.

Now, with the Lance Family’s power in Golden Port City and even Likalai State growing larger and larger, their treatment in prison was also getting better and better. They were arranged to take a shower in the second to last batch.

The time for this shower was fifteen minutes.

Of course, in order not to affect dinner, they had come to the bathroom after they had finished eating dinner.

Fifteen minutes was enough for them to relax completely. Every few positions, there was an inmate showering. They sometimes had some communication between them.

“Can you fucking not jerk off in the shower?”

“Then when?”

“It’s so cold now. Only when I’m here are my hands hot. Do you like it cold?”

“Fuck!”

And so on.

The prison guards had long been accustomed to it.

After they had finished their shower, these people were stared at by the prison guards and left. Then, the last batch of inmates began to take a shower.

These were all the people in the prison who had paid money.

They were basically all rich people who had paid for better service and treatment.

Although this was not a private prison, with commercial operations, as long as an inmate was willing to pay, they could still enjoy better treatment.

Mr. Charles came to a shower stall wrapped in a towel. They were still using the prison guards’ bathroom. For these gentlemen of the upper class, they were not very used to being naked with others.

He walked into a stall. The moment the hot water fell on his body, he let out a heavy sigh of relief.

He chatted with the guy next door for a few sentences, then took the shampoo and poured it on his head. The constantly forming foam made him temporarily close his mouth. The surrounding area seemed to have no more talking sounds, only the sound of the water from the shower head washing the mosaic tiles on the ground.

After two or three minutes at most, he seemed to have heard someone leave. He didn’t pay much attention and went back into the water to rinse the foam from his head.

After the foam was rinsed clean, he casually chatted with the guy in the next stall again. “What are you planning to do next?”

There was no sound, no answer from next door.

He frowned after waiting for a few seconds, then took a step back and looked at the stall next door.

When he saw his bunkmate hanging from the shower pipe, swaying back and forth under the impact of the water and looking at him, Mr. Charles’s heart felt as if it had been squeezed hard by a hand!

A few minutes later, the prison guards came here. Looking at the inmate hanging on the water pipe, there was not much change in their expression.

It was not that it had never happened that an inmate had committed suicide because he could not stand the life in prison. It could even be said that it happened often, and everyone was already used to it.

This was not a good era, to be honest.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that all aspects of the Federation are booming. This is not a good era, for those ordinary people.

The evil gangs, the greedy police, the corrupt government officials, and the unions that run rampant in the market, the labor federation that manipulates public opinion at will, and all kinds of civil organizations, religions, anything.

This is really not a good era. There are too many mountains pressing on the heads of the people.

There are many people who are framed and sent to prison, because the cost is very low.

Someone sleeps for a night and becomes a murderer.

Someone just doesn’t come to work for a day and becomes a thief.

Someone just raises the point of “why are you doing this to me, I have done nothing wrong” to the police, and he is determined to be assaulting a police officer.

Some ordinary people can still hold on after they enter prison, and may even become stronger because of it. They will work out, practice fighting, and hang out with gang members, in order to get revenge when they get out.

But there are also some who really can’t stand the life in prison. The bullying situation in prison is much more serious than outside.

Not having food is just the gentlest way. Sometimes you even have to offer your ass to many people.

For those old villains, besides their gender, there is no difference between them and a girl.

Here are the most vicious and ugly methods of torturing people in the world. It is not a small number of people who can’t stand it and commit suicide, and there are also those who are “suicided.”

What was in front of him was clearly a case of suicide because he couldn’t stand it anymore. After Mr. Charles was questioned twice, he was allowed to be sent back to his cell.

A little later, a prison guard specially came to tell him that his bunkmate had committed suicide.

In fact, Mr. Charles himself had some guesses. He believed that the guy who was his bunkmate had definitely not committed suicide. Before he had “committed suicide,” they were still talking about some things outside. It was impossible for him to suddenly want to commit suicide.

He had his doubts.

He suspected that it was Lance who had done it, and if this matter was said to have been completed without the cooperation of the prison guards, it would have been impossible.

He could only acquiesce to this fact.

A person dying in prison was as if it had never happened.

The next morning, at breakfast, he told the others about this. The expressions of the others were particularly wonderful, with terror and unease. He had never seen these expressions in the eyes of these people.

Today was a yard day. Logically, their yard time and the yard time of the ordinary inmates were separate, but today it was very strange. These people were asked to have yard time with the ordinary inmates.

Mr. Charles felt that something was wrong. He asked not to leave his cell, but the prison guard told him that if he didn’t want to get beaten, he had better go to the open space outside.

“Getting beaten” was a prison slang. When a prison guard hit someone with a baton, it was like hacking with an axe or a knife, so what he was expressing was that if Mr. Charles didn’t go out, he would be beaten.

Just like that, they were forced to be driven out.

When they appeared in the open space for yard time, many people whistled.

“Look, what a good day today. The girls have all come out!”

Those who were in groups and clearly had their own gang characteristics all stood up. Some were laughing and mocking them, and some were provoking them.

How could these big shots from the upper class have experienced this?

Each and every one of them was so scared that their faces turned pale and they couldn’t speak!

(End of a Chapter)