Empire of Shadows

At ten o'clock in the morning, Lance arrived at the Imperial Nightclub.

Generally speaking, the Imperial Nightclub is not open in the morning. Its business hours are from five o'clock in the afternoon until one o'clock in the morning.

The performers need to rest, the service staff also need to rest, and there is also cleaning and checking of goods, preparing for the new day's business, which also takes time.

The reason for coming today is because today is "payday." The Imperial Nightclub has been reopened for nearly a month, and it's time to pay wages.

When he arrived, Lance saw Eric, who opened the office window and stood by the window smoking. Lance noticed him when he got out of the car, and he also saw Lance.

The two looked at each other for a moment from a distance of dozens of meters, then turned their eyes away from each other.

Erwin cursed from the side, "I feel uncomfortable when I see this son of a bitch. I've been inquiring about some things recently!"

Lance became a little interested, "About what?"

The two greeted the staff who came to collect their salaries while walking towards the nightclub.

"He's just a jerk, hanging around entertainment venues in the Starlight District every day. I heard he's pursuing a female star, but she doesn't seem to think much of him."

"Doesn't think much of him?" Lance was a little surprised. "Does that female star have a big background?"

Erwin shook his head and said, "I'm not sure, but she's quite famous in the Starlight District, mainly in opera."

He paused and said, "Also, it's related to Eric's identity. After all, rumors say that she has an extraordinary relationship with his mother and his nominal father. No one likes such messy family relationships."

Everyone is saying that Eric's father is the mayor and not someone else, but the mayor and his father are cousins. Maybe people in high society like a little taboo.

Eric seems like just an illegitimate child. For some girls who are eager to climb higher, this is actually a good choice.

They can't attach themselves to the mayor's legitimate heir, but an illegitimate child, they still have a little chance.

But if he is an illegitimate child from a chaotic relationship, then even girls who want to attach themselves will be deterred by this kind of family relationship.

Once the two started going upstairs, Erwin closed his mouth.

Kayla's office was crowded with people. Everyone was enthusiastic about payday.

Whenever someone received their salary, they would say thank you and then sign or put a fingerprint on a book, indicating that they had received their salary.

Salaries were paid in the form of checks, which made it easier to manage funds and reduced the workload of the accountants.

After all, the difficulty of dividing thousands of dollars according to different salary standards without messing it up is far higher than writing a number on a piece of paper.

When people saw Lance coming over, they took the initiative to let him go to the front. Lance didn't refuse, thanked them with a smile, and came to the front.

Kayla glanced at him, found a light blue envelope from a stack of envelopes, took it out, and placed it on the table.

Lance was about to take it, but she stopped him, "Sign or put a fingerprint here first, then you can take the money."

Lance looked at her for two or three seconds, then signed his name on the book, "Does it belong to me now?"

Kayla didn't say anything, she was obviously emotional.

At that time, she expressed the hope of having an office for one person, but Lance arranged several people here, which made her very unhappy. She felt that she was being neglected, so she didn't give Lance a good look.

Lance shook his head indifferently. These are all people from the mayor, or people the mayor found. He won't have a good relationship with these people. He's not Chobaf, not so… cheap.

"How much?" Erwin couldn't help but ask. According to Olsen's lawyer, he could get 30% of the profits here.

In the past month, the Imperial Nightclub's business has been better than before. Many people are willing to come and spend money after Lance took control here because it is safe.

He is not the Camilla gang, who would kidnap and extort his own people, so they are willing to come and play and are willing to spend money.

There are many hidden wealthy people in the Imperial District. You can't see anything usually, but their spending power is really not low, and there are also Federal people from other places.

After all, "Imperial Style" is also a feature in King's Harbor City.

In the past, the daily profit was about four or five hundred, sometimes a little more. One month is 10,000 to 20,000, taking the median value, 15,000, 30% is 4,500 yuan.

This made Erwin a little envious, which is almost half of a law firm and financial company.

After walking out of the crowd, Lance opened the envelope and took out the check, but soon the expression on his face changed from expectation to calm.

"Is it a lot?" Erwin didn't notice the change in his expression and asked.

Lance gave him the check. Erwin also took the check with anticipation, but soon became obviously dissatisfied and angry!

"Five hundred yuan?"

"How can they have the face to write such a number?" He said and was about to go back to the office, "I'm going to ask her, I don't believe it's less than two thousand yuan this month!"

Lance grabbed his arm, "It's useless to ask her."

Erwin looked at him, "Are we just going to let it go?"

Lance shook his head, "Kayla is just a puppet. Even if you kill her, she is not qualified to give us more."

"Let's go up and see what they say!" The people upstairs are the key!

Erwin calmed down at this time, "Are you saying, Eric?"

