The Fourth Step to Winning Someone Over-Know Yourself and Your Enemy / Flirt Like Crazy ...

Jing Shuxuan should have been a wealthy young lady. Wouldn't she have wanted to live an easy life, instead of working herself to the bone every day, worrying about how people saw her, and fretting over the troubles her looks brought her? Unfortunately, that was clearly unrealistic. It was the hole in Jing Shuxuan's heart that had led her to become a Flower Fairy.

But the words had already been said, and Qin Xiangyi didn't dwell on them. She kept watching the news, only to see the station air a strange report.

A Ghost Haunts the Library at Night

This was a local news channel in Ocean City, and it often aired strange stories. Qin Xiangyi had thought she'd covered her tracks perfectly the night before, but she hadn't expected it to end up on television.

Then she thought of Xia Shang, who had gone to the library so early to study. If she saw the report and started making connections, it would be a disaster.

As the host introduced the story, footage appeared. Books flew through the air, blocking the camera. An expert speculated that a Chosen One had lost control of their powers and caused a disturbance in the library. But the test results soon proved the expert completely wrong. No traces of a Chosen One's power had been found anywhere in the library, and every book looked as if it had been replaced. Not only were the damaged and creased sections gone, but every book looked brand new. The incident was therefore classified as paranormal.

Only then did Qin Xiangyi's expression relax a little. She was still baffled, though. Why had the books become brand new after entering the Flower God Ring?

She looked at Hua Nu, curious, hoping for an explanation.

Hua Nu smiled, then replied through divine sense.

Hua Nu: This old servant knows a cultivation art that can return people or things to the height of their prime.

As she spoke, Hua Nu glanced at Shaoyao, mimicking the smug expression Shaoyao had worn while following her around earlier that day. Then she added:

Hua Nu: I was worried that last night had been too conspicuous. Since people in this era still believe in ghosts and gods, I thought, why not create a little confusion?

Qin Xiangyi gave an "Oh," then suddenly seemed to realize something.

Qin Xiangyi: I remember now. Withered Wood Meets Spring!

Hua Nu looked surprised again, but this time there was a trace of wariness in her eyes. She watched Qin Xiangyi as if trying to figure something out.

For example, whether some annoying person had transmigrated again...

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Qin Xiangyi felt a chill run down her spine under that look, instinctively afraid.

"Hua Nu, why are you looking at me like that?"

Hua Nu narrowed her eyes and pressed on. "Why does the Flower Master know about Withered Wood Meets Spring?" Her tone was probing, as if one wrong word from Qin Xiangyi would make her pull a knife from her clothes and hack her to pieces.

Qin Xiangyi understood at once. Of course she knew, because all of this was part of the setting in her novel. Not only did she know about Withered Wood Meets Spring, she also knew the other techniques in Flower Cherishing Record, which was known as the greatest divine art in the world.

But she obviously couldn't explain it that way. With an easy smile, she replied, "You forgot? You told me."

The danger in Hua Nu's eyes intensified. She clearly didn't believe Qin Xiangyi. She wanted nothing more than to butcher the person who had turned her into what she was now. But on second thought, if it really was that person, and she was pretending to be weak while hiding her true strength, wouldn't Hua Nu be the one to suffer again?

Last time, she had been trapped in the Flower God Ring for a thousand years. Who knew if this time it would be ten million?

"I see." Hua Nu pretended to understand and accept the explanation, while inwardly cursing Qin Xiangyi for having no shame and using the same trick on her again.

Qin Xiangyi had no idea how complicated Hua Nu's thoughts were. She smiled and said, "Maybe you talked about it so much that you forgot you'd told me."

Hua Nu smiled along with her, then enunciated each word. "Heh. This old servant is getting old, after all. My memory is bound to fail me now and then. But there are some things I can remember for all eternity."

Hua Nu's words were a hint, but Qin Xiangyi didn't understand. Thinking Hua Nu was still worried about her intentions, she said, "Don't worry, Hua Nu. Whatever my motives might be, I mean no harm to you or the others. As long as you don't try anything against me, we can keep getting along just fine."

Qin Xiangyi had thought carefully before answering, and her words happened to match Hua Nu's own thoughts. The two of them smiled at each other, but neither smile held any sincerity.

