Empire of Shadows

At seven-thirty, six people were already seated at the table, with one person still missing.

"Let's not wait, let's eat first, I'm starving."

Lance instructed the manager to start pouring wine for everyone, which signaled the official start of the dinner.

These people were of varying ages, and their expressions were all cold, with a hint of suspicion.

"Everyone doesn't seem to be in high spirits?"

The last guy to arrive couldn't help but say, "Lance, if you have something to say, just say it directly, there's no need for this charade!"

He glanced at the others at the table, his eyes filled with ill will.

Lance's hand had already been on his wine glass, but because of his words, he withdrew it, "Actually, before you guys arrived, I already chatted with Kerry about the purpose of gathering everyone here today."

Kerry's expression immediately turned somewhat unpleasant. He glanced at Lance, then quickly looked at the others.

As he had expected, the others looked at him with distrust, even disgust.

Some would think he was a traitor because he had sided with Lance!

But he really hadn't!

Up until now, he hadn't given Lance any answer, but if he said it now, probably no one would believe him.

Lance, without saying anything, had suddenly made him so passive, so passive that he had already made a decision in his heart!

Because if he didn't do as Lance wanted, he wouldn't be accepted by these people, and might even be ostracized, isolated, or even treated specially.

Lance was clearly younger than him, where did he learn these insidious tricks that only politicians would use?

Lance ignored Kerry's unpleasant expression and continued, "The Wolf Gang is a foreign gang, and their purpose in coming here is to stir up war and disrupt the situation."

"But now, it's over."

"From the time they gained a foothold until now, it's been more than half a year, and the port area has always been in chaos."

"It's time to stabilize it."

A middle-aged man in his thirties looked at Lance and asked in a deep voice, "How do you plan to stabilize the port area?"

His tone then carried a hint of mockery, "Are you planning to annex us, or drive us out?"

The eyes of the others were focused on Lance again. Lance picked up his wine glass with a smile, "Why don't we have a drink first?"

"Talking all the time is making my stomach protest!"

He raised his glass and looked at the people around him, "To us being able to sit here this year!"

The others' reactions were not enthusiastic. Only Kerry said "Cheers", but he immediately noticed the unfriendly looks directed at him and immediately shut his mouth.

After taking a sip of wine, naturally, one had to eat something. Lance asked the manager to introduce today's dishes.

Although the atmosphere here was a bit tense and strange, the manager never left.

Besides leaving two cooks to make barbecue and such, in case these young people weren't full, and two waiters, everyone else had gone back.

He began to introduce today's dishes, very humorous and funny, able to ease the atmosphere a bit.

Lance got himself a steak, "Thank you for your introduction, it's made me even hungrier, I'll eat a little to fill my stomach first, please help yourselves."

He cut the steak, watching the beef that was perfect in both color and aroma being cut open by him, and finally, others started to move.

The beef was grilled very well. The beef breed was well chosen, the age was also well chosen, basically well-done but not too old. In addition to the meat quality, some tricks must have been used.

In fact, people have always had a misconception that beef only needs to be cooked to medium-rare to be "tender".

That's not the case. Good beef, beef from an appropriately aged cow, will be very tender even if cooked well-done.

Only those restaurants that have not-so-good quality beef but want people to think the meat is good will use the method of not cooking the beef completely to improve the taste.

Especially in the last two years, this situation has become more and more common.

In earlier years, if you ate steak in a restaurant and someone gave you medium-rare or not fully cooked, they would have to endure even if you overturned the table!

But now… …

"You see, we can sit together and have dinner without fighting and killing, which means there's no irreconcilable hatred between us."

Lance put down his knife and fork after everyone had eaten a little something.

Some of the others stopped, while others continued to eat.

"Just now you asked me what I plan to do."

"Actually, my idea is very simple, that is to return peace to the port area."

"No war, everyone makes money together."

"I know that some of you don't have a stable supply of alcohol, and coincidentally, I have such channels. You open bars, and I will provide you with a stable supply of goods."

"You make a lot of money, and I get a stable port area, that's my purpose."

The middle-aged man thought for a while, "You will allow us to continue to exist?"

Lance shook his finger, "No, you have to disband the gangs."

Someone suddenly laughed. Lance looked towards the person who laughed, about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, who had been very impolite when he arrived.

This guy is called Zach, has a criminal record, has been in jail, and is the largest in scale among these people.

Three years of prison life has filled his gang with many inmates from prison. These people have experienced judicial blows and it is not so easy to find work in society—

In fact, federal ex-offenders also face this problem, especially some serious criminals. Sometimes the police will also pay special attention to them.

Zach took in this group of people and used his decent connections in prison to quickly grow the gang's size.

It just so happened that Polly's brain was malfunctioning at the time, and the Red Dog Gang was being hammered by the Wolf Gang. They came up with a name called "37th Street Gang", using the street they are currently on as the core area of activity.

