Empire of Shadows

"This is your money!"

In the office, a guy with a slicked-back hairstyle sat in a chair, holding a stack of money in his hand.

The man opposite him had already stood up, his face full of ingratiating expressions, head lowered, back bent.

The nameplate on the desk read "Peipei Finance Company," a loan shark company.

Loan sharking is illegal in the Federation, but many people are involved, especially gangs.

Loan sharking is very profitable and relatively low-risk, so anyone with a little ability is very interested in this business.

Even among ordinary people, there are some loan sharking behaviors.

For example, lending a sum of money to relatives and friends and then demanding that they pay an interest rate significantly higher than the maximum rate supported by federal law.

However, individual-to-individual loans and interest are personal behaviors and cannot be considered complete loan sharking.

The illegal part in federal law refers to company behavior, specifically profiting from loan sharking.

The slicked-back guy stared into the other person's eyes, "In a week, I want to see the money, principal and interest, appear in front of me, or you know the consequences!"

The person borrowing the money nodded repeatedly, bowing, "I know, I know, don't worry, I will definitely pay back the money with interest!"

The slicked-back guy nodded in satisfaction, put the money on the table, and let the other person take it.

On the surface, he was the boss of this finance company, but in reality, he was just a small player.

Behind the finance company stood the Coda family, namely Stone and Gory.

Bandi had been working to whitewash the family, so they certainly couldn't do these illegal businesses themselves, at least not directly.

They tightly controlled many finance companies through indirect control methods, and these finance companies' main job was to provide funds for those gambling addicts who lost money and were eager to recoup their losses to continue gambling.

They sat in the lounges of the casinos, and those old gambling addicts who needed money knew where to find them.

And those new gambling addicts, through the introduction of croupiers or staff, also knew where to borrow money.

If the gambling addicts wanted to borrow a lot of money, and even had collateral, then these finance companies would drive them to the finance company to get the money, and then drive them back to the casino, waiting for the money they just got to eventually return to the hands of the Coda family.

This is a cycle, a circle, constantly harvesting every bit of wealth from all gambling addicts' pockets.

If they encounter someone who can't pay back, it's not too much trouble, as long as they still have a house or other things at home, there's always a way to squeeze something out.

Even if they can't squeeze anything out, isn't the person themselves also a sum of money?

And a large sum of money!

Eventually, the gambling addicts will find that they have become penniless, and some people will choose to end their lives to pay for the mistakes they made.

Some people may become discouraged from then on, becoming one of the homeless people who can be seen everywhere.

The Coda family has never been related to kindness; it's just that Bandi is very cunning and knows how to hide their evil, making them look not white, but not black either.

The phone on the desk rang at the right time, and the casual expression on his face changed slightly to become more serious after he picked it up.

"Yes...yes...I know, I will report any trouble as soon as possible."

"Okay, I understand, okay, okay...okay, goodbye."

The call was from Stone's assistant, telling them to be careful recently, Bandi guessed that Lance might continue to attack them.

But now the defense force of their casino is already very strong, and they can mobilize hundreds of armed personnel at any time to protect the safety of the casino.

As long as the casino doesn't fall, the Coda family won't fall.

Correspondingly, the defense force of other industries is a bit weaker, but it doesn't matter, unless these industries are completely cut off, they won't bring too much trouble to the family.

Stone's assistant told him to be careful of strangers and to ask for help at the first sign of trouble, and not to think that he could solve it himself.

After hanging up the phone, he shook his head, he wasn't too interested in the battles of the upper echelons, he just wanted to run his own business well now.

Although the majority of the profits were ultimately eaten up by the Coda family, he could still earn a considerable income from this job.

He pressed a button to have the secretary notify the next person borrowing money to come in.

Their finance company only lends money for a maximum of two weeks, and basically it's for one week.

After a week, the money, principal and interest, must be repaid, otherwise they have ways to make those who can't afford to repay the money, or who are unwilling to repay the money, choose to agree to repay the money.

Two young people walked in from outside the door, and the slicked-back guy looked at them a few more times.

In fact, most of those who lose in the casino and still want to gamble are middle-aged people, and there are fewer young people.

Now that two young people came at once, the slicked-back guy was a little surprised.

But since they came, he definitely had to do the business.

"Did they tell you how to calculate interest before you came in?"

One of them nodded, "I know, five percent per day, and ten percent per day if overdue."

