On the Ark.

Chapter 148 Even Mischievous Kids Want Something

Three days later, Himer returned to Rhodes Island and happened to run into Lin Ye having lunch in the cafeteria with Ifrit and White Owl.

"Dr. Lin." Himer walked up behind Ifrit, gently stroking her head, then looked at Lin Ye and said with a smile, "I knew I was right. Besides us, you're probably the only person Ifrit won't reject on Rhodes Island. Thank you for your help these past few days."

Lin Ye was somewhat surprised to see Hermer suddenly appear, because he did not know that Hermer would return today.

Lin Ye glanced at Ifrit, then at the white-faced owl, swallowed the food in his mouth, scratched his head, and said, "It's not much trouble, just eating with them. Ifrit is quite well-behaved, quiet and doesn't make a fuss. She eats whatever she's offered; she even ate several bites of cilantro before you came."

While Lin Ye was speaking, Ifrit raised her head and glared at him fiercely, wanting to say something, but then she remembered what Lin Ye had told her three days ago, so she held back and continued to eat the "nutritional balance meal" Lin Ye had ordered for her. To put it simply, it was all green, and it made her feel nauseous.

"Really?" Himer patted Ifrit's head and said softly, "Ifrit, aren't you going to thank Dr. Lin?"

Ifrit was so angry she was about to vomit blood, but she still gritted her teeth and said to Lin Ye, word by word, "Thank you, Dr. Lin!"

Lin Ye could only laugh awkwardly at this, then glanced at the white-faced owl. The white-faced owl, however, seemed oblivious, expressionlessly drinking its soup.

Let's rewind to three days ago. At that time, Lin Ye was completely helpless against Ifrit, and Ifrit had no intention of listening to him. It wasn't until White Owl stepped forward and told Ifrit that Lin Ye knew where Saria was that Ifrit's attitude towards Lin Ye immediately changed.

She demanded that Lin Ye take her to find Saria, but Lin Ye had no idea where Saria was; he had only seen her once. Just as Lin Ye was about to explain to Ifrit, the White Owl said quietly, "If Ifrit listens to Doctor Lin these next few days, Doctor Lin will tell you where Saria is."

The white-faced owl's actions completely astonished Lin Ye. It was exactly what Lin Ye's mother had told him when he was a child in his previous life.

"Sweetie, if you drink this bowl of medicine, Mommy will take you to the zoo."

"Sweetie, as long as you get the 'Three Good Student' award at the end of the semester, Mom will let you play games."

This tactic was always effective against naive kids. But Lin Ye hadn't expected the White Owl to use this method on Ifrit, and even more unexpectedly, Ifrit agreed after a brief hesitation. In the following days, no matter what Lin Ye said… no, actually Lin Ye didn't say anything; it was almost entirely the White Owl who spoke and made the requests.

Things like "Don't go to bed later than 11 pm," "Don't get up later than 9 am," and "Don't just eat meat, you have to eat special nutritious meals." Ifrit agreed to all of these, though she did them in anger, but at least she did them. What left Lin Ye speechless was that even though these were all things White Owl had said, Ifrit clearly remembered them and took them to heart.

Lin Ye was naturally unwilling to take the blame for nothing, so he privately asked the white-faced owl why she did that.

The White Owl replied, "Ifrit's condition is somewhat similar to Miss Liz's before; both are affected by Oripathy. However, the difference is that Miss Liz's mental state was unstable, while Ifrit's is physically unstable. In order to reduce the impact of Oripathy on Ifrit's body and prolong her life as much as possible, we need to do a lot of work, and ensuring Ifrit has good sleep and eating habits is just one part of it."

"...Then why do you have to use my name? No, no, it's Saria's name?"

“Because Ifrit is too rebellious, in this world, Ifrit will only listen to two people—Saria and Ms. Himer,” said White Owl. “So Ms. Himer has always kept Ifrit by her side, even when working in other places. But Ms. Himer isn’t on Rhodes Island right now, so according to White Owl’s analysis, the best way to get Ifrit to obey is to bring up Ms. Saria. And only you can bring up Ms. Saria, because Ifrit knows very well that she’s on Ms. Himer’s side, and you aren’t.”

Having said all that, what could Lin Ye say? For Ifrit's sake, Lin Ye could only silently take the blame. Every day, he faced Ifrit's resentful glare while demanding that she eat more cilantro and celery, and then he would take all the grilled fish from her rice.

There's no other way; as doctors, we have to have this attitude of always putting the patient first!

Lin Ye thought to himself, then put the grilled fish in the bowl into his mouth and chewed it with a crunching sound.

