Empire of Shadows

“Huff… … ”

This book is first published on the entire network by 𝕥 𝕨 𝕜 𝕒 𝕟 . 𝕔 𝕠 𝕞

“Huff… … ”

Eugene almost instinctively used both hands to protect the sides of his head, the whole world seemed to be spinning with his breathing!

He felt like he was about to die.

Each of Ethan's punches felt like a car crashing directly into his face!

After only a few punches, he realized that he wouldn't live through tonight.

Fresh blood kept flowing from the wounds on his face, and all he could hear was his wife's suppressed crying and his son's pleading voice.

He glanced slightly towards his wife and children, and vaguely heard a "buzzing" sound in his ears. The next second, a huge force erupted from the base of his ear, and he was sent flying!

The whole world was dim, gloomy, and the swaying lights stretched the shadows of the people on the ground very long, like demons in hell, constantly swaying, twisting, and approaching him.

He gasped heavily, supporting his body with both hands, trying to get up, but this punch was too heavy. His balance system was at least temporarily disrupted, and he couldn't get up at all.

Lance stood not far from him, looking at him with no other expression on his face, no pity, no sympathy, only indifference.

He held a cigarette in his hand and smoked it casually.

This kind of person is not worth sympathy.

If Ethan's physical fitness wasn't so good, his career might have been affected.

Since you decide to do something out of line, don't refuse to be treated out of line.

“Come on, get up!” Ethan stood behind him.

Eugene lay on the ground and looked at Lance and the others for a while, then looked at his son and wife. He勉强supported himself and stood up.

As soon as he stood up, he suddenly tilted to one side, staggering several steps before regaining his balance.

He slowly and unsteadily moved to Ethan, raised his arm and punched him in the face with a fist that had almost no strength.

The blood belonging to him on his fist adhered to Ethan's face, as if he had injured the other party.

He gave Ethan two more punches, like a child playing with an adult.

He even tried to move a little, adding some steps.

Lance frowned slightly, "Give him a decent ending."

When Eugene, whose consciousness was already a little blurred, heard this sentence, his whole body seemed to relax. He looked back at his wife and children again, as if trying to firmly remember their appearance in his heart.

“I'm sorry… …” He moved his lips, but didn't have a chance to say it.

Ethan's uppercut hit him in the abdomen, and he felt like his whole body was "clenched" up, as if a large tendon was suddenly stirred, messed up, and he subconsciously wanted to curl up.

Immediately afterwards, Ethan grabbed his hair and lifted him up. Through the gap that his swollen face squeezed into a slit, he looked at Ethan with his already dim gaze, watching Ethan "pull back" his fist.

Maybe it was just a moment of恍神, an iron-like fist hit his cheek… …

He could feel the bones on his face groaning and shattering.

A stream of heat spurted out of his nostrils, but… … it wasn't blood, it was pink, slightly transparent.

What is this?

He thought, his thinking gradually solidified, as if it was frozen, and finally fell into darkness.

He died.

Ethan didn't throw him away like a rag, but put him on the ground.

At least, in an absolutely desperate environment, he dared to attack Ethan, at least letting people know that he was not a coward.

Lance scratched his eyebrows. He glanced at Eugene's son, whose dodging eyes hid a hint of hatred.

He sighed softly, took a puff of cigarette, swiped his cheek with the thumb of the hand holding the cigarette, and turned to walk outside.

Eugene's son and wife looked at these people in horror and unease. Hiram stood out from the crowd. He held his right wrist with his left hand, and in his right hand he held a pistol.

“The Lord will forgive me!”

Bang, bang bang!

The next morning, Eugene's body was thrown in front of the Golden Port Casino by a car. The news was immediately reported to the two generations of leaders of the Coda family.

Bandi looked at Eugene's body lying in the middle of the warehouse, his face was unusually ugly, but Gori became calm.

“I said long ago that your tricks for dealing with other people are useless to them.” Gori's calmness was because he had already "seen" the result.

Bandi's methods are very useful for other families in Golden Port City, including those small gangs and small families.

They have been in Golden Port City for too long, so long that their interests and the interests of Golden Port City have become highly unified.

This is like… … a parasite. It is very weak at the beginning and will not be too picky about the big tree it wants to parasitize, because it has very few needs.

Big trees, small trees, crooked neck trees, and even those矮shrubs can become its parasitic objects. It can completely obtain nutrients for growth from these plants.

But as it continues to grow, grow stronger, and reproduce, its volume and number become more and more. Small plants can no longer support it, and it can only look for big trees.

At this time, it will be more afraid of the death of the big tree than other plants, because the death of the big tree means that it cannot obtain nutrients, which means that it will enter decline, and even die with the big tree.

Gangs are also like this. At the beginning, they may be able to survive by extorting some shops.

