Chapter 421

Very few locals in Golden Port had ever attended a dinner party at Councilman Williams’s home; even the mayor had not.

Councilman Williams was well aware of Lance’s purpose in bringing William, and he was willing to cooperate with William to a certain extent.

After all, there were only eleven council members in the city. The more he could gather, the stronger his position would be in the confrontation with the Bay Area.

The Bay Area was not easy to deal with, otherwise he wouldn’t have cooperated with Lance. When these people controlled the jobs of one-fifth or even one-third of the city’s residents, the matter became even more difficult.

But fortunately, Lance would help him.

At the dinner table, Lance saw Councilman Williams’s current wife.

The word “current,” used before “wife,” seemed to have a very special flavor, but men are mostly like that; their tastes are mostly fixed.

Some might like older women, but that’s when they are not yet old enough, for example, liking a thirty-year-old when they are twenty.

But no one at fifty would like a sixty-year-old, unless this sixty-year-old was particularly wealthy.

It was said that Councilman Williams’s wife had been with him since she was sixteen. For him, she was both his lover, his physical companion, and a special spiritual sustenance.

Both a daughter and a wife, he liked this woman very much. This year she was only thirty-seven, still looking very young, exuding a kind of ripe charm.

The only one at the entire dinner table who could compete with her was Patricia.

She was beautiful, young, and vibrant. Just youth alone could instantly kill some charm, for some people.

Arthur was also at the table, but what Lance found interesting was that Arthur’s gaze would occasionally fall on his mother. A guy with an Oedipus complex, you really couldn’t tell.

Perhaps every bastard has a little special fetish.

The dinner was very sumptuous. It was clear that Councilman Williams had specially prepared for it. Both the chefs and the ingredients were very fresh and delicious.

James was already engaged, but not yet married. In this era, people of his age who were not yet married were relatively few.

However, Councilman Williams also specially explained this situation. They would hold the wedding in November, and he hoped Lance could come then too.

Before, James could still drag it on. No one cared, and Councilman Williams didn’t attach much importance to it either.

A capable man could get married at fifty and it wouldn’t be too late. Even if James wanted to get married at forty, there would still be many eighteen-year-old girls who wanted to marry him.

But he was about to become a municipal councilman, so the issue of family clearly had to be put on the agenda.

Federation people trust politicians who have families and stable family lives more. They like this kind of politician, believing that they can be responsible and have principles.

In some aspects, people’s choices are actually the same as those of capitalists. Capitalists like workers who bear the burden of the entire family’s life, preferably those who also have loans and cannot lose their jobs and income, even if they are willing to take a pay cut for it.

People don’t ask politicians to take a voluntary pay cut, because politicians’ work income is actually not particularly outrageous, and the people are not capitalists; they will not exploit politicians.

In short, it was a good family dinner. Councilman Williams’s wife also asked for Emily’s phone number and said that they could socialize together when they had free time, which made Emily so happy her face turned red.

She also had a life she wanted. A high-society noblewoman was everything she wanted. Now her wish was half-realized.

At night, Patricia didn’t raise her head for a long time, because Emily was a bit wild. They could even hear “oh, yeeeeees!” coming from Emily’s room.

This made Patricia feel as if she were on fire, entirely out of embarrassment and shame.

“She… she wasn’t actually like this before,” she explained in a small voice in Lance’s arms.

Lance held her from behind, the breath from his words brushing against her shoulder, which made her feel very calm.

If he could just stay still, it would be even better.

A terrible, but very interesting night.

The next morning when Lance got up, the Lawrence couple had already prepared breakfast. William looked at Lance a little awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

Lance gave him a hug, “I can understand.”

This made William breathe a sigh of relief. “She… was a little excited. Councilman Williams’s wife is a top-tier figure in the Golden Port’s ladies’ social circle. The only one who can be on par with her is Councilman Wade’s wife.”

“But you know, Councilman Wade took them and left, so now in the female social circle, Councilman Williams’s wife is the top one.”

Soon she would be promoted to “Mayor’s wife.” She would represent the face of Golden Port’s ladies’ social circle. Now that Emily had a good start with her, she would also have a place in the Golden Port social circle soon.

Thinking of this, this middle-class lady who lived a refined life found it difficult to control her emotions.

They learned flower arranging, fashion design, everything fashionable and trendy, certainly not just to fill themselves up.

Their husbands were enough to fill them up. They did all this entirely to cope with socializing.

Emily was also a little embarrassed, but only a little. “It wasn’t embarrassing until you explained it, and now it’s embarrassing.”

She stood with her hands on her hips, looking at William. William could only pick up a piece of toast that had been toasted in a toaster, spread with butter, and arranged with some vegetables, smoked meat, ham, and some sauce, and take a bite to show his stance of shutting up.

