Empire of Shadows

Chapter 342: All Small Problems [666+10]

At 9:40, the secretary entered the study, where the mayor was still working.

He was contemplating who should fill the vacancies left after the complete elimination of the five major families, and considering how to develop the New Bay Area and New Port Area.

These two areas were projects he had vigorously promoted, and their success would mean that Goldport City's throughput could reach a new level!

It would then far surpass other ports and wharves in the Federal States, becoming a unique entity.

And this honor would accompany him throughout his life; even if he were to die one day, people would still remember him.

Because it was he who made Goldport City the most developed port city in the Federal States, bar none!

People might even erect a statue for him to commemorate all that he had done for this place.

By that time, all those who had once been his enemies might have completely disappeared into the long river of history.

Only he, in another form, would achieve true immortality.

Unless Goldport City was destroyed by war, or the entire Federal States became a colony, but the probability of either was small.

"Director Dale just called and said he has arranged for people to go to the wharf to seize the Lance family's smuggled liquor warehouse."

Hearing his voice, the mayor looked up, peering at him through the gap between his eye sockets and forehead.

He looked for about two or three seconds before straightening up again, leaning back in his chair, and then taking off his glasses.

He pressed his eye sockets with the palms of his hands, inhaling deeply to fill his lungs, "Lance…"

He said.

Every time he heard this name, he felt a strange emotion churning within him; this might not be the first person to reject his goodwill, but it was the first person to slap him hard in the face after rejecting his goodwill!

Even now, he had heard that the assassin he hired had failed.

Lance was still alive, but one assassin was dead and the other had fled, and they still hadn't found him.

He had wanted to get rid of Lance several times, but Lance always miraculously escaped death, which made him wonder if Lance had some kind of lucky attribute; why was he always able to escape?

"Are you sure it's Lance's warehouse?" he asked.

The secretary nodded, "It is said that Dale planted an undercover agent in Lance's gang, but they have never been able to get any valuable clues until today."

The mayor shook his head, "Unreasonable."

He said, "If they couldn't get valuable clues before, why can they get them today?"

"Don't tell me you think this is reasonable," he looked at his secretary; he often raised questions and discussed them with his secretary.

This was a way to keep his mind active; as a superior, a ruler, what he feared most was having his thinking restricted.

Once a ruler's thinking is confined to a very narrow space, he will fall into a terrible thought loop from which he cannot escape.

Therefore, revitalizing one's thinking ability is very important for every ruler, especially older rulers, and at the same time, he seems to be cultivating his secretary.

The secretary smiled, "I asked Director Dale this question, and he said that the undercover agent has a special identity and has initially gained the trust of the Lance family."

The mayor nodded, but it was unclear whether he accepted this explanation or the whole matter.

Then the secretary spoke about what happened in the afternoon, "In the afternoon, there were some conflicts between the wharf management company and the dockworkers; do you need me to handle this?"

The mayor raised his hand, stopping him from doing so, "You don't need to take action; those guys in the Bay Area won't allow this to continue to escalate."

"You need to know that most of their interests are tied to the wharf; if something happens to the wharf, they'll be more nervous than we are."

"So we just need to watch."

The secretary became curious again, "Then what if we give it a push from behind?"

The mayor, who had been tilting his head slightly and squinting his eyes to relax, opened his eyes wide when he heard this, looked at the secretary, sized him up, and said with a smile, "You're starting to look like a mature politician, Owen."

"As politicians, the process, the means, everything, is not so important to us; what's important is whether we can achieve our goals."

"Your idea is good, but I don't recommend using it that way, because the traces will be obvious,"

"This matter is a bit strange, but no matter what, it doesn't conflict with our purpose, so don't worry about them for now."

"The Bay Area, the dockworkers' union, the wharf management company, they will handle the problems with the workers."

"Instead of worrying about these things, you should consider how you will handle the city's affairs when I'm hospitalized."

The mayor would be shot and hospitalized on Wednesday, which was four days later; at that time, he would definitely not be able to take care of the city's daily work arrangements, so he would temporarily hand over the authority to control a city to the secretary to be responsible for.

That was when a person was truly tested; doing this job was completely different from how it looked.

