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Lance left very decisively.

So decisively that there was no argument, no scene, which made even Bridge feel it was incredible. The blonde secretary, carrying coffee, was just about to knock on the door when she saw Lance walk out from inside.

She was somewhat stunned and at a loss, watching as Lance walked to the elevator and pressed the button, while she peeked her head into the room.

She didn’t know who to give the coffee in her hand to, or if she should throw it away.

In a large corporation, serving coffee prepared for Lance to someone else, even if Lance hadn’t taken a single sip, was a very impolite act.

But this cup of coffee was really not cheap. She didn’t know if she would be punished for throwing it away. She could only stand there dumbly; no one paid any attention to her.

In the room, Bridge was a little confused, “The intelligence says this Lance is just a kid from a poor local family. The only thing he has going for him is that he formed a gang?”

He felt like laughing.

Whether a gang is scary or not depends on who you’re talking to.

To ordinary people, to those without a social background, a gang is someone who can take their life. They would be very afraid.

In fact, that was indeed the case. Even though it was unreasonable for gangs to collect protection fees, no one would refuse.

Because they knew that not paying would lead to trouble.

But few gangs would extort large corporations. The big capitalists only needed to make one phone call to cause a lot of trouble for these gangs.

If the intelligence had said Lance was a member of the Five Families, he might have chosen other methods to communicate with Lance, or even not communicate at all and just let him earn the money.

But this was just a small gang. He didn’t know what gave Lance the confidence to do this.

Manager Lainey didn’t know how to explain this matter. Even if he told Bridge that Lance had established a firm foothold in this city in just half a year, he believed Bridge wouldn’t listen.

Because from Bridge’s perspective, even if Lance had done some incredible things, he was not on the same level.

“Forget it, have the legal team prepare to sue him. We can also talk to the mayor…” Bridge quickly shifted his focus to the next client and no longer paid attention to Lance.

When the elevator doors slowly opened with a “ding,” Lance noticed several menacing-looking security guards standing outside the elevator, along with the manager who had previously escorted him to the elevator.

They looked at each other for a moment, two or three seconds. Lance stepped out of the elevator car. “So many people to welcome me?” he asked.

That young manager immediately put on a smile. He thought Lance had reached an agreement with the company and continued to flatter, “Of course, you are our most respected guest!”

Lance gave him a sideways glance with a half-smile, “Best be!”

This sentence made the manager’s smile freeze for a moment. He didn’t quite understand what Lance meant. Did they reach an agreement, or not?

He didn’t know, but it seemed this gentleman didn’t intend to argue or make trouble, so he would continue to treat it as if a deal had been made.

“Of course, I respect you from the bottom of my heart, sir.”

Lance didn’t waste any more words with him and strode towards the door.

The driver, who was smoking by the parking lot next to the company, immediately threw his cigarette butt on the ground after seeing Lance come out of the company building, got in the car, and drove over.

“Back to the firm.”

After he returned to the firm in the Empire District, he had someone summon the representatives of the Empire Merchants Association.

They had been living quite comfortably recently because they also knew that the price of grapes was skyrocketing. Everyone’s face showed a kind of heartfelt happiness.

The thing these people most liked to do every day was to wake up early in the morning, buy a copy of the latest “Market News,” then turn to the agricultural trade section and look for the “grape” tag.

They would compare it with yesterday’s price to calculate how much money they had made today!

This speed of making money… was really too satisfying. And Lance wasn’t greedy either, only taking a small portion of their profits. Waking up every day to find oneself richer, this kind of life was fascinating!

They liked, even adored Lance.

When most of the people had arrived, Lance had someone close the door.

“Today, someone from the Liji Group notified me to come and discuss our contract…”

One sentence, and everyone’s attention was focused. This concerned their profits; it was only natural that they would be nervous.

“Without a doubt, our investment was correct. They believe the price of grapes will rise to at least three hundred or more.”

“In other words, our contracts are now worth at least two and a half million.”

Everyone in the room sucked in a cold breath. Although they knew that not all of this money was theirs, about sixty percent belonged to Lance.

But even with forty percent left, that was still a million!

Their total investment was only three hundred seventy or eighty thousand, and now it was a million?

Smiles appeared on everyone’s faces, but some also showed looks of regret because they had invested too little!

But next, Lance’s words made their mood, which had already started considering buying a house or a car, plummet to the bottom.

“But they don’t plan to recognize the legality of this contract. They plan to re-sign a new contract with us and give us the grapes at a price of two hundred and seventy.”

Someone couldn’t hold it in, “Mr. Lance, we can’t agree to that, it’s not reasonable!”

Lance nodded, “Yes, it’s not reasonable, so I refused them.”

“But they will sue us, and you know, for lawsuits like this involving huge sums of money, we will have to face not only their legal team, but also the hungry-wolf-like lawyers we hire ourselves.”

