"Oh. Right. --I think I keep insulting them."

"...That would not help, no."

"And so now they think I hate them and probably they hate me too and there is no solution other than going with this to my grave and writing a lot of earnest and probably very accidentally insulting poetry."

"How to fix this will depend on who exactly you have been accidentally insulting."
 

"I don't want to say!!!"

Okay, so this is going to require some creativity. "On a scale from Jin Zixun to Jiang Yanli, how easily offended are they?"

... ... ... ... 

"Yanli," he says, completely truthfully.

"Honestly you're going to get a fair way with a genuine apology. ... That doesn't insult them again. Assuming they are as terminally nice as Yanli, of course."

"...have I ever in my life given someone an apology without insulting them?"

"... This is true. So the thing is, you want to be honest but vague. Don't repeat the thing you initially said. Explaining why you did something is an advanced move I'm only allowing you to use once you've gone a month without accidentally insulting someone. Also: puppydog eyes. Those are good."

Jin Zixuan attempts to make puppydog eyes and winds up looking moderately contemptuous.

Oh nooo. "So apparently you can only do puppydog eyes accidentally. Noted."

"I did them accidentally?"

"I have seen you do them. I thought it was deliberate, but apparently not."

"No! I don't know how to do puppy dog eyes! --So I should say I'm sorry but not say anything else?"

"Say you're sorry for insulting them, and maybe compliment them... But maybe. Uh. Run the compliments by me first."

"But if I do that you might know who they are!"

"And if you don't tell me what you want to say you might horrifically insult them in the process of trying to apologise to them."

"Um. They're really good at, uh, sewing. And, um, incantations. And they're always kind to everyone. And they have a nice smile."

...Uh huh.

"So telling people they're kind is a good start, and saying they have a nice smile is maybe showing your hand a bit but isn't a bad idea either."

"Okay. I can do that. --Should I like. Show them that I'm a good person to date somehow?"

"... How do you plan to do that?"

"I don't know!! What do people want in a boyfriend."

"It depends on the person? They usually want someone they like spending time with, but some people are interested in a protector?"

"Oh. I think probably my person is interested in a protector?"