Empire of Shadows

Jonny woke up a little after four in the morning.

It wasn't because he could maintain good sleep after being beaten up; it was purely because the pain woke him up.

He had just finished surgery, and after the anesthesia wore off, the intense pain of the fracture, which could not be ignored, began to attack him.

He woke up from his sleep with a scream, and his daughter came over immediately, comforting him by his side, "It's all over, you're safe now!"

Jonny's consciousness gradually began to gather, and he endured the severe pain to look at his daughter, sweat appearing visibly on his pale face, "I'm in so much pain, get a doctor, I need them!"

His plump daughter didn't refuse and quickly called the doctor, who simply did a brief examination, "The surgery was very successful, pain is certain, you have more than a dozen bones fractured or cracked, this pain is inevitable."

Jonny couldn't bear it anymore, he groaned in pain while pleading, "Is there any painkiller, I can't take it, I feel like I'm going to die!"

The doctor nodded, "Yes, very effective, but painkillers are not covered by medical insurance."

His meaning was clear: if you want pain relief, you have to pay.

Jonny, who was about to blurt it out, stopped the urge to get a shot immediately, gritted his teeth and asked, "How much does it cost per dose?"

The doctor smiled, "There are two specifications, one lasts longer, but the pain relief effect is not very good, for severe pain..."

He showed a kind smile, "For fracture patients like you, the effect is only to take you from 'screaming out' to being able to 'endure with your mouth closed'."

"This painkiller is not too expensive, only fifty cents."

"There is also a special medicine that can make you feel no pain at all, but it is expensive and the effect lasts for a short time, only four to six hours."

"Each injection costs three dollars."

"I don't really agree with you using painkillers. The peak of fracture pain is actually only these forty-eight hours. After two days, you will feel the pain significantly reduced to a tolerable level."

Jonny couldn't listen to so much anymore, "Give me the best, quick, I can't take it anymore!"

The doctor didn't refuse, promoting non-medical insurance special medicines was also one of his jobs, he asked the nurse to bring the medicine and gave Jonny a shot in front of them.

A magical thing happened, about two minutes later, Jonny, who had been alternating between screams and groans, suddenly quieted down.

"I seem... to not be in pain anymore!"

The doctor also smiled, "This is the value of three dollars, Mr. Jonny.", he paused and said, "Call me anytime if you need anything, I'll be here before nine in the morning."

After the doctor left, Jonny looked at his plump daughter, "Where's the apprentice?"

"He was taken away by the police."

"What did the police say?"

His plump daughter was a little embarrassed, "I don't know..."

While they were talking, a police officer stood at the door and knocked. After seeing that Jonny was awake and receiving his permission, he entered the ward.

"Mr. Jonny, the case has been clarified. The apprentice in your shop colluded with some people he knew to create this case. I'm just here to tell you."

"We will arrest the suspects after dawn tomorrow. This case is not too complicated, so we will withdraw the police officers. Tomorrow you can have your family go to the headquarters, they will tell you the details of the case."

"You'd better hire a lawyer."

Jonny asked, "Are you sure my apprentice was involved?"

The police officer nodded, "Unfortunately, that's indeed the case."

Jonny was a little lost, stunned for a while before reacting, "Thank you for notifying me so late."

His plump daughter thought Jonny would burst into abuse, but to her surprise, Jonny didn't curse, just lay there quietly.

She didn't know what to say, so she could only sit by the bed.

In a daze, dawn broke...

Lance stretched lazily, still feeling more comfortable sleeping on a plank bed.

After a simple wash, his companions were almost all up. Yesterday, everyone talked a lot, including his plan.

For this era, cash flow is a very important thing, or rather, it is so in any era, but how to quickly accumulate wealth has been a problem that many people can't solve in their entire lives.

But this problem is actually very easy to solve for Lance.

If you have little money, you have ways to make little money; if you have a lot of money, you have ways to make a lot of money. Alberto's financial company is doing so well, coupled with the federal government's current indulgence of small private financial contracts, made him decide to get his first pot of gold from here first.

