Shadow Empire

Chapter 402 How Much Money Do I Have Left?
Lance looked at Francisco, and the young man looked back at Alberto, who nodded. He then said, "Uncle Lance's decision is my decision, Grandpa Vittorio."

Vittorio's eyes kept moving between the three people, and his expression changed slightly, and finally turned into a smile, "Okay, then it's up to you next, Cisco."

"Many of our people were injured or even died in the war with the Cassia family. People are full of hatred towards them."

"Since you advocate revenge, I hope we can see some results as soon as possible to inspire the young people in the family to exert their strength to rebuild the family in such a terrible time!"

The others naturally don’t care, as long as they are not allowed to send anyone out.

The following content is obviously not so important. With Alberto's insistence, he got a nice bar in the Starlight District for Francisco.

This bar can provide Francisco with a stable income, which is more than enough for him to recruit people or do other things.

After the meeting, the three returned to where Paul had lived before. His wife immediately came out to greet him. It was obvious that she was very worried about Francisco.

She immediately hugged Francisco, and this action made his face turn red.

After struggling for a few times, he finally broke free from his mother's arms.

Actually, he wasn’t like this before, maybe it’s because Lance is here today.

Lance would make him feel a little embarrassed when facing these things. After all, Lance acted like an adult, making him feel like a child!
He didn't want to admit that he was still a child, so he had to act more like a man.

As we all know, a man will not throw himself into his mother's arms as soon as he gets home.

His mother seemed to be aware of some changes in her child, and after secretly glancing at Lance, she roughly knew why.

"I'll go prepare some food, Mr. Lance, you must stay for dinner."

Lance didn't refuse, he still had a lot to discuss with Alberto and Francisco.

The three of them sat in the living room.

"Is there not much money left by Paul?"

Alberto shook his head. “The reconstruction of the house and the numerous casualties all required the family’s money.”

"Paul still has some money, but it's not much. It can't support Cisco to support so many people."

"You can see that these people have lost all their dignity. Now they just need a suitable reason to drive Sisko away."

"We must quickly gain the power to fight them. Whether it's recruiting people or doing other things, we can't do without money."

Francisco's situation is not very good, so some things that others can do with one dollar may cost him two dollars, or even three or five dollars.

In addition, the current situation is tense, and they will not be willing to recruit people if you pay them 40 or 50 yuan a month.

To join the five major families at this time, to put it bluntly, is to be the bottom-level cannon fodder, and they will have to face the battle with the Cassia family.

Not to mention fifty dollars, even seventy dollars might not be enough to recruit enough people.

The price they have promised to the public is now close to one hundred yuan, but there is still some gap.

If you want to increase wages, then the monthly wage expenditure for 100 people will be 10,000 yuan.

Adding other expenses, such as weapons, ammunition, food, vehicles, and gasoline, the expenditure for a hundred people may cost 20,000 or even 30,000 yuan.

One hundred people can't play any role in the power struggle within the family and the external confrontation. At least two or three hundred people are needed, and the issue of pensions must also be considered.

Although Paul left behind a sum of money, hundreds of thousands, it would not last long.

"If there is a funding gap, I can help."

For Alberto's sake, he no longer owed Paul anything, and all his previous debts had been repaid.

Alberto bumped fists with him and said, "I don't need your money for now. I still have some money, and the income will increase soon after the bar is run."

He paused and said, "The five major families may have negotiations in a few days. You can come then."

Lance glanced at Francisco who was looking at him expectantly, and after thinking for a while, he nodded, "Okay, tell me the location when the time comes."

Alberto sighed, "I don't know who else I can turn to for help except you."

He leaned in for a hug, "You're my best brother besides Paul, and I don't know how to repay you."

Lance smiled and said, "Killing the Cassia family will be the biggest help to me."

During this period, Alberto gradually began to look at issues from the perspective of a family ruler, and he did make some progress.

From Lance's words, he could probably hear some superficial meaning, "Are you going to take action against the Cassia family?"

Lance did not deny it. He thought for a while and said, "Not only the Cassia family, but also the Kodak family."

Alberto looked at him as if he were an idiot, "Are you... kidding me?"

"The Cassia family has been constantly sending gunmen from the Yalan region. His gang alone can fight against the two of us."

"If the Kodak family provides them with funding, Lance, I'm not trying to hit you, but you may not be their opponent!"

He used the word "not necessarily" very implicitly. In fact, he didn't think Lance could do this.

Francisco also looked at Lance, he had a very conflicting emotion at this time.

