Empire of Shadows

Gomez looked at Lance with an ”it can’t be like this” emotion in his eyes, but after this emotion, there was a ”why is it like this” sadness.

Because he vaguely knew that Lance was right.

He was too rich.

”Your golden lighter is deeply impressed in my memory, Gomez.”

”My understanding of you far exceeds my understanding of Diego, but even if I don’t know him very well, I know that in his eyes, the entire country is his personal wealth.”

”Including you.”

”Do you know why Cassia can get his trust, but you can’t?”

”The problem is right here!”

Lance’s fingers tapped on the table. ”Cassia is very poor. Even if he was the Undersecretary of Commerce, with great power, he was still very poor.”

”I heard him say before that he and his family were still squeezed into a small house, because he had no money to buy a bigger house.””So Diego trusts him, and believes that he will be a useful tool.”

”You raise a group of dogs. You will definitely have the best relationship with the one that is closest to you and protects your interests everywhere.”

”Not with the dog that eats your things.”

”Today it can steal your food, maybe tomorrow, it can bite you. You are not loyal, which is your biggest problem.”

Hearing this, Gomez was already covered in a cold sweat. He took out a handkerchief and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead.

He had indeed used his identity, the identity of the president of the chamber of commerce, to make a great fortune.

Everyone was fucking doing it. If you didn’t, you were a fool, so he was also doing it.

Just by wiping the sweat from his face once, the handkerchief was already soaked. He said with some unwillingness, ”But I have never harmed Diego’s interests.”

Lance had a different view on his statement. ”You haven’t harmed his interests. Where did the money in your hands come from?”

The money in Gomez’s hands was earned by selling quotas, selling approval slips.

A toaster imported from the Federation cost about three-plus. It would be sold at a price of five, and the money earned would be handed over to Diego, not a single cent less.

But a toaster is a scarce commodity. Many people can’t buy it even if they want to. So, who to sell this batch of toasters to, and who not to, was up to him.

Some people, who wanted to get it in advance, would give him some gifts, and stuff some money, one or two dollars, and he would sell these toasters to these people.

Or, they had imported a batch of cloth from the Federation. There were also many factories that needed cloth, but each time they could only satisfy a part of them.

So who could be satisfied, and who couldn’t get these materials, it depended on whether everyone had sincerity.

Lance knew this trick, and Gomez also knew. It was clear that Diego also knew.

”These... are not the profits of the goods, but just the benefits they gave me,” his face turned slightly pale. He seemed to have finally understood the reason why Diego’s gaze, when he occasionally looked at him, was very unfriendly.

However, he was still defending himself. He wanted to persuade Lance, but he wanted to persuade himself even more.

Lance said in a low voice, ”You forgot, the whole country, the mountains, the water, the people, even a pebble on the side of the road, a weed, are all his.”

”The money they used to bribe you is also his!”

In a dictatorial environment, it is just like this. The ruling group takes it for granted that they own everything, including the wealth that actually has no relationship with them.

Gomez was too rich. His food, clothing, housing, and transportation were all imported from the Federation. If it weren’t for the need to be a little more low-key, his convoy would not be much worse than Diego’s.

He felt that everything he had today was the result of his own hard work, but from a relatively objective point of view, everything he had today was bestowed by Diego.

He had put the money that originally belonged to Diego into his own pocket. He had made a mistake.

It was just that his older sister had not yet lost favor. Once that woman lost favor, she and this younger brother of hers would become a thing of the past.

Gomez’s scalp was already tingling slightly. He took out a handkerchief and wiped away the sweat that was quickly squeezing out of his pores on his head, his face. With a pleading look on his face, he hunched his back, lowered his head, and called out Lance’s name in a begging voice—

”Mr. Lance!”

Lance looked at him with his legs crossed. ”Work hard for me, for the Federation. These are not a problem.”

”I’m telling you these, just to make you understand one thing, and that is that you actually have no way out.”

He paused for a moment. ”Alright, I’m already very tired today. Come over tomorrow morning, and we’ll go and have a look around.”

Gomez quickly stood up and took his leave. Lance shook his head, washed up, and went to sleep.

The next morning, early in the morning, Gomez came to the hotel. After Lance had woken up, he finally came up from the main hall.

Before this, he had been sitting in the main hall all along. Diego had also given him some tasks last night, to have him accompany Lance for a tour.

Rapa’s breakfast had a lot of local... characteristics. It should be considered a specialty breakfast.

They used corn tortillas as a staple food. There must also be a lot of flour in it, otherwise, it would be impossible to roll it up with just cornmeal.

Then they would put all kinds of side dishes, including beef, fish, and the like, in the tortilla and roll it up, and eat it with some thick sauce.

Each of the local ”corn tortilla rolls” was only the size of a palm. After being rolled up, it was like a small burrito with the thickness of a medium-sized carrot, one bite at a time.

As the most high-end hotel, the service provided here was certainly the best. Although it was just the food of ordinary people, under the cooking of a high-end chef, it did not look low-end at all.

