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You want my money.
I want your life.
Very reasonable, isn’t it?
After the woman left, Elvin walked in from outside, “Resolved?”
Lance nodded. It was Elvin who had found the person. “Are there many people in this situation among the immigrants?”
Elvin nodded, “Quite a few, there are always dozens.”
Two hundred thousand legal immigrants, plus a large pile of illegal immigrants. There will always be people whose bodies have problems and can’t hold on for too long.
Although medical science is advancing by leaps and bounds every day, with new miracle drugs being born daily, this world seems to be cursed by a mysterious curse.
When people solve one incurable disease, a new one will appear. No matter how hard people try, it seems there is always something constantly reducing the number of surviving human individuals.
It’s as if there is a special mechanism, screening, and blocking, preventing people from living better.
God says this is a trial, but it’s more like a curse!
“Make a list of these people, check their situations, and arrange them in order. When we need them, we will go to them.”
These people were actually quite pitiful. They had finally smuggled themselves in or exhausted their family’s wealth to come to the Federation, obtaining legal survival or not, but in any case, they survived.
But not long after having a good life, they contracted an incurable disease, and their lives entered a countdown.
If they came alone, the situation might be slightly better. After all, they came alone and would leave alone, with no burdens.
But for those who had already started families here, there would be a lot of reluctance.
If they left, what would happen to their families, their children?
Perhaps five thousand dollars couldn’t provide them with food and clothing for a lifetime, but at least it could make them less worried about the living situation of their wives and children after they were gone.
Five thousand dollars, calculated at thirty dollars a month, even with inflation, this money would be enough for these widows and children to grow up without financial pressure.
After Elvin sat down, he brought up another matter, “Bolton said that many outsiders have come to the Empire District these past two days. These outsiders are all concentrated near the nightclub.”
“It’s possible that the people over there have mobilized manpower from other places. There are at least one or two hundred of them!”
He mentioned Bolton, so Lance asked about Bolton’s situation. After all, he had killed Rob. As the biological father, Bolton would definitely have some emotions and dissatisfaction. He needed to know about this situation.
Elvin’s expression was a bit strange, “Morris arranged for someone to watch Bolton. When you guys were away, Bolton went to the hospital. He asked the doctor…”
Lance was a little curious, “Asked what?”
“He asked the doctor if he could still have children…” As he spoke, Elvin couldn’t help but laugh. “The doctor told him that he is very strong and can still have children.”
Lance was also smiling. This was actually a good thing. “He is a very typical small-minded man. When he feels he can’t bite you without getting his own leg broken, he will lie meekly at your feet.”
“But we can’t let our guard down because of this. Once he thinks he can bite you to death, he will pounce when you’re not paying attention.”
Elvin frowned, “Then why not get rid of him?”
Lance sighed lightly, “This is not so easy to do yet. He has done a lot of work for us and didn’t stop us from punishing Rob. If we get rid of him now, what will others think?”
“In fact, some people even think we should have forgiven Rob. So now we need to emphasize the issue of discipline, and getting rid of him without a reason will cause some trouble.”
“But don’t worry, he is very smart. He may have also thought of this, so… he will get married again soon.”
Elvin was indeed very smart, and his mind was quick, but he had indeed never encountered this kind of situation. He didn’t know what Lance meant and could only look at him blankly.
Lance explained to him, “He knows that we don’t trust him so much anymore. He’s even afraid that now that he has lost his job and doesn’t appear in front of people often, he will be quietly eliminated by us.”
“So the best way is to give us another handle to grab.”
“Marry a new wife, then have a few children, right under our noses. Once he has new concerns and things that can threaten him, we can rest assured about him.”
Hearing this, Elvin finally reacted. He found it a bit incredible, “He can think of so much?”
Lance nodded, “People can unleash endless potential when facing danger, potential that even we ourselves can’t imagine.”
He paused, “Have Bolton arrange for people to continue watching those outsiders. How is the situation with the Bureau of Hazardous Materials?”
“They are still investigating.” Elvin took out his cigarettes, walked to Lance, handed him one, and struck a match to light it for him.
“They are not just investigating us, but the whole of Golden Port. The Red Dog Gang also had one of their bars taken down.”
Lance became interested, “Tell me.”
After the Brotherhood was finished, the Red Dog Gang couldn’t be bothered with the “friendship” of Lance driving them out of the Empire District and began to develop rapidly. But the Red Dog Gang’s own strength was not very strong, plus after the Brotherhood was finished, some former members of the Brotherhood, or some street families that had been suppressed and couldn’t get ahead, began to develop rapidly.
The entire Port District was in a mess.
