Chapter 187

A few days after payday, several bars of Lanse in the Empire District had already begun to operate.

Cheap sparkling wine and tropical fruit wine became a new choice for people besides beer and cheap whiskey, and here, the bar also provided "upgrade" services.

That was adding higher-proof alcohol to the wine; the price per ounce was 15 cents.

It didn't look cheap, but the landing cost of potato wine not exceeding one dollar made it just an auxiliary material for increasing alcohol; the price of each bottle could be sold for about 3.5 dollars.

The profit was close to two times.

In fact, Lanse could ask for more, because the prices of other bars were not cheap, but now it was the stage of grabbing the market, so he wouldn't raise the price.

And the concept of "commoner bar," under his propaganda, began to spread gradually among alcoholics.

"Let everyone be able to have a drink after work" was the slogan of these bars without any names.

However, everyone knew who they belonged to, and they were also very grateful that Mr. Lanse made the price of alcohol so low.

Even if it was just five cents cheaper, this had already made many alcoholics unable to refuse.

Not to mention, here, girls were free, and every girl could get a cup of tropical fruit wine for free.

Plus Lanse told the girls that they didn't have to worry about encountering danger when consuming here; as long as they felt they were not safe, they could tell the bartender and any bar staff, and they could spend the night in the bar.

Or the bar side would arrange for people to send them to the place they specified.

This move was welcomed by many avant-garde girls who hoped to explore nightlife; there were more girls in the bar, so naturally, male guests would become more.

This was a positive effect of mutual achievement.

In the afternoon, he returned to the Empire Night nightclub; no matter what, he was still the manager here; before entering the door, he saw some people directing some people to take away the gambling tables.

Lanse didn't participate in the gambling table matter; the mayor might feel that his small character was not enough to negotiate with the Koda family, and had always entrusted it to Lawyer Aosen.

It looked like the result of the negotiation was not very happy; the Koda family perhaps didn't fear the mayor, this "outsider."

Lanse watched the fun for a while, watched them move the gambling tables and gambling tools onto the car and take them away, and then returned to the office and called Lawyer Aosen.

"This is the New Jincheng Grand Law Firm; is there anything I can do for you?", a sweet girl's voice came from the receiver, the very sweet kind.

If one had to describe how sweet it was...

It was probably like a girl with golden hair tied in double ponytails, a beautiful face, a hot body, wearing a horizontal striped pink and white short t-shirt sitting by the desk, biting a lollipop while saying it.

People loved blonde girls!

"I'm looking for Lawyer Aosen; I'm Lanse."

The girl seemed to know who he was: "Wait a moment, don't hang up."

She pressed a hold button on the high-end phone; this button wouldn't let the operator mistakenly think that the call had ended; while maintaining the connection, it wouldn't let Lanse hear any sound, and it wouldn't delay her from continuing to use the phone.

She pressed another colored button, and the phone was quickly connected; internal calls were always so fast.

"Mr. Aosen, Mr. Lanse wants to talk to you; he's on line seven."

"Got it, thank you; I'll take his call."

After the girl hung up the phone, she began to continue doing her own things; she didn't need to do anything else; Lawyer Aosen only needed to connect to line seven to continue talking to Lanse.

"Anything?"

Soon Lawyer Aosen's voice came from Lanse's receiver: "I saw what should be people from the Koda family when I came just now, moving the gambling tables away; do you want to stop them?"

Lawyer Aosen leaned back; the back of the chair had an obvious downward pressure, making him lean more comfortably.

"No, nothing needs to be done; let them take the things away."

Lanse fanned the flames: "We have legal regulations here; must opening a casino be agreed upon by the Koda family?"

Lawyer Aosen laughed twice when he heard this: "No... okay, Lanse, I know you are a little dissatisfied with Ailike's decision."

"It's not just you who hates him; I also hate him, but what can be done about it?"

"Do your own things well; I will let Kailu give you some compensation."

"If there's nothing else, then that's it."

"Okay, goodbye, Mr. Aosen."

"Goodbye, Lanse."

Soon staff came over, asking what to do with the vacated space; Lanse asked them to get some independent private rooms.

Empire Night nightclub would also provide oral sex services, but the price here was not cheap.

If a general strip club represented the market mainstream, a thirty-minute face-to-face hot dance plus the final oral sex was about 10 dollars, then here, the price started at 15, with no ceiling.

The quality of the girls here was better; before they had this job, they would perform on stage as actors.

If any guest took a fancy to them, they could consult the waiter about whether they could provide extra services.

If they didn't object, then they could go to other independent private rooms with the guest.

Among these girls, immigrant descendants only accounted for about 30%, and the rest were native federal girls and local natives.

In a society constantly eroded by capital and vanity, many concepts were quietly changing; for example, federal people once heard about co-ed schools as if they had heard the most terrible things.

But now, on the contrary, church girls' schools began to become fewer and fewer.

