Empire of Shadows

Having hung up the phone, Wolfley returned to the gambling table with a cigarette in his mouth and sat down again. He picked up the cards stuck on the table, glanced at the others, bit the cigarette holder with his teeth, tilted his head, and squinted. "Whose turn is it to speak now?"

Wolfley is Fleming's cousin. His father and Bandi are brothers. Although Bandi Coda currently controls the entire Coda family, Wolfley's father can be considered half a patriarch.

The two brothers have a very good relationship. They were among the last people to experience the turmoil in Goldport City. They are not only brothers but also went through life and death together, so they trust each other very much.

Consequently, they also hope that their children can continue like them and manage the family together.

Wolfley is in charge of the gang's affairs. He doesn't have any talent for school, but he does have some talent for gambling.

Fleming has good learning abilities, so he was arranged to go to university, and he manages the affairs of the betting company.

Bandi hopes that the two brothers can shine together and ensure the continuation of the Coda family.

He doesn't have any great ambitions. He would be satisfied as long as he can stabilize it for a hundred years.

As for whether it can be done, he thinks there is a good chance.

Wolfley is thirty-four years old this year. He has a side parting, and his dark brown hair is covered with hair wax. The marks left by the comb have not changed at all.

He is currently wearing a dark shirt with a beige vest on the outside. The golden pocket watch chain dangling on his chest swayed back and forth with his movements.

At the table are some gentlemen who look like they have status. This is a private gambling game, and the Coda family is responsible for arranging the private gambling game and a series of other tasks.

Some people don't like to play at the casino tables, or they don't trust the dealers. They always feel that the dealers have some tricks and it is difficult to win money from the dealers.

So they prefer to play with other players, at least the other players won't be so professional!

As long as they have this idea, the Coda family will help them arrange the game.

They provide all the services from arranging the game to the end of the game. The game will be arranged in the Coda family's casino, the villa in the Bay Area, the sunroom in the Beach Area, or any seaside villa.

They can arrange beautiful female dealers and provide all the gambling equipment and chips.

The cost is two hundred to two thousand dollars for the venue and all the expenses, and a 3% service fee is charged from the winner's hand in each game.

When 3% is less than one dollar, it is calculated as one dollar.

It sounds like a lot, but for the real rich, they don't think it's unreasonable.

After all, the service fee is obtained from the winner's hand, not from the loser's hand.

For the winner, he may have won tens or hundreds, and they are happy to give a few dollars in service fees.

This is a private gambling game, and Wolfley likes to play cards. He has some amazing talent in this area.

The person sitting opposite him said with a smile, "It's your turn to speak."

Wolfley glanced over the faces of these people, casually picked up two chips with a face value of five hundred and threw them on the table, "One thousand dollars.", he said, seemingly thinking of something, and threw two more chips with a face value of five hundred, "Add another thousand."

"Wolfley, are you playing so big right from the start?"

Wolfley smiled, "I have something to do and need to leave for a while, so I might as well take a gamble."

He looked at the cards in his hand, "And my cards are not small, although there is still one card, but I believe in myself."

After thinking for a while, the other people gave up following the bet.

It's not that they can't afford to follow, but they don't want to raise it too high.

The game hasn't started for long. If they stack up thousands of dollars at this time, the game will get out of control after two or three hours.

Seeing that the others chose to give up, Wolfley smiled and asked the dealer to collect all his chips. He won the money on the table, about two hundred dollars.

"I'll be back later, you guys play first…"

After he left, the others asked to see Wolfley's hand, and the dealer satisfied their request.

Seeing that Wolfley was holding the smallest card among them, but won them two hundred dollars, these people were all in a state of laughter and tears.

After seeing this card, it's better not to see it.

Wolfley drove back to the office and brought over his cousin who was in charge of doing dirty work in the family.

Whether it is the Coda family, the Pasreito family, or the other three families.

Most of the middle and high-level cadres in their organizational structure are family members with blood relations, because they are very clear that most people in criminal organizations are actually unreliable.

But compared to people without blood relations, people with blood relations are more trustworthy, because betraying strangers will not be subject to too much criticism, but betraying relatives, even if the person is doing the right thing, will be subject to moral criticism.

"Eric's bastard son hurt Fleming. He has a nightclub and several bars in the Empire District. Take people to take care of them."

Wolfley's cousin considered it for a moment, "No problem, but I heard that the Lance family in the Empire District is currently on the rise. Will there be any relationship between them and Eric?"

Hearing his cousin say this, Wolfley's brows furrowed immediately. This was the second time he had specifically heard about the Lance family.

He had heard of it before, but they were just casually mentioned by guests, and he was not interested in it.

