Chapter 284

"If you haven't seen the city at five in the morning, you aren't qualified to have dreams..."

A sanitation worker rubbed his eyes. The lights inside the bus were not strong, and they couldn't fully illuminate every word in the book; he looked like he was struggling a bit.

He was an immigrant who had just arrived in the Federation. Having only just received his legal immigrant status, he had found a job sweeping the streets.

The cleaning work in New Jincheng was contracted out to several different companies. The City Hall handed over the work for different districts to them at a price of forty-two dollars and fifty cents per person, which did not include expenses like garbage trucks.

But they only gave these workers twenty-two dollars, with the excuse that they only needed to work two or three hours a day and could go find other work, so it was a reasonable figure.

Whether it was reasonable or not, no one knew, but many people were willing to do it, especially immigrants who had just arrived in the Federation.

They had spent a large amount of money to come to this country, and they desperately needed a job to keep themselves from starving to death first.

Although twenty-two dollars wasn't much, it was enough for them to fill their stomachs.

The bus slowed to a stop, and the driver slapped the door and shouted, "Number Seventeen, get off quickly..."

Every road section had a cleaner responsible for it; this was road section seventeen. The cleaner with a "Seventeen" badge hanging on his chest stood up from his seat and put the inspirational book, "How to Realize Self-Worth," into his pocket.

This was the motivation that allowed him to persist during this time. He firmly believed that all his efforts would eventually be rewarded.

He believed that since he had seen New Jincheng at five in the morning, he was qualified to realize his dreams. When he stood at the peak one day, he would be grateful to his past self for working so hard.

He picked up his broom and began to sweep the street.

He hadn't thought about the question of what direct relationship sweeping the streets starting at five in the morning had with realizing his dreams, and at the same time, he couldn't think about it, because once he did, some things would change.

Number Seventeen was the road in front of City Hall. The bus not far away stopped, and more people were driven out of the vehicle.

The two of them looked at each other in the dimly lit morning and then silently swept the ground.

Until he discovered a long, strip-shaped object lying on the ground.

"A tarp?"

He bent down and touched it. This thing was actually quite common in New Jincheng because there were frequent thunderstorms here as soon as summer arrived, and the tarp's purpose was to protect those things from being soaked by the rain.

"Who would throw such a large roll of tarp here?" He stood up and looked around; there wasn't a single car on the street. He bent down again, trying to pick up the tarp.

This was a considerable income, at least two or three dollars!

But for some reason, this tarp was so heavy. Was there something else inside?

Driven by curiosity, he pushed the rolled-up tarp forward until he let out a "Fuck" that startled the entire street, and then he stopped!

At twenty-something past five, a large number of police cars arrived here. John's eyes were red; he had only slept at one o'clock last night.

Having just taken office, Young Master Erik had been kidnapped. If the Mayor had nowhere to vent his anger, then he was the best candidate.

He didn't dare to be negligent and persisted until late at night before wrapping himself in his clothes and napping for a while in his office.

As a result, the phone rang early in the morning.

There was good news and bad news.

The good news was that Erik had been found.

The bad news was that he was already dead!

At this moment, John stood not far away looking at the whole street, his brain a total mush!

Three criminal investigation officers from the Criminal Investigation Division came; Hunter had recently taken leave.

They had been surveying the scene until after six o'clock and hadn't found any more evidence.

"A car passed by here in the middle of the night, and then he was dumped out. This is just our speculation."

"What kind of car, we don't know. Who was sitting in it, we also don't know."

"The traffic flow here is too heavy. Even if there were witnesses, they wouldn't know which car it was exactly."

"No valuable items were found on the tarp used to wrap the body, nor were any fingerprints or bloodstains found."

"Erik's pants were wet, but there were no urine stains on the tarp. This shows that they had processed the potentially remaining traces before wrapping him up..."

John's head grew big listening to this. "Just tell me directly if you can find the murderer or not!"

All three criminal investigation officers shook their heads; this was obviously impossible to do.

In this era where criminal investigation methods were relatively backward, people even still used "deduction" methods for solving major cases.

It sounded like deduction had a lot of romanticism, but in reality, this was also a helpless choice due to backward technical means.

At the same time, deduction also caused many unjust, false, and wrong cases, but they needed to give the public an explanation, so sometimes calling it deduction was not as good as saying they were making up a story that the public could be satisfied with!

One of the newly promoted criminal investigation officers said, "Director, we should still focus on the hotel. They couldn't have left no clues at all. Also, that girl—finding her could also solve the problem."

John had a headache; he didn't want to hear this. "Go do your work."

Afterward, he walked to the side of a public phone booth, hesitating a bit, but the Mayor would know about this sooner or later. He knew how to make himself look like a dog that met the master's wishes.

He finally dialed the phone at six-thirty.

At this time, the Mayor was already awake and doing simple exercises. His recent string of victories made him full of energy, and in order to deal with the various challenges ahead, he had to ensure he had a qualified body.

