Shadow Empire - Chapter 954: Gambling Table, Betting and the Boy

If the bet is won, then everything will be fine, just like the war that is breaking out now. Except for the Federation continent and the Empire which have not been affected yet, 80% of the countries on the Tanfit continent, as well as some surrounding areas and island countries are gradually being affected by the war.

This is the largest scale of countries involved in a war in human history!Some scholars and experts from the Federation believe that as the war progresses, it is very likely that several countries on the Empire side will also be affected.

Because the "stakes" are so high.

The situation is so serious that neither side can admit defeat.

Even if they admit defeat, they will only apologize in name only, or they may not apologize at all, but just say in a tough manner that this is it.

But as they invest more and more, the present, the past, and even the future, the moment they put everything on the table, they are destined not to stop expanding until this gambling game squeezes their last penny.

Now more and more countries are beginning to be implicated, and they are also standing at the gambling table and starting to place their bets. So what's next?If the Dantra Republic is in danger of being defeated, will they ask the Empire for help?This is very possible!

It is nothing more than signing a series of treaty clauses, and now a small number of people believe that the Federation has set a good example for the Dantra Republic.

They can even sign all kinds of excessive clauses, just to protect their own capital.

As for the manpower, resources and development potential of the country consumed in the process of station formation?That is not a problem at all, but an internal contradiction that is consumed.

For the ruling class, the initial purpose of the outbreak of war was to resolve these contradictions, excess population, dissatisfaction of the lower classes with the benefits they obtained, and various problems.

The Federation is also wary of this, and is wary of further expanding the scale and intensity of the war. After all, if this war continues to develop, no one knows whether it will become the fuse for the destruction of the world.

The same is true for the current domestic war in Lapa. Diego decided to resolve the differences through civil war, which means that he took the initiative to sit at the gambling table.

It’s just that at this stage, the participation of others is not that high, unlike Diego.

Diego can no longer afford to lose. Once he loses this civil war, it will mean he will die and the La Villa family will become a thing of the past.

Apart from Diego himself, no one else could feel his strong helplessness at this moment.

The internal discussions did not produce any results, but the possibility of a real civil war breaking out continued to increase.

The ambassador of the Federation to Lapa issued a warning to the Federation people in Lapa, warning them to try not to leave the city limits and not to go to dangerous places alone or with the majority of Lapa people.

The atmosphere became more tense and hot, just like the weather at the moment.

You say it's good?The weather is really good now. There is not a single cloud in the azure sky, as pure as the purest sapphire. It is so clean that one will be deeply attracted by it at just one glance.

But if you say it is really good, that may not be the case.

The scorching sun was so intense that it almost killed people. Those workers who worked under the scorching sun still wore two layers of thick clothes. It was not because they were sick, but they were simply afraid of getting sunburned.

In Lapa, many things are taboos for ordinary people. They are things that absolutely cannot be done or happen, including getting sick.

There are many people who die from sunburn and subsequent infection.

Therefore, for workers working on construction sites, wearing two pieces of clothing is actually a form of protection for themselves.

The animals also hid in the shade listlessly, looking at the people who were still working despite being exposed to the sun.

A young Lapa boy dragged his tired steps back home from outside. It was already late in the evening, the temperature was gradually getting cooler, and he became a little more energetic.

The moment the two girls squatting at the door saw him coming back from outside, innocent smiles suddenly broke out on their dirty faces.

The two men rushed over, bringing a smile to the Lapa boy's face. Perhaps this was the reason why he was working so hard outside.

His father was a riverbed prospector, one of those people who jumps naked into dirty rivers in their underwear or no clothes at all in search of something valuable.

Such people also call themselves "gold diggers", but in fact what they are digging for is not gold, but just some garbage that is so ordinary that it cannot be more ordinary.

But it is this garbage that supports their family's life.

This piece of rusty scrap metal was sold for a lot of money, which greatly alleviated the tight family financial problems.

But they didn't know that his father's foot was pierced when he stepped on the scrap iron that was cut from somewhere.

He didn't care about it at the time. He simply cleaned it with not-so-clean well water and wrapped it with a small piece of cloth, which was considered as treating the wound.

After a few days, he started to have a fever, then convulsions, and soon the family watched in a daze as he died in his bed.

This also caused the Lapa boy, who originally planned to become a riverbed gold prospector like his father, to be forbidden by his mother to go into the river.

The family had already lost their labor force and could not afford to lose another one.

So for a long time he could only find odd jobs here and there to do, five dollars today, ten dollars tomorrow.

The money was not even enough to fill their stomachs.

Perhaps it was the hugs and laughter of his family that washed away some of the dust on his soul from the exhausting work. He picked up his two sisters and walked towards the tent where they lived.

His mother was preparing dinner, a dish he himself didn't know what to call it.

Use some edible leaves and roots of plants. The fiber in these things is difficult to digest, and you will not feel hungry easily after eating them.

Then add the barley flour produced by the barley flour tree, add a little oil, rub it vigorously, and then continue to heat it.

To be honest, it doesn’t taste good. You need to drink lots of water after eating it, otherwise you will get constipated.

But it can provide some necessities for life and a sense of fullness. This is the food of the poor.

Unlike the rich people, they never consider the taste, color or aroma. They only consider whether they will be disturbed by hunger.

After simply eating the meatballs, he felt a little bloated. These things cannot be chewed because if you do, you will not be able to eat them. You can only dip them in a little oil, swallow them in one gulp, and then drink some water.

They will only eat after he, the laborer, is full.

Although it’s not delicious, dinner is still a rare warm moment for the family.

He pulled thirty dollars out of his pocket and handed it to his mother, which made his mother's eyes widen, "Where did you get so much money?"

