The Mafia Empire

Just as Julian said, they were all businessm, not philanthropists.

"What should we do?" Hu\'s wife leaned against him, holding their daughter. The ormous interest had pushed the woman to the brink of collapse. If they couldn\'t gather ough money by the d of the month, she would choose to commit suicide to protect her dignity. Of course, she would take their daughter with her, suring her child wouldn\'t have to suffer in this world any longer.

Ev Hu had made a resolution to die before Julian arrived.

But hope had unexpectedly appeared, bringing a sudd change to the desperate family that was prepared to gamble their lives. One thousand eight hundred dollars was only four hundred dollars short of the two thousand two hundred they owed. Four hundred dollars was indeed a lot, but it didn\'t mean there was no way out.

The daughter looked at her sorrowful parts and suddly asked, "Why can\'t we sell it twice?"

Before Hu could react to what she said, his wife quickly crouched down and tightly grasped their daughter\'s shoulders, asking, "Did you just say we could sell it twice? Am I hearing you right? Selling it twice?"

The daughter nodded and recounted the evts that had happed at her school in rect days.

In her rural school, there was a classmate who came from a dect family and loved to read comics. This classmate oft sold the comics he had read at depreciated prices to other studts and would use the money to buy new comics.

A couple of days ago, this classmate was called away by a teacher, and later everyone learned that he had promised to sell a comic to Studt A but lost the money for the comic on his way home.

The classmate who suffered the loss was unwilling to lose both the money and the comic, so he secretly sold the comic to Studt B instead...

Hu and his wife exchanged glances, falling into a long silce...

...

"Did you reach an agreemt?" Seeing Julian walk out, Graf immediately stood up straight from where he was leaning against the doorpost. He pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and handed it to Julian, lighting it for him.

Julian took a puff, shook his head, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. With confidce, he said, "Not yet, but they will agree!"

It was not surprising for him to have such a conjecture. Through simple descriptions from Hu, Julian had already formed a preliminary understanding of the kind hearted person named Morris. He was a guy who wouldn\'t ld money without demanding high interest; in other words, the loan sharks in this society had not yet sunk to the point of being irredeemable.

Morris was a gang member who also employed some thugs.

Their task was to provide sufficit funds for the gang\'s developmt. Of course, it was possible that this business belonged to Morris himself. But regardless of the details, Hu absolutely dared not default on the money he owed. Otherwise, wh Morris previously took his cattle, he would have stood up and confronted him.

He feared Morris to the extt that ev if his own interests were infringed upon, he did not dare to complain. People like him might say some harsh words or have some resolute thoughts under ormous pressure, but that was merely their wishful thinking. If we were to describe such people in dream like terms, they would be deemed cowardly.

Julian did not dare to claim that he was their only savior. Eighte hundred dollars was indeed still short of two thousand two hundred. However, this gap offered them sufficit hope. Was four hundred dollars a lot? If they worked honestly, it might take two years to gather that amount, and all three of them would need reasonably good jobs.

But if they were not honest in their earnings and took a few shortcuts, it was certainly possible to gather that four hundred dollars in a short time.

Hu now faced such a choice: either sell the ranch to Julian and find a way to make up the four hundred dollars, or cling to the ranch and die with his family, after which Julian would buy the ranch back from Morris at a relatively low price. Why inquire about whom Hu owed money to? Wasn\'t it just to sure that after this family perished, he could find a new owner for the ranch to buy it?

Moreover, Julian believed that ev if he offered sixte hundred dollars, Morris would not refuse, because Morris was a loan shark, not some foundation, and did not gage in risk averse investmts. What he needed was money cash immediately usable for trading!

Before long, the door of the house oped from the inside, and Hu stepped out, looking haggard. He gazed at Julian with a complicated expression and sighed, "You win, sir. Eighte hundred dollars. I\'ll sell it to you. Wh can we get the money?"

Julian took the cigarette from his mouth, threw it to the g, crushed it with his foot, and extded his hand, saying, "Pleasure doing business. Tomorrow, bring the proof to the city. Once the paperwork is completed, you can get your money. For now, I won\'t disturb your rest. Farewell!"

Julian nodded and left with a smile. A premium of three hundred dollars exchanged for a time advantage was quite a profitable deal. As for how Hu and his family would gather the remaining four hundred dollars after selling the house tomorrow, that was no longer a concern for Julian.

Upon returning to the city, three suppliers informed him through a messger that their first batch of t thousand bottles of wine would be shipped here in a week, and they hoped he would be ready to receive the goods.