Shaoyao looked guarded, wearing an expression of defiance even in the face of death.
But she knew she still couldn't escape Qin Xiangyi's clutches. Resigned, she closed her eyes and waited for Qin Xiangyi's kiss.
This time, however, the kiss never came. Qin Xiangyi had run off.
System: Flower Fairy detected—Feng Yourou.
Finally Free~
A Flower Fairy was a human who could plant flower seeds, second only to the Flower God. Unlike the Flower God, a Flower Fairy had a 100% success rate when planting, but could only plant a flower seed once in her entire life.
Most importantly, the flower people she planted had incredibly rare active and passive skills.
After spending so long at Baichi Sanatorium, this was the first time Qin Xiangyi had heard the system announce that it had detected a Flower Fairy. She began searching frantically, and finally spotted a beautiful woman in glasses in the distance.
Name: Feng Yourou.
Age: 26.
Occupation: Teacher.
Constitution: Flower Fairy (can plant flower seeds)
First Kiss: None.
The rest was more detailed information, which Qin Xiangyi didn't bother to check. Instead, she began observing the woman before her, Feng Yourou.
"Shaoyao, look! A Flower Fairy has appeared. Once I plant a new flower person, you won't have to worry about me pestering you all the time."
Qin Xiangyi spoke to Shaoyao in her mind. By now, since Qin Xiangyi had kept pestering her, Shaoyao's affection had risen from -10 to 50. They could be considered friends. Hearing Qin Xiangyi's joke, Shaoyao gave an annoyed snort.
"Out with the old, in with the new. Who knows what you'll plant this time?" She sounded a little displeased. Qin Xiangyi smiled and continued in a lighthearted tone, "Then let's make a bet, Shaoyao. I bet this woman, Feng Yourou, will grow a gardenia."
Shaoyao sounded even more displeased. "A gardenia? I have a connection with her. If you could really grow one, how could I not sense it?"
Seeing that Shaoyao had taken the bait, Qin Xiangyi could almost picture the Eidetic Memory skill waving at her.
"Then it's a bet."
Shaoyao asked nervously, "What are we betting?"
"If I lose, I won't make you absorb Spiritual Energy every day anymore."
Shaoyao was tempted, but still asked one more question. "And if you win?"
Qin Xiangyi pretended to ponder, then answered readily, "Then you have to accept my Spiritual Power every day until I say that's enough."
Shaoyao gave her a strange look, but still asked in a very hesitant tone, "Flower Master, can I ask you something? Please don't get mad."
"Go ahead."
Seeing Qin Xiangyi's calm expression, Shaoyao finally asked her question, cautiously.
"Do you like women?"
Qin Xiangyi was a little speechless. But she couldn't tell anyone about her skill-stealing cheat, so she gave a perfunctory answer. "If I liked women, why would I settle for liking you?"
"What do you mean?" Shaoyao was confused.
"If I liked women, I'd like Huangquan, if anyone... Wait, I just remembered that everyone can see outside... Huangquan, don't take that seriously. I was just teasing that silly girl, Shaoyao."
Qin Xiangyi laughed helplessly. Shaoyao's expression grew stranger and stranger as she looked at Qin Xiangyi, but then it vanished in the blink of an eye.
System: Flower Fairy Feng Yourou has left the Flower Master's range. System: One hundred meters... System: One hundred and eighty meters...
Qin Xiangyi composed herself and quickly caught up with Feng Yourou. She secretly had Shaoyao slash the woman's handbag, then took out the notebook in which Feng Yourou recorded her biggest secrets. She wrote down her contact information and a line of text.
She was sure Feng Yourou would respond...
Unfortunately, by the last week of August, Qin Xiangyi was about to leave Baichi Sanatorium, but Feng Yourou still hadn't called.
Qin Xiangyi had already changed out of her hospital clothes. She sat properly in her room, waiting for something.
A moment later, the door opened, and a woman who looked to be in her early thirties walked in.
The woman wore an elegant outfit. She was mature and beautiful, with carefully applied makeup that couldn't hide her haggard appearance, as if she had recently endured some kind of hardship. When she saw Qin Xiangyi, her eyes grew moist, and hatred and regret flashed through them.
This was Zhang Mou, the mother of Qin Xiangyi and Prince Qin.
Zhang Mou was her name. Back then, Qin Xiangyi had been too lazy to come up with one, so she'd casually given her that name.
