Ariana was both serious and anxious, which somewhat confused the woman.

After thinking for a while, the woman stammered, “Yes, yes, he was a quite handsome young man."

“Was he about this tall?" Ariana leveled her hand to Theodore's approximate height. The woman thought for a while and then nodded in agreement.

Ariana gave more details to the woman to be sure it was indeed the same person, and the more the woman nodded, the more Ariana was convinced that it was indeed Theodore.

But even so, she was still uncertain. She was worried that her excitement was premature, and that she would be even more disappointed in the end if it wasn't him.

She eventually thought of showing the woman a photo of Theodore, but then she realized that she had very few photos of Theodore in her phone.

Heaving a deep sigh, Ariana gave up on the idea and just asked the woman, "Do you know where that man went afterward?"

The woman shook her head.

“How would I know? He seemed to be from another city and he came last week. I haven't seen him since, so he probably left the town."

A week ago... Ariana roughly calculated the time and felt more certain that the person the woman was talking about was indeed Theodore.

It reassured her that she hadn't come all the way here for nothing.

Ariana could feel she was getting closer and closer to the truth she wanted to know.

Now that she had all the information and confirmation she wanted, Ariana said goodbye to the woman and headed off to the Stone House near South Park.

The houses around were mostly occupied by elderly people. Ariana politely greeted them and asked about Lilyana.

The answers she got were all similar to the woman's — Lilyana's children had taken her to the city and she hadn't been seen Lately.

After hearing the same answers from everyone, Ariana couldn't help feeling disappointed.

Besides, it was getting late and she had to drive five hours at night to get home.

The worst part was that this mountainous area had very bad roads, and many of them were narrow and bumpy country roads. It would be dangerous for her to drive at night.

She ultimately decided to stay here for the night.

The town was small and there were few hotels, and unfortunately for Ariana, there were a lot of tourists at that time. As a result, all nearby hotels were fully booked. Discouraged, Ariana went all the same to the reception of a hotel to inquire about available rooms, but the answer was still no.