Empire of Shadows

In the evening, Lance dropped Patricia off not far from her home. It wasn't that he didn't want to keep her, but if he did, they'd probably end up getting married before long.

Lance didn't want to get married just yet. Of course, that wasn't to say he was irresponsible, but now was the best time for his career to develop, and everything else had to take a backseat to that.

Patricia lived in a middle-class neighborhood. The fact that she could work at the Bureau of Commercial Services at such a young age meant she definitely wasn't from the lowest social stratum.

Before going home, she tidied up her clothes. When she opened the door, she saw her old father sitting on the sofa with a dark face.

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"Hmph!" he grunted. Although he knew his daughter had gone out on a date, the old father was just in a bad mood.

This was a process that all fathers of daughters had to face. The girl who had been close to him for twenty years was about to throw herself into the arms of another man, and even if he was just a father, he would feel unhappy.

From the perspective of emotional transfer, this was actually a kind of NTR (Netorare).

Patricia's mother was very open-minded about this, "William, your newspaper is upside down."

The middle-aged man sitting on the sofa was stunned for a moment, then put the newspaper back on the coffee table, "I'm looking at the crossword puzzle."

Mrs. Lawrence chuckled as she brought over juice and some small pastries, then sat down next to her husband, "Pat, tell us, was your date today enjoyable?"

Patricia was a little afraid of her father, but the desire to share made her eager to talk about the happy things that had happened today!

After hesitating for a while, her expression became bright, "We went to the amusement park, then rode the roller coaster and the carousel..."

She concealed some things, such as the kisses and the intimate physical contact. She knew how not to provoke her rigid father.

Listening to her daughter chirping about everything she had encountered today, Mrs. Lawrence also showed a gratified smile, "It sounds like a very pleasant day, even though I didn't join in. Just listening to you, I can feel how interesting it must have been."

She glanced at her husband. Although her husband still had a straight face, as his partner, she could tell that his attitude had softened a bit.

"What's his name?"

Mr. William's ears almost perked up. He straightened his back, pretending to be indifferent, but his attention was all on his daughter.

"Lance, Lance White, a local."

Mrs. Lawrence took the initiative to peel an apple, divided it into several slices, placed them on a plate, put on two fruit forks, and handed it over, "So, does he have a job, or is he doing something?"

"He started a business!" Patricia perked up at this topic. "He registered a financial consulting company, a company that helps people solve problems. When we talked about this today, he said he might register another company next week, and he also asked about tax issues."

Eating the crisp and delicious apple, her pronunciation was a bit mumbled, "But I don't know much about taxation, so I gave him my cousin's contact information."

Only then did Mr. William clear his throat, "Did you..."

Patricia quickly said, "No, we just held hands!"

Saying that, she stood up, "I still have some things to do..." and ran away.

Watching her daughter go upstairs, Mrs. Lawrence was a little dissatisfied, "You shouldn't ask those things."

Mr. William didn't think so, "There are many bad people outside now, and those heretical ideas are eroding young girls' minds."

"They actually put sex and whether women are oppressed together, which is simply unbelievable, dear."

"You may not have seen the fallacies of those people, but many girls are becoming promiscuous. I don't want my Pat to become like that, or be turned into that by someone!"

"My attitude has always been consistent. Before marriage, I don't want her to stay out overnight."

"I'm protecting her, you should understand that."

Mrs. Lawrence didn't want to argue with her husband. In fact, she also attended some community gatherings, and everyone inevitably talked about these things.

Some of them were indeed fallacies, but there were also some that she thought were actually quite good, such as giving women more autonomy.

But she knew that Mr. William was an old fogey, so she wouldn't challenge his authority in the family on these unnecessary issues.

After a slight pause, Mr. William continued, "He's already started asking about tax issues. It seems this Mr. Lance has some unique insights when it comes to making money."

"I think we might be able to meet him?"

Mrs. Lawrence immediately sat up straight, like a female leopard entering a hunting state, "You better not do that. I don't want her to be hurt before she brings it up herself."

"Whether it's from the outside or from within the family, you've strictly controlled her for too long. She's already twenty years old and should have her own life."

"She's not your pet, or your toy. Your idea of controlling her is fundamentally wrong!"

Saying that, Mrs. Lawrence stood up and took away the apples from the fruit plate, leaving none behind.

She had to talk to her daughter. Although she didn't want her daughter to be hurt either, she knew that when the atmosphere was right and the emotions were there, some things were hard not to happen.

She had to tell her daughter what to do to protect herself when these things were about to happen.

Mr. William sighed softly. Who could understand his feelings as an old father?

On Saturday morning, Lance attended the Empire's gathering as usual. He was now considered to have joined this large group. People were actually very accepting of people from the same hometown.

After greeting some of the gentlemen, he found Ennio and the others.

"I've started a company and can give you some extra work to do."

He went straight to the point. These young people only cared about where to have fun, cigarettes and alcohol, sex, and how to make more money.

It wasn't very meaningful to talk to them about other things.

So when Lance directly talked about money, the young people quickly gathered around.

"How does this work?" Ennio asked first. He had some status among these young people. He had fought for two of them before, so the young people were very convinced of him.

This was the social life of young people. They were willing to listen to whoever was more prestigious.

Lance introduced his business, "Accurately speaking, there are two jobs."

"The first job is micro-lending. If someone urgently needs money, not much, and feels that the interest rate at finance companies is relatively high, you can introduce them to me."

"I won't charge too much interest. For every successful loan, I'll give you five percent of the interest."

"If they borrow a hundred dollars from me, then you can probably get a five-dollar commission."

"But there are also some requirements here. The person must have federal citizenship and must have a work card."

"The second job is that I have some work cards that can be rented out. If there are people from the Empire who haven't gotten permanent residence and need work, you can introduce them to me."

"I give them eighteen dollars a month for a work card, and you can get a one-dollar commission from it, one-time."

"It should be noted that these are all odd jobs, three months to half a year. There are no long-term jobs for the time being."

"If it's not someone from the Empire's homeland, the price I give you is nineteen dollars a month, and there's also a one-dollar commission. If you can negotiate twenty yourself, it means you have two dollars of income."

"Of course, again, the quantity is limited. Call to inquire before doing this."

He said, handing out a stack of business cards to these people, "If you encounter trouble, don't force it. Contact me as soon as possible, whether it's within or outside of work."

Most of these young people didn't listen to these words. Their attention was all on the two jobs.

Even if the people from the Empire have permanent residence permits, the current working environment is not very good. Their colleagues always look at them with strange eyes, as if these immigrants and illegal immigrants have taken away the job opportunities and money that originally belonged to the natives.

But in fact, these damn natives still don't work or are lazy when they don't have these immigrants. It's not outsiders who cause their unhappiness, but their own laziness.

But the politicians have been brainwashing them, saying that their unhappiness is caused by these outsiders. Those who are unwilling to admit that they are useless and lazy will naturally be willing to follow the politicians' rhetoric and blame their unhappiness on these immigrants.

Some people have even lost their jobs. Lance is now providing them with some new sources of income, which is actually a great help.

Ennio took the business card and looked at it, asking, "Lance, if... we want to borrow money."

Lance didn't hesitate at all, "The interest rate is half for you."

Ennio breathed a sigh of relief and gave Lance a hug, "I'll talk to you later."

When he was almost done talking with the young people, Mr. Chobaff's assistant came over and said that Mr. Chobaff wanted to talk to Lance alone.

After saying goodbye to the young people, he came to Mr. Chobaff's side. They stood on the periphery of the crowd.

"I heard you're working for Mr. Corti?"

Any resemblance is purely coincidental, don't look in the mirror.