Chapter 425

Nearing October, the temperature had truly dropped.

By the shores of Angel Lake, a gust of wind blew in from the sea. The sea breeze, having whipped up monstrous waves and journeyed for dozens of kilometers, now only rippled the surface of Angel Lake.

The shimmering surface of the lake, hidden within the dense forest, was like a jewel fallen from heaven to the mortal world.

The scent of the wilderness, tinged with a fishy smell, rushed to meet them. The afterglow of the sunset shone through the thin clouds, not dazzling, not hot, like a natural filter.

It was very quiet here.

Many outsiders had heard of Angel Lake. Initially, there were many tourists here; such beautiful scenery could always attract some visitors.

Whether it was renting a small boat to drift on the lake, or sitting by the lake fishing or having a picnic, these were all very enjoyable things.

But as the “secret of Angel Lake” began to be leaked by some media outlets, fewer and fewer tourists came here.

Although Golden Port had clarified more than once that it was just a rumor, people still chose to believe it.

The thought of countless oil drums under the lake’s surface, possibly containing all sorts of strange corpses, sent a chill down the tourists’ spines.

Slowly, the number of tourists dwindled, and this place became more and more deserted.

Whether they were locals or outsiders, few came here. It had also become a paradise for gangsters.

But in fact, if you didn’t consider those strange things, the scenery here was really nice.

Lance leaned against the hood of the car. The others stood scattered around. Two cars slowly drove over from a distance. Fordis greeted Elvin and the others, and soon Alberto got out of the car.

He walked to Lance’s side and, like him, leaned against the hood of the car and asked Lance for a cigarette.

“What are you guys thinking?”

After he had passed on Bandy’s idea to Lance, Lance had arranged to meet with him. Some things needed to be discussed.

Alberto took a drag of his cigarette. He looked a little tired. “There’s some disagreement in the family right now. Those people think that stopping now is a very good choice.”

“After all, our losses have also been great. We also need to replenish some manpower and then quietly make some money.”

“And, Cisco’s uncles and grandfathers, they don’t really want him to continue his revenge.” Alberto tilted his head. “You know, they’re worried about me, and about Cisco, building up more family prestige.”

The reason a gang leader can become a leader is most likely because they have enough prestige to intimidate the other members of the family.

For example, big Polly. He was crazy enough, ruthless enough. He dared to shoot at a fleeing gunman on a street full of pedestrians.

He didn’t care if he would shoot ordinary people, because he was a madman, and he was constantly emphasizing his madman attribute.

The reason Lance could become a leader was because he had led everyone to solve many troubles and had made everyone’s life better, which was why he could become a leader.

No matter how they established their personal prestige, every gang leader had to have this, and enough of it.

Rick was dead. Some people in the family had changed their opinion of Alberto and Francisco. Now some young people were taking the initiative to get closer, willing to follow Francisco.

This was a concrete manifestation of prestige. His resolute determination for revenge had moved these people, and they were willing to stand behind Francisco.

But this made the others somewhat unhappy. They were still thinking of inheriting the family. “If we continue to go to war with the Cassia family, it is indeed very likely that they will be wiped out. Then Francisco’s prestige will at least allow him to sit firmly in his current position.”

“If we have a chance to get rid of Dover, then no one can shake this position.”

“So they are opposing it now, and their reason is that we also need to adjust and recuperate.”

Lance glanced at Francisco in the distance, who was arm-wrestling with Fordis, and turned his head to ask, “Why don’t you just get rid of those people?”

Alberto didn’t react at first. “Who are you talking about?” But he soon realized that Lance was not talking about the Cassia family, but Francisco’s uncles and grandfathers.

He said with a laugh, “His father just died, and then we’re going to discuss getting rid of his uncles, aunts, and grandfathers?”

He thought Lance was joking, but Lance was serious. “They have already affected some things. You clearly know they will make you uncomfortable, yet you still want to keep them. I think you need to seriously consider it.”

They had already clearly shown their malice. Why not just get rid of them?

He glanced again at Francisco, who had a smile on his face. Fordis was indeed a person who knew how to make people happy.

“He is going to be a gang leader in the future, not a patriarch.”

“Losing, gaining, the eternal choice.”

Alberto fell into thought.

After a while, he got off the hood of Lance’s car and shouted loudly at Francisco in the distance, “Cisco, come here!”

A faint echo seemed to come back from the distance, very slight, but it was definitely there.

“Come here…”

“Come here…”

Lance subconsciously glanced at the lake surface, hoping Jason wouldn’t suddenly pop out with a hockey mask and a bloody hockey stick and give him a whack.

Francisco ran over from the hillside, panting a little. “Is something wrong?”

