Shadow Empire

Chapter 319: Disposal and Talks

Countless people have gathered outside the door of the City Hall. They are talking loudly and panickily. A large number of police have rushed here and formed a wall outside the City Hall.

They held small round shields and wooden sticks in their hands, and some of them had their hands on their gun holsters. Everyone acted extremely cruel?
Perhaps this is not the right word, because they were not facing gangsters or thugs, but there was indeed a cold look on their faces.

The expression that should have been shown when they were facing criminals and crimes was revealed when they were facing ordinary citizens who had suffered losses.

This is a fantasy world. Sometimes people can't tell whether the police are really police or not, just as they can't tell now whether those citizens who hope to recover their losses and seek an explanation are good people or bad people.

The police line of defense firmly blocked the citizens outside the city hall. They attacked like a flood, but were repelled every time.

Thank God, the police finally played their part!

There were terrified and angry crowds everywhere. They had been cheated out of all their wealth, and now their only hope of getting it back was pinned on the City Hall.

The mayor stood at the window of his office looking at the chaotic square in front of the city hall. His secretary informed him that all the people attending the meeting had arrived.

He did not leave immediately, but stood there and watched everything below.

About two minutes later, he turned and walked towards the meeting room. They did give him a difficult problem, but this problem would not be the one that knocked him down!
Almost all the office heads of most departments were gathered in the conference room, and they were all discussing the matter, but it was not clear whether the discussion was directed at the citizens who had suffered losses due to the fraud.

There is also likely to be discussion about how the mayor can navigate this crisis.

The moment the mayor entered the meeting room, the entire meeting room fell silent.

Some people greeted him, but others just looked at him with a faint smile on their lips.

They like to see the mayor get humiliated.

For most people here, the mayor's presence is always a hidden danger.

While they receive salaries from the federal government, they also receive other benefits from the local interest system.

The mayor raised his hand in response and then sat down in his seat. "I didn't really know what was going on in this city until this moment."

"I have great trust in each and every one of you and the professionalism that each of you possesses."

“You are government officials and your job is to solve problems for the people who live here.”

"I didn't see too many scenes of you solving problems, but I saw you failing to solve the problem and letting it become a bomb!"

"I do bear some responsibility for this, and I clearly failed in my duty as mayor."

"But some of you also have to bear the same responsibility. In the process of your specific urban management work, you did not discover this problem, allowing it to become a hidden danger and trouble. This is your dereliction of duty!"

"I am not a patient person. I will go and apologize to the public in a moment. When I come back, I hope to see your resignation letters on my desk."

He stood up and said, "This is the last respect I will give you."

After he finished speaking, he strode out of the meeting room without waiting for the officials who had already started to say something.

The secretary followed closely with a smile on his face. They had gathered a large number of reporters. The mayor had to apologize to all the citizens of the city and take responsibility and hold them accountable.

There is a high probability that those fraudsters will never be recovered, and there is a high probability that the money will never be recovered, but he can get rid of some officials to give everyone some relief.

In fact, this crisis is a trouble for him, but it is also an opportunity!
He had a legitimate reason to purge the entire city hall of government officials, purging all those who were not on his side.

What about the people who were deceived?
He has a solution.

At 10:15, in another hall of the City Hall, the reporters who had gathered were ready to "interrogate" the mayor.

From the moment he entered the hall, almost every reporter raised their hands and asked questions they wanted the mayor to answer!
The mayor walked to his seat and watched them quarreling quietly. After two or three minutes, the reporters finally quieted down.

"What's the deal?" His words made the scene, which was originally still noisy, become completely silent.

He looked at the other reporters and said, "There are a few things that need to be addressed at today's press conference. First, I need to apologize to all the citizens who were defrauded!"

He walked to the side of the podium, bowed for a while, and then slowly stood up.

He was old, and even though it was just a bow, it made his face turn red.

He took a deep breath and his face looked a little better. "I was also extremely shocked when I heard about this just now, especially that our government officials did not realize the risks."

"This is the first time I know some of its details, such as the extremely high rebates. This obviously unreasonable situation has existed for a long time, but no one has ever questioned it, and no one has done any review. This is our dereliction of duty and the dereliction of duty of government officials."

"All officials involved in this incident will be punished accordingly, and there will be a more formal explanation later."

"At the same time, I also believe that there will always be people who have discovered some clues from their operations, but they just don't know who to talk to and how to talk to them."