He reacted, "That son of a bitch!"

The two went to the room. Eric seemed to realize that Lance was coming, and he sat in Lance's chair.

Heller's things were thrown out by Lance and replaced with new things. The entire office exuded a fresh energy.

His feet were propped up on Lance's newly bought table, and some dust from the soles of his shoes had already fallen on the table.

Olsen's lawyer was sitting on the edge of the sofa, reading some documents. When he heard the sound of the door opening, he took the initiative to stand up.

"Mr. Lance…" Then his eyes fell on Erwin, "And Mr. Erwin."

"How is it, did you get your salary?"

Erwin didn't speak. He knew that everything was based on Lance at this time. He took Lance's coat and hat that he took off and hung them on the hanger, and then stood aside.

Lance walked to the sofa and sat down. He picked up the coffee pot and poured himself a cup of hot coffee, "Received it."

He blew on the lingering heat on the back of the coffee, took a small sip, and the strong oily taste brought a better experience, but it was obviously a little bitter.

Most Federal people can accept a slightly sour taste better than bitterness.

Eric, who was sitting in Lance's chair, showed some smiles on his face, very contemptuous smiles.

Lance took out the check along with the envelope, put it on the table, and pushed it in front of Olsen's lawyer with his finger.

Olsen's lawyer glanced at the check, five hundred yuan.

The nightclub's profit last month was about 22,000 yuan. If calculated according to their previous agreement, then Lance should actually get at least 6,600 yuan in dividends.

There are only five hundred yuan here, not even enough for the change. He knows what's going on.

Eric has been spending too much money recently pursuing that young opera singer. Pursuing opera singers at this time is not an easy task, especially those who are already famous.

If you want to make an analogy, then this girl is about equal to the top traffic in the film industry at its peak, which is not something that an illegitimate child after the mayor's mess can easily get his hands on.

There are also some capitalists and gentlemen from high society who are pursuing that girl together.

With more opportunities and levels to choose from, Eric obviously does not have an advantage, so he can only try to please his goddess.

And spending money is the best way he can think of.

All kinds of romance, romance piled up with money, did make that girl seem to have more affection for him than others.

But spending money like this, he can't stand it!

The mayor gave him a lot of money and turned a blind eye to his occasional money-grabbing behavior, so when he heard that the Imperial Nightclub was going to distribute dividends and Lance could get 6,600 yuan, he had some ideas.

"It's just the head of a small gang. If you say he is from the five major families, maybe I will hesitate."

"But the Lance family… no one knows them except in the Imperial District. Why should I respect them?"

"Giving him five hundred yuan is already the decency I left for him."

"If it weren't for the fact that he still has to work for his uncle, I wouldn't even want to give him five hundred yuan!"

This is what he said to Olsen's lawyer. Olsen's lawyer recalled some of the things the mayor had said to him. The idea of persuading him was dispelled, replaced by a smiling default, and let Kayla modify Lance's salary.

At this time, Eric was very happy. With 6,100 yuan, he could continue to fiercely pursue his goddess, and the other five bars would also be divided.

The profits of these bars are also very high. Lance should be able to get seven or eight thousand yuan. When the time comes, he will only leave five hundred for Lance, and the rest will be his!

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh. Perhaps realizing that he had laughed out loud, he coughed a few times to cover it up.

After all, this money had nothing to do with him, and the person involved was right here.

The two sitting on the sofa looked at Eric. Olsen's lawyer always maintained the smile on his face that seemed to never change.

Lance also had a smile that was not a smile. He thought of many things.

He had been chatting with a friend surnamed Du, who said that in his life, he had met many important figures. The higher the status of these figures, the more humble and respectful they were, afraid of doing something wrong.

On the contrary, those small-time characters, the size of a booger, were wildly arrogant, as if the whole world consisted of only them and their fathers.

These words seemed perfectly applicable to Eric.

Perhaps realizing that both of them were watching him, Eric twisted his head and lit a cigarette. The two of them also retracted their gazes.

They exchanged a look, both sensing something in each other's eyes, but neither spoke.

"Mr. Lance is not satisfied with the salary?" Attorney Olsen picked up the check, glanced at it again, and then put it back into the envelope.

Lance shook his head, a smile on his face, "It's already my honor to serve this city's boss. How could I dare to actually ask for a share?"

Attorney Olsen was a little puzzled again, wondering if what he said was true or false.

But if it was true, how could the Red High Heels issue be explained?

But if it was false, how could he control his emotions so well?

From his impulsive fight with Camilla's gang to the miraculous destruction of the entire Camilla gang, he didn't seem like Mr. Choppauf's type of character. This was also what Attorney Olsen found very contradictory.

