Shadow Empire

Chapter 382 Some people stay, some people leave, and do the work

At half past seven, there were already six people sitting at the table, and one person had not arrived yet.

"No need to wait, let's eat first, I'm hungry."

Lance asked the manager to start pouring wine for everyone, which meant that dinner officially began.

These people included both old and young, and their expressions were all cold, with a hint of suspicion in their coldness.

"Everyone seems to be in a bad mood?"

The last guy who came couldn't help but said, "Lance, if you have something to say, just tell me directly. There's no need to use these tricks!"

He glanced at the others at the table, all with unfriendly looks.

Lance's hand was originally on the wine glass, but he took it back because of his words. "Actually, when you guys were not here just now, I had already talked to Kerry about the purpose of calling everyone here today."

Kerry's expression suddenly turned a little ugly. He glanced at Lance and then quickly glanced at the others.

As he expected, other people looked at him with distrust and even disgust.

Some people would think he is a traitor because he sided with Lance!

But he really didn't!

Up to now he has not given Lance any reply, but if he tells it now, he is afraid that no one will believe it.

Lance clearly didn't say anything, but he suddenly became so passive, so passive that he had already made a decision in his heart!

Because he doesn't do what Lance wants him to do, he won't be accepted by this group of people and may be excluded, isolated, or even treated specially by them.

Lance is obviously younger than him, where did he learn these sinister tricks that only politicians use?
Lance ignored Kairi's ugly expression and continued, "The Wolf Gang is an outside gang. His purpose in coming here is to start a war and disrupt the situation."

"But now, it's over."

"It has been more than half a year since they took root, and the port area has always been in chaos."

"It's time to stabilize it."

A middle-aged man in his thirties looked at Lance and asked in a deep voice, "How do you plan to stabilize the port area?"

There was a hint of sarcasm in his tone, "Swallow us, or drive us out?"

Everyone else's eyes were focused on Lance again. Lance picked up the glass with a smile, "Why don't we take a sip first?"

"My stomach is protesting against me all the time!"

He raised his glass and looked at the people around him, "For us to be able to sit here this year!"

The responses from others were not enthusiastic, only Carrie said "Cheers", but he immediately noticed the unfriendly looks from others and immediately shut up.

After taking a sip of wine, he naturally wanted to eat something, so Lance asked the manager to introduce today's dishes.

Although the atmosphere here was a bit tense and weird, the manager never left.

Except for two cooks who made barbecue and other things to prevent the young people from not having enough food, and two waiters, everyone else had gone back.

He began to introduce today's dishes, which was very interesting and humorous, and was able to lighten the atmosphere.

Lance got himself a piece of steak. "Thank you for your introduction. This makes me even hungrier. I'll eat a little first. Everyone, please help yourself."

He was cutting the beef, watching the beef, which was perfect in both color and aroma, being cut by him, and finally other people started to take action.

The roasted beef was very good. The beef variety and age were well selected. It was basically fully cooked but not too tough. In addition to the quality of the meat, some tricks must have been used.

In fact, people have always had a misunderstanding that beef is only tender when it is 30% done.

In fact, this is not the case. The beef from good cows of the right age will be very tender even if it is fully cooked.

Only restaurants whose meat quality is not very good but hope that people will think it is good will not cook the beef fully to improve the taste.

Especially in the past two years, this situation has become more and more common.

In the early years, if you were eating steak in a restaurant and someone served you medium rare or not well done, they would have to put up with it even if you flipped the table!

but now……

"Look, we can sit together and have dinner without fighting, which shows that there is no irreconcilable hatred between us."

Lance put down his knife and fork after everyone had eaten a little.

Some of the others stopped, while others continued eating.

"Just now you asked me what I was going to do."

"In fact, my idea is very simple, that is to return peace to the port area."

“There is no war, and everyone makes money together.”

"I know some of you don't have a stable supply of alcohol, but I happen to have this way. If you open a bar, I can provide you with a stable supply."

"You guys make a lot of money, and I get a stable port area. This is my goal."

The middle-aged man who spoke thought for a while, "Will you allow us to continue to exist?"

Lance shook his finger, "No, you need to disband the gang."

Someone suddenly laughed out loud. Lance looked at the person who laughed. He looked to be about 27 or 28 years old and was very rude when he came.

This guy is called Zack, he has a criminal record, has been in prison, and is the largest of the group.

Three years in prison left him with many former inmates in his gang. These people, who had experienced legal punishment, had difficulty finding jobs in society.

In fact, federal prisoners who have been released after serving their sentences also face this problem, especially some serious criminals, and sometimes the police will pay special attention to them.

Zack gathered this group of people and used his connections in prison to quickly expand the size of the gang.

