Orange Quiet Forest knew she had to save face for the other party.
After all, no matter how you looked at it, he was the family head.
The old man with a face full of harsh lines stared silently at Orange Quiet Forest.
She met his gaze without flinching, chin raised and chest out.
But she still needed to give him a way to back down, meow.
After all, he was the one in power over this massive family, while she was just the younger daughter of an obscure branch family.
To put it bluntly, if he was in a bad mood today and casually said, “I don’t want to see you,” he wouldn’t even need a proper reason.
Orange Quiet Forest would have to obediently pack up and go home.
The fact that the family head allowed her an audience alone and was willing to look over the documents she brought was already a sign of goodwill.
So, after a brief standoff, Orange Quiet Forest was the first to drop her confrontational posture.
“Family Head, this tea is almost cold. Let me pour you something fresh.”
In the span of a single second, she seamlessly switched personas back to the flawless, black-haired, straight-long-banged young lady she’d been in middle and high school.
With graceful movements, she lifted the purple clay teapot.
The stream of water fell like a silver thread into the cup without splashing a single drop.
Then, like a well-behaved kitten, she crawled on her knees behind the old man, raised her fair, soft hands, and began kneading his shoulders with just the right pressure, fawning over him as much as she could.
In her heart, she knew it all too well: this old guy might seem rigid and strict on the surface, but deep down, he ate up the younger generation acting cutesy and spoiled.
She hadn’t brought out this evidence to strike back.
It was more to soften him up—to make him realize on his own that he’d handled things foolishly.
After completing this perfect, fluid act of a proper young lady’s flattery, Orange Quiet Forest calmly returned to her original position, tucked her legs together, and folded her hands over her knees.
‘Even though I’m screaming internally about how deliberate and cringey this act is… sacrificing a bit of dignity is worth it if it means I can laze around at home playing video games for the rest of my life, meow meow!’
Orange Quiet Forest lowered her head slightly.
Her long lashes fluttered twice.
In a gentle voice tinged with grievance, she spoke softly.
“Family Head… I just want to pursue my own happiness.”
The family head snorted coldly, his sharp gaze sweeping over her.
“Happiness? You think your happiness is staying holed up at home every day like a mouse, never stepping outside, playing that Miao Miao game all the time? Should I invest in it for you?”
Orange Quiet Forest choked hard, her cheeks flushing.
But she maintained her confused-girl persona, speaking unhurriedly.
“I’m just… searching for the path in life. If I have to follow everything the family sets out as the standard answer, then that kind of life is way too boring. Besides… I haven’t been gaming all the time recently. I’ve also been trying to become an idol and explore new things.”
She never expected that this remark—meant to salvage her dignity—would directly detonate a bomb.
The family head picked up the freshly filled cup of hot tea, blowing slowly on the floating tea leaves.
Then he lifted his eyelids.
“I watched your virtual avatar’s debut livestream.”
“…”
The air froze in that instant, sucked into a vacuum.
Orange Quiet Forest’s brain short-circuited.
‘What meow?! Wait… he watched it?! He actually went and watched it?!’
‘A seventy-something, stubborn old fossil who thinks girls co-ed schooling is improper—he went to watch a VTuber livestream?!’
‘It’s over, it’s over, it’s over!’
‘Ugh, what are you doing?!’
She felt her blood run cold.
‘What did I even do in that stream?’
‘I pressed the soles of my feet together to make an “ice cream sandwich.”‘
‘I let out that creepy, glass-shattering cackle.’
‘I got spammed with comments calling me a “200-pound ugly girl” while I acted like a fool.’
‘And the platform officials even cut my stream short on the spot.’
‘This isn’t just losing face—it’s dragging the entire Tachibana main family’s ancestors’ faces across the ground for a friction burn.’
Her toes were already digging a three-room apartment out of the tatami.
She didn’t even dare meet the family head’s gaze, terrified that she’d be thrown out the very next second.
“Well…”
Sweating buckets, so embarrassed she wanted to evaporate on the spot, she could only stammer out a forced explanation.
“This is, um, internet strategy! To survive in that kind of place, you need flashy stunts and engagement to succeed. I just… got a little aggressive.”
The family head watched her trembling, on the verge of tears.
Then he remembered how she had dutifully poured tea and kneaded his shoulders, acting like a proper elegant lady.
The last remaining embers of his anger fizzled out, softened.
In truth, among the younger generation around the age of twenty, he had always liked this clever and quick-witted Orange Quiet Forest the most.
But who would have thought that after she successfully got into a prestigious university, she’d inexplicably start slacking off and become a shut-in?
Still, just because she lost her way for a bit, just because she acted completely unlike a proper young lady in that stream… would he discard this once-favorite junior like garbage?
Impossible.
Well… the stream did shock him, though.
He might be old-fashioned, but he wasn’t heartless.
Otherwise, back when Orange Peach wanted to bring in a live-in son-in-law, if he had stubbornly refused, Orange Peach wouldn’t have been able to do a thing about it, and there wouldn’t be this quirky Orange Quiet Forest now.
Orange Peach had always been capable and driven, holding up most of the sky.
Sure, she had a sharp tongue and a tough, unyielding personality—but that temper might be a bit like his own.
So, loving her by extension, he’d also grown fond of Orange Quiet Forest.
The family head let out a long sigh.
He gently placed the teacup back on the low table.
His cloudy eyes grew distant, and his tone finally softened.
“I just want you to be happy.”
Orange Quiet Forest, a master of reading the room, naturally caught the shift in atmosphere.
She immediately seized the chance, lifting her head.
Her stunning eyes were faintly reddened, and her voice caught with emotion.
“No… it’s all my fault. I was too willful, and I made you worry, Family Head.”
‘This isn’t being a tea meow—this is strategy. And me slacking off was wrong, meow meow.’
She knew she was in the wrong.
The family head shook his head, his gaze drifting out the open door to the aged pine tree in the courtyard.
“When I was young, I also went through a reckless, lost phase where I hit walls everywhere. But I understand a truth clearer than you: once a person completely collapses into comfort, it’s very hard for them to stand up again on their own.”
His gaze landed back on Orange Quiet Forest.