On the one hand, he wanted to get in touch with Lance, who was about the same age as him. Although he was now his uncle, he felt that he had more in common with Lance than with the older Alberto.

If he could have such a "friend" by his side at this bad time, it would undoubtedly make him feel more at ease.

But he was a little resistant, because compared with Lance, he felt that he was too childish, so childish that he didn't look like a sixteen-year-old "little adult" at all!
In fact, this kind of emotion often occurs in ordinary people. It is like when you are still struggling for tomorrow's livelihood, people of the same age or even younger than you have already become young masters or middle-aged masters.

Even if you were given a chance to talk to him, I'm afraid you wouldn't want to say anything.

Because the gap is too big!
Lance didn't notice Francisco's expression. He had his own ideas. "The police are on my side. With you and us, as well as Tita and the Keane family, we can definitely deal with the Cassia family."

Alberto frowned. “I’m worried that they may not necessarily stand on our side.”

Lance was more in agreement with Alberto's guess.

Politics is never a simple matter of addition and subtraction, nor is it something that can be determined by hatred alone. It requires weighing the pros and cons of many things.

There has never been a shortage of enemies and hostile forces in history. Driven by interests, they become close allies. Nothing remains unchanged.

The current size of the Lance family is actually quite large. If it rashly intervenes in the battle between the five major families, it might arouse their vigilance and end the battle.

After all, the four major families except the Kodak family have suffered heavy losses. It can be said that now is the weakest period in the history of the five major families.

Once a third party appears and causes fundamental damage to their interests, they may band together again.

However, from the very beginning, he had never considered relying on the power of those two families.

I said this just to make Alberto and Francisco less nervous.

"We'll talk about this later..." He paused, "What plans do you have next?"

Alberto turned his attention back to family affairs. "Because of your presence, they are unlikely to take any drastic actions in the short term."

"The next step is to recruit some people and then train them..."

He rubbed his cheeks and said, "Actually, I don't want to start a war with the Cassia family again too quickly. They need time, and so do we!"

Lance patted his shoulder, "Let me know when you need me. I'll always have your back."

Alberto nodded vigorously, "I won't be polite."

Francisco's mother prepared a sumptuous meal, even though part of the main building of the manor was blown down, Paul died, and they spent a lot of money.

But even so, the wealth that Francisco and his mother possess is still unimaginable for ordinary people.

Including the wine, the meal, which cost at least a few hundred dollars, was quite harmonious. After the meal, Lance took the initiative to say goodbye. It was time for him to go back.

Alberto still had a lot of things to do, so he did not try to keep Lance. After sending Lance to the door, he watched Lance's convoy disappear before turning around and returning to the manor.

In the office, as soon as he sat down, Francisco asked curiously, "Can you tell me about Mr. Lance?" Alberto was a little surprised, but still did not refuse, "What do you want to know about him?"

The young man was a little embarrassed. "I want to know when he started on this path."

Alberto was slightly startled. Although it seemed like a long time had passed in his mind, in fact, up to this moment, it had only been a little over a year.

After being in a trance for a moment, he came back to his senses with a complicated expression, because Lance's achievements were too dazzling!

It's so dazzling that it doesn't seem real!
"Before I met Lance, I always thought that the stories in operas were always fabricated, the result of unrealistic and fanciful imagination."

"But after I met him, I suddenly realized that maybe someone really is the protagonist of this world!"

"When I first met him, he was in trouble and came to me for two hundred dollars, but I didn't intend to really give him the money..."

When talking about these things, Alberto had a feeling that "it was fate". It seemed that from the moment Lance sat in front of him, the gears of fate began to turn.

Listening to Alberto's story about Lance, Francisco's eyes lit up...

The mayor's silence during this period made the rules in the city seem to be returning to the past. Some people breathed a sigh of relief, but others sighed.

For example, those speculators.

"Mr. Jobaf, there are some problems at the bank again."

Qiaobaf withdrew his gaze from the sky outside the window, looked at the assistant standing by the door, and suddenly asked, "Am I a failure?"

The assistant had a calm look on his face; they had worked together for a very long time and had once been very close.

But now, there is an invisible thick wall between the two people, separating them far apart.

Just the nephew of a male assistant.

Now the assistant is the vice president of the bank. He is responsible for the daily work arrangements of the bank. In this regard, Mr. Jobaf still trusts him.

The assistant still had no expression on his face. "You have been more successful than most people, sir."

"The vast majority..." He pondered the word for a moment, then couldn't help laughing, "but still not as much as that small minority!"

