Empire of Shadows

The political maneuvering at the Federation's upper levels seemed to have taken a turn. The President publicly responded to the Empire's accusations against the Federation on media —

"The Federal Government has never condoned anyone discriminating against immigrants from the Empire, regardless of whether they came to the Federation through legal channels!"

The Federal President had not responded to these accusations before, but this time, he stated that these were all rumors. Even if they existed, they were only isolated incidents, not political movements or events.

The Federation is a highly open, free, tolerant, and inclusive country, allowing anyone in the world who loves peace to live here.

The Federal Government will not acknowledge any unrealistic accusations. At the same time, the President will gradually open channels and pathways for illegal immigrants to apply for permanent residency cards.

Furthermore, the Federal Government will not give any positive response to the Empire's unilateral and immoral use of military force as a threat.

However, if the Imperial Army dares to invade the Federation's territory, the Federal Government will inevitably launch a fierce counterattack…

On the television, the President stood on the podium, waving his fist with impassioned gestures to deepen the context. Outside the camera's view, there was a dense crowd of people, waving their arms and cheering loudly along with his speech.

Large chunks of political vocabulary poured out of his mouth, as if the Federation was about to become the happiest country in the world…

After finishing his cigarette, the television in the cupboard stopped playing. Lance restarted the car and drove back to the house.

Alberto had not reclaimed the car's usage rights, after all, it was only worth two hundred dollars at most.

Although, logically speaking, it was perfectly legal and reasonable for him to take back the car.

He simply gave the car to Lance for his use. Exchanging two hundred dollars for a favor, this deal was actually quite worthwhile.

When he returned to the house, the young companions were sitting in the living room discussing something. They all stood up when Lance came in.

"After leaving the Empire, we only have each other. We are a family, brothers and sisters, there's no need for this."

He walked to Melo's side and sat down, sitting on the floor instead of the sofa.

He sat cross-legged, squeezing in with the others, showing no inclination to sit in a chair and look down on them just because he had rented the house and solved everyone's survival problems.

They had clearly left a chair for him, but he didn't take it.

Sometimes, moving someone is actually a very simple thing, and this kind of emotion will accompany them throughout their lives, even until death, they will not forget it.

"What are you guys discussing?" He glanced at Ethan sitting by the door. "There are two packs of cigarettes, a few bottles of wine, and some food in my car. Help me bring them over."

Ethan couldn't stop smiling after hearing this, revealing his big yellow teeth.

For dinner that night, they had ordinary vegetable leaves mixed with multigrain rice, soybeans, kidney beans, chickpeas, red beans, all kinds of beans, and some wheat kernels. These things were actually high-energy feed sold for horses.

But in reality, there was nothing wrong with people eating them, and the price wasn't too high. Many poor people would eat this kind of thing to fill their stomachs.

If people and cattle and horses were only the same in terms of physical labor, then now that people were also eating feed that cattle and horses would eat, there was actually no difference between them.

Lance asked a question. When he learned that everyone was eating vegetable leaves mixed with beans for dinner, he couldn't help but frown. "Didn't I tell you to let everyone eat better?"

He was asking Melo. Melo was older than the others and a bit more stable. There was absolutely no problem with him being responsible for everyone's living arrangements.

Melo was a little embarrassed. "If we eat bread or something else, we can eat a lot of it. We don't have jobs now, so we don't need to eat so well."

It was a very simple reason. Lance patted him on the shoulder. He knew that Melo wanted to save money. There were more than twenty young people, eighteen or nineteen years old, around twenty years old.

If they were allowed to eat as much as they wanted, a single meal could consume forty or fifty pounds of food, or even more!

Even if they were only eating ordinary food, a single meal could cost two or three dollars, three or five dollars, and a day would be seven or eight dollars, or even ten dollars!

Who the hell could withstand that kind of consumption?

A monthly food bill of three hundred dollars was unimaginably high, and most importantly, they had no income now and could only sit and eat their savings.

