Chapter 247

248. Chapter 245: Settlement, Breach of Contract, and Defendant

Woen left quickly with the good news, and before leaving, he even remembered to pay the three-dollar lunch bill.

Perhaps this was the reason he was willing to dine at the small restaurant; it wouldn't be too expensive.

It's just hoped that this time the people from the General Union and the Labor Union won't be startled by New Jincheng's excellent "public security."

The downfall of Red High Heels also signaled that both sides were one step closer to the "great decisive battle."

On the way back, Lanse heard two gunshots coming from the port area.

Recently, there had been constant gunfire in the port area; the fall of the Brotherhood didn't make Bill the biggest beneficiary, which was the funniest thing.

Many gangs were laughing at the Red Dog Gang; those rapidly rising neighborhood families and outside gangs were quickly eroding the empty territory in the port area and even began to probe the Red Dog Gang's territory.

Hopefully, Bill and the others can hold on; this is a tough battle, and I don't know if they learned how to shoot when they were pimping.

Back at the office, Lanse saw Jonny standing outside the door; Jonny looked even more haggard.

He slapped his forehead, having forgotten about this matter; originally, he had intended to hire a lawyer to sue Jonny for not repaying the money, and according to the process, the court would support Lanse's claim and auction off his house to repay the debt.

It was just that some events that suddenly erupted didn't give him time to deal with it, and he almost forgot about it, if not for seeing Jonny.

"Mr. Lanse, I'll transfer the house to you..."

Jonny used great courage to say this sentence, because this was all the glory and confidence he had in his life up to this point.

He had a failed family, a failed growth process, and a failed marriage; the only proof that made him feel he wasn't a complete failure was that storefront and his own bakery.

Now, he was going to lose it forever.

He didn't dare to gamble on whether the bank would sell his house for a thousand dollars or so; this was his only choice.

Lanse seemed to have given him a choice, but in reality, he hadn't given him any choice at all, just as when he decided to embezzle Lanse's wages, he hadn't given Lanse a choice or a way out either.

Looking at the document bag in Jonny's hand, a sincere smile appeared on Lanse's face, "I'm glad you made the right decision, Jonny; when the house is transferred to the company's name, everything will be over."

Jonny was a bit dazed and blank; his lips moved slightly a few times, "Everything is over."

Lanse repeated affirmatively, "Yes, everything is over, and everything will get better."

He called the lawyer, and Lawyer Luo Ben arrived quickly. After reading all the documents, he drafted a contract for both parties to sign and also had Lanse give him an authorization contract; he would handle the transfer procedures with Jonny.

For this, Lanse needed to pay him seventy dollars, which was the smallest fee Lawyer Luo Ben had charged since they met!

It was so small that Lanse found it a bit unbelievable!

Luo Ben didn't seem to mind telling the truth, "I'll keep fifty dollars for myself and give a rookie twenty dollars; he'll do better than me!"

Lanse looked at Lawyer Luo Ben's shameless appearance and was a bit speechless, "You didn't lie, at least."

"I never lie!" Lawyer Luo Ben added quickly, but meeting Lanse's gaze, he seemed to realize there was a problem with saying that, and then added, "Unless work requires it."

Looking at his thick-skinned appearance, Lanse was just about to let him leave, but then thought of something, "I have a friend who plans to go to university to study law; is there any way to get him in?"

Lawyer Luo Ben was stunned for a moment, and he frowned, "You're asking me to smash my own rice bowl."

However, his brow soon relaxed, "Even if a lawyer successfully graduates from university, he probably still has a long way to go before he can independently take on your cases, Mr. Lanse."

"Ten thousand dollars, I'll write him a recommendation letter, and I guarantee he'll be admitted."

"I don't lie; I'll keep two thousand for myself, and eight thousand is for others."

He didn't forget to add, "You can pay me in cash."

Lawyer Luo Ben had many connections; just getting someone into university, whether they needed a high school diploma or not, was irrelevant to those who played with power.

It wasn't even something everyone could do!

After agreeing on the time for payment, Lanse returned to the office and made a call to Luo Jiefu (an old man from the Imperial Chamber of Commerce), "Luo Jiefu, do you know Jonny?"

"... Yes, that's Jonny from Jonny's Bakery; his shop belongs to me now. Ask around in the Chamber of Commerce if anyone is willing to do some small business there."

"Yes, only for our Chamber of Commerce members; either pay a fixed monthly rent or pay according to a percentage of income: ten percent for under five hundred, five percent for over five hundred..."

Driving them to extinction?

No, this is mercy, even generosity!

At least, Lanse didn't take his life and even let him leave with the few hundred dollars he had left, didn't he?

Lanse believed that someone would soon come to inquire about the situation of this shop, and it would be to pay rent according to a percentage.

The reason is simple: cost minimization.

After handing this matter over to Luo Jiefu, he didn't care about it anymore; he would have more similar resources to share with people in the Imperial Chamber of Commerce in the future. He wanted to organize the Imperial Chamber of Commerce into the largest comprehensive commercial group in the Federation, led by Imperial people!

