Rian came back to Cyril with food still in his mouth as he called out to him in a muffled voice.
"..." Cyril looked dumbfounded by his actions, "Do you have to do this? It is not like I am leaving you if you are late, right? You should eat slowly and come."
Rian shook his hand casually, "There is no need to care so much, Brother Cyril. When you said you had a few thoughts, I was already excited. How could I waste my time eating when you are waiting for me with those exciting plans?"
Cyril sighed, "Well, since you are already here, take a seat and drink some water first."
For some reason, Cyril felt like a mom caring for his son. At this thought, Cyril couldn't help but tremble and shake his head to ward off that stupid thought as far away as possible.
Rian did not know his thoughts as he asked him while drinking water, "Tell me, Brother Cyril. What is your plan?"
Cyril said just one word in reply and Rian spurted out all the water in his mouth before he started to cough from the choking.
Cyril leaned backwards, immediately avoiding his 'attack'.
Rian stopped coughing, drank some water to calm himself before looking at Cyril with his widened eyes, "Brother Cyril, are you serious?"
Cyril did not change his expression as he calmly nodded, "Yes."
Rian gulped in his saliva, "Brother Cyril. Is that even legal?"
Cyril deadpanned, "Didn't I tell you before? This place is now beyond legal or illegal. Even if we kill someone on this island, no one says anything. It's another matter that the dead man's teammates will come after us, but that is not the point right now, right?
"If even killing is not taken care of, who would care about our business? Are you in or not? You just have to tell me that. Everything else, I will take care of it."
Rian had a look of bewilderment on his face. For a few minutes, he did not know how to react. But when he recalled Cyril's words, he felt that what he said was right as well.
This place is beyond legal or illegal now. What is there to be scared of?
He nodded with determination, "In. In. I am in for whatever you tell me to, Brother Cyril. As I said before, I place my life in your hands."
Cyril gave a nod. He gave a file to Rian as he said, "Look through the details in this contract and sign. If you want any changes to the contract, you can talk to me. We can negotiate carefully. No need to hurry."
Rian wanted to say there was no need to think too much, and he would sign immediately, but Cyril looked at him seriously when he spoke the last sentence. It was clear that Cyril understood his thoughts and warned him to be more serious.
Rian swallowed back his words and nodded before taking the file obediently.
Cyril went back to looking at his other documents while Rian carefully read each and every line in the contract he was given.
He felt like a student who was about to be tested. If he missed something in this contract, he was almost sure that Cyril would throw him out of the den, even though he did not understand why Cyril was so serious about it.
The next couple of hours, both the men looked at their papers and when Rian did not understand a thing or two, he would seek Cyril to explain the details. Cyril was patient when he had to teach Rian.
For Cyril, Rian was now his right-hand man as long as he stayed in this prison. So, having a dumb teammate is worse than having a smart opponent, and he wouldn't want that.
He wouldn't mind no matter how long it took to teach Rian, but he needed him to have the basic knowledge regarding contracts. To have that, he had to understand his own contract first. If he was cheated in the future, the one to be implied would be Cyril himself. To avoid future troubles, he had to teach Rian as much as possible right now.
Luckily, Rian showed that he was not entirely dumb when he negotiated a couple of terms in the contract. Cyril was happy to make these little changes.
Seeing that his thoughts were valued, Rian got his blood pumped as he showed more enthusiasm for learning whatever Cyril wanted to teach him.
Once Cyril taught the basics to Rian, he gave other tasks to him. After all, it was very clear that Rian wasn't a great student. He would prefer physical labor to studying. He was a sportsman for a reason.
Seeing that he didn't have to study anymore, Rian jumped in happiness and ran out of the den as fast as he could.
Cyril looked at his fleeing back and wondered if he even understood the tasks he gave him.
He shook his head in helplessness, but he had more work to do.
It's been so long, and he had not earned a single point till now. He had to launch his business fast, and before he could do that, he had to make so many preparations. So he had to hurry and didn't have a single second to waste.
The preparations went on for a couple more days. He bought a piece of land just beside their den and let Rian take care of arranging the place. He would give a few instructions from time to time.
The flyers were sent to everyone in the Ward 3 and almost everyone was excited to see the flyers. No one had ever expected such a thing would exist in a prison before.
Until then, all they had done was to complete their tasks and earn their points. They had never thought of other ways to earn points.
Now with Cyril's new 'business', they had a chance to earn some external points as well. It would also be fun and everyone's excitement grew at the thought.