Gongsun Qiong

That afternoon, Zhou Zhuling and her younger brother read Thirty Poems through once more before leaving.

The poems were well written, but they did not hold such a powerful appeal for the siblings. Their world had plenty of poetry and prose too, and many poems were no worse than those in Thirty Poems. The main reason they read it a second time was out of fear that Zhou Zhuling's illness might flare up.

Yet even now, the Zhou siblings had not figured out why reading could suppress her condition.

"It seems the same person rereading a book doesn't increase its readership." Ma Feifei watched the siblings leave, checked the current readership, and found it still stuck at 2/10.

But should I promote this poetry collection? Ma Feifei stroked his chin and glanced at Zhao Xiaodao, who was reading in the corner.

"System! This doesn't count as breaking the rules, does it?" Ma Feifei grinned and carried Thirty Poems over to Zhao Xiaodao.

If there was anyone in this world Ma Feifei knew best, it was Zhao Xiaodao. The two had shared "a room" for over half a month, and their relationship was quite good.

"Hey, Sister Xiaodao." Ma Feifei sat across from Zhao Xiaodao, glanced at the book she was reading, and said, "This book's good, right?"

"Mm." Zhao Xiaodao did not even look at him and kept reading. The Beautiful Woman beside her did turn her head, giving Ma Feifei a curious look.

Ma Feifei returned her smile, then continued, "Xiaodao, let me tell you, I just wrote this book. It's even better than the one you're holding. Want to take a look?"

Ma Feifei patted the thin volume of Thirty Poems and pointed at the author's name on the cover.

"Oh?" Zhao Xiaodao glanced at Thirty Poems. "You can write poetry too?"

"Of course. And it's great stuff. Want to read it?" Ma Feifei looked immensely pleased with himself. No one in this world had read those poems anyway. Besides, it was not as though he had insisted on putting his own name on them. The system had forced it on him, wiping out the original authors' names and replacing them all with Ma Feifei's. He was troubled by it too!

"No. Not interested." Zhao Xiaodao patted the book in her hands. "This one is interesting. I'm reading this one."

Ma Feifei remained patient. "This one has very few words. You'll finish it after reading for a little while. Once you're done, you can go back to Half a Mu of Flower Fields."

"No, I don't have money." Zhao Xiaodao shook her head. In her eyes, Ma Feifei was practically a profiteer. If she had not brought a rich patron with her today, she would not even have been able to afford this book. And he still would not leave her alone, trying to sell her a new book? At that thought, Zhao Xiaodao looked utterly disgusted. Pretending to shove Ma Feifei away, she said, "Go, go, stay out of my way. Do you know how valuable my time is? Every minute is worth Spirit Crystals, okay? Please stop interfering with my reading. Thanks!"

Ma Feifei was left speechless!

"May I have a look?" The Beautiful Woman, who had been watching Ma Feifei all along, spoke up instead, looking rather interested.

"Of course." Ma Feifei nodded.

It made no difference whether the Beautiful Woman read it or Zhao Xiaodao did. Neither had read the book before, so either one could increase its readership.

Still... Ma Feifei looked at Andersen's Fairy Tales in the Beautiful Woman's hands and asked hesitantly, "You'll finish that book, right?"

The Beautiful Woman paused, then nodded. "Of course. I have already read half of it. I will finish it tomorrow."

This time, Ma Feifei was stunned. He instinctively looked at the book in her hands. It lay open, and the pages remaining were about equal in thickness to the pages she had read.

"So fast!"

Ma Feifei was astonished. How long had it been? At most six hours. She had read three or four million words out of the more than seven million words in Andersen's Fairy Tales? Was she reading a book or just flipping pages?

"Is that fast? This book is rather interesting. I read it even slower than my usual books." The Beautiful Woman smiled, her slender finger pointing at Ma Feifei's Thirty Poems. "Since this poetry collection was written by the shop owner, I would like to see it as soon as possible."

