The ringing of the phone sounded. Councilman Williams answered it, and a smile soon appeared on his face.
“I knew you could do it… I’ll pass it on… Good, I’ll definitely visit you when I have time.”
“I know, I’ll talk to him about this… Okay, goodbye.”
Councilman Williams hung up the phone and looked at Lance. “The girl is still alive, and Bowen has agreed to hand her over to you alive. You owe him a favor, and you are not to let this matter escalate.”
He spread his hands. “He took a big risk, so I think you have to give him this favor.”
“Is this the result you wanted?”
Lance let out a sigh of relief. He had just been thinking about whether Bowen would suddenly kill the girl and then tell him that she had been dead all along.
This possibility was very high, so Councilman Williams was right; he needed to grant this favor.
Although the other party was a scumbag, the girl was still alive.
He nodded. “I understand.”
Then he said with sincere gratitude, “I owe you a great deal for your help in this matter. Otherwise, it’s very likely that it would have ended in a mess.”
Councilman Williams waved his hand, a constant smile on his face, with no hint of reluctance.
“Wade owes me a favor. If I don’t use it now, there’s a high probability I won’t be able to use it in the future.”
No matter how Wade’s future as mayor developed, his favor was actually of little practical use.
The two were not in the same region, making it difficult for this favor to become valuable, unless Wade could enter Congress in the future.
But that was unlikely.
He knew this old partner and old rival very well. If Wade won the gubernatorial election, he would do his best to make his family penetrate deeper into local politics.
He would find ways to stay in the governor’s position for longer, rather than rushing to be promoted to Congress.
On the contrary, Lance—Councilman Williams was very optimistic about Lance’s future development prospects. He liked Lance’s decisiveness and wisdom, and also his human touch.
Regarding Councilman Williams’s explanation, Lance was still very grateful. “In any case, I also owe you a favor, Mr. Councilman.”
At the same time, he also showed an appropriate question that could express a further step in their relationship. “Councilman Williams, I have a very presumptuous question. I’m not sure if I should ask…”
With Councilman Williams’s wisdom, he immediately understood the questions Lance hadn’t asked. The two looked at each other for a moment, and then he burst out laughing.
“I am very old, Lance. So old that if you brought a young girl to me to strip naked and serve me, I would have a hard time doing the things you’re thinking of.”
“Maybe twenty years ago I could have given it a try…”
Lance thought of his current wife, that woman who was only in her thirties, beautiful, exquisite, with a good figure, her eyes lazy but with some heat.
Councilman Williams spoke of his health without any reservation. “And I’m not keen on things like harm and killing. Compared to these, I prefer to stay quiet.”
Lance nodded slightly, but he wouldn’t really believe it, reserving some doubt. “You are a gentleman worthy of people’s respect.”
Councilman Williams laughed again. “I like your descriptions. They always use words like ‘fox,’ ‘treacherous,’ ‘despicable’ to describe me. They don’t love telling the truth as much as you do.”
He laughed for a while and took a deep breath. “I can’t say I’m a good person, because I’ve also done many bad things. But at least in this aspect, I think I have no problem.”
“Because I have love.”
He looked at Lance, as if showing off something. “I have a wife I love. Although I have had many wives in my life, I can promise myself…”
“I loved every one of them, during the marriage.”
“I have a family I love, my children, James, William, my nephews and nieces, and my siblings.”
“I love every person in our family. Love prevents us from doing those extreme things.”
“This is what I often say: love can bring people peace.”
“Besides these, there are actually some other gaps.”
“The gap between the new politicians and the old politicians.”
This was actually a rather… controversial and not-so-popular topic in the Federation.
The political families and large landowning classes of the old days believed that the new generation of politicians from the middle and lower classes lacked a sufficient background environment. They would develop some problems in their speech, behavior, and even psychologically in the process of gaining power.
But the new generation of politicians believed that no matter what these people said, it was to hide their core demand—the inheritance of power.
They wanted to pass down power from generation to generation, which was why they had such ideas.
However, sometimes you can’t say that this idea is completely wrong, because the situation in the Federation is just that bad.
Those ordinary people from the middle class and even the lower-middle class, after more than ten years of effort, went to university.
They thought that their lives had reached a turning point, that a better life was coming to them. But in fact, they had only exchanged so many years of effort for an opportunity to serve the powerful.
When they, after a period of effort, an effort like that of a dog, finally obtained the qualification to covet power…
Then some of them might, in multiples, get back from others the injustice and humiliation they had suffered in the past.
This had actually become a kind of culture.
For a university student to have a future, they had to join various clubs and fraternities in university. But their joining these organizations was not to experience life; most of them went in to be servants.
And joining them also required passing a compliance test. They would ask the newcomers to do some very absurd things, or things that insulted their dignity.
They might ask a person to confess his love to an ugly girl in public, or ask them to sleep with an ugly girl, or have them run naked in the school.
It might seem like a prank, but in the end, it was a compliance test.
If you obeyed them and recognized their decision, then you were the person they were looking for.
If you felt that you had been insulted and you didn’t like these things, then fine, you were not the person they were looking for, and you could not join their organization.
After graduating from university, those who had joined these fraternity organizations would, with the letters of introduction given to them by their classmates, enter large enterprises or government departments and start a new life.
And those who had failed the compliance test, who had independent personality and dignity, would enter society and go through rounds of screening.
Sometimes you can hardly tell whether the school is teaching you some knowledge that is useless for your future, or if it is screening talent for the ruling class.
In this process, some people recognize reality and bow to it, and at the same time, begin to have psychological problems.
If psychological problems only accumulate and are not resolved, they will eventually explode.
Either they kill others, or they kill themselves. This is what has led to perverts being found in all classes of the Federation.
The poor have their perverts, the middle class has its perverts, and the privileged class also has its own perverts.
And the perverts in the ruling class, the privileged class, have to be dealt with through other methods and channels.
Red High Heel, Dream Crystal, were just the tip of the iceberg.
Beneath the glamorous ruling class and privileged class of the entire Federation, there was even more bottomless darkness.
Of course, there were indeed many bad people, many perverts, but there were also good people, just maybe not that many.
And these good people mostly had a significant characteristic, which was that they often had very prominent backgrounds. This allowed them to obtain power without having to wrong themselves or humiliate their dignity.
On the path of perversion, they would not go that far either.
After chatting for a while, Lance took the initiative to leave. He still had to bring Faya back, and Councilman Williams had said that he should indeed owe Mr. Bowen a favor.
Owing a pervert a favor was a bit disgusting, but he would fulfill his promise. Perhaps in the future, he would let this Mr. Bowen go once, just once.
A dozen minutes later, a panel van stopped outside Mr. Bowen’s villa. Mr. Bowen, with his arm around Faya’s shoulder, walked to the side of the van.
He looked at the two young men in the driver’s cabin without speaking.
The young man in the passenger seat nodded slightly to him. “Mr. Lance said he owes you a favor.”
Mr. Bowen moved slightly. He knew this person.
He also nodded, made no other movements, then let go of her and took two steps back.
Faya was at a loss for a moment, just standing there foolishly
The young man in the passenger seat said, “Your parents have entrusted us to take you back…”
At the mention of her parents, Faya’s expression became a little dazed.
These days, the people she wanted to see most were her parents. She had never been so eager to see them again.
When her dream really came true, she suddenly felt it was a bit unreal, too incredible.
The sunlight was strong, and there was even a burning sensation on her body. She knew that all this was not fake.
She looked back at Mr. Bowen with some unease. He was, just as she had first seen him, gentle, refined, polite, like a gentleman.
“Get in the car, we have to go.”
The girl finally decided to trust this group of people, because no matter how bad it got, it couldn’t be worse than what had happened in the basement.
She pulled open the back door of the car and got in. Soon the car disappeared down the road.
Mr. Bowen took off his glasses and wiped them with a handkerchief. He looked up at the azure sky, squinting, and suddenly cursed, “Fuck.”
It was unknown if God, who was looking down on all living beings, would feel offended. Perhaps, but it was also possible that he had never paid attention to all living beings at all.
“Someone is following us.”
Alan looked in the rearview mirror at the car following them and said a word.
He had completely emerged from the shadow of Beno’s affair. He had learned to drive right away and had started to drive himself.
Driving was actually not complicated, and it was also very fun, especially when driving a good car.
Elvin, sitting in the passenger seat, also discovered the car through the rearview mirror and didn’t pay it any mind. “Don’t worry about it. He already knows who we are.”
“Even if he knows a little more clearly, it doesn’t have any real meaning.”
Alan continued to drive. The car soon stopped outside the company. Faya got out of the car with some worry. Under Elvin’s guidance, she saw Lance, and also her parents.
The middle-aged couple let out a cry of surprise and then rushed towards their daughter, hugging her tightly. The three of them held each other and wept.
However, the man soon realized that there were still some other things to be resolved. He let go of his wife and daughter and was about to kneel down to Lance.
Lance held him up. “You asked for my help with the dignity of a father, a man. I responded to you. It’s that simple.”
The man was so excited he couldn’t even speak clearly. He just wanted to express the excited emotions in his heart. He held Lance’s hand tightly with both of his, saying words of thanks.
While he was thanking Lance, Faya’s gaze also fell on Lance.