Of course, having said so much, the core problem was still poverty.

Making money by lying down was really the best choice for many girls who were unwilling to work and had no job opportunities.

As for the natives, they had to do this.

The federal government didn't allow them to farm, didn't allow them to mine, didn't allow them to work properly, and didn't even allow them to enter or leave the reservation at will.

Federal people had many ways to force them, and the reason was very ridiculous, which was for the sake of respect, and to ensure that the traditions of the natives would not be disturbed by civilization.

On one side was the hunting life that was no different from ancient times, and on the other side was the bustling metropolis.

Almost all native young people had no opportunity to receive education, which also led to the fact that they actually couldn't have too good job opportunities.

Plus various operations, they seemed to have no way out.

Participating in criminal activities and selling their bodies became one of the few ways for native young people to survive in the big city, and they survived quite well.

People who were used to eating fine grains always wanted to gnaw a few mouthfuls of coarse grains.

The ancestors stepped on their corpses and spat at them, and now the federal guests rode on them and spat at them, thick and sticky.

Aierwen pushed the door open and saw Lanse staring out the window; he walked over curiously and took a look; the gambling tables had all been moved away, and other gambling tools and such were still being loaded onto the car.

"If the nightclub loses these gambling tables, the income will lose a large sum."

Aierwen had managed it for a period of time; he knew very well that the nightclub's income mainly came from two parts: alcohol and casinos.

When the price of alcohol was not high before, the income mainly came from casinos and girls, but now the price of alcohol had increased, and the profitability of the girls was weaker instead.

After losing the gambling tables, the income next month might only barely exceed 10,000, at most 12,330 or so.

Lanse agreed with Aierwen's view: "Too little."

Aierwen didn't react for a moment: "What?"

Lanse watched a few people pick up some chips scattered on the ground and throw them onto the car; he turned around and returned to his chair to sit down: "The income reduction is too little."

"Our bars will definitely cause a huge impact on their bars, but it's impossible to grab all their customers in a short time."

"This month, the bar plus the nightclub provided the mayor with at least more than 40,000 or 50,000 in income."

"Even if the casino is gone, the sales of alcohol are reduced, cut in half, he still has more than 20,000 in income every month."

"It looks like it's half less, but he still has so much, so I said, too little."

"Must think of a way to make his income lower."

Aierwen looked at Lanse blankly, seemingly not understanding the reason why he did this; Lanse explained: "If the income of the Empire District is always very high, he will always stare at the business here."

"Only by letting him feel that money can't be made here will he move his eyes away from here."

"Besides, if the income doesn't decrease, Ailike will come to take money every month, and every time there is money, so we have no way to let him cause trouble."

Aierwen had gradually realized: "You mean..."

Lanse didn't care whether he really understood or not, slightly raised his chin: "We want to help him pursue that female star or something, think of a way to let him spend more money, and then let him reopen the casino."

"I remember that there are still some gambling tables and gambling tools on Kente's side that were confiscated by the police station, right?"

Kente was Will's younger brother, the unlucky guy who was "stuffed to death"; there were still several gambling tables and corresponding gambling tools in his casino.

After Kente's death was discovered, these gambling tools were naturally confiscated.

He didn't have a license, so this belonged to illegal business items; those things should still be piled up in the police station.

Aierwen nodded: "Seems like that."

Lanse took out the cigarette case, threw one to Aierwen, and lit one himself: "Go to the old tailor, arrange a few decent clothes for Mo Lisi, let him find a way to check Ailike's style during this period."

"See if there is an opportunity to let him have contradictions with other competitors, or think of a way to help him spend more money."

"This kind of brain is obviously not very good, it should be easy to deal with!"

Aierwen stood up: "I'll go do it right now."

After he left, Lanse picked up the phone and dialed the phone of the Empire District Police Station Chief's office; Branch Chief Bulu answered: "This is Empire District Branch Bulu..."

People who could call his desk directly were either his superiors, whom he couldn't afford to offend.

Or his "benefactors," whom he had to serve carefully, so his attitude was very low.

"I'm Lanse, Bulu."

"Startled me, Lanse; I thought some big shot was dissatisfied with me."

Lanse heard some ways: "What happened?"

Bulu seemed to have a desire to confide: "Hi, how to say it?"

"A group of more powerful masters came over to do some public opinion polls; City Hall requires us to make the streets look better, and also pay attention not to have criminal acts."

"Thanks to you, Lanse, otherwise we would definitely be busy to death, but even so, the entire police station has more than 300 people, only less than 20 people are left, and everyone else has been sent out to patrol!"

"These damn bureaucrats, they don't know at all how much pressure and expenses this will add to us!"

Police force had always had costs, but many people seemed not to know this point, or ignored this point.

With Bulu's complaints, Lanse roughly understood the cause of the matter; the Socialist Party representative of Likaile State would be doing public opinion bottom-fishing in New Jincheng during this period.

