In another place, a woman was lost in her thoughts.
Three days have passed since she hasn't caught a glimpse of Xia Tian, and her anxiety was growing every day.
Before long, she sighed deeply and put the brush down, there was an incomplete art on the white sheet of paper.
The flowers were decorated, but the rest of the scenery was left incomplete, it was incomplete similar to the feelings of Xia Shuiyao.
"To think that one day I would lose my attention because of him..." she whispered softly.
In her wildest thought, Xia Shuiyao hadn't thought that there would be a day when she would fall for her Xia Tian.
But this was the reality, and it wasn't going to change.
Her perception of her husband or man was completely different, she was comparing Xia Tian to Zhang Wuhan.
We always keep comparing people, the same was true for her, the memories left by Zhang Wuhan has a deep effect on her mind, now whoever man it was she would only compare him with Zhang Wuhan and compared to him Xia Tian had a far better opinion on her mind.
This is also the reason women who had a very active sex life during their adolescence had a hard time finding a husband in later life, because no matter which man she finds, she would compare him to all her previous boyfriends and find him lacking, thus leading to dissatisfaction in her marriage.
Although Xia Shuiyao felt Xia Tian's ways weren't up to the fantasies of an ideal man, nonetheless, he gave Zhang Wuhan to her, not only that he also gave her an immortal cultivation technique.
She felt the deal was inclined towards her side, and she was the one who gained the most from it.
Her interpretations of her experiences with Xia Tian weren't as bad as other women.
There are times when we look at someone and immediately become happy then there are times when we look at someone and immediately become sad.
How can the first person make us happy and another sad?
How do we feel when we focus on someone?
There is your childhood crush, you see her and immediately become happy, then there might be an abusive teacher you see him and immediately become angry, sad, etc...
But how did all of this happen?
Who decides how we feel when we focus our attention on a person, place, or memory?
It is decided by our perception.
Perception is nothing but interpretations of our experiences and reality.
When you focus your attention on your childhood crush, you form your interpretations, like how gorgeous she looks, how kind she is, etc.
You associate all the words with the meaning you have assigned to them, then the words will correspond to your own earlier experiences.
Like, you might have listened to your mother saying that you are 'kind' in childhood, for you it was a great accomplishment, the feeling of being appreciated and accepted.
Unconsciously you have felt good and maybe even smiled at that moment, the same will repeat and you will respond in a similar manner when you will see your childhood crush because she reminds you of the word 'kind' and your interpretation of experience associated with that word.
Now, your abusive teacher reminds you of the time you were punished in childhood without any reason, it makes you angry.
You interpret your experiences with the teacher as absolutely horrible, and you feel sad.
So now, whenever you will focus your attention on your teacher's face or his memory, you will feel sad.
While if you focus your attention on your childhood crush, you will feel happy.
But what does it means?
It means you can change it... You can change the way you feel when you look at someone... You can change how you feel when you stare at someone...
You have to just change your perception of that person.
For changing the perception, you have to change the interpretations of the experience you had gone through with that person or the memories which that person reminds you of...
All you had to do is change your perception of that person and the way you feel while looking at the person will also change.
Like how Xia Shuiyao perceives Xia Tian as someone who had helped him, though she was manipulated she gained in the end, so whenever she thinks of Xia Tian she feels gratitude, she felt he was the only connection she has, so she feels a longing for him.
On the other note if she had interpreted her experiences as completely miserable, being tricked and forced then she would feel angry at the very thought of him.
Then there is Ye Siyun she feels Xia Tian had helped her in her darkest times, she feels he doesn't lie to her and he is a good person.
While there is Li Nan, initially she was interpreting her experience as being ra*Ed, Xia Tian immediately forced her to think and made her realize she wasn't getting ra*ped instead she tried to manipulate him and failed, which resulted in getting poisoned, and Xia Tian saved him.
She would perceive him as a manipulative person now and not a horrible or scary person whom she wants to kill in the very sight of. She might feel angry now, but it would be at herself because of her failure and not Xia Tian.
Xia Tian slightly altered her perception of him.
The old fox is far more manipulative than one can think...
Sometimes the perception of reality may not be the reality itself.
All you had to do to make a person feel happy when he thinks about you is to make him perceive you as a person which brings happiness to him.
You have to make him perceive it, and not actually make him happy.
You have to change his perception of reality and not the reality itself.
Many times a man can give everything in a relationship still the woman may not feel happy.
While there may be times the man does absolutely nothing but the woman feels happy with him.
How?
It is all based on the woman's perception and you have to alter it... Not in reality... But only in her perception...
This is why you must know about your partner's history and know what can make her perceive happiness, some women who had restrictive parents might perceive the feeling of independence as being happy, so all you had to do is make her perceive that you give her that independence.
Don't make decisions for her, at least not in front of her, and let her feel the independence she thrive for...
As for how you find what makes her happy, talk about her childhood and just note the patterns of her expressions.
Xia Shuiyao shook her head to remove all thoughts about Xia Tian and focus her attention on her painting.
She took the paintbrush again and was ready to picture her imagination on the sheet of paper...
"Tsk-tsk, what a lonely sister I have..."
Xia Shuiyao creased her eyebrows listening to the voice beside her, the surprise in her expression faded soon enough and now she wanted to punch his narcissistic face.
Indeed she felt alone, but she would rather die than accept it.
With an unchanged expression, she parted her lips and spoke.
"I don't like the sister word from your mouth... It feels weird to me."
Her attention was still on the painting, she was trying to look calm in front of him.
But the woman was unaware she gave something to Xia Tian to play with.
'She doesn't like being referred to as sister?' Xia Tian nodded to himself.
All he heard was, she liked being referred to as sister.
His mind is truly wired differently.
Xia Tian slowly walked in her direction.
The hands of Shuiyao were moving above the flower as she was decorating its petals, she heard the approaching steps and turned around quietly while dipping the paintbrush in white color.
*Spank*
"!!"
Her ass was slapped by Xia Tian, making the woman stare at him in anger.
"Y-You!"
The container containing the white paint was splashed on the paper, destroying her artwork.
Xia Tian ignored her and glanced at the paper in front of him.
"My lonely sister doesn't even know how to paint?"
He shook his head with pity and muttered.
Her words sounded like ridicule to Xia Shuiyao's ears.
"You are the one who destroyed it!"
She instantly rebuked with a frown.
If he hadn't been for him, her painting wouldn't have been spoiled.
She did remember promising her body to him, but it doesn't mean he can hit her whenever he wants!
Her words were contradicting themselves, because they did imply he can hit her when he wants.
Xia Tian shrugged.
"I made it better."
Then, he proceeded to take the paintbrush in his hands.
"You can paint?" Xia Shuiyao asked, she had a hard time believing that a man like him can even paint.
Painting requires patience above anything, Does this man even have patience?
Xia Tian laughed.
"Of course, I can paint, not just paint, I can do anything in the world."
Xia Shuiyao snorted.
Anything In the world?
Now she truly believes he is a demon possessing as his brother, only a demon can praise himself to this degree.
The woman did not even care about Xia Tian's identity anymore.