Shadow Empire

Chapter 226 Bloodshed, Investment, and Three Thousand Yuan

Jellal just stood behind Lance, and a smile appeared on his face as he looked at the male supporting actors who slowly walked up to Lance.

The heroine walked up to him, pulled his hand, and looked at him with some concern.

Her voice was low. “Who are they?”

He glanced at Lance's back and turned slightly, "This is my brother, he will make the decision for me."

The heroine still seemed a little worried, and she pursed her lips and said nothing.

In fact, everyone could feel during this period that these male actors were ostracizing Gerard because he was very handsome and became the first supporting actor.

In fact, the heroine also heard some gossip that someone wanted to sleep with Jellal, but Jellal refused, so they were a little angry and asked these people to unite and teach Jellal a lesson.

This was their way of telling Gerard that if he wanted to complete the film successfully, the best way was to listen to them.

The film industry itself is monopolized by a few production companies. Although there are many small filming companies, overall, those blockbuster movies often come from just a few film companies.

They have a lot of say in this industry, especially some capitalists who often appear on the big screen.

That guy is not a nice guy!
They are used to playing the role of the lower class in movies to please the people, but in actual work, they are definitely qualified capitalists.

They know how to exploit and oppress the workers, and they only show the side they want to show.

Although this industry is still in its early stages of development, it is already as "dirty" as the opera field.

For example, in some large-scale operas that feature famous opera singers, if you want to play a role in them, you often have to pay a lot of price.

They never choose actors based on whether you have outstanding acting skills, but rather based on how much you are willing to risk or whether there is any power behind you.

There are very few "white lotuses" like Shayna, if her uncle was not very influential in the opera field and had connections in Congress.

There is a high probability that she has been used by many people, or even used together, for the role she is currently playing.

The heroine is very worried about Jellal. He is obviously very talented and good-looking, but his star journey seems to be coming to an end.

This made her very sad, even though she was also one of the victims.

The producer was staring in amazement at the leading actor who was lying on the ground without even the strength to scream. His face turned pale as he saw the cut on his face caused by the tip of his leather shoe.

Even though Hiram's gun was pointed at his head, he showed an extremely complicated expression with a hint of gloating, "You're in trouble!"

Lance glanced back at him, "Who's in trouble?"

The producer seemed to have gained some courage from somewhere, and his voice became louder. "I don't know your name, but you, your friends, including Gerald, are in trouble!"

"He's an actor the company is very optimistic about, so we signed him to a big contract, and there's also a big shot who likes him very much!"

"The scars on his face will leave scars. You have offended a lot of people. Do you understand?"

"You're in trouble!"

Even if the wound on the hero's face heals, there will definitely be a scar left. Who the hell would like a hero with a scar on his face?
Maybe if he got a scar after he became famous, people would think he was very manly, but if he had a scar on his face when people didn't really know him, it would just make people think he was disgusting.

Lance shook his head and looked at Hiram, "Tell him to be smart!"

Before the producer knew what this meant, Hiram hit him hard on the head with the butt of his gun!
He immediately felt a piercing pain, his head felt a little dizzy, and a hot current flowed down his forehead.

He raised his hand and wiped it, the scarlet color drove him a little crazy.

He seemed to be unable to stand steadily, and he slumped down on the ground holding onto the director's chair, his face pale, "I'm bleeding, call an ambulance, quickly, I'm going to die!"

As Hiram looked at the producer like this, he suddenly had an idea that he didn't know how to describe. He put the gun back into the holster, walked over and raised his foot.

He kicked hard and shouted—

"bleeding?"

"ambulance?"

"dying?"

"Fake!"

Lance smiled and turned around to look at the male supporting actors who were approaching. "I don't know why you bullied my brother, but now it's time for you to pay the price."

He turned to look at Jellal, "How do you want to punish them?"

Gerard looked at these supporting characters and a flash of joy flashed across his eyes, but soon he began to worry about how to deal with these people.

Gerard wasn't a particularly ruthless person, otherwise he wouldn't have nearly lost his ass on the ship.

In the end, he turned to Lance for help, and Lance gave them a chance.

"If you can get Gerald's forgiveness, I will let you go, otherwise I will have someone break your legs."

As he spoke, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and waved to the director.

Alberto introduced the director, so Lance wouldn't embarrass him, but the director might not realize this, "I never hurt Gerard."

Gerard also quickly added, "Yes, the director is actually nice to me."