"It seems that there is no appropriate department to handle this matter, including the police, judicial department and prosecutors, so we can only watch many people being deceived."

"So this is the second thing I want to mention. Starting today, we will set up multiple reporting and supervision mechanisms."

"Citizens can report any issues or incidents they think are dangerous or potentially risky to us by filling out a form or making a phone call."

"We will open a dedicated hotline at the city hall to handle these complaints from citizens and solve their problems."

The mayor paused and said, "Now you can ask questions."

For a moment, all the reporters raised their arms and shook them vigorously. The mayor chose a reporter he had met several times, who was from the "Jingang Today" newspaper.

The reporter stood up and thanked the mayor for allowing him to ask the first question. Then he asked a question that people were very concerned about. "We don't know how much money is involved in this financial fraud case. According to inaccurate calculations, it may be more than 10 million."

"If the money cannot be recovered, it will inevitably have a great impact on people's lives. How do you plan to solve the problem of these people getting back to their lives?"

It was a very neutral question, and the mayor was very satisfied. He remembered this person and whenever he called on him to ask a question in the future, he would ask him to stand up and answer first.

"good question!"

"We will ask the banks to help us trace the flow of funds as much as possible and see if we can get them back into our hands before they disappear."

"In addition, I will talk to the banks and provide necessary low-interest or interest-free loans to some victims who have already invested all their money."

"This money can help them stabilize their current lives first. In addition, we will conduct a security assessment of financial companies across the city."

"Prevent similar incidents from happening again at the source!"

Lance sat in his office listening to the radio broadcast from the press conference at City Hall. He looked out the window at the glorious and beautiful city, thinking about what the mayor had said.

If he had doubts before about whether the mayor could control the city, now he could feel that the mayor was gradually disintegrating the city's defenses.

It’s just because he has a helper, a helper who can leverage huge interests and has law enforcement power!

While he was thinking about these questions, the phone on the desk in front of him suddenly rang. He picked it up and said, "This is Wanli Office."

"Hey Lance, are you free tonight?"

It was Alberto calling, "I may not have time, what can I do for you?"

"Paul has invited some other gangs that are still standing with us. We need closer connections, and everyone will sit down and chat in the evening." "You are also invited."

Lance thought about it, "What about the location?"

“On the top floor of the Dingsheng Hotel in the city center.”

Dingsheng Hotel may be the best hotel in Jingang City, without a doubt. Two presidents and dozens of senators have stayed here for a short period of time.

It is precisely because of these special "experiences" that more bigwigs will choose Dingsheng Hotel as their place of stay when they come to Jingang City, and it is also because of these people's choices that it will become more legendary!
It is said that until now, the Dingsheng Hotel has preserved some daily necessities used by the two presidents when they lived there, even the newspapers they read and the pens they used!

Someone once wanted to buy one of the pens used by the president for three hundred dollars, but was rejected. Now someone has offered two thousand dollars, but they are still unwilling to sell it.

Whether negotiating or doing other things in such a legendary hotel, there is always an inexplicable sense of historical weight.

Paul picked a great spot!

After thinking it over for a while, Lance agreed, "I will take people with me. Also, try to go later in the day. I think nine o'clock is a good time."

Alberto immediately replied, "No problem, I will talk to Paul about the time issue. It's okay to bring people, but it's better not to have too many people."

"Mr. Paul will not bring too many people with him, and the three major families will guarantee your safety..."

After hanging up the phone, the news on the radio had ended. He twisted his ankle a few times and he could feel that Pasreto and the other two families were under tremendous pressure!
They didn't seem to have any good solutions, but the mayor didn't stop!

They must stick together, otherwise there is a high probability that they will not be a match for the mayor. They have been suppressing the mayor before!

Perhaps this is the truth of this world. No one can always stay at the top. The predecessors will always be caught up or even surpassed by the later ones.

Every time the wheel of time rolls forward, it will crush those who were once glorious under the wheel and crush all pride to pieces!
The problems and impacts brought about by the collapse of Balz Investment Bank are still spreading, and people all over the city are discussing them.

Some people have lost hope for the future and life. They have invested not only their own wealth, but also a large sum of borrowed money.

Some people went from being angry and fearful to feeling secretly delighted, because compared to those who were more unfortunate, their losses were nothing.