Six cut corn tortilla rolls were placed on six small square dishes. On one corner of the dish was a special sauce.

Whether you used your hand or a fork, it was very convenient to pick it up, and then to wipe it with the sauce and put it in your mouth.

When your teeth cut through the outer skin of the corn tortilla, and the food inside, mixed with the tortilla and the sauce, began to emit their flavor, you could feel the simplest, most direct ”surprise” that delicious food brings to people!

All kinds of unique flavors were constantly being presented on the taste buds, as if it were a feast of taste!

Besides this, there was also a creamy seafood chowder for an appetizer. Although it was not a big bowl, the taste was really great, with a rich milky aroma, and a full-bodied seafood taste.

The breakfast might seem simple and unadorned, but in fact, luxury was hidden in it.

While Lance was eating, Gomez had already come to his side. Lance did not have him come and sit.

If it were his brothers, his family, he would certainly not have neglected them.

But this was just a dog, a dog with a little ambition, but also a little stupid.

No matter how well he behaved, a person would not dine at the same table as a dog.

Of course, it was not out of the question that sometimes he would need to change his identity.

Besides these, there was also a little local fruit and vegetable salad, but what they used was not the sweet salad dressing of the Federation, but a salty and sweet, not-so-thick sauce, which had a unique and refreshing flavor.

After Lance had eaten almost his fill, and the chef and the maid had cleaned up the dining room and had left, only then did Lance stand up.

Gomez immediately made way for the main path to the elevator, standing on one side with his waist slightly bent.

”Let’s go for a walk.”

Gomez quickly walked over and called the elevator for Lance, and then went down with him.

Lance’s men were already ready, including their car.

These armored vehicles had not yet been seen through, but even if they were, it didn’t matter. A federal merchant was worried about Rapa’s safety, so to drive a civilian version of an armored vehicle would not be breaking any laws, would it?!

Today they had gone to the most prosperous city center of Zhuolan. This place also had the appearance of some of the federal business centers. Everywhere you could see the brand-name shops from the Federation, and of course, also their local brand-name shops.

The people walking on the streets here were all the kind of well-dressed people of Rapa, at least they were above the local middle class, and then there were the foreigners, and the escorts by their side.

The business center looked very lively. With the complete opening of the Yalan League’s market, more and more gold diggers and adventurers would come to this land.

The arrival of the convoy had also attracted the curiosity of many passersby. They had really never seen such an ugly car, and they had curiously taken a few more glances.

Today they did not have a police car to clear the way, so people’s curiosity was much more than yesterday.

”It seems that the city managers of Zhuolan are still very much in place in their management of this city. Look, there are no homeless, no beggars, and no poor people on the street.”

”This is even better than some of the cities in the Federation!”

Even the Federation could not solve the problem of the homeless and the beggars, but here, it had been solved.

This was certainly not related to management ability, but to ruthlessness.

Some people said that the simplest way to deal with the homeless was to find one, and to eliminate one. If you don’t give these people the soil to survive, then naturally there will be no homeless.

However, this kind of thing was unlikely to happen in the Federation. Those various public opinion organizations could drown the person who had proposed this opinion with public opinion.

But in fact, from the effect of Rapa’s implementation, it was actually not bad.

Gomez explained, ”This is the most prosperous place in Zhuolan, and even in the whole country, so people who are not well-dressed are not allowed to appear on the streets here.”

To want to enter the city center, you at least had to have a set of decent clothes.

A set of decent clothes could even become a symbol of proving one’s class. It could only be said that this was a fucking terrible place.

Cinemas, entertainment equipment, libraries, coffee houses, they were enjoying the same life as in the Federation here.

But, outside the city center, was a terrible environment.

Although there were no mountains of garbage on the side of the road, the various built shacks were densely packed and you couldn’t see the end of them. The people who were skin and bones were sitting on the side of the road, or lying down.

Some children, wearing shorts and barefoot, were chasing and playing on the side of the street. Everywhere they ran, they would stir up a cloud of dust.

The word ”poverty,” in a particularly conspicuous way, was displayed in front of the people.

”What do they rely on for a living?” Lance asked.

Gomez shrugged. ”If the women in the family are beautiful, they can sell their bodies. The cheapest is only three to five Paras. The young, healthy, and beautiful ones will be a little more expensive, mostly around ten. Only the particularly young, particularly beautiful, and with a particularly good figure are qualified to sell for more.”

Less than a dollar. More accurately, the cheapest was only seven or eight cents, and a slightly better one would require about a dozen or so cents, Federal Sols. It was indeed very cheap.

No wonder the entire Yalan was called ”a paradise for men.” Here, even a homeless person from the Federation could live a good life of eating meat every meal.

”The men either hunt, or reclaim wasteland to grow crops, or they pull carts, and do short-term work.”

The middle class of Rapa was actually not very large in the whole society, but when they were all concentrated in this city of Zhuolan, they had become a not-so-small group.