It just so happened that Polly had a mental illness at that time, and the Red Dog Gang was being suppressed by the Wolf Gang. They named themselves the "37th Street Gang" and used the street where they were currently located as the core area of ​​their activities.

These people have been hit hard, so they are bolder than ordinary people. They loot stores, rob, extort, and blackmail. They do anything that can make money.

Zack always felt that he had been to jail and killed people, and he always looked down on others, and Lance was too young.

Even though he knew his past, it was difficult for him to feel awe when he was young enough facing someone younger.

It's just like when you were in school, you would never think that being the top student in the lower grades was anything great. Even if you were not even in the top 100 in the grade, you would still have this idea.

Zack always felt that Lance and other gangs were just seizing opportunities.

Let him take his chance, he can make it so big!

He's become a little more famous in the state prison now, and many people come to him as soon as they're released from prison. It won't be long before their numbers increase!

So when they first arrived, everyone would say a few words to Lance, but he would just snort coldly and sit down without saying anything.

In fact, it cannot be said that there is no hatred between Lance and them.

The Wolf Gang asked them to go to the Imperial District to compete with Lance for territory. There have been more or less frictions between them and the Lance family, and they may have exchanged fire and attacked each other.

So it is obviously unlikely to say that there is no contradiction or conflict at all, but the conflict is not as prominent as the conflict between the Wolf Gang and Lance.

"You have a different perspective."

Zach was not polite either, "It's impossible to disband the gang, Lance, don't make it sound so nice."

"Put down our guns today, or we will be dead in the streets tomorrow!"

"We are all gangsters. Don't use the same tactics against ordinary people against us."

Lance put his knife and fork away and asked him, "Who am I fooling?"

"You and the others, you are not policemen or politicians, we are just fucking gangsters. You can fool others, but you can't fool me!"

"You said you would make money with us, but I heard that you bankrupted all the bars in the Empire District."

"You have a better source of goods than we do. You can definitely force us into a dead end by competing on price!"

"You can drive us all away just the same!"

"I won't fall for it, Lance!"

"If I die one day, it won't be because I put down my gun!"

What he wanted to express was that if he were to die, it would be because of his fighting ability, rather than being killed by someone just because he put down his gun.

But his education level was a bit problematic, so it was difficult for him to express these contents accurately. Lance looked at him and explained, "I have never cheated them. In the Empire District, I don't charge protection money, and sometimes I even help them."

"Some people run casinos, and I have never blackmailed them or asked them for money."

"As far as I know, there are still many small bars in the Empire District. I didn't continue to deal with them."

There are some family-run bar workshops where they brew their own beer and then sell it to people around them to earn a little money to supplement their family income.

Well, to say subsidy is a bit of an understatement, it just means making money.

Lance didn't think about dealing with them because the money was just a small number compared to the entire market.

He went on to explain, "Here in the port area I will use a unified pricing approach to balance this issue. All our bars, including mine, will have a standard price for drinks."

"I will not break this standard, and you certainly won't break it either."

Zack listened and kept shaking his head. Now he felt that Lance was a conspirator. He came here just to hear what Lance had to say.

Now, he'd heard enough.

He simply wiped his mouth and stood up, throwing the napkin on the table, "I'm full, the food is delicious, but I don't like you!"

He turned and was about to leave, and some of the others seemed to be interested in moving as well.

Then the second person stood up, the third, the fourth...

In less than a moment, Carrie and the middle-aged man were the only ones left in the game room.

"Aren't you leaving?"

Lance looked at them, "I won't stop you from leaving."

Kairi sighed, "In their eyes, I have betrayed Minato. Where can I go?"

He stood up, grabbed a beef rib and pulled it hard, pulling the whole rib off the steak, holding it and chewing it, "The food is delicious, give me a business card, I like your sauce."

The manager quickly handed him a business card and said, "We look forward to seeing you, sir."

Lance looked at the middle-aged man, who was the oldest person here.

Most of the middle-aged and elderly gang members joined the gang when they were young and worked their way up.

For example... Heller from the Camilla Gang, he was in his forties or fifties. He founded the gang and recruited many people when he was in his forties or fifties.

He started the gangster life at a young age following his father, uncle and grandfather.

The vast majority, at least the majority of middle-aged people, even if they are desperate, may go to extremes in life or work, and may kill or hurt others.

The only thing is that there is no possibility of suddenly and inexplicably forming a gang!
The vast majority of all newly-formed gangs are centered around young people, because they have more active minds, are less afraid of authority, and are even eager to challenge authority!
Middle-aged people and the elderly have long been smoothed out by society; they are not that stupid.

The reason why this middle-aged man became the gang leader was purely because he was forced.

