“It’s me.”
“…Is it?”
“This is truly terrible news, but after it’s over, bring him over. I can talk to him…”
“Okay, I understand. I’ll arrange for someone to go over.”
Lance hung up the phone, his gaze sweeping over the people in the room before finally landing on Lawn.
Hiram had gone to bed. His cold hadn’t completely cleared up, and an early rest would greatly help him recover his strength.
Lawn also noticed Lance’s gaze. He stood up from the sofa, “Is there something you need me for?”
Lance nodded. This was where they lived, not the company. “Ennio’s father was beaten up, that’s what he said. Now he’s going to teach those bastards a lesson. You take some men to support them.”
Mello asked from the corner, “Is it dangerous?”
Lance shook his head. “Ordinary people, no danger.”
Mello didn’t ask any further.
Lawn called a few men. They drove two cars and arrived near Ennio’s house. The two groups joined together in three cars and headed towards the Priliccia District.
Right now, the Priliccia District was a relatively vacuumed area. There wasn’t much gunfire here at the moment.
The Mayor’s political failure had caused some of the less powerful groups from Fides to flee this place rapidly.
Without the support of the city’s ruler, it was difficult for them to confront the locals.
Some peace had returned here.
Currently, it was temporarily controlled by two local gangs, with some smaller gangs. Their interference in the district’s operation was not significant.
Or rather, their main means of profit was no longer something as low-level as collecting protection fees, but rather operating some entertainment venues, mainly providing prostitution or alcoholic beverages.
At the same time, they might also be involved in things like extortion and fraud, but not much, and it was done very secretly.
The convoy was discovered when it entered this district, but when they realized it was the Lance Family, they took no further action, just kept watching.
At a traffic light intersection, the car that had been following them came up to the front from another lane.
The driver in the cab looked over. “This isn’t the Empire District or the Port District.”
He was reminding these people that this was not the Lance Family’s territory.
Ennio, sitting in the back seat, moved towards the outside. “I’m Ennio. Someone hurt my family. I’m here to have a talk with them.”
The man opposite looked at Ennio. “I’ve heard your name,” he said, listening for a moment. His gaze swept over these people, and finally, he nodded slightly. “Try not to make too much noise.”
“Thanks!”
When the light turned green, that guy turned right and left this route, while they continued forward.
The Lance Family was now quite famous in Golden Port. Although they had always been in the Empire District, and the newly acquired Port District, and didn’t come out to operate very often…
No one would look down on them now.
Ennio’s father, sitting in the car, watched all this happen. He had an indescribable strange feeling. He never thought that his son would also be a “somewhat famous” person.
Ennio’s father had been to the manager’s villa, a villa in the Priliccia District.
Or rather, basically everyone who had joined the company had been to this villa, because this was also part of the entire company’s plan.
You have to let these bottom-level workers see it, touch it, only then will they go crazy.
If you just tell them that with hard work, they will one day have their own house and car, and become a great tycoon, that’s too empty, too ethereal, unrealistic.
But if you bring them to this villa, let them attend a “welcome party” here, let them personally feel the reality of all this, this will become the motivation to inspire them to work hard and create value for the company.
Who the fuck doesn’t want to live in such a big house one day?
Who doesn’t want to have a few naked young girls stretching their bodies in their swimming pool?
The more degenerate, the greater the motivation.
Capital had long studied human nature with exceptional thoroughness. Once you fall into the trap, it’s very difficult to struggle out.
These experiences allowed Ennio and his crew to quickly get a “precise location.”
The car soon arrived at the community entrance. The security guard in the duty room did not open the gate. He walked out of the duty room.
“Who are you looking for?”
“You need to register to enter here!”
Ennio came out with a twenty-dollar bill held between his fingers. “Open the gate for us, let us in. We’ll be leaving soon.”
The security guard glanced at the twenty dollars. Although he was a bit tempted, he could still distinguish whether twenty dollars was more important, or his job was more important.
The salary for being a security guard here was not low. All in all, he could get fifty-five dollars a month.
Usually, when the owners came in and out, they would sometimes give him a little tip, or a pack or two of cigarettes or something, so his actual income was much more than people imagined.
People often say that they would rather be a dog in a rich man’s house than be born into a poor family. This is the logic.
Twenty dollars was not enough for him to risk losing his job.
He raised his hand in a business-like manner and gently pushed Ennio’s hand away. “Sorry sir, if you want to go in, you must have an object of visit, and this person must also agree to let you in.”
“Otherwise, I can’t open this gate for you.”
As he spoke, he also lifted his uniform, revealing the gun holster on his waist. He wanted to use this method to warn the other party that they were not to be trifled with.
