Shadow Empire

Chapter 763: Burning Cinema
Fran slowly put down the phone and looked at the old brothers in the room. At first, they still had some smiles on their faces.

After all, it was actually quite entertaining to watch Fran get embarrassed.

It's not that they want Fran to be embarrassed, but they put themselves in a higher position.

Just like gentlemen who occasionally wear ordinary clothes and walk through the streets and alleys, find a small restaurant where they are unlikely to sit down in their lifetime, then wipe the greasy table tops, order food that they would never normally eat, and eat it with relish.

They see this as a contrasting experience in life, hiding their identities and keeping a low profile, which is roughly the same thing.

Over the years, except for a few people who could embarrass Fran, no one else could do this, but Lance did it.

This made everyone laugh.

But as they laughed, they couldn't laugh anymore because Fran's face became so long.

He was willing to lower his posture and talk to Lance in person, and even proposed a solution that he thought was perfect, but Lance not only did not appreciate it, he also gave him a punch.

Just because those gentlemen in ordinary clothes are willing to eat cheap food at roadside stalls doesn’t mean they can tolerate the store owners serving them a basin of feces!

Under Fran's gaze, everyone remained serious.

"I heard that Lance also has some businesses in Golden State?" He was really angry. He already respected Lance very much.

Making the call in person is a sign of respect. If it were someone else, even if it was the five major families in Jingang City in the past, he would not talk to their leaders in person unless it was necessary.

But what did he get in return for his respect?
It's a humiliation and contempt!
He looked at a young man in the corner, a member of the Perez family, twenty-three years old, recently married, and Fran's fourth child.

His hair was shiny and oily and stuck to his scalp, and his clothes looked very elegant.

When he was born, the status and power of the Perez family were already very stable, and he had never experienced any arduous battles since he was a child.

Because he didn't have a good learning ability, he joined the family gang.

Like Fran's eldest son, he is now a successful lawyer, married to a girl from a political family, and is working towards a career in politics.

Some of his other children work in the family business and studied business management in college.

There is another one who is doing research and is fanatically passionate about those magical phenomena.

Educationally speaking, the "fourth child" was actually the least useful of the siblings, compared to the abilities and achievements of the others.

But he is also Fran's favorite one because he has been with Fran since high school.

Sometimes ability is not important at all to the heir. What is important is who the person who decides who the heir is likes.

The fourth child was also a smart child. He stood up immediately. He was handsome and tall. Fran was very satisfied with the children's condition. "Robin, I'll leave this matter to you."

Robin nodded, "Leave it to me!"

Fran breathed a sigh of relief. It would take time to get results from fighting the Lance family. After all, their influence had not yet reached the Lance family.

Therefore, even if the problem really needs to be solved through the use of force, they will not immediately send people to do it. Doing so will not have any meaningful outcome other than sending people to their deaths.

He first pulled out all of Lance's industries here, causing Lance to suffer heavy losses, and then forced them to take the initiative to create a "pocket" and pack them all up at once.

He was not the kind of young man who knew nothing. He knew very well that if he rushed to Likalai State to fight with Lance, it would be like running headfirst into an oncoming train.

The territorial advantage is too great!
Just like in the city where the Perez family is located, in his territory, even if Lance is very strong, he will not be his opponent.

Because he has connections and contacts in the public security, procuratorial and judicial departments, even if he does not take action himself, he can ask the police to find a reason to separate these people and lock them up.

Then it will be much easier to deal with them!

When Lance couldn't bear it anymore and wanted to come over to attack, what awaited them was destruction.

As for them not taking action?
That just suited Fran's wishes. He took away Lance's property, and Lance didn't even dare to fart. It was clear who was strong and who was weak.

And the joint meeting is about to begin. At the joint meeting, he will tell those people what he has done. It’s just that the Lance family dare not respond, so they win this round.

As for calling...

From the beginning to the end, he had no such idea. He was not that stupid to deliberately take the initiative to enter the opponent's home court when he had all the advantages.

After the meeting, Fran gave Robin a few more instructions and let him leave.

Robin had his own men, and he quickly took them away and assigned them the mission.

It is not difficult to investigate the Lance family's industries in Golden State or other places.

Because they had the help of government agencies, local governments would help them with inquiries, and they soon found out that Lance already had more than 30 cinemas in Golden State.

There are also cinemas in other places. Lance has been acquiring these cinemas. As long as the price is right, he will buy them.

While Robin asked people to investigate other cinemas, he came to one of the cinemas in the city where they were.