The Qin family favored sons over daughters, and Zhang Mou doted on her son, Prince Qin, while feeling little affection for Qin Xiangyi, her daughter by another father. But in the story, Qin Xiangyi had a good grandfather, and it was because of him that she survived.
As for sending Qin Xiangyi to Baichi Sanatorium to be locked up with a group of mentally ill people, that had been Zhang Mou's punishment.
Prince Qin had become a living corpse. Because of this, Qin Xiangyi had been disowned by the Qin family. Aside from still carrying the Qin surname, she no longer had any of the prestige of a member of a prominent family.
"Let's go." Zhang Mou looked at Qin Xiangyi and said nothing more.
Qin Xiangyi nodded and followed Zhang Mou out of the room. The walk was long, but neither of them spoke. Zhang Mou made no move to help with Qin Xiangyi's luggage.
Qin Xiangyi had no intention of apologizing either. Whether in the real world or this one, she felt numb toward the idea of family.
System: Flower Fairy detected—Jing Shuxuan.
Suddenly, the system, which had been quiet until then, chimed with a notification.
Qin Xiangyi instinctively stopped and looked around. She spotted a car not far away.
If she remembered correctly, Jing Shuxuan had been Prince Qin's fiancée in the original setting. She was a typical career woman, but things never went her way, and in the end, she had no choice but to marry into the Qin family.
But Qin Xiangyi hadn't expected to meet Jing Shuxuan after leaving the sanatorium. She'd only created a character profile for her, without describing anything about her life. Jing Shuxuan's appearance had truly caught Qin Xiangyi off guard.
"You'll be staying at your Sister Shuxuan's place for the next few days."
But in the setting, Qin Xiangyi and Jing Shuxuan had a good relationship. With that in mind, Qin Xiangyi nodded. Zhang Mou remained where she was, seemingly unwilling to approach.
Qin Xiangyi didn't press her. She walked over, and the window rolled down, revealing a beautiful face.
Compared with Muning's sweet and innocent air, Jing Shuxuan's features were sharp and commanding. When she saw Qin Xiangyi, she tossed the documents on the passenger seat into the back and opened the car door.
Seeing this, Qin Xiangyi put her suitcase in the trunk before getting in.
Jing Shuxuan kept talking on the phone and pointed to Qin Xiangyi's seat belt, signaling her to buckle up. Though Qin Xiangyi wasn't used to it, she obediently did as she was told. Jing Shuxuan put down her phone and switched to hands-free Bluetooth, looking incredibly busy.
Bored, Qin Xiangyi gazed off into space. She had none of this world's Qin Xiangyi's memories, and Jing Shuxuan was a complete stranger to her. Afraid she'd say the wrong thing, Qin Xiangyi decided not to speak at all.
Something Fell from the Sky...
But Shaoyao, who had been following Qin Xiangyi all along, was different. Floating in the air, she looked around with curiosity at the city, which had changed beyond recognition.
Because of the Flower God Ring, flower people couldn't stray too far from Qin Xiangyi. This was Shaoyao's first time seeing the outside world. She watched it closely, full of hope and anticipation for this unfamiliar place.
Qin Xiangyi shifted into a new position, resting one hand against the window. A soft breeze brought a little relief from the summer heat.
Jing Shuxuan finally hung up and glanced at Qin Xiangyi.
"Xiaoyi, you seem to be doing pretty well." Her earlier composure and professionalism from the phone call had faded. Her manner was gentle, and her tone made it seem as if they had a good relationship.
"I'm doing all right."
"Was it scary in there?"
"Not really."
"After all, you did something even scarier." Jing Shuxuan suddenly remarked meaningfully.
Qin Xiangyi adjusted her glasses and looked at Jing Shuxuan as she drove. "Do you really believe I turned Prince Qin into a vegetable?"
"I don't know, but I believe you."
Jing Shuxuan tossed the question back to her. It was hard to tell if she meant it. Qin Xiangyi didn't continue the conversation. She looked out the window and sensed Jing Shuxuan's gaze.
"You seem to have become quieter."
"Isn't that a good thing? It lets you focus on driving." Qin Xiangyi smiled. Seeing that Jing Shuxuan seemed a little distracted, she still gave her a token reminder.
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm a great driver now." Jing Shuxuan's face turned slightly red at that. It seemed something had come to mind, and she didn't ask anything more.
Qin Xiangyi breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't know what kind of person she had been in this world, let alone what to do if she ran into someone who knew her.
