On the Ark.

“Really? But your unfortunate child obviously thinks the same way you do.” Lin Ye sighed. “Your family is putting me in a difficult position, so why are you all coming to me? You are, Himer is, and Ifrit is.”

Saria was silent for a moment, then said, "Suit yourself, but I hope this is the last time."

"Don't you want Ifrit to call you again?"

“Of course not. If I could, I would like to stay by her side forever, but now is not the time,” Saria said calmly. “I just said these words to Ifrit as well.”

Lin Ye looked at Ifrit, who was hanging her head like a child who had done something wrong. He rarely saw such an expression on Ifrit's face, and it inexplicably made him feel a little sorry for her.

"Let's leave this topic at that, Dr. Lin Ye," Saria continued. "Although I don't particularly like your approach, you're doing this for Ifrit's sake. That makes me very happy, because of her personality, she doesn't have many friends. Apart from me and Himer, she doesn't trust anyone, which isn't good for her future. As for Himer, she's more concerned about Ifrit's physical health than her mental well-being. That's not wrong, but I still hope that you can spend some time with her when I'm not around. She's not a bad person, just a bit impatient."

Lin Ye said, "I understand. In fact, I should thank you."

"Thank me?"

“Do you remember the guest on the fourth floor?” Lin Ye said. “I’ve already met her. Just as you said, she’s not a bad person, she’s just not good at socializing, just like Ifrit.”

Saria suddenly laughed: "It seems I didn't misjudge you."

"No, you just said you saw it wrong."

“You must have misheard,” Saria asked. “Back to the point, Ifrit just told me you were in Lungmen? What were you doing there?”

Lin Ye was somewhat surprised: "You didn't know?"

"Hermer never tells me about her."

"Ok."

Lin Ye then explained their purpose for coming to Lungmen to Saria. After listening, Saria remained silent for a while, and when she spoke again, her tone was much more serious: "I do not recommend having too much contact with those people from Rhine Lab."

"Why? Wasn't that your former colleague?" Lin Ye asked, puzzled.

Seria responded calmly, "It's precisely because I've done business with them that I know what kind of people they are."

"But Himer doesn't seem worried."

"Hermer is the kind of person who never knows how to be wary of others, except for me."

Lin Ye felt inexplicably saddened by Saria's words.

“But nothing should happen in Lungmen.” Saria pondered for a moment, then said, “Rhine Labs has disbanded, and the remaining members are mostly harmless researchers. Even if they have bad intentions, they shouldn’t be able to do anything against Rhodes Island and Lungmen. By the way, which team is accompanying us this time?”

"I don't know which team it is, but the captain is the ACE."

“ACE?” Saria visibly relaxed. “That’s perfect. But even so, please keep an eye on Ifrit and try your best not to… no, absolutely not to let her get involved in the deal with the former Rhine Lab, and absolutely not to let those people see Ifrit.”

"I see."

Thank you.

"Do you want to say something to Ifrit?" Lin Ye asked, looking at Ifrit, who had been waiting expectantly beside him. "She seems quite... Hey?"

Saria has fallen silent.

Lin Ye put down his phone and found that the screen had gone black because the battery was completely drained.

"My phone's dead." Lin Ye waved his phone in front of Ifrit.

The expectation in Ifrit's eyes quickly vanished, replaced by disappointment, and then she said rather angrily, "What kind of crappy phone is this?"

"Get this straight, you were the one who made that long call, okay?" Lin Ye said irritably. "How durable can batteries be in this day and age?"

"...What do you mean by 'this kind of era'? That's a strange way of putting it."

Lin Ye shrugged, offering no further explanation.

Then he saw Ifrit suddenly lower her head and hesitate: "Um, I'm sorry."

"Ok?"

Ifrit turned her head away, her fingers fidgeting nervously. "I said I was going to burn you alive."

"so what?"

"It's not burning anymore."

Lin Ye: "..."

"Well, you've been really nice to me," Ifrit said softly, her cheeks flushed. "Thank you."

Lin Ye looked at Ifrit and found it quite amusing, then reached out and ruffled Ifrit's hair.

