Shadow Empire

Chapter 1242 Cheese and Mice
Because we are the only victims.

In a single sentence, the core of the matter is explained.

In the past, those things were easy to succeed because the "victims" were the construction workers themselves. So when the unions stood up, even if they didn't distribute fried chicken or food stamps, a large number of workers would still follow them and become their strongest support and strength!

But this time is different. This time, the "victims" are only the construction workers' union, and it is difficult for the workers to fully "empathize" with them.

The labor union is having a hard time now, what does that have to do with the workers?
All they need to do is register there, and they'll get stable jobs for the next few years.

There might have been some people willing to bet on them, but this gang attack has made even the last few henchmen hesitate and start leaving.

They were just ordinary workers; they weren't united enough, and they certainly didn't have the power to destroy the world!
On one hand, there's a good job; on the other, there's a union with no future and risks. The choice is pretty obvious.

The vice president was at a loss for words.

After a long while, he sighed, "That's it then."

"I'll contact Lance White first to see if there's any possibility of continuing the discussion."

At this moment, Lance was receiving several wealthy businessmen from the state.

Their unexpected visit made Lance seem to sense something unsettling about them. After they introduced themselves and sat down, the middle-aged man who seemed to be in charge of the group started to get down to business after praising the coffee Lance had provided.

“Mr. White, I heard that you have a very unpleasant falling out with the construction workers’ union.”

This was a very dry statement, and Lance did not deny it. "These news items have been published in the newspapers, so they shouldn't be false."

His slightly teasing reply made the middle-aged man chuckle twice, but the laughter wasn't the kind that agreed with Lance's teasing; rather, it carried a deeply hidden, malicious chuckle that he didn't want anyone to notice.

“I’ve read the newspaper. Some things were published there, but some things weren’t.”

Lance looked at him. "For example?"

“For example…”, the leader pursed his lips. His lips were very thin, and when he pursed them, they became even thinner, almost invisible.

His cheekbones were somewhat prominent, and his hairline was a little high, which made him look rather mean.

"For example, some suppliers have also joined in the attack on you?"

The sarcastic man spread his hands out and then put them back together. "I'm sorry, my wording might not be very accurate, but that's how it is from my perspective."

“Steel, concrete, cement, some suppliers are delaying because they are being threatened by unions.”

“You’re in trouble, Mr. White.”

Lance looked at this mean-spirited man, his eyes showing no emotional fluctuation. "I've heard a story like this."

The harsh man hadn't expected that Lance would not only deviate from his expected course of action, but would instead start telling him some stories.

Did he come here to hear those stories?
Do not!
He's here to try and force Lance to make some concessions!

But now that Lance wants to tell a story, can he refuse?
He forced a smile. "Oh?"

"what story?"

"Perhaps I can gain some insight from this?"

"Mr. White, would you mind sharing this with me?"

He didn't really want to say it, but that's how social interaction, especially social interaction with a specific purpose, is. You have to gather all the elements, and he needed to know what Lance was trying to express.

Lance smiled more and took a sip of his coffee. "An ant colony living in the park has never had any contact with humans. In their world, they are the masters of this world."

"Until one day, they saw someone passing by their nest in the distance."

"At this moment, an ant that was responsible for observation saw a person walking upright in the distance and began to worry that humans would one day come into contact with them."

"You know, any living being has an instinctive fear of the unknown."

The sarcastic man nodded. "Yes, uneasy."

"The queen of the ants knew about this, and she summoned the smartest ants in the anthill to discuss it."

"They discussed it for a long time and finally made a wise decision—"

Lance drew out his words, looking at the sarcastic man with a half-smile, "They need to build a strong wall around the ant nest to defend against possible human invasion."

"They believed that the city walls could stop humans from moving forward!"

"So they mobilized all the ants, and after several days, they finally built a wall that they considered indestructible."

“The cleverest ants inspected the wall built around their nest, and they went back to tell the queen that it was a ‘miraculous victory.’”

"A few days later, a few children were playing and passed by. They didn't even notice the ants under their feet. They trampled down the city walls and destroyed the ant nest."

The sarcastic gentleman raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. "An interesting story," he said dryly. As a capitalist who had come to negotiate with Lance, his mind was clearly not that of a useless piece of trash filled with alcohol, tobacco, and sex.

He immediately understood the metaphor in the short story.

It's described as a metaphor, but it's almost a direct accusation. The ants represent the construction workers' union, while the clever ants likely represent the mean-spirited man and his associates.

