Empire of Shadows

As he spoke, the President glanced towards the restroom, but he didn't see the Vice President.

If he was just taking a leak, he should be back by now.

Could he be taking a dump?

At this thought, a hint of displeasure, or perhaps discomfort, flickered in his eyes.

He didn't like people pooping in his house; the stench would permeate the bathroom, and they'd be sitting on his toilet, dropping their turds into his toilet.

He didn't like that, but it wasn't easy to say. Every time guests came over and used his toilet, he would give the cleaner a few extra bucks to spray more disinfectant and clean it more thoroughly.

He wasn't really a clean freak; he simply disliked anyone interfering with his life.

The apartment was small, but it formed an environment that felt safe and secure to him. He didn't want it tainted by the scent of others.

His gaze returned from the distance and landed on Lance, awaiting his answer.

This was what he was most curious about. He also understood the machinations of these people. Frankly, it was a very standardized financial maneuver.

Once a company loses all its liquid cash, it's like a lamb lying on the chopping block, ripe for the slaughter.

Anyone can find a creditor to sue for debt repayment. If the company has no money, the court will force it to close down or auction off its assets to pay off the debt.

What gets auctioned off isn't necessarily up to the company; the court might decide.

Who participates in the auction, and how much things sell for, is determined by the gentlemen standing at the chopping block and sitting at the dining table.

If something is worth ten million, and they say it's only worth fifty thousand, then it's only worth fifty thousand!

The bloody, cruel plunder of capital has always been blatant. In the plunder of capital, there is no such thing as 'decency'.

Neither for the predators nor the prey.

However, the current situation wasn't too bad for the President. As long as the company's stock price continued to rise, they couldn't possibly lose this 'game'!

So, he was very curious. Their ultimate 'sniper' attack should have failed. Why did this young man in front of him seem so… unperturbed?

He didn't understand.

Once they passed January 15th, with the company's subsequent efforts, the stock price would continue to rise and recover. Their conspiracy would be impossible to achieve, and they might even lose a fortune!

You should know that, even now, they were still shorting the company's stock!

So, with a hint of inquiry and anticipation, he looked at Lance, hoping he could give him an answer.

Lance swirled the wine in his glass slowly. "That's indeed a good question. Solving it isn't actually difficult; you just need to prevent the stock price from rising."

"For example…"

The President repeated his words, "For example?"

Lance raised his glass and clinked it against the President's. "The President of Liji Group committing suicide?"

In an instant, the President felt as if he had been electrocuted; his entire body went numb!

Then, a chill crept up from his toes and quickly spread throughout his entire body!

He stood up abruptly, the chair legs making a harsh scraping sound on the floor, leaving marks.

He hated it when people did that and disliked those sounds, but now, he couldn't care less!

He looked at Lance, his eyes filled with fear and unease. Lance swallowed the wine in his mouth and placed the glass back on the table.

At this moment, the sound of a door opening came from the room. The Vice President stood outside the bathroom and opened the door to the room.

Several people wearing "renovation company" uniforms and baseball caps walked in.

"Who are you?!" His voice had changed. The Vice President took one last look at his partner of many years, sighed, left the apartment, and closed the door.

Lance picked up the spoon and tongs and put some more pan-fried beef cubes on his plate, then poured some sauce from the sauce boat next to him onto the beef cubes.

He added a small amount of cream to the sauce, which made the beef cubes, coated in sauce, taste even better and the milky flavor even richer!

It had to be said that the President's pan-fried beef cubes were indeed delicious, and this was definitely not flattery.

Besides the excellent ingredients, like that good quality beef that cost dozens of dollars a pound, the seasoning he used was also very good, and the frying was just right.

It tasted delicious, and the side dishes made the aroma of beef and butter fat linger between the lips and teeth.

Only the President's panicked breathing and the sound of Lance's knife and fork scraping against the plate by accident remained in the room.

He had tried his best to avoid it, but sometimes… you know, you can't always accurately avoid this kind of awkward situation!

The four young men walked past Lance towards the panicked President, who shouted for help, trying to attract the attention of the surrounding neighbors.

But he forgot that this was a high-end apartment, and soundproof materials were used in the construction and decoration.

Even if the speakers next door were playing music loud enough to kill someone, you wouldn't hear anything through the wall!

For the first time, the President hated that his room had such good soundproofing. He seemed to have forgotten that he had once praised the soundproofing measures here as strongly as he did now.

He froze for a moment, then rushed to the window. If he stuck his head out and shouted, maybe someone would hear him!

In the city, a homeless man looked up at the outer wall of the apartment building. He seemed to have heard something, but it was fleeting.

In the end, he dismissed the sound as a hallucination. Who the hell would be yelling at night?

