Empire of Shadows

William's supervisor was also an Old Federation native, and a local at that. He was very familiar with the development of Goldport City over the years.

When William mentioned the Imperial District, he suddenly realized that it must be related to the rapidly developing Lance family in the Imperial District recently.

But he wouldn't say it outright; that was their basic rule. "The Imperial District has a very strong momentum recently, William. I think your chances are very good."

As he spoke, he stood up, walked around the desk, and walked towards William, extending both hands as he walked.

There are also etiquette rules for shaking hands. It's not just that everyone reaches out and shakes hands and that's the end of it.

In different situations, who extends their hand first, who extends their hand later, and whether there are other actions involved, all of these have many different expressions.

William immediately noticed these changes. He also took the initiative to extend his hand, took two steps forward, and greeted the supervisor. The four hands intertwined, shaking vigorously.

"I'm really reluctant to see you leave. When you're here, I never worry about anything not being done well. You are more important to this office than I am!"

William smiled, seemingly agreeing with his words, but not taking them seriously.

He had been stuck as a staff member for twenty years, not an office head or someone in charge of a department. He knew very well how important he was.

But now, the other party's purpose in saying these words was simply to recognize that he was different now than in the past, that he was someone with influence.

The Lance family not only represented the electoral leaning of the Imperial District but also represented campaign funds.

In an era of commodified elections, money is more important than ability!

With votes, funds, and the Federal Party's certain support, he already had the basic conditions to become a city councilor.

Perhaps the next time they met, it would be in the hall of the municipal council, with the supervisor sitting in the last row as an observer.

And he, William Lawrence, would be sitting at the long table closest to the center of power, and he would be the only one in that row!

After the two exchanged pleasantries, the supervisor escorted him to the entrance of the office building before watching him leave.

The value of power and its meaning to life were made even clearer to William at this moment!

Before, although the supervisor was nice to him, that kind of niceness was just the ordinary niceness of treating a capable employee.

Unlike now, he even went around the desk to take the initiative to shake his hand and even saw him off.

Was it because he was truly capable at work?

No, it was because the other party thought he might become someone they needed to look up to!

A surge of ambition emanated from the depths of his heart. He clenched his fist, glanced back at this not-so-special building that represented the pinnacle of power in this city, and turned to enter the old car.

"Darling, if I'm not mistaken, it should be your working hours now," Emily was flipping through a fashion and family life magazine.

The bi-weekly ladies' theme gathering was about to begin. This time, the focus of their discussion was "Modern Living."

This word was all the rage. They had talked about it more than once, but they still liked to talk about this topic.

Making their lives stylish, refined, and an enviable model seemed to be what the middle class loved to do most.

William was like a beast at this moment. He casually threw his briefcase by the door, took off his coat, and walked towards Emily.

The latter looked at his appearance and hugged the pillow, "Darling, you're scaring me a little like this!"

William didn't hide his desire to vent at all. "I need to relax a bit…"

A dozen minutes later, William lay on the headboard, smoking. Emily was very satisfied; this was the longest time he had lasted in years.

There was heating in the room. She lay across in front of him, "Darling, is there anything good you need to share with me?"

"I quit my job," William said, turning over and standing up. Before Emily could react, he walked into the bathroom. "I'm having dinner with Lance tonight, if he has time."

"At home?"

"No, outside…"

Before six o'clock, Lance looked at the phone in his hand, feeling a little strange, but he still agreed to William's request to meet, especially when he heard that William had resigned.

This was not quite the same as their plan. According to Lance's plan, William should resign at the end of April or the beginning of May, not now.

Twenty minutes later, William drove to the Imperial Nightclub. He was wearing a beige long trench coat and a dark wool felt hat. His face was hidden under the brim, and even the neon lights of the Imperial Nightclub did not illuminate him.

Because the Imperial Nightclub was selling alcohol now, there would be people watching at the door, but obviously Lance had already given instructions. William entered the gate directly.

It was a bit stuffy here. He felt it as soon as he came in. Under the guidance of a young man, he passed through the hall.

There were already some performances in the hall. Those scantily clad girls were dancing hand in hand on the stage.

Strangely, Federal people, especially Federal men, now seemed to have no resistance to this kind of dance where the performers wore bling-bling outfits, exposing their thighs and constantly raising their legs.

The girls' decorations were very delicate, with white sequins that reflected psychedelic luster when some colored lights shone on them.

And on the ceiling, there was a row of large lights that illuminated their legs.

Every pair of legs was different, but they all had one thing in common: they were healthy and shapely.

The men sitting below kept whistling, and some even threw coins or banknotes onto the stage.

