Faced with the spicy stuffed fig, Ashley didn’t even twitch an eyelid. She bit down hard!
Her cheeks bulged out, her little mouth worked away, and a delighted smile hung at the corners of her lips.
This was something Amber could never have imagined. She’d thought Ashley would be scared into showing her true colors, but Ashley seemed to have lost her cognitive faculties and bit down without the slightest hesitation.
Amber was stunned. If she could have kept her wits about her and observed closely at that moment, she would have noticed that Ashley’s smile was slightly distorted.
Woo woo woo…
My little tongue…
So spicy… so painful…
I’ve been harshly punished…
Lucy…
Since her light points were depleted, she couldn’t temporarily evolve toxin resistance. She could only endure the needle-like agony piercing her mouth.
They say that liars have to swallow a thousand needles—this sensation wasn’t quite that bad, but it was close.
Gulp!
Ashley swallowed it down and continued playing her retarded loli role without a hint of awkwardness. But this time, her crooked mouth, slanted eyes, and drooling were real.
“Hey! Don’t swallow it!”
Seeing the blue-haired loli munching on the bristly worm, Amber panicked instead. She lunged forward, cupping Ashley’s little face with her cool fingers. Terror and despair swirled in her pupils as tears streamed uncontrollably down her cheeks. Sobbing, she said:
“You… you’re not really retarded, are you… boo hoo hoo… Answer me… Please… Ashley… Say something… I’m so scared… Just say something… I beg you…”
If Letisia saw her disciple like this, she would definitely wear that exasperated, “what am I going to do with you” expression again.
Ashley looked away, feeling Amber’s little fingers clutching her clothes. The girl’s small body trembled nonstop with fear as she buried her face against Ashley’s belly, crying her heart out. Hot tears soaked through the fabric, leaving a damp layer on her skin.
She kept crying and crying, with no sign of stopping.
The little one in her arms was so heartbroken that her tears had drenched Ashley’s clothes and were still seeping through—even her panties were getting wet.
Ashley wondered if clenching her legs tightly might lead to a little puddle from all the crying.
At that moment, a doubt arose in her mind.
Am I really that important to Amber…
Why?
Those words I said before were just to tease her. Did she take them all seriously?
No way, right? No way, right? How could there be such a gullible girl?
In a flash of clarity, Ashley suddenly realized that her casually tossed-out, pretentious and empty rhetoric held such precious value in Amber’s young and innocent heart. The silly loli treated cheap glass beads like rare treasures, accepting them reverently from her hand, clutching them tightly as if holding the entire world…
Silly loli, oh silly loli, why are you so silly…
Ashley gritted her teeth fiercely, unsure if she was suppressing the turmoil in her heart or enduring the pain in her mouth. Waves of sour emotions melted her hardened resolve—she wavered for the first time.
Maybe making Miss Amber happy is more important than being a good person…
“I’m sorry…”
Ashley’s oyster-like little mouth finally pried open.
Amber thought she’d misheard. She lifted her tear-streaked face in confusion, stopping her sobs and looking at her dazedly.
“I tricked you… The enemies were too weak… I didn’t even use that potion,” Ashley said, her tongue swollen and her speech slurred. “I was just curious… wanted to keep it for myself… so I pretended to use it… I didn’t expect you’d be this heartbroken… I’m sorry… I didn’t know it would cause such serious consequences…”
Amber was dazed at first, then slowly pieced it together. Fury exploded as she shouted:
“Ashley! Teacher was right—you’re a complete bastard through and through! Do you know how heartbroken I was?! Why did you do this to me?! Why?!”
“I…”
“Get out! I don’t want to see you anymore! Get out of my room!”
“I know I was wrong. I won’t lie again. I… I swear! If I ever trick Miss Amber again, then I’ll… I’ll be Miss Amber’s dog!”
Ashley squeezed out a pitiful little look and even tried to stick out her red, swollen tongue, her face twisted in pain.