He looked very mature, very composed. Although his face was very young, he gave people a very reliable feeling.
Faya’s gaze was glued to him. Her mother explained to her some of the things that had happened in the past few days.
Only then did she know that her father, in order to find her, had asked this good gentleman for help, and had really found her.
She felt that, no matter what, she had to personally express her gratitude.
“Thank you, Mr. Lance…” she shouted, just as others did.
Lance’s gaze shifted from the middle-aged man to Faya. “It’s a good thing you’re back. I’ll arrange for someone to take you to the hospital later to check and see if there are any places that need treatment.”
The middle-aged man quickly refused. “There’s no need to trouble you, Mr. Lance. It’s good enough that she’s back. We can’t waste any more of your money.”
“This isn’t a waste of money. We need to know if she’s been injured and whether she needs treatment. You don’t want her to have a worsened infection from some actually very small wound, do you?”
The word “infection” in this era still had a great deterrent effect on the common people.
If you were infected, you would need to use special medicine, and it might not be completely effective.
The high price and a certain degree of mortality made everyone afraid of encountering these things.
If Faya was really infected, had a fever, and her condition worsened, he would regret everything he had done today.
In the end, he did not refuse again, but he felt that his family owed Lance something that they could never repay.
This was not a problem that could be measured by money. Some things could not be measured by money.
Lance looked at her and signaled for the others to go out first. Only he and this family were left in the room.
“It’s a bit presumptuous of me to ask, but can I know what exactly happened?”
Faya found it hard to speak. Her father was taken aback for a moment and turned to walk outside. He didn’t want to hear these things.
Her mother was the same.
Only two people were left in the room. Faya looked at Lance’s clean eyes, bit her lip, and told him what had happened with a blush.
Mr. Bowen… was indeed a pervert. He hadn’t actually violated Faya, but you couldn’t say he hadn’t harmed her.
He wanted to strip her of her sense of shame. If she was slightly disobedient, it would be a severe beating.
He liked to hit people, with his fists, with a whip, or with a special leather ruler for hitting people—
A leather ruler is a soft ruler made of many layers of hard leather nailed together. It is very heavy. You don’t need much force to leave a clear mark on a person’s body, and it will hurt for a long time.
Perhaps in Mr. Bowen’s view, this game had not yet reached its climax, so he had not proceeded to the next step, which was precisely what had reduced the trauma she had suffered.
Just being naked and getting a few beatings…
Lance sighed after listening. “I hope these terrible experiences will not become a nightmare on your path to growth. There is nothing you can’t overcome, as long as you have the determination.”
Faya’s eyes were a little red, but when she heard this, a strange smile appeared on her face. “You speak like an old man, Mr. Lance.”
“I don’t think you’re much older than me.”
Lance nodded. “Twenty.”
Faya continued to say with a smile, “When you speak, you sound like those… forty or fifty-year-old people, trying to give me some life advice.”
“Thank you!” she expressed her gratitude sincerely. “Whether it’s for rescuing me or for enlightening me on this matter, thank you.”
Lance wanted to say something more, but thinking of what she had just said, he could only change his words. “I hope you can recover as soon as possible. I will arrange a job for you…”
After Faya’s family had left, Lance had Elvin do some publicity.
“Have those refugee workers of ours go to the New Port District to publicize that if anyone has a girl at home, they should not easily accept others’ requests to take their picture, nor should they casually reveal where they live.”
“If you encounter this kind of person, leave as soon as possible or ask the people around you for help.”
“We can’t save everyone. We can only do this.”
He picked up the phone as he spoke and called George (a special columnist/reporter for Golden Port Today).
“I have a big story. You will definitely be very interested, but you might also encounter some danger. Do you want it?”
George was at work, writing a manuscript.
He had a few friends who had gone to the Tanfit continent as war correspondents. If it weren’t for the fact that he was too afraid of death, and had already gained a little fame, he might have also risked going there to be a war correspondent.
Being a war correspondent is not so easy. You are risking your life.
Either you become a celebrity, or you become a name.
Whether it’s success or failure, it will bring great news value.
Because he had people there, he knew more about the situation there than the people in the Federation did now.
The Dantra Republic was very dissatisfied with the Federation merchants providing supplies to its hostile forces and had formally protested to the federal government.
In fact, the Federation merchants not only provided supplies to its opponents, but also provided a lot of supplies to it.
It’s just that now the war had entered a stalemate from the initial outbreak, and supplies had become more important.
The domestic situation in Dantra was already very tense, and now, the situation for the Federation people living there had become even more tense.
The prime minister was using exaggerated ways to persuade people to stand on his side. This was a dangerous signal.
(End of chapter)