This sentence made everyone fall silent. The lawyers of the Federation… all their lawyers would talk to you about professional ethics, but almost no lawyer would ever talk to you about the principles and bottom lines of being a human being, let alone social morals and ethics.

Because they simply don’t have any!

The more outstanding a lawyer is, the less human they are, because humanity will only lead them to make wrong choices and judgments.

In the Federation, people judge whether a lawyer is successful not by how many weak people they have fought for to get fairness and justice, but by how many capitalists and powerful people they have helped to kill fairness for.

This society is just that cruel and realistic, and far less beautiful than people imagine.

For a case like this involving two million, to find an excellent lawyer, the other party might ask for a basic lawyer’s fee of about thirty to fifty thousand, and an additional “commission” based on a percentage of the case value.

Some top lawyers might take a super high percentage of forty percent, but even a relatively ordinary lawyer would ask for more than fifteen percent.

Their reasoning is very sufficient—give me forty percent, and you can still have sixty percent.

But if you don’t give me this forty percent, you won’t even have one percent left!

Sparks appeared in the old man’s cloudy eyes, “If we find a better lawyer, we might have to take out four or five hundred thousand…”

This was if they won. If they couldn’t win, and it kept dragging on, the lawyer’s fees would continuously increase…

The others fell silent.

Someone asked, “Can we expose them to the media?”

Lance shook his head, “Although this is a way to get public opinion to help us, public opinion can’t change any actual results. We have to go to court, and we’ll be bitten either way.”

“Either by them, or by the lawyers.”

Two and a half million, thirty percent, seven hundred and fifty thousand, plus miscellaneous expenses, about eight hundred thousand plus.

Then subtract the cost of over eight hundred thousand, and there would only be a profit of seven or eight hundred thousand left (if they won the lawsuit, the Liji Group would fulfill the contract instead of paying the penalty).

This was assuming everything went smoothly.

But this case probably wouldn’t go smoothly.

After they had discussed for a while, the old man finally looked at Lance, “Let’s hear what President Lance has to say!”

Only then did the people quiet down.

Lance looked at the old man with a somewhat strange gaze. This old fellow did indeed have the quality that only an old person could display, which was rich experience.

Of course, in this kind of occasion, there was indeed a need for someone who was not on his side, who was experienced, and whose words could make people quiet down and listen.

Lance crossed his legs, “The Liji Group’s market value is calculated in the hundreds of millions. If they insist on dragging out the lawsuit with us, it will be difficult for us to gain any real benefits from this.”

“It’s possible that just a few of their phone calls could make it so we can’t find a good lawyer, or those lawyers will quote astonishing prices to make things difficult for us, to force us to retreat.”

“Now this matter has actually become two things.”

He raised one finger, “First, our money.”

Then he raised a second finger, “Second, our face.”

“For the former, I plan to solve our problem by mortgaging this contract to a bank, giving a portion of the profit to the bank.”

“I believe its final selling price will be above three hundred and fifty dollars a ton. We will sell this contract to them at a price of two hundred and seventy-five dollars per ton.”

“This way, we will have a profit of about one and a half times, around one and a half million.”

“The advantage of doing this is that we won’t have any trouble. They are no match for the banks.”

“Then, there’s the issue of face.”

“But for this part, we don’t need your help. This is our profession.”

Some people in the room laughed; they probably knew what Lance meant.

“So the purpose of me calling you all here today is to ask if you accept this result. You can get a profit of about five hundred to five hundred and fifty thousand from this. Each of your investments will double.”

“If any of you disagree, we can split the shares and let you handle it yourselves, or you can come up with a plan and entrust me to handle it for you. Either is fine.”

“I can guarantee that I will do my best.”

The room became lively again. Lance took out a cigarette.

He could have clearly made hundreds of thousands more in legal income, but now he was forced to make hundreds of thousands less. He would let the Liji Group know what the price of angering him was.

Before he had finished one cigarette, they finally made a decision, “Mr. Lance, we agree to your plan.”

“Actually, for you to be able to double our investment is already an incredible miracle!”

“We are not greedy!”

Lance looked at the old man who was speaking on their behalf, “I forgot to ask last time, how should I address you, sir?”

The old man was somewhat flattered, “My name is Roger Jeff, Mr. Lance. You can call me Old Ro, Roger, or Jeff.”

The smile on his face made him look several years older—the wrinkles were all piled up.

What a mess of names?

“Mr. Roger, you said something wrong!” Lance did not use such an intimate address, but used his full name.

“What?” the old man Roger was a bit baffled.

“That is, we must be greedy. Only more greed and desire can drive us to keep moving forward.”

“If you’re not greedy, you might as well go back to farming!”

