Empire of Shadows

Gerald stood behind Lance, a faint smile gracing his face as he watched the male supporting actors slowly approach Lance.

The female lead walked to his side, gently tugging at his hand, her eyes filled with concern as she looked at him.

Her voice was soft, "Who are they?"

He glanced at Lance's back, turning slightly towards her. "This is my brother; he will stand up for me."

The female lead still seemed worried, pressing her lips together in silence.

Everyone had sensed the animosity from the male actors towards Gerald lately, fueled by his good looks and his casting as the first male supporting role.

The female lead had also overheard rumors that some people had tried to sleep with Gerald, but he had refused. Enraged, they had banded together to teach Gerald a lesson.

They wanted to use this as a way to tell Gerald that if he wanted to complete this movie smoothly, the best way was to listen to them.

The film industry itself was monopolized by a few production companies. Although there were many small shooting companies, generally, the blockbuster movies that sold well often came from those few film companies.

They had a lot of say in this industry, especially certain capitalists who often appeared on the big screen.

That guy was not a nice person!

They were used to playing the lower class in movies to please the public, but in actual work, they were definitely qualified capitalists.

They knew how to exploit and oppress those workers, only showing the side of themselves they wanted to display.

Although this industry was still in its early stages of development, it was already as "dirty" as the opera world.

For some large operas, especially those with famous opera actors, wanting to play a role in them often required paying a very, very high price.

They never chose actors based on whether you had excellent acting skills, but based on how much you were willing to sacrifice, or whether you had any power behind you.

"White lotuses" like Shayna were extremely rare. If it weren't for her uncle's significant influence in the opera world and his connections in Congress,

she would most likely have been used by many people, or even used together, for the role she was currently playing.

The female lead was very worried about Gerald. He was clearly talented and good-looking, but his path to stardom seemed to be coming to an end.

This made her very sad, even though she was also a victim.

The producer stared blankly at the male lead lying on the ground, barely able to groan. He looked at the cut on his face caused by the toe of a leather shoe, and his face turned pale.

Even with Hiram's gun pointed at his head, he showed an extremely complex expression, tinged with a hint of schadenfreude. "You're in trouble!"

Lance turned his head and glanced at him. "Who's in trouble?"

The producer seemed to have gained some courage from somewhere, and his voice grew louder. "I don't know what your name is, but you, and your friends, including Gerald, you're all in trouble!"

"He's an actor the company has high hopes for. We just signed a big contract, and a big shot likes him very much!"

"The scar on his face will leave a scar. You've offended a lot of people, understand?"

"You're in trouble!"

Even if the wound on the male lead's face healed, it would definitely leave a scar. Who the hell would like a male lead with a scar on his face?

Maybe after he became famous, a scar would make people think he was very manly, but when people didn't really know him, a scar on his face would only make people feel disgusted.

Lance shook his head and looked at Hiram. "Make him smarter!"

Before the producer could figure out what that meant, Hiram slammed the butt of his gun hard on his head!

He immediately felt a piercing pain, his head was a little dizzy, and a stream of hot liquid flowed down his forehead.

He raised his hand and wiped it, the scarlet color making him a little crazy.

He seemed unable to stand, leaning on the director's chair and collapsing to the ground, his face deathly pale. "I'm bleeding! Call an ambulance, quick, I'm going to die!"

Hiram looked at the producer like this, and he suddenly had an indescribable idea. He put the gun back in its holster, walked over, and raised his foot.

He kicked hard while shouting—

"Bleeding?"

"Ambulance?"

"Going to die?"

"Fuck!"

Lance smiled and turned his head to look at the male supporting actors who were walking over. "I don't know why you bullied my brother, but now, it's time for you to pay the price."

He turned to look at Gerald, "How do you want to punish them?"

Gerald looked at the supporting actors, a flash of pleasure in his eyes, but soon he began to worry about how to deal with these people.

Gerald wasn't a particularly ruthless person, otherwise, his ass would have almost been unsafe on the ship.

In the end, he still turned his pleading gaze to Lance, who gave them a chance.

"If you can get Gerald's forgiveness, I'll let you go, otherwise, I'll have someone break your legs."

As he spoke, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and waved to the director.

The director was introduced by Alberto, so Lance wouldn't make things difficult for him, but the director might not have realized this, "I haven't hurt Gerald."

Gerald also quickly added, "Yes, the director has actually been good to me."

Lance spread his hands. "Please, do I look like such an unreasonable person?"

"Come over here, director, let's talk about this movie."

