Empire of Shadows

It was already afternoon when Ennio returned to Goldport City. Without even resting, he went to the company to find Lance.

Upon entering, Lance and several others were there, all looking surprised to see him.

"Come help me!" His face revealed a rather… peculiar smile. Lance found it a bit strange, but he still went along.

He wasn't the type to simply sit behind a desk and give orders. If someone needed a hand, he would offer it.

The group went to the courtyard, to Ennio's car. After a ceremonial "thump, thump, thump," he opened the trunk.

Inside were several large bags. Although he didn't say what was inside, everyone had already guessed.

Lance walked over and took out one of the money bags, glancing inside. It was mostly five and ten dollar bills, neatly stacked together.

According to his calculations, there was at least a hundred thousand, maybe even more. "What's going on?"

Lance was also pleasantly surprised, after all, no one ever thinks they have too much money!

"Let's move the money inside first…"

A hundred thousand dollars might not sound like much, but it was quite heavy. Two people carried one bag each into the company. Although everyone wasn't as sensitive to money as they were a year ago.

The visual impact of a hundred thousand dollars piled together still left many speechless.

Ennio sat on the sofa, lit a cigarette, "Where should I start?"

"Start from when I arrived in Fides…"

Arnie took Lance's job and sent fifty thousand dollars worth of liquor to Fides. Because these liquors were now contraband, they certainly couldn't be transported through ordinary means.

Originally, they planned to transport it by train, but now the Dangerous Goods Administration was conducting strict inspections, randomly checking the train cars and opening some boxes to see what was inside.

The people at the station were unwilling to take the risk, so Ennio and the others discussed it and decided to drive it over themselves. Thus, after three days, they finally entered Fides City.

The reason it took three days was because their driving speed was relatively slow on the road. The conditions of the intercity highway weren't very good and were quite bumpy. If they drove too fast, they were afraid of breaking the liquor bottles.

During the trip, they also encountered intercity highway police, but those policemen were easy to talk to. After sensing that this group of people wasn't easy to mess with, and receiving ten dollars, they gave up the plan to inspect the car.

In short, they arrived in Fides with some close calls. Ennio contacted Gario as soon as possible. Gario was very grateful for his timely arrival because they had been coveting the liquor business for a long time.

Currently, there aren't many smugglers in the Federation who can ship goods. This is a hot commodity, and they never lack people to take over the goods, so the Imperial immigrant group, which isn't considered a strong faction, was excluded from this list.

Watching others make big money, Gario was in pain, but now the problem was solved. Fifty thousand dollars worth of liquor was enough for him to sell for the whole month.

At the same time, this also made Ennio discover something—

"The price of liquor in Fides is much more expensive than here. The liquor I brought was worth fifty thousand dollars, but when it got to him, he offered me eighty thousand, and I think he would have agreed if I had asked for more."

Lance nodded slightly, "This situation is normal. Goldport City is a port city, with coastlines everywhere. It's too easy for Yalan's smuggled liquor to enter."

"Fides is an inland city, and smuggling channels are blocked. The price of liquor will definitely be higher there."

"But you have one hundred and forty thousand here. Where did the extra sixty thousand come from?"

Lance wasn't afraid that he had robbed a bank or something, but if he really did something like robbery, he needed to prepare for the aftermath.

If the police came after them, or if the robbed people came for revenge, they needed to be prepared in advance.

"This money was squeezed out of the Snake family." Ennio licked his lips, "I found his wife and children. They cooperated very well and handed over the bank account and password, and even helped us withdraw the money."

Lance casually picked up a stack of money, his thumb pressed down along the edge of the bills, and then the bills popped up, making the sound of paper fluttering.

It wasn't pleasant at all, and there was also a strange smell that lingered from long-term use, but for some reason, it was so attractive.

"What about his wife and children?"

Ennio was silent for a few seconds, tilted his head downwards, "I sent them down."

Lance threw the money back into the pile, walked over to him, put his arm around his neck, and ruffled his hair, "He was the one who wanted to kill us first!"

He could see that Ennio's emotions changed when he said those words, and he also looked at the others.

"If we were killed by Snake, he would take away our wealth, territory, and everything we own."

"He and his family would move into our houses, spend our money, and hurt our friends."

"I'm not saying that people have to be ruthless, but to make you understand a principle."

"You can be lenient, you can be sentimental, but your enemies won't necessarily be!"

