Shadow Empire

Chapter 118 Friends, Brothers, and Relatives
The atmosphere was depressing.

In fact, bullets are also a kind of gift. As long as it is a gift, it will have a meaning similar to "gift message" in the process of giving.

Like giving chocolates, it's like a disguised confession of love.

Then giving bullets as a gift is also interesting. It means "you will die from a bullet", which is mostly used as a "death threat".

When Lance put the bullet on the banknote, Officer Phelan suddenly came to his senses. Greed was defeated by reason and he even felt a little horrified!
"Lance..." His expression was a little unhappy, "I'm a police officer!"

Lance shook his head slightly, "Yes, but you overlooked some issues."

"You are a person first, a family second, and a police officer last."

"Are you threatening me?" Officer Phelan found it a little unbelievable. Although federal police are often threatened, he still found it unbelievable.

Lance was still as calm as ever, without showing any emotion. "You can think of this as a threat, or you can think of it as a warning."

"You can take the money and we can continue to be friends. I believe you can get more from me."

"Friendship, or something."

"Or I can just put these things away and leave."

"I want to be your friend, Ferran, but you don't seem to feel that way."

The two looked at each other without giving in. From Lance's calm and composed eyes, he saw something bad hidden.

When a person is in serious danger, he always has to consider many things, such as family, wife, children, and his current relatively happy life.

The more I think about it, the more I feel that... some things don't need to be taken to the point where there is no room for maneuver.

When a person's thoughts are no longer firm and unwavering, and there is a moment of hesitation, he will make concessions, and continue to make concessions.

He opened his hands, avoiding the confrontation, and looked away, no longer meeting Lance's gaze, "You may have misunderstood me, I just think... we are friends, there is no need..." He circled his hands in front of him, "You know, friends should help each other."

Lance smiled and put away the bullet, then counted out two ten-dollar bills, collected a hundred dollars, and pushed it over, "You deserve this friendship, Ferran, can I call you that?"

"Of course, Lance, just like I call you that, that's what friends call each other."

Lance gave another twenty dollars. Although he still had some resentment in his heart, it had eased a lot compared to before.

He can keep sixty dollars for himself and give forty dollars to his partner. Is sixty dollars too much?

In addition to his legal income, he can get about 300 yuan a month from the police station's dirty money system.

It seemed like sixty dollars was only one-fifth, but he had actually already received some from Lance, and with the sixty now, it was also a huge income!

Watching him put the money into the opening, Lance nodded with satisfaction. A policeman who is willing to be a friend is always better than one who is unwilling to be a friend, or one who is more greedy.

"Tomorrow morning, then?"

After people have compromised, they often want to reassure themselves that the compromise was the right choice and thus be more determined to continue on this path. "I'll come to see you at eight o'clock, and then we'll go together."

Lance stood up and shook his hand, then motioned to the boss who had already prepared the takeaway to bring the food over, "Very good, I'll wait for you in the office, these are for you and your partner to eat while you rest."

Looking at the handbag, Officer Phelan had a strange expression on his face. He was obviously threatened, but he had to admit that Lance acted very decently.

You pay extra money and get extra takeout. Although these things may not be of high value, they do make people feel more favorable.

"Thank you." This sentence is not against my heart.

When Lance came out of the cafe, he greeted another police officer in the police car, and the other officer greeted him with a smile.

After Officer Phelan used the restroom and returned to the car, he handed the paper bag to his partner.

The partner asked curiously, "What did you talk about?"

In the police force system, the partner is definitely the most important partner, which is the key to whether one can survive some emergencies.

He explained briefly, "So we have to get up early tomorrow morning and come over."

His partner looked at him. He took out sixty dollars from his pocket, counted out thirty of them, and handed them over. "This is your share."

His partner whistled, "Mr. Lance is so generous!"

Officer Phelan started the engine and began to shift gears. "Who says it's not?"

As to whether it is true or not, only he himself knows.

After one night of fermentation, many people knew that Jamie was bullied at the dock. While working, he was robbed of his money and stripped of his clothes by a guy named Johnny and his accomplices.

After hearing this, many people were furious and wanted to do something to vent their anger. The people in the Federation are fucking piece of shit. We are all at the bottom of society, so why can't we take care of each other, but instead persecute each other?

When they knew that Lance wanted to seek justice for Jamie, they gathered outside Lance's office early the next morning as if by some coincidence.

Of course not all of them, but there are at least seven or eight hundred people here, and others are said to be outside the dock.

When Officer Fellen's car slowly drove in and he saw so many people in uniform, some of whom were even staring at him ferociously, he suddenly felt that the few dozen dollars were a little hot.

