Shadow Empire

Chapter 185 Wages in arrears
At ten o'clock in the morning, Lance arrived at Empire Night.

Generally speaking, Empire Night is closed in the morning. Its business hours are from five o'clock until one o'clock in the morning.

The actors need to rest, the service staff also need to rest, and they also need to clean and check the goods and prepare for a new day of business, which also takes time.

I came here today because today is "paycheck" day. Empire Night has been reopened for nearly a month, and it's time to pay salaries.

When Lance came, he saw Eric, who opened the office window and stood by the window smoking a cigarette. Lance noticed him when he got out of the car, and he also saw Lance.

The two looked at each other for a moment at a distance of several dozen meters, then looked away.

Erwin cursed at the side, "I feel uncomfortable when I see this son of a bitch. I have been asking about some things recently!"

Lance became slightly interested, "About what?"

The two men greeted the staff who came to collect their salary while walking towards the nightclub.

"He's just a jerk. He hangs out in the entertainment venues in the Starlight District every day. I heard that he's pursuing a female star, but she doesn't seem to like him."

"You don't like him?" Lance was a little surprised. "Does that actress have a big background?"

Erwin shook his head and said, "I don't know, but he's quite famous in the Starlight District, mainly for opera."

He paused and said, "It also has something to do with Eric's identity. After all, the rumored man has a special relationship with his mother and his nominal father. No one likes such a messy family relationship."

Everyone is saying that Eric's father is the mayor and not anyone else, but the mayor and his father are cousins, and maybe people in the upper class like some taboos.

It seems that Eric is just an illegitimate child, which is actually a good choice for some girls who want to climb higher.

They couldn't get close to the mayor's legitimate heir, but with an illegitimate child, they still had some chance.

But if he is an illegitimate child of a chaotic relationship, then even a girl who wants to get close to him will be discouraged by such a family relationship.

Once the two started to go upstairs, Erwin kept his mouth shut.

Kailu's office was crowded with people, and everyone was enthusiastic about paying salaries.

Every time someone receives their salary, they say thank you and then sign or put their fingerprint on a booklet to indicate that they have received their salary.

Wages are paid in the form of checks, which facilitates fund management and reduces the workload of accountants.

After all, it is much more difficult to divide thousands or tens of thousands of dollars according to different wage standards without making a mess than to write down a number on a piece of paper.

When people saw Lance coming, they all took the initiative to let him go to the front. Lance did not refuse. After thanking them with a smile, he came to the front.

Kailu glanced at him, found a light blue envelope from a stack of envelopes, took it out and placed it on the table.

Lance was about to take it, but she stopped him, "Sign here or put your fingerprints first, then you can take the money."

Lance looked at her for two or three seconds, then signed his name in the notebook, "Does he belong to me now?"

Kailu didn't say anything, but she was obviously emotional.

At that time, she expressed her wish to have an office of her own, but Lance assigned a few more people to her office, which made her very unhappy. She felt that she was being neglected, so she didn't show any good face to Lance.

Lance shook his head indifferently. These were the mayor, or people hired by the mayor. He would not have good relations with these people. He was not Jobav, and was not that...cheap.

"How much?" Alvin couldn't help himself. According to lawyer Orson, he could get 30% of the profits here.

In the past month, the business of Empire Nightclub has been better than before. After Lance took control of this place, many people are willing to come here to consume because it is safe.

He is not a member of the Camilla Gang who would kidnap and blackmail his own people, so they are willing to come and play and spend money.

There are many hidden rich people in the Imperial District. You can’t see anything special about them at ordinary times, but their spending power is really high. There are also federal people coming from other places.

After all, "imperial style" is also a feature of Jingang City.

In the past, the daily profit was about four or five hundred, sometimes even a little more, ten to twenty thousand a month. Taking the middle value, fifteen thousand, 30% is four thousand five hundred.

This made Alvin a little jealous. This was almost as much as half of the law firms and financial companies.

After walking out of the crowd, Lance opened the envelope and took out the check, but the expression on his face soon changed from anticipation to calmness.

"A lot?" Erwin asked, not noticing the change in his expression.

Lance handed him the check, and Erwin took it with anticipation, but soon became visibly dissatisfied and angry!
"Five hundred dollars?"

"How dare they write such a number?" He said as he was about to go back to the office. "I'll go ask her. I don't believe that the total for this month is less than 2,000 yuan!"

Lance grabbed his arm. "There's no use asking her."

Erwin looked at him. "Is that the end of it?"

Lance shook his head. "Kael is just a puppet. Even if you kill her, she has no right to give us more."

"Let us go up first and see what they say!" Those people upstairs are the key!
Erwin calmed down a bit now, "You mean, Eric?"

