I, Jiang Xiaoyu, Hate Being Lied To

Another meaningless conversation.

Li Muyang solemnly asked Little Wild Grass about her past experiences, and the little girl obediently and timidly recounted her tragic life story to him.

However, in the hundreds of times Li Muyang had reloaded his save, this brat had concocted over a dozen different versions of her story.

Clearly, the tragic experiences she spoke of were all made up on the spot.

She had no intention of telling Li Muyang, a stranger she had just met, about her true family background.

As for the version he heard this time, Li Muyang was no stranger to it; it was likely the most frequently appearing story in the little girl's repertoire.

Whenever he had heard these fake stories before, Li Muyang would feel incredibly frustrated. He would either call the little girl out directly and earnestly ask for the truth, or he would reload his save and try a different conversational approach, attempting to move her with his words.

Or, he would lose his temper and use private messages to interrogate her, trying to force the truth out of her...

He had been stuck on this level for far too long and was desperate to clear it.

But this time was different; this time, Li Muyang was truly exhausted.

He looked at the little girl before him with a weary expression and sighed.

"Are you serious?"

What did it mean to be mentally exhausted? This was it.

At this moment, Li Muyang suddenly felt the kind of weariness one feels when catching a daughter who lies incessantly and refuses to change, feeling too tired to even scold her after she messes up again.

He even had a "forget it, let it all burn" attitude of giving up entirely.

Inside the dimly lit stilt house, the little girl with the timid expression froze, then nodded earnestly.

"Mm-hmm, everything Little Grass said is true."

The little girl confirmed it for herself with great seriousness.

Looking at her obedient, sensible, and pitiful appearance, who would have guessed she was someone who spouted nonsense and lied as easily as breathing?

Li Muyang was almost amused to the point of anger by her superb acting skills.

"Fine, if you say it's true, then it's true."

Looking up at the sky outside, Li Muyang said, "It's not early anymore, and you've changed into your new clothes, so I'll take you out for a stroll."

"Since you don't want to stay with me anyway, I feel much the same."

"I'll send you away from this Black Cloud Stronghold. You can go wherever you want from now on, so you don't have to suffer any more grievances here."

Having been running in circles within the stronghold, Li Muyang decided to try a different route this time.

He had already given up on clearing the level anyway, so he decided to just play for fun and see what happened.

For instance, by sending this brat out of Black Cloud Stronghold, he could see if the system would force a game-over.

Or, perhaps sending the little girl out of the stronghold would trigger a new plotline.

Despite all his previous failures, Li Muyang had never tried taking the little girl out of the stronghold before.

When Li Muyang finished speaking, the little girl was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly shook her head.

"No, Big Brother, I don't want to leave."

"I was bought by you people, so I will obediently stay in the stronghold and do work for you."

"Big Brother, please don't drive me away. If I leave the stronghold alone, I'll die."

"The woods are full of monsters and wild beasts!"

The little girl pleaded with tears in her eyes, not wanting Li Muyang to send her away.

Regardless of whether her words were sincere or feigned, Li Muyang couldn't be bothered to care at this moment.

He took out the only tool in the stilt house—a small bamboo basket.

"Enough nonsense. I said I'm sending you out of the stronghold, so I am. If you keep whining, I'll slaughter you first and then toss your corpse out."

Li Muyang's fierce words seemed to frighten the little girl, finally making her shut her mouth.

Looking at the little girl sobbing quietly before him, Li Muyang curled his lip and said, "Don't worry, I won't dump you in the middle of nowhere."

"After I take you out of the stronghold, I'll personally escort you home."

"Isn't your home in the water towns of the Central Plains? Your father is a lecherous, fickle piece of trash, and your mother is a brute who only loves your younger brother and abuses you. They despised you for being a 'Soul-Lost One' and sold you to human traffickers, and you hate them deeply."

"And coincidentally, I, Jiang Xiaoyu, also hate such scum. So, I've decided to accompany you to your hometown personally, find those two pieces of trash you call parents, and hack them to death so they get what they deserve."

Li Muyang rambled on, placing the small bamboo basket in front of the girl and saying, "Get in. I'll send you off. I know a small path we can use to sneak out of the stronghold."

"There's nothing good in this Black Cloud Stronghold; I've been wanting to leave for a long time. We might as well leave together this time and go to your hometown to kill some people."

Li Muyang's demeanor was relaxed, and his tone was casual.

The little girl, however, widened her eyes, seemingly terrified by his proposal.

"Go... go back to my home?"

The next second, the little girl shook her head frantically like a rattle-drum.

"No, no! I don't want my mom and dad to die. Big Brother, can we please not go kill them?"

The little girl clutched Li Muyang's hand, pleading incessantly.

Li Muyang glared at her. "What? Didn't you just say you hated your parents to the bone and wished they were dead? Why are you begging for them now?"

"But let me tell you, it's too late! Pleading is useless!"

"I am going to kill your parents, that's final!"

"They live in Jiangyun County, Jizhou, right? It's only about a ten-day journey from here to Jiangyun County."

"I will personally take you to their doorstep and hack those two pieces of trash to death."

"Scum who sell their own daughter to human traffickers don't deserve to be parents!"

With a mix of coercion and intimidation, Li Muyang made the little girl crouch inside a small bamboo basket, covered it with a cloth, and set off with the basket strapped to his back.

The secret passage leading out of the stronghold was one Li Muyang had discovered while wandering around the camp earlier.

It was coming in handy now.

No one would have expected a stronghold member like Jiang Xiaoyu to suddenly try and escape with a "lost soul."

Therefore, he passed through the stronghold without obstruction, arriving at an abandoned shack in the southeast corner of Black Cloud Stronghold.

Carefully prying open the floorboards of the shack, a winding staircase leading downward appeared before him.

This tunnel was clearly used often, as there was no dust on the ground.

Li Muyang entered the tunnel with the little girl on his back, traversed the long, dark, and gloomy underground path, and finally arrived at a cave hidden within the mountain forest.

As the two emerged once more under the moonlight, Li Muyang clearly felt the little girl, who had been quiet and well-behaved the entire way, let out a soft sigh of relief.

It seems this brat didn't want to stay in Black Cloud Stronghold as much as she let on.

Peeking timidly through the gap in the cloth covering the basket, the little girl whispered in a trembling voice.

"Big Brother, are we really going to my home..."

The little girl confirmed the matter once more.

Under the moonlight, Li Muyang observed the dark, gloomy forest, his expression filled with curiosity.

The system didn't actually judge this as a game failure?

Does that mean escaping the stronghold with the little girl is also a valid path?

This raising-sim game has no restrictions on scenes or routes?

The freedom is higher than I imagined.

Thinking this, Li Muyang's smile grew even brighter.

"That's right, we're going to your home."

Hearing the timid inquiry from behind him, he chuckled happily. "We're going to kill your parents and act on behalf of Heaven."

After saying this, Li Muyang paused, then added, "If we get there and I find out you were lying to me, I'll chop your head off and feed your body to the dogs."

"I, Jiang Xiaoyu, hate it most when people lie to me!"

Li Muyang's voice carried through the moonlight, and in the basket behind him, the little girl's breathing instantly hitched.