Shadow Empire

Chapter 160 Explanation and Agricultural Products and Going Abroad

Everyone in the room except Eric looked at Lance.

Lance nodded slightly, "I see."

Lawyer Orson was a little surprised, but he hid his expression well. "In that case, from this moment on, you are the manager of Empire Nightclub."

"This is my business card. If you have any questions, give me a call. If you are seeking legal help personally, that's fine too. I can give you a discount."

He placed a gold-stamped business card on the table and put away the other documents. "If you need to check these documents later, you can call me, but they will not be left here with you."

"Do you have any other questions?"

Lance shook his head. Lawyer Orson extended his hand politely, but behind his "politeness" there was a kind of arrogance like "charity".

The two men shook hands, and Attorney Orson quickly loosened his grip, "Goodbye, Mr. Lance!"

As he said this, he left with his little follower and Eric, leaving only Kailu's accountant.

Kailu looked to be about thirty-four or thirty-five years old. She wore round-framed brown glasses, her hair was braided, and she was wearing a relatively conservative dress.

According to questionnaires conducted by some magazines and survey agencies, people tend to dress formally and conservatively when choosing lawyers, doctors, accountants and other service personnel who are related to their important interests.

Especially for accountants, the more conservative their attire, the more accepted they will be by their employers.

The two looked at each other for a while. There was no other emotion in Kailu's eyes. She was just an accountant from the firm. They gave her money and she worked here.

"Where is my office?", she broke the ice.

Lance pointed to the corridor outside the door, "Any room you like can be your office."

"By the way, do you mind if a few of you work together?"

Kailu pushed up her glasses frame and said, "I don't like being crowded in a room with others. If possible, it would be best if I had an office to myself."

Lance finally returned to his chair, "I know."

Kael left with her things. In fact, Lance didn't need to take care of anything now. He just needed to redecorate the place and hire enough people before he could open the business.

Who keeps the money every day and what account it is deposited into are all decided by Kaylu and lawyer Orson. All Lance needs to do is manage this place well and make a lot of money.

These damn vampires...

He couldn't help laughing when he thought of this. Half a year ago, Johnny sucked his blood. Half a year later, the mayor and his nephew sucked his blood. It seemed like he had been standing still.

But at least the people who sucked his blood were different. Perhaps this was what was called "class improvement."

Renovating the Empire Nightclub is a big job, but Lance does not plan to completely redecorate it. The first floor only needs some simple maintenance, and some rooms will be added on the second floor so that more guests can enjoy a moment of peace here.

There is a little trouble on the third floor, but it shouldn't be a big problem. He will talk to Lawyer Orson when the time comes.

There are several gambling tables on the third floor, and these tables have to pay taxes to the Kodak family every quarter. If he were the mayor, perhaps he could not pay taxes?

If he didn't pay taxes, the 30 percent of revenue from these gaming tables might be enough to make up for his loss in profits.

Like some other underground bars, there are no clear legal documents and no employment contracts. They just arrange for accountants to calculate how much money they can make every day.

How much is Lance's and how much is theirs.

That kind of place wouldn't be legal anyway, so they wouldn't leave any evidence.

Empire Nightclub may also have illegal items, but these are all personal decisions of the manager Lance and have nothing to do with its owner, Mr. Eric.

At this point, Lance could already imagine that if these things were to go to court, Attorney Orson would hold up the contract signed by Lance and assert his rights to the court and the prosecutor.

They have already given full authority to Lance to run the business. If Lance cannot prove that he was operating those illegal projects under "instructions", then he must bear full responsibility.

Lance spent two days to go through all five bars, and none of them needed any renovation, so they could be reopened directly.

As they were about to go to Yalan, Lance gathered everyone together and held a family barbecue party in the evening.

Large pieces of beef and mutton were cut and placed on the grill, and although the weather was cold, everyone was very happy.

This was their first happy New Year since coming to the Federation.

Having thick clothes to wear, beef and mutton to fill the stomach, hot coffee and wine, and all kinds of delicious food, this may be the happiest day for people in this world.

It was getting darker and colder outside, and finally they all went back inside.

Since there was not enough room in the restaurant, we went to the living room. The whole room was filled with the aroma of food.

Lance sat in the middle of the living room, and everyone else sat around him, on the sofa, shelves, coffee tables, and even on the floor.

Everyone simply ate meat, drank wine and chatted.

They talked about a lot of topics that they didn't even know where they came from. When the dinner gradually came to an end, Erwin looked at Lance and said, "Can I ask a question?"