Lance also had the same breakfast. If it weren’t for the fact that there was no “Moments” or anything like that in this era, perhaps the first thing Emily would do after making breakfast every day would be to let everyone know what she had made.

“After I’ve dealt with the aftermath of Jobav, you won’t have to worry about these problems anymore.”

Emily deliberately walked over and touched Lance’s face. “A big house, darling, you’re so thoughtful.”

There was also a look of longing in William’s eyes. Who wouldn’t want a better life?

When Lance was taking Patricia to work, she was still a little speechless. “She’s too crazy.”

“It’s over, dear,” Lance said, driving, knowing what she was talking about.

Patricia covered her face. “I don’t even know how to face you, encountering this kind of thing.”

Lance couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Then next time you scream louder than her, so I can’t hear, and I won’t be embarrassed.”

The two of them talked, laughed, and flirted. The car stopped in the parking lot of Patricia’s workplace.

Many people greeted her, and Lance.

Lance’s status in Golden Port was becoming more and more well-known with the continuous expansion of the Lance Family.

No one felt… that there was anything wrong with a gang member dating a civil servant. There were even more fantastic things in this world.

Besides, until a judge finally confirmed that Lance was a gang member and a gang leader, no one could say that he was a gang leader, the head of a criminal group.

After dropping off Patricia, Lance returned to the company. He called for Bolton and asked about some of the subsequent matters concerning Mr. Jobav.

Bolton was very familiar with Mr. Jobav. Of course, the familiarity was one-sided before. Plus, his network of informants now covered two districts. It was really not wrong to ask him about these things.

“Mr. Jobav’s family, hearing that he had gone bankrupt and owed a large sum of money, no one was willing to collect his body, fearing they would get into trouble.”

“So his body is still at the funeral home. If no one deals with it within a month, he will most likely be… disposed of.”

Lance looked at him. “What does ‘disposed of’ mean?”

“Sent to some medical universities to be used as specimens for dissection. Fresh corpses are not easy to come by.”

Lance sighed. A dismal end. He couldn’t even find someone to bury him. This wasn’t to say that he himself was such a failure. In fact, most successful people, after encountering the same thing as him, would be about the same.

People were afraid of getting into trouble, so they wouldn’t take the initiative to take on these things.

“How much would it cost to bury him?”

Bolton shook his head and said, “Not much, $30 at most, including choosing a gravesite.”

A coffin for a dozen or so dollars, then $5 to choose a gravesite, and the remaining few dollars for the priest. This was the cost of a burial.

“You can advance this money. No matter what, he was once a respected gentleman.”

Bolton did not object and immediately did this.

With someone taking the lead, things naturally moved very quickly. The word “efficiency” was immediately demonstrated.

This is why it’s often difficult for ordinary people to do something, but it’s very easy for people with power or money to do something.

That afternoon, everything was arranged, and it was scheduled to bury him on the weekend.

Only after he was buried would he be truly dead, because people would begin to forget him.

Like a page turned in a book, people will not look back, only forward.

In the afternoon, Lance gave Jonathan (the vice president of Parkway Bank) a call and talked about the situation of the drug mortgage.

The two chatted for more than twenty minutes. Now, special anti-inflammatory drugs and the like were very popular internationally. Although they were not off the market in the Federation, the purchase quantity was also limited.

Ordinary people could only get three or seven days’ worth of medicine at a time with a doctor’s prescription. It was basically impossible to get more.

The price of this batch of drugs on the international market was higher than in the country, so Jonathan could give Lance a valuation of ninety percent.

“If you are not willing to pay back the money, I believe the board of directors will definitely be very happy!” In the end, he even took the initiative to talk about this matter.

Lance said with a laugh, “If you can value it at $15 million for me, I can make the decision not to pay it back.”

Jonathan was taken aback for a moment, because his preliminary valuation was about $5.5 million to $6.5 million.

He would not really take the number Lance said as a joke. He believed that this number must have a basis. “You mean, the price of the drugs is going to skyrocket again?”

Lance did not answer directly. “Life is priceless. There will always be people willing to pay a premium to get a chance to let people live.”

Jonathan didn’t understand, nor could he guess Lance’s meaning.

The Federation’s position had not changed much now, but as the war in Tanfit continued to break out, the Federation would definitely have its own position.

Once an export ban took effect, then these things, not just drugs, but other things in the smuggling field would have their prices skyrocket.

After ending the call with Jonathan, he had Roger handle these matters, and by the way, had him implement the matter of purchasing grain.

Recently, the growth of wheat had been amazing. From $3.60 a barrel in March, it had already risen to $4.45 now, an increase of more than twenty-three percent.