But he won't be as stupid as Alberto or others. The federal government's attitude cannot remain unchanged. Social order and stability are what every ruling group is pursuing.

It is possible that the emergence of financial companies in this stage has a certain effect on comforting the lower and middle classes, but it is ultimately not a good industry, and the interest rates are too high.

This is actually an opportunity. When everyone is still thinking about how one hundred dollars can turn into several hundred dollars in a year, as long as you slightly lower your expectations, you can harvest a lot of wealth.

In the morning, he took Elvin to look for a suitable place in the city, not too remote, and not too close to the city center.

If it's too remote, people can't see it, and if the location is too good, he can't afford the expensive rent. In the end, he chose a street that was not very prosperous between the port area and the bay area, and selected a house.

A two-story roadside house, previously an electrical appliance store, cleared out and left due to poor management. The upper and lower floors together are about three hundred square meters, and the monthly rent is eighteen dollars.

This rent is not only not very expensive, but can even be said to be a bit cheap.

For people of this era, this is a golden age full of opportunities, even the rent is so cheap!

Afterwards, he asked Elvin to go back and find some companions, and together they went to the old goods market to buy some furniture, and soon a consulting company was born.

The companions all stood in the hall on the first floor, and Lance looked at these people and began to explain their next job.

"We only do one thing for now, financial consulting."

"To put it simply, if someone urgently needs money but doesn't have it on hand, our job is to solve their troubles."

"I divide this job into two parts. The first part, requests below one hundred dollars, we will do ourselves."

"The second part, over one hundred dollars, several hundred dollars, several thousand dollars, I will be responsible for these."

"So in fact, you are only responsible for loans less than one hundred dollars."

Elvin raised his hand, and Lance looked at him, "Do we have that much money?"

Lance pointed at him, "That's a good question, but that's not what you need to worry about, I can solve it, and I also need to tell you how to do this."

"Of all the profits, I take fifty percent, you get twenty percent, and the remaining thirty percent is placed in a shared account."

"In addition to this, I will give you twenty dollars each month, thirty dollars to the two girls, responsible for answering the phone at the front desk, etc., and every quarter I will pay an extra half month's salary as a bonus, any questions?"

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.

This income was already higher than their past income, and Lance said last night that the company would take care of their meals.

If they were thrifty, they could save at least ten to fifteen dollars a month without commission, which was already a large income, and no one would be dissatisfied.

Lance nodded in satisfaction, "Then next, I will tell you how to create wealth, create value, we are different from those traditional financial companies, we must give full play to our subjective initiative, actively explore the market, instead of waiting for some people to walk into the company like they are trying their luck..."

In the afternoon, he drove to Alberto's. As soon as he entered, someone greeted him. Although he hadn't "worked" here for long, everyone liked him very much.

Fordis was playing pool with someone and put down his cue to come over and give him a hug, "Trouble?"

"No, I'm here to talk business with Mr. Corti."

Fordis's eyes lit up, "So your company has already started operating?"

"Almost, I'm waiting for the registration call from the Commercial Services Bureau."

The two walked inside, and Fordis asked, "Can you tell me what it does?"

"Small loans, and helping you attract large deals."

Fordis whistled, "That's indeed a good job, but the competition will be beyond your expectations."

"First of all, you have to have money, and secondly, you have to have this.", he gestured like a pistol, "Golden Port City, or rather, the entire Federation's peers are not law-abiding good citizens!"

Lance understood this very well, "You have to introduce me to a seller."

"I'll take care of it!"

Fordis knocked on the door, and Alberto's voice came from inside, "Come in."

"He's been in a bad mood these past two days, I won't go in, we'll talk later when you come out.", he poked his head inside and said, "Boss, Lance is here."

Alberto was stunned, then gestured for him to open the door, "Then why not let him in?"

Fordis stepped aside from the doorway, then turned and left.

Although he had a very good relationship with both Lance and Alberto, it didn't mean he should stay here.

As soon as he saw Lance, Alberto said without waiting for him to greet him, "I've encountered a problem these past two days, maybe you can help me..."