Empire of Shadows

Chapter 468: Listen to My Advice [666+15 (Bonus)]

Steven looked at the young man sitting in the back seat, watching him pull out a handgun from his pocket, but he didn't show any fear or emotion.

“Listen, young man, I don’t care what your name is, put your weapon away.”

“I know the boss of the Black Blood Gang, I know many gang bosses in this city. If you hurt me, I guarantee that every one of them will find a way to find you and make you pay the price!”

The young man sitting behind him didn't put away his weapon, nor did he speak, he just looked at him.

Steven was silent for a few seconds, then he glanced back at the still congested street and picked up the clothes thrown on the passenger seat.

From the corner of his eye, he saw that the young man seemed a little nervous, the gun pointed at him, whereas just now it was only roughly aimed at him.

He casually and nonchalantly said, “Relax, I'll get you some money.”

He took out a wallet from his pocket, full of twenty-dollar bills, at least twenty or thirty of them.

He took them all out, and then counted out one, of course not to give the young man one, but to keep this one for himself, and handed the rest to the young man, “Take it, there’s at least three or four hundred here.”

“Take this money, your weapon, and leave my car. This matter ends here!”

Steven was not a high-ranking director on the board, but he was a very important one.

He was like… the dark side of the company. When the company needed someone to do dirty work, he was the one responsible for getting his hands dirty.

There was no way around it, this was his job, and he couldn't change the nature of his job.

Compared to the chairman of the board, the CEO, the vice president, the heads of various departments, the directors, and those shareholders.

They all had various backgrounds. Some were the founding families of the company, some represented the invested capital, and each person had value in being present, valued, and respected.

Only he didn't.

He was just an ordinary person, able to become a director only because he was familiar with the gangs in this city, and he himself had some gang background.

Before he became a director of the company, he felt that the gangs were amazing, just like the young man he was facing now.

As long as he had a gun in his hand, then he was the king of this world!

But after entering the company, he gradually understood that the gang was just one link in the entire social operation, and not even that important.

So he actually… looked down on young people in gangs, even though he used to be in a gang himself.

He wasn't afraid of these people, just like he said, smart people wouldn't mess with him, it wasn't worth it.

This young man got into his car with a gun, just wanting to get some money from him, he gave the other party money, and this matter ended here.

He would remember the young man's appearance and then have someone find him.

Not only would he get back the lost money, but he would also teach this young man to respect him!

After the two stared at each other for about ten seconds, the young man spoke, “Drive.”

This sentence made Steven vaguely aware that something was wrong. He was a little uneasy and wanted to turn around more.

“You better not do that.” Along with the sound of the mechanical gears clicking, he knew that the hammer had been pulled back.

It was a revolver, he didn't pay too much attention to what model it was, but even a small-caliber defensive revolver could easily kill him at this close range.

After considering for more than ten seconds, Steven stopped turning around, threw the money on the passenger seat, and sat up straight.

“Who are you working for?”

The two drivers who were arguing in front suddenly stopped arguing, they returned to the car, and Steven noticed that when they went back, they both looked towards him.

The person behind didn't speak, just ordered him, “Drive forward, follow the blue car in front.”

“Are you from the Ataf family?”

Steven carefully drove the vehicle, following the blue car. He noticed that the other car that was arguing with the driver of the blue car suddenly slowed down and followed him.

The three cars drove forward in a line, his heart started to beat faster, he realized that he might have been kidnapped.

Many gang leaders appeared in his mind, thinking of the businesses they ran, and whether he had done anything to offend them recently.

But he had no clue!

The Ligi Group was too big, no one knew if anyone was doing bad things outside under his name.

After he said several family or gang names in a row, the young man behind him still didn't admit it, which made him wonder if this young man was from out of town?

“Can you tell me where I have offended you, or your boss?”

“Tell me your boss's name, maybe the misunderstanding between us can be resolved.”

He glanced at the young man sitting in the back seat through the rearview mirror, only to see a mocking smile on the other's lips.

“You want to know?”

He suddenly opened his mouth. Steven swallowed. “Of course, I like making friends. If I have offended you, I apologize to you. You name a condition, and I will accept it.”

