The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 137: Words Across the Wire
The after-party ended in this heavy commercial atmosphere. After the governor’s aide-de-camp finished saying those “well-intentioned” words, he and the mayor left first. It was said they needed to adjust Sabine City’s development direction for the next stage.
But that was normal enough. Although this was an exchange after-party organized by Federation Progressive Party figures, most of the attendees were capitalists and businessmen.
Having a small number of politicians appear here was not a good choice. It would give the public a very frightening negative impression, making them think the politicians they had elected were colluding with capitalists, though the two had never really been separate in the first place.
During the second half of the after-party, the commercial atmosphere became even heavier. Many people chatted briefly with William and exchanged contact information. They were now businessmen in the same camp. If there was a need, they could also provide one another with small help within their abilities.
Human society was built on favors, and favors were built on society. If you did not help others, why should others help you?
That was also why some people would fight until their heads split just to squeeze into one small circle after another. In many cases, a circle and success could be written with an equals sign between them.
The influence created by this after-party went far beyond the guesses of those who attended it. Or rather, as participants inside the game, they had no idea what changes were taking place outside.
Less than ten minutes after the governor’s aide-de-camp spoke those words about “unity,” the boardroom of the Ristowan Group initiated a conference call.
Almost every director with time available joined the conference call. Naturally, that included President Neo, who had been suddenly called back.
This was not excessive nervousness. Sometimes, people like the mayor and governor could not easily make their attitudes clear. They maintained room for possible concessions through vague and implicit methods, but they also could not appear too weak. What could they do in such circumstances?
That was when the aide-de-camps beside them, their aides, could play their role. This time, the words of the governor’s advisor had clearly already been interpreted, and that was not good news for the Ristowan Group.
As a listed company, they understood very well that there was a close connection between the attitude of local government and ticker price, one that was hard to grasp but unquestionably existed.
If they could not resolve these issues before the market opened on Monday, Ristowan’s stock price was very likely to slide all the way down.
Just as the mayor had imagined from the beginning, when facing a corporate group like Ristowan, if you spoke to them of morality, ethics, social responsibility, and rules, they would only pretend they knew nothing. What they pursued would always be more profit.
As long as the profit was attractive enough, violating morality and ethics, or trampling the law, would not, in their eyes, become an obstacle to pursuing interests.
Only when they felt pain, when their wealth began to shrink, could they start considering speaking like human beings.
“Who is currently in charge of the Policy Office?”
The conference call had just begun, and President Neo had not yet had time to preside over the meeting in his magnetic, well-known voice, when the sudden voice made everyone pause. It was the voice of the Ristowan Group’s boardroom president, an old man named Alban Ristowan. The company, in fact, had been founded by his grandfather.
Only after all these years, this company, which originally could only be considered a small family firm, had gradually evolved under old Alban and his father’s management into a large corporate group.
Of course, strictly speaking, the company no longer belonged to them. But their wealth had increased countless times over compared to when they had fully controlled the company.
The old man usually did not involve himself much in affairs. Now, the first thing he asked about was the Policy Office, and that immediately made people realize he was reducing pressure on President Neo and giving him an exit. The current president of the corporate group, Neo, was old Alban’s son-in-law.
Every large company had an office dedicated to policy research. The name of the department might differ somewhat, but their purpose was the same.
They searched government-issued policies for measures beneficial to the company’s development, or policies that might pose danger, then created opportunities for themselves, or pushed the state legislature to review whether a given act had any value in continuing to exist.
This was also one of the obvious differences between small firms and large companies. Many small firms had never realized how much actively searching policy could help a company’s development.
For example, in this state there was an incentive policy: if a plant or firm founded a vocational skills training school and trained a certain number of students, it could receive a certain amount of tax reduction and financial subsidy from the government.
Many people did not know such a policy existed. Some knew about it and still felt it had nothing to do with them. But large companies like Ristowan were different. Every one of their plants set aside a room to train workers in technical skills, and the method of training was simply to let them work normally while someone guided them during the work.
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