In the end, Li Muyang chased his cheap little sister, Li Yuechan, away.
Well... "chased away" wasn't quite right.
Li Muyang had certainly been cold toward her, but he hadn't been particularly nasty. The girl had sat down to rest for a while, set down the things her aunt and uncle had asked her to bring from home, then obediently left.
She really knew how to read the room.
Watching Li Yuechan's retreating figure, Li Muyang sighed inwardly.
Maybe it was because she'd grown up dependent on others. Though she was still young, the girl was good at reading people's expressions and had a remarkably high emotional intelligence.
Her cheerful, optimistic nature made it hard to dislike her.
Even when Li Muyang snapped at her, she didn't get angry.
For a sixteen-year-old girl to have such emotional intelligence and self-restraint left the original host—that cringey, overgrown baby—so far behind he wasn't even in the same league.
No wonder the original host hated his cheap little sister.
A self-important, cringey teenager meeting someone his own age who outclassed him in every way? It would be strange if he liked her.
After chasing his cheap little sister away, Li Muyang inspected the luggage she'd left behind.
Besides the food container filled with pastries she'd brought from Jiuyuan City, there was a bundle containing two brand-new sets of winter clothes, a pair of newly made boots, a letter from home, and a purse.
Though the original host had shouted, "Don't look down on a poor young man!" at his parents in front of the neighbors, he'd been away from home for so long that his mother still worried about him.
It was only the end of summer, but she'd already prepared his winter clothes and sent them with her adopted daughter, afraid her son might be cold in the Demon Refining Sect.
For the now penniless Li Muyang, the silver in the purse was a small fortune. It would keep him going for quite a while.
At last, looking at the letter from home in his hands, Li Muyang hesitated. He didn't have the courage to open it.
What his cheap little sister Li Yuechan had said just now had dealt a tremendous blow to Li Muyang, the transmigrator from Earth.
He really didn't dare read the letter his parents had sent.
The original host had been an ungrateful, cringey teenager, but Li Muyang wasn't.
He couldn't accept the affection of a mother he'd never known. To him, it was too intense and frightening.
Li Muyang had decided to give up all of the original host's social ties.
Fortunately, given the terrible relationship between the original host and his sister, even if Li Yuechan didn't hold a grudge, she'd just made a friendly overture and gotten the cold shoulder. Surely she wouldn't come bother him again.
...That was how it should have gone, anyway.
The next afternoon, after Li Muyang finished watering the spirit fields, he sat beneath the tree on the field ridge to rest and entered the game again.
He continued playing the kind big brother in Black Cloud Stronghold, taking care of Little Wild Grass.
But at dusk, he heard footsteps approaching.
When Li Muyang opened his eyes, he saw the girl smiling brightly in the sunset, dressed in a pale white skirt.
She carried a food container, hopping along the mountain path with her hands clasped behind her back. She looked utterly innocent.
Seeing Li Muyang open his eyes, the girl greeted him with a smile.
"Brother, I cooked you a meal. Want to eat together?"
The girl opened the lid of her food container, revealing a steaming meal inside.
Three dishes, two meat and one vegetable, all delicious-looking and fragrant.
The sight of those two meat dishes made Li Muyang swallow reflexively. He'd eaten pickled vegetables for so long that it had been ages since he'd tasted meat.
But after hesitating, Li Muyang still refused to be nice to the girl. He glowered at her and told her to get lost.
"Stop bothering me!"
Li Muyang had too many secrets now. He had to keep his distance from everyone. He couldn't afford to let his guard down, not even a little.
If Li Yuechan discovered the Endless Spirit Rice Jar in his house, who knew what ideas would enter the mind of a sixteen-year-old girl?
Li Muyang wasn't about to gamble his safety on someone else's conscience.
After the girl with the food container got a dressing-down from Li Muyang, she blinked innocently.
"Okay..."
She didn't argue with him and seemed to have no temper at all.
Instead, she simply set the food container down where she stood, turned around, and left.
Li Muyang called after her to take the food container with her, but she pretended not to hear.
Soon, the girl disappeared into the sunset.
Watching her retreating figure, Li Muyang, who had just played the villain, sighed.
He glanced at the food container she'd left behind... He'd planned not to let the meal go to waste. But if the girl came back tomorrow and saw that he'd eaten it, wouldn't she start pushing her luck?
So Li Muyang forced himself to ignore the food container's tempting aroma, turned around, and went back to his meager life of rice and pickled vegetables.
The meal sat out in the open for a day and a night.
Then, at dusk the next day, the girl appeared again with a food container. She saw the one she'd left behind, still sitting where it had been, completely untouched.
The girl hesitated, then looked toward Li Muyang, sitting with his eyes closed beneath the old tree by the field ridge. In the end, she said nothing. She quietly carried today's food container to the door of Li Muyang's tiled-roof house and took away the meal he hadn't eaten the day before.
On the third day, at the same time of dusk, she came to Li Muyang's spirit fields again with a food container. She saw Li Muyang resting with his eyes closed beneath the tree on the field ridge, as well as the untouched food container by the door of his house.
This time, the girl didn't say a word. She walked familiarly over to the house, set down the food container full of freshly cooked, steaming dishes, and took away the container no one had touched the night before.
Then came the fourth day, the fifth, the sixth...
His cheap little sister seemed determined to go head-to-head with Li Muyang.
Even though he never touched the food she brought, she still delivered a meal every evening.
The standoff lasted nine days. At last, on the ninth day, when the girl came again, she found the food container empty, with only the dishes and bowls, washed clean, left inside.
At the sight of this, the girl's eyebrows curved into pretty crescent moons, and she smiled.
Humming a cheerful little tune, she carried away the food container from the night before and left today's meal behind.
As for Li Muyang beneath the old tree by the field ridge, she didn't disturb him either. She simply left on her own.
And just like that, a splash of color entered Li Muyang's life.
He no longer had to eat pickled vegetables with plain rice every day.
Now, along with fragrant spirit rice, he also had hot dishes brought by his cheap little sister.
There was always meat and vegetables, and she made something different every day. Li Muyang had to admit that his cheap little sister was an excellent cook.
And Li Yuechan never bothered him, maintaining a healthy sense of boundaries.
The strange relationship between these two siblings settled into an even stranger balance.
They left each other in peace and got along reasonably well.
As for Li Muyang, the "useless big brother" who was the only one being fed, he felt no shame at all.
He'd figured it out: his cheap little sister wasn't someone to take lightly.
She never argued or made a fuss, yet she was even more persistent than the girls who threw tantrums. She wouldn't give up until she got what she wanted.
He didn't know why she was so eager to feed him, but as long as she didn't intrude any further on his life, Li Muyang didn't mind humoring her a little.
By now, after a long period of nurturing, Li Muyang had successfully raised Little Wild Grass's affection to [36].
As he'd guessed, the second stage of nurturing required him to spend time with Little Wild Grass.
Two years had passed in the game. Little Wild Grass's affection toward Li Muyang was now growing slowly, and it looked like it was about to break through the [40] mark.
Li Muyang was looking forward to seeing what reward he could claim after finishing the second stage of nurturing.
Before you continue