Shadow Empire

Chapter 587 Engagement
There are more and more refugees in the city, all of whom have fled to the Federation during the war. They are distributed in different regions, and even in Golden State there are many refugees.

The arrival of refugees is a heavy blow to small cities with little development potential.

In order to solve some problems, the President recognized the legality of refugees' work, which means that hiring refugees does not require them to have work permits or prove that they are legal immigrants. It is enough for them to tell the people who hire them that they are refugees.

This has also turned many illegal immigrants into refugees at this moment. No one knows where the federal government will move next.

Maybe... they will agree to allow refugees who don't want to return home to become federal citizens?

A large amount of cheap labor has impacted the entire federal labor market, and any city with refugees has become visibly depressed.

There are more and more people wearing shabby clothes on the streets, fewer and fewer consumers in roadside shops, and the whole country seems to be caught in a strange "disease".

As the newspaper with the largest circulation in Likalai Province, "Chao Bao" did not print the naked girls in its content in early July. Instead, it used a serious headline such as "The Black Death is Devouring the Life of the Federation".

Of course, “Black Death” is in double quotation marks.

Where the two big names should have appeared on the front page, there was a photo of the city viewed from a high altitude, with an obvious black spot eroding the city.

The second page shows more detailed photos of these black spots. They are black spots that form a group of individuals.

As the camera continues to move forward, one can eventually see that those people are refugees.

The Tide compared the refugees to the Black Death that was eroding the life of the Commonwealth, and some thought their metaphor was very vivid because the influx of these large numbers of refugees made everything worse.

Work, life, everything!
But some moralists believe that this is a very immoral act and they are using such bad metaphors to vilify and discredit the refugee group.

But it is undeniable that they succeeded.

People dislike these refugees even more, just like they disliked illegal immigrants before, or even more than they hated illegal immigrants.

At least illegal immigrants do not have the right to work, and if they want to survive, they still need to rely on federal personnel to some extent.

They go to work with federal work cards, and a considerable portion of their earnings are shared with federal employees.

But refugees are different. They have the right to work, which means that for every refugee who finds a job, a federal employee loses his job.

The federation is deteriorating and people’s lives are no longer guaranteed!

There are too many refugees coming, and the federal government is negotiating with another group, so they cannot expel all of them.

Adult refugees will try to survive by doing hard labor or selling their bodies, but not everyone can find a way to make a living.

So they would let some children go to federal cities to find opportunities to survive and eat.

They often appear near trash cans, and have become the biggest enemies of homeless people.

Especially those teenagers, who appear in groups in the city, many people are worried that they will cause public security problems.

On the street, Lance's motorcade stopped next to the Cathedral of Saint-Neuer in full view of the people. Many refugee children rushed over, stretching out their dirty hands and looking at the people coming out of the car.

After living here for a while, they finally faced reality and knew who could go a little too far to beg and who could only watch from afar.

Lance glanced at Erwin, who pulled a handful of coins out of the car and threw them at the kids.

The children all bent over and happily picked up the coins on the ground. At the same time, he noticed that there was one child who did not bend over. He stood out among the group of children who were bending over or even kneeling to pick up coins.

He looked at Lance, and Lance looked at him. After they stared at each other for a few seconds, Lance turned his head away.

Lance tilted his head and whispered something to Hiram. Hiram nodded and glanced at the young man. Then Lance turned around and walked into the newly renovated St. Naye Cathedral with a smile on his face.

Of course, we did not enter the building, but entered the outer perimeter of the cathedral, where there was a circle of iron fence that completely separated the inside and outside of the church.

Lance paid a lot of money for the renovation and expansion of the church. It has always been a fine tradition of mankind to listen to whoever pays. It has been expanded about three or four times than in the past, with more open space and more magnificent buildings, and it looks full of sacred glory!

There are already quite a few people on the lawn. Today is Lance's engagement ceremony. Anyone who has no conflicts with Jingang City will basically be here.

As soon as I entered the door, I saw the priest chatting with Roger. The situation of the Imperial Chamber of Commerce is getting better and better, and the batch of grain they have stockpiled still has a lot of room for appreciation.

Especially with so many refugees pouring in and the federal government not coming up with any specific and effective management measures, the demand for food has increased.

As a free market behavior, the price of food will naturally increase.

As long as the grain remains in the warehouse, its price will continue to increase.

Roger, who was originally just an ordinary small businessman, is now a well-known figure in the Imperial District.

