Shadow Empire

Chapter 180 Evolution and You Have a Dream

The commercialization of capital society and politics has always been what is happening in the Federation.

At the beginning, politicians may be relatively pure, with fewer free voters. Candidates are proposed at party congresses, and most of those who have votes are from major parties and a few big capitalists.

The outcome of who wins the election does not come from the election, but from the political deals and compromises before the election.

According to official statistics that were not necessarily accurate, less than 15 percent of people in the original federation had legal voting rights.

There is also a saying that it is less than 10%.

So during that period, deciding who would do what was an internal matter within the major political parties.

But as the federal government continues to give voting rights to the people and more people get involved in this, elections are no longer simply about "I (politicians) have a dream", but "I (politicians) want to realize your (voters) dreams"!
Today's campaigns rely more on publicity, and politicians have to let the public know "I can respond to your ideas and make it happen." This is the essence of today's elections.

If you don't publicize it and let more people know that there is such a person who says he can realize our ideas, they will not vote for you.

Propaganda itself is an act of "self-selling", accompanied by a series of transactions related to capital, so the commercialization of politics is an inevitable result and there is no way to go back.

Of course, this does not mean that giving people some political rights is a bad thing, it’s just that in this evolution, capital has gotten out of control!

Two hundred years ago, a mayor could hang a capitalist by just saying “I think”, but now, not only can they not touch the interests of capitalists at will, they also have to become good friends with them, because capitalists are more important than them in the matter of election!

As a member of the federal government system, William was also well aware of this, but he was not quite sure about Lance's attitude, so he was very "cautious".

Lance was not careful. He knew very well that although politics had been capitalized, politicians still had considerable influence, and he must have his own people, which was his most important "next plan".

When William heard him say that he wanted to find an office of 200 square meters in the city center, he smiled more.

Pricia is right next to the city center and is not a remote area, but it is not in the city center after all.

It's like the houses in the Port Area which are right next to the Bay Area. Even if they see girls from the rich area jogging on the slope with half of their buttocks exposed the first thing they see when they open the door in the morning, they can only say that they are from the Port Area, not the Bay Area.

The city center is the city center, and if it is not the city center, it is not the city center. It is useless even if you are close to it!

He licked his lips, "Two hundred square meters will cost a lot of money."

Lance shook his head. "Three hundred bucks a month at most. If you can find an office near Jingang Park, I can afford more in rent."

Jingang Park is the largest park in the city center of Jingang. More than one mayor has mentioned it in external publicity, believing that Jingang Park is the most proud place in Jingang City.

The development of the city is not entirely focused on commercialization. In places where every inch of land is valuable, there are still fully open large parks that are free of charge. This is the humanistic care of Jingang City.

But they seem to have forgotten that more than one mayor had planned to demolish the park and turn it into a valuable piece of land, but all failed.

The massive demonstrations and strikes that almost overwhelmed the entire city are the reason for preserving it, not because of any humanitarian concern.

Being able to find an office nearby is definitely a symbol of "strength".

"No problem, I'll keep an eye out."

He paused and said, "That's mainly it. There's also decoration, furniture, and various consumables. It's a maximum of fifty dollars a month."

"If we calculate based on half a year..." He looked down at the form he had written himself, "about eight thousand yuan would be enough."

Lance nodded after listening to it, "There's a problem."

William immediately moved his butt forward, “You say.”

Lance glanced at him and said, "Don't be so nervous..."

"First of all, your salary is not written here. I will also give you 500 yuan a month. You have to take good care of your family, Emily and Patricia."

"Then I will give you a few cars. Let's start with four cars, each costing two thousand yuan, which is eight thousand yuan."

"You can't do things without any activity funds. I'll give you 10,000 yuan first, but you have to keep accounts. I need to know where every penny goes."

"Add to that the previous 8,000 yuan... the total is 32,000 yuan."

William was a little surprised, "You are good at math."

Lance wanted to laugh after hearing this and laughed out loud, but William didn't know what was so funny and felt a little confused.

"I can't give you so much money now..." Seeing William's strange expression, he explained, "The legal money will be of great use in the future, and I won't give you the black money."

"We have to be careful when you don't have the ability to resist risks!"

William nodded in agreement. In fact, many big politicians are using black money to run for elections or hold various political activities. Even the tax bureau cannot figure out where every penny comes from.

Especially when there are "anonymous donations" all the time, a stack of cash comes in an envelope, and God knows whether the money is clean or not.

And even if it’s not clean, what else can it do?
Everyone thinks the tax bureau is clean and independent, but is it really 100% independent?

Is there really no dirt at all?
This is a question mark!
After missing this topic, William suddenly became interested in what Lance was going to do with the money. "Are you going to invest in the financial industry?"

Financial investment and financial speculation are currently the fastest ways to make money, no doubt about it.