He had assumed Ifrit wouldn't resist, like the Nightingale, but to his surprise, Ifrit suddenly jumped back, glaring at Lin Ye: "You bastard, don't think you can bully Lady Ifrit like this!"

Lin Ye's lips twitched: "When did I bully you?"

"You haven't let me see Saria yet." Ifrit made a face at Lin Ye, then turned and ran away.

"That unlucky kid..."

Watching Ifrit return to her room, Lin Ye couldn't help but shake his head with a smile.

Then I heard a cold female voice behind me.

"Dr. Lin Ye, you seem to really enjoy meddling in these kinds of family matters."

Chapter 158 She Abandoned Ifrit (3K)

Lin Ye felt like he was having a really bad day. He ended up at the police station while shopping in the afternoon, causing a whole bunch of trouble. In the evening, he took pity on a poor kid and helped him, only to be caught by the kid's mother right away.

Standing in the corridor, Lin Ye wondered if it was just his imagination, but the temperature around him seemed to have dropped, just like the coldness in Hermer's eyes.

"Dr. Lin Ye," Hemer said slowly, "Can I know why this is? And why do you know that woman?"

That woman must be referring to Saria.

Lin Ye coughed twice before trying to explain, "I met her once before, and I thought she was a pretty nice person, and Ifrit wanted to..."

But Himer clearly didn't want to hear his explanation and asked directly, "Did Saria tell you to do this?"

"Uh, no."

"Then why did you act on your own?!" Himer raised his voice. "Just because you think she's a pretty good person? Do you think you know Saria well?"

Lin Ye was at a loss for words. Should he say that he understood Saria? That was obviously impossible; Himer certainly understood Saria better than he did.

“But Ifrit wants…”

“Ifrit is just a child, Dr. Lin Ye!” Himer said, emphasizing each word. “I hope you can help me take care of her a little, instead of letting her do those dangerous things!”

“I didn’t condone her doing anything dangerous. She just made a phone call to Seria.”

"That's the most dangerous thing already, Dr. Lin Ye!" Hermer said sternly, "Your arrogance will only hurt Ifrit!"

The second half of the sentence was practically roared out by Himer.

Lin Ye was stunned.

Clearly, Hermer was angry, and furious. At this moment, Hermer was no longer the elegant, mature woman she always was, but a mother in a state of "madness," brandishing sharp claws and fangs at anyone who tried to harm her child. This was something he hadn't expected at all, because in Lin Ye's view, the person who had angered this mother was actually the child's father.

After saying that, Hermer's chest heaved, and she had to take several deep breaths to calm her turbulent heart.

Then she noticed Lin Ye's somewhat flustered state, realized that she was having an emotional problem, and immediately said in a low voice, "I'm sorry, Dr. Lin Ye. I'm a little agitated."

"I can see that," Lin Ye nodded, reassuringly adding, "You should calm down."

Himer smiled wryly: "It's hard to stay calm, I'm really sorry. I wasn't originally going to come back tonight, but I was worried about Ifrit, so I rushed back. But I didn't expect to find this when I got back."

Lin Ye felt a little awkward: "Um, when did you get back?"

“Twenty minutes ago,” Hammer said, “right when Ifrit was on the phone with that woman.”

Lin Ye couldn't help but sigh, thinking how incredibly unlucky it was. Himeru had to come back at exactly that exact time. Of course, it was also Ifrit's fault for making such a long phone call; a simple chat to ask if he'd eaten would have sufficed, otherwise, all this trouble would have been unnecessary.

Of course, Lin Ye was just internally complaining. He knew very well that given Ifrit's previous emotional outburst, even a whole day wouldn't be enough, let alone a mere hour.

Soon, Lin Ye seemed to remember something, looked up at Himer, and asked with some confusion, "Since you came back twenty minutes ago and heard Ifrit and Saria talking on the phone, why didn't you come out and stop Ifrit? If you had stepped in, Ifrit wouldn't have continued talking to Saria, right?"

Hemer fell silent.

She didn't say a word for a full three minutes.

When she spoke again, the emotions she expressed were very complex.