As she asked, she spread out the money, straightened it out, and counted it twice before putting it away.

"If I don't eat the food they provide, I can get thirty dollars." "If I eat the food they provide, it will only be twenty dollars."

"I thought it would cost less than ten dollars for me to eat alone, so I came back to eat."

His mother seemed to have thought of something. "Is it a federal construction site?"

The young man nodded, "Yes, it's the federal construction site."

In short, demonizing and vilifying the Federals has become a political correctness. It is difficult for anyone to figure out where these rumors came from, but they are indeed widely circulated among the people.

Some people don't want civilians to have too close contact with the Federation, but this is just their wishful thinking.

As more factories begin to be built and production starts, the contacts between the Federals and the Lapas will only increase.

"Since I give you so much money, you must work hard!"

"They said they were planning to do something for the locals living in our area..." She paused, as if searching for a fragment of her memory.

It took her a few seconds to find what she was looking for, "Yes, the ID card."

"They said they would help us get identity cards and register our personal information, but everything was voluntary."

The young man also heard about this today. While he was working, he heard those official construction workers say that in the future, when the federal government recruits workers, it will give priority to recruiting local people with identity cards.

And after applying for an ID card, your income will increase by a few to dozens of yuan.

This depends on the income level of the applicant.

For example, a worker who only earns 500 yuan a month may see his salary increase from 500 yuan to 550 or 600 yuan after getting an ID card.

Only those skilled workers who can earn two or three thousand yuan may be able to increase their salary from two or three thousand yuan to three or four thousand yuan or even a few hundred more.

His mother frowned and thought for a while, "It seems to be by the river."

The sky gradually darkened, and with the chirping of insects and the sound of life in the slums, the atmosphere began to fill the air.

The young man sat at the door of his house, looking at his two younger sisters, listening to or occasionally joining in the gossip of the neighbors.

This is one of the few fun and leisure activities for the poor people of Lapa. Everyone sits together, or sits at the doorsteps of their homes, and talks about some of the things they encountered at work during the day.

The boy didn’t know what a direct drinking machine was. Later, after someone explained it to him, he realized that it was a machine that could produce clean water that could be drunk directly!

You should know that clean water in Lapa costs one dollar a bucket, and it is limited every day. If you go too late, it will be gone!Because there is a lot of garbage and something he doesn't know in the rivers and groundwater, you can't just drink it or you will get sick.

If you tell them the water is dirty, they may not listen to you.

But if you just tell them they'll get sick if they drink it, they'll behave themselves.

He really wanted to go to the wealthy area, but he knew he couldn't go there at the moment.

There are a lot of police patrolling the rich areas, and if you don't have clothes that look at least clean and tidy, they will drive you out with sticks in their hands and beat you.

Because the poor are not allowed to enter the rich's territory without permission.

Just like the Lapa Hotel, even though Lance was the invited party, civilians and the poor were not allowed to enter the hotel.

That’s another matter. After all, foreigners like it.

What could be more important than meeting the physical and emotional needs of these foreigners?Whenever talking about these things, young people are always full of anticipation and yearning.

Today they talked about some things again, and the topic turned to ID cards.

"This identity card cannot be processed casually!", a neighbor uncle suddenly expressed his opinion.

This uncle is about 47 or 48 years old, which is considered a relatively long-lived person in the slums.

The Federation had previously reported on some of the poor and backward areas in the Yalan region, and some federal people were worried about whether their health could be guaranteed.

In fact, they think too much, because most Lapa people will not live to the age when they worry about accidents.

A person in his forties is considered a 100% old man here. There is something convincing about the fact that he can live so long. People always subconsciously look up to those who live longer and hope that they can live longer too.

"Just like the farms in the rich areas, the rich people will mark the healthy and strong pigs, cattle and sheep, and when they want to eat them, they will choose from them."

"The purpose of them making identity cards for us is to kill us when necessary!"

He spoke as if it were true, and some of the middle-aged people were obviously skeptical.

The Lapa boy couldn't help laughing after hearing this. "Uncle, I've been working on the federal construction site recently. They don't drink blood or eat people."

"Beef, fish, whole-wheat sorghum and bread made of wheat flour."

Speaking of this, the attention of the people around him was immediately attracted to the boy, which made the old man a little embarrassed and annoyed, "What do you know!"

He didn't like his authority being challenged, but people's attention was not focused here at the moment. They began to ask the boy what those federal people looked like and how they usually behaved.

At this stage, the lower classes of society who can come into contact with the Federals are still a minority. On the one hand, investors and tourists from the Federation or other countries will not risk entering these slums.

Occasionally, there are some who are able to work in the city center or wealthy areas, but they will not risk contacting federal people. Who knows if this is something the masters don’t like?As the boy chatted, the uncle was soon attracted by the stories he told.

Happy times are always short. When it is around seven o'clock and approaching eight o'clock, the temperature has dropped to a level suitable for rest. People have returned home one after another and started preparing for tomorrow's work.

Of course, there are also some people who work on their beds. After all, this is one of the few low-cost entertainment activities.

But it also has a fatal flaw, which is that once a woman becomes pregnant, it will become a big trouble. Therefore, this indescribable smell can be found everywhere in the slums. They deal with it casually on the ground, walls, and even streets.

The young man also slept with his family, but what he was thinking about was whether he should ask tomorrow whether he should apply for an ID card.

He longed for a stable job that would improve the situation for him and his family, at least so that his two sisters could have clothes of their own and have a piece of meat to eat, even if it was a piece left over by the rich.

With these desires and longings for the outside world, he slowly fell into a dream.

(End of this chapter)