You're the only one who knows how to battle Pokémon?

He held out his hand, with a deep red crystal in the palm of his hand. He said, "This is the Flame Stone produced by the Vera Volcano. It is of very high quality. Let's take this as a token of our gratitude to New Leafmeow for training Tortoisemon and Garagara!"

"Your Growlithe has reached a very high level. It's time to evolve!"

Chapter 17 Nightfall

The price of Fire Stone is very high, but Kakachi's family is on Akala Island and they often go to the Wela Volcano to practice, so it is not surprising that they can find this kind of thing.

The strength of his Pokémon has improved visibly, which is a priceless improvement. In comparison, the Fire Stone seems insignificant.

"Thank you." Ji Bei accepted the Fire Stone.

Since Kachi is willing to give it, he is willing to accept it. After all, he really needs this thing, and it is time for Growlithe to evolve.

After careful calculation, it's not just Growlithe, Eevee and Curly are also of high levels, but their evolution conditions are more stringent and require extremely high intimacy.

Ji Bei still has confidence in Eevee. After all, it has abandoned Growlithe and Creepycat before. The intimacy should be enough, but it just lacks an opportunity.

It takes a long time to tame the Curly-eared Pelican, so even if the training is successful, it will still take some time.

The overnight party was a quiet time. Dinner was prepared by Ji Bei, Dr. Barnett and Mao. It didn’t take long to prepare a full banquet.

"This is too rich!" Xiaozhi stared with his eyes wide open and couldn't help drooling.

"Well done! But it's a bit exaggerated!" Shui Lian gave a thumbs up, and did not forget to complain at the right time.

"Ahhh! I'm excited!" Although he was just eating, Kachi was full of fighting spirit.

How could this be exciting? Ji Bei didn't know how to complain.

Maybe we should ask what can't be burned.

Oh, Boruto can be on fire, but the fuel is the pineapple head.

That's fine.

"We were just helping Ji Bei, and we produced so much without realizing it," explained Dr. Barnett.

"Looking back now, it's indeed a bit exaggerated." Mao also frowned: "Although I'm unwilling, I have to admit that Ji Bei is better at cooking!"

Liliae was used to a life of luxury. Her meals at home were similarly luxurious, so she didn't show any surprise. Instead, she was puzzled: "Isn't this just a normal dinner? Food really should be determined by taste."

Mamane protested: "The quality of life of ordinary people and rich girls is not on the same level! It is wealth that limits your imagination!"

“However, the taste is definitely not bad. Even a rich girl may not have tasted such delicious food.” Nangong Ye added.

Since the day she joined the school team, she would go to Ji Bei's dormitory to eat whenever she had nothing to do, so much so that she later completely lost interest in all the delicious food around Kyushu University.

"Really? I haven't tried Ji Bei's cooking yet! I must try it!" Liliae said expectantly.

"After all, your family's housekeeping system is so complete that the chef never lets me enter the kitchen! Whatever I want to eat will be served immediately." Ji Bei shrugged.

It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. The original motivation for cooking was the high sense of accomplishment, but now I am too lazy to cook.

If he had a choice, he really wanted to stay at Liliae's house for the rest of his life!

At night, bedtime conversations became an essential part of group accommodation, from cooking to family, because Mao and Shui Lian both agreed that their views on Dr. Barnett had changed a lot, and they felt that she was gentle and handsome, and a woman with a very "motherly" temperament.

Liliae listened silently at the side, and rarely came forward to chat.

She was holding an old Pippi doll, which was incompatible with her identity as the daughter of the Ether Foundation.

From an outsider's perspective, even if this girl likes dolls, she would choose new and big ones.

"Okay! It's already late and we have to go back to school tomorrow. It's time to go to bed!" Dr. Kukui announced that it was time to go to bed.

The others fell asleep quickly, but Liliae couldn't fall asleep. She put down the Pippi doll and wanted to go out for a walk alone.

However, this action woke up Bai Huanghuang. Although the snow-white Vulpix was a little confused, it still wanted to follow its trainer and be inseparable.

