Chapter 112: Complex family relationships and the pause button

Many people are like this, especially girls, they are always looking for what they lack in contradiction.

Young girls hope they look a bit more mature, but mature women hope they have a bit more youthful feeling.

For Patricia, she is already youthful and full of vitality, so she is a bit envious of her cousin's maturity and charm.

After all... men always have a special liking for charm.

Lanse glanced at Barbara and said affirmatively, "Of course, Barbara is very beautiful, and also very mature, has a kind of mature beauty unique to mature women."

Patricia's expression suddenly became a bit sad, but Lanse wouldn't let this expression last too long. "But there are many beautiful people, Barbara, or others, those big stars are also."

"I just took a simple look here, and saw many beautiful girls."

"But you, there is only one!"

He held the girl's face. "I said, there can be many beautiful, sexy, any women in the world, but Patricia, there is only one, the only one!"

Patricia, who was originally a bit depressed, suddenly revealed a smile that she couldn't control. She actually didn't want to laugh, because this was too unreserved.

But it was really hard to hold back, Lanse is too good at talking!

"Your words make me shy!" she whispered to Lanse, it can be heard that she is in a very good mood now.

The topics of young people can never be separated from fashion, always revolving around movies, trends, some things, no depth.

Honestly, Lanse can't join their topics too much, because he hasn't watched movies or similar things for a long time, but he is still trying his best to chat with them.

Maybe it's because of the luxury car worth two villas, everyone also showed closeness to Lanse.

Money, in all classes and all age groups of the federation, is a killer!

But what is surprising is that a cousin of Patricia actually knows Lanse.

"You have a labor office, right?"

This cousin is called Jack, a very common name.

"Yes, but I don't know how you know."

Patricia explained on the side. "Jack works at the dock." She said and looked at Jack. "What is your job again?"

Jack said very easily. "My job is to conduct random inspections on some goods entering the port, you know, holding a form, randomly opening a container, and then seeing if there are any undeclared things inside."

"A very boring job, but because I often come into contact with some workers on the dock, so I know you."

"They all say you want to monopolize the illegal immigrant work on the dock, is it true?"

Because Jack works in customs and has some contact with various people on the dock, he has heard the name Lanse from others more than once.

At the beginning, it was because of those illegal immigrant workers. They are completely different from before, can be said to be three-have workers with organization, discipline, and scale.

And there are people assisting the dock office to manage this part of illegal immigrants, and the dock side is very

In the past, some of these illegal immigrants would do bad things, for instance, stealing things; once they stole something, they would run, and no one could find them.

Or they would do some other bad things, and sometimes they would slack off at work; after all, working themselves to death for a month only earned them a dozen or so dollars, but now this situation has changed.

Their discipline has become better, which has reduced a lot of work for the pier office, but at the same time, this also means these illegal immigrants are not as easy to deal with; one cannot bully them casually because they have started to band together.

The events of the last two days have already spread like wildfire; Jack even leaned close to Lans and asked in a low voice, "Did Hammer really run away?"

Lans shrugged, "Who knows?"

"In any case, I can't find him; he cost me a large sum of money."

An airtight answer, yet it seemed to explain something.

Jack knew this was a sensitive topic and quickly skipped over it, "Perhaps I will still have many needs for your help in the future; when that time comes, I can bypass her and go directly to you."

Lans took out a business card and handed it over, "Of course, you are welcome anytime."

The two soon parted ways; Patricia was a bit curious, "Who is this Hammer he mentioned?"

Lans recounted what had happened; Patricia did not show much shock, only feeling... very surprised, "There are always some people who are hopelessly stupid!"

"You are absolutely right!"

Except for Jack, almost no one else had any overlap with Lans's field, but basically, this whole family worked either in government departments or in corporations; there was absolutely no working class.

When in the Empire, people always said the Federation was a fair and just country, without corruption, without fraud, without... those unpleasant things.

But once you truly delve into the core of this country, as a Federation citizen, you will find that here, more than in other countries, there is an emphasis on "bloodline theory."

When the guests had almost all arrived, the banquet officially began; Barbara took her father's arm and appeared in front of the cake.

