The bizarre things that the people of Golden Port City had experienced these past few days were many.
For example, a family that drowned in their own swimming pool.
The pool was only 1.5 meters deep. Any person, as long as they weren’t too panicked, could definitely stand up.
But the matter was just that incredible; they had all actually drowned.
Some people laughed at their stupidity, especially those at the bottom of society. Mocking the foolish things that happened in the upper class seemed to prove that they were the smart ones.
But those who knew some inside information felt a cold sweat all over their bodies; they were very uneasy.
As for news like those who jumped off buildings in groups, or were mysteriously bitten to death by poisonous snakes from the north in their homes in the south, it was everywhere.
Of course, to protect the last dignity of the deceased, the reports basically all used pseudonyms.
Why did they know that the family that drowned in the swimming pool was from the upper class?
Without knowing their names?
In fact, it was very simple: the poor don’t have private swimming pools in their homes.
In short, the recent bizarre news had somewhat diluted the fact that Golden Port City had changed hands. After all, this matter had nothing to do with 99% of the people of Golden Port.
Who was the boss of the Golden Port Casino, who could run the casino, would not change their lives in the slightest.
So those bizarre news stories quickly occupied the focus of public opinion. Anyway, it had nothing to do with them.
After James finished his work, he came back from outside. He first went home—it was in the manor. There were many houses in the manor, where both Councilman Williams and he lived.
Strictly speaking, they lived together, but as long as they were unwilling to see each other, they could go a year without meeting.
After changing into casual clothes for home, he came to Councilman Williams’s study.
Now James was the councilman. He also had his own work to do and his own social life, so it was impossible for him to be with Councilman Williams every day.
“Been back already?” Councilman Williams, who was reading the newspaper, looked up and then put the paper back on the desk. He then took off his reading glasses from the bridge of his nose.
He carefully put them into an ivory glasses case and placed it in a drawer.
James sat down and nodded. “Yes, I’ve been back.”
Councilman Williams nodded noncommittally. “Did you know?”
“I heard that William’s wife, Mrs. Emily, is pregnant again.”
This sentence made James a little… embarrassed. He had been married for some time, but his wife was not pregnant.
The two were in a political marriage. His wife’s father was the granddaughter of a friend of Councilman Williams, a big capitalist, very rich.
Over the years, with the help of Councilman Williams, his business had spread throughout Likalai State and was planning to continue to expand outwards.
In the Federation, this kind of combination of money and power was very common. As long as the law did not prohibit politicians from marrying the daughters of capitalists, then it was possible for them to do so.
The reason it was “possible” was because besides the daughters of capitalists, they could also choose the daughters of politicians.
It was just that such a political marriage did not necessarily have a good result. James needed a marriage because he was running for municipal councilman. He and his wife had no emotional basis. Although the two were married, their relationship was not good.
That woman often went back to her own home to live, instead of living in the Williams manor.
At the same time, James didn’t like that woman very much either, so the two of them had tacitly agreed to live like this, each living their own life.
But as the great master of the house, Councilman Williams still hoped that his descendants could have many children.
Offspring are a kind of wealth for the poor. More children can help them with their work.
For the rich, they are also a kind of wealth. After all, blood relations are more reliable than hired management.
James didn’t want to continue talking about this topic. In the short term, there was a high probability that he would not have children.
After all, this was something he couldn’t do by himself. Unless his wife also cooperated with him, but that didn’t seem so easy.
“I attended a small gathering today. They talked about Lance.”
Hearing him talk about something he didn’t want to deal with, Councilman Williams nodded slightly. He knew why James didn’t want to talk, so he didn’t continue.
Sometimes, a little hint is enough. Too much would be annoying. After all, he had also been young once.
“What did you discuss?”
James, seeing that his father was not pressing him about the child, breathed a sigh of relief. “They were talking about… the issue of Lance’s cruelty.”
“Cruelty!” Councilman Williams repeated the word. “A very serious accusation. What do you think?”
James sat in his chair, in a relaxed posture. “I can’t say they’re wrong…”
“After all, you know, he was indeed quite cruel in how he handled some of the Kodak family’s people.”
He chose his words carefully.
After hearing this, Councilman Williams smiled slightly. “Then do you think his… cruelty is a good thing or a bad thing for us?”
James thought for a moment. “It should be a good thing.”
Councilman Williams nodded and said, “Yes, you’re right. It should be a good thing.”
“If you can spare a little time to look through some history books, you will find that every wise monarch always has some court jesters, some brutal ministers, and some virtuous ministers around him.”
“Do you think a monarch would be a fool?”
“A fool, how could he become the first person in a country, a political force?”
