Shadow Empire

Chapter 101 Who Can Save Me?
The mayor can continue to serve for two years, and he wants to gain more political resources before he leaves Jingang City.

As one of the engines of federal economic development, Jingang City attracts a lot of attention.

As long as this kind of attention continues to exist, the political achievements he left behind will be mentioned repeatedly.

Like all the previous mayors who expanded the wharf, people always repeatedly mention the first and second mayors who expanded the wharf and talk about how much they contributed to the Golden Port City.

So even if some of them have died, their children can still enjoy the care of these political legacies and live well.

He wanted these too, but while continuing to expand the dock would bring more economic benefits, it would be difficult for him to gain political benefits from it.

Always be the first or second, never the third or any later ones.

So he planned to contribute to the expansion of the city. Currently, the permanent population of Jingang City is about 1.1 million. The federal people do not often count this, and when they do, the statistics are often inaccurate.

He plans to expand the city's permanent population to more than 1.5 million within two years, which requires continuing to expand the urban circle while providing more jobs for the new permanent population.

So recently his supporters have been vigorously planning the expansion of the city, including the funds invested by Mr. Jobaf, which will be used for the infrastructure construction of urban expansion.

In fact, the amount of money is very small, but it doesn't matter. He will find ways to continue to squeeze oil out of this imperial guy.

When I was thinking about the expansion of the city and how to attract more permanent residents, the phone suddenly rang. It was the Imperial Man calling.

As long as Jobaf was not around, he would only call him "Imperial Man" instead of "Mr. Banker Jobaf".

"Is there anything I can do to help our big banker?" The moment he picked up the phone, although his expression didn't change, his tone changed significantly.

Enthusiastic, gentle, and impeccable.

"I want to see you."

The mayor looked at his schedule and said, "3:30 p.m., you have ten minutes." Then he hung up the phone.

After waiting in agony for three o'clock, Jobaf had already arrived outside the mayor's office.

Half an hour later, the mayor's secretary informed him that he could go in, and then he saw the mayor standing by the window smoking.

The mayor strode over with a smile on his face, took his arm and said, "Actually, there are some things you can talk about on the phone." What he meant was, don't bother me if there's nothing to do.

No one knows what's going on in Qiaobaf's heart, but it must be very complicated. After spending so much money, he is still just a marginal figure.

He sat on the sofa, and the mayor didn't even ask his secretary to bring him a cup of coffee. There was only ten minutes anyway, so there was no time for him to drink coffee.

"Here's what happened..." He explained what happened, but he emphasized that after his people went to the warehouse, there was no wine in the warehouse, and he was cheated by Arthur.

The mayor looked at him with a very strange expression after hearing this, "Why didn't you say it at that time?"

At that time... Mr. Jobaf went to the warehouse with Arthur and sampled the wines. Only after confirming that there were no problems with the wines did they sign the contract and release the money.

But something went wrong in the receiving process. It happened to be raining heavily that day, and with a time difference of only thirty or forty minutes at most, all the wine in the warehouse was gone!
Moreover, he had not yet joined the mayor's camp at that time, and was afraid that this was Arthur's way of blackmailing him, so he responded passively.

As a result, once you become passive, you will always be passive.

From the mayor's perspective, this was a sign of fear of blackmail. If he had called the police or reported it directly, it might not have been that difficult to deal with.

Although he would still be blackmailed, at least his tough attitude of not wanting to pay for the blackmail would prevent that bastard Arthur from blackmailing him at will.

It's not just Arthur, it's the same with others.

"What do you want to do now?"

Mr. Qiaobafu's teeth were about to bleed. "I... hope you can be the middleman so that I can make things clear with them."

The mayor thought for a while and said, "It's not difficult to explain it, but you can't get the money back."

"You have already mortgaged it to him..."

"Two hundred and fifty thousand," Mr. Jobaf added.

The mayor nodded without commenting, "Now the price of this batch of wine may be worth 450,000 to 500,000. You can pay him the difference and it will be considered as your purchase of this batch of wine. I can help you with this matter. This is the end."

Mr. Jobaf stared at him with wide eyes. "But I..."

"There's no but, Joe. You have a contract and a signature. You can't win the lawsuit even if you go to court."

