The Main Characters Won't Stop Pampering Me!-Chapter 86: Knock

She was used to conditional praise, gifts as status symbols, and affection granted only when she achieved high marks or performed flawlessly.

Huaijin, watching Yuanying’s expression soften as she listened to the fantasy story, felt a surge of genuine hope.

She understood Yuanying’s core issue: a deep, aching need for unconditional love that was currently being twisted into a desperate hunger for external validation, which would eventually mutate into the villainess’s destructive envy.

During a break, when Yuanfeng was briefly in the kitchen making sure everything was locked up, Yuanying approached Huaijin, who was half-asleep on the sofa.

"Huaijin," Yuanying whispered, her voice surprisingly tentative. "Your Uncle Yuanfeng... he’s really nice."

Huaijin cracked one eye open. "He’s the best, Yuanying. He’s my Daddy."

"He doesn’t scold you for clinging to him," Yuanying noted, a hint of envy in her tone. "My parents would tell me I was being infantile."

Huaijin sat up. This was her moment.

She reached out and patted Yuanying’s perfectly smooth hair, a gesture of casual familiarity they had never shared before.

"Daddy says I’m his anchor," Huaijin said simply, letting the adult truth filter through the child’s vocabulary. "He says big people need hugs too, even if they pretend they don’t. He just understands that when I’m clingy, it means I’m recharging my love-battery."

Yuanying’s large eyes widened. She slowly reached out and lightly touched Huaijin’s shoulder. The touch was hesitant, seeking.

Over the last few weeks of filming, even with their rivalry, Huaijin’s genuine good nature and unexpected maturity had slowly chipped away at Yuanying’s defensive walls.

Yuanying had started to see Huaijin not just as a competitor, but as a surprisingly insightful and kind peer, a safe person.

Huaijin knew that if she could reinforce that bond, if she could provide Yuanying with the small, safe emotional harbor she desperately needed now, there was a chance to change the script.

"I like you, Yuanying," Huaijin said honestly, letting a genuine smile cross her face. "You’re a good friend, and you’re super clever. We’re cousins. We’re supposed to be a team."

The simple statement, ’I like you,’ seemed to hit Yuanying with the force of a physical blow.

Her eyes suddenly looked shiny. She quickly masked her reaction, reverting to her usual tsundere, slightly prickly demeanor.

"Of course, we’re a team! I’m the eldest, I have to make sure you succeed," Yuanying mumbled, trying to sound authoritative, but her voice cracked slightly.

Huaijin knew the seeds were planted. She had seen the future, and she was determined to rewrite it.

Liang Lingzhi, the main female lead and the real eldest daughter of the Chi family, would eventually appear.

But perhaps, if Huaijin could continue to show Yuanying this simple, unconditional acceptance, the desperate need for revenge and the tragic spiral into villainy could be averted.

’This time,’ Huaijin thought, snuggling back into her father’s comfortable, handsome chest, ’I won’t just be an extra. I’ll be the catalyst for change. The world needs fewer villainesses and more happy, clever eight-year-olds.’

As Yuanfeng finally carried a nearly-unconscious Huaijin to bed, carefully detaching her from his neck and tucking her in, he paused at the doorway where Yuanying was setting up her sleeping bag on the floor.

"Goodnight, Yuanying," he said softly.

Yuanying looked up, her expression vulnerable in the dim light. "Goodnight, Uncle Yuanfeng. Thank you for the... the extra oxygen dinner."

Yuanfeng smiled, a deep, gentle smile that had nothing to do with physics or grants, and everything to do with being a good human being.

"You’re welcome, my dear. Sleep well."

He closed the door, leaving the future villainess to rest, perhaps dreaming of a world where unconditional love was as constant as the stars Huaijin’s father studied.

.

.

.

The small apartment, usually a haven of quiet scholarly pursuits and unconditional father-daughter love, awoke to a rare but deeply comforting domestic scene.

Chi Huaijin and Chi Yuanying, two girls who represented opposite sides of a future tragedy, were currently snuggled side-by-side in Huaijin’s narrow single bed.

The future villainess and the reborn extra had slept soundly through the night, a small victory for Huaijin’s attempts at rewriting fate.

The morning was a flurry of normalcy. Yuanfeng, looking slightly more rested, was in the tiny kitchen, frying eggs; the rich, savory smell momentarily masked the faint scent of old books and lab chemicals that clung to their apartment.

Huaijin and Yuanying sat at the small dining table, eating quickly while Huaijin, ever the executive, gave Yuanying concise notes on how to approach the next day’s variety show script.

"Remember, Yuanying, you need to project vulnerability, not arrogance," Huaijin instructed, sipping her warm milk with the gravitas of a life coach.

"When you lose the game, the audience needs to sympathize with your effort, not resent your pride. You’re playing the part of the earnest, slightly overachieving elder sister."

Yuanying, chewing thoughtfully, absorbed the advice.

Over the last 24 hours, Yuanfeng’s gentle acceptance and Huaijin’s surprisingly insightful coaching had provided a kind of psychological nourishment she rarely received at the Chi Manor.

She was no longer just a competitor; she was a student, and surprisingly, a friend.

"Vulnerability... I understand," Yuanying mumbled, pushing her half-eaten egg around the plate. "It feels... strange to ask for pity."

"It’s acting, Yuanying. It’s strategic empathy," Huaijin corrected. "Besides, you’re not asking for pity. You’re showing your human side. It’s authentic."

’There she goes again, acting like a Grandma...’

Yuanfeng barely restrained his laughter when he saw Huaijin advising Yuanying, who was three years older than her, the youngest child of the family. And seeing Yuanying take her words so seriously made it hard for him not to laugh out loud.

Seriously, what was going on inside those tiny little brains of his daughter and niece?

Just as Yuanfeng set down his own plate, the serene domesticity was shattered by a loud, insistent thud-thud-THUD at the door, followed by the jiggling and rattling of the loose doorknob.

It wasn’t a friendly knock; it was an announcement, a demand for entry that lacked any subtlety or respect for privacy.