The middle class certainly could not personally walk on the street. They couldn’t afford to buy a car, but they could still afford to take a human-powered cart.

The same one or two dollars, to work a whole day and to earn ten, converted into Federal Sols, would be twenty cents, which was already a pretty good result.

More often, they could only earn three or five a day.

Although there was a large middle class, compared to the huge low-level society, they were ultimately just a minority.

And then there was going to a factory. The money given in a factory was a little more, five or six, and only for particularly heavy manual labor could it be seven or eight or even ten.

A month, to earn 300, converted into Federal Sols, would be less than five.

However, they could also live on.

After taking a tour of the area outside the city center, Lance had a question. ”For so many years, has no one thought of overthrowing the ruling group of Rapa?”

”A popular uprising, or some ambitious man.”

Gomez nodded. ”There have been, but they have never been able to stir up any waves. The army is controlled in the hands of Diego and the others. Even if someone is dissatisfied with their rule, what can they do?”

”They can’t even get a handgun. How can they overthrow an army that is equipped with modern weapons?”

”So now not many people will think of overthrowing Diego and their rule. Compared to doing these irrational things, these people are more likely to think of a way to go to Jede.”

”The opportunities on the Jede side are greater, and the society is much better than our side. Ordinary people can also live a good life.”

Lance roughly understood. Then they began to, like normal investors, to inspect the market of Yalan.

At the same time, Lance’s production company was actively shooting some very ”short” films.

The total length of these films was only about twenty minutes, more like the narrative structure of the kind before the innovation of sound films, a dozen or so, twenty minutes, just telling a segment.

Ever since the advent of sound films, the length of a movie had been constantly increasing, because the addition of language, of sound, could make a story more immersive.

The screenwriter, the director, the actors, could also, to a greater extent, to express a story completely, and not like in the past, just to show a segment, a story without a head or a tail.

These films, Lance, in the name of ”the awakening of fate,” had no more specific name. It was more like a series of unrelated story segments centered around a theme.

Although they didn’t know why Lance wanted to make such a film and a script, the company’s side had still given enough respect. They were all directors and actors with a little fame.

Gerald had also taken the initiative to participate.

He was playing a low-level farmer who had no land of his own and worked for the gentlemen.

This role was a challenge for the handsome Gerald. He was no longer, as in the past, playing a role that was in the limelight, or a role that could let him act cool and handsome.

He needed to show the things at the very bottom of society. He actually had no life experience in this aspect.

No matter in the Federation, or in the Empire, you know, he was the only one on Lance’s ship who had entered the Federation with a legal identity.

So he had no relationship with the bottom of society.

However, fortunately, he still had a little talent in acting. After some observation of the bottom of society, he had already found that feeling.

A lack of resistance to fate, numbness, and also humility.

The director and the photographer had both said that his performance was not bad, and that he had very successfully shown the image of a weak, and afraid-of-trouble, low-level person.

This scene was the climax of this short story.

Under the ruthless exploitation and oppression of the gentlemen, he could not even support his family. The gentlemen still wanted to continue to exploit their labor, and to whip them, to have them continue to work, to create value!

Feeling the anger from the bottom of his heart, and beginning to awaken, he had, with determination, made a decision that went against the decision of his ancestors!

He was going to resist!

He was going to snatch the gentleman’s whip, and then, with this whip that had inflicted pain on him countless times, to fiercely whip the gentlemen who had previously held the whip!

A very satisfying segment. His performance was also very exhilarating. The depression in his heart, which had been produced by his immersion in the role, had also been vented.

After the director had shouted ”cut,” he had also slowly come out of the role.

”A very tense performance, Gerald. If they had seen this performance of yours, they would definitely not have said that you are just good-looking!”

The director, walking around, had praised him. Because he had indeed performed very well.

Gerald smiled. ”The teachers have taught me well.”

During the break, he picked up the script again, looking at the next scene.

The plot of the next scene was very simple. He had thought that he had committed a great crime, and had fled in a daze, only to find that the whole world was like this.

Those high and mighty gentlemen had never treated them, these low-level people, as human, but had treated them as a mine.

When you can shovel, you shovel hard, you jump up and shovel. If it’s broken, at most you just change to another mine.

He had met some like-minded friends, friends who were unable to survive because of exploitation and oppression. They had all recognized a reality!

This terrible, cruel, backward, and bad society no longer had the soil for a good person to survive.

They, these people who were not willing to sink, and to extinguish themselves in despair, had to stand up and to fight against these evil forces!

He subconsciously read the last paragraph of the script. A force surged from his body, which made him full of passion and indignation!

”If happiness is bestowed on us by God, then God must be blind, because those bad people are living much better than us.”

”Happiness is not given to us by anyone. It is something we fight for, with our own hands, with our own determination, and with this life!”

”Without giving, there is no gain.”

”Without sacrifice, you cannot welcome the morning sun!”