The moment they saw Lance come in, they stopped their conversation and walked towards Lance.

The priest saluted without hesitation, not caring at all that the statue of God hanging on his chest was shaking.

He may have been a devout believer before, but after meeting Lance, he became a believer in the first president!
"The new church is beautiful, and there will be a successful ceremony today," Lance praised him.

The priest smiled slightly and said, "It is my honor that you chose the Cathedral of Saint-Neuer!"

Lance looked at Roger with a smile, and Roger said a few appropriate words of congratulations, then walked to his side.

The priest wanted to follow, but in the end he didn't, after all, he didn't belong to their circle.

"Someone recently contacted me wanting that batch of food and that batch of medicine."

Lance took out a cigarette, and Roger immediately took out his lighter, covered the flame with one hand and let Lance light the cigarette before nodding, "The price they offered is very suitable."

However, Lance did not agree. He had always known some inside information. "Tell them that we are hoarding these supplies for our own use."

"For my own use..." Roger looked surprised and confused, as if he had encountered something unbelievable.

Lance smiled and said, "It's just an excuse to fool them. Now is the time when the value of those materials cannot be fully appreciated. Don't sell them too cheaply."

"We can rely on these things to make a lot of money this time!"

He patted Roger's arm and moved on to the next person...

Many people came to attend Lance's engagement ceremony and were proud to be able to attend.

As the time got closer, William's car finally arrived at the scene. When he got out of the car holding Patricia's hand, everyone exclaimed at Patricia's beauty!
Led by the priest, Lance arrived at the engagement ceremony, and the guests took their seats.

After William brought Patricia here, she came to Lance.

"Thank you all for coming here today to witness my and Patricia's engagement ceremony. Please don't leave after the ceremony. Lunch has been prepared."

He paused and said, "Patricia and I met in the summer three years ago, at the end of the summer. That day I went to the Business Services Bureau to register a company, and the girl who greeted me happened to be my beloved."

"When I first saw him, I knew where the harbor that would anchor my life was."

"Patricia is a..."

Lance talked about his understanding of Patricia, how he met her, fell in love with her, and the process of getting to this point.

Patricia would sometimes remind him of something, and the whole process was very gentle and the atmosphere was very relaxed.

There were a lot of people attending the engagement ceremony. Before, everyone was standing scattered around and probably didn’t know exactly who came.

But as everyone sat down, people's attention began to be attracted to the people in the front rows.

The more you watch, the more shocking it becomes!
Sitting in the first row on the left are James and Arthur.

One is the eldest son who will definitely inherit all the power of the Williams family, and the other is the youngest son that Senator Williams likes the most. The fact that the two of them appeared at the same time means that they value Lance more than just ordinary things.

Next to them are some other municipal councilors or their representatives, and then some corporate capitalists.

From the perspective of some people who don’t know much about the whole thing, it is indeed incredible that so many high-ranking and powerful people came to Lance’s wedding.

No matter how well he does, he is just a gang leader. How could he get so many people to attend his engagement ceremony?
As for the right side, they are relatively ordinary, all of them are people with status and identity in the Lance family.

They were all sitting there in very decent formal attire today, and even Hiram didn't keep shaking his hair or picking his nose in public.

In this environment, mainly under the influence of these people, everyone attached great importance to the engagement ceremony.

As Lance and Patricia's "speech" came to an end, the priest, after some questions with standard answers, confirmed that their engagement was recognized and blessed by God!

Amid the blessings of their relatives and friends, they exchanged rings, engagement rings, not wedding rings, and revealed the wedding date, which is around the end of this year.

Originally, the priest had arranged for a choir to come and sing, but Lance rejected it. There was no need for that!
When he and Patricia exchanged rings and then kissed Patricia, people stood up and started applauding.

This is a very important matter, both for the Lans family and for local interest groups led by Congressman Williams.

Lance got engaged to a girl from the Lawrence family and set a wedding date, which meant that he had completely taken root in Golden Harbor City.

In the past, they might have thought that Lance was not a true local, and would have considered whether he would leave, or whether he felt a sense of belonging here, and whether he could find recognition among them.

Now, there is no need to worry about these issues because Lance is a pure local.

When he and Patricia have children, they will feel more at ease and be bound together into a more solid interest group.

For the Lance family, Lance's engagement ceremony represents that he has been accepted by local interest groups in this city, and their control over the city will become smoother.