His attention was quickly drawn to a cigarette butt discarded by a passerby on the side of the road. He picked it up without worrying about whether it was dirty and started smoking it.

Hiram grabbed the President's hair, pulled his head back from outside, and closed the window.

"F*ck, let me go!" the President struggled with all his might, but he was met with fists!

"Pain education" is the most direct and effective way for humans to learn the rules, whether it's a child, an adult, an elderly person, or even a dog!

In the face of pain, they can quickly master what those in control of the situation need them to learn.

He was brought to the dining table, and with a bang, his head was slammed hard onto the table.

The vibration of the table caused a beef cube to escape Lance's knife and fork and roll onto the table.

Lance glanced at Hiram, somewhat dissatisfied. "I haven't finished eating yet, brother!"

Hiram was stunned for a moment, then smiled. "I'll treat you later when we go out."

Lance sighed. "There's a lot of food outside, but the President's personally made beef cubes, this is the last meal."

He picked up a napkin, wiped his mouth, then wrapped up the escaped beef cube and casually placed it at hand.

He looked at the President, whose head was pressed against the table and could only look at him sideways, and said with a smile, "Now you know why the stock price will continue to plummet?"

Lance lit a cigarette. Although he hadn't drunk much wine just now, he was still a little tipsy.

The smoke exhaled from his mouth made his vision a little blurry. The President, who struggled a few times but couldn't break free, looked at him, his face full of panic, not the mockery from before.

"I… I can withdraw!"

"I can transfer all my shares to you for free!"

"I can disappear immediately, I'll go abroad, go anywhere, I promise I won't appear in the Federation again!"

Lance shook his head. "That's not what we want."

The others had already begun to clean up the traces in the room. After Lance and the others arrived, they sat in the living room for a while, and then came to the dining room without going anywhere else.

Including the Vice President, he had actually been standing in the bathroom all along, not sitting on the toilet.

They carefully cleaned up all the traces left behind, including the dishes they had used.

Lance pointed to the dishes on the table. "There's too much here. It doesn't look like a portion for one person. Take some away."

A young man took the President's fork and knife and rearranged the four dishes on the table, making them look suitable for one person to eat.

They took a considerable portion of the dishes in a bag and wiped all the places that might have fingerprints with deerskin.

The President kept begging, and promised Lance countless amounts of money, but none of it could make Lance let him go.

"You must be curious about my name."

He looked at the President, who was panting heavily, and said with a smile, "I'm a small figure, from King's Port City, called 'Lance White'."

"The one you hired an assassin for, but the assassin wasn't so professional and couldn't kill me, 'Lance White'."

He curled his lips. "So… good night, President!"

Lance wiggled his fingers twice, then walked outside, leaving behind the President's cries for help!

As the window was opened, he shouted frantically, and the screams quickly faded away.

Sitting in the car, the Vice President was a little uneasy. His gaze wandered around, constantly looking at everything around him. He knew what had happened upstairs, and he knew what he would see next.

He thought he was mentally prepared, but at this moment, he still felt a burst of palpitations!

The sudden "bang bang" sound made him shiver. He turned his head sharply and saw a homeless man with a flattering expression standing on the sidewalk next to the car.

"Spare some change, sir, just five cents. I haven't eaten in two days."

The Vice President was very dissatisfied. He had been startled. His expression towards the homeless man was also not very friendly. "Get out of my sight!"

The strange smell from the tramp wafted in, but he didn't leave. Still holding his tattered, hole-ridden fisherman's hat, he hunched over and said, "Have a heart, kind sir. God will bless you..."

Perhaps out of some impulse, the Vice President remained silent for a moment before taking out a five-dollar bill from his pocket and handing it over.

Just as the tramp's eyes widened, about to say something, a sudden "thump" echoed, and both of them felt the ground shake.

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Not far from them, a person was lying on the ground!

It was as if... he had been there from the very beginning. No one knew how he had appeared.

Blood splattered everywhere. The tramp froze for a moment, then rushed towards the 'person,' with other tramps nearby also charging over.

As they turned the body over, the Vice President saw the shattered, twisted face.

The tramps found a wallet in the corpse's pocket and quickly began fighting over its ownership.

Sitting blankly in the car, the Vice President spaced out for a while, soon seeing Lance emerge from the building, along with those people around him.

They left in different vehicles, and Lance got into the Vice President's car.

"You can have your friends come over; they'll definitely love this news."

The Vice President knew many media reporters; handling the company's public relations with the media was also one of his jobs.

He drove the car to a slightly more remote location, then, using a handkerchief to cover the receiver, began dialing a phone number.

