Empire of Shadows

In some liquor stores that specialize in selling alcoholic beverages, high-end liquor often only has a few bottles. If customers need more, the store owner will call the superior supplier to request goods, or transfer goods from other colleagues.

High-end liquor is more expensive and occupies more capital. For merchants who aim to make profits, it is not the optimal choice.

The situation in King's Harbor is the same. There is a market for mid-to-high-end liquor, but the sales volume is definitely not as fast as low-end liquor.

For merchants, the ultimate goal is to quickly roll the funds, even if a roll only has a 5% profit, as long as the roll is fast enough, a 5% profit can double his principal in a short time.

But if the rolling of funds is difficult, that is, the change of the three forms of principal - goods - sales is very slow, even if the profit is 100%, the money they earn in the same cycle may not be as much as 5%.

This has led to a very special situation. Before the implementation of the Prohibition Order, merchants who were qualified to know about this and started hoarding liquor, almost all hoarded mid-to-low-end liquor. No one hoarded high-end liquor at all!

Even if someone hoarded a little, it might only be a few hundred bottles, a thousand bottles, and any more would not be cost-effective!

In fact, this is indeed the case. Mid-to-high-end liquor that cost five or six yuan now costs eleven yuan, doubling in price.

However, liquor that cost fifty-nine cents now costs two yuan, which is an increase of nearly three times. Even in the past two days, because low-end liquor is not in short supply, the terminal sales price growth rate of low-end liquor has begun to slow down, while high-end liquor, because of its small inventory, has stable sales, and the price has begun to increase faster.

Mr. Pasleto hopes to use this batch of liquor to open up the high-end liquor market, and this batch of liquor in Lance's hands gives them such an opportunity.

Even if they get it, they will not sell it to the public in a short time.

If Lance is feeling the world is full of beauty because of the large amount of wealth he has just obtained, then there is another person who has the same idea as him, and is even happier!

Arthur, this is the first time he has earned a lot of money without relying on wrongdoing, so he can't help but share his joy with his family by showing off.

"I'm rich!"

At the dinner table, he couldn't help but brag about it to his father and mother. Williams disliked his appearance of showing his emotions on his face the most, without any appearance of his own.

This is also the reason why he will not choose Arthur as his heir. Such a person will be eaten clean in the political arena, and then put into an oil drum and thrown into Angel Lake.

His knife and fork tapped each other, looking at Arthur, "Now is meal time, you have to learn to be quiet."

The young wife sitting opposite him interrupted him with a smile, "It's difficult for Arthur to do one thing right, letting him be happy, I don't think there's any problem, and there's only our family at the dinner table, no one else."

For this beautiful and young wife whom he especially likes, Councilor Williams has more tolerance.

This is a very special mentality, sometimes like living together as husband and wife, but sometimes it makes him feel like this is a daughter, he will be particularly indulgent and doting, "Okay, you have the final say here."

The woman turned to look at Arthur, equally happy, "Tell me, it's 'we' who are rich."

Arthur was stunned for a moment, then he remembered that his mother accounted for a large part of the second investment. Suddenly, he became a little wary, "We agreed, I'll give you three hundred thousand."

The woman elegantly manipulated the knife and fork, "Did we?"

Arthur looked at her with an unbelievable expression, and then looked at his father, but Councilor Williams did not intend to help him, "This is a matter between you mother and son, I don't know, and I won't intervene."

The woman gave her husband a flying kiss across the table, and then looked at Arthur, "What we agreed on was half, did you forget."

Arthur didn't speak, she said in a very sad tone, "I raised you from childhood to adulthood, and now for a little money, you are unwilling to talk to me."

"Besides, am I asking for too much?"

"If it weren't for my money, you wouldn't have earned a penny of this income, let alone so much!"

Arthur felt his blood pressure rising. In fact, the income from the money invested later was not as large as expected.

He listened to Mr. Chobaf's advice and hoarded a large amount of cheap low-end liquor. Through some relationships of Councilor Williams, the price he got was about one yuan and thirty-five cents.

So far, each bottle has brought him a profit of only eighty-five cents, and the profit does not exceed one hundred and sixty thousand.

Originally, he only needed to give his mother fifty thousand out of one hundred and sixty thousand, but now he has to give eighty thousand… …

When his mind turned around, he immediately agreed. He originally thought he would have to give a lot more, but now that he thought about it carefully, it seemed like he couldn't give much.