Qin Xiangyi still didn't know how to handle someone as clever as Hua Nu. But some author had decided that even if she was writing a tripping-and-falling story, every woman had to be vivid and memorable. Of the forty-eight women in her planned harem, two-thirds were the sort who were so clever they made you want to grind your teeth—and made your whole body itch, too.

So if Qin Xiangyi didn't collect enough Flower People before meeting these women, she'd probably be rubbed into the floor over and over again.

"Xiangyi, were you talking to me just now?" Fortunately, Jing Shuxuan came back from washing her face and broke the awkward tension between Qin Xiangyi and Hua Nu. Qin Xiangyi looked up and pointed to the phone in her hand. "No, I was on a voice call with a friend."

Jing Shuxuan leaned back against the sofa. She seemed very interested in the friend Qin Xiangyi had mentioned, and raised her voice to ask, "Oh, the school beauty who got you into all this trouble?"

Jing Shuxuan didn't seem to know Zhou Muning. There was a hint of hostility in her voice. Qin Xiangyi assumed it was just the competitiveness between pretty women and didn't think much of it. She nodded. "Her name is Zhou Muning. I usually call her Ningning. She's a good girl."

Jing Shuxuan, who had still felt a little annoyed with Zhou Muning, brightened at that answer. She thought Qin Xiangyi had answered cleverly. Instead of describing Zhou Muning's looks, she had gone straight to her good qualities.

"Because she's a good girl, she's easy to trick. Prince Qin met her before, and he begged me for ages to introduce him to Ningning. Of course I'd never betray a friend. I didn't expect him to use such a despicable trick to lure her out."

Qin Xiangyi instinctively put herself in the shoes of Zhou Muning's good friend, Qin Xiangyi. Jing Shuxuan came over and gently hugged her.

The gesture surprised Qin Xiangyi. She looked up at Jing Shuxuan in confusion and saw the sympathy in her eyes.

"You must be suffering, too, with a brother like that."

Qin Xiangyi couldn't help laughing. "But Sister Shuxuan, the man who's now half-dead and in a vegetative state is your fiancé, isn't he?"

Jing Shuxuan gave a faint smile. There was no pity or other feeling for Prince Qin in her eyes.

"To tell the truth, when I heard the news, I actually felt relieved." Prince Qin had graduated from university that year, and he was supposed to marry Jing Shuxuan. His becoming a vegetable had given Jing Shuxuan plenty of freedom.

As she spoke, Jing Shuxuan looked at Qin Xiangyi with gratitude in her eyes. She knew the Qin Xiangyi before her was nothing like her half-brother Prince Qin, and she would never tell anyone how Jing Shuxuan truly felt or what she was going through.

Looking at Jing Shuxuan's delicate, beautiful face, Qin Xiangyi tried to stir her feelings further. That way, she might get the chance to steal Jing Shuxuan's first kiss.

It was a little shameless to think about something like that while Jing Shuxuan was upset. But when Qin Xiangyi thought about the rough road ahead, she decided she had to be even more ruthless and take advantage of the Flower Fairies' vulnerability.

"So what are you planning to do now?"

"Work hard, pay the Qin family back, and get my freedom."

Jing Shuxuan stated her goal without hesitation, her expression earnest. Qin Xiangyi looked up at Jing Shuxuan, who was still wearing high heels. "Sister Shuxuan, I'm proud of you."

As she spoke, she tried to steal Jing Shuxuan's first kiss. She could get a thousand Spirit Stones from it, after all. But Jing Shuxuan's pupils contracted slightly. She was clearly resisting Qin Xiangyi's advance.

Qin Xiangyi immediately changed course. She rose onto her tiptoes, brushed Jing Shuxuan's hair aside, and kissed her forehead.

Jing Shuxuan's tense body relaxed. She touched the spot Qin Xiangyi had kissed and even joked, "Was that a blessing kiss?"

"Yeah. I'm wishing you good fortune, so you can get rich soon and escape your troubles."

Qin Xiangyi nodded, relieved she hadn't crossed the line. Jing Shuxuan really was hard to fool. Even though she and Zhou Muning had both known Qin Xiangyi for a long time, Jing Shuxuan was far more guarded. Getting a kiss she agreed to would be harder than she'd imagined.