“Because I haven’t seen Ifrit like that in a long time,” Himer said softly. “That kind of happiness. Even though she was crying the whole time, I could feel it, I could feel her heart. She cherished every minute, even every second, of talking to that woman. Such emotions are very rare in Ifrit, so I didn’t want to interrupt.”

"I see." Lin Ye thought to himself, Himer really loves Ifrit.

“Dr. Lin Ye, I apologize to you again,” Hermer said softly. “I was emotional just now, which led me to say some very foolish things. Although I don’t know you as well as many people on Rhodes Island, I know that you are someone who hates trouble, so it’s unlikely that you would willingly take on troublesome matters.”

Lin Ye scratched his head awkwardly: "Am I that kind of person? It doesn't sound like I am."

“No, although you are afraid of trouble, you have an even more prominent characteristic than being afraid of trouble, which is that you are too soft-hearted,” Himer said. “If someone asks you to do something, you will always do it, even if it is a troublesome thing that you hate. Simply put, you are a pushover.”

"Really?" This was the first time Lin Ye had heard someone describe him like that. "I don't think I feel that way."

Himer sighed softly: "Ifrit came to you for help, didn't she? She begged you to take her to that woman."

No, she wasn't begging me; she was threatening me, threatening to burn me alive.

Lin Ye thought to himself silently, but didn't say it aloud.

“Just like how you treated Liz,” Himer said. “Rhodes Island didn’t really reward you much, did it? At least not as much as you did for your efforts. Before you took over Liz, no one on the island except Shining believed in you. Even Shining didn’t completely place his bets on you. I actually watched the surveillance footage that night, and I really didn’t expect you to reach out to Liz under those circumstances. Logically speaking, many people would have given up and left after suffering such unfair treatment, but you persevered and ultimately brought Liz back.”

"It's not a big deal, it's just my job."

Himer smiled gently: "That's why I admire you, because you not only treat Liz the same way, but also Ifrit. Ifrit is different from Liz. Liz is a princess that everyone wants to cherish, while Ifrit is a little devil who is ostracized because of her bad personality."

Lin Ye thought about it carefully and felt that Himer's description was quite apt. Nightingale and Ifrit were both little girls "seriously ill," and Nightingale was the focus of the entire Rhodes Island community. Shining went to great lengths for her, Nearl protected her like a knight, her fellow operators in the medical department treated her like a princess, and the other operators on the island also felt sorry for her. For example, on Lin Ye's first day at Rhodes Island, when he knew nothing, Ranger had already mentioned Nightingale to him, Ace praised him for healing Nightingale, and the rigid Nightblade even went easy on Lin Ye because Nightingale was present.

It was as if the whole world revolved around the nightingale, even though she herself didn't realize it.

But Ifrit was different. While she hadn't lost her memory like Nightingale, nor was her mental state as unstable, her physical condition was far worse. Yet, very few people on the island seemed to care about her. This was partly due to her spending all her time with Himer, staying at home, but the biggest reason was her awkward personality, so different from Nightingale's. Many people disliked her; even Lin Ye's initial impression of Ifrit was that of a terrible brat—no, not in quotes.

“I’ve tried,” Himer said, “but I couldn’t change anything. I couldn’t get everyone to fully accept Ifrit, nor could I get Ifrit to accept anyone other than me and that woman. Until I found you, Dr. Lin Ye. Do you know how happy I was when I first saw you bickering with Ifrit? I thought, this child will finally have a companion, finally have someone to talk to besides me and that woman. But I didn’t know you then, and I didn’t dare to completely entrust Ifrit to your care. But things changed later, you… Am I going too far ahead?”

Hemer covered her forehead with her hand, looking very tired. In Lin Ye's eyes, she was just a weary old mother.

Ifrit will be alright.

“That’s what I was thinking too.” Hermer slowly lowered his hand. “But, Dr. Lin Ye, you can’t let Ifrit contact that woman anymore. You’ll only hurt her if you do that.”

"why?"

"Don't ask why anymore, Dr. Lin Ye. There are many things I don't want to recall anymore," Hermer said softly. "You only need to know one thing: that woman left Ifrit when Rhine Life was in trouble, when she was in the most difficult time and needed help the most."