But as their territory continues to grow and the number of people continues to increase, their expenses become larger and larger, and they also hope more than others to seize benefits from this city.

The interests of this city are basically limited. Ninety percent of the wealth has already determined their ownership before they were even born.

No one wants accidents to happen, because accidents represent risks.

In the past, Bandi used some of his influence in various aspects, as well as the "unity" of the five major families, to always manage this city well.

But it's not possible now, because an "outsider" has joined the game, and he doesn't follow Bandi's ideas.

He doesn't care about order, doesn't care whether everyone can continue to make money stably, he only wants his own!

A troublemaker!

Bandi glanced at Gori, "What do you want to do?"

Gori shook his neck, "We are gangsters, of course we solve it in a gangster way."

What other way can gangsters use, it's nothing more than fighting, fighting, and death.

Bandi couldn't help but露出a wry smile, "We spent more than twenty years trying to whitewash… …"

“But now it may make our efforts ruined.”

Whitewashing has always been Bandi's most desired thing. He doesn't want the Coda family to always be the "Coda brand easy-to-use tools" in the eyes of those upper-class gentlemen.

He not only wants to get down from the table, but also wants to squeeze to the edge of the table, as a diner, to find a position that belongs to him.

Eating others is always better than being eaten by others, there is no doubt about it.

Gori didn't immediately refute him, but asked, "This time we can still back down and let everyone discover that we are not as powerful as they imagined."

“Then those small gangs will also start trying to挑衅us, they open casinos and抢our business, what should we do?”

“Call the police?”

“Use the law to deal with them?”

“Come on, Bandi, we are gangsters, not law-abiding citizens!”

“I don't object to you whitewashing, but you can't forget how we survived in order to whitewash.”

He looked at Fleming, "Your father may have some misunderstanding about your situation outside, why don't you tell him?"

Fleming didn't expect the flames to spread to himself. He scratched his head, "Ah… … um, I don't know how to say this thing."

“They will be a little afraid of me because of our gangster identity. In fact, I don't have too many good upper-class friends except for the five major families.”

Bandi actually knew this situation, but he was just unwilling to face it.

Gori's hand tapped on the table twice, "Gangsters have been integrated into our blood, even if you wash it so clean that you can't see a trace of black."

“As long as they decide to put us on the table, then we are black!”

“You make the decision, but I hope you can consider clearly before making the decision, what will we get, what will we lose, and what will we face!”

Eugene's death and his body being thrown outside the Golden Port Casino caused a huge commotion in the entire Golden Port City!

In the past two years, Golden Port City has been particularly… … terrible, internal and external wars, the division war of the five major families, all kinds of terrible things have been staged in turn, and now it is the turn of the battle between the new forces and the old forces.

Someone immediately spread some details and reasons for this incident, as well as the two sides of the conflict.

There is no doubt that under the seemingly calm surface of Golden Port City, it is not as calm as it appears on the surface.

Some people are looking forward to their fighting, looking forward to obtaining benefits from it. Order is always rebuilt after complete destruction, no exception!

After Councilor Williams learned of this news, he called Lance and asked him to meet.

Not long after, Lance appeared in Councilor Williams' study. In addition to him, there were also James and Arthur.

“Sit down, what would you like to drink?” Councilor Williams stood at the door of the study to greet him. Before that, Arthur greeted him from the outermost part, then met James in the living room, and then walked up together.

Being able to stand at the door of the study to greet Lance was the greatest respect Councilor Williams could offer at the moment!

After all, you couldn't have someone who was about to become mayor run outside to greet a mob boss when the weather wasn't even warm.

Lance sat in the chair across from Councilor Williams' desk. "Tea, no sugar."

Federal people like to add sugar to their tea, some like to add milk, and some like to add juice, but they don't like pure tea.

Soon the butler brought a pot of brewed black tea, which contained some flower petals in addition to the black tea. This was probably the biggest compromise they could make.

I heard about what happened these past two days, and I don't intend to blame you for anything, Lance.

I just think... weren't you a little impulsive in doing this?

This isn't quite like the Lance I know."

His smiling appearance didn't reveal his true thoughts at all. Lance picked up the teacup by the handle and took a small sip.

The rich aroma of black tea also had some floral fragrance, which made the taste complex but not unpleasant.

"Some things, if you want to do them, just do them," he said, putting down the teacup. "And I don't think I was too impulsive in doing this."

"New Gold City is waiting for us to send a large amount of benefits over there. Senator Cleveland needs money right now."

"I can't rely on the money from selling alcohol to support his activities in Congress."

Councilor Williams nodded. "That's true."

Socializing costs money, and political socializing costs even more money!

Everyone has a price, from the homeless on the street to the president in the presidential palace. They all have prices and values.

If you invite a city councilor to an event and give him a standard room for three dollars, he will be very satisfied and think you are a sensible person.

