The Timid Caidie

When Su Baichen's consciousness returned from the vast System Shop and he slowly opened his eyes, the helpless smile at the corner of his lips had yet to fade when his gaze was drawn to the obviously distracted little maid beside him.

Caidie was staring blankly at the flickering campfire, mechanically turning the wooden skewer of meat in her hand. Her eyes were vacant; her thoughts had clearly drifted far away.

Worse still, the originally golden-brown roast meat had already blackened around the edges, and a faintly pungent burnt smell wafted through the air. Leave it any longer, and it would probably turn completely to charcoal.

"Hey, hey, hey, snap out of it!" Su Baichen had no choice but to remind her, amusement in his voice. "Little Die, if you don't turn it over soon, we'll be eating charcoal chunks for dinner tonight!"

Caidie jumped at the sudden voice and shuddered all over, abruptly coming back to her senses. When she saw the nearly unrecognizable skewer of meat in her hand, her little face instantly turned red like a ripe apple.

Flustered, she removed the burnt skewer. Looking at the blackened lump, she felt both annoyed and embarrassed. She subconsciously scratched her cheek with a finger, her gaze darting away as she dared not look at Su Baichen.

"I-I'm sorry, Young Master... I-I'll roast another one right away!" As she spoke, she was about to get up and fetch the spare ingredients, wanting only to make up for her mistake as quickly as possible.

"Don't fuss over it." Su Baichen waved a hand, his voice calm. "Come here first. I have something to ask you."

Yet this simple sentence sounded like a final judgment to the already nervous Caidie.

Her petite body stiffened abruptly as countless terrifying thoughts surged into her mind like a tide:

It's over, it's over! I can't even handle such a trivial task. Young Master must think I'm useless baggage!

He'll definitely scold me: 'You can't even roast some food properly. What use are you?!'

Is he going to put on a cold face and say, 'Get lost. I don't need you anymore'?

Although Su Baichen had always treated her well and had never been harsh with her, in her extreme anxiety, she had automatically imagined an entire cruel and heartless drama.

She could practically see Su Baichen with a frosty expression, flicking his sleeve and walking away. Great fear seized her heart, making even breathing difficult.

Terrified that she was about to be abandoned, she shuffled toward Su Baichen one halting step at a time. She moved as slowly as though a thousand-pound burden were dragging at her feet. Her delicate body trembled, her eyes gradually reddening beyond her control. She looked exactly like a despairing prisoner about to walk to the execution ground.

Su Baichen was completely dumbfounded by her expression of facing death without fear.

He subconsciously touched his face and even took a small water mirror from his Storage Ring to inspect himself.

That's right. Sword-like brows, bright eyes, a high nose bridge—still the same face so handsome it enraged gods and men alike.

Still dashing and elegant, with an otherworldly temperament. Flawlessly handsome, as always!

How had I scared this little maid into such a state? Could it be... the Snake-People Tribe's standards of beauty are vastly different from humans'? Does this face of mine actually look like a green-faced, fang-toothed beast to them?

Just as Su Baichen sank into deep self-doubt, Caidie finally inched her way before him.

Before Su Baichen could ask anything, there was a thud. Caidie dropped straight to her knees, raised her tear-streaked little face, and begged pitifully through sobs:

"Young Master! This servant knows her mistake! Please, give this servant one more chance! This servant will serve you wholeheartedly from now on and will never lose focus again! Please, don't send me away!" Tears rolled down her smooth cheeks like pearls from a broken string.

The commotion finally disturbed Cao Ying, who had been cultivating intently nearby. She slowly finished her cultivation and opened her beautiful eyes, looking over in confusion. Just in time, she saw Caidie kneeling before Su Baichen, crying miserably and repeatedly begging him not to send her away.

Cao Ying was pure-hearted and kind. Seeing this, she immediately assumed Caidie had made some grave mistake and was being severely punished by her master.

She immediately sprang up from the ground and fluttered to Su Baichen's side like a light butterfly. Wrapping her small hands tightly around one of his arms, she gently shook it, her soft voice brimming with coquettish pleading:

"Master~ Please, for Ying'er's sake, give Sister Caidie another chance!"

"Sister Caidie definitely didn't do it on purpose. Master, you're the best and the most forgiving. Please forgive her this once! Pretty please, Master!"

As she spoke, Cao Ying gazed eagerly at Su Baichen with her large, watery eyes, her little face filled with the stubborn message: If you don't agree, I'll keep shaking you.

For a moment, on Su Baichen's left was a little maid kneeling on the ground, crying and begging bitterly, while on his right was his soft-voiced little disciple clinging to his arm and pleading.

If anyone unaware of the truth had seen this scene, they would definitely have thought Su Baichen a cold and heartless master who mistreated his maid and disciple.

The key was that Su Baichen himself was still utterly bewildered, with no idea how things had developed to this point.

He opened his mouth, looking at the two lovely but differently expressive little faces before him. He truly had a grievance he could not voice, and he felt terribly stifled.

In the end, he could only let out a long, helpless sigh, his voice full of powerlessness. "Sigh... What exactly did I do, you two girls?"

He first turned his gaze to Caidie, who was kneeling on the ground, and made a gesture as if to help her up. "Get up and talk first. I only just called you over, and without saying a word, you dropped to your knees. I haven't said anything or done anything yet."

"What exactly happened? You have to tell me first, don't you? If you don't say anything, how am I supposed to know what you're thinking?"

Then he looked somewhat aggrievedly at Cao Ying, who was hanging from his arm. "And you, Ying'er. You started pleading for her before even figuring out what happened, making your master seem as though he's completely unreasonable."

Hearing this, Cao Ying blinked her lively eyes, looked at her innocent-faced master, then at the sobbing Caidie on the ground. She seemed to realize that she might have acted too impulsively, and her gaze held a questioning meaning, as though she were asking: Sister Caidie, what exactly happened?

After hearing Su Baichen's explanation and seeing the utterly genuine confusion on his face, Caidie immediately realized that she had misunderstood and made a huge fool of herself.

The tear stains on her face had not yet dried, but an embarrassed flush once again spread across her cheeks and even reddened the tips of her ears.

She lowered her head sheepishly, explaining in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz:

"I... I thought... I burned the food, and Young Master got angry and was going to... punish me and send me away... So, that's why I..."

After hearing Caidie's halting explanation, Su Baichen felt both amused and exasperated, almost to the point of coughing up blood.

He raised a hand and rubbed his temples, looking at Caidie with utter helplessness.

"In your heart, am I some tyrant who throws people out over such a trivial matter?"

At once, Caidie shook her head like a rattle drum and nervously defended him. "No! No! Young Master is the most tolerant and reasonable person!"

(If the Snake-People Tribe's Fourth Elder, currently eating sand outside the cave, could have heard this, he would surely have burst into tears and shouted, "I can testify! Senior Su is very reasonable! I only cursed you a few times, and without another word, you smacked me into the sand and buried me there for half the day! So very 'reasonable'!")

Seeing Caidie's increasingly nervous attempt to explain herself, Su Baichen felt even more helpless, nearly shouting inwardly, No, what do you mean by getting more nervous the more you explain? It's not like I'm going to eat you! Relax, girl!

He knew that continuing this topic would only make things worse, so he could only forcibly steer the derailed conversation back on track.

He cleared his throat, his expression returning to its usual calmness. Gazing at Caidie gently, he asked:

"Fine, let this misunderstanding end here. Forget about the burnt meat."

"Now, can you finally tell me what exactly had you so distracted just now?"