Still, there were many kinds of kisses, and many ways to express affection. Qin Xiangyi had managed to get away with it.

"Then I have to give you one too. I wish you a peaceful, smooth life in Heaven City." Jing Shuxuan laughed at Qin Xiangyi's joke and solemnly leaned in to kiss her forehead, but she started laughing before their lips could meet.

The somber mood lifted. They laughed for a while, then went downstairs to eat noodles together. Afterward, they went shopping at the supermarket and bought some snacks before heading home.

Jing Shuxuan began washing clothes and taking a shower, while Qin Xiangyi turned on the news. The moment Shaoyao and Hua Nu saw the television, they appeared.

Shaoyao: What a shame. She was this close.

Shaoyao hadn't been a Flower Person for long, and with no experience in romance, she wasn't very good at reading people. That said, her expression wasn't regretful at all. She looked happy.

Qin Xiangyi glanced at Shaoyao from the corner of her eye. She couldn't be bothered to call her out for gloating, so she turned her attention back to the more reliable Hua Nu and continued their conversation.

Qin Xiangyi: She was just a tiny bit away. Jing Shuxuan isn't as easy to fool as Zhou Muning.

Qin Xiangyi thought of how Jing Shuxuan's body language had shown just how strongly she resisted being kissed. Even with the joking kiss on the forehead, she had laughed, but it was obvious how conservative she was.

Hua Nu: In this old servant's opinion, Jing Shuxuan won't be easy to handle. Flower Master should focus on Zhou Muning first.

Hua Nu felt the same way. Qin Xiangyi and Hua Nu kept talking, while Shaoyao, who hadn't seen much of the world and couldn't follow their conversation, could only keep changing the channel.

When Jing Shuxuan returned, she happened to see the remote control flying through the air. The phone in her hand slipped toward the floor. Shaoyao had read enough to know that phones shouldn't be dropped, so she rushed over and caught it in time.

Jing Shuxuan opened her mouth, but in the end she only said thank you toward the spot where the phone had been floating. Even so, her face was pale. She seemed to have been startled again.

"Sister Shuxuan, did you get scared again?" Qin Xiangyi looked helpless. She hurried over to help Jing Shuxuan onto the sofa and asked how she was feeling.

"I was almost getting used to it, but then I saw all this weird stuff in my feed. I started imagining things and got scared again." Jing Shuxuan explained, her expression full of exasperation.

Qin Xiangyi was even more confused. "Weird stuff?"

Jing Shuxuan nodded and opened her phone to show Qin Xiangyi a video. As luck would have it, the video showed the paranormal incident at the library earlier that day. But it had been filmed from every angle, and it looked countless times scarier than the version on the news.

Qin Xiangyi looked closely and spotted a blurry black shadow in the footage. It was hard to make out, but she was sure it was her. She'd been moving too fast, so even after the footage had been slowed down countless times, she was still just a blur. Even so, the sight made Qin Xiangyi's heart pound.

"I saw this on the news earlier, but it looked a little different. Why is that?" Qin Xiangyi asked. Jing Shuxuan looked somewhat displeased.

"You forgot what kind of company I work for?"

Qin Xiangyi blinked. She hadn't developed Jing Shuxuan's character in enough detail to even decide what company she worked for, so she had no idea.

"Maybe I didn't explain it clearly last time. Our company makes equipment related to Chosen Ones. For example, the device that can detect traces of a Chosen One's residual power—that's made by us." Jing Shuxuan explained that the video had been posted by one of her company's researchers, who'd said he'd never seen anything like it. Their equipment hadn't detected a thing.

"So the company Sister Shuxuan works for is really impressive! What else does it make?" Qin Xiangyi had genuinely become curious. Apparently, she'd made up the company herself as part of the world she'd imagined. But it made sense. How could a world with Chosen Ones not have all kinds of products for them?

"We've developed all sorts of things, of course. The chips implanted in Chosen Ones, accessories that suppress their powers—they're all made by our company." Jing Shuxuan's eyes finally lit up. Seeing that Qin Xiangyi was interested, she explained the company's products in detail.

