Empire of Shadows

Lenny put down the phone, picked up the cigar next to the ashtray, and took a puff.

"He said we need to meet and talk."

There were also two specialists in the office, both representatives from the Ligee Group headquarters to handle some work.

In fact, it wasn't just the two of them, but an entire legal team.

Lance was just one of their clients, and there were some similar, but not entirely the same, situations.

"So headquarters has decided to completely tear up the agreement?" Lenny looked at the two specialists, frowning, "Will this bring us some negative reviews?"

Both specialists were very professional managers. In fact, adding 'professional' before the special term 'manager' made people feel their aloof attitude.

Lenny knew one of them, named Bridge, who was one of the company's partners.

This guy's position in the company wasn't low, but his reputation was very bad. Some said he was the board's executioner, specializing in doing things that the board wanted to do but couldn't bring themselves to do.

For example, laying off employees would be handled by the department under Bridge's control.

He was a 'ruthless' person, which was everyone's assessment of him. His most frequent saying was, 'The company's regulations do not allow me to let you go,' like a robot.

He wouldn't talk about human feelings with anyone. He even had very strict demands on himself, strictly following the company's rules and regulations and work manual.

This time, Bridge was in charge of coming to King's Harbor City.

"Lenny, you can question the company's decisions, but before the company has a new decision, what we have to do is obey."

Lenny chuckled. As a general manager of a branch, his status was definitely stronger than this rabid dog, but many people on the board liked this dog very much.

He was useful, obedient, and ruthless to himself. He hadn't developed his own faction in the company so far, which was one of the reasons why the directors were willing to use him.

When they needed him, they could just find a reason to kick him out and push all the blame on him.

This stupid dog!

This time, the company arranged for specialists and the legal department to come over in order to completely tear up some fruit and crop sales contracts that had already been signed.

The King's Harbor City Hazardous Materials Administration explosion gave this new department more power, and the nationwide alcohol ban situation suddenly became more severe, no longer like a casual game.

Many regions began large-scale alcohol bans, and the Hazardous Materials Administration also began to enter the state, they passed the 'novice period'.

Not only King's Harbor City, but many regions' Hazardous Materials Administrations began to increase their efforts to arrest smugglers and sellers of alcoholic beverages. They would even arrest people who publicly drank alcohol and throw them in prison for three to six months.

But strangely, the unprecedentedly severe situation didn't make people lose their enthusiasm for drinking. On the contrary, more people in many regions started drinking.

This also led to the soaring price of alcohol, and the price of some raw materials for brewing also began to skyrocket.

If they couldn't afford alcohol, then they would brew it themselves. Among many brewing methods, grape wine was a relatively easy one.

In some regions with a tradition of home brewing, many home brewing workshops had appeared, and the agricultural products used for brewing began to increase.

As a free trade market country, when demand clearly increased, it would enter a seller's market, and they began to raise prices.

At the end of January and early February, the purchase price of ordinary grapes per ton was still seventy-seven or eighty yuan—this was the price on the purchase agreement they signed with farmers, but the price for their external sales was over one hundred yuan.

But now, the selling price per ton had already risen to one hundred and seventy-five yuan. In just over a month, the profit had soared from a dozen percent to about one hundred and fifty percent!

Such a high profit was enough for this group of capitalists to shout 'We want freedom' and trample on the law.

The company's price trend analysts believed that as the power of the alcohol ban began to spread and continue to ferment, the prices of grapes, corn, potatoes, wheat, and any crops that could be used to brew alcohol would continue to rise.

They believed that the listing price of grapes in the first quarter of this year might break three hundred yuan per ton!

You need to know that the selling price was rising, but the purchase price they signed with the farmers before had not changed, basically less than ninety yuan.

Three or four times the profit, or even more!

In the face of such huge expected profits, the Ligee Group, of course, was unwilling to admit these contracts that had been sold at a price of more than one hundred yuan per ton.

After discussion by the board of directors, they unanimously decided to tear up this price and re-sign a new sales contract, or simply not sign it.

Of course, there were commercial ethics risks and moral accusations in doing so, but this was a matter of tens of millions of profits. What was the big deal about being scolded a few times?

If the scolding was not fierce, donate some money to a charity organization under your own name, do charity for yourself, and the public opinion would subside.

If the scolding was fierce, just find a few people to be scapegoats and throw them out, and then the board of directors would collectively apologize.

If bowing and saying sorry could bring back tens of millions of profits, they could keep bowing from morning till night.

This was also the reason why they sent Bridge over. King's Harbor City had the most contracts, and they needed the sharpest and inflexible spear!

For those with not much breach of contract fees, such as only 30% or 50%, they would directly tear up the contract and then arrange for the legal department to fight a lawsuit with those people.