The five major families have ruled Goldport City for many years. There are a total of twenty or thirty large gangs in Goldport City. If you count the gang sprouts like the street families, then there may be hundreds or thousands here!

As for unifying a district?

Wolfley didn't want to waste time understanding that "countryside place" in the Empire District. Before entering the city center, Starlight District, and Bay Area, he was not interested in understanding these rising and falling small gangs.

But hearing about this gang again from his cousin, he became a little interested in understanding it, "Are they very powerful?"

The cousin didn't know how to answer this question, "They took care of the Camilla gang in a very short period of time, and now they have driven the Red Dog gang out of their territory, and have completed the unification of the Empire District's forces."

"Although they don't have many people, they are very united.", This is his understanding of the Lance family, or rather, this is the entire Goldport City's understanding of these people.

Wolfley didn't care at all. When he started to contact and operate the "family business", he knew how deep the Coda family's strength was.

"Can't you deal with them?"

The cousin scratched his head, "They are not our opponents, but I heard that they work for Paul."

Paul is Mr. Pasreito's name.

This made Wolfley a little more serious. The most unsettling thing about the Pasreito family is the gunmen from Sumuri.

Alcohol, tobacco, and gunmen are the specialties there.

There has always been a saying in the Federation—don't provoke Sumuri people casually. No matter where you are, they will always find you and give you a shot.

This is also one of the reasons why the Pasreito family can gain a foothold in Goldport City. Their early gunmen who followed one after another did make people feel troubled.

Wolfley can look down on Lance and his Lance family, but he cannot underestimate the Pasreito family. He thought for a moment, "Continue to do what I said, I will communicate with Paul."

Hearing this, the cousin knew that he was definitely going to take action. He nodded, "It's good that you know what you're doing, I'm going to prepare now."

Mobilizing gunmen, thugs, and allocating guns and ammunition, as well as mobilizing vehicles, all take time.

In fact, the actions of large gangs are not as people imagine, slapping their heads, making a decision, and then rushing up in a chaotic manner without organization or arrangement.

They need to go through planning and arrangement before entering the actual work.

In the afternoon, Lance was with Hiram looking at a piece of land located in the port area. This piece of land used to be a small import and export trading company. It also has a warehouse, covering an area of more than 600 square meters, which can be used to build a movie theater.

Recently, as the box office of the first talkie movie continues to reach new highs, many people have noticed the film industry.

Before, capital was not enthusiastic about investing in the film industry, because the industry's output was low. Except for people who really liked it, no one was willing to do this industry.

Taking a movie ticket of five cents as a calculation, even if one million people watched this movie, the box office would only be 50,000 dollars.

At this time, the Federation has about 110 million people. Assuming that one out of every ten people watched this movie, that is, 10 million people watched this movie.

Then the box office would only be 500,000.

But in reality, it is impossible for so many people to watch it, because some backward areas in the west do not have movie theaters at all, and people in some poor areas do not even want to give five cents to the movie theater.

But even with a box office of 500,000, after deducting the part they distributed to the theaters, the production company can only get 200,000 to 300,000 at most, taking a median value of 250,000.

250,000 needs to pay taxes, and taxes will take away a small half, leaving only more than 100,000.

After deducting costs and the needs of various links, when it appears in the report in the form of net profit, only tens of thousands of dollars remain.

But in reality, not all movies can be so popular, with 10 million people watching.

The reason why the film industry is not profitable is actually caused by "watching movies for five cents."

Previously, some media touted that the Federation's film industry was developing rapidly, and they proposed the saying that "the Federation supervises 1,000 movies every year", which shocked the world!

To make everyone think that the Federation is a country with a highly developed civilization and economy.

But in reality, 90 percent of the so-called "movies" at this time refer to those movies that are ten to twenty minutes long.

From Lance's point of view, these cannot even be called movies, they can only be called short films.

These silent films also have dialogue screens after playing for a while, and their actual content may only be eight or nine minutes.

Under such circumstances, some filmmakers shouted the slogan "Five cents to watch a movie", which led the entire federal film industry to enter an era of involution.

Fortunately, it now seems that this situation is about to be broken. The first sound film brings not only the reform of the film industry, but also the normalization of ticket prices.

Capital will never change its morbid demand for profit, so they will start investing in this field.

In fact, from the perspective of seizing profits alone, selling moonshine surpasses 99% of industries, but people can't always stare at illegal businesses.

As society gradually begins to stabilize, some things will eventually withdraw from the stage of history.

Moreover, the role of cinemas is more than that.

"Mr. Lance, this is roughly the situation here. If you want it, I only need fifteen thousand dollars, and it's yours."