Barbara works in a financial company, and sometimes during family gatherings she would talk about the company's brokers and clients.

Maybe just because of a wise all-in, your assets can increase several times or even dozens of times overnight!
Stories of going to heaven overnight and going to hell overnight happen every day, but people pay more attention to the survivors who survived the financial slaughterhouse, which makes them mistakenly believe that it is easy to make money in this industry.

Lance shook his head. He took a sip of the black tea, which tasted average. "I plan to use it to place an order for grapes."

Lance heard a friend named Lin talk about how to use 100 yuan to leverage 100 million yuan.

Of course he just treated it as a story and bragging, but he had to admit that as long as all the factors were right, this was indeed possible.

Just like what people often say, two light-skinned couples can give birth to a dark-skinned child, this is the result of a small probability of genetic mutation.

As long as all the factors are in place at the right time, then even if there is no biological father-son relationship shown genetically, it is possible!
William didn't know much about making money, but he knew that the price of grapes had been rising rapidly recently. "How much do you plan to buy?" He had a hunch that it wouldn't be too little.

Lance shook his head and said, "Not sure, but I'll keep a few thousand dollars and spend the rest."

William took a breath and said, "Are you so optimistic about the rise in grape prices?"

Lance smiled mysteriously. In order to let his future partner and Patricia's father feel his "mystery", he didn't mind showing a little bit of his "incredibility".

"I don't know the price and development trend of grapes..." William frowned before he finished his words.

You don't have a fucking clue yet you still invest so much, do you think the money is too much?
Just when he was considering whether to persuade Lance, Lance's next words made him fall into deep thought -

"But I have great confidence in the federal government's determination to prohibit alcohol!"

William stopped talking for a moment. He soon realized that grapes can be used to make wine, something that many people knew.

Federal people also have the habit of brewing their own beer.

William said softly after more than ten seconds, "But it is illegal to do so."

Lance looked nonchalant, "At the beginning, they told you that anyone who did not use that position was a pagan. But many people used other positions?"

"If you believe me, this is a great opportunity to make a fortune."

“Its price will increase by at least five times, and the stricter the regulations, the greater the increase. In the end, it may even be more expensive than gold!”

William didn't believe it. Grapes will always be just grapes. They can be grown in the ground, but he didn't believe that their price could exceed gold!

But he will pay attention to it and plan to take out some money, two thousand yuan.

If what Lance said was true, then these two thousand yuan would soon become four or five thousand, seven or eight thousand, or even ten thousand yuan!

After a while, the two gentlemen finished their conversation and returned to the living room. Emily had already cut a new fruit plate.

This is a port city. Although it is winter in the Federation, the temperature in the southernmost part of Yalan is still quite warm, more than 20 degrees. Many fruits are sent back from there.

Ordinary people may not be able to afford the expensive fruits in the window that are picked no more than a week ago, but for middle-class families, they can still afford it.

"Gentlemen, what did you talk about? Would you like to share it with the ladies?" Emily took the initiative to sit next to William so that Lance could sit next to Patricia.

"I talked about some work-related things, which you wouldn't be interested in." William ended Emily's inquiry. After all, Lance hadn't left yet, and it would be a bit impolite to bring up this topic now.

But this could also be seen as a sign of familiarity between the two parties, and he knew that Emily would ask again in the evening.

This time he must hold on. Even if he is subjected to cruel torture, he will not tell anything until the very last moment.

"Well, there will always be a time when you'll be willing to talk about it!" She didn't dwell on it, but took the initiative to open a new topic.

A smart hostess always knows how and when to make the atmosphere better, not worse.

William didn't want to talk about those things, so she didn't talk about work, but instead talked about the recent popular talkies.

"I heard that because of this movie, the ticket prices of some theaters have increased by 5 to 10 cents."

"It's so popular, we went to ask a few days ago, but there was no ticket available between 5pm and 8pm!"

She was talking about the Starlight District, which is where the rich go for entertainment and where public safety is second only to the Bay Area, except for the Empire District.

Others also brought up the topic, which made Lance think about opening a movie theater.

“How many movie theaters do we have here?”

William looked at Emily, he didn't know anyway.

Emily thought for a moment and said, "I don't know, but there should be hundreds of them?"

She wasn't sure, but was interested. "What new ideas do you have?"

Lance talked about Gerard and his plan to invest in a cinema and his optimism about the development of the film industry.

Emily was slightly interested, but only slightly, purely because being a star was something that almost all women of all ages liked.

For today's middle class, going to the cinema to watch movies is something that only the lower class loves, although there are also cinemas in the Starlight District.

But more of them still like to watch opera, even though many people don’t actually understand it.

After chatting about family matters for a while, a car horn was heard outside the door. Lance had called earlier and asked them to drive over to pick him up.

