Chapter 20: Vanished
Yan Mo’s heart hammered against his ribs. Beside him, Lan Ze sensed the Male’s agitation and tightened his grip on his hand, offering silent comfort.
Over by the rift, Professor Bai Ye finally reached out and touched the fracture.
In an instant, a blinding light enveloped Bai Ye, and a massive suction force dragged him into the Interstellar Rift.
The surrounding magnetic field shifted violently. A localized hurricane erupted in Blackwater Street, centered on the rift, seemingly intent on sweeping everything into the void.
The nearby Females descended into chaos, fleeing desperately in the opposite direction.
Yan Mo’s heart raced. He stared at the Interstellar Rift and took a step toward it, but he was immediately jerked back by a strong pull.
Yan Mo turned around and saw Lan Ze, their hands still linked.
Lan Ze stood rooted to the spot.
He looked at Yan Mo without saying a word, his expression suggesting he had already seen through Yan Mo’s intentions.
Lan Ze gave Yan Mo one long, profound look, and then—abruptly—he let go of Yan Mo’s hand.
Yan Mo froze for a heartbeat.
He hesitated, standing there in the middle of the storm. Ultimately, he reached out and grabbed Lan Ze’s hand again. He didn’t move toward the Interstellar Rift; instead, he turned and ran in the opposite direction.
The hurricane raged for a few more moments before finally subsiding.
the Female researcher who had been holding the other end of the rope sat on the ground, face ashen, staring at his empty palm.
In the air where the Interstellar Rift had once been, there was now not a single trace.
A researcher looked at a monitoring device and cried out, “The magnetic field has returned to normal!”
The Interstellar Rift had vanished completely.
And along with it, Bai Ye was gone.
The peace didn’t last long before the researchers fell into a fresh panic over this sudden emergency.
Saiensi had also been caught in the hurricane.
He and his squad had been further away from the rift and hadn’t realized exactly what had happened. Once the wind died down, Saiensi ordered his team to continue their sweep while he sprinted toward Yan Mo and Lan Ze.
“What just happened? Are you and Lord Yan Mo hurt?”
Saiensi was visibly shaken. After all, he and Lan Ze were the ones who had brought the Male Lord here; if anything happened to him, Saiensi would be held responsible.
Lan Ze told him about Bai Ye’s disappearance.
Saiensi gasped. “He was too reckless! To risk himself like that when we still know nothing about the rift… This is a disaster! I heard the Bai family was already against him working at the Research Center and had picked an A-rank Male from the Kling family for a marriage alliance. With this happening, the alliance is dead. The Bai family will be sick with grief, and the Research Center is in for a world of trouble.”
Lan Ze said coldly, “That Kling Male—I heard he loses a dozen Female Attendants to ‘accidents’ every year. Why would the Bai family choose someone like him?”
Saiensi sighed. “The Bai family hasn’t produced a Male in three generations. They’re desperate. If they don’t secure a high-ranking marriage soon, their clan will decline. Kling is a bastard, but he’s still an A-rank Male. Besides, now that Bai Ye is likely dead, he might have been better off marrying Kling; at least he would have lived a few more years.”
Lan Ze pulled Yan Mo away, ending the conversation.
“I’m taking Lord Yan Mo back to the camp.”
Saiensi nodded. “Good idea. It’s not safe here. You two go ahead, and I’ll meet you there once the sweep is finished.”
Yan Mo and Lan Ze returned to their chosen campsite.
Lan Ze found a clearing and took a cube-shaped metal object from his spatial button, placing it in the center of the space.
In the next second, Yan Mo watched as the cube began to split and grow, eventually transforming into a small house.
“It’s memory metal,” Lan Ze explained.
He pushed the door open and pulled Yan Mo inside. The room was equipped with basic amenities like a bed, chairs, and a table.
Lan Ze took out the luggage from the spatial button and quickly set up the room. He then led Yan Mo to the sofa and sat him down.
“Lord, please rest for a while. I’ll go prepare some food.”
“Lan Ze.”
Yan Mo stopped him before he could leave.
“I have something I want to tell you.”
Lan Ze sat back down beside him. He felt that Yan Mo had made a momentous decision back on Blackwater Street.
For a split second, Lan Ze had thought Yan Mo was going to leave. But he had stayed—he had stayed for him.
Lan Ze’s heart felt as though it were soaking in warm water, tender and soft.
Yan Mo felt that Lan Ze must have guessed his origin. After all, even Bai Ye had picked up on it from just a few sentences.
How could Lan Ze, who lived with him day and night, not notice?
Lan Ze was a brilliant Female, the youngest Major General in the galaxy. He couldn’t have missed the anomalies. Moreover, Blackwater Street had been searched multiple times, and there was no trace of an underground lab. Then there was the timing of the rift’s appearance and Yan Mo’s intense focus on it.
It was easy to connect the dots.
Yan Mo realized he had left behind far too many clues.
“You know, don’t you? I…”
Lan Ze interrupted him. His ice-blue eyes fixed on Yan Mo, reflecting his silhouette.
“This inspection likely won’t yield anything. That underground research lab must have run into an accident while transporting you to Blackwater Street, causing them to leave you behind. By the time I reached the street during my sweep, they had already evacuated.”
Yan Mo’s eyes widened. He wanted to say there was no underground lab, that he had come through the Interstellar Rift.
In his shock, Yan Mo suddenly understood what Lan Ze was doing.
“Right… that’s it. I… I don’t remember.”
Yan Mo bit his lip.
He had given up his chance to return to Earth. To live among the Zerg in the future, he had to have been kidnapped and abandoned on Planet 1347.
Lan Ze’s expression softened.
Yan Mo suddenly felt a surge of impulse. He grabbed Lan Ze’s hand and pulled the Female into his arms.
Zerg Females were generally tall and well-built. While Lan Ze wasn’t as bulky as some of the more physically focused Females, he was still taller than Yan Mo.
Yan Mo hugged him tightly, practically hanging off him.
Lan Ze’s lips curved into a smile.
Recalling the sight of Yan Mo’s back as he walked toward the rift on Blackwater Street, a wave of panic still lingered in his heart.
But fortunately, Yan Mo hadn’t left.
“Lord, did you give up on leaving for my sake?”
Yan Mo lifted his head from Lan Ze’s shoulder and looked into those ice-blue eyes.
“No, I didn’t give up on leaving for your sake.”
Yan Mo recalled the scene of Bai Ye being sucked into the rift. He had seen the rope slip from the researcher’s hand before Bai Ye vanished into the void. He had watched the last of the stardust disappear.
The memories of his time with Lan Ze flashed through his mind, and a sudden wave of longing had surged within him.
He had no family or friends left in his old world. While that world was familiar, it wasn’t something he couldn’t let go of.
But Lan Ze was different. Lan Ze had Admiral Lan Hechen. Though father and son were both stubborn and cold, they clearly cared for one another. Lan Ze had comrades like Saiensi and many friends.
He couldn’t ask Lan Ze to abandon all of that to follow him.
And he couldn’t bring himself to leave Lan Ze.
Yan Mo looked at Lan Ze.
The Female’s eyes held a hint of confusion and helplessness.
Yan Mo had found a treasure here, and he wanted to keep it. That was his reason for staying.
Recommended Reads
![I Can See Esports Players’ Attribute Entries [Transmigration]](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/see-215x300.jpg)
![[ABO] After Accidental Marking, I Became Everyone’s Darling](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ABO-225x300.jpeg)