Perhaps in the short term, it was still just a "little bug," but Lanse believed that with the appearance and explosion of opportunities one after another, the Imperial Chamber of Commerce would eventually play an important role on the stage of the Federation and even the world.

Later that day, Hailamu brought twenty or so young people to the company.

"Is the Boss in?"

He asked.

The girl, Kelinda, pointed to the office door, "He's inside on the phone."

Hailamu knocked on the door, and hearing Lanse's response, he opened the door and poked his head inside. Lanse was sitting in his chair, his expression looking somewhat displeased.

"We discussed this before; we agreed to wait at least until the second half of the year to raise prices..."

"I know, but my liquor prices are sold lower than others; we talked about this before I left!"

"I'll help you promote it, even recommend people to go to your place to stock up..."

"And you're playing this game with me now?"

His tone was already impatient, but it could be seen that he was still forcibly suppressing his emotions while holding the receiver.

After another minute or two, he suddenly said, "Fuck your friendship!", and after the last sentence, he slammed the receiver onto the phone base.

Hailamu knew now wasn't the time to bring the newcomers in; he went out first, let the newcomers look around, and then returned to the room alone and closed the door.

"Lanse, what happened?"

Lanse had just lit a cigarette and was playing with a matchbox in his hand.

He used his index finger and thumb to pretend to pinch the corner of the matchbox, then flicked the matchbox outward, added a little force just as it was about to slip from his hand, pinched it, and then slid it down, repeating this action.

This was just a subconscious behavior, like people who like to play with lighters, having various ways of playing with them (just using hands, not involving other organs).

Although he didn't like matches, he didn't like the smell of kerosene either, so he could only play with matches.

"Luigi's liquor is going to increase in price." He glanced at Hailamu, "Our liquor is almost sold out, and I plan to order another batch, but he told me the price has gone up now."

Hailamu walked to the opposite side of Lanse and pulled out a chair to sit down, "Didn't we agree with him last time on six months and eight hundred thousand in goods?"

Last time they went to Xiang Yalan, Lanse and Luigi talked about ordering at least three batches of goods from Luigi within six months.

The prices were two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, and at least three hundred thousand.

At the time, Luigi agreed very readily, indicating that he was willing to give Lanse a cheap price to develop the federal smuggled liquor market.

As a result, the first batch was barely sold out, and Luigi didn't intend to keep his promise.

There was actually another reason for this.

The issuance of the federal prohibition had caused the whole world to discover that the windfall profits from smuggling liquor into the Federation were far higher than anything else.

No matter what you smuggle into the Federation, it's not as good as sending a crate of liquor; even those who smuggle people are now secretly transporting liquor when they have nothing to do.

When the profit of a business exceeds people's psychological endurance, they will crazily pour into this industry.

Except for those whose distance is too far and not cost-effective, Xiang Yalan already has many gangs and even countries smuggling into the Federation on a large scale.

Luigi originally thought this market needed to be cultivated and maintained, but who knew that after more severe prohibition measures began to be implemented, the smuggled liquor market would instantly ignite!

The federal government lit a fire for them, and the profits from smuggled liquor kept doubling.

The situation now is that Luigi can earn two or three times the money by selling liquor to others, but Luigi can only earn one time the money from Lanse.

From a capitalist's point of view, this isn't actually earning less, but losing money!

Compared to the higher quotes others gave him, he didn't want to do business with Lanse anymore.

The Sumuli people are an iron plate to the outside, but there are many factions internally; the faction Luigi belongs to and the faction Mr. Pasreto belongs to are not the same thing, and he doesn't have to give face to Mr. Pasreto at all.

Moreover, internal contradictions, friction, and conflicts have also begun to brew within Sumuli Island.

The relationship between the four major families has become a bit more tense than before.

Driven by various factors, Luigi decided to raise prices.

If Lanse accepts his new quote, he will still prioritize supplying Lanse, and they will still be very good friends.

But if Lanse doesn't accept his quote, then he can only say sorry; although everyone is friends, he can't stop him from making money, right?

Just like what he said to Lanse at the end, "If you think you are more attractive than money, you can go try someone else!"

This made Lanse very angry; he was a man who kept his word, and he also hoped others would keep their word.

"Should we tell Alberto?" Hailamu wasn't very worried about the liquor supply not keeping up.

Nick had already brewed quite a bit of liquor, which could fully cope with the current daily consumption, but to expand the scale, the scale of brewing needed to be increased, which required more brewing crops.

Of course, there was also a little bit of risk.

The Hazardous Materials Bureau had been investigating this matter, and it was said that they had already begun to search those home brewing workshops; even private brewing for personal consumption was no longer allowed.

The ranch's target was relatively large, and perhaps Lanse should consider it again.

As for whether to tell Alberto, there was no rush; although Luigi was introduced to Lanse by Alberto.