She had to start from zero, get to know this world, and find a way to leave it.
But she'd run into a clever woman like Jing Shuxuan right at the beginning. Qin Xiangyi felt a lot of pressure.
Violence could solve a lot of problems, but it wasn't a cure-all.
Qin Xiangyi had only written a rough outline, character profiles, the worldbuilding, and introductions for the forty-eight members of the harem and the main characters. To be honest, she had no idea how much this world would fill in on its own.
The only thing she knew for sure was that she'd made this world dangerous.
As if to celebrate Qin Xiangyi's release from the sanatorium, someone came crashing down from the sky with a bang, landing on the car ahead.
The driver was killed instantly, but the man who had fallen climbed off the car as if nothing had happened. He glanced at Qin Xiangyi and Jing Shuxuan behind him, smiled apologetically, then leaped away and quickly vanished from sight.
"Another cultivator." Jing Shuxuan frowned slightly, unable to hide her disgust for the words she'd just uttered.
"Sister Shuxuan, do you hate cultivators?" Qin Xiangyi couldn't help asking.
"I don't just hate cultivators. I hate Ability Users too." Jing Shuxuan seemed agitated. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, as if trying to control her emotions.
Clearly, in the parts of the story Qin Xiangyi didn't know, Jing Shuxuan had clashed with these Chosen Ones.
Cultivators were Eastern practitioners who focused on immortal cultivation. Even a grandmaster could already dominate Heaven Country.
Ability Users were Western heroes, like Spidey or Super R, who had gained superpowers.
Besides cultivators and Ability Users, there were five other kinds of people with powers, collectively known as the Chosen Ones. But Qin Xiangyi hadn't written about them in such detail, so she had no idea what this world would come up with.
Before long, several police officers on motorcycles arrived and began dealing with the accident scene as if they'd done it countless times. They went to find the cultivator who had just killed someone.
That was why nobody had questioned Qin Xiangyi after she'd turned Prince Qin into a vegetable. They'd assumed she was a Chosen One, and they were afraid she might snap and kill them all.
Chosen Ones were rare, appearing perhaps once in tens of millions, but they were incredibly powerful. Heaven Country would never waste such valuable resources.
If a Chosen One broke the law, they would be taken to Baichi Sanatorium for a little reeducation, not killed outright. But Qin Xiangyi had shown very little talent during testing, and with the Qin family's influence, they'd only put her through the motions.
Qin Xiangyi hadn't known any of this. Jing Shuxuan had told her.
"Sister Shuxuan, you know an awful lot for someone who hates them." Qin Xiangyi felt Jing Shuxuan was hiding something. In fact, she thought every person classified as a Flower Fairy had a secret.
That secret drove the plot forward and brought people together. Find it, and she could win their affection. Of course, Qin Xiangyi was a woman, so she didn't need that.
All she needed were two kisses.
One to plant a flower seed, and another to summon the flower person. Unfortunately, because of Qin Xiangyi's strange insistence, both people had to agree to the kiss.
A forced kiss, a kiss during sleep, or a kiss as part of truth or dare didn't count. Each kiss also had to last longer than a minute. If she found a top-tier flower person, it had to last at least three minutes.
Qin Xiangyi had clearly made survival ridiculously difficult for herself. Now all she could do was swallow her tears and figure out how to get the story going with Jing Shuxuan.
The best approach was to exchange favors, with both sides willing. But Qin Xiangyi was far too weak at the moment. She didn't seem capable of solving Jing Shuxuan's problem.
At that thought, Qin Xiangyi decided to activate the flower seed she'd planted in Muning first. But she knew nothing about Muning, and her phone had been confiscated. Finding her would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Qin Xiangyi looked out the window. The wind seemed far too fierce today, making her eyes ache. She took off her glasses and tried rubbing her eyes to ease the discomfort, only to find that she could see everything clearly.
She looked again. The glasses were thick, but they had no prescription at all. At the time, she'd thought it was because she'd activated the Flower God Ring. But now that she realized she could see everything around her clearly, she understood that Qin Xiangyi hadn't been nearsighted at all.
For some reason, Qin Xiangyi had been hiding her face.
"Sister Shuxuan, do you have a mirror in the car?" Qin Xiangyi asked curiously. Jing Shuxuan turned her head, but the moment she saw Qin Xiangyi's face, she slammed on the brakes.
Before you continue