"When you let go of an enemy, he won't necessarily feel grateful. He might just think that you were lucky this time, but you might not be so lucky next time!"

"We can't always be lucky, so everything that threatens us should be eliminated."

"Life is fragile, it's like a glass, it can shatter into pieces with just a little external force."

"My philosophy has always been the same: don't do things you'll regret!"

He patted Ennio's head, let go of him, and then stood in front of the coffee table.

The coffee table was covered with neatly arranged banknotes. He casually gestured over it, "Eighty thousand dollars will be handled according to company regulations. Of the remaining sixty thousand, Ennio gets ten thousand, I get ten thousand, you guys split twenty thousand, and the other twenty thousand goes into the company's account."

In an instant, the excitement brought by sudden wealth dispelled the little guilt he had left. He needed to rest now!

He hadn't seen his father for a long time. He had encountered many things on this trip, far more than what he told Lance.

In the moment before Snake's wife and children died, they were still asking about Snake's situation, even though they had a premonition, they still wanted to know the final truth from Ennio!

Ennio told them that Snake was dead, and the two of them stopped struggling, quietly accepting the result and their own fate.

At that moment, a very special feeling filled his whole body. He had an urge to return to Goldport City immediately to see his father and mother!

Now, he was back, but he was also a little timid. He didn't know what he was afraid of.

After saying goodbye to Lance, he took some of the money and returned home. Now only his father lived here, no women, no cleaning, everything looked messy.

The sink was full of unwashed dishes and utensils.

The trash can was also filled with spoiled food scraps.

Seeing this, he frowned and rolled up his sleeves, starting to clean up.

It took him a long time to clean up this seemingly dilapidated home.

As he sat down on the chair to rest, the sound of a key inserting into the lock came from outside the door, and then the door opened.

The tired man stood at the door, looking at Ennio who had also stood up, the joy in his eyes flashed by, but quickly became dim.

He didn't know how to start, just closed the door first, hung his coat on the hanger, and put his briefcase on the cabinet.

Father and son were speechless, neither knew what to say.

After a long time, Ennio's father finally said, "I'm sorry."

This caused a subtle change in Ennio's expression, but he didn't speak.

Ennio's father walked to the chair and sat down, "After you left that day, I thought about a lot of things, Ennio."

"I'm too useless, as a father, or a husband, I can't provide you with a good life, instead, I've made everything a mess…"

He held his head, seemingly truly repentant, "I've now changed jobs, although it's still sales, it's different from before."

Ennio sat down and took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed it over.

"Oh, these are good cigarettes!" The man pulled one out, lit it with relish, took a deep breath, and sincerely praised, "Not irritating, very good to smoke."

He paused for a moment and began to talk about his recent changes.

He had changed jobs, given up those unrealistic dreams, and seen through the essence of those companies.

They used dreams as bait, turning a group of people who were desperately trying to realize the Federal dream into their slaves.

When he suddenly woke up, he realized how stupid he had been in the past, which made him feel a lot of guilt.

But fortunately, everything seemed to be still in time.

Now he can earn about thirty dollars a month, and he also rents out his legal immigrant status, with an additional income of more than ten dollars a month.

Forty dollars a month, although it can't make him rich, at least life has become easier.

"When I came back…" Ennio was a little unsure whether the man was covering up the bad side, only saying the good.

Hearing this, the man was a little embarrassed, "You're all gone, living here alone makes me feel uneasy."

Ennio realized that his father had really changed a lot. The father who would never admit his mistakes or weakness actually said such things. He didn't feel happy about it, only heartache.

He was old, his edges had been smoothed out by society, that was his true feeling!

He would feel fear because of the empty house, which was almost impossible even a year ago, let alone before!

But now, it happened, catching Ennio a little off guard!

"Tell me about yourself, how are you now?" the middle-aged man changed the subject. "I heard that the Lance family is expanding very rapidly, is it very dangerous?"

Ennio scratched his head, a little embarrassed. The current situation was not what he had expected. "It's okay, the danger is there, but it's not as scary as you think."

"And Lance is very good to us, and cares about our safety. We usually live together..."

Ennio was still a little uncomfortable talking about these things with his father, who once had a Federal dream and was obsessed with obeying the law and striving to be superior.

But he said a lot, and finally hesitantly took out the money from his pocket and put it on the table.

Two thousand yuan, outside, he could pick up a gun and kill enemies, but here, just taking out this two thousand yuan made him feel like he could barely lift the small stack of money.