Lanse shook his head slightly, "No need to tell Alberto yet; I'll see how to teach them a lesson first."

He was already thinking about how to teach Luigi how to behave, and then after thinking for a while, he remembered the reason Hailamu came, "Are the people here?"

Hailamu pointed outside the door, "They're all waiting outside."

The Lanse family was still recruiting people; the smell of gunpowder for the great decisive battle had already begun to appear, and recruiting people now was not only for self-protection but also to gain more benefits from this chaos.

The more people there were, the greater Lanse's power would be, and the louder his voice would be.

"Let's go, let's see our new brothers first!"

The two went out of the room one after another, and Hailamu shouted, "Come over here!"

Before long, twenty or so young people arrived; most of these young people looked like they were from the bottom of society at a glance.

They were almost all wearing worn-out, washed-white old-fashioned formal wear, which should have been inherited from their fathers or even grandfathers.

Some would wear dusty flat caps, and a group of young people standing together gave Lanse the only feeling of being young and full of vitality!

Even if they were wearing old clothes, it still couldn't hide the vitality and heat belonging to the young that radiated from them!

Lanse shook hands with them one by one and then expressed his happiness at them joining the Lanse family.

Now they had added a few more criteria for recruiting people: either those who were alone or those who still had brothers and sisters at home.

Like those who still had parents and relatives alive but were the only child in the family, the Lanse family didn't recruit them.

Although he had recruited quite a few at the beginning, that was a situation where there was no other choice; now that the Lanse family was gradually stabilizing, he didn't recruit these people anymore.

After all, losing an only child is one of the most terrible things in any era!

These young people were exceptionally excited when they saw Lanse; Lanse was the idol of many young Imperial people, and being able to get close to their idol and talk to him made some of them so excited they couldn't speak clearly.

Lanse shook hands with them, hugged them, and encouraged them; for these young people, this was the most exciting voice of this era!

After saying goodbye to these young people, Lanse always felt that there were two or three people who were weird, but he didn't pay much attention to it.

After all, in this era, the only one who could give them wages and respect was himself.

For two or three days in a row, the entire New Jincheng seemed to have quieted down again, but only relatively speaking.

In these two or three days, quite a few things actually happened; for example, the new young people began to fulfill their duties and started to receive militarized training with Ma Duoer and the others.

And this matter also made Lukaer and the others feel secretly shocked, because not only did they receive formal militarized training, but now Lanse's group had also started militarized training.

This made some agents of the Hazardous Materials Bureau feel nervous; the special title of agent could no longer provide them with a sense of security.

For another example, Jonny had already left his house with his luggage... no, it wasn't his house, it was Lanse's house, and his things were also thrown out; the new tenants didn't intend to make bread.

His scrap metal was quickly disposed of by him; it was said that a bakery had hired him, giving him a monthly wage of forty-five dollars.

For another example, the firefights in the port area had become more intense than in the previous few days; gunfire could often be heard during the day, and it was said that there were also outside forces invading the city center, but it hadn't reached the point of a gunfight yet.

There were outside forces invading the entire city, but the Imperial District seemed much quieter, and even the housing prices in the Imperial District had risen slightly recently.

Finally, the new commissioner of the Liji Group arrived in New Jincheng; they had already determined that Bridge's death was a traffic accident, and at the same time, they refused to admit that Bridge died while on duty.

The Liji Group stated that the company would get off work on time at 6:30 every day, and they didn't have any behavior of forcing anyone to work overtime, so anything that happened to Bridge after 6:30 had nothing to do with the Liji Group.

Whether it was compensation for work-related injuries or a pension, they refused to pay it to Bridge's family and even conversely planned to sue the deceased Bridge and his family, using this matter to cause the group company's image to be affected, causing abnormal fluctuations in the stock price.

Perhaps Bridge himself didn't expect that not long after he died, the group company he fought for until the last moment didn't let a shred of warmth fall on him, but instead wanted to sue him...

If he knew, perhaps he would crawl out of his grave and spit a mouthful of old blood on the faces of those directors.

The first thing the new commissioner did after arriving was to continue to execute the cases left by Bridge; the Imperial Chamber of Commerce and Lanse were sued.

This was the first time Lanse stood in the defendant's seat as a defendant; the Liji Group's legal team produced some evidence, claiming that their price evaluator admitted to colluding with Lanse to manufacture this contract fraud.

Lawyer Luo Bu invited his alumnus to defend Lanse; both sides, and even the judge, knew what the situation was, which was like a very tacit delaying tactic.

Both sides argued with each other and then indicated they wanted to supplement evidence; the judge also took the opportunity to knock the wooden mallet and leave some problems for the next hearing.

Actually, it wasn't just the Liji Group; other financial groups were also seizing property in the private sector like this, and it was possible the means were even dirtier!

Previously, there had been cases where group companies hired scammers to defraud employees, making these employees lose everything, just to solve these dragging matters at once.

This might sound like... an unbelievable fabricated story in some other countries.

But in the Federation, this is something that happens every day.