First was a moving father-daughter speech, and then it entered the cake-cutting and gift-giving segment.

The cake was delicious and certainly not cheap, because it was very tall and large; everyone who came had a portion, and it was the kind you couldn't even finish.

The atmosphere gradually eased, and people began to give gifts.

The gentlemen and ladies stood to one side, and the gifts were presented by their children; the first to give a gift to Barbara was everyone's older brother, who is now thirty-seven years old, a Socialist, and works in a government unit.

What he gave Barbara was a pair of beautiful and exquisite jewelry earrings, shiny, attracting people's gaze.

Barbara wore them on the spot and expressed her love for the gift.

Then, they began to give gifts in order of age.

Originally, Patricia had taken out a necklace she liked very much, but Lans stopped her; this was his first time attending a social event for Patricia's family, and he certainly could not let Patricia be the one to present this gift.

On the way over, they had picked out a gemstone brooch worth about one hundred and fifty dollars from a roadside jewelry store; the shape of a lark paired with blue-green gemstones was very beautiful.

When Patricia handed the gift to Barbara, she also showed considerable surprise and delight.

The two girls hugged and even did the cheek-kissing; she kept saying thank you, indicating she liked such a brooch very much, and also took the opportunity to hug Lans—though it was just out of etiquette.

Because these siblings and visitors were of different ages, there were many kinds of gifts.

The more expensive ones were like Lans's brooch, while others gave necklaces, earrings, and the like; the cheaper ones were some homemade handicrafts.

However, although these things were cheap, you couldn't say it out loud, because the cheapness of the material did not mean the sentiment behind it was also cheap; in short, everyone was very happy.

About half an hour later, in the place where those "adults" were, someone finally started arguing because of different political views.

Patricia giggled on the side, "William doesn't want to come because of this; every year they argue, and no one can convince anyone else."

This phenomenon is also very common; sometimes a family of three will have three different political stances: some support the Socialist Party, some support the Liberal Party, and some support the Federal Party.

It is fortunate that this year's general election, due to some backroom deals, did not have such an intense election-year atmosphere; otherwise, it is possible that some people would have already left in a huff, cursing and swearing.

But then again, although the President obtained re-election through a series of means, such despicable methods indeed lost a lot of public support.

Even Lans realized that the general election four years later might be unexpected!

Although Federation citizens are very stupid and often used, they do not like to look in the mirror.

Now the President has placed a mirror in front of the voters, reflecting all their ugliness; the voters' anger can be imagined!

You can use my stupidity, but you cannot tell me that I am a fool!

This is the Federation citizen!

The young people on Lans's side seemed unfazed by such scenes; a few young people even started to take the initiative to eat more food. Luka told Lans that their father was losing the argument over there, and if nothing unexpected happened, they would be leaving soon.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, angry roars calling their names came from over there, and then these young people said goodbye to other siblings or friends one after another, and left in a hurry with slightly awkward smiles.

And the parents of those who remained, like proud roosters who had defeated their opponents, began to pick the next opponent!

"They are simply a waste of federal political resources here; they should all go to Congress; that is the stage most suitable for them!", Lans joked, and received support from many people.

After declining the invitation to have dinner here, Lans and Patricia left by car together.

On the way back, Patricia was a bit embarrassed, "I hope everything that happened today didn't scare you; you know, having a big family is always like this..."

Lans became a bit interested, "What did your grandfather or great-grandfather do?"

Patricia answered without thinking, "Farmer."

Lans whistled; the backbone of the Liberal Party!

Almost all large farm owners are staunch supporters of the Liberal Party, and only large farm owners can have so many children and possess such large family branches.

After all, in the past, having many children meant having more children to work for the farm for free; almost all the old generation of farm owners had at least three or four children.

Some even had over a dozen children!

After two or three generations of reproduction, this could become a massive family system.

When they returned to Patricia's home, William was still on a business trip and had not returned.

Mrs. Lawrence had not returned either; there were only two young people in the house.

Although they did not taste the forbidden fruit, they did many things that broke Patricia's perception.

Just when some things were about to fall into place, the sound of a car engine came from downstairs; Mrs. Lawrence had returned.