Many people were unwilling to fight lawsuits with large group companies. Large companies had a strong legal system and knew many people in the judicial department.

It wasn't that they couldn't win, but it would cost a lot to win, possibly requiring them to pay thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan in lawyer fees.

This expense might not even be as much as the amount mentioned in the breach of contract fee, so they would most likely choose an out-of-court settlement—the Ligee Group would return their deposit and give them a symbolic compensation, a few thousand yuan, or a few hundred yuan.

For those with more breach of contract fees, such as one time, two times, or more, they would try to communicate.

If that didn't work, they would still fight a lawsuit. Anyway, it was impossible for them to let go of the profits in their pockets!

Just drag it on, they had experience!

As for the farmers?

With the style of Ligee Group and other three super agricultural trade groups, if any farmer dared to propose re-signing a price increase contract, they would let the legal department sue these farmers until they couldn't even afford pants.

Not only would they be deprived of the grapes in the first quarter of this year, but even their manor, farm, and everything would be lost to them due to the loss of the lawsuit!

The federal capital consortium had always been like this, not at all like they advertised to the outside world—

A capitalist did something wrong and, under the spirit of contract and the fair and just law, compensated a staff member tens of thousands of yuan or something.

This kind of story can actually be heard a lot all over the world, like an old man fell in a shopping mall, and then the shopping mall compensated tens of thousands of yuan.

Perhaps this case does exist, but they won't tell you that the old man may only get a few dozen yuan in the end.

And the rest of the money basically went into the pockets of lawyers and certain people.

In front of big capital, ordinary people never get fairness and justice.

Lenny knew why they were doing this. In fact, this kind of thing had not only happened once or twice.

Conversely, it was actually the same. For example, when agricultural product prices plummeted, they would demand that customers must fulfill the contract, while requiring to re-sign the contract with the farmers, otherwise, they would organize the three major agricultural merchants to refuse to purchase their crops.

The capitalists' pursuit of profit was shameless and hot. No one could stop them from putting the most money in their pockets.

Bridge looked at Lenny who was thinking. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. His 'backer' told him that if he could perfectly handle this job.

Then his backer would nominate him in the board of directors to be promoted to senior partner and be qualified to hold no more than three ten-thousandths of the shares.

Of course, this part of the shares did not have inheritance rights, nor did it have the right to freely sell or transfer. He could only choose to keep it himself and return it to the board of directors after his death or voluntarily.

It sounded like this was very unfair, but for some senior white-collar workers, this was their ultimate dream, to become one of the company's shareholders!

So this time, no one could stop him.

"Keep making calls, Lenny. You don't need to think about how we do it. That's my business. What you need to do now is to do your job well."

"Pick up the receiver, and then dial the phone and tell them that there is a problem with the contract!"

Lenny looked at Bridge and shook his head. He really couldn't figure out the situation!

But that had nothing to do with him. He would explain the situation to those partners.

The next morning, Lance came to the Ligee Group's branch office building, a sixteen-story building located in the city center of King's Harbor City.

There were even taller buildings around it!

In fact, this was very incredible. In some countries where even three or five-story buildings were rare, the Federation had already begun to build high-rise buildings over two hundred meters.

Lance had someone park the car. As soon as he entered the lobby on the first floor, he saw several guys wearing flat-topped hats cursing and waving the documents in their hands, shouting loudly, "I'm going to sue you."

Several security guards were blocking them, trying to drive them out.

A man in the lobby who should be in charge took the initiative to meet him. Of course, he also looked at Lance with some vigilance, blocking between Lance and those people, fearing that Lance would suddenly take out a camera and take these pictures.

"Sir, is there anything I can do for you?" he asked with a smile. Although young, his hypocritical tricks were already well-honed.

Lance nodded slightly. "Yesterday, Manager Leni called me and said I was scheduled to come here today to discuss the contract."

The young man maintained his hypocritical smile, but he bent his back a little more.

Those invited to discuss matters were generally wealthy individuals. He didn't recognize Lance, but he knew Lance was rich, and showing respect to the wealthy was instinctive.

"Sir, please come this way with me," he said, leading the way towards the elevator.

Lance casually asked, "What happened to those people?"

The young man's expression didn't change in the slightest. "I'm not quite sure, but they obviously didn't have the right attitude, so we had to ask them to leave."

"I believe you, sir, are definitely different from them."

Lance was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh. He looked the young man up and down. "Do you know what?"

"You're threatening the wrong person."

The young man's grin widened. "I don't understand what you're saying, sir!"

Lance reached out and straightened his collar. "You better pray Leni doesn't make me angry!" Then he withdrew his hand, patted the young man's arm, "Cherish your good health while you have it."

