Empire of Shadows

The fat police officer, who was blocking the bakery door with his obese body, turned around, his small eyes flashing fiercely as he stared at the fat owner.

Sometimes, the police in the City of Angels are more hateful and less like good people than the gang members.

The fat owner had to choose between a vague but terrifying threat and two hundred dollars, and ultimately chose to give up the two hundred dollars to protect himself.

This bakery's monthly profit is about four hundred dollars, of which about three hundred and fifty dollars remain after deducting normal expenses.

The sanitation fee paid to the gang each month is fifty dollars, and the amount paid to the police is about sixty-five dollars. Now the gang fee has increased to sixty.

That is to say, the monthly profit is only two hundred and twenty-five dollars. If his daughter and himself calculate their wages, the net profit is only one hundred dollars.

This number may still be an unattainable figure for many working-class people, but for a shop owner, it is not too much.

But in the end, it is still possible to make money.

The fat owner took a deep breath, "No problem, I'll go get it now."

Soon he painfully took out two hundred dollars from the secret box where he kept the money and put it on the table.

The police officer glanced at it casually, then picked it up and put it in his coat pocket, "Johnny, don't worry, I'm also a person who follows the rules."

"You're not really at a disadvantage. I won't charge you any more money for half a year. You haven't been extorted by anyone, you just paid the money in advance."

This explanation seemed to make the fat owner feel a little better, but Lance, who had been watching from the corner, knew very well that suddenly collecting the protection fee in advance was definitely not because he urgently needed money now.

It is very likely that this guy is really going to be transferred.

So he plans to make a fortune before he leaves.

However, he had no obligation to remind the fat owner. Even if he did, the fat owner would not have the ability to resist.

Someone once tried to report the behavior of some corrupt police officers, but it ended up being unresolved.

The police officer looked at the fat owner, then looked at Lance, and then threw his handkerchief into the trash can next to the table, "If there's any trouble, have the radio call me."

As he spoke, he put on his hat, patted the fat police officer on the shoulder, and pushed the door out.

The "Closed" sign also changed back to "Open".

Lance saw them go to the next store through the display window. It could be seen that he had a big appetite.

From the front of the street to the corner, there were at least thirty stores. If each store gave him four hundred dollars, that would be twelve thousand dollars.

In this era when the average salary is only forty or fifty, twelve thousand dollars is definitely an astronomical figure for the lower class!

"These bastards with sores on their feet, sons of bitches...", Johnny cursed in a low voice. Even the cursing had to be so careful, which Lance found ridiculous.

He suddenly raised his head and looked at Lance, his eyes red, "Do you think I'm ridiculous?"

Lance took a step back inexplicably, and quickly waved his hand, "No, not at all."

But the fat owner seemed to have decided that it was so, "You can laugh at me, you saw my embarrassing appearance, but it doesn't matter, dinner is canceled!"

After saying that, he went back to the room inside without looking back, and then there was the sound of things being smashed.

Lance looked at the half-closed door, and listened to the curses coming from the room. The apprentice smiled coldly and stood by the door of the back hall watching him. All of this gave him a very clear understanding of this era.

Power is fundamental.

He and those young people who came to collect protection fees, and that thirty-something police officer in the uniform representing justice, after removing the external things, they were no different.

What made him work for a month for nothing and still owe the capitalist three dollars, and what allowed those people to get a large sum of money from here every month without doing anything?

It is power, the order created by power!

People without power obey the order.

Lance is not a law-abiding person, at least he is unlikely to be.

In the afternoon, when he was thinking about how to make the fat owner pay for his arrogance, a small man wearing a baseball cap suddenly ran to the outside of the bakery.

He put his hands on his hips, panting and looking into the bakery. Lance saw him at a glance and immediately walked out.

On the ship here, he met many people of the same age. Seventeen or eighteen, eighteen or nineteen year olds are a group that is easy to get along with.

They don't need to know each other. They only need to say a few words and then express whether they can "play" together, and a small group will form.

Most of these refugees from the same place stayed to work locally, and many of them worked as coolies in the port—

This is also where illegal residents most often appear. The heaviest, most tiring, and dirtiest work is always inseparable from illegal residents.

The locals look down on that kind of dirty and tiring work, and the capitalists are unwilling to hire more expensive locals, so illegal residents are always the best choice.

