Shadow Empire

Chapter 245 Settlement, Breach of Contract and Defendant
Vaughn left quickly with the good news, and before leaving he even remembered to pay the three dollars for lunch.

Maybe that's why he prefers to eat in a small restaurant, it won't be too expensive.

I just hope that this time the people from the Federation of Trade Unions and the AFL-CIO won’t be scared by the excellent “public security” in Jingang City.

The demise of Red High Heels also indicates that both sides are one step closer to the "decisive battle".

On his way back, Lance heard two gunshots coming from the port area.

There have been constant gunshots in the port area recently. The fall of the Brotherhood did not make Bill the biggest beneficiary. This is the funniest thing.

Many gangs are making fun of the Red Dog Gang. The rapidly rising neighborhood families and foreign gangs are rapidly eroding the empty territories in the port area and are even beginning to test the Red Dog Gang's territory.

I hope Bill and the others can hold on. This is going to be a tough battle. I wonder if they learned how to shoot when they were pimps.

When Lance returned to the office, he saw Johnny standing outside the door. Johnny looked much more haggard.

He slapped his head and forgot about it. He had originally planned to hire a lawyer to sue Johnny for not paying back the money. According to the procedure, the court would support Lance's request and auction his house to pay back the money.

It was just that some things happened suddenly and he didn't have time to deal with it, and he almost forgot about it, if he hadn't seen Johnny.

"Mr. Lance, I'm transferring the house to you..."

It took Johnny great courage to say this, because this was all the glory and confidence he had in his life so far.

He had a failed family, a failed upbringing, and a failed marriage, but the only proof that made him feel that he was not a complete failure was that storefront and his own bakery.

Now, he was going to lose it forever.

He didn't dare bet whether the bank would sell his house for a thousand dollars. This was his only option.

Lance seemed to give him a choice, but in fact he did not give him any choice, just like when he decided to hack Lance's salary, he did not give Lance any choice or retreat.

Looking at the file bag in Johnny's hand, Lance showed a heartfelt smile on his face, "I'm glad you made the right decision, Johnny. When the house is transferred to the company's name, everything will be over."

Johnny was a little dazed and stunned. He moved his lips slightly a few times, "It's all over."

Lance repeated affirmatively, "Yes, it's over, and everything will be fine."

He called a lawyer and Lawyer Robben came over soon. After reading all the documents, he drafted a contract and asked both parties to sign it. He also asked Lance to give him an authorization contract. He would work with Johnny to complete the transfer procedures.

For this, Lance needs to pay him seventy dollars, which is the lowest fee that Lawyer Robben has ever charged since they met!

Even Lance found it a little unbelievable!

Robben didn't seem to mind telling the truth, "I'll keep fifty bucks for myself and give twenty bucks to a rookie who will do better than me!"

Lance looked at Lawyer Robben's shameless look and was a little speechless, "You didn't lie."

"I never lie!" Lawyer Robben followed up with a sentence, but he met Lance's gaze and seemed to realize that there was something wrong with saying this, and then added, "Unless it is required for work."

Seeing his shameless look, Lance was about to let him leave, but then he thought of something, "I have a friend who plans to go to college to study law. Is there any way to get him in?"

Lawyer Robben was stunned for a moment, and then he frowned, "You made me ruin my own job."

But his frown soon relaxed. "Even if a lawyer successfully graduates from college, he still has a long way to go before he can independently take over your case, Mr. Lance."

"Ten thousand dollars, and I'll write him a letter of recommendation, and I'll guarantee that he'll get in."

"I won't lie. I kept two thousand for myself and eight thousand belonged to others."

He also added, "You can pay me in cash."

Lawyer Robben has a lot of connections, and it’s just a matter of getting someone into college. Whether or not a high school diploma is needed is irrelevant to those who wield power.

Not even everyone can!
After agreeing on the payment time, Lance returned to the office and called Roger (the old man from the Imperial Chamber of Commerce), "Roger, do you know Johnny?"

"...Yes, it's Johnny from Johnny's Bakery. His shop belongs to me. Ask the people in the Chamber of Commerce if anyone is willing to do some small business there."

"Yes, it's limited to members of our Chamber of Commerce. You can either pay a fixed monthly rent or pay according to the proportion of your income, 10% for income below 500 yuan, and 5% for income above 500 yuan..."

Kill them all?
No, it is kindness, even generosity!
At least Lance didn't kill him and let him leave with the few hundred dollars he had left, right?
Lance believed that someone would come to inquire about the shop soon, and would pay the rent based on a percentage.

The reason is simple, cost minimization.

