Their identities remained a mystery, seemingly hiding so unknown secret behind their backs.
If there was still ti after finding the Hall of Oblivion, he wouldn’t mind relaxing and having so fun with the siblings.
As the cruise ship rapidly approached, it decelerated and entered the port.
At the port, Fradie’s guide boarded the ship to collect the docking fee.
Everything went smoothly without a hitch. The guide seed to be quite familiar with the cruise ship, quickly completing the handover with the crew, and eventually, the ship docked.
After exchanging contact information with Haini and her brother, Li Chengyi and his companion disembarked and went ashore.
There were only three hotels on the island, and they checked into the best one—the Red Dolphin Hotel.
anwhile, as the cruise ship docked,
At a certain spot in the island’s port, soone on a small boat that had docked earlier was looking over through a glass window.
"Is that the target ship?" a deep male voice asked from behind.
"No, it’s the Kajadela Ship, an old regular here. Cos here for vacation every year," the watcher replied.
"Fine, call when the target arrives."
"Okay."
The two resud their calm.
As a forward outpost for the Utopia Organization positioned here, they had arrived three hours in advance just to wait for the cruise ship that Li Chengyi and his partner were on.
But what they could never have imagined was that Li Chengyi and his partner would unexpectedly change ships and board the Kajadela Ship, which frequently visited the island.
*
*
*
After passing through the port,
Li Chengyi and his partner checked into the hotel, settled in, and imdiately headed down the mountain from their hilltop hotel to the center of the island—to Naxi Town—to look for their target person.
According to the information found at the Chaoyu Library, a person nad Tomira from Naxi Town possessed information about the Hall of Oblivion—the strange ssage was recorded on a note written by her.
Without pausing for a breath, Li Chengyi made his way through a small patch of woods and finally arrived at this pristine town, untouched like a hidden paradise.
The entire town was painted white, shining brightly under the afternoon sun, giving it an exceptionally clean appearance.
But up close, it was evident that many houses were peeling and flaking, the rooms empty, and the wooden doorknobs and fences were all covered in mold and sprouts.
So windows and doors were completely engulfed by climbing green vines, clearly uninhabited for a long ti.
The sea breeze was blocked by the forest surrounding the island, and there was even a brook here that fed into a freshwater lake, the town’s sole water source.
With their burly physiques, Li Chengyi and Chen Jiahan walked down the town’s streets, stepping on the cobblestone-paved surfaces, drawing quite a bit of attention.
The townspeople weren’t very tall, mostly around 1.6 ters, with 1.7 ters considered above average.
And they were all quite thin and frail, mostly elderly, and seed to lack vitality.
Soon, the duo made their way around the whole town, thoroughly scouting the area.
"How does it look?" Li Chengyi found a small restaurant to sit down at a red cloth-covered round table in the open air, basking in the sun, and turned to look at Chen Jiahan, who also sat down.
"This place... is a bit odd. It’s understandable to have mostly elderly because the young might yearn for modern life and go out to work, but the pervasive sense of lifelessness here feels sohow wrong," said Chen Jiahan.
"They speak Fradian here, put on the translator, take a look around, and see if there’s anything troubleso or dangerous," Li Chengyi instructed.
"Yes," Chen Jiahansaid, nodding and standing up, "Is it okay to kill?"
"Try not to. If you must take action, make it clean," Li Chengyi wasn’t the kind to fuss over thods; he valued efficiency above all.
"Understood," Chen Jiahan glanced at the old man who had just stepped out of the restaurant, the one who had served them drinks, and then quickly left.
Li Chengyi drank a bit and tried so of the local specialty oyster pizza but found it hard to swallow, so he simply engaged the wrinkled-faced owner in idle chatter.
"Tomira? You must an that crazy old Tomira," the boss recalled the person Li Chengyi was asking about instantly.
"She’s been dead for many years now. Back then, she liked to write little notes that seed like prophecies, but when people tried to verify them, they found all the words on those notes were made up, and no one paid attention to her anymore," the restaurant owner explained briefly.
"Do you know where her family lives now?"
"What do you want with her family? She had a daughter and a son; the son died the year before last, went mad or sothing, jumped into the sea, and not even a shadow was found. The daughter, Elsa, is just as mad, living in the old house and hardly ever cos out,"
the owner sighed.
"This ntal illness, probably inherited in the family, it’s tragic when you think about it."
"Can you give directions? Sir," Li Chengyi casually placed a hundred dollar bill on the table without showing any emotion.
"What do you want with her? Take your money back, I don’t want your money, just don’t harm the girl," the owner frowned, not even glancing at the bill.
"Here’s the thing, I’m a freelance writer, and hearing about those prophecies, I thought I’d co and do an interview with the person involved for a feature article,"
Li Chengyi lied without batting an eyelid, sounding sincere and natural.
"Fine, their family doesn’t have anything worth coveting anyway. Elsa’s house is straight down this street towards the center; near the town square, there is a two-story wooden house, that’s her place,"
"Just don’t think of doing anything bad, everyone knows each other in this town," he warned in the end.
"Don’t worry, we just want to have a chat with Elsa," Li Chengyi didn’t expect to get the information so easily; he imdiately paid and took his leave.
Through the short-range encrypted communicator, he sent a ssage to Chen Jiahan, then headed straight for Elsa’s house.
Before long, he passed down the street and arrived at the town square.
Under the watchful eyes of the sparse old people taking strolls, he reached the old house adorned with a wooden plaque bearing Elsa Su’s na.
Peering through the wooden fence, he carefully examined the small building.
The building was made of two stories of yellow timber, with half of its external wall covered in green vegetation, and a neglected garden overgrown with all sorts of plants at the bottom.
In the garden, only a cobblestone path connected the front door to the entrance of the fence.
Ding ding.
Li Chengyi rang the bell on the fence gate.
"Is anyone there?" he called out, using the translator to amplify his voice.
Soon, from inside the small house, the door opened, and a young woman in a long black and green dress ca out.
Her face was pale; her eyes dark green, her hair disheveled and unkempt, her lips chapped and cracked, showing clear signs of vitamin deficiency.
"Who are you looking for?" the woman asked as she slowly approached.
Her voice was very hoarse, as if she had not drunk water in a long ti.
"Excuse , does Ms. Tomira live here?" Li Chengyi asked.
"Yes, that was my mother," the woman replied, "But she has been dead for many years."
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