Empire of Shadows

After saying goodbye to Major General Bruner, Lance went to William's office.

The office was also rented by Lance, and people knew the relationship between William and Lance, so no one stopped him along the way.

It wasn't until Lance directly pushed open the office door that William's female secretary hurriedly straightened her skirt.

William sat in the chair somewhat helplessly, he looked at Lance, "I can explain."

Lance just frowned, then walked to the opposite side of him and sat down, signaling the secretary to leave and close the door.

"I really can explain!" After the secretary left, William emphasized again that he could explain why his secretary was straightening her skirt in his office.

Lance rejected his idea of explaining, "I'm also a man, I have eyes, I know what you are doing."

"I think the biggest problem now isn't you and her flirting in the office, or even further..."

William was about to "correct" Lance's words, but Lance raised his finger to stop him, "I don't care if you cheat, William."

"But you have to be careful."

"Today it's me, what if it were someone else?"

"People know that the municipal councilor of the Imperial District is messing around with his secretary in the office, and that's the end of your career."

"I've invested a lot in you, and so has the Lawrence family, it will all be for nothing."

"That's your biggest problem!"

"Next time, lock the door, or find another place."

"Don't let me find out that you're messing around in the office again!"

Emily's pregnancy was already showing, her belly was gradually getting bigger, and because she was not young, the doctor suggested not to engage in any sexual activity even during the safe period.

In case of an accidental miscarriage, not only the child in her belly would suffer, but also herself.

The Federation is one of the most medically advanced countries in the world, but even so, dystocia and accidental miscarriages still claim many lives every year.

At first, Emily would help William solve his needs with her hands or other means, but she stopped this game that made others happy while she had no fun and made her uneasy.

Power is the most potent aphrodisiac in this world, and William has inexhaustible energy every day. He is already in his forties, and he can't always rely on himself to solve his problems at this age.

The secretary in the office had been teasing him. Before, when Emily helped him solve his desires, he might not have been so sensitive.

But as desire accumulated step by step, he now needed a way to vent, and even those small details that he usually didn't notice could be noticed by him.

From William's perspective, his secretary was like a bitch in heat, wagging her tail with her ass sticking out, and he only needed to stand in the right place at any time and any place.

William's face was a little hot, after all, Lance was his son-in-law, but he didn't get angry being said that by Lance.

He could only nod a little depressed, "I won't mess with her again in the future."

Lance didn't seem to buy it, "So you're planning to hire a prostitute?"

"If you and your secretary are found messing around, then they will only think that you can't resist temptation."

"But if you are found hiring a prostitute, you not only have moral problems, but you also violate the law."

"Remember what I said, you can do what you want to do, but don't mess up your work and image."

"If you lose those, you are worthless!"

Saying that, Lance thought for a while and gave him a number, "If you have to spend money to solve it, call this number, they will arrange it for you."

Although the Lance family does not run escort services, there are some spontaneously formed escort companies that are protected by them.

This era is like this, or rather, every era is like this, money is the standard for measuring everything.

Even if a woman stands up by taking off her clothes and becomes rich, then when she puts on her clothes, people may still have the image of her without clothes in their minds, but at least they will respectfully call her "Madam" on the mouth.

But those women who have no money, no matter how noble their morals are, will still be viciously called "bitches" by others.

The reason why truth is truth is that it will not change at any time.

Some people are willing to work twelve hours a day in Lance's factory, sweating all over, earning forty-two yuan a month.

But there are also people who lie on the bed and spread their legs without being forced, earning forty-two yuan a day. This is their choice. Lance respects their choice and protects them from harm.

The person in charge of managing this part will help William do it well, and they also have high-end escorts.

Those young and beautiful girls will be in a secret room according to the agreement. She will cover her eyes, or even wear a hood.

There is no communication in this process, and she cannot see who that person is.

After everything is over, the "agent" will take her away, and everything ends here.

It can't be said to be absolutely safe, but at least it is much safer than in the office.

William put away the card. Although he said on the surface that he would not do that, Lance was sure that he would do that.

Some things only happen zero times or countless times.

This is different from his previous socializing in the city hall. This is his initiative.

William had never felt that time passed so slowly and was so torturous.

Even when he was sitting on the bench in the city hall before, he had never been so painful.

All kinds of explanations and solutions to possible problems in the future kept emerging in his heart, but in the end they were shattered one by one, because he did do something he shouldn't have done.