If compared to last year, then the increase was more than forty percent.

A barrel was about thirty-six liters, using the international standard. In trade, these grains, cereals and other crops, including corn, would be settled according to the unit of “barrel.”

He could get at least $5 million in loans from Parkway Bank. If this money was used to buy grain, that would be a very astonishing transaction.

Many miscellaneous matters were worn away in this time. The impact of the firefight was still continuing. In the past two days, the “collection” work in the Empire District and the Port District had also come to an end.

“A total of over 8,700 merchants in the two districts. According to our standards, we have collected a total of over $66,000…”

Lance showed an obvious expression of surprise when he heard this. “So this means that after we have paid the extra income of the police, we might still have a little surplus?”

Elvin was also a little bewildered, because when they had initially calculated, the money might not be enough. But now, it seemed that the money was actually enough, maybe even a little more.

Lance was a little suspicious that they had made a mistake. “Go and recheck it. See if anyone has overcharged. This number doesn’t seem right.”

Elvin immediately arranged for someone to do it, but the news soon came back. There was no problem with the number.

The problem was that the number of merchants had increased.

“Last year, there were only over 5,000 merchants in the two districts, but now, there are more than 3,000 new ones.”

“So the hygiene fees collected are much more than we imagined.”

Elvin’s simple explanation made Lance understand.

In fact, he was also the one who had contributed to this.

Stopping the protection fees from both the gangs and the police was equivalent to promoting the commercial development of this area.

Some of the merchants were from other districts, because the profit margin here was larger.

Especially for some small merchants, their monthly profit might only be a few dozen dollars. Before, most of this dozens of dollars had to be taken away. They were at most equivalent to doing a very free job.

But now, they could really make money, so naturally, they would all come over.

With more merchants, the hygiene fees collected became more. The two districts together had only a little over 1,100 police officers. According to the standard of $45 per person, there would indeed be a little extra in the end.

“There are still about thirty-odd households who are unwilling to pay.”

Lance had heard about this last time. He asked, “How much do they need to pay, that they are unwilling to pay?”

Elvin took out a sorted document. “The most is $17, the least is $4.”

A hygiene fee of $17 must be for a big business, at least a large supermarket.

Looking at these people on this material, Lance asked again, “Did they pay other gangs and the police before?”

Bolton stood out. “Some paid, some didn’t.”

Lance threw the material back. “Those who paid before but are not paying us, let them know that we can be very merciful, but also very cruel.”

“Those who didn’t pay before and are not willing to pay now, let them move to other districts. Don’t stay here anymore.”

“Since they can’t abide by our rules, then don’t keep them.”

Elvin asked softly, “How do we handle this scale?”

Lance leaned back. “As long as no one dies!”

A successful person must have both a compassionate heart and a thunderous means, because people always fear power and not virtue.

To put it simply, people will not fear you because you are merciful. They will always fear you because you have beaten them until it hurts.

With this “bottom line” proposed by Lance, the others also knew what to do. On this point, Lance still trusted them very much.

After all, if they couldn’t even do such a small thing well, then they really should go back to being an ordinary person.

Since the money had been collected, and it was the middle of the month, it was time to distribute it to the police.

This money would be put in envelopes. Each envelope was customized, with a line of gold-stamped text on it, the general meaning of which was “Thank you for your efforts for the property and life safety of the people of Golden Port. All efforts deserve to be rewarded.”

The place on the back where the envelope was opened was also gold-stamped, printed with the company’s logo.

When people opened it, they could see at least $45.

Each envelope was worth five cents. Lance thought this was very necessary, because ritual has a very special magic for Federation people.

Once they get used to this ritual, it will become a dependency, and it will be very difficult to change.

In the evening, the police officers who had worked hard all day returned to the police station to change shifts. At this moment, several cars suddenly drove into the parking lot of the Empire District sub-bureau. Soon after, they carried and pushed several large boxes and came to the lobby.

Sub-bureau Chief Bruce came out of his office and then announced this matter to everyone: distributing the money.

Each police officer’s salary for this month had been deducted by one dollar. He had already explained that this one dollar was to be invested in the “Future Fund.”

This fund would have a rebate once a month, and now, it was time for the rebate.

In fact, everyone knew in their hearts that this was another kind of “fee,” it was just that before, they had collected it directly from the merchants, and then the sub-bureau had distributed it.

Now this process had become the Lance Family collecting it, and then transferring it into their hands in a legal way.

They also had to mention this income when they filed their taxes. The income tax on financial investments in the Federation was very low, almost negligible.

In fact, Sub-bureau Chief Bruce had mentioned that he could do this on their behalf, but Lance still insisted on having his people distribute the money, Chief Bruce, or anyone else.

(End of chapter)