The backdrop can also be propped up.

"Polalied?" Upon seeing Pollalied's reaction, Maria Elisa knew that her plan had gotten off to a good start.

Maria Elisa called Pollard's name twice more before Pollard came to his senses.

Pollard returned the pocket watch to Maria Elisa, his heart still unsettled—why did this woman look so much like him? What could their relationship be?

“A very beautiful pocket watch, Lisa.” Pollard smiled, temporarily suppressing his doubts.

“I told you so, this woman is really beautiful,” Maria Elisa said with a grin. Then, she suddenly narrowed her eyes and looked very seriously at Pollard’s head, saying, “You have a gray hair on your head.”

Upon hearing this, Pollalid, somewhat curious, began to touch her hair: "Really? Then where is it approximately?"

Seeing that Pollard believed her, Maria Elisa reached out and pulled out two strands of Pollard's hair. She quickly tossed her hand out and then pulled it back in, pretending that she had thrown the hair away, and said, "Now I've pulled it out."

Pollalid touched the spot on his scalp that was a little sore from Maria Elisa pulling his hair out, and blushed slightly as he looked at the smiling Maria Elisa in front of him.

"How's your father doing lately?" Maria Elisa changed the subject.

“Dad? He said he’s been doing well lately.” Pollillard thought for a moment and added, “But he’s been coughing a lot lately. When I ask him about it, he just tells me it’s nothing and that he’s taking cough medicine from the pharmacy.”

"Oh, a cough? It's hard to say if it's a cough. Minor illnesses are easy to treat, but major illnesses are difficult to treat," Maria Elisa mentioned casually.

"What does 'serious illness is difficult to cure' mean?" Pollalid, having extracted the key information, immediately became tense.

“Hmm, I recently remembered a disease I read about in a book.” Maria Elisa had looked up information about the disease beforehand, based on the characteristics of the illness that Pollard’s adoptive father had in the original text. “There’s a disease called Medica. In the early stages, it’s just a cough that doesn’t attract much attention. But if you don’t take it seriously, the cough will get worse and worse in the later stages, even coughing up blood. Moreover, the virus will destroy the human immune system, accelerating death. There’s no cure for the later stages yet in interstellar space, only delaying drugs, so it’s best to treat it in the early stages. At least you have to start taking the medicine when you start coughing up blood to completely nip the disease in the bud.”

Maria Elisa watched as Pollalid's expression gradually turned serious.

Then Maria Elisa saw Pollard rush into the kitchen without even saying hello to ask his adoptive father about Pallas's specific physical condition.

The sound of a father and son arguing came from the kitchen, and it ended with him telling Pallas the truth and agreeing to go to see Pollalid for treatment the next day.

“I’m sorry, Lisa, I lost my temper.” The first thing Pollard did upon returning was to apologize to Maria Elisa, followed by his thanks. “He had actually been coughing up blood, but he hadn’t told me. I’ll take him to the hospital for a check-up tomorrow. Thank you, Lisa.”

"It's alright, I hope Uncle's illness isn't anything serious," Maria Elisa said with a smile, secretly pleased that she had changed another plot point. "If you need anything, just let me know."

Then Maria Elisa remembered something and quickly said to Pollard, "Oh, right, one more thing, if you meet someone on the road, remember to take them to the hospital, don't take them home to treat yourself."

Maria Elisa remembered how Pollard had provoked the yandere male lead in the original story and ended up crippled. "It's best to send him to the hospital. There are a lot of interstellar fugitives around these days."

"Thanks for the reminder, I'll be careful." Although Pollard didn't quite understand why Maria and Elisa would suddenly bring this up, he still agreed.

“Oh! And one more thing,” Maria Elisa said, “If you happen to find someone on the street but it’s too late, you can come to me first, and I can help you.”

Pollard was pleased to hear Maria Elisa's earnest instructions, even though what Maria Elisa said sounded a bit like a fantasy—how could he possibly pick up an interstellar fugitive while walking along the road?—he still promised to contact Maria Elisa if anything came up.

After Maria Elisa left, Pollard thought about what Maria Elisa had said and still found it interesting. But that night, he suddenly felt that Maria Elisa had inadvertently foreseen something.

Pollard, who was out buying food and returning home late, saw a bloodied man lying in front of his shop.

Pollalid's adoptive father, Pampas, looked at the man blankly and asked, "Son, who is this person?"

“I don’t know, let’s take him to the hospital first,” Pollalid said.

“I’m going to the hospital tomorrow, so let’s help him stay at home for the night, and then we’ll take him to the hospital together tomorrow,” Palas suggested.

“This guy’s background is unknown. What if he’s a heinous fugitive who could implicate us? Let’s get him to the hospital as soon as possible,” Pollalid said. He then found his personal terminal and planned to call Maria Elisa—Maria Elisa had just said that morning that if anyone was lying in wait at their door, they could ask her for help.

Maria Elisa was idly twirling her pen when she felt a vibration in her personal terminal. She opened it and saw that it was a call request from Pollard.

"What's wrong, Boled?" Maria Elisa quickly answered the phone, anticipating that a very important plot point was about to occur.

"Lisa, are you free?" Pollalid asked cautiously, her eyes still fixed on the blood-covered, unconscious man. "An A-type guy suddenly appeared in front of my shop. He was covered in blood and looked rather frightening."

"Do you need to borrow my spaceship? No problem," Maria Elisa said. "Saving lives is the priority. I'll fly you to the hospital in my spaceship, and I can also have your uncle get checked out while I'm at it."

“Okay, thank you,” Pollalid said with a smile, her ears turning red.

"Don't mention it, we're friends." Maria Elisa began to wonder, what would the plot have been like without this fifth male lead?

However, Maria Elisa thought to herself, "I'll find a chance to pluck a few more of Pollard's hairs later when I'm piloting the spaceship. I'll touch his head and see if I can pull out a few."

Lu Renkui, who knew what Maria and Elisa were thinking: ...

Does this child really not realize how close this relationship is?

But Maria and Elisa live in this interstellar ABO era, so their worldviews might be different. Lu Renkui thought to himself, convincing himself of this.