After receiving the call, he was silent for a while and had people prepare for his departure, but no sad emotions could be seen on his face, only solemnity.

At seven o'clock, a large number of reporters gathered at City Hall. At this time, the Mayor looked much more "normal"—haggard, sad, and various emotions were piled on his face.

He choked up several times and couldn't speak, but everyone also knew what had happened.

Erik was dead, and he was going to declare war on evil!

This seemed... to have become something he had to do. If he still had the option to resign before the news of Erik's death came, then just one day, less than twenty-four hours later, Erik's death made it impossible for him to resign again; instead, it strengthened his idea of eradicating evil!

Many citizens who were still looking forward to the follow-up plot were dumbfounded, because many people thought that Erik would eventually return safely and that they would definitely make some shady deals.

But now, Erik was dead!

Those poor people who took twenty or thirty dollars a month, lived in cheap apartments full of mold and urine smells, and couldn't even afford a whole steak, began to empathize.

They actually began to sympathize with the Mayor's encounter; perhaps this was the most fantastic scene in this world!

Food sympathizing with the diner!

What's more interesting is that clearly it should have been the Mayor showing extreme anger, but at this time, the ones truly angry were the Five Great Families.

They felt that someone was forcing them to go to war with the Mayor, because now Erik was dead, they had no basis for negotiation, and it also gave the Mayor an excuse to wipe them out.

Now it wasn't a question of whether to go to war or not, but a question of how to preserve themselves and then drive the Mayor away!

At nine o'clock in the morning, a new piece of news came: the Assembly passed the final voting resolution to comprehensively strengthen the armed forces of the coastal patrol teams in various places.

They would phase out some of the Navy's warships to the coastal patrol teams in various places and approved a large-scale production and construction plan for new warships.

Externally, they claimed this was a normal process of phasing out and replacing military equipment, but in reality, some judgments about the bad future international situation were being confirmed. The Assembly also felt the clouds of war and began to reorganize their armaments.

Some people were worried because of this, and some people felt... this wasn't something worth caring about, because war was very far away from them!

Unlike what ordinary people were concerned about, the smuggling liquor industry ushered in the first earthquake in the true sense!

Smuggling by sea would become more dangerous, the price of liquor began to rise again, and the drunks sighed; it seemed everything was moving in the direction the Assembly lords expected.

In the afternoon, Branch Director Bulu came to the company to see Lans.

As soon as he entered the office, he sat down on the sofa, took off his wide-brimmed hat, lit a cigarette, and said somewhat gloomily, "John looked for me."

Lans sat behind the desk, a bit surprised, "Shouldn't he be chasing Erik's case to find the murderer right now?"

"What did he look for you for?"

Branch Director Bulu looked very depressed, "He asked me to stand on his side."

He looked up at Lans, "Now New Jincheng already has many police officers who have defected to him. Lans, I am very worried that John can truly control the entire police force of New Jincheng."

John was his old subordinate; the fact that his old subordinate had transformed into the Branch Director of the Port District had already made him a bit depressed.

His relationship with John wasn't very good; when John left, he had made a huge profit and hadn't left anything for the branch.

The attitude when he came looking for him now also carried some threats; John gave him two paths.

Either be obedient and join the new police system with him as the core.

Or, become a thing of the past together with Chali and those old stubborn ones!

He and the Mayor were going to reorganize the police system, and all disobedient people would be kicked out.

"I don't question whether he has this power, because behind him is the Mayor."

"No matter who it is, the Five Great Families, the Bay Area, or Councilor Wei De or Councilor Weilian, they don't have the power to directly appoint a Police Chief or Branch Director, but the Mayor does."

Branch Director Bulu rubbed his face, "He gave me three days to consider..."

Lans frowned after listening, "So you also gave me three days."

Branch Director Bulu immediately said, "I didn't mean that, but I really have no good way; I can't resist them!"

"Now we ourselves aren't of one mind; if I don't do it, there are plenty of people willing to replace my position!"

"You, you all, must do something!"

It could be seen that although the Branch Director indeed didn't want to get involved with John, he also didn't want to lose his current job.

Everyone said being a police officer wasn't good, but no one said being a police branch director wasn't good.

Lans nodded slightly while speaking, "What you said also makes some sense; I'll make a phone call."

He picked up the receiver and dialed Paul's number.

"This is the Pasileto Manor..."

"I want to speak with Mr. Paul; I am Lans."

"Please wait a moment."

After about four or five minutes, the phone was picked up again, "I am Paul."

"Mr. Paul, my friend Bulu, who is the Branch Director of the Empire Branch, is here with me. He told me that John is forcing them to make a choice."

"Either stand on John and the Mayor's side, or pack up and get out. I think it's necessary for me to disclose this matter to you..."