Under the stage, girls wearing bunny costumes carried trays, constantly traveling between the bar and each independent table. The fluffy bunny tails made people want to pinch them.

The atmosphere filled with desire and the taste of indulgence was intoxicating. He withdrew his gaze, knowing he couldn't watch anymore.

After arriving upstairs, he met Lance. There were some other people sitting here, and they all looked at William, which made William a little nervous.

A girl got up, walked to his side, and motioned for him to take off his coat and hat.

He was stunned for a moment before realizing it, and then felt a little embarrassed by the girl's chuckle, "Sorry!"

The girl didn't care, "It's okay, you really don't need to be so nervous."

Lance was on the phone. He saw William coming and ended the call.

It was Alberto's. He was coming back soon and brought some good things for Lance, and also brought two newly acquainted friends. He asked Lance to pick him up, and then they would take the new friends to play in Goldport City together.

Lance had no objection to this.

"Please sit down. Have you eaten?"

William shook his head, "Not yet, but I ate a little something on the way to tide me over."

"Our chef is good. Have someone bring some food…" The first sentence was to William, and the second sentence was to Alvin.

He made a gesture, and the young people in the room left. Lance and he wanted to talk alone.

"Why did you suddenly resign?" Lance opened the cigarette case, took one and tossed it to William. Soon, the two began to exhale smoke.

"The Social Party's party representative will be staying in Goldport City for a few days. Do you know about this?"

Lance nodded, "I know. Are you planning to use their power to do something for you?"

William became interested. His emotions became a little excited. "Didn't we talk about the matter of illegal immigrants obtaining legal status before?"

Lance, with a cigarette in his mouth, nodded, "Yes, but it's difficult to do. That's what we talked about before."

"Now the opportunity has come!" William said very confidently. Lance became interested and motioned for him to continue.

"Now the Social Party wants to seize the identity of grassroots voters, so they must find a way to solve some social pain points and make people realize that they are not just clowns who play with power."

"Therefore, the party representative will be running around in various states. They want to do something."

"The Liberal Party's propaganda offensive is very fierce, especially in the neutral states."

In this era when information flow is not smooth, let alone what happened in the next state, even if something happened in the next city, no one would know if no one reported it.

The Social Party will not actively report that they have encountered a very bad situation in the neutral states, and the Liberal Party will not report that they are evenly matched with the Social Party. It sounds like they are inherently inferior to the Social Party.

As for the Federal Party, they think it's not the time yet.

Therefore, the Social Party's party representative, while denouncing the President's previous dog-shit practices within the party, also had to find a way to seize voters and public opinion.

"Federal illegal immigrants are a very large group. If they can see that illegal immigrants can stand on their side, then they may continue to promote the previous plan to give illegal immigrants status."

Although there was no one around, he still lowered his voice, making it very mysterious. Perhaps this is the essence of politics—selfish and mysterious!

"Goldport City has two or three hundred thousand illegal immigrants. If these people can be converted into legal immigrants, even if the conversion rate is only ten percent, that's still tens of thousands of voters."

"Then lower the expectations a bit, five percent, that's still ten to twenty thousand voters."

"The Social Party gives them identity and rights, so isn't it a matter of course that they cast their votes for the Social Party?"

Lance listened carefully, nodding in agreement, "Then what about the Liberal Party?"

"They won't do nothing, right?"

“Even we know there are huge opportunities hidden here. They’ve always wanted to defeat the Socialist Party, and they almost succeeded this time. They won’t do nothing, right?”

William revealed a slight smile, “No matter what they do, the President has to sign it in the end!”

A final decision!

No matter how well you do, most people can't possibly know about the dirty dealings and struggles between the two parties. They only know that the President signed his name on this decree, and then the decree came into effect.

People will shout "Mr. President," not the names of those who pushed it through!

But that doesn't mean they won't do anything. They will, but only in neutral states and their own territories.

They won’t actively do this in a place like Goldport City.

“We have to push this matter forward to profit from it.”

“Listen, Lance, this kind of opportunity might only come once every few years, or even decades, because it has no barriers to entry!”

“It's not like discussing national policies and regulations in Congress, where you must have the status of a Senator or Representative to participate.”

“Now, as long as you have the guts and the charisma, you can push this thing forward!”

He was referring to Lance's Blue-Collar Workers Union. The media had also paid attention to this group. Their numbers had reached an astonishing eight or nine thousand, and it was said that they were not far from ten thousand!

To engage in political movements, you don't actually need that many people, because the target of the demands won't really count how many people there are. They just need to feel that there are a lot of people, and that's enough.

After considering it, Lance nodded, "Anyway, there's nothing to lose if we fail."

William pointed at him, "That's the spirit!"