“Of course, we have to exclude those who were purely lucky and obtained the throne through the system of inheritance.”
“And those heirs who obtained the throne through their own efforts, they are not fools. But why, do they also have such ministers?”
He gave some examples, all of which were relatively well-known monarchs. It was indeed common for these ministers to exist around them. This question made James start to think.
And what Councilman Williams had to do was to guide his successor, to make him more mature, more intelligent.
“That’s because under the rule of anyone, there will always be some people who are dissatisfied with the ruling group.”
“So they need to use some people to clear out those dissidents, and they can’t get their own hands dirty.”
“We are not monarchs, and Lance is not a brutal subject, but we can also cooperate in this way.”
“He has done his own part of the job well, so we should also do our own part of the job well. This is a good cooperation, a good partner!”
“And look, the city has become much quieter immediately. This proves that not everyone is not afraid of death. Under such cruel means, people will be afraid.”
“It’s much more convenient to rule a group of subjects who have awe than to rule a group of subjects who are full of confrontational emotions!”
Councilman Williams licked his lips. “You should protect him.”
“Before there is a conflict of interest between us, you have to protect him.”
“Protecting him is equivalent to protecting ourselves, not to question whether what he did was right or wrong!”
He paused for a moment here. “I heard that Lance and the girl from the Lawrence family are getting engaged in the summer. He is smarter than everyone else, and has taken a crucial step more firmly.”
“You can pick a suitable gift for him, pick something more valuable.”
“You can talk to him and see if you can be the godfather of his child.”
Councilman Williams turned his head to look at James, a hint of something like teasing in his eyes, which he couldn’t quite distinguish. “I think there’s a high probability that he won’t refuse.”
In fact, from Councilman Williams’s perspective, Lance had developed too well!
After Lance had dealt with Bandy, he had collected more information about Lance’s development. At first, he just thought that Lance’s development was very impressive.
But as he studied those things, he found that it could no longer be described as just very impressive.
So much so that… the Lance Family couldn’t even be called a gang, at least not the traditional kind of gang that people understand.
They hardly did anything that would harm ordinary people. The only thing that could be called a criminal business was buying and selling private liquor.
Apart from this, they hardly did any other business related to crime, and the crime of selling private liquor would sooner or later be downplayed.
In fact, facts have already proven that Prohibition, this large-scale social experiment, has failed.
Prohibition not only did not stop people from drinking, but on the contrary, it made many people become more dependent on alcohol.
At the same time, people did not save the money from not drinking for normal consumption and the like.
Prohibition did not make this society better, as those sociologists had said. On the contrary, it made some things worse.
Those gangs were expanding uncontrollably. The Lance Family was a clear example.
They relied on selling private liquor to the poor to quickly accumulate a considerable amount of wealth, which gave them enough confidence to fight against the Five Families.
The gang groups in every city were constantly changing, and the landscape of the underworld was also constantly changing. One after another, unfamiliar gangs were rising, and one after another, old-brand gangs had not been able to transform in time and had eventually fallen.
The federal government’s control over the underworld was constantly weakening, and the positive effects that people wanted to see from the experiment were not obvious.
It’s really… too bad!
So the crime of selling private liquor will not be too serious in the end. In other words, unless someone can get 100% evidence to accuse Lance of various murders, the justice department might not even be able to find a way to charge him!
Accusing him of organizing a gangster crime, what crime did they commit?
Relieving the poor?
Finding jobs for the unemployed poor, solving the life problems for the citizens who are unwilling to work?
Or did they do something particularly terrible?
It seems not.
As for those kidnappings, murders, and the like, in the eyes of Councilman Williams, these were all minor matters, trivial matters.
Because as long as someone stood up to take the blame, the problem would be over directly.
Lance was in a position where he could not fail. In addition, he now controlled the casino and the upward channel. As long as he did not do anything stupid, he would definitely be able to go further!
On the contrary, James’s future development was highly unlikely to be as good as Lance’s.
So in the eyes of Councilman Williams, having James be the godfather of Lance’s first child was actually a big advantage for James.
This was a bit like an inversion, but it was the truth!
James did not know his old father’s thoughts, but he had one advantage, and that was that he was obedient.
He immediately agreed. “I will personally pick a valuable gift and send it over.”
Councilman Williams nodded. He continued to talk about the things James had mentioned.
“Don’t think that Lance is very cruel and brutal.”
“Someone is willing to be a sharp knife, but you think the knife is too sharp. This can only show that you are not yet a qualified ruler.”
“You need a more open mind. Since we have chosen to cooperate with him, you should trust your partner.”
However, Councilman Williams would not blame James for this. He still needed time to grow, and he also had enough time to grow.
As long as he was always growing, that was enough.