"And you don't think that if I say a few words for you, they will give up at least 200,000 yuan in benefits, right?"

"Don't think too highly of me. I can't do this, otherwise I would have been the president of the Federation long ago!" "Think about it!" He shook his head and looked at his watch. "I have a meeting later, so..."

This meant that he should leave. Mr. Jobaf stood up in confusion, said goodbye, and left the mayor's office stiffly.

The mayor could not say that he felt any sympathy for the "difficulties" that Mr. Jobaf had encountered. In recent years, many foreign capitalists had died or gone bankrupt in the federation.

Some capitalists who are bigger than Mr. Jobaf were eventually forced out of their jobs. A small banker can only endure the blackmail, what else can he do?
Of course, he would also call Congressman Williams and ask him to keep a good eye on his son and not scare away those foreign investors, which would not be in his interest.

However, from the mayor's own perspective, there was nothing wrong with his handling of the matter.

It would be unreasonable for him to ask Arthur to return the money to Mr. Jobaff and not investigate the whereabouts of the wine.

And this is just Mr. Jobaf's one-sided statement. Who knows whether Arthur actually took away the wine himself?

Even if he really needs to take action in the end, he will appear as a savior at the last critical moment.

Instead of what we do now, where we just make a phone call, sit down and talk for a few minutes and then try to solve the problem.

Mr. Jobaf returned to the villa like a walking corpse and sat on the sofa, unable to understand why he had finally made some money in the past few years and wanted to squeeze into the federal upper class.

As a result, his huge wealth shrank rapidly. If it had shrunk but he had successfully entered the upper class, then it would have been fine, as it was the price he paid for it.

But now that he had lost his money, he was still a marginalized person. He couldn't understand. Wasn't it said that the Federation was... a fair and just country?
Why were the things that happened to him so unfair?
The assistant stood by and accompanied him the whole time, worried about Mr. Jobaf's condition.

In the past, even when facing blackmail from Arthur or others, he would always show a spirit of not fearing difficulties, but what happened today seemed to have crushed him all at once.

He sat on the sofa like those demented old men with little income, staring blankly ahead, not even noticing that his hair was messy.

It was around seven in the evening before he came to his senses.

"What time is it?", he asked.

The assistant said quickly, "It's seven eleven." The assistant was very worried about Mr. Jobaf's condition. After all, he was old. "Would you like something to eat?"

Mr. Jobaf shook his head. “No, I can’t eat it.”

He turned back to look at his assistant, "Who do you think can solve this problem and minimize my losses?"

"You'd better find some from the Imperials. I have completely lost trust in the Federation people now."

"They didn't let me sit at the table to share the food with me, they just wanted to save me a few steps to get to the table!"

Countless figures flashed through the assistant's mind. There were many successful imperial people living in Jingang City, but there were almost no ones who could compare with Mr. Jobaf.

Some other successful people are just those who opened factories. Having an asset of several hundred thousand is already considered very successful.

Their wealth is not as great as Mr. Jobaf's, and their influence in society and their contacts with the upper class are even less than Mr. Jobaf's. He has no idea that anyone can help him.

But suddenly, a figure appeared in his mind.

Seeing his expression change, Mr. Jobaf asked softly, "Who is that man?"

When Lance heard that Mr. Jobaf wanted to meet him, he was a little curious.

Last Saturday at the Cathedral of Saint-Neuer, he just greeted me and had no intention of talking to me.

Why do you suddenly want to find yourself now?
He couldn't figure it out, but he agreed anyway.

Since it was too late today and he had something else to do, he arranged it for the afternoon.

In the morning, he had to go to the company and also visit Mr. White. He asked Officer Braden to contact him and wanted to see him.

At present, Lance's information is still bound to him, so it is difficult for him to refuse this request.

During this period of time, he also felt more clearly how much convenience the identity of a legal federal citizen brought to him!

Those who hold power will first confirm whether you are a federal citizen before discussing cooperation with you.

So he will not easily lose his current identity, he must be a native federalist!
The next morning, Lance handed the list of whistleblowers to Erwin and left the company.

When he drove to Mr. White's house, Mr. White was weeding in the yard.

Mr. White was a little confused when he saw the car stop, but when he saw Lance, his confusion turned into shock, and then turned into joy.

(End of this chapter)