He couldn't guess Lance's thoughts, so he was a bit hesitant, unsure how to phrase his words.

Testing Lance was also part of his job. Just as he was still pondering how to speak, Eric suddenly interjected, "Since Lance is so generous, Olsen, you can put that five hundred away. My car just happens to be out of gas and needs refueling."

He put his feet down from the desk, stomped them on the floor, walked to the coffee table, and, under Attorney Olsen's gaze, took the envelope. "Forget it, I'll keep it here. I'm going to get gas now," he said, pausing. "Are you coming, Olsen?"

Attorney Olsen pondered for a moment. He still had some work to do. The mayor's assets were not just this little bit. During the payday period, he would be very busy.

Many people knew that he could represent the mayor's attitude to a certain extent, so his appearance was a very important matter.

"It's on the way, let's go together," he decided to leave the matter of testing Lance for another time.

He then stood up, and Lance also stood up, even proactively extending his hand. "Goodbye, Attorney Olsen."

Attorney Olsen smiled and shook his hand, appearing very enthusiastic. "Goodbye, Mr. Lance."

Lance looked at Eric, who snorted lightly, and, as before, walked disdainfully towards the door, not even considering shaking Lance's hand.

He glanced at Elvin by the door, impatiently saying "Get out of the way," and kicked the door open, leaving the room.

Attorney Olsen looked at Eric, who had burst out the door, and sighed. "I'm sorry you had to see that, but sometimes there's nothing I can do with him…" he said, shaking his head, as if afraid others wouldn't see the mayor's indulgence towards him.

Lance put on a very appropriate expression, somewhat dissatisfied, but still within tolerable limits. "It's all for the sake of all of us."

When these words came from Lance's mouth, Attorney Olsen felt another moment of confusion. He couldn't tell if it was sarcasm or heartfelt words.

He stared at Lance for a while before nodding slightly. "Rest assured, we will compensate you."

He didn't want to continue guessing Lance's emotions, cutting it off there. "Alright, I should go. I don't want to keep him waiting, who knows what he'll do."

After another farewell, Lance watched Attorney Olsen leave.

After Elvin closed the door, his face was very bad. "Just let him do this?"

Lance came to the window, watching the three cars leave. He shook his head. "This is just a stupid dog. If you show hostility, he will keep biting you."

"You know he's a stupid dog, so doing this is meaningless."

He paused for a moment. "Find him another dog, let them bite each other."

"As for the money they owe me…" Lance lit a cigarette. "Calculate it at the company's highest interest rate first, and then collect it from them at a suitable time."

Elvin was still somewhat unwilling, but he also knew that this seemed to be the best solution for now, because they were not facing small characters like Heller.

They were facing the city's top figure on the surface, the mayor, who held great power. He could even apply to the governor to allow the Slave Catchers to enter the city when necessary.

Of course, they weren't called that anymore; they had a nicer, more legitimate name.

Although doing so would severely damage the mayor's position within the Socialist Party, he had the courage and ability to take the risk, while Lance and his people did not yet have the ability to resist.

The mayor could even make some deals with one of the five major families, and he could easily use legal means to deal with the Lance family.

This is also why almost all rulers in the Federation seem to be allowing gang forces to develop wildly.

They are raising pigs, preparing to have a full meal later, and are not afraid that gang organizations will get out of control, because they are always outside the scope of the law!

Using the power of a country to deal with an organization or gang, no organization or gang can withstand it!

Eric's mind was full of the goddess's smile, but he didn't know that because of his small actions today, Lance's bars were opening ahead of schedule.

With the cheap potato liquor from Luigi and the large-scale brewing starting on surrounding farms, the price of Lance's liquor could be said to be very low, if quality was not considered.

But this was the Empire District, not the city center full of social elites, nor the Starlight District where stars gathered, nor the Bay Area of the upper circles.

The people here only needed the alcohol in the liquor, not a certain brand.

What they cared about was how much alcohol they could get for the same price, not what copper or silver labels they needed.

The mayor knew about this in the evening. Olsen told him everything Eric had done.

After listening, he asked about Lance's performance and reaction. After Attorney Olsen spoke, the mayor pondered for a while and didn't take it to heart.

In this city, apart from the opinion leaders of the three major parties and the five major families who gave him a headache, he didn't take anyone else to heart.

He was just a small gang leader. He spent more of his time on the Social Party representatives.

They were the key to his being able to nominate the Speaker of the House!

"Don't worry about him for now. You have some new work to do next. I heard that the Liberal Party's plans are the same as our ideas. Investigate who our competitors are and see if we can get some dirt on them…"

Soon, Mr. Mayor was immersed in his grand ambitions. As for some noise in the poor corners of the city?

Who the hell could hear that?!