Chapter 310: 311. Chapter 307: The Only One Who Can Defeat You Is Yourself

311. Chapter 307: The Only One Who Can Defeat You Is Yourself

Lanse was not surprised that McCork could recognize him right away.

Although he might still be a small character in the eyes of the big shots at the top, he was already a big shot in the eyes of ordinary people.

"If there isn't a second Lanse family in New Jincheng, then you must be talking about me."

The two men let go of their handshake, and Lanse invited them to sit down. "I don't know what you like to eat, so I didn't order yet..." He snapped his fingers, and a waiter soon walked over from afar holding a menu.

"Don't try to save money for me; you know, I'm very good at making money!"

McCork laughed as he listened. "Yes, I know, you are all very good at making money."

"Then today I'll take advantage of you and eat something I usually can't bear to buy?"

"Please, go ahead!"

McCork didn't actually order anything exaggerated: a steak, a portion of hand-grabbed lamb chops, and some beef cubes.

Adding these things up, it was only about a dozen dollars.

Jack ordered things of a similar price; it wasn't that he wanted to slaughter Lanse, but if he ordered something too cheap, it would highlight that McCork's order was too expensive.

This would make McCork feel a bit uncomfortable, so ordering just right is also a skill. Lanse ordered about the same as them.

While waiting for the food to be served, they chatted naturally. Lanse started by talking about his confusion regarding McCork's work.

"Our work is the same every day: patrolling on time, and then dealing with all kinds of dull and boring tasks."

"If your ship loses power at sea, and if you have a radio, you can contact us, and we will also be responsible for rescue."

"There is also catching smuggling ships, but most of the time it's helping some ships at the dock with towing work."

"There are too many ships here; if there is no towing, it might cause chaos. In short, I feel we don't look much like a Coast Patrol, more like ordinary dock workers!"

They are indeed responsible for many things; this is not an easy job.

Lanse handed him a cigarette. "Congress recently strengthened the Coast Patrol; your work should be a bit more comfortable."

McCork lit the cigarette, and he tilted his body slightly. "How should I put it?"

"Our equipment is indeed better, but we have even less way to be lazy."

"They require us to increase the number of patrols to curb maritime smuggling routes."

"But Lanse, you should understand, the coastline is so long; if we only patrol once, it's definitely not enough. We can only keep patrolling."

"Before, we could still find some excuses not to do so, like saying the patrol boat wasn't good enough, or other reasons. Now, we can't find a single excuse."

He looked at the tabletop, seemingly wanting to get a drink, but seeing only lemonade on the table, he put it down just after picking it up.

At this moment, the waiter walked over with a tray. Lanse asked, "Do you have the wine I stored?"

The waiter nodded. "Of course, sir. I don't know what kind of wine you stored?"

"I stored several bottles; you pick the strongest one from them!"

The waiter nodded slightly, but still gave a reminder, "Sir, our service fee is very expensive."

Lanse waved his hand, not caring much.

Although the Hazardous Materials Bureau has been catching problems with moonshine everywhere, there are still many restaurants selling alcohol under the name of "storing wine."

Because the profit from alcohol is too great!

For a restaurant, a meal for a table like Lanse's, costing nearly fifty dollars, requires a cost of more than twenty dollars.

After deducting other expenses from the remaining thirty dollars of gross profit, the restaurant can probably earn about fifteen dollars.

Does it seem like a lot?

But a bottle of mid-to-high-end wine can bring so much profit to the restaurant!

One bottle of wine, taking it out from where it's hidden and putting it on the dining table, is worth the profit of a whole table of food.

Plus, after the prohibition, people's desire for alcohol intake has become higher. As long as they are people with money, they will want a little!

They can't refuse this!

"Mr. Lanse, everyone says you are very generous; now it seems that is indeed the case!"

McCork seemed very happy. The waiter brought a bottle of wine. "Sir, do you see if this is the wine you stored here?"

Under the wine bottle was a note, with the number "one hundred" written in fancy script.

Externally, they claim this is the storage number, but in reality, this is the price of the wine.

The cost of this bottle of wine is less than twenty dollars, but now its price is one hundred. This is the reason why the restaurant cannot refuse it!

"Yes, help me open it, thank you."

The waiter smiled and opened the wine, and even took the initiative to pour it for the three of them. Soon someone brought a screen to block it slightly.

McCork took a sip, took a deep breath, and then exhaled heavily. The air he exhaled was full of the smell of alcohol.

"Good wine!" Actually, he couldn't distinguish what was good wine or bad wine, it was just that the one hundred dollars made him have to believe that this was a bottle of good wine.

"I have a question, McCork, can I call you that?"

McCork nodded. "Of course, you treated me to wine, we are friends!"

"Friends all call me that."

"It's an honor that we can become friends, McCork."

"How do you usually handle the smuggled goods you seize?"

McCork was stunned for a moment. "Of course, it's handled according to the process. If they are willing to pay the fine and make up the tariff, we will still give it to them."

"However, the vast majority of people are unwilling. You know, their smuggling costs are far lower than the taxes they have to pay."