The slicked-back guy showed a satisfied smile, "How much do you plan to borrow?"

"Do you have any collateral?"

The other young man nodded, "Yes."

The slicked-back guy was immediately curious, "What is it?"

"If it's something good, I can give you more money!"

"It's best if it's a gold watch, gold jewelry, etc., these are easier to sell and have a high value retention rate, I can give you a good price."

The other young man smiled and put his hand into his pocket, and the slicked-back guy also leaned his head over, revealing a curious look, until he saw a dark hole pointing at himself, and only after cursing "Sh*t" did he slowly raise his hands!

The phone rang again, piercing his scalp, he only glanced at it and let it continue to ring.

Stone hung up the phone, he felt that something was not quite right, he called another finance company, but still no one answered.

Even the finance company that had just answered the phone when he called, at this moment, no one was answering anymore.

No matter how stupid he was, he knew that something must have happened.

He slammed the phone down, walked back and forth a few steps, and decided to go out and take a look himself.

He told Gory about this, and Gory didn't object, although doing so might indeed be a bit risky, but as someone who managed the family's gray industries, he couldn't always be in a safe environment.

It was appropriate to let him experience the danger, Gory thought it was very suitable.

The car quickly arrived at the nearest finance company, and the people who should have been guarding the door were also gone.

Stone cursed, parked the car, took out his gun, and walked to the door and gently pushed it open, and the door opened.

A bloody smell floated in the room, his face became very bad, and after checking the room with his men, they found some corpses in the lounge and the manager's office.

The people in the finance company were all killed, and what was even more troublesome was that the cash and loan certificates were all gone!

He kicked over the slicked-back guy who was dead in the chair, picked up the phone, and dialed Gory's number.

"How is it?"

"Did you find anything?"

Stone suppressed the fire in his heart and said, "People are dead, and the money and IOUs are all gone."

Gory was silent for a while before saying, "I understand."

"Understand?"

Stone repeated, but repeated it as a question, "Aren't we going to do something?"

"We have a total of a dozen finance companies, and this mess has cost us a lot of money again, everyone is laughing at us!"

"Give me a group of people, and I'll go to the Empire District now to kill Lance and end this matter."

"And then?"

Gory asked, "Then I'll take people to get your body back?"

Stone's face was full of狰狞 expressions, he had never been so憋屈 in his life!

"Then what do we do?"

"We do nothing, and watch that worm that doesn't know where it came from slowly eat away our building?"

Gory frowned, he felt that Stone's state was not quite right, "Come back first, let's discuss it before we talk."

"Don't worry, we won't do nothing, this is just a part of what we need to experience, and when you recall these things in the future, you will feel funny about your impulse!"

Stone wanted to curse, but the person on the other side was his father, and in the end, he slammed the phone down, said "Let's go," and left directly with his men.

As for calling the police?

Someone will handle it for him.

After returning to the villa, Bandi, Gory, Fleming, and some core family members were all there.

When Stone came in, they were discussing how to deal with the matter, Lance's reckless punch had caught them off guard.

This also made them realize that the name of the Five Families, or rather the Coda family, was not very useful to Lance.

In the past, as long as they took out these things, it was enough to make some small gangs compromise, but now, it has been replaced by a more violent counterattack.

Stone walked to Fleming and sat down, he was not very convinced by his somewhat "cowardly" Uncle Bandi, and he also had a lot of dissatisfaction with his father, who had no opinion.

In the family, he only admired Fleming, because Fleming was very smart and could always think of ways to solve problems.

Fleming patted Stone's leg, "We were just talking about the next revenge plan."

"We have roughly obtained the location of Lance family's bar, and I have also received a very important piece of information, their wine comes from an abandoned ranch outside the city."

Stone was stunned for a moment, and then a look of surprise appeared on his face, "What are we going to do?"

Bandi didn't say a word the whole time, letting his son play it out, his original intention was to let Fleming not get involved.

But judging from the current situation, this heir he had chosen seemed to have different ideas from him on this matter.

“We are legitimate businessmen, and when we encounter illegal activities, the best choice is to call the police!”

Shi Dong was stunned for a moment. He was ready to go, but Fleming said this?

He felt a bit stifled, "We can take revenge ourselves."

Fleming said with a smile, "We cannot abandon the use of violent means, but we cannot completely rely on violence either."

“The Hazardous Materials Management has considerable authority. Lance can deal with the police局, but he can't deal with them!”