Even now, things like "renting jobs" have appeared, on the bulletin board in the port—

According to federal laws and regulations, it is ostensibly to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the people at the bottom, but in reality, it only provides capitalists with better means of exploitation, so workers must provide at least one of two certificates if they want to work.

Federal Citizen Social Security Number, or Immigration Work Permit.

Whether you are a native or a legal immigrant, you must have one.

Illegal residents do not have social security numbers, nor can they have work permits, but they need to work, so what should they do?

Some locals rent out their jobs to those illegal residents. For example, the most common is ship cleaning.

The port management office doesn't care who the hell takes a rag to clean the ship, they only care whether the ship cleaning work is completed on time.

A ship cleaner has a salary of thirty-five dollars a month, and the illegal resident needs to give the ship cleaner fifteen dollars and complete all the work.

Then the remaining twenty dollars is their own income.

Having twenty dollars is already considered a high income. Now the prices of many work cards are rising, and some have risen to eighteen dollars.

This means that a person who cannot work openly is replacing someone else's work, and after working hard for a month, they only have seventeen dollars.

Living in concrete pipes and eating the worst and cheapest food, they can only save a few dollars each month.

Some locals with active minds often "moonlight" two or three or more jobs at the same time, and then rent these jobs to those illegal residents.

They can earn fifty or sixty dollars a month without doing anything. This has become a way of life for the locals.

It is also a unique way of life in a few cities.

The little guy in front of him is called Elvin, and he is Lance's fellow countryman. In a foreign land, there is a sense of trust between such fellow countrymen.

This sense of trust comes from having the same past, and the sense of security that comes from knowing each other in the same area. Many people also use this trust to do bad things.

However, this little guy can be trusted, because he and Lance came to the Federation from the Empire in the same batch.

It could be seen that he should be very anxious.

Lance pushed the door open and wiped his hands on his apron, "What's wrong?"

Elvin looked very anxious, "Ethan is in trouble!"

Lance's expression also changed a little, "What's wrong with him?"

Among this group of people, Lance is more respected by others in the small group because of his relatively mature knowledge. They are willing to discuss anything with Lance.

After all, as an adult with many years of experience, even if he is not so familiar with this world, he will still be more stable and suitable than these teenagers when facing some choices.

Elvin took a deep breath, forcing his breath to become stable, "Today is payday, you know our work cards are all rented, so..."

Lance had already guessed the follow-up, "So the dock gave the wages to the person who rented the work card to you, and then Ethan's refused to give him the wages, right?"

Elvin nodded repeatedly, "That's right, that bastard told him that he wouldn't give him a penny, and even scolded him."

"Then he impulsively beat that idiot, and that son of a bitch directly called the police..."

This kind of thing is actually not uncommon on the docks, and it is not uncommon in the entire City of Angels. There will always be someone coveting your wealth and everything you have without your knowledge!

At the same time, this is also directly related to the fact that illegal residents are not recognized by the judiciary in the Federation. The cost of calling the police is much higher than the loss of working for a month for nothing, so even if some people are cheated, they will eventually choose to pretend that nothing happened.

This has also prompted these disgusting maggots in the local area to become more and more intensified, anyway, they know very well that no one will call the police, and those illegal residents cannot afford the cost of calling the police.

Moreover, in terms of the current labor scale in Jinport City, these work cards are not short of people to try.

Lance frowned. This matter was not easy to handle, "Where is Ethan now?"

"I told him to hide in the culvert under the bridge."

"What did that guy say?"

"He said to give him two hundred dollars, and that's it. If he doesn't give it to him, he will keep looking for Ethan's trouble."

"If he really does that, Ethan is likely to be sent back."

Being sent back to the Empire at this time is no longer a matter of going to the front line. The Emperor is already crazy, and he will send all those who escape military service to the gallows!

In other words, Ethan is very likely to go to jail, or even die!

The federal guys are threatening them and exploiting them with impunity, and the root is here!

But two hundred dollars is really too much. These people have only been here for a month, and most people only have a few dollars left after deducting food and expenses.

They simply couldn't scrape together two hundred.

Erwin also brought up the problem, "The seven or eight of us only managed to gather sixty-three, still short over a hundred."

Lance sighed. "Not only did I not get a single penny this month, but I'm also three in the hole."

Erwin's voice dripped with hatred. "Those damned bloodsuckers!"