These people have been hit, so they are bolder than ordinary people. They loot shops, rob, extort, blackmail, and do whatever brings money.

Zach always felt that he had been in jail and killed people, and always didn't take others seriously, and Lance was too young.

Even knowing his past, when he himself is young enough, it is difficult to feel awe when facing an even younger person.

It's like when you're still in school, you'll never think the top student in a lower grade is anything special, even if you can't even get into the top 100 in the grade, you'll still have this idea.

Zach always felt that Lance, or other gangs, just seized the opportunity.

If he seized the opportunity, he could do as big!

Now his reputation in the state prison is already a bit bigger. Many people come to him as soon as they are released from prison. Before long, their numbers will be even greater!

So when he first came, while others were more or less polite to Lance, he just snorted and sat down without saying a word.

In fact, there is no saying that there is no hatred at all between Lance and them.

The Wolf Gang asked them to go to the Imperial District and compete with Lance for territory. There have been more or less frictions between them and the Lance family, and they may have exchanged fire and attacked each other.

So to say that there is no contradiction or opposition at all is obviously unlikely, it's just not as prominent as the contradiction between the Wolf Gang and Lance.

"You have a different opinion."

Zach was also not polite, "Disbanding the gang is impossible, Lance, don't make it sound so good."

"If we put down our guns today, we will die in the streets tomorrow!"

"We are all gangsters, don't use that set of fooling ordinary people to deal with us."

Lance put down his knife and fork and asked him, "Who have I fooled?"

"Those other people, you are not a policeman, nor a politician, we are fucking gangsters, you can deceive others, but you can't deceive me!"

"You said to make money with us, but I heard that you squeezed all the bars in the Imperial District to bankruptcy."

"You have better sources of goods than us, you can completely force us to a dead end in price competition!"

"You can drive us all away just the same!"

"I won't be fooled, Lance!"

"If I die one day, it will definitely not be because I put down my gun!"

What he wanted to express was that if he were to die, it would definitely be in battle, not being killed directly after putting down his gun.

But his education level is a bit of a problem, so it is difficult for him to accurately express these contents.

Lance looked at him and explained, "I have never deceived them. In the Imperial District, I don't collect protection fees, and sometimes I even help them."

"Someone runs a casino, and I have never extorted them or asked them for money."

"As far as I know, there are actually still many small bars in the Imperial District, and I have not continued to deal with them."

Some family-style small bar workshops brew their own wine and then sell it to the surrounding people to earn some money to subsidize their families.

Okay, saying subsidize is a bit euphemistic, it's just making money.

Lance didn't think about dealing with them, because this money is still just a small number for the entire market.

He continued to explain, "I will use a uniform price method in the port area to balance this problem. All our bars, including my bars, have a standard price for alcohol."

"I will not break this standard, and of course you will definitely not break it either."

Zach kept shaking his head as he listened. Now he felt that Lance was a conspirator, and he came here just to hear what Lance had to say.

Now, he had heard enough.

He directly wiped his mouth and stood up, casually throwing the napkin on the table, "I'm full, the food is delicious, but I don't like you!"

As he spoke, he turned around to leave, and some of the others seemed to have intentions as well.

Then, the second person stood up, then the third, then the fourth…

In less than a moment, only Kerry and the middle-aged man were left in the entire arcade.

“Aren’t you leaving?”

Lance looked at them, “I won’t stop you from leaving.”

Kerry sighed, “In their eyes, I’ve already betrayed the harbor area. Where can I go?”

He stood up, grabbed a beef rib and tore at it forcefully, pulling the entire rib from the steak, and hugged it while gnawing, “The food is delicious, give me a business card, I like your sauce.”

The manager quickly gave him a business card, “We await your patronage, sir.”

Lance looked at the middle-aged man, he was the oldest of the people who came this time.

Most middle-aged and elderly gang members joined the gang when they were young and slowly worked their way up.

For example… Heller of the Camilla gang, in his forties or fifties, he didn't found the gang and recruit so many people when he was in his forties or fifties.

He followed his father, uncles, and grandfather from a young age and began his gang life.

The vast majority, at least the majority of middle-aged people, even if they are at their wit's end, in life and at work, they may go to extremes, kill people, or hurt others, all of which are possible.

The only thing that is impossible is to suddenly and inexplicably form a gang!

The vast majority of new gangs are centered around young people, because they have more active minds, are more fearless of authority, and even crave to challenge authority!

Middle-aged and elderly people have long been smoothed out by society, they are not that stupid.

The reason why this middle-aged man became a gang leader was purely because he was forced to.

So his experience and life experience are also richer than others.

“Actually… I’ve wanted to end my current life for a long time, but some things have been holding me back, us.”

