Shadow Empire

Chapter 177 Reasons, Confrontation and Good Luck
Chief Charlie was not surprised when he heard Lucard say that he was going to investigate Lance's territory, because he seemed to have some unresolved connection with Lance before.

What he was curious about now was what Lance had done to him. He always stared at Lance instead of anyone else.

he asked.

"I remember there didn't seem to be any conflict between you and Lance, why are you staring at him?"

Lucard did not avoid the question. "I can't say there is no contradiction at all. He played a trick on me."

"Once..." He talked about what happened when he first met Lance. Lance invited him for a cup of coffee and then chatted with him for a long time.

This made him think that Lance was a good person at the time, and he even invited Lance back later.

But who could have thought that not only were the two stupid brothers killed by Lance, but even the Camilla Gang became a thing of the past under Lance's revenge.

Whenever he thought of these things, he would find it funny and he also had the urge to compete with Lance.

"I want to know, who is more powerful, the cat or the mouse!"

Director Charlie couldn't help laughing after hearing this. "The story between you two is much more interesting than I thought. I can already understand how you feel."

"When the murderer you are looking for is standing right in front of you, not only does he chat with you easily, but you also buy each other coffee."

“That feeling…Oh my God, it’s so fun!”

He could sense that Lucard was not angry, but rather was motivated by a desire to win. He himself found it interesting and funny.

After laughing for a while, his laughter stopped, "The situation is a bit delicate now, Lukar."

“Originally I shouldn’t have said these words, but sometimes we are in this society and when there is nothing we can do, we can only stand with the crowd.”

"After the Camilla Gang fell, most of their businesses were taken over by Eric." He said and looked at Lucard, hoping to find some extra emotions on his face.

But unfortunately, he didn't realize that Lucard was more mature and stable than before.

He whistled, "This is an incredible guy!"

Everyone knows that Eric is the mayor's nephew. His taking over of these industries means that there will be some difficulties when investigating him.

It is difficult to get support for the judiciary. Although the federal government has promised that the judiciary must be independent, local governments still have a great influence on the judiciary.

They are unlikely to arbitrarily grant a search warrant, including an arrest warrant and other legal documents, to search Eric's property.

At the same time, he was keenly aware that Chief Charlie was telling him in this way that Lance was now providing services to the mayor.

If he were in Chalans in the Empire District, it would be like challenging the mayor...

If it were the old him, he might not dare to do this.

Because at that time he was just an ordinary policeman, even if he was an officer in the criminal case team of the city police department, a small leader, but he was still in the police system.

He would feel uncomfortable when he received a call from the mayor, city council members or even some celebrities.

But now, everything is different.

Because he is a senior agent, the Presidential Office and Congress have devoted a lot of effort to this department and have high hopes for it.

During the training, officials from the state office told them that if there was something they couldn't handle, they could request support.

If necessary, they can even talk directly to senators!
This power made Lucard believe that he had the courage and determination to fight against corruption and darkness.

Of course he wouldn't be so reckless, it's like when he first became a policeman his partner gave him a whistle and told him to blow it whenever he couldn't handle a problem.

But he never blew the whistle until he was transferred from the patrol department.

It is a kind of confidence, a trump card, no matter it is an offensive trump card or a defensive trump card, it can be many and represent many things, but it does not represent a means.

Because when it becomes a means, it must be the lowest usage and the lowest means!
Lucard looked at this "mentor", "Charlie, I will use my brain. Without absolute evidence, I will definitely not touch him."

"I have a question now, will you stand by me?"

Director Charlie thought about it seriously and said, "I will retire in three years. If you don't mess around, I will still stand by your side as before."

This sentence has already made his attitude clear. If Lucard really did something wrong, he would not die by banging his head against the wall.

The police chief retired, and with a generous pension and the money he had saved, he could have a perfect retirement life.

Although he is also obsessed with power, he will not gamble his future life on it.

Lucard got the answer he wanted. In fact, it didn’t matter whether Chief Charlie was on his side or not. He just wanted to... give himself a reason.

While they were receiving training, he and several local senior agents were called in for individual talks.

Some senators were very dissatisfied with the superficial prohibition of alcohol in various places, and they wanted to make some big news in each place.

They urgently need to use a group of people's heads to tell people that this constitutional amendment promoted for prohibition of alcohol is not a joke.

This is not a "trick constitution" that stipulates that cotton pickers should be given voting rights and sets many thresholds. This time it is for real.

Only by killing a large number of people can society return to the path they designed.

What Lucar didn't know was that some senators who had begun to go politically crazy had even proposed a bill to segregate men and women in society.