"Dr. Lin," Hamer looked at Lin Ye, "I heard that Liz has already gone on a mission with Shining and Nearl?"

"Yes."

“It’s unbelievable,” Hermer said softly. “Just over a month ago, she was trapped in that tiny room, like a fledgling with broken wings.”

Mentioning the nightingale, Lin Ye couldn't help but smile: "Yes. But she's already flown away."

"It's all thanks to you."

"No, it belongs to everyone."

“But you let her embrace the blue sky,” Hamer said with a smile. “I hope you can help Ifrit in the same way.”

Hearing Himer's words, Ifrit shook her head unhappily: "I don't understand what you're talking about at all. I'm not like that demon, and my brain isn't broken."

"Alright." Himer tapped Ifrit's head and said calmly, "Have you finished eating? Come back with me. You need to take your medicine."

The mere mention of medicine reminded Lin Ye of Nightingale's expression. Sure enough, demons all resist taking medicine—no, that's not right, it's just that bratty kids all dislike taking medicine. But unlike Nightingale, Ifrit was very obedient to Himer; even though she didn't want to take her medicine, she obediently went back with Himer.

So the only ones still eating in the cafeteria were the White Owl, who had taken all of Ifrit's grilled fish and meat, and the White Owl, who was still slowly drinking his soup.

"So," Lin Ye looked at the white-faced owl, "Hemer is back, so what about Saria's situation?"

"Operator Shiny doesn't understand what you mean."

"Stop pretending with me," Lin Ye said irritably. "It was all your idea."

“Because that was the only feasible solution,” said White Owl. “Ms. Himer is back, so we have already achieved our goal. White Owl doesn’t understand what you are still worried about.”

“But I promised to let Ifrit see Himer.”

White Owl thought for a moment and said, "Operator White Owl thinks that's a trivial matter."

Lin Ye was taken aback: "Why is it something that doesn't matter?"

The white-faced owl said slowly, "Because Ms. Himer would never allow Ifrit to see Ms. Seria."

Lin Ye's mouth dropped open slightly: "Are you really just making empty promises to her?"

"A worthless check?" The white-faced owl tilted its head. "If you mean a promise that can't be kept, then you're right."

Lin Ye hadn't expected that he would actually guess right. This was indeed an adult's trick, just like when his mother told him, "If you drink this bowl of medicine, Mom will take you to the zoo." As a child, he would always fall for it without hesitation, and Ifrit had clearly fallen for it too.

“Ms. Himer forgot to tell you earlier.” The White Owl finally finished his soup, then picked up the bowl and stood up. “We’re leaving tomorrow, so please prepare tonight.”

"Going to Lungmen?"

“Yes.” White Owl nodded. “The official notification will be sent to your phone in one hour and twenty minutes.”

How do you know so much?

"Because this is Operator Shiny's job."

Lin Ye: "..."

"Well then, Operator Shinyowl wishes you a pleasant meal." Shinyowl prepared to leave.

Lin Ye called out to her.

The white-faced owl turned its head and stared at Lin Ye with its golden eyes.

“Well, I think… why can’t we really let Ifrit meet Saria?” Lin Ye scratched his head and said, “Ifrit wants to see Saria, and Saria should also want to see Ifrit. That should be obvious, I can see it, so why can’t they meet?”

After listening to Lin Ye's words, the white-faced owl slowly said, "Is this your idea?"

"Well, you could say that."

“Ms. Himer will be unhappy,” said the White Owl. “Ms. Himer doesn’t want Ifrit to see Seria.”

"So why?"

"Sorry, you do not have permission to view this report," the white-faced owl replied to Lin Ye in its distinctive mechanical voice.

“Okay.” Lin Ye nodded, but he didn’t want to give up so easily, so he tentatively asked, “Is it possible for us to let Ifrit and Saria meet secretly without Himer’s knowledge?”

The white-faced owl was silent for a moment, then said, "The white-faced owl doesn't understand why you are so persistent about this matter."

Lin Ye thought for a moment and said, "Ifrit probably doesn't like eating vegetables, right?"

“Yes.” The white-faced owl nodded. “Ifrit rejects all kinds of vegetables, and even Miss Himer doesn’t have a good solution.”

"That settles it, doesn't it?" Lin Ye tapped his fingers lightly on the table, then pointed to the spot where Ifrit had just been sitting. "Ifrit ate all three dishes of vegetables from before."

……

The next morning, Lin Ye boarded a car bound for Longmen.

