Empire of Shadows

Arthur had been stifling for days.

He broke up with Corinda, a peaceful breakup, although James and his old man had warned him not to mess with that girl, but young people are always looking for something new.

He'd had many girlfriends.

Like his female classmates.

Sometimes he couldn't even tell who was enjoying the relationship during its existence; he always felt like those female classmates were "playing" him, rather than him leading the relationship.

Too enthusiastic!

At first, it might seem interesting, but soon the hypocrisy hidden behind that enthusiasm, as well as the desire for the family to rise in social status, made him bored.

Later, he became somewhat interested in the maid at home, but unfortunately, there was none of the unyielding spirit, resistance, and submission that he idealized; everything was ordinary.

Sometimes he felt like the maid was just going through the motions, rather than having an emotional collision with him.

Every time they did it, he felt that the maids were very perfunctory, their voices even carrying a hint of "When will you be done?" He couldn't stand it, so his relationship with the maids also ended quickly.

When he went to college, he met many more female classmates, some of whom weren't so sensitive to his status and didn't pay him much attention.

Not everyone can understand one thing—going to college doesn't mean you've successfully entered a stage of success, nor does it mean you've already obtained a ticket to the upper class.

Going to college, going to a good college, just allows you to see the door hidden in the sea of clouds from the vast sea of clouds, and a ladder that might allow you to reach it.

But many people don't think so; many young people haven't been beaten by society, so they think they are the main characters, and they will stand on the summit through their own efforts.

Those girls didn't give Arthur the time of day and even found him annoying, which made Arthur a simp for three or four months before he got bored.

Always not getting any meat, for a carnivore like him, he couldn't accept it.

Later, he met many people, college teachers, elites in society, secretaries, managers, married women, many, anyone.

But he had never messed with a "female gangster," so even though Mayor Williams and James told him that if he wanted to experience that kind of style, he'd better go find a woman from a small gang, rather than finding one around Lance.

Young people always have their own ideas; a different person might not be able to arouse his interest, and he didn't think there would be any aftereffects or trouble.

After all, at that moment, they were in love.

But when it really came to breaking up, he was still a little uneasy.

What if Corinda told Lance something? If Lance really broke his legs, his old man would probably just acquiesce.

While he was hesitating, Corinda took the initiative to break up, which made him breathe a heavy sigh of relief.

After knowing about this, he was grounded by Mayor Williams and locked in the manor.

At least until the subsequent changes that this matter might bring disappeared, before letting him out.

By the way, it would also be good to let him be a little more honest for a while.

Some time ago, Mayor Williams and Lance took the initiative to talk about this matter, and Lance didn't care that much.

Young people's feelings are hard to say; when he told Corinda that this was bound to be a fruitless relationship, but she still insisted on going on, Lance knew the result, so he wasn't surprised at all, and he didn't have any thoughts of beating Arthur to vent his anger.

I told you that you would fall, but you insisted on falling; what else can I do?

Mayor Williams waited a few days and found that Lance really didn't care about this matter, so he slightly relaxed his control over Arthur.

This period of time was even more so; whether it was Mayor Williams or James, they almost all went to the office early in the morning and came back very late.

Sometimes they didn't even come back at night and stayed directly in the office.

The atmosphere in the Williams family's manor was also a bit heavy; they all knew that this was a crucial moment, so everyone was doing their own thing, trying not to affect Mayor Williams and James as much as possible.

After Arthur secretly ran out twice, he was now much bolder.

This time, after staying at home for more than a week, he felt like he was covered in fleas; he was about to lose it!

Just then, the phone in his house suddenly rang abruptly; he almost rushed over to answer the phone, "It's me, Arthur!"

"Hey, Arthur, want to go out and have some fun tonight?"

"There's a newly opened club here, with some new girls…"

The voice in the receiver was his lackey, who had been following him since high school; after so many years, their relationship could be considered very close.

He was already restless, and now hearing someone say this, how could he stay here?

"Fuck, brother, fuck!"

"Tell me the address, now, immediately!"

"Go get a spot, tell them to give me the best girls and the best wine; I'm going to go on a killing spree tonight!"

After saying that, he slammed the phone down, returned to the room, changed into a set of clothes, put his wallet full of money and cash checks away, and then quickly left the villa.

The butler discovered that he had secretly run away and called Mayor Williams to communicate; the latter had many things to do and didn't have the energy to manage this little thing, and he wasn't nervous at the same time.

Everyone knew that he favored his youngest son; hurting Arthur was a very simple thing, but they couldn't bear the consequences of hurting Arthur.

So he believed that Arthur was safe, and there was a high probability that he was with his lackeys.