Lance gnawed off the last piece of meat from the lamb ribs. "Of course, we are a family, there is nothing we can't ask."

Erwin spoke slowly and quietly, so he could stop at any time. "About the nightclub and... those bars."

Lance took the hot towel from the girl and wiped his face and hands. "You mean we can only get 30% of it, which is a loss, right?"

He said thank you and returned the hot towel to the girl.

Everyone else looked over at him. He knew that this was what everyone had been thinking these past few days. "Do you think I can persuade you to accept this unreasonable allocation?"

"No, I won't enlighten you, and I won't enlighten myself either. This is an unreasonable distribution method, but we can't resist."

"Because we are not just facing Eric, but also his uncle, the ruler of this city, our Lord Mayor!"

Morris interrupted, "I heard that he is the illegitimate son of the mayor and his mother, and his father is actually his cousin..."

The boys and girls all burst into laughter. Such private affairs of big men are very popular everywhere.

For example, the story between the Emperor, the Queen, and the Prince. Even if there is nothing between them, there must be something behind the rumors.

People are passionate about these things, they will discuss them, process them, and then promote variant versions.

Lance raised his hand and pressed it lightly, and the laughter soon died down. "We are strong. We can easily kill a person, but we are also weak. Politically, we are isolated and helpless."

"Maybe you think, at worst we can just fight and shoot him a few times, but he can still eat us?"

"Without considering whether this can be successful, even if we succeed, then what?"

"The entire federal political arena, from the president to the city councilors, will become our enemies."

“The police stopped taking our money and shot us instead.”

"People on the street would scream and call the police when they saw us because there was a huge reward for each of us."

"There is no room for us to survive in this country or anywhere else within its sphere of influence."

"We will be expelled, and so will the Imperials. This may even trigger a new round of anti-Imperial movements, and they may even push for legislation that discriminates against Imperial immigrants."

"I hope our compatriots can live a good life, and I don't want them to be made worse because of my selfish actions."

"So, I won't convince myself that this is a reasonable outcome, but I will accept it and keep the injustice in mind."

"I kept thinking, I'm still young, nineteen, and if I can live to sixty, I still have forty years left."

"Forty years, how long is that?"

"So in these long forty years, do I have a chance to return the shame they inflicted on us to them?"

Lance looked at these young people and nodded continuously. "Yes, there is a chance. I believe I have a chance." "The shame they brought upon us today will eventually become a bullet shot at them, but this will take some time and some patience."

When he said this, Erwin nodded, "I understand."

Lance smiled and shook his finger. He couldn't help but take out a cigarette. It would be so comfortable if he could drink a cup of hot tea and smoke a cigarette after eating greasy food!
Hiram quickly took out a match, moved over, and asked Lance to light the cigarette.

He knew Lance didn't like the smell of kerosene, so he never used a kerosene lighter.

Lance patted his hands, took a deep puff of cigarette, and exhaled slowly, "Actually, we didn't get nothing."

"We have got a backer who doesn't belong to us but can be used by us, Mayor!"

"That Eric doesn't look like a smart guy. I have plenty of ways to deal with such an idiot."

"In addition, the portion we should have given to the police can also be reduced. After all, this is the mayor's business!"

"Not only can they not come and raid our business, they have to protect it, which is related to whether the mayor's purse can be filled."

"And..." He sat in the crowd, holding a cigarette between his index and middle fingers, his thumb on the cigarette holder, his arm tilted slightly upwards. The rising smoke added a hint of mystery to his half-smile on his face.

“They have no rules that we can’t run our own business!”

The smarter ones had already opened their mouths slightly, and then an excited smile appeared on their faces!
Yes, no one stipulated that Lance could only own one nightclub and five small bars in the Empire District.

He can open other nightclubs and bars on his own. These are not something Mr. Eric can interfere with, and Lance will not allow him to interfere in this regard.

But soon Erwin had a new doubt, only now he seemed a little more active than before, "If these companies can't compete with our own business, will they be able to compete with us over there?"

Lance shook his head. "I can back off and let them run the business themselves, or whatever."

"Isn't that Eric quite crazy?"

"Let him run the business, or let him find someone else."

“We may not be able to say no to them, but there are more ways to say no than with words.”

Seeing that everyone seemed to gradually understand, or were told by people around them, and had smiles on their faces, Lance finally showed a satisfied smile.

"Keep recruiting, recruit another fifty, then the veterans, recruit thirty from your hometown."

"Maintain it at around 200 people. We don't need too many people for now. What we need are elite troops."

