After Lance temporarily settled down in Aldera, he would call Elvin every day. Elvin reported some situations to him, such as the renovation of the Imperial Night nightclub and the operation of the five bars. Bars actually didn’t require much preparation; as long as there was alcohol to sell, old alcoholics would find their way there by scent. Moreover, the police department had already returned the alcohol confiscated from the bars.
It’s worth noting that this wasn’t an “illegal” act, but a legal one, with a series of related procedures for returning seized items. This is because, according to federal judicial interpretation, any act not explicitly deemed “illegal” is considered legal, and “storing alcoholic beverages” was not written into the constitutional amendment. In other words, storing alcohol is legal. Therefore, if a large amount of finished alcohol is stored in a privately owned house, as long as no one can prove that this alcohol is the same as the alcohol sold in bars, then the existence of this alcohol cannot be proven illegal.
It’s possible that the gentlemen in Congress forgot that storage could also be used for illegal activities when drafting and submitting this proposal, or perhaps they thought of the mountains of alcohol piled up in their own villa’s wine cabinets and cellars, and subconsciously omitted this clause. But regardless, the alcohol was back, and the bars began to operate again. Customer traffic was recovering, and everyone knew that these bars were currently managed by the Lance family, so they didn’t dare to cause trouble. Alcoholics like to drink but dislike chaotic bars. Now, things were much better here, and soon every bar would be packed.
In a short period, the entire Empire District became one of Golden Port’s top-ranked areas for public order, which was incredible. During this time, the Lance family had gained considerable prestige in the Empire District. With internal stability, serious cases rarely occurred more than two or three times a day. Some people would always take risks, and some were transients from other districts committing crimes. Even if Lance had Bolton find dozens of people to wander the streets all day, it was impossible to detect every robbery and the like. But as long as one occurred, and they reported it to the people in black trench coats and red armbands on the roadside, the Lance family’s power would intervene. This gave the public an unprecedented sense of security; being protected and not being protected were completely different experiences!
The Imperial District Branch Bureau also gained significant prominence in Golden Port, having solved several robbery cases in just one week due to its cooperation with the Lance family.
In the evening, after finishing a day’s work, Elvin was about to leave his office when the front desk girl knocked on the door and poked her head in. “There are a few girls looking for you, Elvin.” This front desk girl was one of the two original girls. While others might call him “Mr. Elvin” or “Mr. Manager,” to her and all the “family” members, they were relatives without blood ties, so titles weren’t as important.
Elvin sat back down. “Is it trouble?” He frowned, worried that someone might have gotten someone pregnant and now these girls were looking for him. He was already leaning towards Lance’s way of thinking, more mature. Fortunately, the front desk girl gave him a reassuring look. “It has nothing to do with what you’re thinking. It’s something else. I think you should meet them.”
Elvin didn’t refuse. “Let them in.” With Lance away, he had to handle all matters, big and small. He was actually very nervous, having never done such a thing before, but Lance trusted him and let him handle it, so he had to take responsibility. Everyone has many first times. Whether to face it bravely or be a coward, he had already made his choice.
Several girls entered one by one. They gathered together, their figures thin and appearing somewhat haggard.
“Bring some coffee over. Feel free to sit down.”
Elvin looked at them. “Let me ask first, are you Imperials or Federals?”
The girls looked at each other, and one of them lowered her voice, “We are all Imperials.”
Elvin nodded. “Illegal immigrants?”
They didn’t know how to answer this question, until a younger-looking girl said, “We were trafficked.”
“They said there was a job in the Federation for sixty dollars a month, working ten hours a day, one day on, one day off, so I came,” another girl added. “Although what they told me wasn’t quite the same, it was close enough.”
Before disembarking, every girl dreamed of the Federation until the moment the stowaway ship’s hatch opened. No need to ask, it must have been the Camille gang who did this, which also sparked some curiosity in Elvin. “No offense, after you came here…”
The girls all remained silent, but this was also a response. Elvin had heard that among the Camille gang’s businesses dismantled by the police, there were places operating similar to the sex trade. These girls certainly wouldn’t want to recall those painful pasts. He said “I’m sorry” and stopped asking about those stinging memories.
Elvin scratched his head. “So, your purpose for coming here is to go home?”
“If you don’t have money, I can give you some so you can afford a ticket home.” He overlooked how these girls appeared here; if it were Lance, he wouldn’t have. But this also adequately showed that he was, after all, just a young man not yet twenty… no, already twenty, having just passed the New Year. He didn’t have Lance’s “maturity.” To mature, he still needed room for growth and to pay some price.