"Let the bodyguards follow him, don't let him mess around."

After saying these words, Mayor Williams hung up the phone; compared to others hurting Arthur, he was more worried about Arthur messing around and affecting his next game with the Bay Area.

The butler let a few bodyguards follow him, and then didn't pay attention to this matter anymore; after all… people always subconsciously ignore some low-probability events.

Arthur drove quickly to the club they had agreed upon; this was the time to have fun at night.

As the "young master" of Goldport City, just with that face of his, he could directly break into almost all places in this city!

Including this club!

The security guard at the door didn't care about his practice of directly walking through the VIP channel and even took the initiative to open the door for him.

Under the guidance of the staff, as soon as he entered the club, someone called out his name and waved to him.

"Fuck!"

He cursed with a smile, then ran over, bumped fists with his friends and lackeys, and then sat in the middle position.

"Don't fucking shout my name so loudly; if the old man finds out, he'll break my legs, and I'll break yours!"

As he spoke, he paused, directly picked up the glass of wine on the table, and drank the wine in the glass in one gulp!

The moment the cold alcohol entered his throat, his whole person seemed to feel comfortable!

No wonder the Federation people are so enthusiastic about research on placebos; maybe this has a direct relationship with the Federation people's physiological reactions.

The alcohol hadn't been absorbed yet, and hadn't even entered the blood circulation system, but he felt comfortable; it could only be said that the placebo effect was too strong.

So strong that his body had already begun to subconsciously operate in the way it would when anesthetized by alcohol!

Various hormones made his whole person relaxed and happy; he put his arms around the girl next to him and laughed loudly.

This is the life of modern people!

Being at home where he can't go anywhere is worse than living in a cave; even primitive people aren't that bored!

Life is like this; only extravagance is the most beautiful!

One of Arthur's bodyguards was watching him from a distance, while the others were waiting in the car outside.

The environment inside was very noisy and dark; they didn't like places that had too much influence on their judgment, so leaving one person was enough.

They were also chatting, talking about some recent events, talking about things that happened to them.

He didn't know how long had passed, but Arthur staggered to his feet; under the dual effect of alcohol and nicotine, he was now a little dizzy!

He needed to go to the bathroom.

One of his lackeys took the initiative to stand up to support him, but he refused, "You fucking get out of here, stay away from me; although you really want my dick, I'm sorry, it's only for women!"

"Get out of my sight!"

His somewhat stiff gaze stopped on the girl next to him, "You come!"

The girl didn't have any dissatisfaction; doing this job had long put shame aside; it was all for life.

She smiled and supported Arthur as he walked towards the bathroom, and Arthur's bodyguard slowly followed behind.

He had protected Arthur many times and knew that he might take more than ten minutes to go to the bathroom.

Alcohol and nicotine would make his senses dull, so the time he spent in the bathroom would be slightly longer than the normal time.

Sometimes these bodyguards were also very envious of Arthur's life; that son of a bitch's life was really too good!

They could only risk their lives to be dogs for the powerful, while Arthur was born with a silver spoon in his mouth!

Arthur entered the bathroom with the girl's support; Arthur needed to solve the problem of urination first; he stood in front of the urinal with his eyes slightly narrowed and his stomach sticking out, "Help me… hold it."

"Damn it, I drank too fast tonight; these sons of bitches are so enthusiastic!"

He felt his little brother being pulled out of his bird's nest; almost subconsciously, his body's physiological system began to operate, and a crackling sound rang out in the toilet.

At the same time, in the club's hall, several young men saw Arthur enter the restroom and stood up.

The group approached the restroom, which was located in the corner of the hall. After all, it wasn't a pleasant place, and wouldn't be set in the most conspicuous spot, telling people to come here to poop or do other things.

This also meant that unless you were carefully watching the restroom, it was difficult to notice anything happening there.

Seeing several people intending to enter, the bodyguard walked to the restroom door and raised his hand, "Sorry, gentlemen, it's under 'maintenance'."

He used a slightly ambiguous and teasing tone to modify the word "maintenance." If they had any sense, they would understand what this "maintenance" meant.

The person standing in front of him suddenly pointed to his feet, "Did you drop that?"

The bodyguard looked down with some doubt at the darker ground, only to suddenly have an arm wrapped around his neck, tightly choking him in a "guillotine" hold!

He just wanted to fight back, but his hands were firmly held down. If a beam of light could illuminate his face, people would see his face was flushed red, even somewhat purplish.

Thirty or forty seconds later, his tense, struggling body suddenly relaxed.

The group released him, propped him up against the wall, making it look like some drunkard passed out there. Then, they left one person to guard the restroom door, while the others entered the restroom.