But the next second, a gun was pressed against the side of his head. “Can you open it now?”
He slowly raised his hands, his expression somewhat terrified. “Of course.”
The gate was quickly opened. He was tied to a chair in the duty room. They wouldn’t go so far as to make things difficult for a working security guard.
And doing so was actually helping him solve trouble. At least he could complain to the company that he had resisted but failed.
The three cars quickly entered the community. Soon they found the place they were looking for.
The huge villa, surrounded by lights and green plants, exuded an air of elegance. The group got out of the cars. His father, standing next to Ennio, was a little worried for some reason.
“Will it cause trouble?”
Ennio shook his head. “Just a small character.”
On the bed in the bedroom, the manager was sweating profusely. Most of his nightlife was this exciting.
Actually, this villa was not his personally. This villa was a company asset. They needed such a facade to prove the company’s strength, and incidentally, to give those newly recruited employees a little shock from the “Federation Dream.”
Just as he was about to finish, the bedroom door suddenly opened. Without turning his head, he cursed, “I told you, don’t come in at this time!”
He turned his head with some dissatisfaction, his eyes also showing strong displeasure. But when he saw the person standing by the door, his whole body shivered violently, and all his movements stopped.
The girl lying on the bed accepting the baptism turned to look at him with some confusion, and also noticed the person outside the door. Accompanied by a scream, the manager came back to his senses.
He turned sharply and saw some young men standing at the door. He originally had a terrified expression, but when he saw Ennio’s father standing outside the door, he became less afraid.
He grabbed a sheet to cover his groin, preventing his little bird from swinging back and forth. “This is my fucking house. You have trespassed on private property. If you don’t get out now, I will call the police.”
Ennio suddenly grabbed a vase by the door and rushed over, smashing it on his head.
“Fuck!” he suddenly cursed, then shook his hand. Some blood flowed from his palm.
There were thorns on the flower stems that hadn’t been completely removed, and they had pierced his palm.
The pain made his anger even more intense. He began to beat the manager who was crouching on the ground.
A few minutes later, the manager, who was now unrecognizable, was crouching on the coffee table in the villa’s living room. The look in his eyes when he looked at Ennio was already filled with deep fear.
Ennio’s father seemed to want to say something, but every time he wanted to speak, he would be interrupted by Ennio.
At first, he was very sympathetic to the manager, but as the manager, in order not to be beaten, not to be burned by cigarette butts—
He was really scared. That place was still hurting. He had never thought that an old guy who looked so hardworking and stupid would actually have a gangster son.
And he never thought… that this young man would actually use a cigarette butt to burn his bird!
He just wanted to end all this as soon as possible.
He had to go to the hospital and ask the doctor if his bird was still alive.
So he directly explained why he had fired his father.
“…He’s too old. If he stayed, the newly recruited young people might question whether working here could really realize their dreams of wealth.”
“So, the company arranged such a plan to find a way to clear out the older people.”
Ennio’s father’s eyes were about to split open from his glare. He couldn’t imagine that the reason he was fired was simply because he had no use value to the company anymore.
His faith collapsed in that instant.
He looked at the manager, his tone very slow as he asked, “I saw on the honor wall…”
The company had an honor wall. Everyone who had become a “sales champion” had their own page on it. The manager was silent for a moment. “Besides the ones you know are our own people, the other photos were all bought for a dollar from a closed photo studio.”
“So it’s been a scam all along?”
The manager smiled awkwardly.
The company had made no small amount of money from these salespeople. The training fees, material fees, and then various losses, as well as the money they had advanced for the products themselves.
The so-called top few on the monthly sales list, to put it bluntly, besides the shills, the rest were the company’s real “big customers.”
“Motherfucker!” The honest man’s teeth were grinding with anger.
He reached for the vase next to him, then put it down, then picked up the ashtray, then felt it was too heavy.
In the end, after choosing back and forth, he chose an electric cord and, under the manager’s relieved gaze, vented his frustration.
It was just a whip, just physical pain. As long as it wasn’t a vase or an ashtray, as long as it wasn’t taking his life, the pain would only last for a while.
The honest man whipped him for a while. Seeing the bloody marks on the manager’s body, he finally couldn’t bear to continue. He panted slightly, looking at this guy with hatred in his eyes.
For many years, he had wasted his time, wasted his energy, wasted everything. And in the end, these people told him that it was just their trick.
The income of more than ten dollars a month could only keep his family from starving. So his wife had left him, and his son was unwilling to be with him.
He thought that one day he would achieve the Federation Dream through his own efforts, and make all those who looked down on him have to look up to him.
