"What do you mean 'smoke', huh~"
Ye Li snatched the cigarette from his sister's hand and lectured her, "Mathilda, don't randomly offer cigarettes to others, especially minors like yourself."
"Oh."
Mathilda put the cigarette in her own mouth, then took out a lollipop and handed it to the little girl, "Here, have this instead."
"Thank you~"
The dark-eyed Mexican girl happily accepted it, unwrapping it just as she was about to put it in her mouth—
Hu!!
A strong gust of wind suddenly blew in from the passage behind, pushing her forward!
Bouen~——~——
A transparent ripple spread through the space.
The girl was swallowed into it.
Lewis's eyes widened.
"Oh my god! Is this how Jane disappeared?"
"She... they..."
Ian finally believed Ye Li's words and fearfully said, "They... they won't be dead, right? So many things that were lost before never came back..."
"Waaah—!"
Hearing this.
The other two ten-year-old kids were about to cry, thinking their friend had met an early demise...
Lewis glared at Ian, "Intern, you talk too much. If you're going to speak, say something useful."
Ian was speechless, "My name is Ian...."
Ye Li, however, remained calm.
He was going in anyway.
He would just bring them all back.
"Alright. Mathilda. Tell these two brats to stop crying."
He approached the spot where the girl had disappeared, preparing to step in, "I'll go take a look and bring them back. You guys wait here and behave."
"Huh?... You're going in too?"
Lewis asked worriedly, "Nothing bad will happen, right?"
"What could happen?"
Ye Li stepped through the ripple, leaving behind one sentence.
"I'll be back soon."
Bouen~——~——
"Hold on tight!"
As Ye Li entered the place where the Aether was hidden, he saw Jane hanging off a cliff, holding tightly onto the falling little girl with one hand.
It turned out the girl was too light, and after passing through, she had been blown off balance by the gust of wind and fallen.
Fortunately, Jane caught her.
This surprised Ye Li a bit.
Step step...
Hearing footsteps behind her, Jane trembled slightly in fear, almost losing her grip...
Was there something else in this eerie place?
Just as she gathered the courage to turn her head.
Ye Li spoke softly, "Hold on, I'll pull you up."
"Li?!"
Jane turned around in surprise, seeing the man she occasionally thought of walking towards her.
"Why are you here too?"
Ye Li pulled the little girl up and said, "Lewis said you were missing, so I came to check."
Jane froze for a moment, then thought of something.
"You came in by yourself?"
"Yeah."
Ye Li turned and walked to a giant black pillar, sensing it. The Aether was indeed gone.
It seemed to have already entered Jane's body.
"You....."
Jane thought Ye Li had risked himself to find her, and the heart of this scholarly woman was inevitably touched.
At that moment.
Ye Li suddenly stepped up to her, placing his hands on her slender shoulders and said, "What about me? Jane, what I want to know is—did you feel anything unusual just now?"
'Something unusual?'
A rare blush spread across Jane's face....
'Is he confessing...?'
'Is he about to confess...?'
'In a place like this...?'
'We don't even know if we can go back yet...'
'...Should I accept, or should I accept... No, wait... Should I accept, or should I not accept...?'
"I... I admit...."
Jane gathered her courage, deciding to face Ye Li's feelings head-on: "...Your actions have moved me a little... But let's talk about it after we get back...."
'Huh?'
Ye Li was momentarily speechless...
'Is this another case of her overthinking things again?'
"Ahem... I also think you're great, Jane... But what I actually wanted to ask was—"
"When you got close to that pillar earlier, did you feel anything unusual?"
"You were asking about that?...."
Jane's expression froze in embarrassment, and she awkwardly tried to push Ye Li away, "I think maybe there was something... Let's figure out how to leave first, then I'll explain it to you later....."
'Was there something....'
Ye Li didn't let her push him away. Instead, he gripped her shoulders tighter and began to sense more carefully———
[Reality Stone detected. Would you like to extract it?]
The system responded.
At the same time, he also sensed the Aether inside Jane's body.
[Yes]
After choosing it.
He thought to himself: 'Having a system is really convenient. I can extract it directly.'
'Maybe because Jane doesn't have much control over the stone...'
However.
The system didn't extract it immediately.
Instead, another prompt appeared—
[Please establish physical contact with the target.]
'I have to make contact?'
Ye Li looked at the beautiful face in front of him and suddenly thought of a subtle method—
He could do it without anyone noticing...
And then.
He slowly lowered his head....
And went for it—
"Mmph...!"
Her beautiful blue-green eyes widened slowly...