The ticket seller at the cinema was yawning. People always feel sleepy in the afternoon, but when he saw these well-dressed gentlemen coming over, he forced himself to sit up straight.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. Today we are showing '...' and '...'. Tickets are forty cents each."

The ticket seller looked at the gentlemen at the door who didn't seem to pay immediately, and added, "These movies are all regular movies, all lasting more than an hour, and they are very good, so you will definitely not lose money!"

In the past few years, when the film industry had not yet fully developed, many films removed the time showing dialogue, and the actual scenes were often only seven or eight minutes, or ten minutes.

Including the dialogue, it can be stretched to half an hour.

How exciting can a plot of seven, eight or ten minutes be?

Some even recorded some circus performances, wrote down what the host said, what the performers said, and what the audience said, and then played it back.

Although the ticket price was only five cents, many people felt that it was not worth it because they spent the money without understanding anything.

This also led to a period of time when people would ask about the real set when watching a movie, rather than the set with dialogue.

Robin smiled, took out two dollars, paid for all their tickets, and asked, "I don't think there are many people here..."

The ticket seller explained while tearing up the ticket, "Today is Tuesday, so it's normal that there are few people."

"When it comes to Thursday, the crowds will start to increase and we won't be able to sell enough tickets during the weekend."

He tore off the ticket neatly and handed it to Robin. "The movie has just started. It's still not too late to go in. Your showtime is on it. I suggest you pick one and watch it first, then go to the other side after the show. This way, you can watch two movies with one ticket."

When there are few people, they will use this method to attract moviegoers and ensure that the theater is not empty on non-weekends.

Robin smiled and led the group into the cinema. There were two large screens and they sat down on either side.

After just watching for a short while, he felt bored.

The movie tells the story of a rich man who falls into trouble, but he couldn't find any sense of empathy in the movie, maybe because he has never been in trouble before.

After a quick tour around the cinema, the group left quickly.

In the evening, after dinner, Robin stood up from the table, walked to his wife who was sitting on the ground and kissed her cheek, "I have something to go out for, I will be back later."

"If I can be back before ten o'clock sharp, I will."

"If I can't come back, I'll stay the night at my father's place. You don't have to wait for me."

His wife responded to him, then he walked to the door, put on his clothes, said goodbye to his wife again, and left the room.

His men had arrived outside the door early and were waiting for him.

As he approached the pickup truck that was doing the work tonight, he smelled a strong odor of gasoline.

"How much did you pack?"

"Forty gallons." Robin whistled as he got in the car. "Enough to burn them all!"

The peak time for movie theaters is after dinner in the evening, when people finish their meal, watch an hour-long movie, and then go home before nine o'clock.

This is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment for ordinary people, and is ranked as a treasure for the poor, along with "having a drink"!

Because today is Tuesday, even though it is the peak hour, there are not many people outside the cinema.

Several pickup trucks stopped on the street next to the cinema. Robin sat in the passenger seat. He looked through the rearview mirror and saw that his men in the back seat were ready. He nodded slightly and said, "Let's do it."

His men immediately opened the car door and walked towards the cinema carrying the "suitcase". This was not the first time that the Perez family had done something like this. They would also do things like bullying the market.

Unlike other small gangs who want to use these to extort money, their purpose of bullying the market is to monopolize the market.

Their suitcases are all custom-made to look like suitcases, but inside they are actually gas barrels that can hold about four gallons of gas.

Although the ticket seller was wondering why a group of guys who looked like elites came to watch a movie with suitcases, he sold tickets to them with the idea that every extra ticket he sold would mean extra money.

After these people entered the cinemas on both sides, they started pouring gasoline directly from the back - because the seats in the cinema were stepped downwards, they only needed to find a suitable angle to pour the gasoline.

A young man in a couple watching a movie hugged each other. He suddenly raised his head and sniffed, "Honey, do you smell gasoline?"

The girl nodded slightly, "Yes, I smelled it too."

They turned around and looked at the people standing in the last row. The young man couldn't help but ask, "Hey, what are you doing?"

One of the shadows took out a lighter, lit a cigarette, and then threw it on the ground.

Amid the screams of the man and woman, the flames quickly ignited most of the cinema in an almost explosive manner. In an instant, the two people were engulfed by the flames. They screamed and ran outside, along with other moviegoers!
When a guy on fire ran out of the cinema door amid people screaming, people realized that something terrible had happened here!

The fire truck came quickly, after all, this was Golden State, and it arrived at the scene in less than fifteen minutes, but the fire in the cinema could no longer be put out.