The stunned look on Roger’s face and the sudden laughter of some young people seemed to split the time between the two groups, but in the end, everyone unified their thoughts, even if they were still a bit unclear.

Lance patted his trousers and stood up, “Since we have reached a consensus, I will go and handle this matter now. I will notify you if there are any further developments…”

For Lance to find a bank to take over this contract, he would certainly still find Jonathan. Parkway Bank, where Jonathan worked, was one of the largest banks in the Federation.

It might not directly confront a comprehensive agricultural group with a certain monopoly position like the Liji Group, but if it was just a contract, they would have no problem.

When Jonathan heard that Lance was visiting, he pushed aside other work to receive him.

There was already some information from the head office. They had given him two choices: go to a slightly more backward region to be a bank president, or continue to stay here and then take charge of all the loan business in Golden Port.

After a comprehensive evaluation by Parkway’s risk department, the “salary loan” was considered a very promising product. They were planning to launch a series of related businesses.

And the company’s think tank believed that society had a higher acceptance of this type of loan and repayment method.

Because in a way, it was equivalent to workers drawing their wages in advance!

Currently, they only planned to do at most three installments, with a cash-out ratio of 89.5 percent. That is to say, if a worker could get a total salary of one hundred dollars in three months.

Then they could get a loan of eighty-nine dollars and five cents from the bank at once, and then for the next three months, they would not be able to receive their salary from the company because the salary would be withheld by the bank.

What if they took the money and ran?

The bank would not do such high-risk business; they would only do low-risk or no-risk business.

In short, Jonathan had made a great contribution to Parkway Bank, and his status had now improved considerably.

“Lance, is there anything I can help you with?” At this moment, Jonathan saw everyone with a smile. In the banking system, every step up the ladder was a substantial change.

Lance was his benefactor; he knew this.

“Do you have any cooperation with the Liji Group?” Lance sat in the chair and adjusted to a comfortable sitting position. Although he did not state his purpose, it gave Jonathan some speculation.

These agricultural groups have always been like this. Want to make money from them?

Possible, but you are only allowed to make a little. If you want to eat the meat and let them drink the soup, that is basically absolutely impossible.

Jonathan picked up the phone, “I need to ask.”

Soon the call went through to the branch here in Golden Port. After the branch president chatted with him for a bit, Jonathan hung up the phone.

“We have business dealings, what’s wrong?”

Lance handed over the contract and also explained his purpose, “I am unwilling to compromise, so I thought of you.”

“This contract can bring at least seven to eight hundred thousand in profit for the bank, and I believe they won’t make things difficult for you.”

“In other words, it’s like you’re picking up eighty thousand for free.”

The look in Jonathan’s eyes changed. He had chosen to stay in Golden Port because it was easier to achieve results here.

Although he no longer needed to be responsible for a specific number now, if he could bring in a lucrative loan, it would still be a very impressive achievement.

He read the contract carefully and couldn’t help but ask, “So you estimate that the price of grapes will rise to three hundred and fifty dollars a ton in more than a month?”

He found it hard to believe, but Lance’s confidence made him have to believe it. “Wait for me to make two more calls.”

“Please, go ahead.”

A few minutes later, after Jonathan finally confirmed that there was no problem with the contract, he placed it on the desk. “The price of grapes is indeed rising fast, and it is indeed possible that it will exceed three hundred and fifty.”

“The bank president needs a guarantee. If its final price is lower than three hundred and fifty, you need to make up the difference for us.”

Lance directly extended his hand, “Deal.”

This money would be earned by the bank. He could have a better connection with the bank and have closer cooperation in the future.

And if he gave it to the Liji Group, they would only treat him as a soft persimmon.

Subsequently, a large sum of money was transferred into Lance’s account through the bank’s account, legal funds.

Seeing such a large sum of money come in, Lance felt comfortable all over.

As for the Liji Group?

They were in big trouble!

In the evening, just as Patricia came out of the Bureau of Commercial Services, she saw Lance standing on the sidewalk reading a newspaper. The smile on her face suddenly became lively. Amidst the heartbreak of some men, she took the initiative to run over.

“Hey!” She took a small jump as she was about to get close to Lance, then shouted loudly.

Passers-by on the road looked over, but soon showed a smile. Who could show a bad expression to a girl in love?

Lance acted as if he was scared, the newspaper in his hand even fell out. Just as Patricia was about to laugh at his cowardice, he hugged her.

She was a little shy, “A lot of people are watching us.”

Lance only put his arm around her and did not kiss her, which made her feel much better, but even so, her face turned red.

Amidst the catcalls of some female colleagues, she quickly got into Lance’s car. “Today is not the weekend.”

Lance nodded, “There’s something. Last time at Barbara’s (Patricia’s cousin’s) birthday, I remember you have a cousin who works at customs, right?”

***

Additional chapters: /caleredhair