At this moment, Arthur squinted his eyes and tilted his head back. He sat on the toilet, his eyeballs constantly twitching, indicating that he was about to reach his peak!

His mind became muddled at this moment, as if he were in the universe...

At that very moment, the toilet stall door was suddenly pulled open, and several people with cold expressions stood outside the door.

The girl stopped her stuttering movements and turned her head to look at these people with a calm yet curious expression, only to be met with a fierce kick.

It directly struck her face, and her head heavily hit the toilet stall wall with a thud, knocking her unconscious.

Suddenly, a shivering Arthur woke up with a start. He looked at the people outside the toilet, his voice becoming shrill!

"F*ck, who are you?"

"Do you know who I am?"

"F*ck, who's out there? I need help!"

But he was met with two people grabbing his shoulders and hair, dragging him out from inside, and then beating him severely.

David knew how to deal with rich people. The Saint Bell Party had also dealt with some wealthy guys who loved to pick cotton.

Using words to shut them up was far less effective than making them feel fear first, and then shutting them up.

Seven or eight minutes later, Arthur was sandwiched between several people and came out of the restroom.

They left directly towards the back door, without alarming anyone.

At this time, at the table with his lackeys, one guy seemed to be acting a little strangely. He kept pouring himself wine, something he didn't usually do so frantically.

His friend couldn't help but ask, "Are you worried about something?"

He shivered, "No, nothing."

"If it's nothing, why are you drinking so much?"

The confusion in the tone was obvious. The most important thing for them, as lackeys, was to make Arthur happy.

If Arthur was happy, their lives would be very good.

Don't think that Arthur doesn't seem to have the right to inherit the family's political power, but he actually controls most of the family's commercial activities—everyone is his mother, but he plays the role of manager, although he doesn't usually really go to work.

But even so, a little bit of what slipped through his fingers was enough for these lackeys to live a superior life.

Making Arthur happy is their motto.

For example, letting Arthur get drunk is also a kind of happiness that Arthur pursues, but not for them.

After all, they can take care of Arthur when he gets drunk, but if they get drunk, are they going to have Arthur take care of them?

The person being questioned smiled somewhat stiffly, shook his head, and casually made up a reason to perfunctorily answer.

After a while, someone gradually noticed something was wrong, "Is he going so hard this time?"

It seemed like a question, but the question wasn't whether Arthur was really strong, but that he had been gone for a long time.

"Don't tell me he passed out inside."

The oldest one in the group stood up, "I'll go take a look."

"I'll go too."

Several people came to the restroom together, and when they saw the bodyguard slumped on the ground at the door, they immediately realized something was wrong.

They rushed into the restroom and saw the unconscious girl in the stall. In an instant, several people felt like the sky had fallen!

A dozen minutes later, Lance received a call from Mayor Williams, hoping he could come over as soon as possible. Something had happened to Arthur.

Lance's first reaction upon hearing this was to frown. While agreeing, he picked up the phone and asked Corinna where she was.

Corinna mixed with people like them and had participated in more than one gunfight. If you were deceived by her feminine appearance, you would definitely overlook her danger.

He wasn't sure if Corinna would do something she'd regret because of the breakup and seek revenge on Arthur. If she really did that, it would be very troublesome.

After all, persuading Mayor Williams to abandon the pursuit of responsibility was not an easy task.

But not only had Corinna not left, she was now chatting with everyone. It was now leisure time after dinner.

"Let her answer the phone."

A dozen seconds later, Corinna's voice came from the receiver, "What's the matter?"

"Arthur has been kidnapped. I'm worried you did it."

"He's been kidnapped?"

"That's the best news I've heard all year..."

She first laughed and said this obvious angry statement, but quickly asked, "Is there any news?"

Lance frowned, "No, I thought you did it. If you did, I'd have to find a way to clean up the mess for you..."

"F*ck, can you speak more politely?"

"I'm a girl!"

She complained a few times, "It wasn't me, I swear."

"I understand."

"Don't interfere in this matter. I'll take care of it."

Lance hung up the phone and got into the car. Soon, he arrived at the Williams Manor.

Originally, Mayor Williams was still socializing at night, discussing the development of the new district.

The city circle was going to expand, so it definitely needed to attract investment. As a result, something like this happened at this time. He could only very impolitely leave those guests and rush back.

James also ended the socializing. Arthur's mother was also in the room, her eyes red and swollen, having just cried.

"Lance..." Mayor Williams's voice was somewhat choked. He tried to hide his emotions, "I've never encountered something like this before. Perhaps you can provide me with some help..."