Under the moonlight, the little girl in the bamboo basket on his back fell silent as Li Muyang’s words ended.

    Li Muyang was very pleased with the girl’s silence.

    Humph... that’ll teach you to keep lying to me.

    Now you’re sweating bullets, aren’t you?

    Having successfully intimidated the girl, Li Muyang was in a very good mood.

    He glanced at the affection meter in the upper right corner of his field of vision, curious to see how much it would decrease after this scare.

    Anyway, he was just letting loose this time, playing around without a care for how much Xiao Yecao’s affection meter would drop—the charm of a save game is being able to restart anytime.

    But when Li Muyang saw the number for the affection meter, his steps through the forest suddenly halted.

    At that moment, Li Muyang doubted his own eyes.

    【Xiao Yecao: 16】

    “...?”

    What’s going on?

    Am I blind? Or is there a glitch in the system?

    After being intimidated, not only did this girl not hate me, but her affection actually skyrocketed?

    Why?

    Li Muyang was utterly confused and even began to suspect a system error.

    There should be a minus sign in front of that 16, right?

    The next second, a timid voice came from the little girl in the bamboo basket on his back.

    “Elder Brother, do you really hate being lied to?”

    “Uh... pretty much,” replied Li Muyang.

    Despite having just made a fierce threat, he was now too bewildered to sound menacing.

    He checked carefully, and indeed, the number for the affection meter was positive.

    In all his previous failed save attempts, he had tried everything from playing along to taking care of her to trying to please her, short of treating her like an ancestor, and yet the affection meter hadn’t increased at all. But now, it had shot up by 16 points for some inexplicable reason.

    ...Could it be that this girl is a masochist?

    Does she like being scolded and treated harshly?

    That doesn’t make any sense!

    While Li Muyang was still puzzled, the little girl in the bamboo basket spoke up again.

    Her timid voice came softly.

    Li Muyang carried the little girl through the moonlit forest, moving further and further away from Black Cloud Village.

    Feeling the jostling of the bamboo basket, the little girl timidly said, “Then, Elder Brother, why... why are you taking me with you?”

    “Even if you’re not afraid of dying, you don’t like me. There’s absolutely no need for you to take me away...”

    The little girl voiced her confusion. Li Muyang glanced at the path ahead and, while walking, replied, “It’s precisely because I find you annoying that I want to get rid of you sooner.”

    “You don’t like Black Cloud Village, and coincidentally, I don’t like that dump either. I’m just taking you along since it’s on the way. After we leave, you go back to your Jiangyun County, and I’ll go my own way on the Yangguan Road. We won’t interfere with each other.”

    Li Muyang was spouting nonsense.

    In fact, he wanted to see if he would still be assassinated after leaving Black Cloud Village.

    However, the girl in the basket fell silent for a few seconds after he finished speaking then said with an awkward tone, “Um... Elder Brother, actually, I’m not from Jiangyun County in Jizhou. I was just passing through there before...”

    The little girl’s voice grew softer and softer... Li Muyang interrupted her directly.

    “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care where you come from or what you’ve been through.”

    “To be honest, if I hadn’t been forced to take care of you, I wouldn’t want to get involved with a brat like you.”

    He was serious about that.

    In other nurturing games, the female leads are always sweet and cute girls, busty young ladies, or obedient younger sisters—whatever is sweet and cute, whatever is adorable, that’s how they are designed.

    Nowadays, tsundere characters are almost out of fashion, yet the system saddled me with Xiao Yecao, who’s even more troublesome than an ordinary tsundere.

    Full of lies, heart like a stone. No matter how good you are to her, she remains indifferent.

    My game character keeps getting killed, and I get no positive feedback at all... If it weren’t for the fact that the system only allows him to play this game, Li Muyang would have given up already.

    His words seemed to have struck the little girl in the basket hard.

    She fell silent, not saying a word for a long time.

    On the other hand, Li Muyang, who was carrying her, noticed that the affection meter in the upper right corner of his field of vision had moved again.

    【Xiao Yecao: 20 (She seems to think you can be trusted)】

    “...?”

    Question marks appeared above Li Muyang’s head once more.

    What on earth is this girl’s logic?

    When I’m nice to her and treat her well, she couldn’t care less.

    Now that I’ve threatened her and even expressed my dislike, her affection keeps rising, and she thinks I can be trusted...

    We are currently recruiting. CN/KR/JP Translators/MTLers are welcome!

    Discord Server: .gg/HGaByvmVuw