Empire of Shadows

Rick's son's body was not sent directly to the morgue but was placed in a body bag and transported to the Cassia family's estate.

They didn't have such a custom, and they didn't plan to resolve the issue through the police.

From receiving the news to the body being transported back, it only took about twenty minutes, but he looked as if he had aged several years in an instant.

He slowly walked to the side of the body bag, hesitated for a moment, and then unzipped it.

As the body bag was opened, a shattered human face appeared before him.

Looking at the face with many bullet holes, Rick felt a strong sense of anger, along with some disgust.

He had seen many dead people, killed by others, or killed by himself, many, so many that he couldn't even count them all.

But never before had he felt such a sense of nauseous vomiting after seeing his own son's corpse.

This was actually a stress reaction. If Will (Kent's brother) hadn't died, then the two of them could definitely have exchanged notes on the reactions to seeing the corpses of loved ones.

One had lost a brother, the other had lost a son.

Both felt like vomiting, but Rick held it back, while Will threw up all over the place.

His gaze lingered on that shattered face, the bullet holes already having been cleaned up simply, leaving only dark red little holes, with some places where fat had been squeezed out, yellow and red, like tumors.

His shattered and sunken eyeballs would become the core of Rick's nightmare tonight. His hands trembled slightly as he re-zipped the body bag and then turned to signal people to quickly take the body bag away.

"Find someone to clean him up. I want him to leave clean and tidy."

He walked to the side, took out a cigarette and lit it. His emotions were filled with anger.

Anger at the killer, and also anger at his own son. He had warned this bastard, and after being cursed out by him, he should have insisted more at the time.

But he was also careless. He hadn't thought that these people would actually attack his son, and even succeed!

The weak nicotine from two puffs of the cigarette couldn't suppress his anger at all. He walked over to the bodyguards responsible for protecting him and gave them a furious beating.

The bodyguards were beaten to the ground, not daring to get up, like a group of performance art masters "frozen" on the ground in various contorted poses.

Their eyes were all locked on Rick, while he was still kicking a poor wretch who was holding his head.

The soles of the shoes with iron palms hurt a lot when they kicked someone, a piercing pain, but the bodyguards didn't dare to do anything, not even dare to shout.

After venting for a while, Rick finally took two steps back. He took two deep breaths to smooth out his uneven breathing, while tugging hard at the hem of his clothes.

The cigarette that had fallen to the ground still had two or three puffs left. He bent down to pick it up and took a puff, "Whose people did this?"

No one spoke. They were just bodyguards. They didn't know who had arranged those drinks.

"Investigate, find out!"

After venting, his temper improved a lot. "I remember one of you said just now that there were still people alive?"

"A few girls."

"He must have liked them a lot. Let them go down and keep him company."

His assistant's expression was a little strange. Those girls were now at the police station. Someone had reported the crime, and they had been taken away by the police.

Rick looked up at him, his eyes full of bloodshot veins, "I don't give a damn what method you use!"

Now Rick was in a rage. It wasn't a good choice to reason with him. For someone who was used to using violent means to solve problems, this wasn't a good option.

After the two stared at each other for a moment, his assistant relented, "Okay, you say so."

However, he didn't really plan to kill people in the police station. That would be too stupid. He would wait for these girls to be released and then quietly kill them.

Having received the answer he wanted, Rick's anger seemed to subside a little. He looked at his son's body being taken away and said softly, "It must have been Salifu and them who did it, it must be. Only they would do this."

"He was so young, he didn't do anything wrong, they shouldn't have done this to him!"

He lit another cigarette, as if he couldn't figure it out. But in the underworld, what is there to figure out?

Everyone says not to involve family, but some people are ruthless and kill them all.

The first gangster to say "don't involve family" must have been a high-ranking member of the gang. Only they would be afraid of their families being involved. As for those at the bottom of the gang, the bottom of society, they already had nothing and didn't care about these things at all.

The richer people are, the more they fear losing, because they really have something!

It's like the spelling game in the 'Federal Post'. A reporter interviewed a passerby and asked him if he would be willing to donate all the prize money to charity if he won a thousand dollars?

He said he would donate it all.

The reporter said that he now had a chance to donate five dollars to charity, but he refused.

The reporter was curious, why would you be willing to donate a thousand dollars, but not five dollars?

The answer is so obvious, because he didn't have a thousand dollars, so he didn't care, but he really had five dollars!

They don't care about losing as long as they can go further. They can sacrifice everything.

But when they achieve success and have happiness, they are afraid of losing!

Rick hadn't thought about whether those people he had killed, those killed by their gang, were someone else's son, someone's husband, or a father of a family.

But when it came to him, he couldn't accept it.