Liliae smiled, carried Bai Huanghuang out of the room, went to the beach nearby, and kept listening to the sound of the surging waves.

Dr. Barnett, who was beside her, noticed this and decided to go see if the girl had any troubled thoughts and then give her some advice.

As early as during the previous conversation, she noticed that Liliae had been silent for a long time.

However, just as she got up and was about to go downstairs, she saw Xinye Cat using "leaves" on the "sleeping" Ji Bei, slapping him hard, and then stretching out a cat paw pointing outside the door.

Don't sleep! Are you a man? Go and comfort the girl who went out to see the sea at night!

At this age, at this stage, can you sleep well?

"I'm not asleep. If you have anything to say, just call me. Why do you have to be so decisive?"

"I know you are in a hurry, but don't be in a hurry yet!"

"Don't overestimate the sleep quality of Kyushu people. At least it can't be compared with that of Alola people!"

Because of the high pressure that starts from the nine-year compulsory education, even in a completely relaxing environment, the sleep quality of Kyushu people is still worrying.

Ji Bei protested quietly and pointed to the attic. Nangong Ye was also attracted by the noise and was nodding in agreement with him. She had not fallen asleep yet.

Even with the psychic power that helps with sleeping, Nangong Ye couldn't sleep peacefully, which shows how serious the debuff of "Jiuzhou people" is.

Xinye Miao was speechless. It seemed that it was indeed a little too impatient.

"Anyway, let's just go out, right?"

Ji Bei walked out of the room, and Nangong Ye retracted her head. She was not interested in finding out what these man and cat were doing out in the middle of the night.

If you keep getting to the bottom of things, your possessiveness might be too strong.

However, when he saw that Liliae's bed was empty, Nangong Ye regretted his decision and immediately floated over to follow.

Dr. Barnett couldn't help laughing at the wonderful actions of the two people and the cat.

She could naturally see that Nangong Ye had a good impression of Ji Bei. The two of them stood very close to each other almost all day long, giving off a sense of tacit understanding like an old married couple.

Liliae, on the other hand, seems to be a little bit indecisive and too weak in offensiveness.

The rare "chance encounters while walking at night" were interrupted by others. It was really bad luck.

In general, the charm of "stock speculation" lies not only in the profits, but also in the predictions of the unknown.

Humans have always been attracted to the unknown, even seasoned researchers.

At this moment, Dr. Barnett felt a desire to trade stocks, and he crawled back into the quilt, muttering to himself.

“What youth!”

"No, I'm not that old!"

There is no doubt that since Ji Bei and Nangong Ye have both run away, there is no need for her to worry about Liliae's little feelings.

Chapter 18 Night Talk

As soon as he went out, Ji Bei saw Liliae sitting on a log bench on the beach, holding Bai Huanghuang.

No wonder Xinye meowed for me to come out. It’s really not good to leave a girl alone outside.

She listened to the crashing waves and recalled the past.

Once upon a time, when she was young, Lusamine was also a gentle mother who taught her and Gladion how to cook.

Just as Ji Bei was about to step forward, a faint voice came from the side:

"A parasitic jungler, where is the defenseless girl who is ganking the melancholy night?"

Turning around, I saw Nangong Ye with disheveled hair floating in the air.

She looked a little sickly, and her cold white skin looked like a dried corpse that had been dead for many years under the moonlight.

In addition, her pajamas are also Gothic-style lace nightgowns, and her figure is very petite, giving the illusion that a doll has turned into a tsukumogami.

"Ghost!" Ji Bei was almost frightened to death. He wanted to shout but lost his voice in a short period of time. He felt his heartbeat stopped for three seconds and it took him a long time to recover.

"Are you polite?" Nangong Ye frowned in protest.

It's really Nangong Ye when there's something going on, and Lilia when there's nothing going on! She coaxes and deceives when she needs it, and calls her a ghost when she doesn't!

Ji Bei had no words to express his pain, but it was impossible for him to replay what he had just seen, so he had to grit his teeth and swallow it.