“Wah wah wah… They say liars swallow a thousand needles. I’ve already swallowed them—can the punishment end here? If you think it’s not enough, I can keep eating the fuzzy worms…”
Seeing the blue-haired loli in such a pitiful state softened Amber’s heart, though she didn’t want to give in easily. She huffed:
“Tch, what’s so great about being a dog? The flower and bird market is full of street after street of puppies with shiny eyes begging for an owner to take them home. You have to prove you’re cuter than them!”
Ashley’s face stiffened. Huh? You’re pushing your luck now? You damn silly loli! Just you wait!
“I… I’m smarter than those dogs! Even the smartest border collie gets crushed by my IQ! If you like dumb dogs, I can be dumber than a husky! Guaranteed to complete the sofa-demolition mission! When it comes to being well-trained, that’s me—you say ‘shake’ and I’ll obediently offer my little paw. You don’t say ‘eat’ and I won’t eat, not even a drop of drool—I’ll slurp it back up! Whatever you want, just say the word, and I’ll fetch it at top speed. You can take me to a police dog competition, and I’ll take first place easy! I don’t have a tail, but I can wear a fake one…”
As she spoke, the blue-haired loli gently wiggled her hips, shaking a nonexistent tail.
Amber’s eyes widened, her heart seized by a massive temptation. Ashley’s obedient and fawning demeanor was explosively cute, a stark contrast to her previous disobedient self who always tried to take control.
Hehe… Little paws… Shake… Tail… Fake tail is fine too…
Amber picked up Ashley’s little hand and admired it in her palm. Ha! What a pretty little dog paw! Soft, delicate, white, small, and adorable.
But she snapped to alertness right away. After being tricked so many times, she’d learned her lesson—even if she’d been stuffed full, she had to grow a brain.
“Then answer me—is the ‘Angel’s Kiss Mark’ the one you took?”
Ashley hesitated for a moment, then ‘honestly’ replied: “It wasn’t me.”
Then, inwardly, she felt depressed. First sentence: the oath. Second sentence: broken oath. Nobody could top that.
“I’ll trust you one more time. If you trick me again, you’re a little dog!” Amber said sternly.
And so, with a mix of coaxing and deception, Ashley finally reconciled with Amber.
—
[Newspaper Office – Tearoom]
“What?! You’re going to confess publicly?!”
Chloe stared at Ashley in horror. When Ashley explained that she planned to go public in the newspaper, admitting she hadn’t drunk the Undying Potion but had instead greedily pocketed it, Chloe could hardly believe her ears.
“You’re sure? This will ruin your reputation—you’ll never live it down! Don’t you understand what you’re doing? You’re making fools of everyone!”
“No choice. She went dark mode and tried to feed me spicy peppers. I couldn’t hold out, so I confessed.” Ashley shrugged.
“Bullshit! Knowing you, you’d chew up those spicy peppers and swallow them!” Chloe exploded with profanity. “What really happened?!”
“Don’t worry about it. This is huge news—massive traffic. Just tell me if it’s clickable or not. If not, I’ll take it to a big paper.” Ashley looked away.
“Not clickable!” Chloe shouted without hesitation. “Fountain News firmly believes Ashley is a good person! That’s our stance! A spineless flip-flopper who changes positions like the wind—whatever they say is hot air, and no one will believe it! We’d be stuck as a third-rate rag forever!”
“Oh? So you want to clear my name? Even under massive public pressure, you’ll stand by me?”
Ashley looked at the reporter loli in surprise, gaining a new appreciation for her. She’d thought this one would betray her first, but the little imp had a weird sense of loyalty instead.
“That’s right. I’ve bet the newspaper and my future on you. If you’re a worthless small fry, I’m done for!” Chloe spread her hands.
“So, you admit I’m not a worthless small fry?” Ashley asked with a smile.
“Hmph, we’ll see if you can turn it around.” Chloe pursed her lips.
True to her word, while the major papers rushed to report Ashley’s fraud, Chloe personally wrote an article claiming Ashley had only momentarily lost her way. She was good at heart, had done bad things, but was trying to overcome her dysfunctional family background. She urged everyone to be tolerant and give her another chance.
For this, Fountain News faced a barrage of attacks from peers, stirring up a storm of controversy. Furious protesters trashed the already rundown newspaper office. Every morning brought dead rats dumped at the door, and it took a long time before operations could normalize.