All relying on Lance… Although it was possible, Melo didn't think this method was advisable, so he bought the cheapest beans to mix in, a few cents a pound, and they were very filling.

Even Ethan couldn't eat any more after eating less than two pounds of vegetable leaves mixed with beans.

"Don't worry about work. I saw the news when I came back. It will be restored soon."

Lance didn't say too much. In fact, he thought this was a very likely scenario, because for the President, he only needed to positively "respond" to the provocation from the Imperial Emperor, use "preventing attacks from the Imperial Army" as a reason to put the country in a state of war, and invoke presidential privileges, and he would definitely be re-elected!

In other words, as long as he wasn't afraid of the aftereffects of doing so, his re-election was a certainty.

Therefore, the fundamental issue of this political game was not whether the President could be re-elected, but how much benefit he could offer in order to be re-elected.

The riots in Goldport City were essentially a "spot" in the political struggle between the two sides. The economic engine had stalled, and soon the power of capital would take action.

Under the coordination of the power of capital, the political forces reached a compromise. The President received the promise of being re-elected, and the conflict ended.

But for the people at the bottom, they couldn't see these things. They only saw the President say that the Federation would become greater, and then inexplicably began to get excited and cheer. That was all.

They didn't know why their lives had become such a mess, didn't know why a good life never favored them.

Ethan came in carrying a large package of food. Everyone sat down in a circle, with cigarettes, wine, and food placed within their reach.

Lance bought a lot of fried chicken. This stuff was much cheaper than beef and mutton. Since the large-scale mechanized livestock farming began to develop, the price of chicken and duck had been changing every day.

Three fried chickens for a dollar, fragrant and delicious, who could refuse that?

Adding some other food, high in sugar and high in oil, the feeling of happiness was instantly maxed out!

As they smoked, drank, and imagined the future, everything was so wonderful!

While enjoying the food and chatting, Melo asked a question, "After this… movement is over, will we still go back to work at the docks?"

The others also looked at Lance. Now, in this small group, he was the "head of the family."

"How much money can you earn working?" he asked.

The others didn't say anything. After eating, drinking, and being exploited by capitalists, the most they could save in a month was three or five dollars, which was the limit.

Everyone actually knew that working was not the way out, but they just didn't know what else they could do besides working.

Lance picked up a cigarette, and Melo immediately lit it for him with a match. With a crackling sound, the smoke rising from the friction of the match and the rapidly expanding flame added a hint of gunpowder to the room.

Some people like the smell of gunpowder.

Lance drank a little wine, and his cheeks were a little flushed. "I used to work at Johnny's bakery. Even if he didn't deduct my wages, I would only have fifteen dollars a month."

"But the gangs and the police have to take at least tens of dollars from him every month."

"There are dozens of shops on that street. Even if the other shops don't get that much money, twenty or thirty, or even just ten dollars, that's still a lot of money."

"Of course, I'm just giving an example, not telling you that I plan to do this. In fact, this is a dirty job."

"You don't earn much, and you're annoying. Once something unpleasant happens, the first people to be abandoned are the people and organizations responsible for collecting the money."

"What I want to say is that there are many ways to make money, and there are many ways to make big money. Don't always stare at the small amount of money you get from working."

"Look at these giant corporations in the Federation, look at those political families, how many of them made it by working?"

Melo was a little confused, and so were the others. "Then what should we do?"

"Start a company."

"Start a company?" Melo scratched his head. "I remember that you need to have a permanent residency card or citizenship to register a company. Are you going to find someone to help you register it?"

Lance shook his head. "My identity will be updated soon. I'll open it myself then."

"And you, you are all my employees. I've even decided what to do, and I can guarantee that as long as you follow me well, I guarantee that each of you will be able to afford a house and a car…"

"Before that, I need you to be mentally prepared."

"Earning more money means taking on greater risks, mentally and physically. Be prepared for both."

"And then, together with me, we'll meet the storm of the era!"