He reacted, "This bitch raised her!"

The two men went up to the room, and Eric seemed to realize that Lance was coming over, so he sat in Lance's chair.

Lance threw away all of Heller's things and replaced them with new ones, and the whole office was filled with a sense of freshness.

His feet were resting on the new table Lance had bought, and some dust from the soles of his shoes had already fallen onto the surface.

Lawyer Orson was sitting on the sofa, reading some documents. When he heard the door open, he stood up on his own initiative.

"Mr. Lance...", then his eyes fell on Erwin, "And Mr. Erwin."

"How's it going? Did you get your salary?"

Erwin didn't say anything. He knew that everything revolved around Lance at this moment. He took the coat and hat that Lance took off, hung them on the hanger, and then stood aside.

Lance walked to the sofa and sat down. He picked up the coffee pot and poured himself a cup of hot coffee. "Got it."

I blew away the hot steam on the back of the coffee and took a sip. The strong oily taste brought a better experience, but it was obviously more bitter.

Most people in the Federation are more tolerant of slightly sour tastes than bitter ones.

Eric, who was sitting in Lance's chair, showed a smile on his face, a very contemptuous smile.

Lance took out the check and the envelope, placed them on the table, and pushed them in front of Lawyer Orson with his finger.

Lawyer Orson glanced at the check. It was for five hundred dollars.

The nightclub's profit last month was about 22,000 yuan. According to their previous agreement, Lance should actually get at least 6,600 yuan.

There were only five hundred dollars here, not even a dime left, and he knew what was going on.

Eric had recently spent too much money pursuing that young female opera singer. It was not an easy thing to pursue an opera singer in this period, especially one who was already famous.

If I were to make an analogy, this girl is roughly equivalent to the top star in the film industry during its heyday. That is not something that an illegitimate child born out of a mayor's chaos can easily obtain.

There were also some capitalists and gentlemen from the upper class who were pursuing the girl together.

With more opportunities and levels to choose from, Eric is obviously not at an advantage, so he can only find ways to please his goddess.

And spending money is the best solution he can think of.

All kinds of romance, romance built with money, did make the girl seem to like him more than others. But he couldn't bear to spend so much money!
The mayor gave him a lot of money and turned a blind eye to his occasional money-making behavior, so when he heard that Empire Night was going to distribute dividends and Lance could get 6,600 yuan, he became interested.

"He is nothing more than the leader of a small gang. If you said he was from one of the five major families, I might still hesitate."

"But the Lance family... no one knows about them except the Imperial District. Why should I respect them?"

"Giving him five hundred dollars is already the dignity I leave for him."

"If I hadn't seen him still working for his uncle, I wouldn't even want to give him 500 yuan!"

These were exactly what he said to Lawyer Orson. Lawyer Orson recalled some of the things the mayor had said to him. His original intention of persuading him was dispelled. Instead, he smiled and agreed, and asked Kaylu to modify Lance's salary.

Eric was very happy at this time. With 6,100 yuan, he could continue to pursue his goddess fiercely, and the other five bars would also get a share of the profits.

The profits of these bars are also very high. Lance should be able to get 7,000 to 8,000 yuan. At that time, he will only leave 500 yuan for Lance, and the rest will be his!

Thinking of this, he couldn't help laughing. Perhaps realizing that he had laughed out loud, he coughed a few times to cover it up.

After all, the money had nothing to do with him, and the person involved was right here.

The two people sitting on the sofa looked at Eric. Lawyer Orson kept a smile on his face that seemed to never change.

Lance also had a half-smile on his face, as he was thinking of many things.

He had been chatting with a friend named Du before, and he said that he had met many important people in his life. The higher the status of the important person, the more humble they were in accepting gifts, for fear that they might have done something wrong.

On the contrary, it is those small characters with booger noses who are so arrogant and lawless, as if they are the only ones in the world except their father.

These words seem to fit Eric just fine.

Perhaps realizing that both of them were looking at him, Eric turned his head and lit a cigarette, and the two of them also looked away.

They looked at each other and noticed something from each other's eyes, but neither of them spoke.

"Mr. Lance is not satisfied with the salary?" Lawyer Orson picked up the check, took another look at it, and then put it back into the envelope.

Lance shook his head and smiled, "It's an honor for me to serve the boss of this city. How dare I really ask for a share of the profits?"

Lawyer Orson was a little bit unpredictable again. Was what he said true or false?

But to be honest, how do we explain the issue of red high heels?

But if it's fake, how could he control his emotions so well?
From the time he fought a bloody battle with the Camilla Gang in anger to the time he miraculously destroyed the entire Camilla Gang, he did not seem like a character like Mr. Jobaf, which was also something that Lawyer Orson felt was very contradictory.