Many senior cadres in the family gathered around. They had all heard about this and were standing around him.

"When will the new gunman arrive?" he asked.

The cadre in charge of picking up people glanced at the new-style watch on his wrist, the one with the calendar, "In the next two days."

He didn't speak. He planned to wait two more days, just two days.

But while he was willing to wait, some people were not. In the battle between him and the Tita family, both sides had lost many people, but he mainly lost those cheap gunmen from Yalan.

Gunmen who would risk their lives for a few hundred dollars, one or two thousand dollars.

What Salifu lost, however, were his friends, brothers, and relatives!

That night, Rick, having drunk some wine, leaned against the headboard of his bed. He was a little afraid of sleeping and also afraid of the night.

He always felt that his son would find him in his dreams, and the thought of that shattered face filled him with an indescribable fear.

His wife had already been driven away by him because she kept crying, crying and whimpering, which was annoying.

He needed some wine to help him fall asleep. Just as he picked up the wine bottle again to pour himself a glass, the phone suddenly rang!

The abrupt ringing of the phone in that quiet room was so jarring. His hand holding the wine bottle shook.

Amid his curses, he gave up wiping the wine that was flowing everywhere on the bedside table and picked up the phone.

"Boss, our bar has been attacked."

Now almost all criminal groups in the Federation are engaged in the smuggling of alcohol. This alcohol is smuggled in from other places, and the price is as cheap as if it were free, such as from the Yalan region.

Due to the Federation's prohibition of alcohol, the price of alcohol in Yalan has also increased, but not by much, with an increase of about 20% to 30%.

A bottle of wine that used to cost fifty cents might now cost sixty or sixty-five cents.

Yalan has world-class vineyards, and the climate is humid and hot, suitable for growing various crops for brewing alcohol. If you sell it expensively, someone will sell it cheaply, and the competition is fierce.

These sixty-odd cent wines enter the Federation through smuggling, and their cost is about seventy cents, but in bars, they can be sold for four dollars or even higher.

Not to mention those wines that are of better or worse quality, they all have profits of five to ten times.

Profits of more than five times are enough to drive people crazy!

In addition to human trafficking, the Cassia family is also engaged in the alcohol business, which is now a cash-producing cow!

Whether it was because he had drunk too much alcohol or because there was too much bad news, just as he felt the flames of anger begin to roar again, a surge of energy rushed to the top of his head, making him a little dizzy.

"The damage... how is it?"

"How are the guests?"

In fact, the damage was not important to them, just some wine. They had channels to replenish it quickly.

But if the guests were frightened, it would become very troublesome, after all, the ultimate consumers were those guests, and money could only be earned from them.

The person on the phone spoke very directly, "Not good, they used submachine guns, and some guests were injured."

"F***, how dare they attack the guests?"

While he was on the phone, he suddenly heard the sound of sirens in the receiver, followed by someone announcing their affiliation, "We are from the Tobacco, Alcohol and Dangerous Goods Administration, who are you talking to?"

The voice of his subordinate came from the receiver, "I'll hang up first."

As he spoke, he hung up the phone with a snap, making Rick's head buzz!

He couldn't sleep anymore. He turned over, put on his coat, and came to the living room. The people on duty in the living room all stood up. They were playing cards.

In fact, this job was quite comfortable, being a bodyguard for the boss.

If you didn't consider the possibility of encountering dangerous things, then most of the time they were like this, sitting somewhere smoking, bragging, or playing cards.

"Notify them, I'm going out for a trip..."

Soon, a convoy was ready. Rick sat in the middlemost armored car, and the convoy left the manor.

The Starlight District, where nightlife was just beginning, was bustling. News spread quickly, and it wasn't long before people knew that a bar had been attacked by gangsters, and some patrons were injured.

In fact, in most gang fights in the past, it was relatively rare for patrons to get hurt.

Everyone didn't want to offend patrons and would try to avoid them, but now that patrons were injured, it meant that conflicts were starting to escalate infinitely, and even patrons were no longer safe.

In an instant, in less than an hour, the popularity of the Cassia family's bar visibly declined.

Of course, the popularity of the Tita family's bar also declined. They all guessed that the firefight between the two sides would continue to escalate.

What's even more interesting is that after the bar was attacked, the Dangerous Goods Administration also appeared and arrested many of their people.

Two senior executives, twenty or thirty core members, and some peripheral members were all arrested.

For a time, there were all kinds of rumors flying around.

Rick didn't go to the Starlight District, but went directly to see Bandi.

In Bandi's study, Rick kept pressing his temples to relieve his headache. "I need your help, Bandi."

"My son is dead, and my bar has been destroyed by them. They are too bullying!"

