Chapter 1073: Generous and Stingy

Generous and Stingy

When he returned to the banquet hall, Senator Cleveland in the distance waved at him. Lanse gave Barbara a look before walking over first.

Senator Cleveland had drunk some wine in the evening, and his complexion looked a bit flushed. He held a wine glass in his hand and pulled Lanse's arm.

Lanse also greeted the people around him.

Afterward, Senator Cleveland took the initiative to pull him to a place nearby where there were few people. "Has the President talked to you?"

Lanse nodded. "I just came out from there."

A smile appeared on Senator Cleveland's face. He seemed very satisfied with this result. "I guess he must have talked to you about the Golden Heart Medal."

"How was it?"

"When will he give it to you?"

Lanse's gaze lingered on the Senator's face for a moment. He didn't answer immediately, and it was this discontinuous dialogue that made Senator Cleveland's brows knit together.

"What happened?", if he couldn't discover Lanse's abnormality, he would very likely not have reached this step.

It was only a two- or three-second interval, and he perceived the abnormal situation.

Lanse was not sure if this was his performance, or if he really didn't know anything. "The President said that the awarding of the Golden Heart Medal is a very important and very serious matter."

"I am not very suitable to receive this medal, especially since my identity is a bit sensitive now."

"You know, gang leader."

After Senator Cleveland heard this, his two eyebrows grabbed each other even tighter. "This is not in my plan. I have to go ask him. You wait for me for a while."

Lanse didn't agree at first. "He refused, so be it. This is not something I must get."

But Senator Cleveland obviously didn't think so. "You can not want it, but I told him, and whether he is willing to give it to you or not, he must tell me first, but he didn't do so."

"I have to ask him what made him make such a decision. This is no longer your business; it is also mine!"

Lanse didn't continue to stop him. "Alright, I'll wait for you here."

"Try not to be normal with him; now is not the time."

Senator Cleveland had already turned around, but hearing this sentence, he stopped his steps again. He looked at Lanse with a slow, yellow-diamond gaze, a bit uncertain if his guess was true.

He looked at Lanse for a few seconds. "Wait for me here." After speaking, he walked toward another room again.

When he walked to the door of the room, the President's aide stopped him. "The President has a guest now."

Senator Cleveland stared at the aide for two glances, then walked to the door and lit a cigarette. "I hope they can end the conversation before I finish smoking this cigarette. Our time is very precious."

The aide keenly captured the Senator's somewhat unhappy mood at this time, and he felt a bit numb.

In fact, his suggestion to the President was that now, no matter what, it is best to pretend to be a transparent person. After the ceasefire agreement is signed tomorrow, the Federal Constitution grants the President highly centralized power during wartime, and it can even be said that the special power of dictatorship is officially over.

Next is the time for the President's office and Congress to confront each other head-on, and Congress has always occupied an advantage. The most critical point is that the President's term can only last until the end of this year.

His term actually ended long ago, but because of the Federation's involvement in the war, he was extended for three years. He might be one of the Presidents who has served the longest in the Federation, serving a total of eleven years.

But no matter how long he has served in this position, after he leaves the President's office at the end of the year, all the power and influence he currently possesses will become a hazy past.

Perhaps he still has some human favor cards he can play on some people's side, but he used some dishonorable means during the midterm elections in order to continue his presidency, and he offended quite a few people both inside and outside the party.

If he keeps a low profile now, until he leaves office, perhaps in view of the victory of the war and the fact that he didn't cause much trouble for others, the people behind shouldn't trouble him.

But if he is too active now, doing this and that, and can't stop, maybe the next President might want to settle some problems on him.

This kind of thing often happens when three parties take turns in power. The newly inaugurated President settles accounts with the old President; this has already become a convention.

Only a few, low-profile, high-emotional-intelligence Presidents can still possess a certain political influence after retirement.

But this is very difficult, in fact.

They have mastered the highest power of this country and have tasted that kind of taste, so it is very difficult to really forget it.

Power is the most terrible poison in the world. Once tasted by someone, it is only constant tasting, or death.

Other Presidents have parties to protect them after leaving office. Now the President, the party also has quite a few opinions on him, so a low profile is the best choice.

But it seems he doesn't want to be low-profile.

Now Senator Cleveland has come to find him, and listening to his tone, it seems unfriendly, which makes the aide feel a bit numb.

People like them actually don't possess much power themselves. Don't look at them as if they still have some influence in the Federation's political arena now.

But once they leave the President, or the President leaves office from this position, their influence will become smaller and smaller.