It was like… you can masturbate yourself and have mastered many masturbation techniques, and enjoy it, and you think you are a masturbation expert.

But if you have to masturbate someone else, those things may not be useful.

You might even have a blank mind and not know what to do!

This was a test, and also an important experience for the secretary.

In the future, he could proudly write the following line on his resume—

During my tenure as the mayor's secretary in Goldport City, when the mayor was hospitalized due to injury, I was authorized to manage Goldport City for many days until the mayor recovered and returned.

Although he was not the real mayor, he had managed a huge city, and this kind of resume would be extremely impressive anywhere, and could not be ignored.

The secretary took a deep breath, "I'm a little worried about whether I can do it well."

The mayor smiled very kindly; people who knew him had never seen him so kind, "Everyone has a first time!"

Yes, everyone has a first time; you always have to take the first step to face a better life.

The secretary encouraged himself, clenching his fist, "I will do my best to do it well!"

"Just do your best!" the mayor didn't ask for too much.

At this moment, a large number of police cars and armored vehicles drove out of the Dangerous Goods Administration's yard, with Lucar himself driving a car at the end of the convoy.

They didn't turn on the police lights or sound the sirens; everything was done quietly.

They decided to make a surprise attack; to avoid being watched near the Dangerous Goods Administration, they even made a detour.

At this time, some of the workers were still chatting in the club about what had happened that night; usually, most of the people here would have left by this time, after all, they had work to do the next day.

But what happened tonight was indeed very infuriating and related to everyone's interests, and everyone was discussing how to negotiate with the management company tomorrow.

Johnny was also here; usually, he was not very popular here, but today, he was surrounded by many people.

Several people here had considerable prestige among the workers; a big bearded man picked up his wine glass and clinked it against Johnny's, "You acted like a real man today, Johnny; you made me look at you in a new light."

The two of them gulped down two mouthfuls of wine, and the big bearded man wiped the foam from his mouth, "I'll be with you tomorrow; even if they want to force you at the negotiating table, we can help you a little."

"Regarding your proposal to raise wages for everyone…"

Johnny had already drunk a lot of wine; tonight, he hadn't paid for any of the drinks himself; as soon as he stood at the bar, someone immediately jumped out to buy him a drink, which made him feel a little embarrassed.

This was the most glorious moment of his life, and he felt an unprecedented feeling; he didn't know how to describe that feeling.

If saying that the pleasure brought by being a bully and bullying other workers and immigrants was like masturbation.

Then the feeling now was like going inside, and still a very sweet place!

His whole body was about to tremble!

Johnny also took a big gulp, "I've been saying this all along, actually!"

"They have been stealing our fruits of labor; other industries raise wages every six months or a year, even if the increase is not much, at least they raise them."

"What about us?"

"We haven't had a raise in two years; I used to think it was the fault of those immigrant workers."

"They are willing to do any job, and are willing to accept even lower wages, which is why our wages haven't changed much."

"But recently I suddenly figured it out!" he made an "explosion" gesture next to his temple, "In that one moment, I understood."

"Whether or not to raise wages is the decision of the capitalists, and has no direct relationship with those immigrant workers who are also exploited like us!"

"They just don't want to give us a raise at all, that's all!"

"Someone has to stand up and say something; I didn't want to be that person, but they forced me to do so, so I can only stand up!"

He raised his glass, "In any case, in the next few days, I will definitely take everyone's wishes and have a good talk with the people from the management company, and strive to raise everyone's wages, at least forty bucks!"

The people around him smiled; a raise of two or three bucks seemed to be a very exciting thing for them.

Perhaps some might think, it's just a matter of two or three yuan, why wouldn't the dock management company compromise?

But in reality, there are over ten thousand people working at the dock. If everyone's pay is increased by two or three yuan, that's at least thirty thousand yuan in expenses each month.

As capitalists, they would never agree to that!

Just as they were discussing how to make the capitalists kneel on the ground and beg for their forgiveness, someone suddenly shouted loudly outside the club, "There are so many police cars..."

I hope for more bonus chapters because of accumulated tips of 333, rather than accumulated monthly tickets of 666.