After he handed the matter over to Roger, he no longer cared about it. In the future, he would have more similar resources to share with people in the Imperial Chamber of Commerce. He wanted to organize the Imperial Chamber of Commerce into the largest comprehensive business group in the Federation, dominated by imperial people!
Perhaps in the short term it is just a "little bug", but Lance believes that with the emergence and outbreak of opportunities again and again, the Imperial Chamber of Commerce will eventually play an important role in the federation and even the world stage.

Later, Hiram came to the company with more than twenty young people.

"Is the Boss here?"

he asked.

The girl, Kolinda, pointed to the office door and said, "He's on the phone inside."

Hiram knocked on the door and heard Lance's response. He opened the door and poked his head inside. Lance was sitting on a chair with a displeased look on his face.

"We talked about this before, and we agreed to wait until at least the second half of the year before raising prices..."

"I know, but my drinks are sold at a lower price than others. We talked about this before I left!"

"I will help you promote and even recommend people to buy from you..."

"You're playing this with me now?"

His tone was already a little impatient, but it was obvious that he was still forcing himself to control his emotions and holding the receiver.

After about a minute or two, he suddenly said, "Fuck your friendship!" After the last sentence, he pressed the receiver to the base of the phone.

Hiram knew that now was not the time to bring the novices in, so he went out first, letting the novices look around and walk around, then he went back into the room alone and closed the door.

"Lance, what happened?"

Lance had just lit a cigarette and was playing with a matchbox in his hands.

He pinched a corner of the matchbox between his index finger and thumb, then swung the matchbox outward. When the matchbox was about to slip out of his hand, he applied a little more force, pinched it, and then slid it down, repeating the action.

This is just a subconscious behavior, just like people who like to play with lighters will have various ways of playing with lighters (just using their hands, no other organs involved).

Although he didn't like matches, he also didn't like the smell of kerosene, so he had to play with matches.

"Luigi's wine is going to go up in price.", he glanced at Hiram, "We're almost out of wine, I was planning to order another batch, and he told me that the price has gone up now."

Hiram walked over to Lance, pulled out a chair and sat down, "Didn't we agree with him on six months and 800,000 in goods last time?"

The last time they went to Alan, Lance and Luigi had talked about how he would order at least three batches of goods from Luigi within six months.

The price is two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, at least three hundred thousand.

At that time, Luigi agreed readily and said that he was willing to give Lance a cheap price in order to develop the federal smuggled liquor market.

As a result, when the first batch was almost sold out, Luigi decided not to fulfill his promise.

There is actually another reason behind this.

The release of the federal prohibition led the whole world to realize that the huge profits from smuggling alcohol into the federal government were far higher than other things. No matter what you smuggle into the federal government, it is not as good as sending a box of alcohol. Even those who smuggle people are now secretly transporting alcohol when they have nothing to do.

When the profits of a business exceed people's psychological tolerance, they will rush into the industry frantically.

Aside from the fact that the distance is too far and not cost-effective, there are already many gangs and even countries in Asia that are smuggling to the Federation on a large scale.

Luigi originally thought that this market needed to be nurtured and maintained, but he didn't expect that after stricter prohibition measures were implemented, the market for smuggled liquor exploded in an instant!

The federal government helped fuel the fire, and the profits from smuggling liquor continued to double.

The current situation is that Luigi can make double or triple the money by selling the wine to others, but Luigi can only make double the money from Lance.

From the perspective of capitalists, this is not actually a loss of profit, but a loss!
Compared to the higher offers that other people offered him, he didn't want to do Lance's business.

The Sumulians are united as one to the outside world, but there are also many factions within them. The faction that Luigi belongs to is not the same as Mr. Pasreto's faction, so he doesn't have to give face to Mr. Pasreto.

Moreover, some contradictions, frictions and conflicts began to brew within Sumuli Island.

The relationship between the four major families has become more tense than before.

Driven by a variety of factors, Luigi decided to raise prices.

If Lance accepts his new offer, he will still give priority to Lance, and they will still be very good friends.

But if Lance doesn't accept his offer, then he can only say sorry. Although they are all friends, they can't stop him from making money, right?
Just like what he said to Lance at the end, "If you think you are more attractive than money, you can try with someone else!"

This made Lance very angry. He was a man of his words and he also expected others to keep their words.

“Do you want to talk to Alberto?” Hiram wasn’t too worried about the lack of drinks.

Nick has already brewed a lot of wine, which is enough to meet the current daily consumption, but if he wants to expand the scale, he must continue to increase the scale of brewing, which requires more wine-making crops.

Of course there is a little risk.

The Dangerous Goods Administration has been investigating this matter. It is said that they have begun searching home brewing workshops. Even private brewing for personal consumption is no longer allowed.

The ranch’s goal is relatively big, so perhaps Lance should reconsider it.