Hiram met him at the door and walked him in. There was no one working in the office at that time. The workers outside in blue work clothes made him feel awkward.

Then the twenty or so guys in the room, wearing slim suits, windbreakers, holding pure red pocket squares and with their uniform, iconic slicked-back hair, made him feel scared.

These people have killed people!

The first moment Officer Phelan saw them, he detected the wanton disregard for life from their expressions and eyes.

He had seen this kind of look in many murderers. Whether a person had killed his own kind, some of the things he showed could not be hidden.

Being indifferent to life, and even vaguely feeling that one is more advanced than others... something will show from the inside out.

His palms were sweaty and he quickly looked away. In his perception, only the fool who led him the way looked like a good person.

Lance was sitting in the innermost office. Hiram knocked on the door and opened it. "Lance will be waiting for you inside."

Officer Phelan nodded and said thank you, "Please show me the way."

Hiram shook his hair, and the long bangs that almost covered half of his face were thrown behind his ears, but then began to slowly slide down, "You're welcome."

Officer Phelan looked at the half-open door, took off his hat and held it in his hand, then pushed the door open and entered.

"Please sit down!" Lance motioned for him to sit down, and he obediently walked to a chair and sat down.

He took the initiative to say, "I have told the radio station that I will be patrolling the dock this morning. No matter what happens, they will contact me as soon as possible."

"I have also made arrangements within the precinct. I told my colleagues that a relative of my wife's might come in and run into some trouble, and they promised to give him a safe room."

Lance said "thank you" seriously and sincerely after hearing this. Seeing Officer Phelan's desire to say something, he did not give him a chance to speak. "I'm not being polite, Phelan."

"To me, each of them is my brother. If anything happens to them, I will help them unconditionally, no matter how much money it costs."

"I also hope that we can become not only friends but also brothers, but we don't know each other very well. We need some opportunities to improve our understanding of each other."

"I appreciate everything you've done for me and my brother, and I hope that in the future, this can happen to us as well."

He paused, picked up the hat on the table, and then stood up, "Let's go, don't let the brothers wait anxiously!"

Officer Phelan quickly stood up and said, "Yes, it's time to go." When Lance pushed open the door and walked out, followed by Officer Phelan, everyone in uniform who was sitting or standing in the office lobby stood up. They waited for Lance and followed him out of the office one by one.

When a group of people left the office and stood on the street outside the office, the originally noisy street suddenly became quiet. Officer Fearon only felt his scalp slightly tingling, and an indescribable emotion surging in his body.

There was excitement, but also fear. When he looked at Lance, his eyes no longer looked down on him because of his youth, but were filled with awe of power!
Lance glanced at Jamie who was standing not far away and waved to him, "You and I are in the same car, now, let's go get justice for you!"

The crowd began to disperse, but it gave people the illusion that power was gathering!

At 8:40, the peak working time at the dock, Johnny was walking towards Pier No. 1 with a few of his good brothers.

The fathers of these people were basically dock workers. They had no property or wealth to pass on to these children, only the status of workers.

But this is also a good inheritance, at least there is a job to do.

Because of his strong physique, Johnny has been a school bully since he was a child and he continues to be so until now.

A friend next to him was wearing Jamie's work clothes. They removed the nameplates on their chests and chatted as they walked towards the door.

"During the lunch break, come with me to the boat cleaners and get a few more sets of clothes."

"Yesterday... (a local worker) talked to me and he also wanted ten sets of these work clothes. He could offer 80 cents per set."

“I saw this as an opportunity to make money.”

"There are at least two or three thousand of these people at the dock, which means two or three thousand dollars."

Someone around me was a little worried, "If we do too much, will it cause unnecessary trouble?"

Johnny pushed his shoulder and raised his voice, "Hey, this is the Federal Golden Port. We federals have the final say here. The worst that can happen is another demonstration."

"As long as they want to make a living here, they have to endure it!"

"Some time ago we... right? Aren't these people still working here now?"

They did not do any good during the demonstrations, only bad things. Not only did no one bother them, but those who were beaten by them also disappeared.

There is no cost to doing bad things, which is why they are becoming more and more arrogant.

Just like yesterday, they robbed Jamie, stripped him of his clothes, and what happened?

The dock office didn't look for them, the police didn't look for them, but some workers expressed the hope that they could pay to buy some work clothes from their pockets.

In this dock where the strong prey on the weak, fists are the truth!

The group arrived at the dock, changed their clothes, and prepared to start work. Suddenly, they saw a large group of people in blue work clothes walking towards them in the distance. The first one to walk in was Jamie.