Lance is a human, a strong, middle-aged male; the two are not on the same level at all, not even in the same league.

He was telling the mean man in this way that dealing with the union didn't even require him to do anything.

He pondered for a moment, "Mr. White, unions aren't ants..."

Lance tilted his head slightly, interrupting him, "Whether it's an ant or not isn't something you say, nor is it something I say; it's something that has been proven by facts."

"Leaving aside these annoying guys, well... you haven't told us the purpose of your trip yet."

What else can I say?
After a moment of silence, the sarcastic man changed his approach, saying, "We are very interested in the new city plan. South Yaan State hasn't had such a large investment project for a long time."

“As locals, we are willing to contribute to the development of our hometown. I am not only speaking for myself, but also for some others, and I would like to ask this question.”

"Mr. White, will the new town plan accept our additional investment?"

Lance didn't refuse. He sat back and spread his hands. "Why not?"

The sarcastic man tentatively asked, "So... how many shares are you planning to give up, and how much money do we need to contribute?"

Lance shook his head and said, "You've got one thing wrong. The New City project isn't a company. You give me money, I give you shares, and then we wait for the year-end dividends."

"This is a business ecosystem. You can find things in this ecosystem that you think can bring profits to yourself or your friends, and then join in."

"For example, opening a pastry shop in an amusement park, or setting up a cold drink truck selling iced lemonade next to a roller coaster."

“You can also build your own theme park next to mine. I don’t object to that. Although it will create competition with my theme park, competition means we can provide better services for tourists, thereby attracting more tourists.”

“This is the kind of ‘investment’ I’m talking about, not the kind you’re thinking of.”

The sarcastic gentleman was a little confused by Lance's words; they were quite different from what he had imagined.

After about ten seconds, he asked, "I mean, what if."

"If I wanted to invest in one of your theme parks or similar companies, how much money would we need to invest, and how many shares would you be willing to give up?"

Lance rubbed his temples. "I can give up 15% of the shares, but you need to pay me one billion Federal Sols." "What?" The stern-faced man stared at Lance in shock, as if he hadn't heard him clearly. He glanced at the people who had come with him, then looked at Lance again. "You mean, the entire project is valued at one billion, and you can give up 15%, which is one and a half billion, is that right?"

Lance repeated, "No, what I mean is, I can give up 15 percent of the shares, but you need to pay me one billion before I will transfer them to you!"

The harsh man's face turned quite red; he felt he had been fooled, even humiliated!

"Mr. White, I heard that your total investment in this project is only two hundred million?!"

"Now you're valuing it at seven or eight billion, isn't that a bit... excessive?"

Lance looked at him with amusement, scrutinizing him from head to toe. The scrutinizing gaze made the mean man feel somewhat uncomfortable.

However, he didn't say anything, but just stared at Lance, wanting to know how Lance would answer him.

“You seem like a truly successful man. You should understand that the cost of an investment should be divided into two parts.”

"The first part is the actual investment budget, which is visible to everyone, just like you know I'm going to invest 200 million federal soles in this project."

"There is another unseen part, which is the idea behind the investment, the process of finalizing the entire investment plan, and the personal connections invested in the early stages."

“I believe you. Your state’s businessmen have considered opening up other avenues, such as casinos.”

"But did you succeed?"

"No, you didn't succeed. It's just a casino business license. Could you get it without a billion?"

"There are a whole series of other things that I don't want to go into detail about, as that would make me seem like I'm showing off my abilities, but they are indeed here."

"Whether you admit it or not, these unseen investment costs are far greater than what you can see."

"This price is based on the fact that you were the first to inquire. I'll give you a more favorable investment plan. If someone else were to come, they would have to come up with at least 100 million for just one percent of the shares."

Policy itself is a cost, and Lance doesn't believe they're unaware of that. It's just a negotiation tactic—ignoring the other party's strengths and advantages; otherwise, how can they negotiate a lower price?
Actually, there is a casino where, let alone one percent of the shares being worth 100 million, even if it were 200 million or 300 million, the investment would not result in a loss.

It's just that the payback period will be longer, but according to Lance's budget, the new city can bring in at least 300 to 500 million in profit every year. At 15%, that's at least 40 million in dividends.

It might not even take 30, 20, or even 15 years to break even, just 12 years, with a stable return of 6 or 7 percent or higher. It's practically a cash farm.

