Eating Gossip Until It Came Back to Bite Me? Nalan Yanran Wants to Take Me Back to the Cloud Mist Sect!

"And then?"

Xiao Xun'er suppressed the urge to make a sarcastic remark and pressed on.

"And then she really did stop crying. See? It worked." An Yi raised an eyebrow.

"After that, I asked why she had run away. Through sniffles, she said her family was forcing her to marry someone she didn't know, and she would rather die than marry him."

Recalling the scene, An Yi sighed. "How was I supposed to know who she was? I certainly didn't know her fiancé was Xiao Yan. I kindly advised her, saying, 'Then cry, make a scene, threaten to hang yourself. Cause a fuss at home and wouldn't that solve it?'"

"She said that wouldn't work. Her grandfather didn't care if she cried or made a fuss, and if she dared cause trouble at home, they would just tie her up and lock her in a dark room."

At this point, An Yi slammed the table, looking as smug as though Zhuge Liang had possessed him.

"And then! I taught her an ingenious plan! I said, 'Since causing trouble at home won't work, go cause trouble at the groom's family instead! Sneak over there and cry, make a scene, threaten to hang yourself right in front of his elders! You're just a young girl—if you make such a scene in front of your future in-laws, acting like you're ready to die, would they really have the nerve to force you into marriage? And if you did marry in, wouldn't you turn their household upside down?'"

"But how the hell was I supposed to know she was Nalan Yanran?! That she was my little brother Xiao Yan's fiancée?! If I'd known, why would I have taught her such a rotten trick? And now look at this—today's whole mess was karma for what I did back then!"

An Yi let out a long sigh, then turned toward Nalan Yanran, whose face was so red it looked ready to bleed, and asked curiously,

"But honestly, did you really go to the backyard today and cry, make a scene, and threaten to hang yourself in front of Uncle Xiao Zhan?"

Nalan Yanran was mortified. Covering her face with both hands, she protested softly,

"I... I didn't threaten to hang myself!"

"Oh..." An Yi nodded in understanding and gave her a thumbs-up. "So you just cried and made a scene. Not bad, Pinky. You've got spirit! You followed through—worthy of my teachings!"

Having her embarrassing old story exposed right in front of her, Nalan Yanran glared at An Yi in shame and anger. She opened her mouth, but ultimately could not come up with a rebuttal.

After all, the trick might have been underhanded, but it really worked.

"So?" An Yi stuffed a pastry into his mouth and asked indistinctly, "Did Uncle Xiao Zhan agree in the end?"

Holding her cup of juice, Nalan Yanran nodded gently. "He agreed. But Uncle Xiao said this concerns Xiao Yan's reputation, so he has to discuss it with him first and calm him down."

"Perfect. Then this is probably settled." An Yi snapped his fingers. "With how much Uncle Xiao Zhan dotes on Xiao Yan, as long as Xiao Yan doesn't act like he wants to die over it, this engagement is completely over."

"But why did you bring people from the Cloud Mist Sect too?"

Nalan Yanran's expression immediately became somewhat awkward. Her gaze shifted around as she stammered an explanation.

"Well... I told my teacher about the whole soften them up before getting tough theory you taught me. My teacher thought it made sense, so to keep the Xiao Household from clinging to this endlessly, he had Uncle Ge come with me..."

Xiao Xun'er, who had been listening in utter confusion, could not help but interject. "Soften them up before getting tough?"

An Yi set down his teacup, cleared his throat, and assumed the air of a relationship expert as he began explaining.

"This was what I taught her. If you're going to someone's house to break off an engagement, you have to make a proper show of it first. Before going, spend some money to hire a few guards about as strong as the other side. That way, you won't openly give people the impression that you're using strength to bully the weak, but they'll still have some reservations during the negotiation."

An Yi raised two fingers and laid out his analysis clearly.

"First, establish a deterrent through an apparent balance of power."

"Second, make everything clear in private and show that you absolutely will not compromise."

"Third, and most importantly, throw the final choice to the other side."

Seeing the two girls' thoughtful expressions, An Yi continued.