Johnny wasn't scared at all. He was chatting and laughing with the people around him, and even took the initiative to walk towards Jamie.

He looked at the brand new work clothes Jamie was wearing and the people around him, with greed in his eyes.

"Why, you called so many people over here, are you going to beat me up?" He wasn't afraid at all, instead he laughed arrogantly, "I'm telling you Imperial bastards, if you get hurt even a little bit while I'm here today, I guarantee you'll all go to jail and get out of the Federation!"

Federal laws have, to some extent, encouraged the malice of this evil person. Regardless of right or wrong, it is the fault of illegal immigrants, so he dares to be so arrogant.

Especially the Imperials.

If it were the Sumul people, or anyone else, he might not dare to do so, because there are many ruthless characters among them, but there are none of the imperial people. They are as honest as God's lambs, and can do nothing but bleat.

The arrogant laughter and the fact that Jamie and the others did not take any further action made the people around Johnny laugh as well.

They like this feeling and find it refreshing!
After laughing twice, seeing that Jamie didn't say anything, his laughter gradually stopped, "If you just want to see me, now that you have seen it, you can go away."

"By the way, come find me at noon, don't force me to find you!" He continued to threaten Jamie in front of many people.

The whole crowd was unusually quiet, so quiet that he also felt something was wrong. Just when he was about to say a few harsh words and leave, the crowd suddenly parted.

More than twenty people in long black trench coats walked out of the crowd. They were wearing slim-fitting suits, dark vests, red ties and hats.

This feeling gave people a terrible sense of oppression. Johnny swallowed and took two steps back.

Then he looked at Jamie fiercely, "Is this the helper you found?"

Lance walked in front, carrying the sailing team's baseball bat, and came in front of Johnny. Johnny looked at him with a fierce expression, which he had used to scare away many people.

"You want to hit me?" He grinned and flicked his head forward, tilting his head so that one side of his cheek was facing Lance, pointing at his own face and said, "Come on, hit me here."

When he turned his head, he looked at the workers around him and behind him with a arrogant expression. He didn't believe that Lance would do anything!

But then he felt as if he were in the middle of an intense baseball game, for he heard the sound of bats swinging.

The wind was squeezed away by the vigorously swinging baseball bat, making a "buzzing" sound and finally a dull "bang" sound!
Home run!
All I can hear are people’s excited cheers!
Then his world began to tilt and he fell heavily to the ground, his head still buzzing.

The world tilted 90 degrees, but his body and his consciousness seemed to remain in the same state as before!

His companions seemed to want to help him, but they were soon pinned to the ground and beaten hard. Johnny, with tinnitus, dizziness, and a blank mind, felt just like those people he had bullied in the past. At this moment, he actually felt a sense of helplessness in his heart!

“Do something!”

"Do something!"

He was talking to himself, but his body didn't respond at all.

After a while, the intense pain made his body react, and he suddenly let out a shrill scream. His arm was broken.

He tried to get up, but Lance stepped on his head and pressed it hard, pushing his raised head back down.

The rough surface of the dock was corroded by wind, rain, and salt from the sea, and it became bumpy and he felt intense pain and discomfort.

The sailing team smashed his face with the bat and spit in his face, "You are not as strong as you think, Johnny."

More and more people in blue work clothes gathered around, and shouts of "kill him" began to be heard from the crowd. When these shouts began to merge into one voice, Johnny, who was still trying to struggle, suddenly became scared!

Lance raised his foot, handed the bat to the person next to him, took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his palms. "If you want to take revenge on me, or anyone else, just come. I will let you know the consequences of making the wrong choice."

"Now, this is just a reward for you hurting my brother Jamie. The choice is yours whether to apologize to Jamie and leave it at that, or to escalate the situation."

He threw the handkerchief at Johnny, covering his face. Other people who were involved in the incident were also beaten and had bruises on their faces.

Only two minutes had passed from the time the two sides met to the time the conflict broke out.

Someone at the dock had already called the police, and at this time, two people were chatting while eating donuts outside the dock.

The sailing team will face a well-matched opponent, the Duke of Kate's team, at the weekend. When they were discussing who has a better chance of winning, the radio suddenly made a buzzing sound.

"Someone called the police and reported a fight at Pier 1. Who of you is free to go over and take a look?"

Officer Phelan immediately picked up the intercom and said, "This is Phelan. I'm near Pier 1. I'll go over and take a look."

"Okay, Officer Ferran, I'm handing this case over to you. Please keep in touch at all times..."

Officer Phelan handed the donut to his partner, "Let's get started!"

Then he sounded the siren, stepped on the accelerator, and the police car rushed into the dock.

(End of this chapter)