The trade company's manager looked helpless. It could be seen that this place should have been very busy, with many desks and many filing cabinets.

Lance sat opposite him, looking at the warehouse outside, a little curious, "Why did you fail to operate?"

"This question is a bit presumptuous, you can choose not to answer."

The manager didn't seem to care, "We lost a lot of money in the financial market, and we don't have any more funds to maintain the company's operation, so you see."

There are no employees here anymore, and there is only some garbage left in the warehouse. Everything has become empty.

After talking about this topic, he seemed to have a lot to say.

"We made a little money at the beginning, Mr. Lance, I don't know if you have any research on stocks?" Seeing Lance nod, he continued, "Then you should understand the feeling of getting rich overnight."

"We initially invested five thousand dollars, and it turned into more than thirty thousand in less than a week..."

Lance could already guess the next story. The short-term windfall brought by the financial market made their eyes turn red, and then they invested more money into it.

The most important thing for a trading company is cash flow. The core profit model of a trading company is to rationally use funds to continuously generate profits.

But the huge profits brought by the financial field were too crazy. They invested more funds in the financial market instead of continuing to operate their trading business.

Along with rounds of harvesting, their money eventually became "a thing of the past", to the point where they needed to sell the industry here to exchange for some funds.

Lance could even imagine that after giving them this fifteen thousand dollars, they would still invest it in the stock market, trying to earn back the money they lost.

But in the end, they are likely to become penniless. This is the ultimate result for many people who blindly enter the financial market.

The more free the financial market is, the more it is a table for capital predators. No one can escape the fate of becoming food.

After Lance listened to his story, he expressed some sympathy, "I hope this fifteen thousand dollars can help you."

"You agreed to our offer?" He felt a little unbelievable. He thought Lance should bargain, but Lance didn't have any intention of bargaining at all, and said this sentence that basically made the decision.

Lance nodded, "If you support cash payment, I can pay you the money now."

"But if you want a check, then we have to continue to negotiate on this price."

The manager knew what Lance meant. These gangs were not short of money and had a lot of cash in their hands, but they didn't have much money in the bank that they could use.

But he didn't care about black money or not, more money was the most important thing!

"Mr. Lance, we accept cash payment!"

As long as he can get more money, he won't care whether the tax bureau will investigate him.

They can reinvest this money in the stock market to earn more money.

If possible.

The manager had no objection to receiving cash, so the matter was settled, and the rest was for the lawyers to negotiate.

Just as he walked out of this company, Morris greeted him.

"What's the matter?"

Morris nodded, "Alberto called just now and said he wanted you to return the call as soon as possible, so I came over."

After Lance listened, he entered the roadside phone booth and dialed Alberto's number.

"Lance?"

"Yes, is there anything urgent?"

"I heard about the matter between Eric and Fleming. The Kodak family is planning to attack nightclubs and bars. Paul asked me to tell you."

"Don't get involved!"

Lance took a deep breath, "I know, I will have people withdraw."

The two chatted about the two friends Alberto brought back, talking about the embarrassment they had during the federal inspection process. It seemed like a very funny thing!

After chatting for seven or eight minutes, the two ended the call. After walking out of the phone booth, Lance lit a cigarette. He stood on the side of the road looking at the busy city intersection and turned to get into the car.

The gentle atmosphere of the city permeated every street. Perhaps this kind of life and rhythm is very comfortable for ordinary people, but it is too comfortable for ambitious people.

After returning to the nightclub, Lance made a phone call to Eric, but it didn't get through.

It wasn't until after ten o'clock in the evening that Eric called back.

Although his head was stitched up, he was also praised by his uncle the mayor. He was proud.

He didn't want to see Shayna too much these days. On the one hand, he looked a little embarrassed now. On the other hand, because Shayna had suffered such a big loss, he suddenly had a... indescribable feeling.

It's like he doesn't want to pursue Shayna anymore, and suddenly feels that it's meaningless.

It's like your favorite magazine, you can't help but masturbate every time you see it, but occasionally you suddenly feel that this magazine is just like that, nothing special, and you don't want to use it anymore.

This is what Eric is feeling at this time, a bit boring.

On the contrary, what he experienced that night made him feel stimulated and his blood boil. He suddenly became a little obsessed with this feeling.

These days, lawyer Olsen has introduced him to some new friends from other cities. They also have the special aura of Lance and other gang members.

These people surrounded him, making him feel a little elated for a while!

"I heard you've been looking for me?" His tone was not polite to Lance. When he knew that his uncle was going to challenge the local traditional forces, he would not be polite to any local!

I was bragging in the group all afternoon, , ate a little, I'm going to eat, there will be another update later