Lance looked at him and shook his head slightly, "Regarding this matter, I'll give you one last piece of advice, don't let her get pregnant, and don't let her try to give birth to the child."

"If she wants to do that, I will have someone sink her into Angel Lake."

"You know, we won't let your career have any accidents. If someone tries to ruin you, then we will ruin her before she ruins you."

This was his last warning. Once there is a child, many things will become complicated and irreversible.

William nodded repeatedly, he knew how to deal with it.

After missing this embarrassing topic, Lance talked about some things about the Lawrence Farm.

The Lawrence Farm is a relatively large farm in the entire Licarlei State. In addition, the crops produced by the farms around it are also entrusted to the Lawrence Farm for sales, so Lance will have more advantages than others in terms of material supply.

Directly from the farm to the military camp, without middlemen making the difference.

However, William didn't know much about this, so he gave Lance a phone number, his little brother's phone number, Deans.

The "general manager" of Lawrence Farm, specializing in selling crops to surrounding cities and regions.

The two agreed to meet in the evening.

The Saint Farming Festival is coming soon, and it is also the harvest season of the year. A large number of crops will soon begin to be harvested, and he must sell these crops as soon as possible.

The cost will increase by one point for every day of backlog. Selling it a day earlier can not only avoid some storage risks, but also make a lot of money.

Then Lance did not continue to stay and left here directly.

He didn't really think this was a bad thing. Just like he said to William, what made him feel this was a "trouble" was that William was so careless.

Hopefully he can learn a lesson from this incident.

Later, at Lance's villa, he met Deans.

The two shook hands and sat in the living room. After they sent coffee, only the two of them were left.

Deans inevitably asked about Lance and Patricia's wedding plans. In fact, July and August are good days for weddings, but the end of the year is not bad either.

The overall plan has not changed. In November and December, Lance will marry Patricia.

"I didn't really want to hold a grand wedding, but it seems like I can't do that."

Just the Lawrence family is a large group of people, and a "group of relatives and friends" of hundreds of people will only make the wedding scale larger.

If you don't invite others, then those who are not invited will feel a little uncomfortable.

But if you invite one, you must invite another, so that the scale of this wedding may be the largest wedding in King's Harbor in recent years, without one.

Deans was very interested in this. The grander Lance and Patricia's wedding was, the more positive the impact on the Lawrence family would be.

He asked curiously, "How many guests are you planning to invite?"

Lance didn't know for a while, and could only say a rough number, "Maybe one or two hundred people?"

"I don't know, it needs to be calculated at that time."

Deans sighed, "That must be an enviable wedding."

As long as they are human, they will be vain in this society. Vanity is not an unforgivable sin. What cannot be forgiven are some of the worse things caused by vanity.

After chatting for a while, the feeling of strangeness between the two disappeared a lot, and Lance also focused the topic on the business.

"Have you heard about the garrison?"

Deans nodded, "Yes, I also went to see when the warships entered the port, it was magnificent!"

He picked up the coffee and took a sip, then sighed with emotion, "When I saw those giant cannons and battleships, my brain went blank!"

"I simply don't know who can defeat such a powerful us. I am proud to be a federalist!"

Good, an heir to a pure-blooded, non-extreme conservative landed gentry – this is part of the mainstream group in the Federation, and his thoughts also represent the mainstream ideology.

That sense of pride emanated from his body without needing careful observation; it was everywhere.

Lance nodded. "Nearly ten thousand, perhaps even more, naval personnel will be living here, and their consumption of supplies will be an astonishing figure."

Deans keenly caught the meaning in Lance's words. "Are you talking about... their supply of materials?"

"I'm sorry, I don't understand this matter very well. Shouldn't their supplies be provided by the Department of Defense?"

Lance nodded. "Ordnance and ammunition are supplied by the Department of Defense, but food and daily necessities are purchased locally."

"This is a big business!"

Deans nodded in agreement. "Yes, at least a multi-million business every month!" His gaze was fixed on Lance, who met his eyes.

After the two stared at each other for a moment, Deans said with a smile, "Come on, Lance, we're on the same side. Is there some good news waiting for me?"

"You know, you're making me a little uneasy. I really want to know if it's what I want!"

Lance laughed heartily. "Yes, I just spoke with the naval garrison commander; he intends to hand this part over to me."

"My God!" Deans was completely stunned!

As the general manager of the farm, he certainly knew how astonishing the profits of such official bulk purchases were. It could be said that if they secured this business, the scale and grade of Lawrence Farm would immediately be elevated to another level!

