I Mistook My Archrival for a Tsundere and Tried to Win Them Over

"Assistant Lu, your mouth is so sharp, but you taste pretty good."

Qiao Shu has always been the very definition of academic excellence. She keeps excelling, and excelling, until...

A new colleague arrives at the desk across from hers.

The new colleague is young and handsome, but also efficient. He's been here less than half a month, yet he's already surpassed her performance, poached her clients, and won the big boss's favor.

He's simply... detestable.

Qiao Shu decides to make a move.

Main quest: Take back Qiu Ya (not really).

She knows this colleague has one fatal weakness: severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Qiao Shu stays up all night researching, including a guide called One Hundred Ways to Drive Someone with OCD Crazy.

[Step One: Use their things.]

[Step Two: Mix your belongings into their territory.]

[Step Five: Provoke their emotions...]

Qiao Shu follows every instruction without hesitation.

[Welcome to the final step: Hug them, then kiss their chin, neck, or lips.]

Qiao Shu puts down the guide. Something's not right.

[You have a new message: From a creator you follow on Little Green Book.]

[Sorry, everyone. I copied and pasted the wrong thing. The steps in my previous post were supposed to be from One Hundred Ways to Win Over a Tsundere (kneeling and begging forgiveness).]

Qiao Shu: ...

She decides to keep a low profile for a while.

It's just that her sworn enemy is getting more and more strange.

*

Lu Huaiji has always known she's a two-faced fox, smiling at everyone as if the spring breeze is blowing.

Until one day, after drinking, she half-consciously bites him. The next day, she goes to work as if nothing happened.

"Morning, Assistant Lu."

She says with a smile, but doesn't mention the night before.

Lu Huaiji grips the documents tightly.

The color drains from his fingertips, turning them white. His heart gives a faint, burning tremor.

A moment later, he gently lets go of the papers.

Well, he doesn't really care that much either.

Lu Huaiji's expression is calm.

Only the bitten edge of his lip bleeds, burning far too fiercely.

[The heroine is dazzling and scorching, a master of disguise * The tsundere elite loves to say the opposite of what he means]

*Cover art by Tletrajakov.

Please note:

1. The woman has past partners; the man is a virgin. A man's chastity is his finest dowry.

2. There are a few flashback chapters.

3. To be added.

---Upcoming novel: Desensitization. Please add it to your reading list---

[Multifaceted fake heiress / Disabled, sensitive elite man]

Xu Luanqing is hired by the wealthy Xu family to impersonate their eldest daughter, Xu Qingqing, who disappeared the day before the Xu and Huo families' arranged marriage.

Her marriage partner is Huo Deluo, the eldest son of the top-tier Huo family. He's handsome and refined, and was once a professional equestrian, but a car accident left him with a disability in his legs and made him sensitive and suspicious.

According to the plan, Xu Luanqing only has to play a gentle, reserved heiress and keep the engagement to the Huo family's young master intact until the real eldest Xu daughter returns.

But on their first day together, the eldest Huo son is already sitting in his wheelchair, looking down at her as she walks into the first-floor living room.

He lightly brushes his cuff and spits out one word with his thin lips: "Get out."

Huo Deluo unilaterally makes an agreement: once the crisis facing the Xu and Huo family groups is resolved, they'll get divorced at once.

Xu Luanqing nods. She couldn't be happier.

One night later on, she discovers one of his weaknesses.

The young master Huo is afraid of the dark and can't sleep without a bedside lamp. The frayed, worn quilt he rubs between his fingers is a symbol of the fragile, anxious heart he once had.

*

At a banquet, they sit side by side. The woman's light perfume drifts over, and Huo Deluo leans away in disgust.

At that instant, Xu Luanqing grabs the man's hand and leans toward him.

The tip of her nose touches his pale, cool earlobe.

"Young Master Huo, you wouldn't want anyone to discover that secret, would you..."

Her voice is gentle, but as she speaks, she presses her knuckles hard against his thin fingers.

Huo Deluo looks at her, his expression growing even colder.

*

As their divorce date draws closer, Huo Deluo grows to hate Xu Luanqing, yet gradually becomes accustomed to her.

The empty living room coffee table is covered with all kinds of snacks, and the garden, where nothing would grow, is filled with roses.

And whenever he wakes from a nightmare, no matter the time, she is behind him, gently patting his back and soothing him to sleep.

Huo Deluo tugs at the covers and awkwardly hides his face.

It's all fake. The Xu family just wants his money.

By day, he continues to treat Xu Luanqing with cold, cutting words.

At night, he sleeps peacefully, comforted by Xu Luanqing.

Until one day, when he returns from a business trip, Xu Luanqing isn't waiting at the door to greet him.

All that's on the table is a simple divorce agreement.

He goes mad and rushes to the Xu family to find her, only to see a face that's similar, but not hers.

Theme: Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony.