Once the contract was signed, a victorious smile flashed on Long Meihui's face, she was quite happy with the deal.

The real manipulation will begin now...

"What about her?"

Long Meuhui was reminded of Xia Shuiyao, the latter also listened to everything.

Both turned to Xia Tian for the answer.

He nodded and the contract was signed between Xia Shuiyao and Long Meihui.

Xia Shuiyao felt something wrong, the old fox never cares about women's opinions, would he just leave Long Meihui this easy?

She was unable to see through the old fox's mind.

Not just her, even Long Meihui was unable to understand.

'Just what goes inside his head?' she thought.

A moment after, she shrugged and decided to focus on the arena with a clear mind.

Xia Tian laughed inside of his mind as he spotted a satisfied smile on Long Meihui's face.

The woman celebrated victory too fast.

Xia Tian smiled yet again.

!!

The big-breasted woman got alert seeing his smile, she felt threatened.

Her body shrunk, as her eyes got cautious.

Xia Tian chuckled.

"Why so alert."

The woman wasn't tricked this time.

She snorted.

"I feel scared." she honestly admitted.

This was the first time, she felt scared facing someone, Xia Tian was able to read her like a book.

Too poisonous!

He is poisonous!

Seeing a cautioned Long Meihui, Xia Tian didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"I am not that scary."

"You are!"

Long Meihui retorted, she wasn't going to get caught off-guard by him anymore.

This person acts all innocent and playful while tricking innocent and helpless women like her!

If Xia Tian knew about her thoughts, he would have screamed, 'Helpless and you?'

The small incident was passed.

The fight in the arena had nearly ended.

Feeling the time is right, Xia Tian spoke.

"I heard you are an orphan."

"??"

Long Meihui felt a bit surprised by his sudden remark, she dropped her guard and nodded.

Indeed she is an orphan.

Her parents are dead, and it is known to everyone in the circle.

What's special about it?

She blinked her big eyes towards him, as a question mark floated above her head.

The woman hasn't learned her lesson at all!

Still, talking with him?

Xia Tian felt the curious cat was ready to be slain.

He pretended to laugh.

"It's nothing, I just found it funny that you living in the same house which has slain your parents," He spoke.

The old fox's craftiness was beginning to show.

Long Meihei felt his motives.

'Trying to get me angry?'

She smiled softly and spoke with a deep voice.

"I never saw my parents, the last memory I remembered was with my martial brother and not my parents. What's there to think of?"

"The Long family provided me with everything, resources, money, techniques, they gave me everything which a cultivator needed to grow. I had an advantage over the other women of my age..."

"They even provided me their name, their secret dragon cultivation technique..."

"I have taken a lot from them, now when it's my time to repay, I can't just turn my back on them, do I?"

Listening to her words an expression of surprise formed in Song Yue and Song Yan.

Unlike them who were rescued and then trained to be maids, the young miss parents were killed by Long You before she was taken in by the Long family.

They left, their young miss must have some grudges against the long family hidden in her heart.

Xia Tian was satisfied with her answer.

"This is what differentiates you from that fierce woman..." he spoke.

"Fierce woman?"

"Oh, her name is Li Nan."

"Li Nan! How do you know her?" Long Meihui asked unable to contain her curiosity.

She had met that woman multiple times, the former was a friend of her martial brother, so it was quite normal for Long Meihui to know about her.

Though, the only thing was Long Meihui disliked that woman's guts.

She felt the woman's thinking was too shallow.

Li Nan got all the resources from her family, still when it was time to repay the favor she escaped without care.

Shen family from the northern continent would have destroyed Li family if it wasn't for her martial brother.

A similar difference can be spotted in Modern world east and western society.

For the audience of the west, it's always a surprise how parents can rule over their children even after the age of eighteen in Asia.

But for Asians it's quite a common thing, parent retains their power and will over you till their death.

The reason is something similar... Inheritance and culture, even in Asia a child can leave after attaining the age of majority, but then his parents might decide to exclude him from inheritance.

It's the greed for the family property that led many to live under their parents' shadow until they are alive.

The world of cultivation is the same...

Li Nan brothers were forced to take all their decision on the will of the Li Family.

They can refuse, but if they did... The Li family would stop providing cultivation resources to them.

Nothing comes for free, numerous cultivators has given their life for a similar resource.

But what Li Nan did was that she was too biased toward men vs women, and she escaped without a single care of the Li family which was absolutely loathful behavior from the eyes of Long Meihui.

What if her martial brother gives that girl everything and one day she escapes the same way she did eighty years earlier?

What guarantees she won't repeat the same behavior?

Xia Tian smiled mysteriously instead of answering her.

"Stingy!"

Long Meihui snorted.

She already told him so many things, but he still did not tell anything.

It is unfair!

After a brief pause, the man spoke again.

"The long family did provide you with everything. But wasn't it your talent that earned you everything? I know that you have high regard for your martial brother, but he wasn't the one who killed your parents rather it was the long family."

Long Meihui raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" she questioned.