"How did you do it?!"

He was even still somewhat skeptical. Lance didn't tell him the truth; the fewer people who knew about these things, the better. "In any case, I've taken on this matter. Can our farm handle the supply of these ingredients?"

Deans calmed down from his excitement. "I need to see their material requirements."

Lance gave him a simple list, which contained some of the materials needed for each period. He read it carefully.

"Basically, we have everything they need. What we don't have ourselves, the surrounding farms also grow."

"I see that their meal standard is ninety cents per person per day?"

His tone carried a sense of surprise. This meal standard, honestly, was very high!

"With this meal standard, many people will be more interested in enlisting!"

Currently, the main group joining the army is illegal immigrants and refugees who want to obtain legal federal status, but if they knew the navy's food was so good, it would definitely make the rising enthusiasm even hotter!

Lance shook his head. "You can't look at it that way. You need to lower its standard to fifty to sixty cents, not ninety."

He had done similar work in another world. How could you get such a big order without giving kickbacks?

The standard of ninety cents per soldier's meal, in reality, only a little more than half could be used on the soldiers themselves, and the rest would be General Myers' benefits.

But even so, fifty-five to sixty cents could still allow those people to eat very well.

For example, the regulations stipulate that each naval soldier needs to have at least one pound of beef and two eggs every day, as well as one liter of milk.

A large amount of protein can help them maintain better physical condition during their daily training.

Currently, the price of one pound of whole-cut steak is about twenty-five to thirty cents per pound, because of the war, the prices of all foods are rising.

But the price of ground beef is only five or six cents per pound.

Beef patties made from ground beef are beef.

Whole-cut steak is also beef, but the price difference is more than ten or twenty cents.

Whole wheat bread is bread.

Refined wheat bread is also bread, and there is also a difference of several cents here.

Adding in some other things, there is still a lot of room for profit here.

In fact, besides food, soldiers' supplies also include candy, cigarettes, chocolate, chewing gum, etc., but these already have unified suppliers, and Lance can't get involved.

He can only get involved in the fresh ingredients aspect.

Listening to Lance's explanation, Deans frowned and calculated. "If calculated like this, our profit is only about ten to fifteen percent."

Lance set a tone for him. "No more than ten percent. After all, they are right next to us. If any soldiers think these are too bad, we will be in more trouble."

Deans nodded. "In that case... there is no problem, I think."

"I need to go back and do a more specific costing. Do I need to submit the costing in the company's name?"

The 'Procurement Law' contains methods regarding the federal government and the military's local procurement. In order to avoid power-money transactions, each procurement needs to have at least one company participating in the bidding.

However, capitalists and politicians will not really make a cage and lock power inside.

The 'Procurement Law' stipulates that all bidding methods are conducted through sealed bids. In other words, they seal up the costing after it is done and submit it to the procurement department.

Then the procurement department announces whose price is more reasonable, and their final choice – yes, their choice, not the lowest price choice.

The department in charge of procurement has the final decision-making power. If the bidding company is dissatisfied with the result, it can appeal to higher-level departments, or even to Congress, but this is just a formality.

Enterprises that really need the 'Procurement Law' do not even have the opportunity to compete fairly, and those enterprises that are regulated within the scope of the 'Procurement Law' actually do not matter whether it exists or not.

From the beginning, it has already been decided who can win the bid and who cannot.

When it comes to corruption, the Federation's corruption methods and innovation are definitely world-class.

Lance was a little unsure. He temporarily called Brigadier General Bruner, who told him that it was not necessary to be so troublesome.

Next month, the President will announce the entry into a pre-war state. At that time, another set of special period regulations will be adopted, and the military will have the power to make decisions on some procurements themselves.

So General Myers will directly designate Lance or Lawrence Farm as the supplier to collectively supply ingredients for the entire navy.

Deans attaches great importance to this business. The monthly sales are about 1.8 million, and the gross profit margin is 18%, more than 300,000.

It doesn't seem like much, but what is valuable is not this part of the profit, but the qualification!

The 'qualification' and 'experience' generated by supplying materials to the military are very important to bulk raw material suppliers!

Some companies are even willing to supply goods at zero profit in order to obtain such a title.

With such qualifications, Lawrence Farm will be able to participate in more government procurement activities in the future, which is something that money cannot buy.

He drove back to the farm overnight. The people at Lawrence Farm were very loyal. Soon they had a complete plan to ensure the freshness and health of the food, while also ensuring that the price would not be outrageous.