Zi JI stiffened her neck and argued back, though her eyes shifted evasively.
"I just! I just didn't want to botch the task my lord entrusted to me!"
Watching her say the opposite of what she felt, Su Yu found the vague, indefinable feeling in his heart suddenly becoming a little clearer.
He reached out and gently pinched her earlobe between his fingertips, amusement in his voice.
"Zi JI, has any other Ferocious Beast ever told you how adorable you are when you say the opposite of what you mean?"
Zi JI froze at his words. Then her cheeks seemed to have been scorched by a raging fire, flushing red all the way to her ears.
She abruptly turned her face away, her neck taut like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Even her voice took on a slight tremble.
"Wh-who says the opposite of what they mean? Not me! Stop talking nonsense!"
As she spoke, she unconsciously thrust out her chest, as though trying to prove something, a childish stubbornness creeping into her tone.
"Besides, I'm Zi JI of the Star Dou Great Forest, one of the ten great Ferocious Beasts!"
"I'm not adorable at all! Take a good look-I'm super fierce!"
Watching her flustered reaction, Su Yu's eyes almost overflowed with laughter.
He deliberately stepped closer and lowered his voice, teasing her.
"Oh? Super fierce? How come I can't see it?"
Su Yu lightly rubbed his fingertips back and forth twice, and Zi JI felt a strange, tingling numbness flow through her entire body.
Under the influence of that sensation, Zi JI's gaze became even more evasive, and she dared not meet Su Yu's smiling eyes.
"You!"
His touch made Zi JI stiffen all over. She abruptly retreated half a step as though she had been