Lance had told him that if someone came for help, for example, someone asking for a little money because they were hungry, while others just wanted some food, then give food to the former and a little money to the latter. Those who ask for material things have often genuinely encountered trouble, while those who ask for money may not have.
The girls shook their heads. “We don’t really want to go back. We want to stay here. Everyone says you’re the most trustworthy people here. We want a job to support ourselves.”
This statement gave Elvin a sense of honor. He pursed his lips, thought for a moment, and picked up the phone. “Are there still people needed at the bars?”
“Yes, we need some promotional girls, but Elvin, if you’re sending girls over, you’d better make sure they can do it, otherwise Lance will skin you alive when he gets back!”
Lance had set many rules, such as not forcing women to do things they didn’t want to do, and not forcing children to do things they didn’t want to do. Promotional girls in bars might sometimes face being groped, but this was also a sales tool. For those middle-aged, lower-class men who couldn’t afford more than two dollars and whose lives were rigidly restricted, with almost no light in their existence, if they could spend twenty or thirty cents to touch a young girl’s butt or shoulder, and flirt with them, even if it was just a perfunctory joke or calling them an idiot, it would still excite them for a long time, and they would eagerly seek out more insults.
There were many promotional girls in the bars. They knew how to use their advantages to make money. Bars with these girls clearly had much better alcohol sales than those without them, but Lance prohibited anyone from forcing them to do these things. It’s a tough world. Everyone has their own way of surviving. As long as they are not forced against their will, this is Lance’s bottom line. For some open-minded, avant-garde girls, they didn’t care who benefited in the future, so they might as well earn more while they were young. And it was just groping; they didn’t need to lose anything—their personality, dignity, or virginity—so they weren’t averse to it. But for some girls who didn’t like these jobs, it was better to kill them than make them do it!
Elvin pressed the dial pad of the phone and looked at the girls. “I have two options for you now.”
“First, work as promotional girls in the bars. You’ll get at least one cent, up to five cents, commission per drink.”
“If you do well, you can earn two to three dollars a day, but customers might grope you. You need to be mentally prepared and accept this.”
“Our bars are very safe. If anyone tries to go further or makes you feel uncomfortable, we’ll take care of them for you.”
“The second option: we have a garment factory. You can work as seamstresses. You’ll earn about thirty-two dollars a month, plus a meal allowance, totaling around thirty-seven dollars.”
“The work is hard. We provide food and lodging. If you don’t have extra expenses, you can save more than twenty dollars a month.”
“No one will bully you, and you can also learn some skills, like sewing or tailoring.”
He thought the girls would choose to go to the garment factory, but in fact, except for one girl, all the others chose to go to the bar. This left Elvin somewhat bewildered, yet not entirely so. The decadent cities of the Federation, and this being one of the most prosperous cities in the Federation, how many pure souls had been lost here? So, adding a few young souls from the Empire seemed not surprising.
He arranged for two cars to take the girls to the bar and also arranged lodging for them. There were still many unsold houses in the “New Bay Area.” Developers entrusted these houses to a real estate agency for rent, and they also listed them for sale, but the prices were high, and few people bought them. The New Bay Area was ultimately just a gimmick hyped by developers. When it could no longer deceive people, the deception naturally crumbled, but this also made it a good place to live. The agency didn’t care if one person or a hundred people lived in a house; they only cared how much money you could pay them.
After arranging these matters, Elvin called Lance again and updated him on the situation. Lance thought for a while and then told him to try to actively help these girls. If they wanted to leave, let them go back. If they wanted to stay, help them settle down. He would return as soon as possible.
Elvin paid attention to this matter. He spent a little money and inquired from a patrol officer at the Empire District Branch Bureau, finding out that about seventy Federal girls had been arrested but then released. Because they were “transparent,” if there were only one or two, perhaps they would be sent back to meet quotas, but with too many, neither the city hall, immigration bureau, nor the police department wanted to deal with them.
This was also why there were more and more illegal immigrants in the Federation; the federal government was no longer willing to spend money filling this bottomless pit!
They would just send people back, and perhaps not long after, they would return! Assuming the cost of repatriating each person was sixty dollars, with two hundred thousand illegal immigrants in Golden Port alone, the cost of sending them all back would be twelve million, and who would pay for that? It’s better to let them continue to contribute their light and heat here, and incidentally, solve the problem of high prices for local girls…
Based on Lance’s excellent reputation and credibility, a group of girls was quickly recruited. Fewer than five wanted to return to the Empire; the rest hoped to settle down in the Federation. Elvin helped them with some work-related issues. Some who wanted to go to bars went to bars, some who wanted to go to factories went to factories, and Lance even told him that the dock club also needed people, so he reserved some for there as well.