The woman was also in a much better mood when she saw him agree so readily, and asked seemingly intentionally or unintentionally, "How much money did you earn in total?"

Arthur became alert all of a sudden, "What do you want to do?", he felt that this was not imposing enough, and slightly increased his voice, "That's my money!"

The woman looked at Councilor Williams. Councilor Williams picked up the napkin and dabbed the corner of his mouth, "Answer your mother's question."

Arthur looked at the two of them, wanting not to answer, but Councilor Williams' gaze put a lot of pressure on him. He could only say in a low voice, "About five hundred thousand."

Councilor Williams was also stunned, "So much?"

He thought it might be two or three hundred thousand at most, but he didn't expect this youngest son to earn so much money. He quickly realized the core problem, "Where did you get the principal from?"

He explained.

"Mom gave me two hundred and fifty thousand, I borrowed two hundred and fifty thousand from Chobaf, and then I mortgaged some of my watches, cars, etc. to the bank and got more than one hundred thousand."

"Before that, I took out all my money, two hundred thousand, and hoarded a large batch of high-end liquor."

"All of these together, my principal is actually more than eight hundred thousand, so I don't think it's too much to earn more than five hundred thousand."

Councilor Williams' expression was a little serious, "I hope you haven't abused my name.", he paused and said, "I didn't expect you to make it so big, get rid of these things in your hands as soon as possible."

Arthur didn't understand, "They said the price will rise even higher in December, I'll earn a lot less if I sell it now!"

"I'm not discussing with you, Arthur, I'm ordering you, do as I say!", Councilor Williams' attitude was very firm.

The woman sitting opposite coughed, "Dear, why don't you explain to your stupid son the reason why you're doing this?"

He didn't want to explain it, "I think he just needs to know what to do, as for why, it makes no difference to him whether he knows or not."

"But you said so… …"

He began to explain, "You have too much liquor in your hands. We have just joined the Prohibition League. In order to show our determination to prohibit alcohol to the people higher up, we must make some 'achievements'."

Arthur's mother added, "Catch some liquor traffickers."

Councilor Williams nodded, "Yes, dear, catch some liquor traffickers."

"If you're just making a small fuss, I can let you play whatever you want, but you have millions of liquor in your hands. Once those bastards who have long been dissatisfied with me know about this, and report you to the state government, I can't protect you either."

"So for your own safety, and the safety of the family, you'd better get rid of all those liquor within a week."

"You've already earned five or six hundred thousand, be careful that greed will make you lose these!"

Arthur still wanted to struggle a bit. By December, the profit he would get would be at least seven or eight hundred thousand or even more!

But Councilor Williams' eyes made him feel scared. He finally lowered his head, "I know."

Councilor Williams thought for a while, "Let James help you get rid of these liquor, I will let him give you the money without moving a cent."

James is William's half-brother, and also Councilor Williams' eldest son, James Williams, a young political star in King's Harbor.

Although this batch of liquor is a hot potato, if it is used well, it can also allow James to gain the friendship of many people.

His friendship with these people is his own. Only the personal connections that James has established himself are his own.

If he doesn't help him build his own network of contacts and interests while he still has the ability, the moment he closes his eyes, it will be the moment the "Williams family" is put on the table!

Millions of liquor are enough for James and these overt and covert tycoons to become good friends.

Arthur wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything. That's how it is in this family. No matter what, it belongs to James.

And he is just a dispensable "stupid son".

After lunch, Councilor Williams called James over, "Your brother has more than one million liquor in his hands, help him get rid of it as soon as possible, you understand what I mean."

James looked at Arthur in surprise. In his impression, this idiot only knows how to cause trouble and cause trouble for Councilor Williams. Besides these, he knows nothing.

"Hey, what kind of look is that on your face?", Arthur was immediately dissatisfied, "Can't I earn some money?"

James couldn't help but laugh, "Of course you can, I just think it's a bit unbelievable… …", he laughed, his expression as if to say "Our family's fool has made something of himself."

Councilor Williams didn't care about the "interaction" between his sons, he just urged, "It has to be done as soon as possible."

"The governor will definitely want to find a way to come up with some eye-catching results in order to gain more attention, don't let us become targets!"

James also put away his smile. "I understand. I'll contact people who need these wines this afternoon."

"By the way, what are they all?"

"Are there any high-end wines?"