The chips looked new and round, with at least twenty denominations on them, as well as some fifties and hundreds.
Whether this was actually considered money or not, Lance was not entirely sure.
He told Ethan to go into the room and keep an eye on Mr. White, and he himself went downstairs with the two chips, went to a phone booth, and dialed the number that Fords had left.
Soon, the voice of the little receptionist came over the receiver, "This is the Lucky Finance Company. How may I help you?"
The voice was very pleasant, but Lance could imagine that she must be minding other things at the moment, speaking these words in an unimaginable way, creating a contrast.
"It's me, Lance. I need to speak to Mr. Cody, or Mr. Fordsy."
The girl recognized Lance's voice, and her sweet tone changed instantly, "Fodis, there's a call for you!"
Soon the sound of heavy footsteps approached from afar, and then his voice came over the receiver.
"Are you in trouble?", he asked.
That was the only reason he could think of why Lance would call him, perhaps Mr. White wasn't home or was adamant about not paying.
He had not only met such novices, but had personally taken in two.
The same kind of guy who never intended to pay back the money from the start, borrowed eight hundred dollars from the company, and then shouted, "I'll pay you if the judge says I have to."
Those two young men didn't have any solutions, and they even asked him if he should just leave it to the legal department, if the company had one.
So he felt that Lance must have encountered the same problem.
But soon, he knew that he had guessed wrong.
"Mr. White is willing to pay, but he only wants to pay in chips, and I'm not sure if they're worth the money."
He described the appearance of the chips and the small line of text on the back, "It says that the chip comes from the Kodak family."
Lance almost laughed at this, because he thought of the advertising slogan—capturing the good times.
Fauldis gave him some advice after hearing this: "There's absolutely no problem. The Kodak family chip can be exchanged for cash at their counter without any proof."
He couldn't help but ask, "How did you get him to hand over the money?"
The company had already appointed someone to collect the debt, and the result was obvious, they had not succeeded.
If they had succeeded, it would not have been up to Lance to contribute.
Of course, the attitude and approach of the first collection would not be so strong, and Lance was the second.
"I reasoned with him. Mr. White is a reasonable man, so he was willing to settle the debt."
"Do I need to write him a receipt or something?"
"Or give him the contract?"
"There's no need for that at all, Lance. Just bring back the chips and the contract. Someone else at the company will do the rest. You've done your job, so don't take someone else's job."
"I'll tell the boss about this good news. You're very efficient, and you may surprise us all!"
After hanging up the phone, Lance returned upstairs and counted out the 3,500 chips from the kraft paper bag in front of Mr. White.
"This is what you owe the company, and I'll take it."
"The rest of these are all yours. I only took what I was owed. At the same time, I hate people who spread rumors. You should understand what I'm saying."
He looked at Mr. White, who was sitting on the sofa. After a short burst of anger, Mr. White had completely lost his nerve. He nodded with averted eyes, "Yes, I understand, I won't say anything."
"Very good!" Lance handed Ethan the kraft paper bag containing 3,500 chips. "Then I'm sorry to have taken up some of your time. Have a nice day, Mr. White."
It didn't look like Mr. White was happy at all, and the next day was not destined to be happy either.
The three left the apartment and drove to the company.
On the way, Alvin asked about everything that had happened upstairs. Buddy A and Buddy B were so excited that Ethan could not stop talking –
"…I just stared at them, and they quickly retracted their necks, just like turtles withdrawing their heads into their shells!"
"I thought someone would call the police or stand up to us, but nothing happened!"
Lance, who was driving, continued Ethan's thoughts, "This shows that the Federation is not as powerful as we think."
"When you are weak and face their harassment and temptation to give in, they will push you back step by step."
"But when you show that you can hurt them and are not afraid of their threats to you, they are not much stronger than the weak people we perceive them to be!"
"So you have absolutely nothing to fear from the Federation. They are just like us, just like the cowards we know. You are strong, they are weak!"
"If you find that your opponent won't back down, it's not because they're not afraid, it's because you're not vicious enough, that's all!"
These words were heard by the four young men, and to them they were words of wisdom, and words of wisdom that had been proven.
The car soon pulled up outside the company, and Lance led the four men inside and told them to go and sit in the lounge.
But looking at the tough guys in the lounge, they finally decided to stand in the corridor.
In the office, Lance placed the brown paper bag on Alberto's desk and he took it out and counted it briefly.
He takes his work seriously and is very clear-cut.
He can give Lance a hundred dollars, but Lance can't just give him 3,400 dollars, that's not the rules!
"3,450, 3,500 dollars, just right!" The last 50 dollar chip fell from his hand onto the stack.
He looked at Lance and nodded slightly, "The Mr. White I know is not a reasonable person. Can you tell me how you convinced him?"
Lance sat across from him, looking relaxed. "I started by talking to him about the Gold Harbor Yacht Club. He's also interested in baseball, so I talked to him about cooking."
"We both found the same hobby, so it was easier to communicate. I asked him, 'Where's the money?', and he told me, 'In the flowerpot. That's it.
Alberto couldn't stop smiling. "I can imagine that from now on, the last person he wants to see is you!"
He paused, then took three 50-dollar chips from the pile and pushed them over to him. "You deserve it."
Alberto knew full well that Mr. White had money in his hands, because he had his own salesman at the Kodak family's casino.
People who came to the company to negotiate loans would repeatedly start over on issues such as interest rates and repayment methods, as well as how the company could recoup losses if the money was not repaid.
They will fight for every advantage for themselves and will never make any impossible compromises.
But in the casino, those gamblers who have lost their minds don't care what price they will pay in the future for the 500 dollars he took from you!
They only care whether they can get enough chips to sit back at the table before the next game starts!
The news that Mr. White had won a large sum in the casino was learned by the salesman. He won a total of more than 4,000 yuan, which is equivalent to about 100 months of income for an average worker. Many people in the casino were talking about it.
When the company sent someone to settle the debt for the first time, they found that Mr. White did not have the ability to settle the debt, so it has been delayed until now.
Alberto firmly believed that as long as there were sufficient means, the money that did not belong to him could definitely be taken back from him.
He just didn't expect things to go so smoothly, and the money was recovered in just half a day.
"I'm looking forward to your next job, Lance," he said, pausing for a moment, 'We give everyone else a 5% reward, that's the rule, and you should get that too."
"But this job may not be as good as Mr. White's."
Alberto talked about the second 'order".
"Mr. Anderson runs a restaurant in the Bay Area. Last year, he had some financial problems, so he approached me."
"But now he refuses to admit that he signed any contract, refuses to pay interest or return the principal, and is suing us."
"If we show up around him and hurt him, he will sue us, and the lawyer says we have a high chance of losing the case."
"So this order is different from Mr. White's. You can't be so violent, understand what I mean?
"You can't hurt him, you can't even threaten him. Do something."
"If you can handle this order, I'll pay you double."
"No matter how much you get back from him, I'll give you ten percent!" To express his strong emotions, Alberto held out both hands and gestured.