Besides Lin Ye, Himeru, and Ifrit (Silver Owl was absent due to work commitments), there was also a small team accompanying them. The team leader was a heavy-armored operator named ACE, whom Lin Ye had met several times on Rhodes Island. He was incredibly muscular, almost as imposing as Cliffheart, the hulking man from Kjerag. Holding a riot shield, wearing black sunglasses, and sporting a full beard, he looked quite imposing.

Lin Ye had initially assumed that ACE was a pure human like himself, and many operators on Rhodes Island shared this view. However, ACE was not. He simply appeared to be no different from a pure human, much like Skadi, who outwardly appeared to be a weak woman with no strength, but in reality, she could easily pierce through a toilet wall... well, Lin Ye didn't know how else to describe Skadi.

"It's been a long time, Dr. Lin." In the car, ACE and Lin Ye sat side by side. He looked at Lin Ye with a big smile. "I heard that you defeated Yato after only learning swordsmanship from him for a month."

"No, no, no." Lin Ye shook his head repeatedly. "It was Night Blade who held back, both times."

"What?! Twice?!" ACE was even more shocked.

"Uh."

Lin Ye felt that his explanation seemed a bit superfluous, and just as he was thinking about how to make amends, ACE laughed again.

"Alright, alright, just kidding, don't be so nervous. I can tell you respect Yato a lot," ACE said with a smile. "I've heard all about it from Yato, but in my opinion, even if he's holding back, it's still quite remarkable."

ACE seemed to have a natural leadership quality, and Lin Ye was able to relax and talk to him quickly. As they chatted, they talked about their trip to Lungmen.

"Hmm? You don't know about our mission this time?" ACE turned around and glanced at Himer and Ifrit, who were resting in the last row, and said, "It seems that Himer didn't tell you. Well, Himer doesn't like to talk about her old employer."

"Rhine Life? Are we going to do business with Rhine Life this time?"

“Rhine’s life is over,” ACE said.

Lin Ye was stunned: "Rhine's life is over? What do you mean?"

“It means exactly what it says,” ACE said. “A few years ago, Rhine Life declared bankruptcy for some unknown reasons, and its core employees left one after another.”

"So, who are we going to make a deal with?"

“Like Himer, they were former employees of Rhine Labs. You have to understand that Rhine Labs was once a much larger company than Rhodes Island is now. After Rhine Labs went bankrupt, its employees divided up all of its assets,” ACE said. “Data, equipment, and experimental samples, etc. Our goal this time is the equipment. We need that equipment to accelerate drug production. So Himer contacted the former employees who took that batch of equipment.”

"Which employees are willing to give us their equipment?"

“Of course not,” ACE said with a smile. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

So you still want to buy it?

“No, they don’t seem to want money either,” ACE said slowly. “But what exactly they want, it seems only Himer knows.”

Chapter 149 Deadly! Daring to Assault a Police Officer!? (3K)

Upon arriving in Longmen, Lin Ye stayed in the same room as before.

Perhaps because Kal'tsit was absent, the floors damaged a month ago hadn't been repaired, so from the outside, the building Rhodes Island rented in Lungmen looked like a decayed tooth. Lin Ye couldn't help but wonder if living in such a dilapidated building was dangerous; if it were bombed again, it would probably really collapse.

This time, Lin Ye's roommate is ACE.

Upon entering the room, ACE put down his luggage and weapons, then took out a cigarette from his pocket. Seemingly having held it in for too long, he instinctively wanted to light it. However, as he put the cigarette in his mouth, he suddenly remembered something, glanced back at Lin Ye, then took the cigarette out of his mouth and held it between his fingers: "I almost forgot to ask you, do you mind if I smoke?"

"It's alright," Lin Ye said.

“It’s alright, I just mind.” ACE smiled and put away his cigarette. “Sorry, I used to live alone when I was working away from home. And most of my team members were heavy smokers, and I was the oldest one of them.”

Lin Ye looked at ACE with some curiosity: "But you didn't smoke in the car, and you've been doing it all day. How could you resist?"

“What’s so hard to resist? Besides, you have to resist the urge to smoke,” ACE said with a smile. “There are women and children in the car.”

“That’s true.” Lin Ye laughed as well. “So you’re just going crazy. If you want to smoke, then go ahead. Although I don’t smoke, I don’t hate the smell of smoke either.”

Lin Ye's words seemed to tempt ACE, a seasoned smoker. He put the cigarette to his lips again, hesitated for a moment, then put it away, shaking his head with a smile: "Never mind, I'll just go outside and get one later. I know very well that non-smokers don't like the smell of smoke."

Having said that, Lin Ye couldn't say anything more. Just as ACE had said, Lin Ye didn't like the smell of smoke; in fact, he found it rather repulsive, as it always reminded him of the terrible environments in mahjong parlors or internet cafes.