Tactically speaking, Xiao Baoyue's response was genuinely clever. Rather than directly deny that her marriage proposal had been rejected, she followed Wang Yang's lead and naturally steered the conversation toward the reason for the rejection. Borrowing his strength to strike back, she turned his momentum into an attack of her own.
At this point, who had rejected whom no longer mattered. This was not a question of whether he wanted her, but of his being incapable of having her.
Strategically, however, Xiao Baoyue had unwittingly fallen into Wang Yang's prepared trap. He had successfully led her astray.
The central contest between them was over status. Whether sowing discord or belittling the other, their underlying aim was to establish absolute authority in the eyes of the Barbarian Tribes and seize control and leadership over tribal affairs.
Xiao Baoyue had already fallen behind in the first half. After seeing through and imitating Wang Yang's strategy of concentrating on undermining his opponent's standing, she might still have recovered if she had held firm, attacked from different angles, and persistently chipped away at his halo. She did not need to elevate herself again; she only needed to drag him down as far as possible. Had she adopted this mutually destructive approach, Wang Yang really would have struggled to counter it.
Xiao Baoyue had yet to recognize this approach, but Wang Yang had glimpsed its beginnings when she brought up legitimate and concubine-born children. That was why he immediately tossed out the subject of the rejected marriage to lure her onto another battlefield.
Once the battle shifted to relations between men and women, Xiao Baoyue essentially lost any chance of turning things around. No matter how many victories she won in a fight over romantic grievances, they would not reverse her strategic defeat. The tribesmen