Moreover, they hold these shares, which they can convert into cash at any time.

This is a very suitable investment, and the bank has been frequently contacting him recently, wanting to inquire about the availability of some investment quota.

For banks, projects with such excellent prospects are their favorites.

The sarcastic man remained silent for a while before shaking his head and saying, "This is not quite the same as what we considered before. We need to go back and think about it."

"If we could..."

Before he could finish speaking, Lance raised his hand, interrupting him, "Those are just ants. Soon you will see a rainstorm destroy everything they have!"

He paused for a moment, then said, "It was a pleasure chatting with you. Go back and discuss it with your friends. Once our project officially starts, this incredibly favorable price will no longer be available."

The sarcastic man nodded and stood up. "I'll have a good talk with them. Thank you for telling me this. See you later."

Lance stood up and shook his hand. "See you later."

After leaving the temporary headquarters of Wanli Group, while sitting in the car, Mr. Ke's assistant asked softly, "Do you think this price is reasonable?"

The stern-faced man remained expressionless. “From a long-term perspective, this price is clearly not outrageous, but we are not here to do charity.”

With just one sentence, he silenced his assistant: if they weren't here to do charity, they were here to plunder.

The sarcastic gentleman remained silent throughout the journey. Once he returned to the capital, he immediately summoned everyone in his circle.

"How did the talks go?" The older president of the conglomerate walked in, leaning on a cane.

Although he needs a cane to walk, he doesn't need one when he plays golf.

It's called a cane, but it's more like a gentleman's walking stick or a walking stick. It's an ornament, not a tool to help you walk.

He placed his walking stick beside the chair; the golden lion's head, worn smooth and shiny from long use, shone with a faint glow from the lion's ruby ​​eyes.

He sat down, a smile on his face, seemingly very confident about Mr. Scathing's trip.

Seeing that most of the people had arrived, the sarcastic man shook his head. "The situation is not good. Lance is very arrogant. He uses ants to describe the union and its members, including us."

"In his eyes, these troublemakers were nothing more than a group of ants trying to build walls to resist humans, and they couldn't even stop him from kicking them."

The conglomerate's president nodded and said, "He is indeed a very arrogant person."

When the major unions started making trouble, it wouldn't be easy for these conglomerates to deal with them, but Lance didn't take them seriously at all.

The others laughed too. They weren't worried about the arrogant person, because arrogant people always make mistakes because of their arrogance.

Their biggest concern right now is whether Lance is willing to accept investment, and how much they can offer.

"Let's talk about something we care about," the president said, waving his hand.

The stern-faced man's expression darkened slightly. "He can offer 15 percent of the shares; those are the money-making projects he controls."

Theme parks and casinos.

The president nodded and said, "Fifteen percent is a bit low. We can continue to talk to him. He can be the largest shareholder, holding thirty-five percent of the shares. That way, we can't threaten him and can ensure his own interests."

"If it's only 15%, who's going to get that much?"

The others nodded in agreement, but the mean-spirited man, seeing that they seemed to be considering how to divide the shares, couldn't help but interrupt their conversation, "But what he means is to use one billion in cash to exchange for fifteen percent of the shares."

With just one sentence, the entire room instantly fell silent, and everyone stared at the harsh man with disbelief.

This is one billion, not ten million or any other number.

The president of a subsidiary of a conglomerate couldn't help but ask, "Do you know how much that billion you just mentioned is?"

The sarcastic gentleman seemed to sense Lance's feelings when he discussed this matter with him, and felt a subtle sense of satisfaction.

“This is what I told you, of course I know, these are also Lance’s exact words, and this is a discounted price.”

“I said his investment was indeed only 200 million, of course this may be the initial investment, but the things he invested in places that are not visible, such as connections and smoothing things over, are worth more than 10 billion.”

"And once his project starts full-scale construction, the preferential price will disappear, and one percent of the shares could be worth one hundred million, two hundred million, or even more!"

Even the CEO couldn't help but gasp. "This is the most greedy kid I've ever seen!"

"Ten billion!"

He felt dizzy just thinking about all those numbers, but at the same time, he felt even more greedy!

Because he discovered that the harsh man had not made any mistakes in context or content when relaying Lance's words!

Yes, this project, including the casino, theme park, tourism eco-economy, and all the scattered asset management, is indeed worth 10 billion, or even more!
When this large slice of cake was placed in front of everyone, everyone unconsciously swallowed hard...

(End of this chapter)