The wars and struggles between gangs, in the end, require a large amount of funds. These gangs all began to frantically make money.
For Golden Port now, nothing was faster than selling smuggled liquor.
Bill of the Red Dog Gang, for some reason, also wanted to unify the Port District, so recently they have been recruiting gang members on a large scale while frantically opening bars.
Because it was done too openly, it’s unknown whether they were reported by someone, or if an informant arranged by the Bureau of Hazardous Materials found the location. One of their bars was taken down.
“About five thousand dollars worth of liquor, and a few thousand in cash that wasn’t taken away.”
“Their profit margin is much higher than ours. For the same liquor, their profit is almost double ours.”
Lance nodded, “There will be plenty of opportunities to raise prices later. Didn’t Bill say anything?”
“What else could he say?” Elvin asked. “Besides throwing a tantrum in his office, I can’t think of what else that sissy could do.”
Under Lance’s influence, everyone looked down on the Red Dog Gang a little.
“Have those bars of ours reopened for business?” Lance asked another question. Brinton and the others had taken over the bars and still hadn’t reopened.
Many people were guessing what they were going to do, but Lance thought they might be mobilizing liquor, or… trying to find a way to get some liquor for free.
Elvin was not aware of this aspect.
Lance chatted with him for a while longer, telling him to notify Bolton to keep a close eye on those outsiders and to pass on any news in a timely manner.
Bolton was very attentive, seriously completing all the work Lance assigned, as if Rob was not his son at all.
While Lance was paying close attention to Brinton’s group, Brinton was also paying attention to Lance’s situation.
The mayor’s secretary had already contacted him twice, urging him to get rid of Lance’s group as soon as possible.
He could feel the strong emotions conveyed by the secretary when passing on these orders, and he also knew that this kind of matter could not be delayed.
But the manpower had not yet fully arrived, and weapons and such also had to be transported over. He couldn’t go and fight Lance’s people empty-handed, could he?
This city of Golden Port was very strange, including the arms dealers. They were actually unwilling to sell weapons to outsiders. This was something Brinton had not expected.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t gone to other cities to do some work. After they went to the local area and found an arms dealer, as long as they gave money, the other party would sell anything.
But here, when they proposed to buy weapons in large quantities, the arms dealer directly refused the transaction, on the grounds that he did not want to interfere in their competition with the locals.
In the end, Brinton could only transfer a batch of weapons from out of town first, which also gave him a very general, but definitely deep understanding of the local situation—extremely xenophobic!
Now that the personnel were in place and the weapons were arriving in a few days, he could start to consider how to deal with Lance.
“Lance and his men usually live in the New Bay Area. They bought several connected single-family houses and then modified them…”
Someone placed a photo taken from a distance on the desk. In the photo, several houses were surrounded by a high wall. It would not be easy to break in silently.
It was a difficult thing in itself to destroy this kind of high wall. Once the people in the house discovered it, even if they opened a breach, it would be difficult to break in.
Brinton just glanced at it and rejected this plan. He had heard the mayor say before that the New Bay Area was a key focus for later development. If there was a firefight in the New Bay Area, it would very likely disrupt the mayor’s plan.
And as his subordinate had said, the high wall made attacking difficult.
You know, they were all gang members, not professional soldiers. In this kind of situation where they were clearly at a disadvantage as the attacking side, to want to take this house meant they would have to pay a higher price!
Brinton didn’t want to lose a large number of men right from the start. The people here were very united and also very xenophobic. It would be difficult for him to recruit men here.
Even if these people were not xenophobic and he could recruit some men, whether he dared to use these recruited men, and whether he could use them with confidence, would become a problem he needed to worry about.
“Find a way to lure them out.” Without a doubt, Brinton had already heard about the firefight that occurred when the Lance Family was cornered in an alley by the Camille gang.
He had also heard about this clearly unequal battle and its incredible outcome. This was a resilient family. To take them down on the offensive end would require a high price.
“So I have an idea. We can’t fight them where they have the advantage. We must lure them out.”
“We’ll set up an ambush first, then wait for them to come, and then attack them. It’s like we’re creating an ambush circle, waiting for them to come.”
“This way, the advantage will be on our side.”
The others chattered away. Finally, the small man next to Brinton gave this idea great approval, “A very good idea, I think we can give it a try.”
“But we have a few new problems now. How to lure them out, and how to determine which road they will take, and how many people will come.”
The man who had been acting as Brinton’s strategist or advisor said, “The Lance Family’s current main income comes from two aspects. One is their firm.”
“This thing is not easy for us to deal with, because when the workers get off work, they also get off work. When the workers are not off work, there are too many people there, and it’s during the day.”