As for whether to tell Alberto, there is no rush about this matter, although Luigi was introduced to Lance by Alberto.

Lance shook his head slightly, "Don't tell Alberto yet. Let me see how I can teach them a lesson."

He was already thinking about how to teach Luigi a lesson, and then after thinking for a while, he remembered why Hiram came, "Someone is coming?"

Hiram pointed to the door, "Everyone is waiting outside."

The Lance family is still recruiting people. The tension of the decisive battle has begun to appear. Recruiting people now is not only for self-protection, but also to gain more benefits from this chaos.

The more people there are, the more powerful Lance becomes, and the louder his voice becomes.

"Let's go and see our new brothers first!"

The two of them left the room one after the other, and Hiram yelled, "Come here!"

Soon, more than 20 young people came, most of whom were obviously from the bottom of society.

Almost all of them were wearing worn-out, washed-out old-fashioned formal suits, which must have been inherited from their fathers or even grandfathers.

Some of them wore gray baseball caps. When a group of young people stood together, the only feeling Lance had was that they were young and full of energy!

Even though they are wearing old clothes, it still can't conceal the clear vitality and enthusiasm emanating from them!

Lance shook hands with each of them and expressed his happiness that they had joined the Lance family.

Now they have added a few more requirements for recruiting people, either those who are single or those who have siblings at home.

The Lance family will not accept a child whose parents and relatives are still alive but he is the only child in the family.

Although he recruited a lot of people in the beginning, he had no choice. Now that the Lance family has gradually stabilized, he no longer recruits these people.

After all, losing a child is one of the most terrifying things in any era!

These young people seemed particularly excited when they saw Lance. Lance was the idol of many young imperial people. Being able to have close contact and talk with their idol made some of them so excited that they couldn't speak clearly.

Lance shook hands with them, hugged them, and encouraged them. For these young people, this was the most inspiring voice of this era!

After saying goodbye to these young people, Lance always felt that there were two or three strange people among them, but he didn't pay much attention to it.

After all, in this era, we are the only ones who can pay them and respect them.

For two or three days, the entire Jingang City seemed to have become quiet again, but only relatively speaking.

In fact, a lot of things happened in these two or three days. For example, the new young people began to perform their duties and began to receive military training with Madore and others.

This incident also made Lucard and his gang secretly shocked, because not only did they receive formal military training, but Lance and his gang were also undergoing military training.

This made some agents from the Hazardous Materials Administration feel nervous. The special title of agent could no longer provide them with a sense of security.

For example, Johnny has left his house with his luggage... No, not his house, but Lance's house, and his things have been thrown out, and the new tenant does not plan to make bread.

He soon disposed of his scrap metal and it was heard that a bakery hired him and paid him forty-five dollars a month.

For example, the exchange of fire in the port area has become more intense than in the past few days. Gunshots can often be heard during the day. It is said that foreign forces have invaded the city center, but it has not yet reached the point of a gunfight.

The entire city has been invaded by foreign forces, but the Imperial District seems to be a lot quieter. Even the housing prices in the Imperial District have increased slightly recently.

Finally, new specialists from the Liji Group arrived in Jingang City. They had determined that Bridge's death was a traffic accident, and they refused to admit that Bridge died while at work.

The Liji Group stated that the company would get off work on time at 6:30 every day, and they did not force anyone to work overtime, so anything that happened in Bridge after 6:30 had nothing to do with the Liji Group.

They refused to pay either work injury compensation or pension to Bridge's family, and even planned to sue the deceased Bridge and his family, using this incident to damage the image of the group company and cause abnormal fluctuations in stock prices.

Perhaps Bridge himself did not expect that not long after his death, the group company he fought for until the last moment did not show him any warmth, but instead wanted to sue him...

If he knew, he would probably crawl out of his grave and spit blood in the faces of those directors.

The first thing the new commissioner did after arriving was to continue handling the cases left by Bridge. The Imperial Chamber of Commerce and Lance were sued.

This was the first time that Lance stood in the dock as a defendant, and the legal team of the Liji Group produced some evidence, claiming that their price assessor admitted to colluding with Lance to commit this contract fraud.

Lawyer Rob invited his schoolmates to defend Lance. Both parties, even the judge, knew what was going on. It was like a very tacit delaying tactic.

The two sides exchanged verbal battles, and then expressed their desire to provide additional evidence. The judge also banged the gavel and left some questions to the next court session.

In fact, it is not just the Liji Group. Other conglomerates also plunder the people in this way, and their methods may be even dirtier!

There have been cases in the past where group companies hired scammers to defraud their employees, causing them to lose everything they had, so that they could solve all these troublesome issues at once.

This might sound like an incredible made-up story in some other countries.

But in the Federation, this is what happens every day.

(End of this chapter)