Under the moonlight, as Li Muyang finished speaking, the little girl in the basket on his back fell silent.
Li Muyang was very pleased by the girl's silence.
Heh heh... So you've finally started sweating, you little brat.
You've been lying to me this whole time!
Li Muyang was in a very good mood after successfully frightening the girl.
He glanced at the Favorability score in the upper-right corner of his vision, wanting to see how much the scare had lowered it.
He'd let himself go this time and was just messing around, so he didn't care how much Little Wild Grass's favorability dropped—being able to reload whenever you wanted was the beauty of a save-based game.
But when Li Muyang saw the favorability number in the upper-right corner, his steps through the forest suddenly faltered.
At that moment, Li Muyang wondered if he was seeing things.
[Little Wild Grass: 16]
"?"
What was going on?
Was I seeing things? Or was the system bugging out?
After he'd scared the girl, she hadn't started hating him. Instead, her favorability had shot up?
Why?
Li Muyang looked utterly baffled and even began to suspect the system had malfunctioned.
Was there supposed to be a minus sign in front of that 16?
The next second, the little girl's timid voice came from the basket on Li Muyang's back.
"Big brother, do you really hate it when people lie to you?"
"Uh... more or less." Li Muyang, who'd been making threats and frightening her just moments ago, couldn't manage to sound fierce now that he was so bewildered.
He checked carefully. The favorability number was definitely positive.
In all those failed save files, he'd played with her, taken care of her, and tried to win her over. He'd practically treated her like an ancestor, but her favorability hadn't budged at all. Now, for no apparent reason, it had shot up by sixteen points.
...Could this brat be a masochist? Did she like being scolded and threatened?
That made no sense!
Li Muyang was still suspicious when the little girl in the basket on his back spoke again.
Her voice was timid and low.
"Big brother, you'd already figured out that I was lying, hadn't you..."
The little girl's timid voice drifted through the moonlight.
This frank confession was like heaven and earth compared to the girl who'd been all smiles and lies before.
It was as if she'd become someone else.
Li Muyang hesitated. His instincts told him that the girl's sudden change in attitude was the key to breaking through.
But he had no idea how to respond.
After all, he didn't understand women. He'd never even been in a relationship, so he couldn't compare with those smooth-talking romantics who knew just what to say.
So, after a brief hesitation, Li Muyang decided to let himself go again.
He had unlimited save files to test things out with, after all. If he messed up this time, he could just reload.
So Li Muyang answered frankly, "That's right. I could tell you were lying from the start."
"You're a little brat who lies through her teeth. Not a single word out of your mouth is true. All you know how to do is deceive people. Just looking at you is annoying."
Li Muyang said exactly what he was thinking.
It was because the brat was always making things up, never telling the truth, that he'd failed hundreds of times!
Li Muyang's tone was thoroughly annoyed.
The little girl in the basket fell silent for a few seconds, then asked cautiously, "Then, big brother, now that you've confirmed I was lying... are you still going to take me to Jizhou?"
"You said just now that if you found out I'd lied when we got to Jizhou, you'd cut off my head..."
The girl asked cautiously.
Li Muyang curled his lip. "I was just trying to scare you. You've been lying through your teeth and deceiving people, so I just wanted to frighten you a little."
"I'm Jiang Xiaoyu, not some murderer. How could I kill a child?"
Li Muyang's words made the girl in the basket breathe a sigh of relief.
She cautiously asked again, "Then... big brother, you knew I was lying, but you still brought me out? Aren't you afraid the people in the stronghold will hunt you down?"
"You're one of the stronghold's people, too. You secretly took away an important Soul-Lost One. The people there definitely won't let you off..."
The girl clearly couldn't understand Li Muyang's reasoning.
Who would take her away from the stronghold when they'd just met, knowing full well she was lying?
The girl was utterly confused. For the first time, she'd met an adult she couldn't figure out, and she was at a loss.
Under the moonlight, Li Muyang just gave a nonchalant snort.
"So what if they hunt me down? Worst case, they catch up and hack me to death."
"I, Jiang Xiaoyu, am not afraid of dying."
He'd died hundreds of times already. Why would he be afraid?
It was just a matter of reloading.
Li Muyang carried the little girl through the moonlit forest, getting farther and farther from Black Cloud Stronghold.
Feeling the basket jostle, the girl inside asked timidly, "Then, big brother, why... why are you taking me with you?"
"Even if you're not afraid of dying, you don't like me. There's no reason for you to help me escape the stronghold..."
The girl voiced the question that had been troubling her.
Li Muyang looked up at the path as he walked and said, "Because I can't stand the sight of you, I want to get rid of you as soon as possible."
"You don't like Black Cloud Stronghold, and neither do I. I'm just taking you along because we're headed the same way. Once we're out, you can go back to Jiangyun County and I'll go my own way. We won't get in each other's business."
Li Muyang made up an answer on the spot. In truth, he wanted to see whether he'd still be assassinated after leaving Black Cloud Stronghold.
But after he finished speaking, the girl in the basket fell silent for a few seconds, then said awkwardly, "Um... big brother, I'm actually not from Jiangyun County in Jizhou. I just passed through there while wandering..."
The girl's voice grew quieter and quieter...
Li Muyang cut her off.
"It doesn't matter. I don't care where you came from or what you've been through."
"Honestly, if I hadn't been forced to look after you, I wouldn't want anything to do with a little brat like you who lies through her teeth."
He meant that.
In other nurturing games, the heroines were all sweet, adorable girls, busty young ladies, or obedient little lolis—cute characters through and through. They made them as soft and lovable as possible.
These days, even tsundere characters were nearly out of fashion. Yet the system had given him a Little Wild Grass who was even more trouble than a tsundere.
She lied through her teeth and had a heart of stone. No matter how good he was to her, she didn't care. His game character kept getting killed, and there wasn't a single positive response... If the system didn't limit him to this one game, Li Muyang would have given up already.
Li Muyang's words seemed to hit the girl in the basket hard.
She fell silent and didn't say a word for a long time.
Meanwhile, Li Muyang, carrying her on his back, saw the favorability bar in the upper-right corner of his vision move again.
[Little Wild Grass: 20 (She seems to think you can be trusted)]
"?"
Another question mark appeared over Li Muyang's head.
What kind of twisted logic did this brat have?
When he tried to win her over and treated her well, she couldn't care less.
Now he was frightening her and even saying he couldn't stand her, yet her favorability kept rising, and she thought he could be trusted...
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