The director braced himself and walked over. Lance gave him a cigarette, and the two of them talked next to the filming site. Although everything here seemed very ridiculous, everyone was unsure whether this was filming or a scene.

"How much money was invested in this movie?"

The director held Lance's cigarette, unsure whether to light it, but soon the flame in Lance's hand left him with little choice.

"About one hundred thousand, Mr. Lance."

"You recognize me.", Lance shook the match a few times, and after confirming that the fire was extinguished, threw it on the ground.

The director nodded. "Mr. Alberto said that Gerald was someone you introduced."

"But he was bullied here.", Lance looked at him, as if questioning him.

The director was also very helpless. "I'm just an employee, and their bullying behavior was decided by the boss. I can't change anything."

Lance somewhat agreed with his statement. "This movie is very likely to fail."

"But I don't want Gerald's first movie to fail like this. I plan to invest and let you finish filming it."

"But I have a request, Gerald must be the male lead."

The director was originally very depressed. The male lead was disfigured, the producer was beaten, and the male supporting actors had also lost face.

Needless to say, without even waiting until tomorrow, they would leave here overnight. This movie was over!

He didn't care about the dirty secrets and contradictions between the production company and Lance and the others after it was over. What he cared about was that his job was also over.

It definitely wouldn't be easy for him to find such a good job again.

Sometimes, being one step behind would lead to being steps behind.

By the time he went to get investment again and prepared for filming, perhaps others' first sound movies would have already started playing.

This one step ahead was like the first snowball thrown from the top of the mountain, it would constantly let more snow stick to itself along the mountainside, forming a huge behemoth!

It would be very difficult for latecomers to catch up with the first snowball in scale.

Now many people are starting to shoot sound movies, because everyone realizes that this will be a major reshuffle in the film industry!

Just when he was very desperate, Lance pushed him into the abyss, and then pulled him out of the abyss.

"Are you sure?", the director seemed a little excited, "That's one hundred thousand."

"One hundred thousand is nothing!"

"What I'm more concerned about is, if you re-shoot, how much time will you need?"

"I should still need to find some actors and stuff, can you help with that?"

"Of course!", the director said excitedly, "Mr. Lance, young boys and girls who aspire to be stars are all over the street, I guarantee, everything will quickly get back on track..."

He took a step closer, originally wanting to get even closer, but he met Lance's gaze, so he only got closer by one step.

"There are countless girls willing to become stars and climb into your bed, Mr. Lance."

"As long as you're willing, they'll be lining up outside your room starting tonight..."

Lance smiled and shook his head, "I don't like to force or coerce others, and I don't want unsuitable people to join our plan in this way."

"I'm looking for you because of the relationship between Alberto and me, and on the other hand, I think you can make money for me."

"You can take the money I give you to find prostitutes. The phone book has their phone numbers in addition to the genes of the homeless."

"But I don't want you to choose an unsuitable role because you can't control your dick, do you understand what I mean?"

"I'm not those big companies, if you cause them losses, they can only hold their noses and accept it."

"If my investment fails because of you, whether it's Angel Lake or the East Ocean, one of them will become your home!"

The director wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead, "Mr. Lance, no one can guarantee that a movie will definitely make money."

Lance agreed with his point, "But at least I need to see you're all working hard, right?"

The director hesitated for a while before finally making up his mind, "I accept this job..."

While he was speaking, the male supporting actors had already sought Gerard's forgiveness. Just as Lance had guessed, he wasn't a ruthless person.

So, when these people knelt on the ground, crying and telling him that they were actually coerced, and after slapping themselves a few times and tearfully repenting, Gerard forgave them.

It seemed as if they had been let off lightly, but there were many people in the industry present, and what happened here today would spread.

Those production crews would most likely no longer hire these actors to avoid trouble.

After all, they were just filmmakers, not a gang!

In other words, unless they were exceptionally good at their jobs, they would most likely be finished in this industry.

Lance patted the director's arm, "You go take care of everything. I'll stay here for two days."

After a group of people got into the car, they quickly left. However, the matter didn't end immediately, because after Lance and the others left, the producer suddenly got up from the ground. He rushed out to find a phone booth and then dialed the police.

Soon, the Creek Valley City Police Department intervened in the case, and Gerard was immediately taken into custody.

The director had already decided to stand with Lance, so he had someone tell Lance about this—Lance had told the director the hotel he was staying at before leaving.

After hearing this news, Lance scratched his head. He picked up the phone and dialed the number of Blue Branch Chief.

"Do you know the chief of the police station in Creek Valley City or something?"