There were too many flammable materials inside, and the entire interior of the cinema was burning.

The officer in charge of directing the firefighting on site at the fire department can only ensure that the fire does not spread to other buildings. As for putting out the fire?

The best way is to wait for it to burn out completely. When there is nothing to burn, it will go out naturally.

It wasn't just this one cinema, four cinemas were set on fire in one night. Soon the professional manager in charge of the business operations there called Lance overnight.

“…I don’t know the current situation of other cinemas, but I know of four.”

"Our ticket seller said they saw many people carrying suitcases into the cinema, which should be where they were sitting. Some people also smelled a strong smell of gasoline in the cinema!"

Lance frowned after hearing this, "Are there any casualties?"

Jinzhou's theater manager said in a low voice, "Nineteen people died."

"Nineteen?"

Although Lance was mentally prepared, he was still shocked by the number. "Why did so many people die?"

"The escape route at one cinema was blocked."

At this time, mainstream cinemas in the federation, or all regular cinemas, had large screens and tiered seating.

Enter from the back of the cinema, that is, from the upper part, and then go to the lower part.

There will be an emergency escape passage at a lower level, and you can rush out through a gentle slope that you can run on.

However, this gentle slope is basically not used. Some places will pile up some sundries here, and one of the four families is like this.

They piled up a lot of debris in the escape passage, making it very difficult to pass through. Only a few people escaped, and the others were trapped in the pushing and shoving.

Lance knew the purpose of their doing this. People died. Whether it was arson or not was a matter for the future.

Now they need to deal with the deaths and injuries, and this arson with an obvious purpose will make other moviegoers develop a natural fear of Wanli Cinemas!

The federal people have very fragile nerves. They can cry and even commit suicide over a small matter. They are also very sensitive and will easily be stressed out.

To be honest, even cats with the weakest psychological endurance are not as easily stressed out as federal humans!

Although the cinema is not Lance's main business, it also represents the reputation of the Lance family.

He had already made some arrangements. He thought that these opponents would drive thousands of miles to die like the idiots in the past, but he didn't expect that they would actually do so.

This also made Lance realize that this opponent was different from the previous lower-level gangsters who had little education, no political resources, and did not know how to really deal with trouble!
They are more treacherous, more cunning, and more vicious!

"Temporarily shut down all other cinemas on the pretext of checking fire prevention issues, then call the police and inform the newspaper that someone set the fire."

The manager wanted to say something and even made a sound, but Lance interrupted him forcefully and prevented him from finishing his words.

"Listen to me first."

"I will deposit some money into the company's account, contact the injured, bring reporters with me, and tell them that no matter how much their medical expenses are, they will all be paid by us."

"The deceased should be paid a pension according to the federal pension standards. Don't be stingy with the money. It must be done in front of reporters."

"Then gather them together, tell them the truth, turn them into a force, and let them hold up signs."

"I will contact some people in the film industry and they will support you. This matter is indeed very troublesome, but if it is handled well, it may not be a problem for us!"

He took a deep breath, "Now you can talk."

The manager opened his mouth, not knowing what to say. Lance handled the matter cleanly in the simplest way and also gave a way to counter it.

His mind went blank for several seconds before he asked, "Shouldn't we fight back?"

Lance lit a cigarette, "This is my job, your job is to take care of my cinema."

"Look at how much it would cost to tear down those movie theaters and build new ones that are safe, secure and fireproof."

"It would be better if you could hype this up and manipulate it, instead of just picking up the house stupidly, do you understand what I mean?"

The manager nodded, even though Lance couldn't see it, "I see what you mean, Mr. Lance."

"So I'll go do my work now?"

"Well, do as I say."

After he hung up, the phone rang again. It was Tom. "It was so hard to get through to you. It took me several minutes to get through."

"Did you offend someone? Why was your cinema burned down?"

The only possibility he could think of was that Lance had gotten into trouble with someone and that person had burned down his movie theater.

He added, "Are they the ones from the Angel of Death?"

"No!" Lance decisively denied this wrong answer, "It's someone from the Perez family."

"Wang Defa... why did you get into conflict with them?"

Lance briefly recounted the incident, and Tom was a little confused. "I don't know what to say. It seems like both of you are right..."

"No, they are wrong. They shouldn't have brought the wine in without informing me. They offended me first and want me to admit my mistake. Tom, get to the bottom of the situation!"

Tom smiled bitterly and said, "Okay, okay, I get it. So what are you going to do now?"

Lance took a puff of his cigarette, "He's not the only gangster, I am too!"

(End of this chapter)