“Lance, you gave me a chance, I believe your promise, and I believe you won’t let us down!”

Lance smiled, “It seems I’m not completely unlikable.”

The people around him laughed, and Lance motioned for them to sit down, “Since they don’t want to eat, then we can’t waste it.”

He looked at the manager, “Grill the rest of the meat!”

The manager hurried to arrange it.

In fact, after Kerry and Lance, as well as Lance's group, had a meal and interacted for a while, their feelings towards Lance improved a lot.

Especially those people from the Lance family, the atmosphere of their big family made him a little envious, he liked this atmosphere.

But he wouldn't say it.

That would make him very embarrassed.

The meal was very satisfying. After the meal, Lance paid the bill, and the manager took the initiative to give Lance a discount. Lance also asked him to send his regards to old man Anderson.

“I hope he won’t get angry because of my greetings, but I still hope you can help me pass on my regards to him.”

The manager repeatedly assured him that he would definitely pass on the message, and then left by car.

Kerry and the middle-aged man also left, and Lance returned to the arcade, leaving only his own people.

Lance sat back in Wolf's uncomfortable chair, he crossed his legs, and his hand kept tapping lightly on the armrest.

Hiram picked his nose and asked, “Why don’t we keep them all here, we have so many people.”

Lance shook his head, “If we keep them here today, no one will ever trust my words again, so let them go today first.”

“But after today, if we attack them again, people won’t be able to say anything.”

“Don’t touch Kerry and that middle-aged man for now, clean up the others, start with that Zach first!”

Hiram was just about to flick his booger away when Lance grabbed the rag on the table and threw it at him, “When can you stop flicking boogers everywhere?”

Hiram chuckled twice, “I’ll remember, I definitely won’t next time!”

“God will appear if you can remember!”

Loren quipped from the side, and Hiram immediately pounced on him, the sounds of fighting and laughter quickly filled the entire arcade.

These days, the senator just arrived, and Lance doesn't plan to be too flamboyant, after all, scaring the old men in Congress will cause big trouble.

After Lance revealed the idea of the Labor Union to Tom, their actions were very fast. The next day, the port management company realized that it was impossible not to bow their heads.

They are willing to make appropriate concessions, they can add more meat and eggs to the workers' meals, and they can also meet their wage increase requirements, increasing it by one dollar and twenty cents at once, and then increasing it by thirty-five cents every six months, but the working hours cannot be reduced.

The food standard has very flexible standards and bottom lines. Beef is also meat, chicken is also meat, and the beef offal that no one eats is also meat!

Anyway, they didn't say what kind of meat, and eggs are even cheaper!

Now the Federation has begun to promote large-scale breeding, the price of eggs is rapidly becoming cheaper, and it is not necessary to give the workers eggs every day, and it is not necessary to eat one every time.

Calculating it this way, the company thinks it is still acceptable.

They have actually made huge concessions, because once they compromise with the workers first, it will not be so easy for them to talk to those companies and want to increase the service fee.

They have no means of coercion. Even if they can negotiate, they will not be able to extort as much as they initially thought.

If they had thought this way earlier, maybe there wouldn't be these problems later, but now the workers' demands have obviously increased, and it has also given them a glimmer of hope.

So the workers here did not agree to their plan. The salary increase was too small, and they felt that the working hours were too long and unreasonable.

It seems that it will not be possible to determine it in a short time.

They had just exchanged opinions in the morning, and in the afternoon, Tom called Lance again.

“Have you heard about what happened this morning?” he went straight to the point.

Lance knew the result of the exchange of opinions in the morning. The reason why it was an exchange of opinions was because it was not even a negotiation, they didn't even talk!

“I know, there is still a big disagreement between the two sides.”

“Yes, a big disagreement!”

“You have to help, Lance, help us do the work of the workers. The port management company is actually very sincere. They have increased the meal standards and increased wages. You should give way when it's time to give way. Only in this way can we negotiate properly!”

Lance keenly felt a trace of inexplicable anxiety in Tom's tone, “Did something happen?” he asked.

Tom's reaction was very fast, “Did something happen?”

“What aspect are you referring to?”

“The strike.”

Tom was silent for a while. He originally wanted to hide a fact, but soon he felt that this news could not be hidden for too long, “Another group of dockworkers in a region has gone on strike, they are using this method to support the dock strike in King's Harbor!”

“Listen, if we don’t resolve this matter as soon as possible, the situation will only become more and more serious.”

“This is not a good thing for you, for me, or for anyone!”

Lance considered it, “What do you want me to do?”

Tom's speech was very fast, “We will sit down and talk tomorrow, you come too, and then you help us communicate with the representatives, we will try our best to find a…”, he searched in his mind, “A point that can fit together and solve this matter, how about it?”

“No problem!” Lance replied.