The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 156: The Room That Would Not Pay
“I need some suggestions!”
Standing at the president’s podium, the mayor rubbed his temples. “There are more and more jobless people in our city now, public order is getting worse and worse, and I hear serious crimes have already appeared in the surrounding cities. If we cannot solve this situation, the city we spent decades building will return to a primitive age.”
Everyone knew destruction could not bring prosperity. Only construction could. But the present situation had already forced some people toward the side they had never wanted to choose.
If they could eat and dress without committing crimes, and still have some money in hand, the overwhelming majority of people in this world were still willing to be good people.
But the mayor’s words also made some people frown, because not long ago they had only just donated a sum of money. Now the mayor had gathered them together again to discuss how to save the city. It gave people the feeling that he wanted to get more money out of their pockets.
That feeling was very bad. No one liked being extorted, even if the person extorting them was the undisputed one who called the shots in this city.
There was no other sound in the silent room. The mayor looked at these people with eyes full of expectation, hoping they could think of some way to solve this problem. But clearly, his hope was a little too optimistic.
No one spoke. Everyone maintained a gentlemanly sitting posture and looked at the mayor on the president’s podium. They were like some kind of decorative piece used to make up the numbers, placed here for display.
The expectation on the mayor’s face gradually faded. His gaze swept across their faces. At most, people avoided meeting his eyes, but he could not get the answer he wanted.
This was destined to be a failed meeting. In fact, this matter could already have been foreseen on Wednesday. When William took out one hundred thousand dollars and forced many people to take out even more money, they had felt as if they had been robbed.
Afterward, whether they investigated or not, some people might ultimately reach the conclusion that William had not been arranged by the mayor, but they had still been robbed.
If this had been several years ago, thirty or fifty thousand dollars was something they could take out anywhere, anytime. Back then, everyone still had plenty of money in hand.
Now everyone’s days were not easy. Taking out thirty or fifty thousand dollars was actually rather difficult, and everyone felt a certain pain from it.
The purpose behind the mayor gathering everyone again now was something the people in this room understood very clearly. They knew what the mayor wanted, but they were unwilling to compromise again. At least this time, they would not compromise.
Endless compromise would only make the mayor blindly and wrongly estimate his own influence. In reality, people did not rely on him that much, and now they already had a “model.”
On Monday, Ristowan Group’s ticker price began plunging without end. Many people treated it as an interesting piece of news. Sometimes, having such a dominant corporate group in a city was not a good thing for other small firms.
Because the upward channels were basically semi-isolated. City Hall would give a large number of policies first to this dominant local pillar, rather than to those developing small-time operators so they could grow.
Only when this group fell would most firms obtain some new opportunities and some new policy favor. So they had been watching the joke, watching Ristowan Group’s ticker price go all the way down. Some people had even sold off the Ristowan stock in their hands, with the purpose of giving it a shove at the edge of the cliff.
This was also one reason people had been willing to take out money on Wednesday. People had seen how frightening City Hall was. It had only made an external statement, and Ristowan Group’s stock began to plunge. It was said that even the announcements issued by Neo and the boardroom could not change that fact.
Secondly, after Ristowan fell, it would benefit the businessmen in this city. They could acquire Ristowan Group’s industries at low prices, which was equivalent to making a great deal of money. So even if they had to grit their teeth, they still had to take out money to support the mayor’s measures.
But the current situation was somewhat different again. Neo had stated publicly that he intended to end Ristowan’s operations in Sabine City and move headquarters to a neighboring state, into Federation Conservative Party territory.
The capital mayor of that neighboring state had also stated on Friday night that they would do their utmost to introduce outside forces to help their city get through this crisis. They also promised society that if Ristowan Group could reach an agreement and settle in their city, then Ristowan Group would provide no fewer than three thousand jobs for their city.
And that was only the early stage. By next year or the year after, the jobs they provided would exceed five thousand. This immediately made the citizens of the entire city cheer.
In truth, under the background of this great era, people’s demands were very simple: not starving to death, and having a job. Especially a job.
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