This was the thing that federal political parties liked to do most; after all, for politicians, "public opinion" and "support rate" were as important as their two balls; if they couldn't touch them at any time, they would feel severe anxiety!

For a small character like Branch Chief Bulu, the party position actually didn't matter so much to him.

"By the way, after talking for a long time, do you have anything to do with your call?"

After venting his emotions, Branch Chief Bulu felt that his relationship with Lanse had become closer; after all, Lanse patiently listened to him complain; you must know that in the Federation, apart from psychologists who would do this, others would make you shut up the moment you opened your mouth.

"A batch of gambling tables and gambling tools in the Kente case were detained in your branch; are these things still there now?"

"Wait a moment...", a roar from Branch Chief Bulu covering the microphone came from the receiver, as well as some rustling sounds.

After about four or five minutes, after the slightly harsh "pop" sound made by the palm leaving the microphone due to pressure changes ended, the sound became normal again.

"The things are still there; this case seems not to have been closed yet; do you need these things?"

Selling evidence was the tradition of the federal police station; let alone a few gambling tables, they even dared to sell contraband to those bad guys by the kilogram!

Hearing that the things were still there, Lanse had a few more smiles.

It looked like opening a casino was very simple, but in fact, it was not simple; the two most troublesome things were the dealer and the gambling tables and gambling tools.

There were ways to find dealers from other places, but gambling tools and gambling tables would be very troublesome even if they were gotten from other places.

And local casinos were almost all monitored by the Koda family; occasionally there were some small troubles; as long as they didn't openly challenge them and weren't on a scale, they actually turned a blind eye.

Some people said that the local gambling table and gambling tool business all had the participation of the Koda family, so if you bought it, you would be exposed.

"Of course, keep it for me; actually, you don't need to worry too much about this case, because the reporter also died."

Bulu didn't react for a moment: "What?"

"Then this is too terrible; who is the reporter?",

"Will."

"..."

"Okay, it is indeed like this.", he paused, "When are you coming to get it?"

"At the end of the month, to next month."

Lanse mentioned the dart competition of the Empire Branch again, which made Bulu's emotions become very high: "I have an idea; apart from this dart competition of ours, can we hold an activity like a city-wide police carnival?"

"You take the lead."

Originally Branch Chief Bulu didn't want to answer, but when Lanse said to let him take the lead, he felt it was not impossible.

"I'll consider it; this relates to the city's tens of thousands of police officers."

"No problem, you can also find people to discuss it; those big shots never sympathize with us small characters."

"Apart from ourselves, no one will care about us anymore."

"Wait for your good news!"

Branch Chief Bulu after hanging up the phone knew Lanse's meaning; he hoped to make more New Jincheng police officers.

By reason, he shouldn't stop it; after all, this was Lanse's business, but he also knew clearly that once Lanse made more police officers, he might not be able to be valued more like now.

He also had a bit of selfishness; 1,000 dollars of extra income every month, plus being valued, who would be willing to give this up.

But if this matter was for him to take the lead, then the meaning would be different; everyone who got benefits from this had to owe him a favor, and this absolutely had huge help for his promotion.

But... if he really took the lead, he would have to face the anger of Branch Chief Chali; after all, the Bay Area Hound was just old, not dead.

With his status in the minds of those big shots in the upper class, Bulu felt that he might not be able to hold on.

But... if he gave up, he was always a bit unwilling; he was very contradictory.

Just when Branch Chief Bulu was very contradictory about whether to risk offending Branch Chief Chali and get the support of most police officers, or give up this opportunity, William (Patricia's father) couldn't sit still anymore.

"I want to resign!", he put the resignation letter on the supervisor's desk.

As a civil servant, resigning voluntarily was also an incredible thing in the Federation, and William was also a member of the City Hall office.

This almost already represented that he had reached a middle-to-upper level in the position of bottom-level civil servant.

Going further up was no longer something that could be done by relying on personal ability; he had absolutely no reason to resign.

When his supervisor finished reading the resignation letter, he was a bit... surprised: "Are you going to run for city councilor?"

Running for city councilor was a matter of time to be exposed; hiding it was not as good as showing it generously, which was instead a kind of momentum building.

He nodded: "I've been in the office for twenty years; recently I also want to go out; I'm no longer young; when I still have strength, I want to try."

The supervisor didn't keep him, put the resignation letter into the drawer, because when William was going to run for city councilor, it meant that he must have received help.

Keeping him at this time wouldn't make William feel that he was a good person; on the contrary, it would make himself look like a clown.

"When you need me, give me a call; we've been colleagues for so many years; I will support you."

Before the result came out, the supervisor didn't mind saying some good words first; what if he succeeded?

The situation of the Socialist Party was a bit subtle now; voters in some places had appeared to have public opinion reversal; William might not have no chance.

"Which district do you plan to go to?"

"Empire District!"