Qin Xiangyi listened carefully, occasionally asking a question. Jing Shuxuan answered them all in detail. Her sales pitch was so polished that Qin Xiangyi began to guess what position she held.

"Sister Shuxuan, were you a sales manager?" Qin Xiangyi asked.

Jing Shuxuan managed a smile. "I used to be. Now I'm the deputy manager."

Her expression made it clear that there was quite a story behind it. Qin Xiangyi didn't dare ask. Then the television suddenly switched away from the news channel. She looked over and saw that Shaoyao had done it again.

She seemed to know Jing Shuxuan was aware of her presence, so she'd started acting without restraint.

"That familiar of yours is pretty clever. It can even understand television." Jing Shuxuan wasn't so scared anymore, but then she seemed to realize something and looked at Qin Xiangyi again.

"Wait. I might have figured it out."

Before Qin Xiangyi could ask what she meant, Jing Shuxuan left the house. About ten minutes later, she returned with a high-tech-looking device in her hand. She turned off the lights and began scanning the room with it.

When the device shone on the area, trace elements hidden in the air became visible.

"That explains it. The library probably wasn't haunted. There was likely an invisible familiar there." Jing Shuxuan was delighted by the discovery. Her frightened heart finally settled down.

It was as if paranormal events stopped being scary once science offered an explanation. Qin Xiangyi had been found out, so she smiled blandly. She was about to flatter Jing Shuxuan and win some favor when Jing Shuxuan suddenly seemed to realize something and grew serious.

"Were you really at Zhou Muning's place last night?"

Jing Shuxuan was suspicious of Qin Xiangyi's movements the previous night. Qin Xiangyi hadn't expected her to put the pieces together so quickly. She tried to stay calm and nodded. "Of course. I don't like studying, and I especially wouldn't pull an all-nighter to do it."

Her answer made Jing Shuxuan realize she'd been overthinking things. She hurried to apologize. "Sorry for doubting you."

Qin Xiangyi looked hurt. "You can't suspect me just because I have an invisible familiar."

"I really know I was wrong. Xiangyi, please don't be mad."

Seeing that Qin Xiangyi wouldn't be placated, Jing Shuxuan hurried closer to comfort her. Qin Xiangyi saw her chance and gave Shaoyao a look.

Qin Xiangyi: Quick, make Jing Shuxuan trip!

The Invincible Begins with Harem Harvester

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Shaoyao fumbled, unsure what to do. After thinking it over, she steeled herself, grabbed a cushion from the sofa, and threw it toward Jing Shuxuan's waist.

Jing Shuxuan turned in confusion to see what had hit her. The next second, she suddenly lost feeling in both legs. Her body pitched forward, and Qin Xiangyi caught her in the nick of time. Jing Shuxuan looked flustered and quickly moved her foot, only to find she could feel it again.

"What happened?" Jing Shuxuan looked at Qin Xiangyi, bewildered. She couldn't understand what had caused her to end up like this.

Qin Xiangyi pretended to be puzzled too, then said, "I guess the familiar bumped into you just now."

Jing Shuxuan remembered the soft feeling of whatever had hit her. It seemed plausible, so she nodded. "Maybe that really was it. But I don't know why, for a moment there, I felt like my body had gone out of control, almost as if it had just..."

As she explained what she'd felt, she noticed she was being held by Qin Xiangyi. Compared to their earlier hug, this one felt more intimate. Jing Shuxuan only had to lift her head slightly to see Qin Xiangyi's face inches away.

Fortunately, Qin Xiangyi was wearing glasses, so Jing Shuxuan didn't feel anything else in particular. Her attention stayed on the strange incident.

Hearing the explanation, Qin Xiangyi figured out what had happened. From the corner of her eye, she saw Hua Nu, who had made a move from the other side. Shaoyao hadn't helped at all. It was obviously Hua Nu who had made Jing Shuxuan trip for real.

But she couldn't tell Jing Shuxuan what had happened behind the scenes. Instead, she leaned closer and lifted Jing Shuxuan into her arms. Jing Shuxuan stiffened again, clearly resisting being carried bridal-style by Qin Xiangyi.