The madman believed that love would reduce labor efficiency and that sex would cause them to waste too much physical energy on worthless things.

They cited many examples, such as that only a very small number of animals in nature engage in sexual intercourse for pleasure.

For most animals, sex only occurs when they are reproducing. This is what the species should do, instead of wasting a lot of physical strength and energy for a moment of happiness!
They believe that only by maintaining a strong body and not being affected by sex can they have more energy to work, instead of thinking about going home and having sex with the opposite sex every day.

They even came up with the slogan "Love is as hopeless as alcohol" and they were just about to start lobbying!

Of course, such a ridiculous idea is impossible to become a proposal, let alone pass, just like those proposals that once advocated that prohibition of alcohol would definitely lead to increased production capacity...

Well, sometimes no one knows whether these senators are becoming so ridiculous in order to make big news, or whether they just want to be unique politically and make themselves so unlikeable.

In the evening, Lucar and several colleagues found a restaurant with a relatively quiet environment. The melodious music blocked out the inadvertent eavesdropping of guests at different tables.

There were nine people sitting at the table, including Lucar. The director was not there as he was still dealing with some procedural matters at the state government.

New departments and new law enforcement powers all need to be confirmed layer by layer in paper documents and must be signed by some responsible persons.

Today is the day when their senior agent will contact the deputy director.

Interestingly, there was a bottle of wine on the table.

There were nine people at the table, only three of them were locals, and the rest were transferred from other places or from the state government.

The environment of Jingang City is special, so everyone thinks it is profitable and easier to achieve results.

The deputy director held the bottle, "Tima distilled red wine..." He looked at some of the standards and put it back on the table. "I find that the situation we are facing is more serious than we thought."

He was the first one to arrive, so he ordered his food, and then the others arrived one after another.

The deputy director may not be really willing to be the deputy director, but no matter what, he has to show some qualities before the work officially begins.

Everyone else took a look at the bottle, and Lucard took it in his hand and nodded. The distilled red wine would be slightly lighter in color, but the alcohol content was obviously higher.

This is dozens of times more than the legal provision that alcohol is considered alcohol if its alcohol content exceeds 5 thousandths!
Sometimes a bite of leavened bread has a higher alcohol content than this!

“They sold me this drink, and I asked the manager, isn’t this during Prohibition?”

"He told me that I had stored a bottle of wine here before, but they couldn't remember what kind of wine it was, so they needed me to remind them!"

When the deputy director said this, the smile on his face had almost disappeared.

"A very clever move, gentlemen." "They are not selling this wine without knowing anything. They have found a loophole in the law because it is not illegal to consume or store it."

"They managed to find a loophole and not only sell us the alcohol, but they also allowed us to drink it in public because we stored it here."

"No trade, completely legal."

The expressions of several senior agents also became solemn, including Lucard.

During the state training, he actually felt that... this matter would not be too difficult because it was a constitutional amendment, which meant that it was a law that every region had to enforce and no region was exempt.

People will stop these illegal activities due to fear of the law and only criminals will be selling these alcohols.

But now, he discovered that not only criminals were selling it, but ordinary people were also selling it!
He turned around and looked around. In the quiet mid- to high-end restaurant, there was a bottle of wine on almost every table.

Some people asked, “So how do they charge us?”

"If they don't take the money ... of course that's impossible, but if the money is linked to the alcohol, we have ways to punish them."

They caught someone in the act before they even started working. Those big shots will definitely be satisfied with the progress of their work.

The deputy chief shook his head. “See that band over there?”

Several people turned around at the same time and looked towards the small stage in front of the restaurant hall. Several people were playing music, and the music in the restaurant was coming from them.

It is common nowadays for almost all mid-range and high-end restaurants to have a band playing music.

"The band charges us for serving us, the waiters charge us for serving us, and the chefs as well."

"The manager told me there would be a service fee to ensure everything was safe."

He picked up the bottle and poured glasses for everyone, "Don't be so serious. Once we catch a big one, these problems will be easily solved."

“When people find that the benefits of breaking the law are far less than the punishment they receive, criminal behavior will naturally be curbed.”

He laughed as he spoke, "If you were to go to the gallows for stealing a dollar, I believe that after hanging a few people, no one would become a thief anymore!"

He lowered his voice and said, "This is the last time we drink together. Don't tell the director when he comes back."

"Let's have a great start, cheers!"

Several people raised their wine glasses, just like the guests around them. In a moment, everyone's face turned a little redder.