"If they can get in once out of three trips, they make a profit, so most things will be placed in the warehouse and finally destroyed and auctioned according to regulations."

Lanse also picked up his wine glass and clinked it with him. "What about the auction money?"

"Of course, it's handed over to the Treasury!" McCork curled his lips. "They treat us as a revenue-generating department."

Currently, the Coast Patrol still belongs to the Federal Treasury for management. Those auction proceeds must definitely be handed over; they actually don't get any benefits themselves.

It's nothing more than sneaking some things back for their own use, or selling them, but they can't do too much.

There will also be people from the Treasury responsible for regular inspections. Once it enters the warehouse, it basically can't be moved much.

Even if it can be moved, it's the result of those people turning a blind eye.

After listening, Lanse looked quite sympathetic to him. "This job sounds very hard, and there is no good income, right?"

McCork curled his lips. "Definitely not as good at making money as you."

"Who doesn't hope they can have money?"

"But we don't have any good way..."

As he spoke, he fell silent. "Lanse, this is our first meeting. Jack and I are friends; if you have anything to say, just say it directly."

"If you have anything you want to bring in, my suggestion is it's best to wait."

"Recently, the crackdown has been very strict. We have been patrolling almost all the time, and we don't even have time to rest."

He also thought Lanse wanted to smuggle something in. With Jack's guarantee, plus Lanse treating him to a meal and ordering a one-hundred-dollar bottle of wine, he felt he was respected.

So he might as well make his words clearer. Actually, it might not be without the meaning of refusal.

Wanting to help, not now, wait and see later.

Lanse also heard it, but he didn't end it, because he knew McCork would definitely choose to stand on his side.

"If you usually find wine, how do you handle it?" He asked another more specific question.

McCork poured himself another glass of wine. "If it's wine, these things will be handed over to the Hazardous Materials Bureau, and they will publicly destroy them."

As he spoke, a hint of a smile appeared on his face. "But we can also drink a little, just don't go too far."

Lanse handed him a cigarette. "Haven't you considered handling those wines yourselves?"

McCork realized Lanse's meaning. "Do you have wine that was seized?"

He thought about it. "Has this happened?"

"But even if it was really seized, it's very difficult to have room for operation. There are people watching us over there, and everyone hopes to have some big case."

As he spoke, he shook his head with a smile. "Where are there so many big cases to catch?"

Lanse took a puff of the cigarette and exhaled slowly. "There will be one tomorrow."

McCork, who was eating, was stunned for a moment. "I don't quite understand, Lanse."

"Wine worth six or seven hundred thousand is coming in."

"Yours?" McCork looked around, but because there was a screen, the places he could see were actually very limited. He lowered his voice and said, "Are you crazy?"

"With so much wine, if it's seized, it's all over!"

Lanse said truthfully, "It's not mine, it's someone else's. This guy has some conflict with me."

"I don't want him to complete this business."

"You take down this batch of wine, and then sell it to me."

"I'll give you two hundred and fifty thousand, in cash."

McCork's heart suddenly started beating uncontrollably. The number two hundred and fifty thousand scared him!

I don't know if it was because of these things, or because he had two glasses of wine, he suddenly became dry-mouthed.

Even though it was lemonade he didn't like to drink, he picked it up and took a big gulp.

"Mr. Lanse, don't... joke."

Lanse shook his head and said, "I'm not joking."

"You can consider it."

"No matter what decision you make, I will tell you the time and address of the delivery. You will definitely be able to find them, and you will also be able to find this batch of goods."

"You can hand them over to the Hazardous Materials Bureau, and then they will take them to sell secretly or destroy them in public, obtaining commendations from the Presidential Palace and Congress."

"Everyone can get a large bonus and accumulate capital for promotion from it."

"But you people won't get anything. There will be no bonus, no flashlights, no commendations. Maybe there will only be one or two sentences in the news."

"There is another way. You sell these wines to me. Except for you and the people you can trust, no one will know!"

"The person delivering the goods doesn't know, the person receiving the goods doesn't know, only you, me, we know."

"I can continue to sell my wine, and you, you can also get two hundred and fifty thousand in cash."

"Whether you few people split it or a dozen people split it, I don't care."

"However, my suggestion is, if you choose to sell the wine to me, I can arrange for my people to board the ship, so you can get more money."

"Think about it carefully, McCork, I'm not in a hurry for you to make a decision."

"Even if you decide not to cooperate with me, I will still give you the information. Like I said, I have a grudge against him."

"But I sincerely hope you can consider the second option. After all, the results you risked your life to obtain will eventually only become capital for others to be commended and promoted."

"I feel it's not worth it for you, friend!"

Lanse said, looking at his watch. "I have something to do in the afternoon, I'll leave first."

He waved his hand and counted out one hundred and eighty dollars and put it on the tray. "Keep the change."

Then he looked at McCork. "You can also have a life like this every day!"

Jack next to him was also a bit dazed. He was actually struggling with a similar conflict in his heart, because someone had also asked him to lift his hand, and he could get a large sum of money.