After ending this topic, Councilman Williams drank the coffee in his cup. James immediately stood up and poured some more for him.
He said casually, “The current matter has come to an end. In a while, I’m going to Manteno with Lance.”
“You handle the work in your hands. You will go with us.”
He picked up the coffee and blew on it. “This trip is to re-establish the problem of the distribution of benefits. There will be many big shots present. you need to play a… helper role. Do you understand what I mean?”
James nodded. “I understand. I am just a servant.”
Councilman Williams nodded in great satisfaction. “Is there anything else?”
James shook his head. “No more.”
The old man took a sip of his coffee, then put it down. “Go back, do your own thing. If there’s anything you don’t understand, come back.”
James stood up to leave. Although he was gone, Councilman Williams no longer had the interest to continue reading the newspaper.
In early June, many things seemed to have stabilized again. The police officer who had decided to take a risk for 100,000 had also put his heart back in place.
So far, they hadn’t found him. It should be that there was a problem with the direction of the investigation, which was a good thing.
Another good thing was that after a special diagnosis, they believed that his wife had a high probability of being cured.
This made him feel that everything he had paid was worth it.
He had already thought about it. After his wife’s cancer was cured, he would quit this job, and then take his wife to travel, to go around the world.
Life is really too fragile. They shouldn’t waste their limited lives on how to survive.
They were not short of money now. They had the time and the qualifications to go and see, to go around.
Just as he was fantasizing about the future, two police officers walked to his desk and knocked on it. “Deputy Chief Duke wants to see you in his office.”
He was stunned for a moment, then quickly stood up and walked towards the stairs.
And at this very moment, his wife was being pushed into the operating room.
The experts in the medical group who were studying cancer had already prepared for the surgery. The woman was sent to the operating table after being deeply anesthetized.
She was stripped naked, with not a stitch of clothing on. Her chest and abdomen, including the hair in her private parts, had also been shaved clean.
But no one was interested in her body. What the doctors were most eager to do now was to cut open her skin, open her chest and abdominal cavity, and look at those tumors.
The belief that cancer has a chance of being cured mainly comes from a lack of understanding of cancer.
They had not yet classified tumors and did not know that there were actually malignant and benign ones. So when some benign tumors were removed and the patient was cured, they generally believed that cancer had a chance of being cured, and the chance was not low.
But as people’s research on cancer deepens, they will find that not all tumors are benign and can be removed.
But at this stage, they still held the most primitive idea.
The woman with her eyes closed tightly seemed to have also felt some tension. It’s unknown if it was because the anesthetic had not taken deep effect. When the scalpel cut open her skin, her heartbeat trembled, and sweat secreted on her head.
Her husband at this time took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his face. Deputy Chief Duke sat behind his desk. “Why?”
“Why did you poison Bandy? Who instructed you to do it?”
He could only nervously deny it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never done these things!”
Duke and the others did not intend to let this guy really confess who it was. The value of him being alive and not confessing was far greater than the value of what he said.
But in order to “protect” him, he now needed to be “treasured.” This required his cooperation, or rather, he had to accept his fate.
“Your wife’s surgery fee, and some funds. Do I need to say more?”
The man’s pupils contracted slightly, then gradually dilated. He lowered his head and remained silent.
As a police officer, he knew that these things could not withstand an investigation. Once they were discovered, he would not be able to get rid of the suspicion and accusations.
His face was a little pained, just like his wife on the operating table at this time.
Obviously, the results of the X-ray and the results of the actual laparotomy were different. The environment and situation after the laparotomy were more complicated than what they had seen on the X-ray. For a time, the chief surgeon did not even know how to start.
However, this would not be an open-and-shut surgery. After all, such a rare case was placed on the operating table. She had to become the result of the research.
As for death?
That wasn’t their problem. It was just that God loved her and had taken her to his side.
Under the temporary discussion of the doctors and experts at the scene, they re-negotiated the surgical process. So two new doctors, in cooperation, came to the side of the operating table with scalpels.
An ordinary laparotomy also became more like a full-open dissection. More organs and lesions were exposed.
As they began to make incisions, all of this was faithfully recorded by multiple cameras.
It might become an important case analysis in medical classes, and also become research material in the research room.
Fifteen minutes later, the police officer’s badge and his service pistol were taken back. He would be taken to a safer place.
He obeyed Deputy Chief Duke’s arrangement, but he only had one request, and that was that after his wife woke up, she should not be told what had happened.
Just as he stepped into the police car and was being transferred, in the operating room, with a long beep of a buzzer, the doctors’ movements all stopped.
“Should we continue?”
“Why not?”
They became busy again, not stopping just because someone had left…
(End of a Chapter)