So this aide is very clear about this point. If you can avoid conflicts with these politicians who are on the rise, try not to have conflicts with them.

It's a pity that the President didn't do this.

Senator Cleveland stood by the door without speaking, just smoking his cigarette, watching the cigarette in his hand getting shorter and shorter. The President's aide couldn't help it.

He opened the door a small crack, then walked in with an apologetic face, walked to the President's side, stooped, and said in his ear, "Senator Cleveland is waiting for you at the door. His mood is very bad."

The President nodded slightly, then looked at the gentleman opposite him with a smile. "In short, let's arrange this matter first. If there are any new changes and developments later, I will call you or have someone contact you."

He said, stood up, and the other party also stood up and took the initiative to walk over, stretched out both hands, and shook the President's hand twice. "Thank you very much, Mr. President."

The President shook hands with him while patting his arm. "Keep in touch, I won't send you out."

The visitor said "Goodbye" and left quickly. He naturally knew that there must be someone waiting outside. The conversation was suddenly interrupted after the aide came in. There must be some saying in this.

The door of the room was quickly pushed open. Senator Cleveland looked at the person coming out from inside, and this person was also stunned when he saw him, and quickly stooped. "Senator, good evening."

Senator Cleveland also knew him, just nodded, had no intention of shaking hands with him, and then walked directly toward the inside of the room.

When the President saw Senator Cleveland come in, he casually let him find a place to sit. "You are not socializing outside, how did you think of coming to chat with me?"

Senator Cleveland looked at him. "I drank some wine. You know, alcohol makes me not so calm and rational when doing things."

This is typical of telling others that one has a mental illness before hitting someone, and the characteristic is that one likes to hit people.

The President laughed twice as if he didn't hear the meaning in these words. "Interesting!"

He curled his lips. "Are you here to find me because of Lanse's Golden Heart Medal?"

Senator Cleveland sat on the sofa and took a puff of cigarette. "We talked about this problem before, and you said there was no problem."

"Lanse is a very capable young man. The things he has done are enough to qualify him to get a Golden Heart Medal. I don't think this is excessive."

"Don't tell me about gangs, about immigrants. As long as prisoners in prison have made outstanding contributions to this country, they can also get medals. Lanse hasn't gone to jail yet!"

"Your sudden change of mind makes me very passive."

After the President listened to him finish these words seriously, he said, "Jeffrey, you understand me. If there is no necessary reason, I certainly wouldn't do this."

"In fact, before this, didn't we all talk about the re-formulation of social order and rules after the war between your Congress and some government departments?"

"We actually don't need so many gangs now. After the year 1000, we don't need them anymore!"

"We needed gangs before because we needed them to help me do some things that were not convenient for us to do, but now?"

"Do you think we still need them?"

In the past, politicians and capitalists needed gangs to help them catch slaves everywhere, look after slaves, and kill some runaway slaves.

Slave-catching teams that were active in various regions, most of them had naturally evolved into gangs and were still active.

By 1000 years ago, slavery had basically been completely abolished, but society was not too stable, and gangs were still needed to help the government and capitalists do things that were not convenient for them to sell.

For example, teaching a lesson to those who were not willing to work honestly, teaching a lesson to those thorns in the factories, and the biggest role—stopping strikes.

Strikes, parades, and demonstrations are civil rights written into the Federal Constitution. No one has the qualification to stop them from doing so.

Once strikes occur on a large scale in factories and mines, it will bring huge losses to capitalists and society.

So it is very important to stop them in time when signs of strikes are discovered. This is the main work of gangs.

Lanse's acquisition of the attention of the upper class is also because he stopped the dock workers' strike in time, using the simplest and most violent means to directly destroy the strike, which is just like what gangs have always done in the past.

The government certainly couldn't do it, but gangs could do it unscrupulously.

But with the development of society and the victory of the war, the power and prestige of the Federal government have reached their peak, and their control over society has also been strengthened unprecedentedly.

On the contrary, gangs have begun to gradually break away from the control of the government and capitalists in these years of development. They have begun to have independent ideas and have begun to engage in various illegal and criminal businesses to obtain huge profits that they should not have obtained.

Congress originally had this plan to strike against gangs after the war, or to clean them up, and clean up a part of the gangs that had major criminal acts.

This is also the consensus of everyone.

Senator Cleveland took a deep puff of cigarette. "Lanse and those ordinary gangs are not quite the same. They are unique."

The President curled his lips. "Do you believe this yourself?"

"I have seen some files about the Lanse family: murder, crime, theft, smuggling, various crimes and illegal businesses. You say they are unique, but they are actually no different from ordinary gangs."

