Stepping on the demon door, the witch becomes the strongest

Chapter 789 I forgive you

The villa, originally intended as the team's base, is now occupied by Zhou Hongyu because Lin Ning is still cultivating in Wudang Mountain.

The atmosphere among the group quickly became awkward.

Zhao Yuanzhen and Xie Ruoxi were very close. Since the former had a serious conflict with Zhou Hongyu, the latter naturally wouldn't and wouldn't dare to take the initiative to talk to her.

Su Yunjin originally had a good relationship with Lin Ning, but Ningning's personality was too different from Zhou Hongyu's, which made Yunjin subconsciously keep her distance and instead get closer to Chen Lingyun.

So, although there was no clear organization or coordination, the girls who originally belonged to the Zhenhai team had already formed an atmosphere of collectively isolating Zhou Hongyu.

Zhou Hongyu didn't care.

She's a typical bossy type who only responds to gentle persuasion. If you, like Tang Xiaolian, acknowledge her as your leader and need her protection, she'll take care of you wholeheartedly. Besides that, there's almost no other way to befriend her.

Yan Yu had deliberately provoked Zhou Hongyu in various ways, making her lose face and suffer setbacks, but Zhou Hongyu hadn't yielded in the slightest. Later, at Tang Xiaolian's guesthouse, Yan Yu softened his attitude and politely offered Zhou Hongyu a cup of tea, immediately turning Zhou Hongyu's goodwill from negative to positive.

From this perspective, Zhou Hongyu is least afraid of being isolated by the group. If everyone enthusiastically tries to recruit her and fawns over her, she will be overwhelmed and unsure of what to do.

Behind the wooden door marked with the character "Zhou," Zhou Hongyu was on the phone with Tang Xiaolian. The latter, as her sister and strategist, was frantically offering her advice:
"...Let me tell you, sis, you're not going there to play best friend games with them. Don't worry about their attitude towards you, all you need to do is win over Yan Yu. The more they reject and isolate you, the easier it is for you to play the victim with Yan Yu. As long as he feels sorry for you, you can take advantage of the situation and win his favor!"

"I see." Zhou Hongyu said thoughtfully. "Then, how do we play the victim?"

“It’s very simple.” Tang Xiaolian thought to herself, “I didn’t read hundreds of palace intrigue novels for nothing.” “First, find a fool… like Zhao Yuanzhen, who had a conflict with you before. When Yan Yu is around, deliberately try to befriend her and apologize, pretending to make peace with her.”

"If I'm not mistaken, she will definitely take the opportunity to give you a hard time and ridicule you in all sorts of ways. In Yan Yu's eyes, Zhao Yuanzhen will naturally appear to be unreasonable and domineering, and you will be a pitiful and innocent victim."

“Hmm.” Zhou Hongyu pondered for a moment, “I can’t bring myself to back down.”

"Sister!" Tang Xiaolian was utterly speechless. "This is love! Love is like a battlefield. As long as you can win, does dignity really matter? Do you want to see them team up to dominate Yan Yu and squeeze us all out?"

Zhou Hongyu hesitated. Her personality made it impossible for her to show kindness or yield, but according to Xiao Lian, if it was seen as a deceptive tactic to win…

"Fine, I'll try my best." She finally decided to abandon her domineering ways and try to resort to despicable methods.

"That's more like it!" Tang Xiaolian exclaimed, her spirits lifting. "Let me tell you, there are three key points to this tactic: expression, language, and response!"

"First, your expression must be pitiful, to maximize the man's sympathy and pity!"

"Uh?" Zhou Hongyu tried to understand, "What kind of expression is 'pitiful'?"

“Let me give you an example,” Tang Xiaolian said. “Imagine there’s an enemy you can’t beat no matter what. You have no power to fight back, so you can only pretend to be weak to lower his guard… Think about how you would act that.”

“I understand,” Zhou Hongyu said seriously. “Continue.”

"Secondly, it's about language. It has to be full of subtle sarcasm, praising one thing while criticizing another, seemingly without fault, but enough to provoke Zhao Yuanzhen's anger as much as possible." Tang Xiaolian continued to offer suggestions. "For example, you could say, 'I'm very sorry I went too far in the Southern Border last time. Are you alright?' Once she gets angry, go to Yan Yu and complain that you only want to make friends with her, but she looks down on you."

“That’s right.” Zhou Hongyu smiled. “Given her temper, she’ll definitely fly into a rage when she hears that.”

“That’s it,” Tang Xiaolian said. “Finally, it’s about reaction, or improvisation. What if Zhao Yuanzhen doesn’t yell at you but ignores you? What if she agrees to it?”

“I’ll go find Yan Yu to get it fixed,” Zhou Hongyu replied.

“Uh, that makes sense.” Tang Xiaolian thought for a moment with her not-so-developed emotional intelligence and said, “Even if she’s not angry, she’ll definitely be jealous when she sees you turn around and go to Yan Yu. Then you can explain to Yan Yu that she’s still holding a grudge against you because of what happened last time, and that you’re pitiful and helpless…”

The rest of the conversation was cut short because Zhou Hongyu had already hung up the phone.

She calmly stood up and walked outside.

I've completely grasped this simple tactic!
Meanwhile, Zhao Yuanzhen and the other girls were in Su Yunjin's room, eating snacks and chatting.

