Empire of Shadows

Matthew’s heart was pounding wildly.

This was caused by the secretion of adrenaline.

In a critical moment, a person will always trigger some small switches in their body, which will allow them to, with their fragile bodies, to fight against some disasters that are irresistible to ordinary human power!

He knew that these people were from the Lance Family!

In fact, he had long thought that there would be such a day, but he had not expected these people... to be so impatient.

He had thought that they might run into trouble in prison. He had even fantasized that if the Lance Family were to make a move on them in prison, perhaps they would still have a chance to survive.

But now he understood that from the very beginning, there had been no such possibility.

The surrounding cars had all stopped. One after another, people with weapons in their hands got out of the cars and surrounded this transport vehicle.

The driver of the transport vehicle and the bailiffs who were in charge of the safety on the road had fucking run off to god knows where, leaving only an empty driver’s cab.

Some more people had woken up. Influenced by the sound of the car doors opening and closing outside, they had woken up from their drowsy sleep and were looking around with some bewilderment.With a click, the door of the transport vehicle opened.

This door separated freedom and imprisonment. Clearly, as long as you left here, you could get freedom, but at this very moment, no one moved recklessly.

They were all sitting in the distance, or standing there.

A more luxurious car slowly drove over from a distance and stopped not far from the transport vehicle. The car window slowly rolled down, revealing Lance’s upper body.

He, through the intertwined steel bars of the car window, saw Matthew inside, and Matthew also saw him.

After the two had looked at each other for a moment, Matthew slowly walked out of the transport vehicle. His steps were faltering. The shackles, in the process of his movement, still added a lot of trouble to him, making him look very disheveled.

He held on to the handrail and jumped down from the car. His feet landed firmly on the ground. His slightly sunken and bent body also straightened up again.

He looked at Lance inside the car window and asked, ”Where is my eldest son?”

Lance looked at him and showed a very regretful expression. ”He resisted too fiercely. You know, we had no choice.”

This sentence seemed to have said nothing, but it seemed to have said everything.

In fact, Matthew, who was already mentally prepared, when he really heard this answer, he was still a little unable to bear it.

His relationship with his eldest son was the best. At that time, although his position was not high, and he was poor, he had a lot of time to accompany this child as he grew up.

They had played baseball together at the entrance of their house, had gone to watch baseball games together, and had sung the team song loudly for the victory of the team they supported.

They had done many things together: sports, fishing, reading...

The things he had lacked in his own childhood, he had made up for them in his eldest son with his own actions. That was not just as simple as his child, but was also a kind of compensation for himself in his childhood!

He had placed too many feelings on this child, but now, he was dead.

Matthew was so sad that his eyes were red. At first, he didn’t want to show his weak side, but soon he couldn’t help but cover his face and sob.

”Was he... in pain?” he looked at Lance with a hopeful look. Even if his child was dead, he hoped that he had died a clean death, and not after being tortured.

In fact, he no longer had much of a fantasy of being able to live. So he hoped that before he died, he would know these things. This would make him not so confused on his way to hell.

Lance nodded. ”Yes, clean and neat. You know, my lads are good at this.”

He raised his chin slightly and touched his neck. ”There were a few cuts here, and then a few stabs in the heart. He didn’t even have time to feel the pain.”

Matthew leaned against the transport vehicle and fell to the ground. He almost held his head and cried bitterly.

The atmosphere at the scene was really terrible. The people on the transport vehicle had not come down. They had not yet given up their fantasy.

After crying for a while, Matthew wiped away his tears and showed his red and swollen eyes. ”My wife and my other two children...”

Lance looked at him for a while and then said, ”They will live.”

Matthew let out a heavy sigh of relief. ”You are a man of your word.”

Lance smiled. ”This is a deal. You have paid with your life, and I have paid with the safety of your family.”

”As long as they don’t think of dealing with me, then they can continue to live in safety.”

He paused for a moment as he spoke. ”Is there anything else you want to ask?”

Matthew thought for a moment. ”Can you give me a cigarette?”