"The only difference might be that you know Lanse, and you don't know anyone in other gangs, that's all!"

"If we award the Golden Heart Medal to Lanse, and then we go to strike against gangs, if people discover these things, what will they think?"

"Even they know Lanse is a gang leader, how could we not know?"

"In the case that we know he is a gang leader, we still award the Golden Heart Medal to him. Will the public think that we have some connection with him?"

"And, in the subsequent work of striking against gangs, should Lanse be arrested or not?"

"Other gangs, those gangs like the Five Families, if they also obtain the Golden Heart Medal through some means, what should we do?"

The President seemed to be really considering this country and society. "So I think that the promise to award Lanse the Golden Heart Medal before was a bit rash."

"It is too important, I can't agree. Either you wait a bit, wait until the next President takes office, and let him do it."

"Anyway, I won't do it!"

Senator Cleveland listened to him explain a lot of reasons, which seemed very reasonable, but based on his understanding of the President's character, he could be sure that this was definitely not his own idea. There must be other driving forces behind supporting him to do so.

It's just that the Senator can't see this driving force now.

But then again, the reasons the President found were indeed very suitable, and "explanation" itself is also a kind of account, a kind of compromise. He is lowering his posture to seek the end of this matter.

Senator Cleveland pinched out the cigarette in his hand in the ashtray. In his mind, he recalled the last sentence Lanse said to him just now.

His eyes vibrated slightly, then refocused on the President's face. "A reason that is rotten to the core."

"You know, I know, and Lanse knows. This is just a piece of dog shit, an excuse you use to cover up your real purpose and reason."

The President was not angry after being scolded, just smiling. "Even if we all know, so what?"

Senator Cleveland stood up. "Fine, as long as you are happy, I hope you can always be happy."

He said, shaking his head, without even shaking hands or saying goodbye, and walked toward the outside.

This made the President frown for the first time after facing Senator Cleveland. He felt that there was more to Senator Cleveland's sentence, but he couldn't interpret what it was.

But he knew that this was definitely not a good word.

He looked at Senator Cleveland's back and shook his head. This matter was actually decided after another group of people in Congress discussed it with him, and at the same time, there was also a request from the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Whether he gives Lanse this Golden Heart Medal or not is indifferent to him personally. Anyway, he is about to leave office soon.

Even if people scold him, scold him for being incompetent, scold him for being stupid, it doesn't matter. Anyway, things have already been done, and they can't be changed back.

But it was because of the requests of these people that he changed his mind.

After he sat there thinking for a while, he threw this matter to the back of his mind. A small character, if it weren't for Senator Cleveland, a small character like Lanse White would never have the opportunity to sit down and talk to him face-to-face in his life!

Being able to chat with him in a small room for a few sentences is already a great gift. What else does he want to hope for? Senator Cleveland came out of the VIP room. He walked to Lanse's side and lit a cigarette for himself again. He drank quite a bit of wine in the evening. Under the stimulation of alcohol, smoking brought more happiness, and at the same time, it also had more power to make him calm and rational.

"I just talked to the President. Someone blocked it in here. I'm not sure who it is, but I will find a way to find him."

He looked at Lanse. "They blocked you from getting the medal, which is actually also giving me embarrassment. After I find this person, I will talk to him."

"If we can talk it over, your medal will still be yours at the end of this year."

"If we can't talk it over...", he looked into Lanse's eyes, his eyes carrying a trace of fierceness.

Walking smoothly for several years to this point, in Congress, or in this country, there are still people who dare to go against him, and do black hands to make him lose face. He also felt a bit fierce in his heart.

He pursed his lips and took a deep puff of cigarette, making his mood calm and stable again.

"I won't talk tonight. Tomorrow... afternoon, you come to my manor. There are some things I need to talk to you about."

Lanse nodded. "What time should I come over?"

Senator Cleveland thought for a while. "After three o'clock."

"I might be at the Capitol before three o'clock. Come over after three o'clock. If I am not there, wait for me for a while, I will be back soon."

"Don't let this matter ruin your mood. Enjoy the happy time now. Isn't he going to exempt you from part of the tax?"

"Then ask for it fiercely!"

Lanse laughed twice. "I will."

Senator Cleveland patted his arm and then left. "Have a good time."

Only then did Lanse walk toward Barbara, who was chatting with several young people. He was also calculating his own thoughts in his heart.

Sometimes he is very generous, but sometimes, he is also very stingy.

Now, it's the turn of the stingy him.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1074 =====

(End of chapter)