“If we succeed, we'll have no problem taking down the Empire District together.”

“If we fail, there's no loss for us either. The Immigration Bureau won't send these eight or nine thousand people back, because they don't have that much money!”

Lance felt he could do it. "I can organize the workers first. When are they going to the docks?"

“In three days. These days, they're socializing in the Bay Area. You know, there are many people here who are willing to befriend them…”

Soon, Elvin brought up two servings of seafood and beef fried rice. This wasn't a food that Federal people liked. They actually preferred bread and steak, or macaroni.

Only a few people liked this, and Lance was one of them.

After taking a couple of bites, William praised it non-stop. He rarely ate food outside of the traditional Federal recipes, and he found it amazing.

The two of them ate and chatted, and soon a plan was made…

After finishing dinner and resolving some details, he hurried back, looking very energetic.

At a little past eight in the evening, lying in bed, he thought again of those snow-white or wheat-colored thighs under the dazzling lights of the nightclub, and a surge of power was produced again in his body.

He turned over and, amidst Emily's exclamation, pinned her down again…

As for Lance, he was looking at the nightclub, whose business was obviously not as good as in the previous few days, wondering what to do.

The casino had been shut down, and some customers left directly after arriving. Their purpose in coming here was to gamble.

Whether it was during Camila's management or now, they believed that this place was stable.

Some casinos were not so stable, and their purpose in coming here was to trust the strength of the operators here.

But now the casino was gone, so they could only go elsewhere.

Gambling addicts and alcoholics are essentially no different. If you don't let an alcoholic drink, it's like you don't let a gambling addict gamble a few rounds, he'll go crazy!

Moreover, not only was the nightclub's business not so good, but other bars weren't doing so well tonight either.

Lance's new bar opened, and rumors that "there are many girls" spread among the alcoholics.

For alcoholics, alcohol is of course their first love, and their second love is very likely the opposite sex.

They also like money, but they know they can't have it.

If they could have it, they would have had it long ago, and if they can't have it, it's very likely that they won't be able to have it in the future.

So, sex has become their second goal.

Especially when someone said that after drinking two glasses with a girl in the bar, they took the girl home, the news began to spread quickly, which attracted them even more!

Have a drink, and then get a free lay, what could be more comfortable than this?

It's just that they don't know that most of those girls are now "actresses."

But even if they knew, they would very likely pounce on them. For them at the bottom, besides spending money to buy happiness and flirting with the beer girls, this is one of the few places and opportunities for them to contact young women.

On Friday morning, Mr. Chubaf's face didn't look as good as it had been some time ago. He thought the mayor had a sudden attack of conscience and didn't arrange too many expenses for him. It turned out that it just wasn't his turn at the time.

These days, the Socialist Party representatives' expenses in the Bay Area were almost all paid by him, and tens of thousands of dollars were spent again.

He also managed to show his face in front of the three party representatives, and raised a glass to everyone in the title that the mayor called "a generous sponsor who provides us with all services for free."

In the hypocritical interplay of light and shadow, he had a moment of confusion.

Is it really what he wanted to exchange tens of thousands of dollars for a compliment that wasn't from the heart, and some people's scrutinizing eyes?

He didn't know.

But having reached this point, if he left, he couldn't accept those sunk costs, so he could only continue forward.

Today's situation was a little better. They only had to go to the docks and chat with the dockworkers, and then treat these damn workers to some hot dogs, fifteen points each, he could afford this money.

So his face today was just not so good, but not ugly.

The mayor's secretary had previously reminded him to buy a few more luxury cars so that they wouldn't have to temporarily rent cars from the car dealership when they needed them.

But he refused them all. He knew very well that once he really bought those cars, it was hard to say who those cars would eventually belong to.

In name, they belonged to him, but if they were driven away, could he ask for them back?

He couldn't!

Instead, renting a car was better. Although the cost was not low, it was at least more cost-effective than buying a car.

After he put on his clothes, the assistant drove with him to the hotel. At nine fifteen, the Socialist Party representatives came down from the guest rooms, surrounded by a dozen people.

This part of the expense did not need Mr. Chubaf to pay, another fool paid it.

He now regarded the other party as a fool, but he also regarded himself as a fool, an Empire fool who longed for recognition and entry into the Federal upper class!

The mayor also quickly appeared here. After a brief greeting, everyone got into the luxurious motorcade and headed to the docks.

Their main purpose today was to understand the dockworkers' current views on the Socialist Party, and then do some work to appease them, promising some things that were neither too important nor too light, in exchange for their continued support for the Socialist Party…

The start of the motorcade disturbed the birds foraging outside the hotel. The birds fluttered their wings and flew into the sunless sky, which always made people feel strange.