He could still remember everything that day in the hospital, and his father actually remembered it too.

The man reached out and picked it up. They were all ten-yuan bills, two thick stacks, emitting the unique smell of money.

In the process of using them, fingers leave grease on the surface of the banknotes. These grease are absorbed into the banknotes, and after a series of cycles of complex fermentation, drying, and re-fermentation, the current appearance is finally presented.

He had never earned so much money in his life, and he was still so confused, "I... I can't take it, Ennio."

"The money I earn is enough to support myself. You can take this money and use it yourself, to do anything you want to do."

Ennio looked at him and shook his head slightly, "I have money. I got 10,000 from Lance this time, and I also have tens of thousands of dividends that I can withdraw at any time."

This black money could not be deposited in the bank, so Lance had Melo create a bill, recording how much money everyone had.

They could take all the money away, but they could also leave it in the company, which was actually safer.

Most people would leave the money in the company, and just take enough for their daily use.

Listening to his son having already fulfilled his "Federal dream", he suddenly felt that the first half of his life was not only a failure, but also dull.

After coming to the Federation and working hard for so long, he lost his wife and his children didn't come back. He had not achieved success, and was as much of a failure as when he first arrived.

A long sigh seemed to exhaust all the bitterness in his heart.

"This time you came back is..."

His eyes held some hope, hoping that Ennio would say he could come back to live, but Ennio did not say the words he longed for.

"I just came back to see you. Later, I'm also going to see Mom."

In fact, both father and son knew the woman's current situation, but they had never mentioned it, to go find her?

They hadn't even thought about it, it would only put her in a dilemma.

Ennio stood up as he spoke, "Borton got married today. Although I didn't attend, I heard that his wife is only twenty-one years old."

The man had heard of Borton and knew something about his rise to prominence. When he heard that Borton, who was about the same age as him, had actually married a twenty-one-year-old girl, he couldn't help but fall into the envy and jealousy that all men would have.

"That lucky bastard!" he cursed with a smile, and then stood up as well.

Ennio looked at him and straightened his collar, just like when he was a child before he went out, he would also straighten Ennio's collar.

"You can find another woman, forty, thirty, twenty, all are good."

The man reached out as if he wanted to touch Ennio, but didn't know how to express himself.

Ennio took the initiative to meet him and hugged the man he both loved and hated, "Take care, Dad."

"If anything happens, call me. Although you may still see me as that bastard, I am already a somebody in the eyes of others."

"If I can't solve it, there's still Lance. There's nothing Lance can't solve here. Of course, you can also come over and have fun, we'll all welcome you."

After saying these words, Ennio left. If he didn't leave, he might not be able to resist staying for the night.

Looking at the two stacks of money on the table, the man suddenly smiled. Although he felt a little lost, but...

"That bastard!" He put the money away. Tonight, the empty house didn't seem so scary anymore.

He also started doing housework, cleaning up the places that Ennio hadn't noticed, making the new house look brand new. He suddenly felt a sense of accomplishment.

This also made the house feel like a home again.

Ennio then went to see his mother. The woman had actually been living in the Imperial District for many years, but not on the same street as them, and tried to avoid places where they might meet.

He nervously knocked on the door, and a strange man's voice came from inside, "Who's there?"

"It's me, Ennio, I'm..."

Before he could finish speaking, the door opened, and a burly man stood behind the door. His mother stood beside the man, and a little boy of only eight or nine years old hid behind them, looking at him.

Looking at the warm family of three, the warm and gentle atmosphere in the room made him lose all desire to speak for a moment.

He was like a discordant note suddenly inserted into the magnificent music, making everything seem so uncoordinated and abrupt, and also making him feel that he didn't belong here.

"I'm sorry, I've come to the wrong place."

He was about to leave, but the man called out to him, "Come in and sit for a while, you must want to say a few words to your mother."

Sitting in the room, he felt a little restrained. The man seemed very enthusiastic towards him.

This was also a matter of course, after all... he was from Lance, and in the Imperial District, everyone knew about them.

He simply wanted to see his mother, just sitting here for a while, the last bit of guilt in his heart towards the mother and son slowly dissipated.

They chatted for a while about Ennio himself. It seemed that the woman was living a very happy life now. Ennio left a thousand yuan and then got up to say goodbye. He didn't want to disturb this harmonious happiness.

He didn't know where he had heard it, but when a person has something they want to protect, they become incredibly strong!

Friendship and family are what he wants to protect!