“If you or your boss want to be friends with me, I am also very happy to be friends with you. I like people with ability.”

Very beautiful words, but it couldn't move the young man sitting in the back seat. The young man said, “Mr. Lance wants to see you, Mr. Jensen.”

“Lance?”

“Who is…”, he didn't react at first, but then his pupils dilated slightly!

He remembered, Lance, Lance White, he could never forget this name.

This made his breathing become more rapid, and his heart began to beat violently.

His palms were full of sweat, which made the steering wheel slippery.

“Mr. Lance… he came in person?”

The young man nodded and smiled, “You respect him so much, he also wants to show you respect, Mr. Steven.”

Steven didn't say anything anymore, just silently followed the car. Now he knew that even if he wanted to say something, it wasn't to the young man behind him, but to Lance, who he would meet later.

The car quickly entered an old, dilapidated factory in the suburbs of New Gold City.

Even the most prosperous metropolis has such dilapidated places, but the dilapidation here is not because there is no value here.

On the contrary, it is because it has value. Every expansion of the urban circle represents a new batch of land that will become expensive.

The developers did not operate here, and built a large number of empty factories here, just to keep this piece of land in their hands.

Perhaps ten years later, the land price and added value here will be several times or even more than it is now, so early development will only allow profits to escape.

Feeding a group of people who watch the warehouse and watch the gate can keep the land and wait for the right time to develop it.

Capitalists have long had a set of solutions.

Whenever a situation of large-scale land enclosure begins to appear around the city, it means that the urban circle is about to expand, and it also means that these people who can get the news in advance have begun their new round of wealth journey.

The three cars stopped in a dilapidated factory. The empty factory, overgrown with waist-high weeds, looked a bit eerie. The sky was getting dark, and winter nights came especially early.

Steven saw Lance.

Lance was sitting in the car, smoking a cigarette. When they arrived, the young man behind him waved the weapon in his hand, signaling him to get out of the car.

After he got out of the car, a young man got out of the car that had been parked here for who knows how long.

This young man gave him the same feeling as meeting those senior gang family leaders, but the difference was that he had a bit more unrestrained youth and the audacity to challenge authority!

“Mr. Steven, I'm very sorry to invite you over, because we have had some unpleasantness recently.”

Someone took a chair and placed it behind Steven, signaling him to sit down.

He had to sit down, because he was not in charge now.

“You are so eager, I have to come to New Gold City to see you.”

“But it seems that you are not so happy to see me!”

Countless thoughts flashed through Steven's mind. He had forgotten many things now. He just wanted to actively save himself!

“Listen, Lance, or Mr. White, I am just an executor. All the instructions related to you were not issued by me. I am just responsible for helping them find an organization willing to accept it.”

He was sweating, he was starting to feel scared.

Lance nodded and said, “I know, you are just an executor…” He paused, “Tell me about the people on the board who can be responsible, the people with power. How should I get them to solve the problem between us?”

Steven swallowed and introduced the main members of the Ligi Group's board of directors.

Lance listened very carefully, because since he was here this time, he was not only going to kill the chicken to warn the monkey, but also to solve the problem of his money.

Seeing Lance fall into deep thought, Steven quickly said, “Actually, there is a way for us to reconcile, Mr. White.”

Lance came back to his senses from his thoughts. He looked at Steven, signaling him to continue.

“Our current tough attitude is just to prevent the emergence of the next ‘challenger’.”

"You know, the bigger the company, the more wolves we have around us, and we have to be very careful."

"If the company admits defeat, admits to being successfully blackmailed by you, we will face many new challengers, each wanting to tear a piece of flesh from our bodies!"

"If you can take the initiative to publicly announce that you are giving up the claim, giving the company enough face, I can guarantee that I will do my best to persuade the board of directors to give you the money privately, but you can't tell anyone about the deal between us!"

This is also a solution.

In fact, many people on the board of directors have had this idea, but they didn't do it.

Because they felt that a character like Lance White was not worthy of them bowing their heads first!

Lance shook his head with a smile after listening, "Not so good, but I also have a solution, maybe you'll be interested..."