Therefore, his experience and life experience are richer than others.

"Actually... I've wanted to end my current life a long time ago, but something has been holding me back. Us."

"Lance, you gave me a chance. I believe in your promise and I believe you won't let us down!"

Lance smiled, "It seems that I am not completely unpopular."

Everyone around laughed. Lance motioned for them to sit over. "Since they don't want to eat, we can't waste it."

He looked at the manager, "Grill the rest of the meat!"

The manager quickly went to make arrangements.

In fact, after Carrie, Lance, and Lance's group had a meal and interacted with each other, they felt much better about Lance.

Especially those in the Lance family, he was a little envious of their big family atmosphere, and he liked this atmosphere.

But he won't say it.

That would be embarrassing for him.

Lance was very satisfied with the meal. After the meal, he paid the bill. The manager gave Lance a discount and asked him to say hello to old man Anderson.

"I hope he won't be mad at me for sending you my regards, but I still hope you can pass on my regards to him."

The manager repeatedly assured that he would convey the message and then left in his car.

Carrie and the middle-aged man also left, and Lance returned to the game room, leaving only them.

Lance sat in Wolfe's uncomfortable chair again, crossing his legs and tapping his hands on the armrests.

Hiram asked, picking his nose, "Why don't you leave them all here? We have so many people."

Lance shook his head. "If I keep them here today, no one will trust what I say anymore. So I'll let them go today."

"But after today, if we do something to them again, people won't be able to say anything."

"Don't touch Kerry and the middle-aged man yet. Clean up the others and start with Zack first!"

Just as Hiram was about to flick the booger away, Lance grabbed the rag on the table and threw it at him, "When will you stop flicking boogers everywhere?"

Hiram chuckled twice, "I'll remember that. I won't do that next time!"

"God will show up if you can remember him!", Lawen joked from the side, and Hiram immediately pounced on him, and the sounds of fighting and laughter soon filled the entire game room.

The senator had just arrived these few days, so Lance didn't plan to stand out too much. After all, scaring the congressman would get him into big trouble.

After Lance revealed the labor union's idea to Tom, they acted quickly and the next day the dock management company realized that they had no choice but to bow their heads.

They were willing to make appropriate concessions, such as adding more meat and eggs to the workers' meals, and meeting their demands for a wage increase, an increase of one dollar and twenty cents at a time, and then an increase of thirty-five cents every six months, but working hours could not be reduced.

The food standard has very flexible criteria and bottom line. Beef is meat, chicken is meat, and even the meat from beef offal that no one eats is meat!
Anyway, they didn’t say anything about meat, and the eggs are even cheaper!

Now that the federal government has begun to promote large-scale farming, the price of eggs is becoming cheaper rapidly, and workers do not need to be given additional eggs every day, nor do they have to eat one every time.

After calculating this way, the company thinks it is acceptable.

They have actually made huge concessions because once they compromise with the workers first, it will be less easy for them to talk to those companies and increase service fees.

They no longer have the means of blackmail, so even if they can reach an agreement, they won't be able to extort more than they thought at the beginning.

If they had thought this way earlier, perhaps there would not have been the subsequent problems, but now the workers' demands have obviously increased, and it has also given them a little hope.

So the workers did not agree with their proposal. The wage increase was too little, and they thought the working hours were too long and unreasonable.

It seems that it cannot be determined in a short time.

They had just exchanged opinions in the morning, and Tom called Lance again in the afternoon.

"Did you hear about what happened this morning?" he went straight to the point.

Lance knew the result of the exchange of views in the morning. The reason why it was an exchange of views was because it was not even a negotiation. There was no discussion at all!

"I know, there are still big differences between the two sides."

"Yes, a big disagreement!"

"You have to help us, Lance. Help us persuade the workers. The dock management company is actually very sincere. They have increased the meal standard and the wages. We should make concessions when necessary. Only in this way can we reach an agreement!"

Lance was very sensitive to the unspeakable anxiety in Tom's tone. "Did something happen?" he asked.

Tom's response was quick, "What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"strike."

Tom was silent for a while. He wanted to hide a fact, but soon he felt that the news could not be hidden for too long. "Another group of dock workers in another area went on strike. They used this method to support the dock strike in Jingang City!"

"Look, if we don't get this fixed soon, it's just going to get worse."

"This is not a good thing for you, for me, or for anyone else!"

Lance thought about it for a moment, "What do you want me to do?"

Tom spoke quickly, "We will sit down and talk tomorrow. You can come too. You can help us communicate with the representatives. We will try our best to find a ..." He searched in his mind, "a point that can fit together and solve this problem. How about it?"

"No problem!", Lance replied.

(End of this chapter)