“As for the other part, it’s their bars.”
“If we can find one of their bars, they will definitely find a way to come and see what happened.”
“The Bureau of Hazardous Materials has already taken down two of their bars. Their income should have been reduced by a lot, so they will pay more attention to the remaining bars.”
This was clearly an intelligent statement. Brinton trusted his advisor, and what he said was also very reasonable. He continued to play the role of not using his brain much, “So how do we find these bars?”
The advisor smiled, a confident smile, as if he had already seen the ending, “We don’t know, but the drunkards do!”
The thing about drunkards, no matter what era, what social and cultural background, there are surprisingly similar characteristics.
People who are not familiar with them may not be able to distinguish who is a drunkard and who is not from a crowd, but those who are familiar with drunkards can do it easily.
Brinton’s orders were issued, and soon these members of the Viper Gang began to take action.
In the morning, outside a bakery on the side of the road, as the weather had already warmed up, many bakeries had placed their tables and chairs outside.
This made some elderly people very happy. They just liked to sit in an open-air environment with others, eating bread, drinking coffee, and chatting.
For many elderly people who had lost their ability to work, this was the only way they wouldn’t annoy their children, if they lived with their children.
As for those elderly who lived alone or not with their children, they could relieve their loneliness in this way.
Three or five old men at a table, two or three tables, ten old men sitting together, they could talk about anything related to their lives or this country.
From whether Mr. President was an alien, to why people’s wages hadn’t risen, there was nothing they couldn’t talk about.
These people were even more political than the politicians and would argue endlessly over their different positions. This became a part of the slow-paced life in the big city.
Of course, not all areas were like this. In places like the Port District, Bay Area, city center, and Starlight District, the pace of life was very fast. Besides the old men sitting dazed at intersections, there would also be some homeless people wandering the streets.
Sometimes middle-aged people would also join them. Those who were frustrated with their lives or work also needed an environment to release some negative emotions, and this was a good choice.
“…The President is talking about the problem of illegal immigration. Recently, more and more illegal immigrants have made him have to pay attention to the promises he made during his election.”
“These politicians are always like this. They are like those ridiculous young people. When they want to sleep with you, they are willing to say anything and promise anything.”
“After they pull up their pants, every word you say will only annoy him!”
An old man, clutching a piece of bread, said something profound, and the others all laughed out loud.
Another old man teased, “First, you have to make young people like your ass!”
The first old man was suddenly unhappy, and his voice became a little louder, “I’m making an analogy, damn it, are you f—king senile?”
The two old men started to argue. This was very common here. The others just watched them with a smile.
After their argument was almost over, they continued to talk about the subsequent topics.
In fact, it wasn’t just Mr. President who was talking about the problem of illegal immigration recently. Some local officials were also discussing this.
“Do you guys know that William who has been particularly active here recently?” someone asked.
Someone also answered, “I know, a kid from the Federation Party. He must be wanting to run for the Empire District councilman, that’s why he comes here so often and has promised a whole bunch of things.”
The old man pursed his lips, “As for whether he can deliver in the future, I don’t hold out any hope at all.”
“The politicians here are even more shameless than the nobles of the Empire!”
“At least the nobles know that not delivering on their words will make people laugh at them for not having the cultivation of a noble, but the politicians here will be proud of it because they have successfully deceived the people again!”
These people laughed out loud again. This was their life.
When each table began to chat on its own, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his early thirties bought a piece of bread and sat in an empty seat.
A dry piece of bread, twenty-five cents, a quarter of a pound. The hard, browned surface was a favorite for some.
He learned from the old men, tearing off a small piece and putting it in his mouth, chewing.
The old men were a little awkward. They were all familiar with each other, and suddenly a stranger appeared.
But this was the bakery’s table and chair. Since he bought bread at the bakery, he was qualified to sit here.
As he was eating, the middle-aged man suddenly sighed, which made the old men frown.
They didn’t like people sighing early in the morning. The older you get, the more this is true.
“If you have something on your mind, you might as well talk to us. We are not gossips. No one else will know besides us.”
The middle-aged man hesitated to speak, which got the old men interested. Prying into others’ privacy is always a desire in human bones.
“We have all experienced a lot. Our experience and wisdom might be able to help you find a way out of the maze of life, child!”
The middle-aged man began to narrate why he was sighing. He talked about his family, his work, and also stated his identity as an immigrant.
“…Everything happened too fast, too badly, it destroyed my life before I could even react!”
“Now… I just want to get very drunk, but the damn Prohibition won’t even let me buy liquor!”
The middle-aged man shook his fist. He looked at these old men, “Do you know where I can get some liquor?”