Shadow Empire

Chapter 237: No, but health is the foundation

Standing on the tower of the Cathedral of Saint-Naire and looking around, you will have a very magical feeling.

There is a small piece of tranquility in the modern city, maybe that is why some people always like to go to church on weekends.

They can find some spiritual peace here, which makes them think that this peace is a gift from God.

Mr. Jobaf held the railing and looked into the distance. When Lance came up the stairs, there was something difficult to describe in his expression as he looked at Lance.

Envy, jealousy, all kinds of emotions are surging.

It’s just that he used to be able to hide these emotions very well, but now, it is very difficult for him to hide them.

"I heard you wanted to talk to me." Mr. Jobaf glanced at Hiram who was discussing with Ethan at the bottom of the stairs why people didn't need to wear clothes to ascend to heaven. Why didn't the priest stop these blasphemers from coming in?
Hiram's lack of fear of God is evident from his remarks full of dissatisfaction with the Kingdom of Heaven.

But soon his attention returned to Lance and he turned around, "There have been some rumors out there lately that have caused me a lot of trouble."

Lance walked to the window. In fact, the tower was not very tall, only about five or six stories high, but he could already see some of the surrounding scenery.

He nodded. "About what?"

Mr. Chobaff said, “I heard from some people in the Imperial Chamber of Commerce that my bank was not safe, and that led to some people withdrawing their money, which caused me trouble.”

"What made them so irrational?"

"Irrational?" Lance repeated, ending with an upturned tone. "No, in my opinion, this is exactly the most rational choice."

"People are not fools, Mr. Jobaf."

"If you don't make them feel a sense of crisis, rumors will have no room to survive, but if they find that you are putting them in danger, then the rumors will become more and more terrifying."

"Instead of wondering what caused all this, you might as well think about what you did to make people stop trusting you."

Mr. Jobaf looked at Lance. "Just because I joined the mayor and plan to run for the Imperial District Councillor?"

Lance didn't deny it. "That's one of the reasons."

"What about the others?" Mr. Jobaf felt a little curious. He wanted to know what the other reasons were. He was even a little angry. He felt that Lance was lying.

He tried to cover up with a lame excuse that he was doing it just to help William win!

Lance did not answer his question immediately. Instead, he smiled and said, "Have you noticed that you have become a little... I can't describe it well, if you know what 'domineering' means."

"It probably means that you become less likely to allow others to offend you, and you become more dignified."

Mr. Jobaf was about to say something, but Lance's next words made him fall into silence - "Because you feel that your class is different from others."

Seeing him thinking, Lance smiled and said, "See, that's what class is."

"When you stand with everyone, you are the admirable Mr. Jobaf. You help them keep their funds and give them appropriate interest. You also lend money to the poor to help them through difficulties."

"But now, when you try to stand above everyone else and ask them to do what you say, it becomes difficult for them to respect and love you. Isn't that right?"

"You abandoned them first, not them abandoning you."

Mr. Jobaf lowered his voice and clenched his hands into fists, "I didn't!"

Lance laughed as if he had heard something funny, "If you think it's not there, then it's not there."

Mr. Qiaobafu took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. "I am from the Empire and an old immigrant. I know what the people here need..."

This time Lance didn't let him finish his words and interrupted him, "No, you don't."

"I know!" Mr. Jobaf reiterated his point and emphasized his tone. In fact, people behave like this most of the time.

When they want to convince people who are not easily convinced by them, they will subconsciously emphasize their tone and raise their voice.

Hiram and Ethan, who were discussing downstairs whether the God of the Empire and the God of the Federation were the same God and whether the two would fight, both looked up at the same time.

Lance raised his hand, motioning for them to stay down there.

Mr. Jobaf regained his tone and looked at Lance. "They want to become richer, have more jobs, more food, a better living environment, and more opportunities to go to school. I always knew what they wanted. They..."

He said a lot, but Lance just looked at him with a smile, as if he was looking at a fool who was giving a speech!

Mr. Jobaf was a little angry. He didn't know why, but he suddenly became angry recently. Maybe it was just like Lance said, he felt that he was standing in another class, standing above... the people.

So his temper is not as good as before.

You would be polite to a homeless person because you want to show your politeness.

But if a homeless person does something that makes you unhappy, you will be very angry and furious. It’s not that you lack self-control, it’s just that you feel offended.

Mr. Jobaf is like this. The reason he was angry is not because he is uncultured, but because he feels that since everyone is at a different class, you should not offend him.

