old dream

Chapter 3 Annex
Sometimes violence is a necessary commodity.

Not violence that is purely used to injure or defend.They are also important, but not enough to create a balanced and long-lasting relationship.

Everywhere, someone needs to provide a scary picture to ensure that trust and contracts can be established.Nao Chiti, the goddess of justice and order, often appears blinded by a black cloth.She holds a sword in one hand and a scale in the other.But without that sword, it's all meaningless.

Many people or organizations make a living by selling this violence, even though many times the sword doesn't actually fall.But as long as they can offer a bravado, maybe that's enough.

And in Southstadt, where the alliance is temporarily difficult to intervene, the most important commodity of the five hands is this kind of violence.

Just like in barren Cynthia.

……

The gravel road has come to an end, leading to a rather imposing annex, which is one of the properties of fruit magnate Benjamin Judit.

Colin and Ricardo got out of the car.Colin made a habit of lowering the brim of his hat, then thought it was a foolish thing to do in the dark.

The two have not yet adapted to the atmosphere here, they look like country bumpkins who have just entered the city.

Ben Yamin's female secretary was waiting in front of the ebony door. She had professional wavy short hair, and she could see some displeasure on her face.Anyone who has to deal with business at nine o'clock at night will not be in a good mood.

Entering the annex, electric lights are lit throughout the porch and lobby.It does not use tungsten filament as the wick, so it is not much brighter than gas lamps.From Colin's point of view, it was even a bit shabby, but Ricardo seemed to find it extremely fresh.

The power grid in Stade has not yet been built, so most of the owners of the annex have installed the generators themselves.

The two were placed and waited outside Ben Yamin's study.There was incense everywhere, Otto rugs on the floor where you could sink your toes, Colin stroking the velvet on the seat, where everything that touched the skin seemed to be wrapped in soft fabric.

The door of the study was not opened for a long time, and the secretary sent some newspapers of the day.While waiting, Colin flipped through them casually.

On the front page was the news that the liquor truck robbery had been solved and that tons of whiskey had been recovered and destroyed.In an inconspicuous corner, there is a headline that several gang members were killed.

But it wasn't until Colin turned the papers for the third time that Ben Yamin's voice came out of the study.

"Let those two children in."

"Boys," thought Colin, he could see us, and he called us "Boys."

……

Benjamin sits in his nightgown behind his antique-like desk with an open book and a half-drunk drink.

He deliberately kept people waiting and made no secret of it as an obvious provocation.

A man in a shirt and suspenders stood behind Benyamin with his hands behind his back, but Colin only looked at him for a moment as he entered.

After that, he never looked at him again.

Colin took his seat and Ricardo stood beside him.Benyamin looked a little puzzled by the situation, like a professional chess player seeing his opponent's amateur move and somehow trying to figure out his intentions.

"So, you're that Luca?" Benjamin asked.

"Just the people who represent him."

Benyamin nodded and pushed the tray with the brandy bottles and glasses towards Colin:
"If you want, drink a little less."

Colin poured a glass for himself and Ricardo, but did not drink, but watched the light diffuse through the clear wine.

"You and Mr. Luca Cestalo should have met. At Capello's funeral, he greeted everyone," Colin said.

"Really, unfortunately I have no impression."

"You will still deal with each other in the future." Ke Lin said, "In the future, he will handle some affairs of the Fruit and Vegetable Industry Monopoly Guild."

Ben Yamin narrowed his eyes and sipped the wine in small sips.

"To be honest, I don't think he is suitable for that position, no disrespect."

"why?"

"We like to deal with people we know. But nobody here knows him, and he doesn't know us."

"Then who do you think is suitable?"

Benyamin smiled, ignoring the trap in Colin's words.

"I just moved to the annex for vacation. What kind of wind brought the two of you here?"

"Mr. Luca, he thought, turning you into a signal." Colin said abruptly.

"What do you mean?"

Colin stared at him, making him stop drinking unconsciously.

"We were just sent here to understand the business... For example, why did you adjust the price?"