Lance spread his hands, "Come on, do I look like someone that unreasonable?"

"Come here, director, let's talk about this movie."

The director walked over reluctantly, and Lance gave him a cigarette, and the two talked next to the shooting scene. Although everything here seemed funny, no one was sure whether this was a shooting or a plot?
“How much money was invested in this film?”

The director held Lance's cigarette, not knowing whether to light it or not, but soon the flame in Lance's hand left him with little choice.

"About a hundred thousand dollars, Mr. Lance."

"You know me." Lance shook the match a few times, made sure the fire was out, and threw it on the ground.

The director nodded and said, "Mr. Alberto said that Gerard was introduced by you."

"But he's being bullied here." Lance looked at him as if questioning him.

The director was also helpless, "I'm just an employee, and their behavior of bullying him was decided by the boss, I can't change anything."

Lance agreed with him, "There's a high probability that this movie won't be filmed."

"But I don't want Gerald's first movie to fail. I plan to invest money to let you finish filming it."

"But I have one request, Gerald must be the male lead."

The director was already very depressed, the leading actor was disfigured, the producer was beaten, and the supporting actors also lost face.

No need to think, no need to even wait until tomorrow, they will leave here overnight, the movie is a failure!

He didn't care about the dirt and conflicts between the production company and Lance and others after the project failed. What he cared about was that his job also failed.

It will definitely not be easy for him to find such a good job again.

Sometimes if you slow down one step, all steps will be slow.

By the time he goes to raise investment and prepare for filming, by the time they are able to start shooting, perhaps other people's first sound film has already started being shown.

This step ahead is like the first snowball thrown from the top of a mountain. It will continue to attract more snow as the mountain rises, forming a huge behemoth!
It will be very difficult for latecomers to catch up with the scale of the first snowball.

Many people now started shooting talkies because everyone realized that this would be an important reshuffle in the film industry!

Just when he was in despair, Lance pushed him into the abyss and then pulled him out of it.

"Are you sure?" The director seemed a little excited. "This is 100,000 yuan."

"Only one hundred thousand dollars!"

"I'm more concerned about how long it will take you to reshoot it."

"We probably need to find some new actors or something. Do you have any ideas for that?"

"Of course!" The director was so excited that he couldn't speak. "Mr. Lance, there are young boys and girls who want to be stars all over the street. I promise that everything will get back on track quickly..."

He took a step closer, and was about to get closer, but he met Lance's gaze, so he only took one step closer. "There are countless girls who would love to be stars and climb into your bed, Mr. Lance."

"If you want, they will line up outside your room starting tonight..."

Lance smiled and shook his head. "I don't like to force or threaten others, and I don't want unsuitable people to join our plan in this way."

"I came to you because of the relationship between Alberto and me, and on the other hand I think you can make money for me."

"You can use the money I give you to find an escort. In addition to the homeless people's genes, there are also their phone numbers in the phone book."

"But I don't want you to choose an unsuitable role because you can't control yourself. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I'm not one of those big companies. If you cause them losses, they can only accept it with a pinch of their nose."

"If my investment fails because of you, no matter whether it is Angel Lake or East Ocean, one of them will become your home!"

The director wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead and said, "Mr. Lance, no one can guarantee that a movie will make money."

Lance acknowledged his point, "But at least I want to see that you're all trying, right?"

The director hesitated for a long time, and finally made up his mind, "I accept this job..."

As they were talking, the supporting actors had already asked for Jellal's forgiveness, and just as Lance guessed, he was not a cruel person.

So when these people knelt on the ground and cried, saying that they were actually coerced, and slapped themselves a few times and confessed tearfully, Gerard forgave them.

It looks like they were let off lightly, but there are many people working in the industry here and what happened here today will spread.

There is a high probability that those crews will no longer hire these actors if they do not want to cause trouble.

After all, they are just filmmakers, not a gang!
In other words, unless they do a particularly good job, there is a high probability that they will be finished in this industry.

Lance patted the director's arm and said, "Go and take care of this. I'll stay here for two days."

The group got in the car and left quickly, but the matter did not end immediately because after Lance and the others left, the producer suddenly got up from the ground, rushed out to find a telephone booth, and called the police.

Soon the Valley City Police Department intervened in the case and Gerald was taken directly under control.

The director had decided to side with Lance, so he had someone tell Lance about this - and before he left, Lance told the director the hotel where he was staying.

After hearing the news, Lance scratched his head, picked up the phone and dialed the number of Chief of Blue.