He took a deep breath and paused, looking at Lance, "Am I wrong?"

Lance shook his head, which made him even angrier, "What's wrong?"

Lance looked at him as if he were looking at a pitiful creature. "You think you understand the people here, but in fact you don't. In the past, you just thought they could bring you wealth, so you didn't respect them, but the benefits they brought you."

"Now you just regard them as a resource, a low-level person, so you don't understand what they want."

“What they want is actually very simple.”

"You have to respect!"

Lance shook his head and sighed, "I have other things to do. I don't have time to stay here and talk to you about this."

"You won't understand. Maybe this is ridiculous to the gentlemen in the upper class, but for the people at the bottom, dignity and personality are their bottom line, the bottom line that they cannot lose, but you can't give it to them."

"Also, I have to remind you that those three or five dollars that you may have looked down upon in the past once made you successful, but now they can also destroy you."

Mr. Jobaf took a step forward, "You said that if I want to live a good life, I must first learn to be a bitch!"

"Those are your fucking words!" He even grabbed Lance by the collar.

Ethan and Hiram jumped forward, but Lance stopped them.

He used his hands to pry open Mr. Jobaf's fingers one by one, and answered his question at the same time, "I asked you to be a bitch, but I didn't ask you to be a dog!"

He pried open his last finger and patted his wrinkled collar. "You have been blinded by power and desire, Mr. Jobaf. If you still can't calm down."

"Those ordinary people who once made you what you are will eventually become the tide that drowns you!"

After he said that, he left the tower without looking back, leaving Mr. Jobaf alone, disheveled in the wind.

"Don't you want to teach him a lesson?" Hiram asked as he walked down the stairs.

In his opinion, being disrespectful to Lance was a reason to kill him, not to mention that the old man grabbed Lance by the collar.

Lance shook his head. "If he still doesn't understand what has brought him to where he is today, the people will soon abandon him without us having to do anything."

"Besides, he has more or less a foundation after so many years. Even if we have to take action in the end, it won't be us who do it." "Those federal politicians are more ruthless than you think. They won't tolerate a scrapped tool."

"Besides, he is not a local."

Lance has realized the horror of the word "locals". Even a guy like the mayor seems very "helpless" when facing local forces.

But this is normal. The federal system allows each region to maintain a certain degree of independence. It is ridiculous for non-locals to want to undermine the interests of locals!
Even if the mayor’s proposal to build a new port area is essentially the right choice, and the Jingang Terminal will definitely be overloaded in the future, it just won’t work.

At least not at this stage, and even if this is really done, the people responsible for decision-making, implementation, and ultimate beneficiaries can only be locals.

In fact, it is not just Jingang City, other cities and regions are almost like this. Factionalism is not a characteristic of a certain city, it is a problem and characteristic that exists in almost all political systems.

It’s just that some places are lagging behind in economic development because there are fewer conflicts arising from economic interests.

Some areas, such as Jingang City, have better economic development and will have more frictions and conflicts than other places.

So no matter where you are, locals and outsiders are two eternal worlds.

Hiram opened the door of the car. Lance stood outside the car with one foot already in. He looked back at Mr. Jobaf on the tower, and Mr. Jobaf happened to look at him.

The two looked at each other for a few seconds, then Lance got into the car, and Hiram closed the door and went to the passenger seat, and soon the convoy left.

Mr. Jobaf looked at the convoy in the distance and hit the windowsill.

He felt that he had been fooled by Lance. In order to squeeze into the upper class, he even gave up his dignity and personality. But now Lance told him that what people needed was exactly what he had discarded.

This made him feel an indescribable emotion, which lingered, meandered, and flowed in his chest, and he finally couldn't help but curse "Fuck". You know, he seldom swore, even when he was alone.

Not long after, Mr. Jobaf returned to Jinda Bank, where there was still a long queue of people waiting to withdraw money.

When the people who were withdrawing money saw Mr. Jobaf getting out of the car, they all showed some uneasy expressions, but they had no intention of leaving.

The way people judge "capable people" during this period is whether they can make money.

The Imperial Chamber of Commerce, which doubled its funds in a very short period of time, became a rich man in their eyes, so they believed what the rich said.

Jobaf looked at the long line with a frown on his face. At this time, his assistant came out of the bank. He is now the vice president.

"master."

After not seeing each other for a while, he felt that there seemed to be some gap between himself and his assistant, but he didn't know how to resolve this suffocating feeling of strangeness.

He nodded and looked at the long line. He knew he had to do something.