"It's really bad for your heart, but since you're here, let's go together."

Nangong Ye nodded. Condemning Ji Bei was one thing, but she couldn't just turn a blind eye to Liliae's concerns.

"The sound of the waves is so beautiful. It always makes me feel calm."

Ji Bei came over and spoke to Liliae.

"Eh? You're all here?" She looked at the two of them, obviously a little surprised.

"Of course, we are now close friends living under the same roof." Nangong Ye seconded.

"If there are any troubles that need to be shared, Ji Bei and I have always been like this."

"Even though he was the one who caused me trouble unilaterally!"

"You have such a sharp tongue!" Ji Bei wanted to refute, but he had no evidence, so he could only admit defeat.

This seems to be the case, Nangong Ye has been helping him a lot all along.

However, for Nangong Ye, that Pokémon battle could be considered "redemption" for her.

Because she lost to Ji Bei, she finally had a reason to "give up being a trainer". Although she did not give up in the end, she really gained this freedom, and because of this, she no longer felt that being a trainer was a constraint.

Hearing them say this, Liliae no longer concealed her thoughts and said, "Listening to the sound of the waves, I remembered a lot of things from the past."

"In the past, my mother, father, and brother all lived together, and each of them was gentle and straightforward."

"Since my father disappeared, my mother has been increasingly busy with work and rarely comes home. My brother even ran away from home."

"I had an argument with my mother a few days ago! She came home once in a while, but she still stood on the side of 'Chairman of the Ether Foundation'!"

As a mother, this matter was indeed too much, and Ji Bei could understand why Liliae was sad.

But in the final analysis, people's joys and sorrows are not shared by everyone, and Kyushu-style parents are completely at the other extreme.

Nangong Ye sighed and said, "If my parents had let me go like this, I wouldn't have such a gloomy personality now."

"Since I was born, I have been following the path they arranged for me. I was forced to become proficient in everything from music, chess, calligraphy and painting."

"Especially the trainer path. To be honest, I still don't really like Pokémon battles."

It’s not that I don’t like Pokémon, but I love Pokémon too much, so I can’t bear to see them get hurt in battle.

“It wasn’t until I went to college that I felt like my life was truly my own.”

After meeting Ji Bei, she rarely engages in unnecessary Pokémon battles, but will still take action when necessary.

In this world, most people are very passionate about Pokémon battles, and very few people truly hate becoming a "trainer".

One can imagine how difficult her family situation is to make Nangong Ye so disgusted.

Ji Bei agreed deeply. His family was almost the same, but not as serious as Nangong Ye's.

"It's not easy at all." Liliae imagined that kind of life and felt that it might be even more difficult.

"Because parents are also ordinary people. As human beings, they have shortcomings. What's more, they live in the previous era and are backward in cognition." Ji Bei comforted.

"Although there are some parents who really have no feelings for their children, I don't think Ms. Lusamine is like that. From her words, I can feel that she cares about you very much."

"Perhaps you are obsessed with the work of the Aether Foundation so that you can find your father as soon as possible and let you and Gladion have a complete family again."

Lilia was stunned for a moment. She had never thought about something so deeply before.

If she thought about it carefully, her mother must have been greatly devastated by the disappearance of her father. She was only immersed in her own sorrow at the time and had no time to care about her mother.

Instead, Lusamine comforted her for a long time and kept assuring her that "their father would definitely be found!"

Perhaps, it was this obsession that prompted her to be so busy with work for so many years. Even when she returned home, she would prioritize the position of the Ether Foundation!

"I understand. Maybe that's true. I was just too ignorant." She smiled her usual innocent smile. She was truly the "Ice Flower Blooming in Alola", pure and beautiful.

"That's not the case either. Liliae has also made great efforts for the family."

"Even though your father was missing, your mother was busy with work, and your brother ran away from home, you still lived a strong and optimistic life, preserving the warmth of your family."

"Is it not?"

Ji Bei reached out and touched her head, and Lilia leaned on him.