So most people were applauding seriously and were happy for the combination of the two from the bottom of their hearts!
After the engagement ceremony, there was a lunch on the lawn behind the church. It was in the form of a buffet, but with hot dishes.

The chefs hired by Lance from Anderson's Restaurant brought out their best dishes one by one, filling the church with laughter.

If God could really see here and look at the people on the lawn, he would definitely be very pleased!
At least at this moment, these people are happy and blessed under his glory.

A young man calmly watched the "upper class" on the lawn eating delicious food with smiles on their faces. They were wearing high-end clothes and expensive jewelry, and each of them exuded a noble temperament like those people in storybooks.

And he, a refugee, a refugee who is like a beggar, he and these people here are not from the same world at all.

He didn't understand why the most dazzling gentleman wanted to see him, but his instinct told him that this was an opportunity to change his destiny.

After socializing with the crowd for quite some time, Lance walked over when the banquet was over and began to disperse.

He was full and had enough to drink. He sat on a chair and lit a cigarette. "Where are you from?"

"Risa."

A place name that Lance had never heard of. Perhaps seeing Lance's confusion about the name, he explained, "It's the province of Sladravla."

Lance nodded slightly. He actually only knew Slade, but didn't know where Lavra was, let alone where Lisa was.

"I heard that you have already reached the border of Dantra, right?"

"Why did you flee here?"

The young man was silent for two seconds. "I don't know what to say. The people of Dantra fought back quickly. They said that the war has spread back to the country."

"And...", as if he had thought of something horrible, a trace of fear remained on his face, "They said that the Dantra people launched a bloody revenge on the occupied areas, and many civilians were killed."

"We were afraid they would attack our city, so many people fled there."

In fact, they were massacring the civilians of Slade, only in this way could they not have the courage to organize and resist.

Similarly, the Slads have also killed many civilians of Dantra. War is war. When the gunshots of war start, there is no justice or evil. It is just to advance political or military goals.

It's just that the guy in front of Lance has a better relationship with the federal government and Slade, so when he appears here and talks about some terrible things in his hometown, it makes people sympathize with him.

The refugees from Dantra went to a place further east, and perhaps someone there would ask them about it, and they would tell them about everything the Slads had done in their homeland!
No one likes war, but sometimes, some problems can only be solved by war.

Lance nodded slightly and looked him up and down. "There was a lot of money on the ground at the door just now. Why didn't you pick it up? Is it because there was too little money?"

The young man shook his head, "No."

Although the coins thrown out were only two-cent, five-cent, and a small amount of ten-cent coins, the purchasing power of these coins is not weak now!
If I can pick up three or five cents, at least I won’t go hungry for the whole day!

But he didn't pick it up, he just stood there, which made Lance feel a little curious.

"Will they give you the money?" he asked. This was his guess, maybe those younger children were his "subordinates".

Any coins they picked up would be given to him.

The young man shook his head again, "No, I'm just here to watch and make sure they don't get bullied."

"You know, sir, sometimes people do things to us for no reason."

Indeed, anti-refugee sentiment is growing.

His repeated denials made Lance very curious, and he didn't plan to continue guessing, "Then what made you not pick up the money on the ground?"

The young man was a little nervous. "My father told me to always keep my spine straight."

Lance was a little surprised to hear this, but then smiled, "Where is he?"

The young man was silent for a while, "He died on the front line."

The smile on Lance's face gradually faded. He thought that the man who made him stand up straight had "escaped" with them.

But what was unexpected was that the man died on the front line.

"You have brothers and sisters?"

The young man nodded, and Lance probably understood a little.

He had a liking for the young man and asked, "Would you like to work for me?"

The boy's expression was confused at first, but then he became shocked, and finally he opened his mouth in disbelief, and even his speech became intermittent.

"Sir, are you telling the truth?"

“Can I work for you?”

Lance nodded. "There is something about you that I find interesting. How far you can go depends entirely on your future choices, but at this moment, I think I can give you a chance."

"The food on the table over there has not been removed yet. You can ask them for a brown paper bag and put some food in it to bring back to your family."

"Come to this place... tomorrow morning, and I'll find you something to do."

Lance handed him a business card, "Can you read?"

"Of course, sir, of course!" He wiped his hands behind his back excitedly, and then carefully took Lance's business card with both hands, with a blush on his face, "How much food can I take?"

Lance glanced at the empty table and said, "As long as you can take it away!"

(End of this chapter)