When they got to the office, Mr. Jobaf said, "I talked to Lance. He must be the one who spread the rumor. He hopes William can become a member of the Imperial District Council."

The assistant said, "Since he wants this position so badly, why not give it to him?"

Mr. Jobaf shook his head and said, "This is the closest I've ever been to entering high society. If I miss this opportunity, I may never have another chance like this in my life."

"Lance is a very opinionated and strong person. If we work with him, we will just be playing bank in a corner for the rest of our lives and we will never become real bankers."

The assistant had great kindness and good feelings towards Lance because Lance helped him to avenge himself. He personally killed Jimmy so that his nephew could rest in peace in heaven.

So he stood on Lance's side, "But at least he is an Imperial. If he can go very high, we can also benefit from it."

Mr. Jobaf now feels irritated when he hears Lance's name. He raises his hand and says, "Okay, let's not talk about him anymore. Let's first find a way to solve the problem we are facing."

“How much more funds can we mobilize?”

These digital assistants are all familiar with it. "It depends on whether we want to move those bonds or something. If we cash in the bonds, we still have about a million yuan of funds to mobilize."

"But if we don't use the bonds, we will only have about 300,000 yuan to use."

When Mr. Jobaf heard this number, he couldn't help but exclaimed, "So little?"

The assistant looked helpless. "The public withdrawing funds is one part of it. In addition... you are also withdrawing a large amount of funds from banks. Our current situation is not only unhealthy, but also very dangerous."

“If there is a bigger run and shock, we will go bankrupt very quickly.”

Mr. Jobaf finally felt the pressure. He could no longer sit still. He walked to the window and looked at the people who were still queuing to withdraw money. "We have to think of a way."

After a few minutes of thinking, he finally came up with a solution.

"The best way is to fight rumors with rumors."

"Try to spread some rumors and tell people that the run on Jinda Bank was a conspiracy by other major banks in the Federation. They want to control the wealth of the imperial immigrants and have a comprehensive understanding of their property situation."

"So we are the last wall between the imperial immigrants and the federal capitalists. If we fall, they will have to face the federal banks and vampires."

“Supporting Jinda Bank is not only helping me personally, but also helping them.”

After listening to this, the assistant nodded and said, "I will arrange for someone to spread the word."

Mr. Jobaf nodded, but he was not very satisfied. He just sighed and said, "Go ahead."

There is still more than half a year until the final vote, and he is very worried whether he can hold on until then.

At this moment, he remembered a business that he could have done but never did: money laundering.

Some funds in the empire wanted to be taken out and turned into legal funds and then entered into certain federal accounts. Someone had already contacted him, hoping to cooperate with him to launder the money.

Money laundering in a bank is actually a very easy thing. All one needs to do is to create some fictitious accounts and launder the money cleanly.

But he never agreed because there were great risks involved.

The federal government and the IRS are very concerned about money laundering and tax evasion. Once people know that Jinda Bank is involved in money laundering, not even the mayor can save it.

Secondly, the imperial nobles may not be reliable, and they might leak some information. Moreover, once the flow of funds is too large, he will definitely be noticed by the federal government.

But if the bank's subsequent development gets worse and worse, he might have to try to do these businesses.

The assistant spent some money to make the rumor spread faster, and Mr. Jobaf also handled a batch of bonds to deal with the sudden run on the bank.

His handling of the matter was timely. Although he did not prevent everyone from stopping exchanging money, the bank run situation improved significantly.

Some people have begun to compare withdrawing money from Jinda Bank to "assisting federal bankers in persecuting imperial immigrants"!

People are always very active in discussing such obviously conflicting topics.

Fortunately, this is not within the empire, otherwise they might elevate this matter to the level of patriotism and say things like "Only by depositing money in Jinda Bank can you be patriotic."

Although these things did not cause Mr. Jobaf to encounter a major crisis, they made him feel nervous and further forced the relationship between him and Lance to break apart.

After learning about this, the mayor gave Mr. Jobaf great encouragement and praise, and said that if necessary, he could say a few words for Mr. Jobaf when he was interviewed by the news.

This made Mr. Jobaf think that everything he had done was worth it!
As May was approaching, Lance went to Johnny's bakery.

In just one month, Johnny looked like he had lost at least 20 or 30 pounds. He had become a less exaggeratedly fat man.

Although still fat, I look much healthier!
Maybe... this was a good thing for him, although he lost all his wealth and house, at least he gained health!
(End of this chapter)