It was time to get up and say goodbye. After saying goodbye to William and Emily, Patricia walked Lance out the door.

She had a lot to say but didn't know how to start, so Lance just gave her a hug.

"I have to go now. Take good care of yourself. I hope my piglets will always be healthy."

The girl also hugged him, and time seemed to stop at this moment. After a while, Lance took the initiative to let her go, which made her feel a little lost.

He brushed off the snowflakes on the girl's head and said, "Go back. I have to go."

The girl nodded, hummed, and watched Lance leave gracefully until she could no longer see him.

The next morning, a week had passed, and Lance gathered together all the people who had joined the Imperial Chamber of Commerce.

He specially found a theater nearby, otherwise it would not be able to accommodate so many people.

Around ten o'clock in the morning, most people had arrived, but some people had not yet arrived because they could not leave for the time being.

Lance stood on the stage of the theater and had the door closed. The special architectural structure here allowed his voice to be heard easily even by those sitting at the very back.

It is said that humans knew how to use the conductivity of sound to design similar buildings thousands of years ago.

"Thank you for taking the time to come. Recently, there are only a few people joining the Chamber of Commerce every day, so starting from Monday, the Chamber of Commerce will no longer accept applications."

He paused when he said this to give them some time to interpret the situation. Some people did show some strange expressions.

Because some people think that any time someone joins the Chamber of Commerce, Lance will accept it because he can collect dues.

But now, it doesn't look like that's the case.

Lance sat on a low sofa, crossing his legs naturally and relaxedly, with one hand resting on the backrest of the sofa. "I've heard about the rumors outside, but I don't care because they will regret it soon."

"I'm here today to tell you that the first opportunity to make money is here."

"Grape!"

The discussions of hundreds of people were very loud. Even if their individual voices were small, when combined together they made a loud noise.

The old man from before stood up again, "Mr. Lance, what do you mean by grapes?"

Lance motioned for him to sit down. "Because of the Prohibition, the price of alcohol is skyrocketing. But if you pay attention, you will find that the price of grapes has increased by nearly 60% from October last year to now, and the delivery price three months later has increased by nearly 100%."

"In half a year, the price has doubled, and this is when the prohibition is not strictly enforced."

"As a large amount of stockpiled liquor was consumed, the price of smuggled liquor began to rise, and ordinary people found it difficult to buy cheap liquor, so brewing became one of their few options."

"The price of fresh grapes is less than one hundred yuan a ton now, Nick!" He suddenly called out Nick's name.

A person next to him walked from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, and at Lance's instruction, sat on another set of sofas.

“Tell our friends how much wine can be produced from one pound of grapes.”

Nick had a fanatical look on his face. He didn't react to this at first. When Lance told him to continue to expand the scale of brewing, he realized that this was fucking making money!

Even though he’s known about it for a few days, he still gets excited every time he talks about it!
"Mr. Lance, everyone, a pound of grapes can produce about three-quarters of the weight of wine." His voice was still a little trembling.

At this moment, the theater, which had been noisy, suddenly became quiet.

Everyone knows how crazy the price of alcohol is right now, but what they didn’t expect is that the raw materials for making wine are so cheap!
Lance didn't give them more time to think. Once the pleasure came, it couldn't stop. Stopping might spoil the fun. The nerves must be stimulated by continuous bombardment to feel the real pleasure!

"Nick, tell us how much wine we can make from one ton of grapes, and how much it costs."

"Okay, Mr. Lance." He took out a pack of cigarettes, "Can I have one first?"

Lance leaned forward and held out a hand, "I want one, too."

There was some laughter in the theater, which was soon filled with smoke.

Nicotine helped Nick calm down a bit. "Even for an unskilled person, one ton of grapes can make about 200 gallons (750 kilograms) of wine."

"As for the cost, based on the current price of less than 85 yuan per ton, plus some tools and materials, the cost is about 150 yuan."

The whole theater was filled with a loud noise as if someone had heated a large pot of oil, brought it to a boil, and then poured a bucket of cold water into it!
No one could believe what they heard. They asked the people around them for confirmation. Lance kept raising his hand, signaling them not to talk, but the discussion lasted for more than a minute before it stopped.

He stood up, and there seemed to be a ray of light in his eyes. "One hundred and fifty dollars, two hundred gallons of wine, do you know how much this wine can be sold for in the market?"

Everyone held their breath. They spent countless sleepless nights dreaming that one day they would change their lives, but every day when they woke up, reality dealt them a heavy blow.

Until this moment, they finally realized that their fate was about to change!

In fact, there is a very advanced echo here, but I’m afraid you can’t see it, and I don’t want to tell you the correct answer, so I’ll remind you.

There are already several books, why is the class representative still not showing up?



(End of this chapter)