Bandi knew what had happened today and was amazed by the efficiency of those people. At the same time, he also realized that he couldn't mediate, no matter how hard he tried.

After the mayor was finished, he wanted to restore the five major families, but of course, he also realized that this was very unlikely to happen.

If he might have felt there was a possibility of trying before, now, there was no possibility at all.

Rick's son was dead, and that alone made it impossible to mediate.

But this also suited Bandi's interests. He hoped that these people would fight to the death, and in the end, he would get rid of all the others.

"How do you want me to help you?"

"Help me arrange a meeting with Salif. Just say you want to talk to him, and when he comes, we'll kill him."

Bandi looked at Rick like he was looking at an idiot. "You want me to betray my credibility to solve Salif for you?"

Perhaps he used to be a gang leader, but now, he's not who he used to be. Their family has almost laundered itself clean.

The more a family launders itself, the more important credibility becomes, because it's the only way they can gain the trust of those in the upper class who are just as shady.

Perhaps sensing the dissatisfaction in Bandi's tone, Rick lowered his voice a little, with a hint of apology, "I know this will be difficult for you, but this is the fastest way for us to resolve the current chaos."

"Once Salif is killed by us, they will lose their leader."

"Francisco, that useless child, is not a threat at all. We can completely deal with them at our leisure."

"As for the Lance family, once we free up our hands, it won't be difficult to deal with them!"

Listening to his analysis, Bandi was considering more subsequent matters, such as finding a way to get rid of Rick in front of him, and then driving away Feigal. The entire Goldport City would belong to him.

But... he didn't want to rely on selling his credibility to get such a deal.

It's easy to lose it, but to regain it, it takes much more than what was lost!

Seeing that he was hesitant, Rick continued to persuade him, "In the past six months, fewer and fewer people have been traveling to Goldport City. I know your casino isn't doing so well either. This is a one-time opportunity to solve all the problems, Bandi."

"If you let me and him continue to fight, whether it's day or night, as long as the gunfight doesn't end for a day, it will be difficult for Goldport City's security to return to what it was before for a day!"

"There's Pasreto behind, and Lance, and whatever else. When will it end?"

"We must resolve these as soon as possible and get everything back on track!"

"Moreover, we don't publicize this matter. Who knows what role you played?"

Bandi glanced at Rick, expressionless, but the thought of getting rid of this guy was even stronger in his heart.

But he was right, it was time to get everything back on track!

He nodded, "I'll call Salif."

Rick looked at him without saying anything or making any other movements. Bandi was immediately a little embarrassed and annoyed, "You want me to call now?"

Rick seemed not to feel Bandi's dissatisfaction and anger, "The sooner the better."

"You're such a f***ing..., okay, you win!"

The curse word wasn't said, but it was expressed well.

He picked up the phone, dialed Salif's number, and used the speakerphone function.

The phone was quickly connected, "Hey, good evening, Salif. I heard you did some big things today?"

Salif's laughter came from the phone's speaker, "Not bad, can't always let him steal the show, right?"

Bandi was silent for a while, "I think we should sit down and talk again. You've already killed his son, and he's paid a heavy price. It's time to use this as an opportunity for us to have a good talk."

"We're all friends. There's no need to make the situation so ugly. It should stop before more people leave us."

Salif asked, "Whose idea is this?"

Bandi said keenly, "This is my idea. We used to be very good friends. Even if there were some conflicts, they're all over, aren't they?"

"There's no need to fight to the death for someone else!"

Salif's tone became less friendly, "Why don't you say that he killed my friends and relatives?"

Bandi raised his voice a little, "You just killed his son!"

"That wasn't me. It was either Alberto or Lance who did it. It has nothing to do with me."

Bandi and Rick looked at each other. The latter's teeth were almost crushed.

Bandi continued to persuade, "In any case, we should talk one last time. There's no hatred that can't be resolved. Don't let others take advantage of our conflicts."

They were both very clear about who this "others" referred to.

After a long while, Salif said, "I'll decide the location."

"No problem!"

"But it can't be on your territory, otherwise Rick probably won't come. I suggest putting it near the city center. We have no conflicts with Feigal, and he can guarantee our safety."

After thinking for a while, Salif agreed...

"Motherf***er, those sons of b*tches, I'm going to kill them!" Rick exploded the moment the phone hung up.

"Alberto, and Lance, I've remembered!"

He always thought that Salif killed his son, but now he knew that it was these two guys.

Bandi wanted to remind him that Salif might not be telling the truth, but in the end, he didn't remind him. It was also a good thing for him to have Rick go up against everyone. He would even encourage him to continue doing so.

Recommend this book, Kui Lao's, ask if it's good to read, thank you

It's so annoying, I really want to punch this stupid doomsday.