Alberto glanced at Lance. Lance pretended not to feel his gaze. He could only speak himself.

“We were just discussing matters concerning your uncles.”

The smile on Francisco’s face quickly disappeared, becoming calm.

When Paul was alive, these uncles, aunts, and grandfathers were very good to him. They often brought him things.

Food, drinks, toys, books, or other things. Everyone seemed to be very good, everyone seemed to like him very much, and he couldn’t feel any badness in these people.

But after Paul suddenly died, things became a little… hard to adapt to.

They always said he was too young and didn’t understand the family’s operations at all, telling him to go to school with peace of mind, and they would take care of the family’s affairs.

He was just young, not stupid.

He was actually clear in his heart that once the power really fell into the hands of these people, these relatives, he and his mother would most likely have no future.

After all, it was impossible for these people to take out what they had already eaten and return it to him.

To permanently occupy these things, the best way was to let them have an accident and disappear.

Family affection and the like suddenly became so fragile. If it weren’t for Alberto, he felt he might have already had an accident.

So he trusted Alberto particularly.

At this time, when Alberto mentioned this issue, his mood was very bad. He couldn’t smile anymore, just nodded. “About what?”

“We were just chatting, chatting about these people, these things.”

“They are your relatives, after all. My idea is that in the future, when you grow up and have control of the whole family, you can decide whether they should stay or not.”

“But as you’ve seen in the past few days, they will always prevent you from gaining more prestige and support in the family.”

“Just now Lance made a suggestion, or rather, he repeated an idea he had before.”

He paused here. While he was considering how to phrase it, Francisco asked, “Is it to get rid of them?”

Alberto was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly nodded and said, “Yes.”

“After all, this is your family’s business. We have to consider your suggestions.”

Lance interjected from the side, “We are not without ways to deal with these people. The first time they showed malice towards you, you should have given them an ending.”

“For you to kill them yourself, and for us to get rid of them, the result is actually the same.”

“If you are concerned about your family relationship, we can consider arresting them and imprisoning them, but this may have some variables.”

“No matter what, we will support you.”

Francisco’s gaze constantly shifted between Alberto and Lance. He thought of what his mother had told him.

No matter what Alberto’s purpose was in doing this, whether it was really to repay Paul, or if he had other ideas, at least for now, Alberto was the best choice for him, bar none.

It seemed that he still had a choice, but in fact, he had no choice at all.

Neither Lance nor the others urged Francisco. For a child, these things were indeed a bit cruel, but he had to experience them himself.

After a long while, maybe seven or eight minutes, he even smoked a cigarette. Finally, he also made up his mind. Only a few people would be purged, not everyone. In fact, he could still have some uncles and aunts survive.

Alberto and Lance couldn’t possibly kill all of his family. That was impossible, and not realistic.

He nodded. “I think this proposal is acceptable. They didn’t treat me as their nephew or grandson, so…”

The young man pursed his lips, a touch of fortitude on his naive face. “…I don’t have to treat them as my relatives either.”

Seeing this scene, Alberto didn’t know what to say, but in the end, he was somewhat gratified, because this not only represented that he had made a not-so-easy decision…

For many people, no matter how bad a relative is, they are still a relative. As long as they are a relative, it is not so easy to cut ties.

On the other hand, this also showed Francisco’s trust in him.

He walked over and hugged the young man. “I promise, I will make everyone who hurt your father pay the price!”

Lance watched him express his thoughts and felt that he might take a fall because of this matter.

He just hoped it wouldn’t be too bad. “Alright, let’s talk about my idea.”

“I will arrange for people to attack the Tita family’s men, using some gunmen from Yalan.”

“And on your side…”

Alberto immediately understood Lance’s meaning. “Our side was also attacked by gunmen from Yalan, and we lost some core members.”

If only one family was attacked, it could be said that it might be a frame-up, that someone was trying to use these things to intensify their conflict and make them continue to fight.

But if two families were attacked, and people died in both, then the meaning behind this was worth thinking about.

Even if Bandy knew this was a frame-up, he would have to consider it. Was the Cassia family worth continuing to protect?

This was actually something that could be understood at a glance. At least two families would rather suffer a thousand self-inflicted wounds than let the Cassia family go. If he continued to block them, he would actually be making a bad choice, standing on their opposite side. The two of them agreed on a time to act, and then began to prepare.

After talking about business, a smile appeared on Francisco’s face again. It was just that this time, the smile on his face had one less worry.

Angel Lake was still so beautiful. As the sun set, the lake surface reflected a rosy red light, like a magnificent ruby. Lance inexplicably thought of something. He took out a piece of paper and a pen and began to record.

Elvin, on the side, was a little curious. “What are you doing?”

