Flower Stealing Master - Chapter 193: Cheng Lingsu’s charm

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.

He was weak, he was depressed, he was a loser.
He wasn't even Lvl 10 in the game when Earth was destroyed in the Quake and the players of Redlands were transmigrated to the fantastic world of Zushkenar.
But he lived, learned, and died again.
Now, he was back on Earth, one year and three months before the Quake.
Deciding to rejoin the game earlier and with greater focus, what changes would he bring with his actions?
What life would he live?

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paypal.me/JInDaoran

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There's a map for the lands of Zushkenar posted on the DeviantArt website:
https://www.deviantart.com/kilrain/art/Hunters-Guide-map-cities-grid-b-877682076

It's not complete, but it'll give an idea of the general geography.

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The background image for the cover is part of a landscape by moinzon taken from pixabay.com

Lucinda Perry, a social recluse and a workaholic, makes a pledge to herself to go all wild on her twenty-fifth birthday and even score a one night stand if she gets her long deserved promotion at work. Few days to her twenty-fifth birthday, she gets promoted to not just a higher position but to the head office in a different city.

Having to spend her birthday night in a new city, she goes to the club where she meets a very handsome stranger, Thomas Hank, who offers to be her one night stand after catching a glimpse of her dare-to-do list, which included having a one night stand.

Thomas Hank, after having been used by several ladies in the past, is bent on getting the lady of his dreams who would love him for himself and not his wealth. So when he meets the cute and naive Lucinda Perry at the club, he decides to keep his true identity from her and find out if she was worth keeping.

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***Excerpt***

“What are you doing here?” Lucy asked in alarm when she walked into her boss' office and saw Tom standing by the window,

“Who let you in here? Come with me, you should leave now before he comes in and sees you here. He can be really mean.” Lucy said reaching out to grab his hand, but he made no move to reach for her hand, and just kept staring at her with a slightly amused expression.

“I came to fulfill your fantasy.” Tom said looking into her eyes with an unreadable expression.

“Fantasy? What fantasy?” She asked with a frown as she hurried to the door to shut it so her boss wouldn't walk in on them.

“You've forgotten? You said you would love to have sex with me on your boss' table. I want to make it happen.” Tom said making her heart skip a beat.

“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?” She half yelled as she took his hands and tried to drag him to the door, “I could lose my job if my boss finds you in here.” She snapped at him.

“Nevermind about that. Tell me the thought of this doesn't turn you on? I'm here, you're here, and the table is right here. I could have you on your back in a second and you'd be crying out my name...” Before Tom could finish, the office door was pushed open.

“Sup Tom? Can I talk to you for a sec?” Harry asked as he walked in, his eyes on the documents in his hand. He stopped when he raised his head and realized Lucy was in the office. He almost kicked himself when he saw the frown on Lucy's face, “Shit!” Harry muttered, and gave Tom an apologetic glance when he realized he had just screwed up.

“I thought you were going out?” he asked her with an awkward smile.

“Tom? You know him? I mean... other than him being my driver?” She asked both men, looking from one to the other when she noticed Harry didn't look surprised to see Tom in the office.

What was going on here? What was she missing? Lucy asked herself as her gaze shifted from Harry to Tom who was glaring at Harry. There was no way Tom could be her boss, right? All the pieces of the puzzle was beginning to fit now. It was all beginning to make sense now, she thought as she glanced at Tom one more time before walking out of the office.

Accidentally reborn as the son of the distant cousin of the Squib, the mother of Harry Potter’s friend Ron, and lived in this world as the second generation of Squib for eleven years.

He originally planned to be an accountant like his father in the future, but he didn’t expect fate to play a joke on him, and he didn’t know the slightest bit of magic, but he received the exact same envelope as his sister on his eleventh birthday.

Due to the expectations of his parents, he reluctantly accepted the reality, but inadvertently discovered another secret…

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