Paul said "Hmm" after listening, "Thank you for the news you provided, Lans..." He originally should have wanted to end this topic, but then thought of something, "Since you discovered this problem, are you interested in helping us solve it?"

"What... do you mean?"

Paul let out some laughter, "Of course, I mean John."

Lans was silent for a while, "Are you asking me to get rid of the Police Chief?"

Paul heard his reluctance from his words, "It's the 'acting' Chief, and an 'acting Chief' not recognized by us. No one will look into this matter deeply."

Lans didn't speak. For about ten seconds, Paul should have felt Lans's resistance.

Now he was encountering a bit of trouble; the Five Great Families had just finished a meeting together, and some problems had also appeared within them.

Erik was dead, the Mayor was "crazy," and plus they might have obtained some news from other places, the Keda family was the first to propose withdrawing.

As the most profitable family in New Jincheng, their connections were spread throughout Laizhou and the Assembly. Every year, a large amount of funds were transported to the State Government, the State Assembly, and the Assembly through various means.

As long as they guaranteed to continue transporting benefits, someone in the Assembly would stand up to protect them.

Bandi knew very well that the Keda family couldn't be replaced; just change to someone else, as long as he possessed so many licenses, even without any foundation, he could build up the casino industry in a very short time.

On the contrary, once the Keda family lost these, they would become nothing.

Someone in the State Government supported the Mayor in dismantling the stubborn local forces of New Jincheng. Bandi was a bit hesitant, and it was also possible he had reached some deal with the State Government.

The Five Great Families had one less, and the remaining four families seemed to be able to resist the Mayor.

Afterward, Rick, the representative of the Kasiya family, also proposed a similar idea. He wanted to take a step back; he felt that Erik wasn't killed by them, and they had absolutely no reason to clean up someone else's mess.

Moreover, the core business of the Kasiya family was human trafficking and vicious criminal cases. If there was no police support, or rather, if they turned a blind eye, then their family business would shrink across the board!

Especially the fact that the Assembly had just announced the strengthening of the coastal patrol teams, which dealt a double blow to their business.

The Five Great Families lost two at once, and the remaining three, although they still wanted to hold on, were clearly a bit unable to hold on.

They felt that the Kasiya family and the Keda family must have known something, or that someone had promised them something, so they suddenly withdrew.

This anger of being betrayed made the remaining three families feel angry!

At the same time, they also felt something not very good, because now they not only had to resist the Mayor's group but also resist the potential backstabbing from former friends!

Who knows if the Kasiya family and the Keda family, in order to cater to the instructions of some big shots, would give them a hit when they weren't paying attention?

Paul had quite a few people guarding their core industries, so the number of people who could be pulled out became not so many.

Plus, getting rid of John itself was a dangerous job with more political risks. Paul suddenly thought of Lans, who had already unified the Empire District; he might be a good candidate.

"I'll give you a bar in the Starlight District. Besides, if you have any needs, I will publicly support you in a public setting."

After Lans continued to be silent for a while, he said softly, "Deal!"

He hung up the phone and looked at Branch Director Bulu, who hurriedly straightened his spine, "I won't say anything, don't worry, Lans, my mouth is very tight!"

He saw that Lans didn't seem to have the desire to talk to him, so he picked up the wide-brimmed hat on the table and stood up, "I still have some things to do..."

Lans signaled that he could get out, and he hurriedly left!

It was too damn scary; in front of a police branch director, they were talking about how to get rid of the Police Chief. These people really didn't treat the branch director as a police officer!

However, Branch Director Bulu wasn't angry; if Lans could really get rid of John, he would cheer instead!

So... could he do it?

Lans called the others over to the office, "Paul said to let me get rid of John, and I agreed."

They didn't ask why, only asked one question, "When do we move?"

Lans shook his head slightly, "There are still a few days; we must maximize the benefits of this matter."

"Mo Lisi, do a few things: keep an eye on John and some people who are closer to him."

"Hailamu, prepare weapons and magazines for us; I don't want the operation to be hindered."

"Meiluo, prepare the vehicles. Our opponents this time aren't easy to mess with; ask them if they can install some steel plates in the car door panels..."

Lans gave instructions methodically; he let everyone know what they needed to do and how to do it.

As some of them received their instructions, Lans let them all leave to make preparations.

Aierwen stayed behind, "Is it necessary to do this?"

"If we don't move, the Five Great Families will definitely move too!"

Lans shook his head, "They have already fallen apart internally."

If Lans's conflict with the Mayor and those people hadn't reached an irredeemable point before, if he hadn't refused the Mayor's solicitation, then he could completely ignore these matters now.

Anyway, no matter how much cleaning happened, he would eventually survive.

But the problem was that he not only refused the Mayor's solicitation but also got rid of the Kuishe Gang's people, giving the Mayor a hard time!

Once the Mayor fully controlled New Jincheng, then the next thing would be his doomsday!

Between his own bad luck and someone else's bad luck, Lans chose someone else's bad luck.