Of course, the happiest people were those who had no money to invest. They escaped the disaster because of poverty and were discussing the scam and other things with people around them with smiles on their faces.

The mayor once again became the focus of public opinion. People were discussing his apology to the citizens, his arrangements and disposal methods. It was said that several major banks took the initiative to step forward and expressed their willingness to obey the mayor's arrangements and provide low-interest or interest-free loans to the deceived people.

People think the mayor is very capable. Although the money has to be repaid, it has indeed solved many people's problems and allowed these people to continue working and living.

The scale of people deceived this time is so large that it will take a long time to compile statistics.

Barbara was very unlucky and was also taken away by the police for investigation. As one of the company's employees, even though she was also a victim, she had to go through the entire investigation process.

I don’t know if it’s because of this incident, but almost all the bars in the city are packed tonight.

Some people hold up their wine glasses and boast loudly to those around them, "I have a friend who lost everything." It seems that such topics always attract a lot of people, and attract even more people to say things like "That's nothing" and "I also have a friend who lost even more."

Of course, there were also some people around them, sitting alone in a corner, holding a wine glass and drinking the wine in the glass in big gulps.

They don't join the small circles of people around them because they are the ones who say "I have a friend".

Alan was also drinking, and they were arranged to enter the bar first. Beno had been here before and had become familiar to the doorman, so he could bring more people in.

He squeezed out of the crowd. He had just gone to the bathroom and almost couldn't find them when he came back!

His expression at this moment was a little strange, with an expression of hatred and disgust, and his face kept changing.

"What's wrong with you?" Beno asked.

Alan's face flushed a little, and he finally let out a breath after a while, "Someone just touched my little brother when I was walking back!"

"Fuck! If I find him, I will kill him!"

He didn't tell these people that the bitch pinched him.

It hurts a little, but also feels... strangely comfortable.

He was a little embarrassed and used anger to cover it up.

The three of them laughed. Beno put his arm around his shoulders and said, "If you think positively, maybe it's a girl."

Alan said muffledly, "That arm is all hairy!"

The three of them laughed even louder after hearing this. He was the only one who was sulking, but as he sulked, he couldn't help laughing in the end.

“Are they coming?”, Beno asked.

There is a small window in the toilet that you can see outside. It cannot be opened, but you can talk or observe. Alan has already seen Hiram and the others.

The four of them placed their wine glasses on the small round table next to them, turned around and walked towards the security guards standing in the corner. The wine glasses they left behind were snatched away in less than a few seconds.

At this time, the door of the bar was knocked again, and the doorkeeper opened the observation window with a curse. Sooner or later, he would ask the professor to give him a raise.

Doing this job every day can drive a person crazy. It wouldn't be quiet for long before you could hear the sound of knocking on the door, followed by the same repetitive actions.

He's a gang member, not a fucking gatekeeper!

He glanced at the two people outside with some annoyance, "It's full, go somewhere else."

As he said this, he closed it again with a click, but soon the knocking on the door sounded again. He opened the window again, and just when he was about to curse again, he suddenly stopped.

In front of him was a five dollar bill, and the person behind it, "You dropped five dollars here, and if you don't take it, I'll put it in my pocket."

He watched the note fall to the ground, and after only two seconds of hesitation, he unlatched the door, "That's my money, don't touch it, you sons of bitches!"

He opened the door, bent over happily, his hand touching the five dollars on the ground, but he unexpectedly found that there were more than two people standing in front of him.

There were more pairs of shiny leather shoes, and he even felt a chill behind his head. He slowly stood up and saw a scene that made him shiver to the bone.

There were already twenty or thirty people gathered at the door, maybe more, and they were all staring at him, obviously with unfriendly expressions!

With a gunshot, people in the bar quickly ran outside like crazy. As soon as the bodyguard next to Alan pulled out his pistol, he took out his gun and shot the other person. In an instant, the bar became even more chaotic.

A few minutes later, Hiram stood in the chair in the manager's office, picked up the phone on the table and called Lance to tell him that everything was done.

As for the manager?

He was lying in a pool of blood nearby.

After ending the call, the group left quickly. When the professor and Wolfe came with their people, only a ruin was left here!
At the same time, Lance showed up outside the Dingsheng Hotel in his loaded limousine.

Today's Dingsheng Hotel is different from usual. Starting from outside the gate, groups of people gather together. They are wary and alert to each other.

(End of this chapter)