"Are you sure that they own a yacht and that they always docked on the cargo area?" A scar-face and bald-headed man said as he fiddled with a knife in his hand.
"Yes, Scarface, I'm telling the truth." The man in front of him answered with a hint of fear in his voice.
If Roland was here, he would surely recognize the man as the person who instigated the major face-slapping incident yesterday. It was the man who was holding a digital camera to take a picture of the yacht.
Scarface on the other hand was the mastermind behind the illegal dealings in Brine City. He was one of the biggest of them all and he was also an ex-convict that had been recently released from prison after a few years of imprisonment from another G-Grade City.
While inside, Scarface has already managed to expand his business that was able to rival even the old lords in Brine City.
Scarface and his gang mostly specialize in theft, trafficking, and some minor dealings in illegal drugs.
Marlon, the one holding the digital camera yesterday was actually one of his henchmen. His task was to pretend as a photographer to scout for valuable objects around the dock site to be their target. Most of the time, Marlon would only report to the accomplice snatchers around, but knowing that Roland and the others were some big fishes, he decided to escape from the crowd immediately to report everything to Scarface.
Unfortunately, meeting Scarface was not that easy and it was only now that he was authorized to meet him.
"And are you saying that one of them was wearing an expensive watch while the other was full of golden accessories and that you don't know them at all?" Scarface asked.
The man opposite him, Marlon nodded his head, "Yes. Only one of them is familiar, it's that Denis guy."
"Denis? So, he found himself a big fish, huh!" Scarface said with a scoff.
He had actually extended an invitation from Denis before only to be rejected. He stated that it was better to live as a poor fisherman than to be a rich shady person whose life was in constant danger.
Marlon nodded his head, agreeing to Scarface's statement.
"You said earlier that the yacht had returned and was now docking in the cargo area, right?"
Marlon nodded his head. He actually went to the area again for a brief moment yesterday and he indeed saw the yacht being docked in the same place.
"Very well. Since you're the one who reported this to us, I will reward you with a 10% share of what we're going to harvest," Scarface patted Marlon's shoulder with a grin on his face.
It has been awhile since the Scarface gang had any huge movements in Brine City, it looks like it's time for his boys to exercise again.
However, Scarface and his gang would be bound to get disappointed this time. It was because Roland and Stacey have already planned to just return in a week's time.
…
At this time, the Divine Destiny has already traveled more than half-way through their destination.
Ahead of them, Roland could already see the vague silhouette of Tear Island.
Even from afar, Roland could already tell how big it was.
Exactly one hour and thirty minutes later, the Divine Destiny arrived at the Tear Island.
Tear Island was a private island previously owned by Brine City's local government.
It was abandoned and since no one was willing to develop the place because of some special circumstances, it was left alone for a lot of years until Roland, or more precisely, the System decided to buy it.
The local government of Brine City knew that the island had no future in terms of becoming a tourist spot so they were more than willing to sell it to an unknown person.
Of course, Roland has no idea of this at this moment.
As it was visited many times by the government before, there was actually a docking site at one corner of the island.
As they were also here to sight see, they decided to circle around the island first.
After an hour of tour around the island, Roland and Stacey finally decided to dock on the poorly made jetty.
Roland assisted Stacey as they hopped down the Divine Destiny yacht.
Even from afar, Roland and Stacey were already able to see the white sand on the shore.
Stepping on it upfront, they could not help but marvel at the fact at how fine these white sands were.
Normally, areas which had these kinds of sands would be developed into a resort.
Earlier, Roland and Stacey were able to spot a lot of areas around Tear Island which had the same kind of white sands.
Roland wondered why this island remained undeveloped and almost unknown even until now.
Hand in hand, Stacey and Roland roamed at the edge of the sea and the white sand.
Roland talked about his plan about developing the island into some sort of resort in the future. Stacey agreed with his idea and even presented more ideas that he had neglected.
Stacey was truly a business minded person. While Roland was still planning on a resort island, she had already planned to set-up a ferry business that could bring the tourists to the island.
As they were roaming around the fine white sand, Stacey suddenly began to tear up. She looked at Roland and asked, "Is it just me or there's something spicy in the air?"
Roland frowned and looked at her. The next moment, a tear finally rolled down her eyes uncontrollably.
"Are you okay? What happened?" Roland asked as he wiped the tears that rolled down her cheeks, worried about her well-being.
"Yes, it's just that I feel like there's something spicy in the air that's making me tear up. It's as if there's an invisible spicy smoke that keeps on getting in my eyes. Why? You don't feel this way?" She asked.
Roland shook his head, indicating that he was not affected by it.
Roland looked around to search for the possible cause of the problem to no avail.
In the end, he decided to return to the yacht with Stacey first.
Inside the yacht, Stacey was now lying in bed, tears were still constantly rolling down her eyes.
Roland has a piece of wet handkerchief on his hands as he tries to wipe it gently on Stacey's eyes. He learned of this technique from the orphanage when he was young, and it was very effective in easing teary eyes.
"Stay here for now, okay? I'll go back there and investigate what had caused this issue," Roland said as he gave Stacey a gentle kiss before returning to the island.
This matter was mind boggling for him and Stacey. Roland suspected that something from the island had caused this matter and the reason why he was not affected was due to his strong bodily functions.
Roland thought for a moment and realized that this might be the real reason why this island was not left abandoned by the government.
Along the way, Roland turned the data on his phone and searched for some information about this island.
This time, he did not search for the name and basic information of the island but went to the legends about it, trying to search for some clue.
The reception on the island was not strong, it took Roland a few minutes before he found a 'reliable' website.
According to the author of the website, the Brine City local government actually planned to develop the Tear Island thirty years ago. However, for some unknown reason, the personnel that were sent by the government would always begin tearing up a few minutes after setting foot on the island.
After some investigation, they learned that it was actually caused by a plant that was very abundant in Tear Island.
The plant was then named Tear Grass due to its strange properties of being able to make a person cry even if one resorts to covering their eyes with protective mask and so on.
According to the author, there was even a thesis published about this plant after its discovery thirty years ago.
Aside from its magical properties that could make a person shed tears, they also discover that the whole Tear Island was actually infested by such plants, and that no matter how they try to cull it, the Tear Grass would just pop out and sprout new leaves the next day, making their attempt fruitless.
In the end, due to its special circumstances, the government abandoned the idea of developing the whole island and decided to sell it since the whole island basically doesn't have any use to them.
This even caught the attention of the country's president and after investing some time, since no one managed to have a solution to the problem, they also agreed to the idea of just abandoning it.
The author of the website even joked that the Tear Island should just be renamed the 'Abandoned Island' now after the incident.
The author then introduced himself as one of the Botanists who shed tears during those fateful times of discoveries.
Of course, there was no telling if the man was truly speaking the truth. In any case, now that Roland already had some starting point for the investigation, he decided to set foot on the island again.
Equipped with this knowledge gained from the said 'legend', Roland searched and quickly found the Tear Grass that the man was talking about.
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Daily Chapter!
Only 1 chapter for now guys as I'm still getting accustomed to my new keyboard which I don't quite like because it's keys are very hard to type in. Will go to city in the next few days and search for a better one.