"Heller had so many people, but we dispersed them, didn't we?"

"So having more people is not necessarily better. If we can't unite together, be together in heart and in spirit, the more people there are, the more of a burden we will become."

"I'm going to Yalan in two days. Things here..." He looked at Erwin, "You should be more flexible and make the decision. If you can't make a decision, discuss it with everyone."

"I will call you after I settle down there. If there is any emergency, you can contact me directly."

"Also, Hiram and Lawn, get ready and follow me to Alan."

Hiram flipped his hair and raised his chin slightly, "No problem, Boss."

Lawn just nodded and said nothing.

In the evening, Lance found Erwin alone and asked him to find a suitable place near the outskirts of the city to build a brewery.

By the way, he asked him to call Nick over, and they should set up the stall together first, and buy whatever equipment and make whatever preparations they needed, so that they would not be too late later.

In addition, we need to order some grapes, corn, potatoes, and wheat as soon as possible, as these will be needed for making wine in the future.

Buy it now before the price goes up.

He told Alvin to find a legitimate distributor, preferably a large company or a listed company, sign a guaranteed contract, and place an order for 50,000 first.

Erwin showed an expression of disbelief, "Fifty thousand?"

"Is it too much?"

Lance didn't think it was too much at all. "We have a lot of money now and it's hard to take it out. Otherwise, I would just want to buy more."

"Then go find Lawyer Robben and ask him to accompany you to sign a contract with them. If they breach the contract, you will have to pay at least fifty times the liquidated damages..."

"Remember, we don't pay the entire amount at once. This part is a deposit."

"You can't pay more than 10% of the deposit. I need you to use these 50,000 yuan to leverage 500,000 yuan of grapes."

He didn't mention the issue of futures and spot goods. Irving couldn't possibly understand that. "This summer and fall, next summer and fall, and the summer and fall of the year after, order evenly."

Erwin thought about it and nodded, "No problem."

Alvin often goes to the port, where there is a trading matchmaking center for agricultural products. It is called a center, but it is actually a free trading market where a large group of people stand together and shout out their quotes.

There is a big sign with some sale or acquisition information recorded on it.

The current price of ordinary grapes is 76 yuan per ton!
You read that right, seventy-six dollars per ton, two thousand two hundred pounds, equivalent to 3.5 cents per pound.

This is the wholesale price. The retail price is about six cents to seven cents per pound. It seems very cheap?

In fact, it has already started to increase in price!

With Prohibition fully implemented, the easiest thing to make at home is wine, which only needs to be fermented. There is no need for distillation or adding flavorings, antioxidants, etc. to make an "intoxicating beverage."

This new term also came into being recently because some beer manufacturers protested to the federal government, arguing that beer is fermented wheat juice and is not considered alcohol.

Moreover, the very low alcohol content is just a fermentation style of this wheat juice and does not represent subjective addition. Beer is just a common name. When the word is broken down, none of the letters in it have anything to do with "alcohol".

But Congress rejected their protests, and the newly introduced Prohibition Act was revised for the first time, with alcoholic beverages becoming "intoxicating beverages."

Any beverage that can make people feel drunk is prohibited, whether it contains alcohol or not.

This has made many beer companies very angry, and they have begun to form groups to prepare for a lawsuit against the federal government.

Sometimes these capitalists really don’t fucking understand the situation. You sue a member of Congress in Congress, and the member of Congress should judge the case himself?

I hope they succeed!

It is said that tobacco companies are also behind this, because some people say that drinking water soaked in tobacco will make you drunk...

In short, the raw materials for making wine have started to rise in price.

Perhaps it won’t be long before we see the first boom created by Prohibition, which is crazy agricultural product speculation!

Now Lance hates that he doesn't have much money, otherwise...

He suddenly remembered that he still had hundreds of thousands of debts in his safe, but this would have to wait until he returned from Yalan.

The next morning he went to see Patricia, and the girl finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although she heard from William that Lance was safe, she was still very worried.

Fortunately, he finally came to find her, which made the girl feel relieved.

The two of them chatted sweetly for a while, and then Lance left as he had too much to do.

During this period, he also visited Mr. Jobaf, intending to cooperate with him to make a quick buck, but Mr. Jobaf was temporarily out of town.

Although he didn't know what he was going to do, Lance knew it was definitely not a good thing, so he decided not to bother him for the time being.

On January 10th, Lance and Alberto boarded a cruise ship to Alan. They would stay at sea for three days and then arrive at Alan's first stop, the Republic of Aldera.

(End of this chapter)