He didn't care about the bank's problems at all. He lit a cigarette, looked at his assistant, and motioned him to sit down. "We haven't talked for a long time. Sit down and let's talk."

The assistant walked over and sat down opposite him. "What do you want to talk about?"

He took a puff of cigarette and slowly exhaled. His assistant's face was a little erratic in the smoke. "The mayor is finished. I can't get back all the investment I made in him."

“Millions of dollars of investment.”

When he said these numbers, his body was even shaking slightly.

His life savings, including some of the depositors' savings, are now all gone!

If the mayor can deal with those people, then he will naturally become the new city councilor, he will enter the upper class, and he will be able to make money more easily.

However, the mayor failed and he was abandoned.

Even if Mr. Jobaf had a less than keen political eye, he knew that the mayor was doomed.

The loss of millions became a huge worry that he was unwilling to face!
The assistant remained the same, as if nothing could change his expression. He lowered his eyes slightly and said, "At least you're still alive."

When Mr. Jobaf heard this, the cigarette that was about to reach his lips stopped. He was supposed to take a puff, but now he put it down.

"You hate me."

This is why he transferred his assistant, who had been with him for so many years, away from him. He knew that the assistant hated him.

No matter what stupid things the assistant's nephew did that ultimately led to him having to be killed, the person who caused all this was not him, but Mr. Jobaf.

He wanted to find a killer, that was what he asked for, but not only did he not bear the consequences himself, he also sacrificed his assistant's nephew, a nephew he raised as a son.

He had no children of his own, so his nephew was like his son. However, due to Mr. Jobaf's irresponsibility, he personally cut off all his prospects for survival.

When facing this problem, the assistant's mood will still fluctuate.

"I don't want to lie to you, sir. I do hate you."

"We obviously had more choices, but you chose the one that had the least impact on you, while ignoring how much it affected me!"

Mr. Jobaf was silent for a moment, "I'm sorry."

The assistant pursed his lips and said, "It doesn't matter. It's been a long time anyway."

"Besides...", his face finally showed some expression, some faint smile, "Seeing you like this now, some of the hatred has been relieved."

Mr. Jobaf couldn't help laughing, and even laughed out loud. "It was like a kind of revenge at the time, wasn't it?"

The assistant shook his head. "Watching you run into a dead end, and then keep hitting the wall that you can never break through, until your head is broken and bleeding, all those emotions are vented out."

"You don't think I'd agree with this?" Mr. Jobaf took a puff of the cigarette butt, then put it out in the ashtray and pressed it a few more times.

The assistant nodded, "You are an Imperial immigrant, sir."

This statement seemed to sting him a little, "What happened to the Imperial immigrants?"

"Do imperial immigrants have to be at the bottom of the social ladder?"

"I make so much money, why can't I be someone high up?"

His emotions began to fluctuate, but his assistant remained calm, "There is no room for Imperial immigrants here, at least not yet."

"From the beginning, you were heading in the wrong direction. No matter how hard you try, there will be no results."

Mr. Jobaf was stunned for a moment, then he sighed dejectedly, "You see it more clearly than I do!"

He paused, then took a deep breath, "You said we were in trouble just now, what kind of trouble was it?"

He didn't want to talk about this with his assistant; it would only make him more uncomfortable.

The assistant also returned to work. "More people are withdrawing money, and there are many merchants among them. Our cash may not last long."

Mr. Jobaf scratched his head. "Just sell some assets, bonds or something."

The assistant lowered his voice and said, "Those bonds have been issued."

This sentence made Mr. Jobaf come back to his senses suddenly, and his voice was a little out of tune, "What?"

Sharp and a little harsh, like a soprano whose tail was stepped on!

"Why is there no more?"

The assistant handed over the documents in his hand. "In the past six months, we have been cashing in those bonds to pay for various withdrawals and your personal consumption expenses."

"Currently, all of our approximately 700,000 bonds have been sold out."

"I need to add that we lost about 150,000 yuan in this area."

"Now all we can cash out is some gold, some stocks, and some artworks."

"These are things that are difficult to fulfill immediately. If you have any plans, you must prepare in advance."

These things are not like bonds. Once the bonds are collected, they can be redeemed directly from the federal government at face value, and the prices are very stable.

But whether it is gold, stocks, or even works of art, their prices are not fixed.

If you want to sell them at a suitable price, you have to spend a long time finding those who need them most.

If you are in a hurry to cash out, the price will inevitably be suppressed.

Mr. Qiaobafu was a little dazed. After being in a daze for a long time, he asked, "How much money do I have left?"

(End of this chapter)