As he spoke, a 'ding' sounded, and the elevator doors opened. Lance walked in.

The young man maintained his smile, but one could faintly see the arrogance in his bones through his eyes.

After all, it was one of the three major agricultural and commercial groups. Even just being a hall manager was a solid middle-class position for many ordinary people, even considered a small, significant figure.

The elevator doors finally cut off their gazes. The young man withdrew his smile, coldly looked at the people still causing trouble at the front desk, and frowned. "Haven't you eaten?"

"They're affecting our work. Get them out of here!"

"Immediately!"

The security guards, who were already pushing and shoving, heard this. One of them pulled out a rubber baton. Reasoning couldn't fill their stomachs, but their wages could.

Leni's office was on the top floor. The elevator wasn't fast, but it was smooth. When it stopped, you could barely feel any weightlessness or heaviness.

You could only feel a slight pause, then a 'ding,' and the doors opened.

Stepping out of the elevator, there was a large room with a separate front desk and several sets of sofas nearby.

Newspapers and recent magazines were on the bookshelf. The blonde girl at the front desk stood up. "Sir, hello, how can I help you?"

Lance walked across the soft carpet to the counter. "Mr. Leni asked me to come to discuss the contract."

"May I have your name?" the girl asked.

"Lance."

The girl was momentarily stunned. Her expression seemed to freeze for a moment, but quickly a smile reappeared. She lowered her head and began flipping through the notebook.

Then she picked up the phone. "Mr. Lance is here, right here with me… Okay."

She hung up the phone and came around the counter.

She wore a white top with red polka dots, which looked very light and thin. The material seemed to be of good quality, and then a bright red pencil skirt. It was a very fashionable outfit.

"Please come with me, Mr. Lance," she said, leading Lance to the innermost part, knocking on the door, and only pushing it open after receiving Leni's permission.

"Please come in."

As soon as Lance entered, Leni came out from behind the desk.

He did this not only because Lance's order totaled over eight hundred thousand, but more importantly, because of Lance's reputation here.

"I'm very sorry to have troubled you, Mr. Lance. I sincerely apologize for this!" he said, shaking Lance's hand with both of his.

Then he looked at the secretary, "Bring a cup of the best coffee, immediately!"

The secretary trotted away.

Leni welcomed him to sit on the sofa. "I don't know how to start, Mr. Lance. The company's decision makes me feel ashamed!"

Lance quietly watched his performance. Leni was also a professional manager; he would never show you his true self.

Seeing that Lance didn't respond, he could only continue, "The company hopes to renegotiate the agreement with you because of internal technical issues. We used the wrong base in terms of price."

"In fact, the price of grapes in the first quarter of this year will exceed three hundred yuan per ton, but we only gave you a price of just over one hundred."

"We cannot bear such a huge loss, so the company hopes to renegotiate the price or sign a supplementary contract."

"We can give you a preferential price of two hundred and seventy yuan, which is the lowest price I can offer today."

After listening to him, Lance smiled. "I've already paid the deposit, and the contract has been signed. You're telling me now that you want to raise the price?"

He shook his head. "Mr. Leni, I'm shocked by the low level of morality of your company, but I refuse."

"Everything will be done according to the contract. Either give me the grapes, or give me…" He thought for a moment, but the number was a mix of whole and fractional, "It should be over four million in damages."

"The goods or the money, you have to choose one."

Leni also had a headache. "I actually want to respect our contract, but the head office…"

While he was speaking, someone suddenly pushed the door open and walked in. Lance glanced back, it wasn't the secretary.

It was two young men.

One of them had obvious arrogance on his face. He looked back at Leni, who could only smile awkwardly and softly said, "Sorry."

Lance didn't move, just looked at the two who came in.

"Mr. Lance, hello, I am Bridge from the Legal Affairs Department II of Liji Group. Because company employees used the wrong numbers when calculating prices, we made mistakes in predicting prices."

"Now we have come from the capital specifically to correct these mistakes."

The two walked to the other side of the sofa and sat down.

"Manager Leni should have already told you that we can give you a preferential price…"

Lance interrupted him directly, "I refuse."

Bridge didn't care at all, even smiled. "Mr. Lance, this is not a negotiation with you."

"Moreover, I have read your contract with the company. The liquidated damages are obviously unreasonable. I have reason to suspect that you may have colluded with the employees involved to use illegal contracts to obtain company benefits."

Lance stood up, looking down at Bridge and then at Leni. There was no joy or anger on his face, just calm.

"This is the purpose of calling me here today?" He shook his head. "This may be the stupidest thing you have done. Mr. Leni, have a good chat with your idiot friend."

"I hope the next time you call me, it's to tell me that you intend to fulfill the contract, instead of acting like a clown to show your greed!"