Blue Branch Chief was a little confused, "I know them, but why would you need their help?"

Lance laughed, "Because I'm in Creek Valley City!"

A dozen minutes later, two plainclothes policemen arrived at the hotel. They went directly to Lance's room and knocked on the door, "Is Mr. Lance here?"

The door opened, and there were five people in the room. The two people outside immediately saw Lance standing in the middle of the room.

"Please come in."

Lance invited them in. The person walking in front always kept a smile, "I'm West, the branch chief of the Fifth Branch."

Creek Valley City originally had seven administrative districts, which meant there were seven police stations. However, as it was continuously drained by Gold Harbor City, more and more people went to Gold Harbor City, and the scale of Creek Valley City continued to shrink.

Two years ago, they retained the seven administrative regions, but merged some of the police stations. Now there are only five police stations, and West is the branch chief of the Fifth Branch.

"Blue told me that you are a very generous and friendly person who likes to make friends."

"I heard you've run into some trouble?"

Lance nodded and explained what had happened. Branch Chief West frowned, "This matter is not easy to handle."

He looked at Lance, "You injured someone, and they called the police and arrested your friend."

"Your friend may be charged with incitement or hiring a murderer, and I don't know much about the person who called the police..."

Lance smiled and asked, "How much money?"

Branch Chief West raised his eyebrows slightly, "What?"

"How much money would make this matter go from being not easy to handle to being easy to handle?"

He looked at Lance, as if confirming what Lance said, and then frowned.

Although Creek Valley City is very close to Gold Harbor City, the "economic situation" here is not good. The police station not only doesn't receive much regulatory fees, but their ability to independently generate income is also not very good.

The whole city seems to lack vitality, and even the criminal organizations here seem to be like they are in retirement.

So he needed to consider how to open his mouth.

After hesitating for a few seconds, he gave a number that he wasn't even sure about, "Three thousand dollars?"

He didn't know how "generous" this Mr. Lance was. He could only tentatively give a number that he thought was a bit high to observe Lance's reaction.

In fact, his psychological price was one thousand to one thousand five hundred dollars. If Lance wanted to bargain, he couldn't refuse.

This is the benefit of opening with a high price.

But to his surprise, Lance didn't bargain.

"I can give you three thousand dollars, but I want this three thousand dollars to be worth it."

After a brief surprise, Branch Chief West showed a more sincere smile, "What do you want, Mr. Lance?"

"I want my friend to appear in front of me unharmed, and then I want to find out the identity information of the producer and the people behind him, including their addresses and where they are now."

Hearing that he had so many requests, West was obviously a little embarrassed, because he would definitely have to investigate things like the caller's information before he could know it.

To find out this information would definitely require coordination with other branches, and some people might see it and record it. He seemed very hesitant.

Lance said with a non-smiling expression, "Chief West, you don't think I'm giving you three thousand dollars just to have you bring my friend out of the police station, do you?"

"If I just wanted to get him out, I would only need five hundred dollars to find a lawyer."

"Show your value, otherwise I can only say that you won't get a penny of this three thousand dollars."

The police officer that Branch Chief West brought seemed a little angry, because he had never encountered such an arrogant gang member. He just wanted to tell Lance that they were not threatened.

As a result, the next moment, the two guys standing behind Lance opened their coats, revealing the submachine guns inside.

Branch Chief West quickly raised his hands, "Calm down, calm down, brothers!"

"No problem, no problem at all. I think you're right. Three thousand dollars does need to have its value."

Lance nodded with satisfaction, "I'm glad you understand this point. So, do you want cash or a transfer?"

Branch Chief West hesitated for a moment and lowered his voice slightly, "Cash is more appropriate."

Cash is easy to hide.

It's not noticeable for a branch chief to spend a little money, but if it's a check, it would be a bit of a hassle for him to process, because he would have to go to Gold Harbor City to cash it.

Although Creek Valley City is very close to Gold Harbor City, only a three or four hour drive, but a branch chief running to Gold Harbor City to cash a few thousand dollars...

I'm afraid everyone would know there's something wrong here!

"No problem, but I don't have that much cash with me right now. I'll arrange for someone to send it over."

Lance stood up and extended his hand, "You're Blue's friend, which means you're our friend. Just like Blue said, you'll find that I'm a very generous person once we've been together for a long time."

"But my generosity is only for friends. I hope we can become friends, what do you say?"

West also shook Lance's hand tightly, "Yes, I firmly believe in this."

Lance nodded, "Then I'll wait for your good news?"

"Good news will come soon!"