"That way, the other side is left with only two options:

Agree to break off the engagement: settle things privately, with no outsiders knowing about it, and at least preserve the apparent harmony and dignity of both families.

Refuse to break off the engagement: then the girl blows the whole matter up and turns it into the talk of the city. By then, forget becoming in-laws—the two families would probably become bitter enemies on the spot."

"In that situation, unless they have water in their brains, whether for public or private reasons, they can only grit their teeth and agree."

An Yi leaned back. "Put simply, the essence of this trick is that you subjectively hand the decision-making power to the other side, while objectively forcing them into having no other choice."

After hearing this lengthy explanation, Xiao Xun'er's delicate, ethereal face was filled with a strange expression.

"You... You run wild outside all day. How do you know all these twists and turns?"

An Yi spread his hands, utterly confident. "Is it that hard? I do this kind of thing in the family all the time."

"All the time?!" Xiao Xun'er sucked in a sharp breath.

"Yeah. Take Xiao Yan, for example."

Without hesitation, An Yi dragged his unlucky little brother Xiao Yan out to be publicly flogged. "A few years ago, that brat Xiao Yan was up to no good and went peeping on Cousin Xiao Yu while she was bathing. Xiao Yu ended up chasing him all over the courtyard with a sword, and I happened to see it."

"So I casually stopped Xiao Yan and very kindly gave him two choices:

Either he gave me half his monthly allowance.

Or the next day, I would embellish his glorious deed of peeping on his cousin while she bathed and spread it throughout all of Wutan City, making his great reputation as a pervert known to everyone."

"Was he going to pay to avert disaster, or lose all reputation? Xiao Yan was smart enough to decisively choose the former."

"And don't forget, I'm very close with all the young maids and old servant women in the Xiao Household. I know every little shameful secret those young masters and young ladies have, even the few stewards."

Xiao Xun'er listened in stunned silence, then suddenly came to a realization.

No wonder! No wonder An Yi had maxed out everyone's hatred among his peers in the Xiao Household, yet no one had ever truly dared to put a sack over his head in the middle of the night!

So this guy had dirt on everyone!

"You're just a scoundrel..." Xiao Xun'er did not know whether to laugh or cry. "So everyone was afraid of hurting themselves by trying to deal with you, which was why they didn't dare actually beat you up?"

"Calling them secrets is an exaggeration. They're just little things that would make people die socially."

An Yi waved his hand, looking unconcerned. "But I gave them a warning: if I ever get jumped while walking at night and can't find out who did it, I'll expose everyone's dirt all at once! If I don't get to live well, no one else gets to live well either!"

This was called a mutually assured destruction defense system!

Under this system, if someone wanted to secretly target An Yi, the others would not only refuse to help in order to protect their own secrets, but would desperately stop the troublemaker who wanted to make a move. They might even secretly warn An Yi.

Hearing this, Nalan Yanran's expression became somewhat complicated. After hesitating, she asked softly, "Were you... bullied a lot in the Xiao Household?"

"I wouldn't call it bullying. People just don't particularly like me."

An Yi touched his own face and sighed. "It can't be helped. The tallest tree in the forest gets felled by the wind; geniuses get envied. I'm this handsome, so naturally I get envied too. They don't dare lay hands on me, so they can only satisfy themselves by talking."

Xiao Xun'er could not stand listening to him any longer, so she softly explained An Yi's background to Nalan Yanran.

"Brother An Yi is Uncle Xiao Zhan's adopted son. His parents were in the imperial military back then and had always followed Elder Xiao Lin. Later, Elder Xiao Lin encountered a powerful enemy. Brother An Yi's parents died in battle while covering the elder's retreat. That's why he was raised in the Xiao Household as the orphan of martyrs."

At those words, the sympathy in Nalan Yanran's eyes grew stronger.

She bit her red lip and looked up at An Yi. "Since you're living so miserably in the Xiao Household, then how about... coming back to the Cloud Mist Sect with me?"

"Pfft—cough, cough, cough!"

An Yi spat out the mouthful of juice he had just swallowed and began coughing violently.

"What the hell?"