He couldn't guess what Lance was thinking, so he was a little hesitant, wondering how to say this.

Testing Lance was also one of his jobs. Just when he was still thinking about what to say, Eric suddenly said, "Since Lance is so generous, Orson, you should keep the five hundred dollars. My car is out of gas and I need to refuel."

He put his feet down from the table, stamped his feet on the floor, walked to the coffee table, and took the envelope under the gaze of Lawyer Orson. "Forget it, just leave it here. I'm going to get gas now." He paused and said, "Are you going, Orson?"

Lawyer Orson thought for a while. He still had some work to do. The mayor's assets were not just this little bit. He would be very busy during payday.

Many people know that he can represent the mayor's attitude to a certain extent, so his appearance is a very important thing.

"It's on our way, let's go together." He decided to leave the matter of testing Lance for next time.

He then stood up, and Lance also stood up, and took the initiative to extend his hand, "Goodbye, Lawyer Orson."

Lawyer Orson smiled and shook his hand warmly, "Goodbye, Mr. Lance."

Lance looked at Eric, who snorted and walked towards the door with disdain just like last time, without even stopping to think about shaking Lance's hand.

He glanced at Erwin at the door, said impatiently "Get lost", kicked the door, and left the room.

Lawyer Orson looked at Eric who broke out of the door and sighed, "I'm sorry to make you laugh, but sometimes there's nothing I can do about him..." He shook his head as he spoke, as if he was afraid that others would not see the mayor's doting on him.

Lance made a very appropriate expression, somewhat dissatisfied but still within the tolerable range, "This is for all of us."

When Lance said this, Lawyer Orson was dazed again. He couldn't tell whether this was a mockery or what he really thought.

He stared at Lance for a while before nodding slightly, "Don't worry, we will compensate you."

He didn't want to continue guessing what Lance was feeling, so he stopped there, "Okay, I should go now. I don't want to keep him waiting. Who knows what he might do."

After saying goodbye to each other again, Lance watched Lawyer Orson leave.

After Erwin closed the door, his face looked grim. “Are we just going to let him do this?”

Lance came to the window and watched the three cars leave. He shook his head and said, "This is just an unintelligent dog. If you show hostility, he will keep biting you."

"You know all about it, he's not a smart dog, so there's no point in doing this."

He paused for a moment, "Find him another dog and let them bite it."

"As for the money they owe me..." Lance lit a cigarette, "I will settle with them based on the company's highest interest rate and find a suitable time to collect it from them."

Erwin was still somewhat unwilling, but he also knew that this seemed to be the best solution right now, because they were not facing a small character like Heller.

They were facing the city's most prominent figure, the mayor, who held great power. He could even ask the governor to allow the slave-hunting team to enter the city directly when necessary.

Of course they don't call it that anymore, they have a better, more legal name.

Although doing so would severely damage the mayor's position within the Socialist Party, he has the courage and ability to fight, while Lance and others do not have the ability to fight back yet.

Even the mayor only needs to make some deals with one of the five major families, and he can easily get rid of the Lance family through legal means.

This is also the reason why the rulers of almost all regions of the federation seem to be allowing the rampant development of gang forces.

They are raising pigs, preparing for a good meal in the future, and at the same time they are not afraid that the gang organization will get out of control because they are always outside the scope of the law!

Using the power of a country to deal with an organized gang, no organized gang can withstand it!

Eric's mind was full of the goddess' smile, but he didn't know that because of his small action today, all the bars in Lance opened early.

With the cheap potato wine from Luigi and the large-scale winemaking in the surrounding farms, the price of Lance's wine can be said to be very low, if the quality is not considered.

But this is the Empire District, not the city center filled with social elites, nor is it the Starlight District where stars gather, nor is it the Bay Area for the upper class.

What people here want is the alcohol in the wine, not a big brand.

What they care about is how much alcohol they can get for the same price, not whether it has a bronze or silver label.

The mayor found out about this in the evening, and Orson told him everything Eric had done.

After listening, he asked about Lance's performance and reaction. After Lawyer Orson said that, the mayor thought about it for a while and didn't take it to heart.

In this city, apart from the opinion leaders of the three major parties and the five major families who gave him a headache, he didn't care about anyone else.

He was just the leader of a small gang, and he spent more time with the representatives of the Socialist Party.

They are the key to being able to nominate the Speaker of the House of Representatives!

"Don't worry about him for now. You have some new work to do. I heard that the Liberal Party's plan is the same as ours. Find out who our competitors are and see if you can get some black material..."

Soon the mayor was immersed in his grand ambitions. As for the noise in the poor corners of the city?
Who the hell can hear that?!
(End of this chapter)