Lance nodded slightly. A young man next to him handed his weapon to his companion, and then, with a cigarette and a lighter, he came to Matthew’s side.

He gave Matthew a cigarette. Matthew lit it and took a deep drag. This was the last cigarette of his life!

He said thank you, and then, intoxicated, he enjoyed the satisfaction brought by the cigarette.

When the cigarette was almost finished, he stood up, holding on to the car door. ”Can I... I’m not saying I’m so great, everything happened because of me, can I take all the responsibility?”

There was some hope in his eyes. If only he died, it could be considered that he had given his subordinates an explanation.

But Lance shook his head. In his disappointed eyes, he said, ”Time is up.”

The car window was rolled up. The car slowly turned around and left this place. When Lance’s car had left this place for about twenty meters, a fierce gunshot resounded through the entire wilderness.

Matthew had fallen to the ground at the first moment. He looked at the cigarette butt that was so close to his eyes, and there was still a last puff that he hadn’t finished.

He had been shot at least twenty or thirty times, probably.

He didn’t think of saving himself or anything, but with all his strength, he picked up the cigarette, put it in his mouth, squinted his eyes slightly, and took another puff.

And there would be no more.

The gunshots had not yet ended. The young men were holding their guns and were firing frantically at the people in the carriage. The bullets hit this transport vehicle like a rainstorm.

Twenty or so seconds later, the gunshots stopped.

The body of the car was full of large and small holes, and not a single person in the car could stand.

Two young men reloaded their magazines, came onto the car, and finished off the bodies lying on the ground.

Then the group of people quickly left by car, leaving only Matthew outside, the corpses inside, and a car that could be sent to be scrapped.

Matthew’s death did not alarm any ordinary people, but some of the people at a slightly higher level, those who should know, all knew about this.

For the lieutenant governor, this was a kind of shame!

No matter what background Lance had, in Indeno State, for him to compromise with a gangster boss, even if he had a thousand reasons, people would look down on him.

The chief of the state police was soon also ”implicated.” A judge had approved the arrest of the chief, and then he was prosecuted for dereliction of duty, which was actually a very light crime. The judge’s side had sentenced him to twelve months, which was one year.

At the same time, he only needed to serve six months before he could apply for parole. In fact, the time he had to serve was not very long.

This matter seemed to have ended here?

No, in fact, every participant knew that the game had just begun!

Lance had paid a visit to Mayor Wade. This was also Mayor Wade’s first close contact with Lance.

He couldn’t help but feel a sincere admiration for Lance’s handsomeness and youth.

”Has anyone told you that you could totally be a movie star!”

As soon as they came up, they wouldn’t talk about such in-depth topics. Lance was sitting in Mayor Wade’s office, sitting opposite him.

He was crossing his legs, his hands resting naturally on the armrests. He nodded slightly. ”Before, when I was supervising ’Surprise Attack on Golden Port,’ I would often be on the Creek Valley City side. Many scouts had contacted me, wanting me to be in a movie.”

”This matter has given me a great sense of security.”

Mayor Wade felt that his thinking was a little behind Lance’s words. Did being handsome have any direct relationship with a sense of security?

However, he was the one who had started the topic, so he could only show a curious look at Lance, as if he were asking, ”What the fuck do you mean?”

Lance smiled and explained, ”If one day I can’t run my business anymore, at least I can still go and be in a movie, to be a movie star.”

After listening, Mayor Wade was stunned for a moment, and then laughed twice. ”But making a movie is not as profitable as your current business.”

Lance just responded with a smile and did not answer this question.

The two chatted for a while more about what Lance had done after Mayor Wade had left, including the demise of the Five Families. For Mayor Wade, who was born and raised in Golden Port City, this was still very impactful.

The Five Families, this kind of force that was both in opposition to each other and also supported each other, was actually not so easy to topple.

If they could be toppled so easily, then when Mayor Wade was still here, there would not have been a Five Families.

However, he also did not think that the demise of the Five Families was entirely Lance’s work. There were also many coincidences involved in this, and it was more like a masterpiece of heaven.