"What I mean is quite simple see the incident after separating Long Tian from the Long family... Rest you are a smart woman."

The devil was beginning to whisper again.

"... You must have seen others playing with their parents? Don't tell me you never felt envious. Don't tell me you don't feel sad when no one is with you when other children were enjoying their mothers' embrace... Don't tell me you never missed your father... Don't tell me you never imagined how your life would have been if your mother and father were alive... You have your martial brother but it can always just be a brother and can never fill that void! Nothing would have happened if the long family did not kill your parents!"

Xia Tian replied making the surroundings silent.

A certain son of destiny was brother zoned by him, one of the cruelest ways to torture a man is friendzone or brother-zone him.

Long Meihui grimaced.

She knew he was playing with her.

But yet she continued with a shake of her head.

"I don't miss them."

"Lying!"

Xia Tian outright denied the woman.

"You were angry a moment ago, it means you felt anger at the very thought of it! Don't lie to yourself."

The woman turned silent as her breathing got heavier.

'I am lying to myself?' she asked, clearly knowing the answer.

The old fox has started showing his true colors.

But how can the old fox know from her frowning expression that she was lying?

How can he read her behavior and tell what she was thinking?

How did he know she was angry?

Can you read someone's behavior and expression and tell their thoughts and emotions?

[A/N: Cognitive section begins...]

Many people in the world believe that we behave based on our emotions, and we have no say in it.

It's like someone gets angry and will hit another person in the road, and the former will say in defense that, 'I was angry, I can't help it?"

Was it the anger that drove one person to hit another?

Are the emotions ruling us?

Wrong! Its thoughts ruling us!

And we control our thoughts and choices, we choose which thought to act upon and which to not.

Thoughts never rule us!

Let's look at how we respond to the external environment in detail.

There is an external environment where events take place.

Then there is your brain, inside it lies your thought and emotions.

That at the end there is the behavioral response.

Let's not complicate things.

[A/N: I am using my self-created framework for simplification, in the real world, you can never use complicated things. People will leave the moment it gets complicated, everyone like simple things, therefore I combined many elements in one and made a simple framework.]

Let's arrange everything in order:

1. External Event

2. Our thoughts and interpretations

3. Emotions

4. Our behavioral responses to our emotions

Not understood anything? No problem, because I did not explain anything till now...

Let's take an example.

There was a person named David.

Now, let's decide upon the external event that is, stage 1: David stood on the road and was angrily glaring at the passerby.

So the event is, David was angrily staring at people on the road.

Case 1) Person '1' saw David glaring at him and got angry, immediately he lunged at David and hit him.

Case 2) Person '2' walked passed David indifferently without any response. Person '2' ignored David's glare.

Interesting, isn't it? How in both cases both person 1 and person 2 behaved differently despite the external event remaining the same.

How did all this happen?

In one case person '1' got angry and hit David while in another case person '2' ignored him and walked passed indifferently.

David glared at both of them, so why person 1 behaved differently from person 2?

Let's look further...

In person '1' mind, after seeing David the following thought grew. 'Why is he looking at me angrily? I don't even know him. Is he displeased by me? How dare he?'

After the thought came into person '1' mind, he did not think of any other possibilities and assumed it to be true, there can be a case that David was looking at the person behind him and not him, but person '1' assumed that David was angry with him, he validated his thought.

Once the thought was validated, it gave rise to his emotion which was anger.

In anger, person '1' lunged at him and hit David.

It was his emotion that led to him hitting David.

But what generated person '1' emotions?

It was his thoughts!

Everyone has multiple thoughts going on in their minds, and we choose what a thought means, we assume whether our thought is true or not...

We assign meanings and assumptions to our thoughts.

We choose to act on our thought or not...

If we choose to act on our thoughts, then our thoughts will trigger an emotion in our mind which will trigger us to react in a certain way.

So the cycle goes like this:-

We see, hear or feel something in the outside world.

After observing the event from the outside world, it gave rise to various thoughts in our minds.

We assign meaning and assumptions to our various thoughts.

We make choices between our various thoughts.

Once the choice is made, the thought gives rise to a certain emotion which led us to act or behave in a certain way.

Let's observe the case of person '2' and learn why he acted in a certain way.

Person '2' saw David glaring at him.

Various thoughts entered Person 2 mind, first was: Why is he so angry? Oh, he must be having a bad day, sigh life sure is hard.

Second thought was: Nah, he isn't looking at me, he is looking at the person behind me.

Third thought was: Why is he looking at me like that? Regardless, I have a lot of work to do let's ignore him and walk past him.

Person '2' assumed his thoughts to be true and thus it generated indifference and sympathy.

Thus, person '2' indifferently walked passed David rather than getting angry with him.

....

Let's simply, In the case of person '1' -

External Event: David glares at him

Thoughts and Interpretation: David is angry with my presence.

Emotion: Anger

Behavioral response: Punched David

....

In the case of person '2' -

External Event: David glares at him

Thoughts and Interpretation: David must be having a bad day.

Emotion: Indifference and Sympathy

Behavioral response: Walked passed David indifferently

....

In above both cases, it can be observed that it is our thoughts that give rise to a certain emotion that led us to act in a certain way.

So we had to control our thoughts.

The outside world will only see Behavioral responses and External events.

When police will come, they won't ask what was going on inside person '1' mind, they would only note down that David was staring at him and in response person '1' punched him, which is a crime.

Now even if you understand 1℅ of the above, you can use the same principle in reverse to track people's thoughts.

Like seeing their behavior responses to an external event, then guessing what emotion led to behave them like this, then guessing what thought should have been going inside their mind to generate that emotion.

[A/N: Cognitive section end, it was quite a heavy idea to take. So even if you don't understand it don't stress it out.]

Xia Tian talked about Long Meihui's parents, at the end he said, 'Nothing would have happened if the long family did not kill your parents.'

Long Meihui grimaced and got angry for a second.

Her expression was of grimace which was formed due to the emotion of pain and anger.

When does a person get angry?

Emotion was anger, but what thought gave rise to it inside of her mind?

So guess, what was thought inside her mind?

Long Meihui must already know all that Xia Tian said, till now she accepted everything as normal due to Long Tian, her martial brother.

But the old fox said her to look at Long Tian and long family separately.

Once she separated Long Tian from Long Family, she remembered all her earlier thoughts.

How she wondered what her life would be if her parents were alive. Where would she be? ... She remembered the times when she wondered how a mother's embrace feels like ... etc

But nothing could happen since Long You killed them and now she was helping the same family which killed them!

This thought led to anger.

That's why she grimaced.

She for angry because the Long family killed them.

She indeed missed them, else why would she have felt anger?

This is why Xia Tian can read her expressions and tell that she was lying!

Lying to herself!

She missed her parents, if she didn't she wouldn't have felt anger toward the Long family for killing them!

Long Meihui never cared about long family, she knew it is her talent that led to her earning the resources she have, what she cared about was Long Tian.

She was helping the Long family because of Long Tian.

Once Xia Tian separated Long Tian from Long Family, she started viewing Long Family as the killer of her parents who was using her as a tool.

The old fox was really clever.

He was slowly turning the parasite that was sent to infect the Xia family towards the Long family.

He knew that he can't let Long Meihui view Long Tian in a bad light, as he was the one during her whole childhood.

He can't make Long Meihui go against Long Tian.

So what he did was separated, Long Tian from Long Family, and made Long Meihui go against the Long family.

At the same time, he brother zoned Long Tian.

Everyone knows that emotions led us to act in a certain way but most people forget that it is our thoughts that generate that emotion.

The first rule of learning, keep it simple.

If your father one day angrily comes home and screamed at you, you will feel angry and scream back, and after it, you will go and close your door without asking anything at all.

A normal scenario, but it was you reacting to the circumstances and not responding to them.

99 out of 100 people only react to what is happening around them.

Only 1 out of 100, can respond to what is going around him.

Now, think what will happen if you knew the above framework, you will still get angry once your father needlessly scream at you.

But the moment you get angry, you will think, 'Angry, but why am I angry?'

You will rego and visit your earlier thoughts, 'Oh, So I thought my father was angry at me and thus screamed at me, and I assumed it to be true, thus I end up feeling angry, but is my assumption true? What are the alternatives.'

Then you will think about alternative thoughts and assumptions:

Like, 'He isn't angry at me, he is angry at something else in work and just taking out on me. Now how do I deal with it?'

Once this thought pops into your mind you can assume it to be true and choose how to respond.

Like, you can choose to sympathize with him.

You can ignore him and just do your work.

You can choose to scream and him and close your door like earlier.

You can choose to guilt trip him by staying there silently and once he is done screaming at you, you can say along the lines of, 'Did you have a bad day today at work? I feel something bad happened, is everything alright?'

Just use a deep voice while saying this and enjoy your father's guilt-ridden face.

You have to decide your objective and deal with the situation to the best of your benefit, whether it is guilt-tripping or ignoring him, or shouting back at him.

You choose to respond!

You choose how you will behave!

You don't give unrestrained reactions but rather a well-considered response.

That's how you manipulate people!

Just apply the principle in reverse and find out their thoughts!

In beginning, it may take 1 minute to think this much, but as you go on...you can do it in under 10 seconds, no maybe 5, no maybe one second would be enough...

Some can do it subconsciously after a certain amount of time.

Stop reacting and start responding!

This is also used by therapists a lot, as many times the patients lie to themselves, so you have to read their behavior responses and tell what they are thinking when exposed to a certain external condition/event.

[A/N: As for how various thoughts occur to our mind seeing a certain event, I have already explained it, it occurs due to our earlier experiences, by our beliefs, and ideas.]

Start reading people like books!

Control how you behave!

Respond and not react!

Long Meihui had already sorted out her thoughts.

She looked at Xia Tian and said. "What do you want from me?"

She was not naive to believe Xia Tian doing everything for free.

Xia Tian mysteriously smiled.

He must have a motive.