"Ah." Benyamin said easily: "So many wineries have been seized, and the goods will rot in the warehouse. It is impossible to change."

"You didn't communicate with the guild, you violated the agreement."

"You still don't understand the way we do things. It's one thing on paper, but it's another. A businessman can't be that rigid," he said, and his tone began to grow impatient, as if someone was forcing him to ask The monkey explains the meaning of the poem.

"I heard that the bug-human slave workers in the upper Norton Valley have died a lot, and this year's harvest is not so good."

“It has nothing to do with those things.” Benyamin denied it decisively, but it felt like he was stung by something, he said:

"Why don't you spend a few days to understand the industry and our habits? In reality, things are always complicated and will never be as simple as it seems to outsiders."

"We would like to know." Colin said, "I can listen to you now, and I will listen slowly."

"You don't understand me, child."

"No, I understand."

Colin bowed in the seat, took out some bullets from his pocket and put them on the table, then the gun, like a servant setting tableware before a banquet.

The man behind Benyamin immediately took out a gun and pointed it at Colin, and in the next instant, Ricardo also took out a gun and pointed at the man.

"It's fine, it's fine." Benyamin spread his hands: "You always talk about things like this? What is the etiquette for greeting? Everyone put down your guns, business is just business."

Benyamin believes that the key to any negotiation and negotiation is to leave a bottom line.If you want to talk, you must leave room for mediation.So although he is afraid of guns, he firmly believes that the guns on the negotiating table are only a deterrent to increase the bargaining chip. If the trigger is really pulled, it will make it meaningless.

"I visited the guild chairman yesterday."

"Yes, yes." Benyamin was sweating from behind.

"Your house is very nice. It must have taken a lot of thought with all the furnishings... Is that your child, the one in the frame?"

Benyamin seemed to be shocked by Colin's next work, and he should have gotten rid of the illusion that he was in control of everything.

"Okay... What did Luca send you for? Money?"

"It's time for you to pack your things. Unfortunately, you don't have much time. Most of them can only be left here."

"……What's the meaning?"

"Nevio Capello has been tortured by gout all these years and can't do anything. You are from the hinterland of the alliance, so you probably don't know the Cynthili people's style of doing things."

Colin shook open the revolver's bullet nest, and while filling the bullets in it, he said slowly: "Now take the child and pick your most important things, you can't have too many... The horse will not be able to stand it. Follow the road to the northwest. Leave, take the train leaving the principality at Nadal before tomorrow morning, maybe it will be too late."

Colin glanced back at the study door: "Or do you want to bring that secretary?"

"You want me to give up everything in this city?" Benyamin felt inexplicable: "What's in it for Luca?"

"On the books, there's no benefit."

"Let me stay here to run my own business, so that Luca can get more shares. I admit that I violated the agreement, and you won. Or does he want shares? Take it if you want, I have already surrendered, What will you get if you drive me away?"

"Don't you want to take your children away, maybe you all can still live."

Colin asked sadly, and he glanced down at his watch again.

"Are you going to talk about things? Don't put the trick of intimidating gamblers on me. Do you know how to set the conditions?"

"Okay, so you see this gun?"

Ben Yamin sneered: "So don't come here, do you know who I associate with? As long as..."

"It rang and you were dead."

……

Ricardo screamed in horror at the gunshots.

Benyamin collapsed on the desk, blood spreading between the pages.

Although the sword was drawn just now, didn't it mean that I was just learning about the business tonight, and the other side died like this?

Colin moved so fast that the man in the shirt and suspenders didn't even have time to react, and it was over.

In fact, except for Colin, no one in this elegant mansion expected that a gun would actually be fired tonight.Only then did the man in the shirt come to his senses and hurriedly prepared to pull the trigger.

"Your employer is dead." Blood flowed under the glass, staining the clear glass red.Colin drank one of them.

He still didn't look at the bodyguard, and said casually:

"Are you sure you want to shoot the five-handed man?"

(End of this chapter)