The orange cat, who was now lying in Su Tang’s arms, turned his head and sent another sympathetic look toward Pei Xuan. Inside, he lamented: Young man, how did you become so certain that your junior sister is stupid?
The key point was, he had been teased and tricked by the dark loli so many times, but somehow he was convinced that she was the two-legged beast with no brains?
Su Tang could more or less sense what the Divine Beast in her arms was thinking about, so she swiftly grabbed him up by the scruff of his neck and warned, ‘What? Are you looking down on your master’s senior brother now?”
‘Absolutely not! How could that be possible? Master is so wise, so beautiful, so lovely, completely unparalleled in this world! How could the senior brother of the most beautiful loli in the world be anything other than amazing? Who out there dares to look down upon him? I will bite them for you!’ The orange cat was very timid and his face changed like flipping the pages of a book.
After all, it was already too late. It wasn’t as if he could unbind himself from his master. Moreover, Su Tang’s cooking was also very delicious and who in this world didn’t live for their next bite to eat? Even he, a noble Divine Beast, was no exception.
Su Tang was amused to see his sudden explosion of lackey-like behavior. She patted the orange cat’s head and sent, ‘Si’er, you’re so clever.’
‘Thank you, master, for your praise. It’s all thanks to master’s wise teachings.’ The Divine Beast continued to flatter. But inside, it could only shed a few sympathetic tears for himself. God knew how it came to be that he, a Divine Beast and Guardian of a Magical Space, needed to live such a miserable life.
Su Tang slowly released her grip on the orange cat and let him down. Although this new little senior brother was a bit of a tsundere, he was still a little bit cute… and, most importantly, since he was now Su Tang’s little senior brother, she was the only one allowed to bully and trick him!
“Anyway, little senior brother doesn’t know but I’ve only felt regret ever since master accepted me as a disciple. Every time he sees that studies aren’t going well and how stupid I am he gets very angry, and I also feel sorry for wasting master’s earnest teachings. Fortunately, little senior brother has now arrived to help.” Su Tang began to spout nonsense without blinking.
(tl note: When they’re alone she keeps calling him ‘小师兄’ instead of just ‘师兄’. 师兄 is senior-apprentice brother and 小 is xiao. So she’s acknowledging his seniority but also sort of talking down to him in a cutesy way? There’s also a historical figure in China who went by this title but I don’t think that’s related.)
Pei Xuan rode along quietly on his horse, but when he heard Su Tang speaking badly of herself like this he pursed his lips unhappily. Finally, he said, “You… you shouldn’t say that sort of thing. At the very least you can still make clothes and cook. You’re not… too stupid.”
Probably he wasn’t used to trying to comfort people because Pei Xuan looked a bit annoyed while he spoke, but he also stammered at the start and finally concluded in a fierce tone: “Anyway, you are my, Pei Xuan’s, junior sister, so don’t say you are stupid. I can teach you, and I will certainly make you smarter.”
The orange cat was glad he couldn’t roll his eyes, or else they might really roll out of his head. Young man, ah, one day you will regret your own stupidity. Heh heh, you really believe my master is stupid?
This dark loli, who could scheme against a person until not even their bones were left? If she was considered stupid, were there any wise people in this world?
Contrary to the orange cat’s thoughts, when Su Tang saw the teenager in front of her trying to pretend to be fierce to cover up his awkwardness as he rode his horse under the sun and his handsome face was dyed by a touch of red, she only felt he really was a little bit cute.
Heh, although she had never been married or even really in a relationship, seeing such a fresh-faced little cutie put her in a good mood. Thus, she looked at him, smiled, and said: “Then I’ll thank you for taking care of me from now on!”
In the next many years, as Pei Xuan slow realized the full extent of Su Tang’s ability to get into trouble, he discovered that ‘taking care of her’ actually had extremely high requirements on his own ability.
But in this moment, the young man had completely no idea how much pressure the promise he was making right now would bring to his future self. Instead, he distractedly looked at the little girl in the carriage who was looking at him with her big eyes and showing a faint smile that played about the corners of her lips, looking just as sweet as her name.
He suddenly found that when this little moneygrubber wasn’t acting irritating, wasn’t she actually quite cute? As he looked at such a Su Tang, Pei Xuan completely forgot the pain from all the times he had been tricked recently and, while trying to suppress the small complacent feeling rising up in his heart, he plastered on his usual cold expression and nodded: “En!”
Su Tang could immediately see how happy he was and felt amused. This kid really liked to pretend ah.
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tl begging corner: