Empire of Shadows

Monday morning, Mr. Anderson woke up early, and he required the apprentices, cooks, and waiters to arrive at the restaurant early as well.

The night before, he had someone help him make a notice board overnight—

Due to the restaurant's booming business, the maximum dining time is two hours. If the dining time exceeds two hours, the restaurant has the right to ask the guests to pay and leave.

At the same time, for customers who come alone, when the restaurant's tables are limited, the restaurant has the right to ask individual customers to share a table with other individual customers.

There is also a clause that the restaurant has the right to refuse to receive some suspicious-looking customers.

That was roughly the content. The notice board was large and erected at the entrance.

Anderson stared at it early in the morning, but after staring all day, Lance didn't show up, and nothing unusual happened.

Monday is a very important day for people. Those who work in offices will receive work arrangements for the coming week from their superiors and need to prepare for these tasks.

For workers on the assembly line in factories, today is the day the assembly line restarts after a day or two of rest.

They need to keep a close eye on the changes on the assembly line, and the workshop managers also need to use intense work to awaken the workers from their lazy state of holiday rest.

As for those engaged in heavy physical labor at docks or warehouses, after the weekend inventory is completed, a large number of vehicles transporting supplies will enter and exit the port this morning, keeping them so busy they can't even straighten their backs.

Most people are busy. At noon, four tables of guests came to the restaurant, totaling less than sixty dollars—

Although this is a mid-to-high-end restaurant, not all the food is expensive.

A bread basket, and two people ordering one main dish, such as a cheaper fish and steak combo, or just a regular steak, plus an appetizer soup, would cost at most ten dollars.

The special thing about mid-to-high-end restaurants is that you can spend less money here, but you can also spend a lot of money.

Business was okay in the evening, with nine tables served, totaling one hundred and thirty-three dollars. If calculated based on gross profit, today can only be said to barely break even, losing a dozen or twenty dollars.

Every Monday is roughly like this, and Mr. Anderson doesn't find it surprising.

He thought that little dog Lance was just exaggerating, and when he didn't show up that day, he relaxed his vigilance slightly.

What he didn't know was that Lance also knew that business was bad on Mondays, so he put the "next stage" on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, Mr. Anderson still got up early. Today was the day for those wage earners to gather for a meal—after not seeing each other for a weekend, they had a lot to say, chatting about where they went to play on the weekend, and having a meal together to maintain their relationships.

Today's business would be a little better than Monday's.

Until eleven o'clock, he didn't see anyone coming alone and wanting to occupy a table. He happily took a rag and wiped the notice board at the entrance again.

In the alley diagonally across the road, Lance stood at the entrance of the alley, which was not easy to spot, looking at Mr. Anderson and his restaurant.

"It's the one across the street... yes, someone is wiping the notice board."

Lance withdrew his gaze and looked at the people around him.

Each of them exuded an unpleasant smell, a group of homeless people.

When Lance found these people last night, he treated them to a good meal, beef, pork, and refined pasta.

These foods could ensure that the feces they produced were very smelly, and now was the time they needed to defecate.

Lance held a bucket in his hand, filled with water, and there was a laxative in the water. This laxative was very effective, and it would only take ten minutes to make people spray uncontrollably.

In the morning, Lance had them drink a lot of thin porridge to ensure the best effect.

Seeing that it was already eleven o'clock, and the time for customers to arrive was not far away, Lance first poured a cup full of laxative water and gave it to the first homeless man.

"Go to the entrance of their store, defecate on the ground, and then go to the alley where we agreed, and someone will give you two dollars."

"If you can make it very disgusting, I can give you an extra dollar."

He looked at the group of homeless people behind him, "It's the same for you, two dollars, and an extra dollar if you do well."

The first homeless man was almost fifty years old, his hair was matted into clumps, and occasionally you could see small cockroaches crawling out from under his hair and crawling back in.

His dark face made it impossible to tell whether he had been engaged in cotton picking work before becoming homeless, or whether he had always been this dark.

"Mr. Lance, don't worry, I will definitely make them nauseous for the whole day!"

He patted his chest, grinning, and his mouthful of yellow teeth made people feel very disgusted, but Lance appreciated him because he was smelly enough!

After speaking, he picked up the laxative and gulped it down. It tasted a little strange, and then he stood quietly.

About ten minutes later, he suddenly clutched his stomach, "It's coming, it's coming, Mr. Lance, I'll... hiss... go over there!"

Lance took the opportunity to pour the second cup of laxative into the cup and gave it to the second person.

At this time, two tables of guests had already entered the restaurant one after another, and Mr. Anderson also felt a sense of relief. He felt that today should be another peaceful day.

But as soon as he returned to the lounge to rest, he had been getting up early and sleeping late these past two days, and he was in a bad mood, and he was a little tired. What he needed most now was rest.

Before he could lie down, he vaguely heard the manager's loud reprimands.

He was stunned for a moment, then immediately jumped up and trotted towards the door.

The moment he came out of the restaurant door, a strong stench almost made him pass out!

The sun was very bright, and the stench made it even more unbearable.

At the entrance of the restaurant, a homeless man was arguing with the manager while wiping the feces in his hand on the notice board that Mr. Anderson had just wiped not long ago.

"Why aren't you having someone clean this up?!"

He glanced at the homeless man who was wiping feces on the notice board, and could no longer bear it and almost vomited!

"Call the police... ugh, call the police!"

The homeless man, who was originally arguing with the manager, ran away as soon as he heard that the restaurant was going to call the police. Before running, he let out a fart and sprayed another pile at the entrance of the restaurant.

At this moment, three guests were originally walking towards this side, but when they saw the things on the ground, they couldn't help but cross the road and go to the restaurant across the street.

Mr. Anderson shouted loudly, and the apprentices carried two buckets of water, washed away the things on the ground, and scrubbed it well with a brush.

"It all happened too suddenly. He suddenly ran over, took off his pants, stuck out his butt, and then..."

The manager shuddered as if recalling something terrifying.

"...with a bang, I almost thought his intestines were going to pop out."

Mr. Anderson felt a little better, but still felt nauseous again, "Clean it up!"

He and the manager walked to the side, and the manager continued, "I told him not to defecate at our door, and then he didn't know what happened. He fell, and then you saw it. He said I pushed him..."

Mr. Anderson's face was extremely ugly because another table of guests suddenly changed their dining decision.

But the manager was still a little worried, "Could this be their new trick?"

Mr. Anderson felt uneasy after hearing this, "Find two more waiters to keep an eye on things. If any more homeless people come, don't let them get too close..."

Before he could finish speaking, suddenly a homeless man rushed over from across the road. Like the first homeless man, he took off his pants while running. What made them feel even more terrified was that after this homeless man ran onto the sidewalk, he actually pointed his butt at them!

Some people on the roadside stared in disbelief at everything. An apprentice walking in the front slowly turned around and then vomited violently.

Mr. Anderson was also nauseous and cursing.

That damn son of a bitch, that must be what that bastard did!