"Do you know the police chief here in Valley City or something?"

Chief Blue was a little confused. "Yes, but why do you need their help?"

Lance laughed, "Because I'm in Valley City!"

Ten minutes later, two plainclothes policemen arrived at the hotel. They went straight to Lance's room and knocked on the door. "Is Mr. Lance here?"

The door opened, revealing five people in the room, and the two outside the door immediately spotted Lance standing in the middle of the room.

"Please come in."

Lance invited them in, and the man walking in front of them kept smiling the whole time, "I'm West, the chief of the Fifth Precinct."

Valley City originally had seven administrative divisions, that is, seven police stations, but as it continued to be drained of blood by Jingang City, more and more people went to Jingang City, and the size of Valley City continued to shrink.

In the past two years, they retained seven administrative districts, but merged several police stations. Now there are only five police stations, and West is the chief of the fifth police station.

"Brue told me that you are a very generous and kind person who enjoys making friends."

"I heard you were in some trouble?"

Lance nodded and told the story of what happened. Chief West frowned and said, "This is not easy to handle."

He looked at Lance, "You guys hurt someone, and they called the police and arrested your friend."

"Your friend may be charged with incitement or hiring a killer, and I don't know much about the person who called the police..."

Lance smiled and asked, "How much?"

Chief West raised his eyebrows slightly, "What?"

"How much money would make this go from not so easy to easy?"

He looked at Lance, as if to confirm what Lance said, and then frowned.

Although Valley City is very close to Jingang City, the "economic situation" here is not very good. Not only does the police station not collect much fees, their ability to generate income independently is also not very good.

The whole city seems to have no vitality and energy. Even the criminal organizations here seem to be retiring.

So he needs to think about how to start the conversation.

After hesitating for a few seconds, he gave a number that he was not sure of, "Three thousand?"

He didn't know how "generous" Mr. Lance was, so he could only tentatively give a number that he thought was a bit high to observe Lance's reaction.

In fact, his desired price was between one thousand and one thousand five hundred yuan. If Lance wanted to bargain, he could accept it.

That's the benefit of setting a high price.

But to his surprise, Lance did not bargain.

"I can give you three thousand dollars, but I hope it's worth it."

After a brief moment of surprise, Chief West smiled more sincerely, "What do you want, Mr. Lance?"

"I want my friend to appear before me unharmed, and then I want to find out the identity information of the producer and those behind him, including their addresses and where they are now."

West was obviously a little embarrassed when he heard that he had so many requests, because he would definitely have to check the information of the person who called the police.

To find out the information, he would have to coordinate with other branches, and it was possible that some people would take it to heart and record it, so he seemed very hesitant.

Lance said with a half-smile, "Chief West, you don't think I gave you three thousand dollars just to get you to get my friend out of the police station, do you?"

"If I just want to get him out, five hundred dollars is more than enough for me to find a lawyer."

"Show your value, otherwise I can only say that you won't get a penny of the three thousand yuan."

The police officer brought by Chief West seemed a little angry because he had never encountered such arrogant gang members. He just wanted to tell Lance that they were not a threat.

The next moment, the two guys standing behind Lance opened their coats, revealing the submachine guns inside.

Chief of the West Branch quickly raised his hands, "Calm down, calm down, brothers!"

"No problem, absolutely no problem. I think what you said makes sense. Three thousand dollars really has to be worth its weight in gold."

Lance nodded in satisfaction, "I'm glad you understand that. Do you want cash or wire transfer?"

Chief West hesitated for a moment and lowered his voice a little, "Cash is more appropriate."

Cash is easy to hide.

It would not attract attention for a branch director to spend some money, but if it was a check, it would be a bit troublesome for him to handle it because he had to go to Jingang City to cash it.

Although Xigu City and Jingang City are very close, it only takes three or four hours to drive there, but a branch chief went to Jingang City to exchange several thousand yuan...

I'm afraid everyone knows that there are some problems here!
"No problem, but I don't have that much cash on me right now. I'll arrange for someone to deliver it."

Lance stood up and held out his hand. "You are Blue's friend, which means you are our friend. Just like Blue said, when we get along for a while, you will find that I am a very generous person."

"But my generosity is only for friends. I hope we can be friends. What do you think?"

West also held Lance's hand tightly, "Yes, I firmly believe it."

Lance nodded, "Then I'll wait for your good news?"

"Good news will come soon!"

(End of this chapter)