Originally, no one paid much attention to this matter. Perhaps the media would even highly praise the Lance family for contributing to purifying social conduct…
Night fell, and a girl named Lisa changed into the special outfit of a promotional girl—it would maximize her figure, making her look more attractive. This would also allow her to earn more commissions. In fact, after working as a promotional girl for two days, she felt a certain… indescribable emotion, or thought. Previously, at Red High Heels, although the money didn’t ultimately end up in her hands, she knew she could earn at least twenty or thirty dollars a day. If a high-roller came and took a fancy to her, it was possible to earn fifty or sixty in a day. But here…
She dressed and looked at the simple environment. The peculiar scent of the bar outside squeezed through the door crack, and she suddenly felt a sense of dullness. Although earning money by lying down might seem… but the money came really fast. Before, she didn’t care because that money wouldn’t end up in her hands anyway, but now Liam was gone, and the money she earned was her own. She suddenly felt that it wasn’t so bad after all.
She walked out of the dressing room, her face quickly replaced with that fake smile for work. Just a few steps later, someone slapped her on the butt. “Lisa, two bomb shots!”
A middle-aged man in his forties and his friend stood by a small round table. He rolled up his sleeves. The bar was a bit stuffy, and alcohol accelerated blood circulation, making people feel no cold. Under his rolled-up sleeves were hairy arms and a rough hand. He put his palm to his nose and sniffed, then laughed heartily with his companion, taking out sixty cents from his pocket and placing them on the tray.
“Fifty cents for the drink, ten cents is a tip for your butt. You have to take good care of it!”
“It’s my daily motivation for a new day. When I make money, I’ll give it all to you!” This was a dirty joke, because everyone knew that “all” didn’t just mean money, but other things too.
Lisa rolled her eyes, ignored the two old drunkards’ teasing, and cursed “fuck you,” but instead of making them angry, it made them laugh even more lecherously! However, that was the extent of it. A “security guard” standing at a high point looked their way, and the two immediately restrained themselves. The Lance family had already established initial deterrence in the Empire District, and they dared not offend casually.
Lisa tucked the ten-cent coin into her bra, then took the fifty-cent coins to the bar. The bartender poured her two bomb shots and gave her two small orange cards. They would calculate commission based on these cards later. Although this method was a bit stupid, it was convenient and practical.
The bar was lively. In this damned weather, people needed alcohol to numb themselves even more, and for almost half a month, many people hadn’t had a single drink. That itching sensation all over their bodies made them feel pain; perhaps hell was no worse! In the crowded bar, the rising alcohol, heat, and desires intertwined, and time seemed to accelerate at this moment.
Lisa had completed countless tasks. Her bra was now heavy, and her shoulders ached. Her butt might have been red from being slapped. These damn workers had really strong hands. She decided to pad it tomorrow to at least protect it from getting so bruised.
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she seemed to spot something that sent shivers down her spine—a familiar figure. But… wasn’t he supposed to be in jail?
Lisa looked back in the direction of her fleeting glimpse, but there was nothing. The crowded people made every head seem like him, yet not like him. She didn’t know. After watching for a while and seeing nothing, she returned to the staff room, full of suspicion. Some unpleasant memories from the past seemed to start creeping in. She was a little scared.
She didn’t even have time to count how many coins and small cards were in her bra before she rushed to the back office and found the person on duty. “I have something urgent. I want to leave temporarily.”
The person on duty saw the panic on her face, took their legs off the desk, and their expression became serious. “Did someone bully you?”
Lisa rubbed her hands over her face. “I don’t know. I think I just saw the former manager, the Red High Heels manager.”
The person on duty was stunned for a moment. “Weren’t they sent to jail?” With that, he told Lisa to wait and went outside. There were too many people, and they weren’t standing still; they were moving and talking, making it difficult to clearly see everyone’s faces.
He returned to the office. “There are a lot of people outside. My advice is for you to stay. We’ll leave together after work tonight.”
Lisa, however, seemed determined to leave first. She didn’t know if the manager had seen her, nor was she sure if it was the manager. She just wanted to get as far away from here as possible. If she were in a horror movie, she probably wouldn’t survive ten minutes.
“I want to leave here now. This place makes me very uncomfortable right now…”