Although their personalities weren't entirely compatible, they had spent so much time together and had developed a deep friendship... at least that's what Yun Jin thought.

Zhou Hongyu is destined to join their big family. Since we were able to go from strangers to friends, it will be the same with Hongyu. There's absolutely no need to deliberately exclude or isolate her just because she hasn't been in the Zhenhai team.

Without getting jealous, throwing a tantrum, or releasing gravity, Yun Jin is probably the gentlest and kindest person among everyone present—in any case, the other three certainly wouldn't have such a Zen-like mindset.

"It's not like we actively ostracized her; it's just that she never intended to build a good relationship with us, okay?" Zhao Yuanzhen argued, not wanting to leave her sisters with the impression of a "heartless" domineering woman. "Even if she had just said something nice to me or apologized, I wouldn't have started a fight... I'm not some unreasonable, jealous woman!" "That's true," Xie Ruoxi chimed in. "Yun Jin, look, Tang Xiaolian is in the room too, but she's speaking very politely. Our Sister Zhao didn't target her, did she? It's just that Zhou Hongyu is too arrogant. Instead of trying to reason with her, you've come to us—you've completely come to the wrong person!"

Su Yunjin thought for a moment, then smiled and said:

"If that's the case, then I was mistaken. In other words, you have no prejudice against Zhou Hongyu and won't deliberately give her the silent treatment, right?"

“Of course.” “As long as she doesn’t bother me.” Xie Ruoxi and Zhao Yuanzhen nodded immediately and said at the same time.

"Lingyun, what do you think?" Su Yunjin turned and asked.

"I think it's all good." Chen Lingyun rested her chin on the back of her hand and smiled sweetly. "Whether it's arguing, fighting, or making up, it's all essentially part of strengthening the relationship. You see, Yan Yu doesn't have any objections, so I'm fine with either way."

Su Yunjin sighed and said gently:

"Okay, as long as we don't turn against each other, so as not to make things difficult for the captain."

"Captain?" Chen Lingyun asked in surprise, "Which team's captain?"

"Lingyun, don't dwell on these details," Su Yunjin said helplessly. "I believe everyone will never forget the Zhenhai team, right?"

Everyone started chatting and laughing again, and the atmosphere became even warmer and more harmonious.

Clearly, Su Yunjin wasn't on Zhou Hongyu's side; she simply felt that "the atmosphere wasn't quite right," and Zhao Yuanzhen certainly wouldn't be angry about it. As for promising her the thing, that was just to give her face.

In any case, Zhao Yuanzhen didn't think Zhou Hongyu was the type to swallow her anger. She was probably plotting something to cause me trouble! It would be perfectly reasonable for me to retaliate then, and Yun Jin wouldn't be able to find any fault with it.

After the women's tea party ended, everyone returned to the living room on the first floor.

Since the cook Ningning is still preparing for her tribulation, dinner will be temporarily cooked by Yunjin, who has also studied cooking.

Compared to Ningning's delicious and visually appealing cooking, Yun Jin's dishes were not much inferior. If one had to nitpick, the only flaws would be that they were "bland in flavor," "low in salt and oil," "too high in vegetables," and "mostly stewed, boiled, or steamed." In any case, for those practicing fasting, eating was more about the ritual, so no one said much.

Xie Ruoxi gave Zhao Yuanzhen a wink, meaning, "Come to my room for an extra meal tonight."

Zhao Yuanzhen smiled slightly, feeling reassured, and ladled herself a bowl of seaweed and egg drop soup.

Yan Yu ate his meal slowly, suddenly sensing that the atmosphere was a bit strange. Just as he was about to speak, Zhou Hongyu spoke up:
"Zhao Yuanzhen, I..."

Wait, what was Xiaolian teaching me back then?

Zhou Hongyu couldn't recall it for a moment, but seeing Zhao Yuanzhen looking at her with a puzzled expression, she couldn't pretend nothing had happened. She had no choice but to improvise, speaking in a stiff tone:

"I'm truly sorry for fighting with you back then; I shouldn't have done that."

Has this bitch suddenly changed her ways? Zhao Yuanzhen was startled at first, feeling that this was not something Zhou Hongyu would say.

Then it dawned on him: What? So they finally know who's in charge of the Yan family's inner quarters, and they've started trying to curry favor with the important person they should have been currying favor with anyway!

Zhao Yuanzhen wasn't exactly magnanimous, as evidenced by the Book of Hatred. Normally, he would have made a few sarcastic remarks to Zhou Hongyu, forcing her to grovel and submit to his authority before he could truly vent his anger.

However, since he had promised Su Yunjin, he couldn't go back on his word, so he waved his hand generously and said:
"It's okay, I forgive you."

Zhou Hongyu was immediately dumbfounded. This reaction was not what she expected.

"It's good that things have been discussed openly." Yan Yu put down his chopsticks and said approvingly, "We are all the most outstanding Golden Core cultivators in the Lu Kingdom. There's no need to compete with each other over a little argument. Otherwise, outsiders will think that we only know how to fight amongst ourselves."

Zhou Hongyu finally realized that she should have said something sarcastic and teasing to deliberately provoke Zhao Yuanzhen, instead of offering a straightforward apology and admitting her mistake.

But since the words had already been spoken, she couldn't simply take them back, so she decided to proceed with the second plan:

Let's get closer to Yan Yu.

(End of this chapter)