Empire of Shadows

Lance took out a stack of money from the drawer, counted out ten five-dollar bills, laid them out in a row on the table, counted them in front of the gentleman, then stacked them together and handed them over.

"May I ask, why did you choose us?"

The gentleman counted the money as he said, "Only you are willing to lend me fifty dollars. The others think it's too little and the interest is too high."

Before coming here, he had gone to other places to borrow money, but clearly, he hadn't succeeded.

It wasn't that there was no profit margin in fifty dollars. In fact, it not only had a profit margin, but a considerable one.

According to the current practices of finance companies, borrowing fifty dollars could mean having to repay over a hundred dollars in three months, which is a very high interest rate.

But there was also a problem: whether the money could be recovered, and whether the costs involved might exceed the profit.

It was a simple calculation. If the gentleman was unwilling to repay the money when it was due, or disappeared, would the expenses of sending two people in a car to find him and bring him back exceed the profit from the fifty dollars?

It might take them a week to find him, plus various other expenses, such as the cost of eating out, and the fifty dollars wouldn't be enough to cover the cost of finding him.

So even if they found the person and got the money back, they could still end up losing money.

Therefore, some finance companies were not very willing to do this kind of small business, and the high interest rates also deterred people. This was the main reason why Lance focused his business on loans under one hundred dollars.

He did what they weren't interested in, first expanding the business, avoiding competition, and then considering upward expansion.

Lance not only had the gentleman sign the agreement, but also put his thumbprint on it, and wrote on the last line, "I have carefully read the above content, and I voluntarily acknowledge and am willing to bear all legal consequences," locking in the legality of the contract.

After counting the fifty dollars in cash that Lance handed him, the gentleman happily took the money and left.

Lance then took out a brand new notebook, wrote down his partner's name, and then recorded the specific details of the transaction, "After his debt is cleared, you can get... four dollars and eighty cents in commission from this order."

His partner's eyes narrowed into slits with a smile. He had earned almost five dollars?

This money was too easy to earn, wasn't it?

Lance bumped fists with him, told him to keep up the good work, and then, taking these things with him, found a nearby bank.

"What kind of business are you here to conduct, sir?"

A manager in the lobby took the initiative to greet him, mainly because Lance's attire looked different from those mud-legged thugs, and he also seemed to have driven a car.

Wealth is the most effective pass in the Federation, from strip clubs to the presidential palace.

"I would like to inquire about loan services."

"Loans?"

"Please come with me..."

The two passed through the reasonably well-decorated lobby and arrived at the personal loan office. The manager knocked on the door and then let Lance in.

This was a private office. A gentleman who looked to be in his forties was sitting behind a desk. He took the initiative to stand up, walked to Lance, and shook his hand. "Please sit down. How should I address you, sir?"

"Lance."

"Alright, Mr. Lance, you can call me Jonathan. As you can see, my job is to handle loan services."

"So...", he rubbed his hands together, "What can I do for you?"

Lance placed the two checks and the contract on the table. "I want a loan, sixty-five dollars, for two months."

Jonathan took a deep breath, first examining the two checks, which were ordinary ones that almost everyone had. He checked the account numbers on them, which belonged to a union worker's account used to receive wages.

Every month, the money would pass through the union and then enter this account, which was very common in Gold Harbour City.

There were mostly lower-class workers here, so the power of the union was also unusually large.

Next was the contract. He carefully examined it, and after confirming that there were no tricks in the wording, he asked somewhat uncertainly, "So, this is..."

"Collateral."

"The owners of these two checks currently have no money in their accounts, but the first check will be cashed in a week, at which time he will receive his first paycheck, which is thirty-seven dollars, all here."

"This is his salary for next month, also thirty-seven dollars. I'm using these two cashable checks to borrow sixty-five dollars. Is there a problem?"

Jonathan encountered this situation for the first time. He was a little unsure. "I don't know, honestly."

"If... this... gentleman suddenly loses this job...", he tried to find loopholes in it and reject this loan business that he didn't understand.

But Lance didn't give him the chance. "So I had him sign a work card rental agreement, four months, it can get at least sixty dollars in rental fees from any illegal immigrant."

"If you understand the market, you'll know that the monthly price of a work card has actually risen to twenty dollars, which is the current prevailing price."

"In other words, there is a profit margin of eighty dollars."

The backlash against illegal immigration was coming to an end, but its impact was still continuing. The most typical example was the increase in work card rental fees.

You could see it as the natives taking advantage of the situation, but there would still be people willing to rent these work cards.

Because they had been out of work for a month or a month and a half, and illegal immigrants who had no savings would face the major problem of not having food to eat if they didn't work!

Now, you could hardly see free food being distributed on the streets. Those crazy young people would knock all the food to the ground to prevent them from helping those hungry illegal immigrants.

Jonathan was a local, and he knew this very well.

Currently, the bank's personal loan interest rate is 12% per year, which is 1% per month. Sixty-five dollars is sixty-five cents per month. Two months is too little, right?

Jonathan was now in a dilemma. He didn't really want to facilitate this transaction because it was unique, unprecedented, and could cause him trouble.

But regardless of the size of the transaction, it was, after all, proof of work, which the bank valued very much. This was what capitalists called "attitude".

Just as he was in a dilemma, Lance added some weight to his side of the scale, "Actually, I only brought one of them. I have many such transactions, Mr. Jonathan."

"Thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars, every month."

"You probably can tell what I do, so you don't have to worry about problems with this loan, because I'll solve all the problems before they become your trouble!"

Jonathan pursed his lips. "Thousands, or tens of thousands?"

Lance nodded slightly. "Maybe more."

He straightened up and examined the two checks and the contract again. "But we haven't done this before, and in a week..."

"You can go directly to cash this check. I believe no one can cash it faster than you!"

Hearing this, he was a little tempted, which meant the risk was a little smaller. Lock the account, allow deposits but not withdrawals, and then deduct what should be deducted. There was almost no risk at all. "Then the other one..."

"Same operation, transfer the extra money to my account."

Jonathan considered for a long time, then put the things on the table and reached out his hand, "Do you want cash or a check?"

"Also, you need to provide me with an authorization letter, authorizing me to operate these two checks. You know, in case of problems, we need to know who should bear these responsibilities!"

Lance shook Jonathan's hand tightly. "No problem, you'll find that today is the luckiest day of your life!"

Jonathan smiled and shook his arm twice. "Hopefully..."

With such a strong guarantee, it was very easy to borrow money from the bank, which meant that Lance had already made fifteen dollars in profit without doing anything.

Although the bank would deduct part of his "loan" profit in two months, 2% of sixty-five dollars, which was one dollar and thirty cents.

But compared to being able to get part of the money now, which was sixty-five dollars, the loss of one dollar and thirty cents was completely acceptable!

Moreover, in this process, the funds were constantly rolling. It could be said that he was willing to give the bank more money, because the more money he gave the bank, the more money he could earn!

Erwin was still worried that Lance didn's have enough money in his pocket. If he really didn't have enough money, he wouldn't even act as an intermediary for Alberto. He could handle it himself!