Because Lance had been recording for a while, Lance continued to record as he spoke, “I thought of a story. I plan to film it.”

Elvin immediately became interested. “Is it for Gerard?”

He quickly followed up with, “Can you tell me what it’s about?”

“Of course!” Lance rubbed his wrist. He rarely wrote so much. “It’s related to Angel Lake. It’s a horror film.”

“A guy named Jason was cursed and lives in Angel Lake…”

Elvin interrupted, “Sorry, can someone live in a lake?”

“How does he live?”

Lance tilted his head. “Come on, there are countless people living down there right now. This is very normal.”

Elvin was a little speechless. He understood what Lance meant. “A water ghost, a phantom, that’s what you mean, right?”

Lance pointed at him. “Your reaction is very fast. It’s a cursed demon.”

Elvin suddenly reacted. “You’re not talking about that Jason, are you?”

“Yes, it’s him. Although he’s dead, he can still contribute some value to us.”

“Also, don’t interrupt me, listen to me.”

“There are rumors in the city about a demon in Angel Lake. Some young people from out of town don’t believe this. They come to travel and explore.”

Elvin was about to say something, but held back. He knew this was the beginning of the plot.

“Then they did something stupid and released the demon in Angel Lake.”

“Then he killed most of the people, leaving only the protagonist.”

Elvin added, “Gerard.”

Lance didn’t mind his interruption. This was actually a supplement. “Yes, he finally survived and then sealed the demon back in the lake.”

“What do you think of this story?”

“There are already many legends about Angel Lake. Why don’t we make it a little more thrilling?”

After thinking seriously for a while, Elvin nodded and said, “If the filming is no problem, I think I would watch it. I would want to know what the reason is that so many people are living down there.”

“And… to be honest, Lance, this story gives me a sense of participation. After all, we created it.”

Lance laughed heartily. “We didn’t create him. He’s still down there, fine, and he won’t come out. But we need him.”

The legend of Jason of Angel Lake, this would become an important cultural symbol. Although it was a horror film, Lance believed that it would definitely be a classic. This would help Wanli Pictures open up the situation.

The horror films of this period were still in the exploratory stage. People were not very clear on how horror films should be shot.

It shouldn’t just be a slasher film, showing some execution scenes, or having some people wearing special clothes walking around on the street like headless corpses.

Maybe in the future, he would have another title, “the father of horror films”?

But at the thought that this title was mostly given to directors, Lance couldn’t help but purse his lips in helplessness.

Bandy’s request was indeed a bit demanding, so he gave these people some buffer time, which also gave Lance and Alberto time to prepare.

On Friday night, Lance took a large group of people to attend Ethan’s first ring match.

The match was held in a boxing gym. There weren’t many people at the scene, because both Ethan and his opponent, who had a record of one win and one loss in two fights, were super rookies in the entire boxing world.

So new that people hadn’t even heard of them. The sports industry is very simple and also very realistic.

Whether you are strong or not can be seen at a glance.

A difference of 0.1 seconds in running is a 0.1-second gap. The number of wins and losses in boxing is clearly written down and very difficult to fake.

They wouldn’t pay attention to a rookie and a novice. The only people at the scene were the teams of the two fighters.

And Lance and his crew.

Ethan became a little excited when he saw so many of them come to watch his match, but also a little nervous. He was very worried that he would perform too poorly.

The coach saw his current situation. While giving him a massage to relax, he told him that he was the strongest.

Lance walked to the side of the ring. The other side’s coach kept staring at Lance, afraid that he would hand Ethan a weapon or something.

This kind of thing had not never happened before, but fortunately, Lance was just chatting with him.

“Want one?” Lance took out his cigarettes.

The coach’s face instantly darkened. “Mr. Lance, don’t joke around. Ethan is an athlete now. He can’t have this.”

Of course Lance knew. He was just trying to be funny, but he was also a little surprised. “You’ve quit smoking?”

At this time, the tobacco companies spent a lot of money every year to suppress all negative news related to cigarettes, including lung diseases and the like. But in sports, people would still find that athletes who smoked were a bit worse than those who didn’t.

So after Ethan showed his talent, the coach immediately had him quit smoking.

Ethan nodded a little embarrassedly. For him, quitting smoking seemed to be something to be embarrassed about.

Lance threw the just-lit cigarette on the ground. He patted Ethan’s calf—he was standing below the ring.

“Good job. I’ll treat you to something good later.”

The coach on the other side was a little unsure of what Lance was going to do. He walked to the referee and said a few words. The referee nodded and raised his voice a little. “Irrelevant personnel, leave the ring. Our match is about to begin.”

Besides the referee and the staff, Lance and his crew were the only audience. Lance waved his fist. “Knock him out.”

(End of chapter)