The choice he faced was actually not much different from McCork's.

Looking at the wine in the glass, McCork picked it up and drank it in one gulp. He glanced at Jack. "You gave me a difficult thinking problem."

Jack also sighed. "Who says it isn't?"

He didn't drink all the wine, let the restaurant pack it in a kraft paper bag, and then stuffed it into his arms.

After returning to the Coast Patrol, they had to go out to sea to patrol in the afternoon. While sitting boringly on the sea surface, he couldn't help but take out the wine and take a sip.

The whole person felt comfortable in an instant.

The difference between good wine and bad wine is huge!

Blowing the sea breeze, sometimes the sea breeze would be mixed with salt crystal particles, plus the scorching sun, the whole person turned red and black!

He remembered when he was young, when he first came to the Coast Patrol, he would peel off a layer of skin from his body every day!

This is not a comfortable job. When it's hottest in summer, he's on the sea, and when it's coldest in winter, he's also there.

Even if they have changed to armed ships now, they still have to stand guard when they have to.

The next morning, he finished his work, returned to the ground, and drove home.

As soon as he entered the house, his wife couldn't help but nag, "The billing day is coming soon. If you don't want to be approached like last time, it's best to prepare in advance."

"I said long ago, we shouldn't have changed cars, at this special time!"

"And the two children, their school teacher called me. They both have the opportunity to go to college, asking if we are considering it."

"If we hope they can go to college, the teacher is willing to write a recommendation letter for them..."

She nagged about many things, almost none of her words mentioned money, but every word was inextricably linked to money!

He sat on the old, worn-out sofa he bought when he got married, staring blankly at the bright sky outside the window.

The words of his wife in his ears were like a curse, making his whole head grow big!

In this life, he has never really been happy. Even when eating out or having a gathering, he has to calculate it well so he doesn't overspend.

He has to calculate everything he does, but think about Lanse, who casually gave one hundred and eighty dollars.

The money on the tray made him remember it deeply even now!

Whether it's work or life, he feels... actually, it's all quite cowardly.

He slowly turned his head to look at his wife, asking hesitantly, his eyes a bit dazed, "If... let them go to college, will they have a bright future?"

His wife, while ironing clothes, said, "Of course, after they graduate, they can go to big companies and get a salary of seventy or eighty, or even one or two hundred, unlike us!"

"Buying discounted clothes, buying discounted food, living in discounted houses, driving discounted cars..."

"How much money does it take to go to college?"

She didn't raise her head, but said a bit absent-mindedly, "If both of them want to go, it takes about seven or eight hundred dollars a year."

"Per person."

"At least."

McCork sat dazed for a while, then suddenly stood up. His wife asked, "Aren't you resting today?"

McCork shook his head and drove back directly. He found the captain on duty today and talked about changing shifts.

"I might go out in a few days, can I swap shifts with you?"

"I'll be on duty tonight, and you help me be on duty in a few days?"

This kind of thing is too normal for colleagues of decades.

Who can't have a difficult thing?

The other party agreed quickly. McCork returned to the office and dialed the phone number Lanse left him...

Half an hour later, McCork's confidants all came.

The number of people was more than Lanse imagined, a full eleven people.

When they found out there were some strangers who were going to go to sea with them, they all looked a bit confused, but based on their trust in McCork, they didn't say anything.

Some colleagues didn't come, and there were some more strangers, there must be some changes.

When the ship left the coast, McCork called them all over and explained the matter simply.

"We just need to intercept the ship, and then... they will do the killing."

"The ship and the goods will go with us, and when they get close to the coastline, they will split them up and take them away."

"We continue to patrol ours, and after the matter is over, they promised to give us two hundred thousand."

For a moment, everyone gasped.

He observed these people, and except for a few, the others had surprise in their eyes!

One of the guys who had been with him the longest couldn't help but ask, "How is this money split?"

McCork pursed his lips. "I'll take forty thousand, and you guys split the rest."

Their arithmetic was not very good. After writing and drawing for a while, they came to a conclusion: each person could get more than fourteen thousand dollars.

Many people immediately expressed, "Done!"

Not to mention more than ten thousand dollars, a few hundred or a few thousand is enough to find a third-rate killer to kill someone.

Not to mention this is more than ten thousand dollars, and they don't need to do the dirty work themselves, just intercept the ship and assist Lanse's people in dealing with those smugglers.

Such a simple thing, a large sum of money can be credited, who wouldn't be tempted?

However, some people asked, "Will there be any trouble?"

"After all, so much wine, so much money!"

There was a ripple in McCork's eyes. "We have been drifting on the sea for almost our whole lives. I don't owe this country anything at all; it owes me!"

This sentence made everyone fall silent again. The case not long ago killed so many people, and this was still reported.

In fact, the Coast Patrol dies every year. Many times it's not even reported, and they die so quietly.

The sea is very scary, even if it's near the coast, there will be risks!

They could feel McCork's determination, so they didn't continue to persuade him.

Some people were very excited, and some were very calm.

Everyone has different thoughts, attitudes...