Uh... Ma Feifei looked at the Beautiful Woman. She had an especially mature face, like a perfectly ripe peach, flushed red and exceptionally alluring. He could not help taking several extra looks.

"Pervert." Zhao Xiaodao saw it and looked at him with disgust.

The Beautiful Woman smiled faintly, her gaze innocent, wholly unconcerned.

Ma Feifei's old face reddened. He handed the book to the Beautiful Woman, then turned and glared fiercely at Zhao Xiaodao, only to receive an eye roll in return.

Embarrassed, Ma Feifei slunk off to continue writing.

The Beautiful Woman first folded down the corner of the page she had reached in Andersen's Fairy Tales, then closed it and opened Ma Feifei's Thirty Poems.

"Hmm? This poetry collection seems somewhat different from Andersen's Fairy Tales." After reading for a while, the Beautiful Woman noticed something.

It seems to be missing an aura of spiritual power.

The Beautiful Woman pondered in secret. From the moment she entered, she had noticed that this Bookstore was different. After approaching it, her connection to the spiritual power outside seemed to have been severed by something. It was very subtle, impossible to notice without using spiritual power, but the Beautiful Woman's perception of spiritual power far surpassed that of ordinary people. The instant she stepped into the Bookstore, she had discovered the issue.

Moreover, there seemed to be some kind of formation inside the Bookstore. It not only cut off her connection to the spiritual power in the air outside, but even affected the sounds from beyond. While seated in the Bookstore, the bustling noise outside was almost inaudible unless one listened carefully.

Of course, most importantly, she could not sense any powerful aura or formation within the Bookstore.

"Not even a Spirit Saint could escape my senses! What exactly is this?"

"And this book holds mysteries too."

Andersen's Fairy Tales could not only calm one's heart and steady the energy within one's body, but also contained faint fluctuations of spiritual power, though they were very weak.

Spiritual power was actually hidden in a book!

In more than thirty years of life, the Beautiful Woman had never heard of such a thing.

Yet although the Thirty Poems in her hands could likewise bring someone into a state of perfect calm, it lacked those fluctuations of spiritual power.

"Why is that?" The Beautiful Woman could not make sense of it no matter how hard she thought.

"Sister Qiong, how are his poems?" Zhao Xiaodao could not help leaning closer.

The Beautiful Woman smiled softly, setting aside her thoughts. She looked at Zhao Xiaodao and said, "Here. They are brilliantly written."

"Then I'll have a look too," Zhao Xiaodao said playfully.

And so, the practice of several people reading one book suddenly became popular.

Seeing this, Ma Feifei felt as though he had forgotten something, yet he could not remember what it was. How strange.

Over the next few days, Ma Feifei immersed himself in writing. Even after the Bookstore closed at night, he would bring paper and pen to the backyard to write. It was not that he was hardworking; this world was simply too dull, with no evening entertainment to speak of. Ma Feifei could only use writing to pass the long nights.

The Bookstore's business also settled into a routine. It had regular customers every day: Zhao Xiaodao and her "best friend," as well as the Zhou siblings.

There were still too few books, which meant that during the first two days, someone always had to sneak peeks at what the others were reading.

Even worse, Zhao Xiaodao's "best friend" did not read books—she flipped through them! Of the three books in the Bookstore, she finished Andersen's Fairy Tales in two days, while Half a Mu of Flower Fields took her only half a day. For the rest of the time, she sat in the Bookstore looking around curiously, so most of the time she had no book to read. Oh, no, that was wrong. She had already finished them all.

By then, Ma Feifei's main quest readership progress had reached 8/10. Half a Mu of Flower Fields and Thirty Poems had contributed seven points of readership, while the monumental Andersen's Fairy Tales had contributed only one. That one had been contributed by the Beautiful Woman.

Oh, no, he should call her Sister Qiong now. Her full name was Gongsun Qiong.

Ma Feifei had finally learned why Gongsun Qiong read so fast. She possessed a special talent: she could take in ten lines at a glance! Most importantly, she could recite every book she had read from memory!

What was that called?

A monster!