But it turned out that he was the stupidest one.
He was very sad. He slumped on the sofa, covering his face with his hands. “What have I done!”
Ennio patted him on the back, then took out his pistol and pressed it against the manager’s head.
Although his father had not been good to him in the past, he was, after all, raised by him. And they were father and son, and had forgiven each other.
Now this guy had made his father so miserable. A wave of anger made him prepare to kill this guy.
The manager was so scared he peed himself. You could see he was trying to hold it in, but he really couldn’t.
He held his head and crouched on the coffee table, peeing.
Just as Ennio said “Go to hell!” and was about to pull the trigger, his father pressed down on his arm. “There’s no need.”
Ennio looked at him, and he also looked at Ennio. “It’s not worth it, Ennio.”
“They taught me a lesson. This money, this time, I’ll just treat it as my tuition fee.”
He looked at the manager. The positions of the two sides had undergone a huge change, no longer like during the day, with the manager being high and mighty.
A smile suddenly appeared on his face. “You’re not as great as you think you are, are you?”
The manager quickly showed a fawning smile. “Yes, yes, you’re right…”
Ennio’s father shook his head. “So in the face of the ultimate answer, we are all equal,” he said, and without waiting for the manager’s reply, he walked outside.
The manager’s humility had, to the greatest extent, smoothed over his inner dissatisfaction and also made him truly recognize this world.
If his son wasn’t Ennio, if they hadn’t come here…
The beautiful filter of the Federation was disappearing bit by bit. He couldn’t say how disappointed he was, just that he regretted wasting too much time.
Ennio glanced at the manager again and put away his weapon. “For my father’s sake.”
The manager knelt directly on the coffee table, in his own urine, and expressed his sincere gratitude to Ennio’s father.
Soon, the group of them left. The manager did not call the police, but silently had someone clean up the villa, and then went to the hospital in his clothes.
This society of the Federation was never fair. It was not a simple matter for the poor to see a doctor, but for the rich, they could see a doctor anytime, anywhere.
When the doctor saw the incredible injuries on the manager’s body, his brain also went a little offline.
He was originally going to call the police, but the manager stated that this was his “little hobby.” In the end, the doctor only gave him some simple bandages.
The bad news was that he might need two to four weeks to relatively recover, and the good news was that his bird was not dead.
Half an hour later, the group returned to Lance’s villa, because Lance wanted to have a chat with Ennio’s father.
When the convoy stopped outside the villa, looking at the villa with its renovated green plant-covered walls, he glanced at his son.
Although they were father and son, they were already on two parallel lines that did not intersect.
He was a little restrained. Ennio saw this. “Lance is a very easy-going person. He is also an Empire immigrant. You’ll know when you meet him.”
The villa was full of people. As Ennio and his father came in, he took the initiative to recount the course and result of the matter.
After listening, Lance nodded. “A very good handling!” he said, looking at Ennio’s father. “Now that you’ve recognized your previous job, what’s next?”
“Are you planning to find something to do, or are you planning to rest for a while?”
Perhaps it was because the people here were not like the gangsters he had imagined, wearing scary clothes and standing in a row without smiling. On the contrary, everyone was chatting casually like friends and brothers, which made him feel less restrained.
He said with a slightly flushed face, “I plan to find another job. I can’t just be idle at home. There are some bills every month.”
Lance sized up Ennio’s father. He looked… actually quite in line with the aesthetic of the Federation people.
He was not shy in front of strangers. In fact, most salespeople are not shy, and not being shy is the most basic personal quality for them to enter the industry.
If you can’t even sell a pile of trash to a stranger, then you will definitely not become the “God of Sales.”
His build was also quite average, and his facial features looked very soft.
Lance thought for a moment and said, “Why don’t you just work for us? That way, you and Ennio can see each other often.”
A look of joy appeared on Ennio’s face, but his father was a little bewildered. “But I don’t know how to shoot, and I don’t… dare to kill people.”
The young men in the room all laughed. Lance handed him a cigarette. “We also have legitimate and legal businesses. You are Ennio’s father, I am more willing to trust you…”
In the Federation, the so-called “people” are actually the lowest level of society, and also the most unimportant group.
But at the same time, they are also the most important group, because whether politicians can realize their ideals and step onto the political stage is related to how much popular support they can get.
To ensure your own interests, you must gather more of the “political base” around you.
Those financial groups can fight against the federal government not only because they have money, but also because once they “let go,” tens of thousands of unemployed workers will destroy everything for the politicians.
Lance also had to run many legitimate businesses and also had to form his own protective umbrella.
Not only those officials, the ruling class, but also the countless people at the bottom.
(End of chapter)
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