If Christopher hadn’t killed Paul, if the Cassia family hadn’t been turned, if the Koda family hadn’t thought of staying out of it, if...

If they could have put their greed aside and thought more about the bad developments, perhaps it wouldn’t have been like this.

Lance had played a role in pushing the waves.

After they had finished talking about some of the news from their hometown, the atmosphere also became much warmer. Mayor Wade opened his cigarette case and pushed it towards Lance.

Lance casually took one, and the two began to blow clouds.

”What are your plans next?” Mayor Wade took the initiative to ask this question.

Lance, on the other hand, did not hide anything. ”Continue to do business.”

”Mayor Wade, actually, from a certain point of view, I am more like a merchant.”

”I will continue to smuggle liquor here. The consumption power of Indeno State is not at all worse than that of Likalai State. There is a very deep market here. I believe that my wine will also become a best-seller here.”

In front of a mayor, a government official, Lance was speaking frankly about the illegal business of smuggling liquor.

Mayor Wade did not show any dissatisfaction or disgust. When a person’s status has reached a certain level, the line between crime and not crime has actually long been blurred by power. It is indistinguishable!

Just like the chief of the state police, just like Police Captain Matthew, the things they did, if an ordinary person had done them, would have been enough to have them electrocuted to a crisp in an electric chair.

But they were the privileged class, with some of the authority bestowed by the gentlemen, so the laws, the common sense, the rules that could be applied to ordinary people did not apply to them.

The reason why they had ended up like this was not because they had violated the law, but simply because they had lost in the last terrible purge. That’s all!

The law cannot judge power.

Mayor Wade knew this very well, so he did not feel the slightest discomfort. On the contrary, he was very willing to talk about these things with Lance.

He nodded. ”This is a good idea, but it also means that you and the local gangs will have frequent conflicts.”

Lance had an indifferent look on his face. ”This is very normal, isn’t it?”

”There is commercial competition in business, and I have also heard a saying—”

”The marketplace is like a battlefield!”

”The smuggling business is also a business. A little friction, and even a ’war’ is within my expectation.”

Mayor Wade nodded. ”We can continue to strengthen our cooperation in this aspect.”

”The lieutenant governor has been greatly shamed this time. He will definitely hate you very much. The governor’s side doesn’t have a very good impression of you either, so you will encounter a lot of trouble in your sales.”

”Some of the trouble, I will help you solve, and I hope that some of my troubles, you can help me solve!”

Lance did not immediately agree. ”What trouble do you have that you need me to solve?”

Mayor Wade said very directly, ”I’m short of money.”

”Short of money?” Lance was a little incredulous. ”Everyone says that the Wade family has accumulated a large amount of wealth for generations. I have never thought that you would be short of money. This sounds like a cold joke.”

Mayor Wade shook his head, his expression very serious. ”If I don’t consider running for governor, my money is enough for me and my family to use.”

”Although what you said is a bit exaggerated, it is also a fact.”

”But I have to choose to run for governor. My funds have a big gap. I am an outsider, Lance!”

”If I want to gain a firm foothold here, it’s not just a matter of me being better than others. I also have to come up with more tangible benefits. Only in this way can I persuade them to stand on my side.”

”Spending money here is like flowing water. Sometimes I feel like I’m a... an ATM!”

”They can all come to me to get money. The money is spent too fast!”

On this point, Mayor Wade had a deep feeling.

He had never thought that money would not be enough.

But on the contrary, this also let him see the greatness of money. Now the number of people who supported him was not much less than the number of people who supported the lieutenant governor. As long as he continued to increase his investment in funds, bribes, from the voters to the party representatives, they would all become his close friends.

”We can do this business together, the liquor business!”

”In the cities on my side, I can guarantee that in the cities that I can influence, the people on the police’s side will definitely not make things difficult for you.”

”I can also guarantee that when you have a firefight with those gangs, the police will always appear last!”

A very sincere cooperation plan. Lance considered for a moment and then agreed. ”I have no reason to refuse.”

He stood up, extended his hand, and shook hands with Mayor Wade. ”Happy cooperation.”

”Happy cooperation!”