Soon, the reporters arrived before the police, swarming around the body and frantically taking pictures.

A dozen or so minutes later, police cars arrived with sirens blaring, dispersing the onlookers.

"Should we disperse these reporters?" the officer in charge of maintaining order at the scene asked as the police chief got out of the car.

The police chief shook his head. "Get their phone numbers. We might have a use for them."

Sometimes, reporters would record clues that existed before the police arrived but were destroyed afterward, like photos.

He would contact these reporters when he thought it necessary.

The apartment manager had already come out, his legs trembling!

Someone jumping from the apartment building, regardless of the reason, meant his job might be over!

"Do you know who this is?" the police chief offered the manager a cigarette.

The manager hadn't initially thought of smoking, but after glancing at the shattered face, he couldn't help but feel nauseous.

Fortunately, the police chief lit the cigarette for him in time, making him feel slightly better.

"This... ugh, this seems to be... Mr. ."

The police chief had heard this name before, because not long ago, another gentleman with a similar reputation to this name had died in an ice cave due to an accident.

He frowned. He realized that this case was not simple at all—

Of course, it wasn't simple. In less than three weeks, two absolutely core figures of a listed company had died.

A chairman of the board and a CEO. No one would believe there wasn't any connection between them!

He quickly called the police chief who had been in charge of the chairman of the board's case before, then simply had people maintain order.

Before long, another police car arrived at the scene. After he explained the situation here, with a slightly gloating and fortunate expression, he drove away.

Leaving behind another police chief with a face as if he had eaten shit, standing there with his hands on his hips, looking at the scene in anger.

"F*ck, what are you all spacing out for? Work!"

He shouted, feeling a headache!

Early the next morning, all the newspapers in Jin Province reported this news—

"Liji Group CEO Falls to His Death"

They didn't say whether it was suicide, an accident, or murder.

The scene was cleaned up spotlessly; they couldn't find any trace of a second person!

Because they couldn't find any traces, they couldn't determine whether this was just an accident or a murder.

If it was an accident... that was obviously the best outcome at the moment; no one would be in trouble.

Whether it was the police chief in charge of the case, the police commissioner, or those executors hiding in the shadows, or those masterminds hiding behind the scenes.

They would not be in trouble, and everyone would not have any conflicts. Everything would be as peaceful and harmonious as every day in the past.

But if it was a murder case, then the already closed case of the chairman of the board falling into the water would have to be reinvestigated.

Along with his two big-shot friends, they would also be included in the list of investigations!

This was very troublesome.

But no matter how much the police chief had a headache, or how much the police commissioner had a headache, it couldn't change the fact that Liji Group's stock price plummeted again at the opening!

This time, the situation was even worse.

The successive incidents involving Liji Group's executives had already caused the people, who were already supporters of conspiracy theories, to boil over.

No one would have the thought that "They are encountering conspiracies and persecution, so we need to buy their stock to help them overcome the difficulties." Most people's thoughts were to stay far away from them as soon as possible!

Including those stock investors, a large amount of panic selling at the moment of opening caused the stock to plummet.

At the same time, the Supreme Court gave a verdict in the morning, upholding the first-instance verdict of the Jin Port City Court, with Aerial Garden Trading Company winning and the original verdict upheld.

Given that Liji Group had repeatedly interfered with judicial fairness, the court imposed a punitive fine of 45 million, plus liquidated damages compensation and late fees for the liquidated damages, totaling a little over 50 million.

Really just a little bit, only a few hundred thousand more.

But the destructiveness it brought was unimaginable!

Liji Group convened an emergency board meeting and shareholders' meeting, with everyone gathered together to discuss how to overcome this difficulty.

However, from their pessimistic expressions, it could be seen that everyone had no hope of getting through this safely!

Pop…

Not collapse, but pop. The champagne cork was pushed out by the increasing pressure, and the foamy liquid flowed out of the bottle, with smiles on everyone's faces in the room!

Lance stood in the corner, holding the goblet in his hand, with Tom standing beside him.

"In a few days, our friends will announce the gambling agreement to the outside world. The entire industry will face a high-level reshuffle."

Lance glanced at him. "They've already been beaten to death."

Tom nodded and said, "So that money will be converted into shares, and a considerable amount of shares, plus some other operations. In short, Liji Group is finished."

He paused for a moment, "Actually, it's not correct to say that. It will still exist; after all, it can bring huge profits."

"As long as there are still profits to be squeezed out, they won't allow it to fall."

This is the Federation, this is capital politics. When capital and politics are highly combined, they become the most terrifying things in this world.

The golden champagne shone with a sacred light in the colorful light refracted by the crystal chandelier, reflecting on every excited face!

"Cheers!"