It's snowing heavily outside. Nothing can make people feel more comfortable than having a drink in such weather.

Outside the kitchen window of the restaurant, a homeless man was looking through the window at the people enjoying delicious food inside with eyes full of envy and jealousy.

He didn't beg much money today, only about thirty cents, but here, the cheapest dish might cost fifty cents or even one dollar.

These people would never lower their heads to look at him sitting in the ice and snow. They were so stingy that they were unwilling to give him even a five-cent coin. Why didn't God bring down his wrath and burn them all to death?

In this way, all the delicious food will be yours!

Some sour saliva welled up in his mouth. He didn't know that his mouth was comparable to a biochemical laboratory.

Just as he was imagining what those dishes would taste like, a waiter came out with an unhappy look on his face, holding a stick in his hand, "If you show up here again and disturb our guests' meals, I promise I will break your legs!"

"Now, get out of our store!"

The tramp ran away as if he was frightened, and only after he ran away did he start cursing something.

Maybe it was cursing the rich people who lacked empathy and kindness, maybe it was cursing the dog waiter who wouldn't even let him look, maybe it was... God himself?
A car was driving by quickly on the side of the road, and he didn't pay attention to avoid it, so the kicked-up ice and snow splashed all over him.

He was a little sad, but more of it was dissatisfaction and anger, "Fuck!" He gave the middle finger to those cars.

But the next second, the car stopped. The homeless man was stunned for a moment. Just as he was about to leave, two people wearing black windbreakers and with red armbands on their left arms got out of the car, and one of them waved to him.

"Fuck!" He didn't dare to run. This was the Imperial District and he knew who these people were!

He could only walk over slowly, hunched over, with a flattering smile on his face. He also took off his shabby fisherman's hat and held it in his hand.

As if he felt that his hair was a little messy, he used his hands that were full of calluses and dirt to stroke his sparse and yellow hair.

"Sir, I'm not scolding you..."

"Come this way."

The young man pointed closer and walked over, his smile barely showing.

He had heard a lot about the Lance family and knew how terrible they were!
He would never think like those ordinary people, thinking that the Lance family are good people. They are also gangsters and bad guys!

And they are worse villains than Camilla's gang. Only by being worse than them can they be killed, but those ordinary people don't even understand this truth!

This made him even more frightened, and he could no longer tell whether his trembling legs were due to fear or the ice water.

The car window rolled down, revealing half of Lance's face. He turned his head and looked at the homeless man who was splashed with ice water. "Sorry, your clothes are wet."

The homeless man was a little flattered and a little scared. Were they trying to play a trick on me?

But no matter what, he could only continue to deal with it.

"No, no, sir, it was my own carelessness. I should have been able to dodge it normally, but I was distracted, so it's not your fault!"

Lance could tell he was scared, "You know me?"

The light from the street lamp was limited, and large flakes of snow filled the space between the two people, who were still about a meter apart.

The tramp shook his head a little embarrassedly, taking a big gulp of hot air with every word he said, he was really cold!

"I haven't seen you, sir, I'm sorry..."

Lance shook his head slightly and turned to look at Erwin, "Give me some money, ten dollars."

Erwin felt his pockets and found that except for a few dollars in change, all the other notes were twenty-dollar bills. Lance was too lazy to watch him count them, so he took one out, held it between his fingertips and held it out.

"My name is Lance. I've already apologized, but I still want to apologize for our behavior. I'm sorry for getting your clothes wet."

"Here's twenty dollars. Go buy some new clothes, then find a hotel, take a hot shower, and have a good sleep. Everything will be fine."

The homeless man was a little confused, and soon his eyes were focused on the money. He hesitated, "Can I...?"

He really wanted the money. Lance shook his fingers. "It's snowing heavily."

This was a signal for him to hurry up.

The tramp quickly stuffed his worn fisherman's hat into his arms, bent down and rubbed his hands in the snow, then carefully took the banknote.

He suddenly choked up, perhaps because on such a cold winter night, with these twenty yuan, at least he would not freeze to death this month, or even this winter.

It is also possible that the long-lost respect made him regain the feeling of being a human being!
"Mr. Lance...you are a good man. No one has ever been as kind as you!"

Lance smiled, "It wasn't there before, but it is now."

"Okay, we should go now. You should also change your clothes. Be careful not to get sick."

"Good luck, Mr. Tramp!"

The car windows slowly rolled down, the two young men got back into the car, and the convoy left.

The tramp chased after him for a few steps, his eyes reddened, and he waved his hands, “Good luck to you too, Mr. Lance!”

(End of this chapter)