But if you invite a senator and also let him stay in a standard room, then he will think that there is something wrong with you.

In Gold Harbor City, before Mr. Chobaf died, the mayor had to spend tens of thousands of dollars for every formal social event.

In a super city like New Gold City, facing top tycoons and politicians, a social event might cost hundreds of thousands, or even more.

Senator Cleveland wants to continue to expand his influence in Congress, so he needs to win over more people to support him.

Political interests, capital interests, and money.

He needs these.

Of course, it's not just Lance who is sending him benefits. There are many other people who are sending him benefits. This kind of thing is only considered too little, not too much.

Councilor Williams did not refute. His election as mayor was almost a foregone conclusion.

He and James calculated that he would probably have to take out at least 1.2 million in funds to satisfy every ravenous mouth.

However, he could understand Lance's idea, but he didn't understand why he had to declare war on such a huge group so quickly.

"I still don't quite understand. We can break it down and do it step by step."

"Charlie and Hunter, those clowns, the people in the Bay Area, and then the Kodak family, wouldn't that be a little easier?"

Councilor Williams originally had some small thoughts in his mind, but now, seeing Lance saying these things so calmly and composedly, he was worried that things didn't seem likely to happen anymore.

Lance said with a smile, "Because it's too late."

Councilor Williams raised his eyebrows. This action made his eye sockets become much larger. He leaned back in his chair, and the sunlight shone through the glass windows, falling on him.

He raised his hand, turned his wrist outward, "Can you talk about it?"

James had completely focused his attention. He felt that this was a very important lesson.

Arthur seemed a little bored. His mother had urged him to come, otherwise he would have preferred to hang out with Corinda.

That girl was completely different from the ones he had seen before, full of wildness and a captivating danger.

Incredibly, Corinda actually used a gun barrel... to poke his butt, but it must be said that there were more experiences in sex that made him feel great!

It was exciting, this kind of excitement that those "weak" girls didn't have.

He was thinking about the happiness of the past few nights when James nudged him with his elbow, "Did you bring a lighter?"

Of course, he did, and then he saw that Lance had already taken out a cigarette from the cigarette case, clipped it between two fingers, and put it to his mouth.

Arthur immediately walked to Lance's side, took out the lighter, and lit his cigarette.

"Thank you!" Lance said.

Arthur quickly smiled and politely said, "It's okay."

He trotted back to James' side and sat down.

"Several reasons."

"The first reason is that the garrison is coming."

"Once the navy comes, they will definitely be more reluctant than us to see changes in the city's structure."

"They don't care about small things, but they will definitely not allow changes involving the city's overall structure."

"At that time, everything will be fixed. Do you understand what I mean?"

Councilor Williams was a little surprised, but he kept nodding. He certainly understood, but he didn't expect Lance to be able to think so deeply.

He hadn't even considered these issues much, but he was sure that Lance's view was correct.

The purpose of the naval garrison is to ensure the smooth progress of the federal maritime trade, as well as the stability and security of Gold Harbor City, an important port city.

Now the Federation imports a lot of materials from overseas every year. If Gold Harbor City is damaged or unstable, it is likely to affect the development of the Federation.

They will definitely not agree to large-scale infighting breaking out in the city. No one knows whether this is just infighting or an invasion by enemy forces.

"The second reason is that the mayor is about to leave. He is more convenient than you to bear some things, such as certain responsibilities."

Councilor Williams frowned.

Lance picked up the teacup and took a sip while looking at James and Arthur sitting on the side. Councilor Williams immediately said, "Stay for dinner tonight."

He said, looking at James, "Go and tell the kitchen that the dishes we had last time were very delicious. Go and keep an eye on them."

Then he looked at Arthur, "Let your mother attend tonight too. Tell her not to run around."

James knew that they had something to say separately, so he stood up.

Although he was a little unwilling, he knew that when the time came for him to know, Councilor Williams would definitely tell him.

Arthur was much simpler. He didn't want to be here anymore.

He knew his mother's good intentions, to let him get in touch with a little bit of family affairs, so that he would not be completely controlled by James in the future.

But now he was coming into contact with these high-end situations, just like someone who had never gone to elementary school directly sitting in a university classroom. He couldn't understand a thing!

What hints, what metaphors, he didn't understand at all, so naturally he wouldn't mind being sent away.

After the two of them left and closed the door tightly from the outside, Lance put his hands on the armrests of the chair and said with a half-smile, "After I bought Red High Heels, I found two ledgers under their floor."

"It detailed a certain day, month, and year when a big shot from the Bay Area called for Eagle Claws from them."

"Whether these prostitutes were beaten, whether anyone didn't come back, there are also some girls' photos, as well as their handwritten checks, with signatures, and even fingerprints."

Councilor Williams gasped. He stared at Lance for a long time, slowly spitting out two words—

"F*ck!"