Whether it was the war faction or the peace faction, Claire couldn’t afford to offend either of them.

Nothing more could be said for Grand Marshal Barrett, the only reason the frontline lasted this long was thanks to him. Claire admired him, but also feared him, and didn’t know how to deal with his idea. If she rejected him too harshly and had a falling out, it wouldn’t be good for any of them.

As for general Hardy, he himself didn’t have much power, but the important thing was his supporters… the deep and dark city lord and various officials were all supporting him from behind the scenes, he was but a spokesperson. Those officials controlled Gotham Kingdom’s institutions and finances. Claire was counting on them to do their jobs well, so she couldn’t easily get on their bad sides.

What was Lin Xiao going to teach her? Does he want Claire to upgrade her honey trap a level and wear sexy clothes to turn it into an intermediate or even advanced honey trap?

Stop joking!

“Uh… Claire, what are you muttering about, what honey trap?”

“Lin Xiao, stop joking… how could there be something that convenient?”

“Hehe, maybe not.”

Lin Xiao didn’t blame her for not believing him and just smiled, then suddenly asked something unrelated.

“Claire, let me ask you something… cats don’t eat chili peppers, right?”

“Hah? Cats eating chili peppers?”

Claire was stunned and had no idea what the hell he was talking about, so she couldn’t respond. At this time, Elena coincidentally came over with a few cups of water, so Lin Xiao turned the question to her.

“Elena, do you eat chili peppers?”

“Chili peppers? No.”

“Okay, we have an answer… cats don’t eat chili peppers!” Lin Xiao nodded and then asked Claire once again.

“Then Claire, if you had to make Elena… oh no, had to make a cat eat chili peppers, how would you do that?”

“Making cats eat chili peppers? That’s easy.” Claire blinked, even though she didn’t understand what Lin Xiao was getting at, she still responded, “Just forcibly open her mouth…”

“Hey, stop speaking while looking at me! Not me, we’re talking about cats!” Elena coldly interrupted her and made Claire change her words when she caught Claire staring at her.

“Uh, sorry… as long as you forcibly open the cat’s mouth, then shove the peppers in and force it to eat it, wouldn’t that be enough?”

“As expected of the tomboy, your method is really brainless.” Lin Xiao shook his head, “You’ll surely encounter resistance if you use force, are you not afraid of the cat scratching you? An angry cat is really scary!”

Lin Xiao mischievously glanced at Elena, like she was that terrifying cat. Elena could understand his mockery and raised her eyebrows.

“Hm, if violence doesn’t work, then I have a good idea!” ShenDai Ying also joined in their conversation.

“Okay sister Ying, what’s your idea?”

“It’s simple, I can mince the peppers, mix it into meat and trick the cat into eating it!”

“That is indeed a good idea, and it’s your style. But you can only do that once, once you do that then the cat would forever lose trust in you and not only would they not eat peppers, but they won’t eat the meat you feed them either.”

“Ah, is that way no good either…”

Unexpectedly, Elena wasn’t happy when she saw ShenDai Ying stumped.

“Tsk, if they’re all no good, then you must have a good way to make me… oh no, a cat eat chili peppers?”

“Of course. My method is to smear the peppers all over your breas…”

“Hm? Whose? Where? Say that again!?”

“Hehe, sorry, I keep taking you for a cat.”

Lin Xiao insincerely apologized and then spoke, “My method is to smear the peppers on the cat’s bottom, that way the cat would lick it off, then when it is done, you smear more. Wouldn’t that make the cat eat peppers by itself?”

“Oh! So there’s a good way like that!”

ShenDai Ying clapped her hand when she heard it and her eyes were full of admiration, which made Lin Xiao embarrassed.

“Hmph, crafty pervert, just thinking of stuff like that all day.”

She even unconsciously shielded her chest as she spoke, like she was worried that Lin Xiao would spread peppers all over her chest and make her lick it off… of course, not anyone can easily lick their own chest, only someone like Elena could easily do it.

“But Lin Xiao, I don’t get what that has to do with tomorrow’s meeting.”

“Of course it’s related. If you want to reject their proposals, then it’s like forcing a cat to eat peppers.you can’t use violence and you can’t trick them, you have to find a way to smear peppers on their ass and force them to eat it!”

“I still don’t understand…”

“Idiot! Think about it, both sides will surely have something they hate, you just have to find their pain points and use that as a bargaining chip to make them back off!”

“Uh… but, I-I still don’t understand…”

Lin Xiao could only break it down and carefully explain it to her. Thankfully ShenDai Ying already prepared enough information and with those documents, Claire finally understood his plan.

If she followed what Lin Xiao said, perhaps she can really take care of those generals!

“Claire, you have to be careful tomorrow, they’ll surely…”

“Yep, I remember all of it…”

Claire rested her hands on her cheeks and seriously listened to Lin Xiao explain. It was like a whole new world and having hope to succeed! She was delighted and respected Lin Xiao even more!

How could this happen? She was already helpless, but how did everything turn around with just a few words from him? It was now like she had the advantage and they were disadvantaged! Lin Xiao’s words to him were priceless!

As expected her father was right, a talent like Lin Xiao was worth her throwing away her dignity and face, using whatever method she could to invite him back!

It was great that they didn’t have a falling out… Claire got scared just recalling what happened yesterday.

If she went overboard yesterday and said too much out of anger and had a complete falling out with Lin Xiao, then she wouldn’t even have this priceless conversation today!

Even if that was the case, Claire still made a big mistake…

She never should have thrown her earrings at Lin Xiao!

Claire felt regret as she touched the wound on her ear, her guilt made it so that she couldn’t even face him and she just wanted to crawl into a hole…

Aaaahh, why did she have to throw her earrings at him, was there something wrong with her? When can she change her violent tomboy personality?

“Claire, what’s wrong?”

“Eh? N-nothing…”

“You look distracted, are you tired? That’s fine, let’s take a break.”

“O-okay…”

Claire used being tired as a pretense to hide her shame, and Elena and ShenDai Ying walked outside to get some fresh air leaving her alone with Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao was at ease and used the short break to loosen his stiff body, but Claire was uncomfortable with this short period of silence, she wanted to say something but didn’t know how to start, so she continued to hold her face in her hands and played dead.

“Hey, Claire.”

“Yes! I’m here!”

Claire jumped and quickly responded and looked towards him. She saw him throw something over and caught it.

“This is… my earrings?”

“They’re quite beautiful, it would be a shame to lose them, so I’m giving them back.”

“Giving it back…”

Claire clearly remembered that she used these earrings to hit his forehead and injured her own ears staining them with a few drops of blood. But now, the beautiful pearl earrings rested on her palms, glistening in the sunlight from outside the window.

Claire clenched the earrings in her hand and felt a warm feeling.

It was once a bloody earring carrying anger, but now it was a pure and immaculate crystal pearl.

Doesn’t this mean that he’s forgiven her capriciousness and bad temper?

“Thank you.” Claire quietly responded.

“Hehe, no worries, it’s useless to me anyways.”

“Um… Lin Xiao, if you don’t mind, I want to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“Yesterday, I didn’t go to look for you yet, why did you change your mind to help me?”

“That’s…”

Lin Xiao touched his nose and responded with caution.

Normally he would definitely say something misleading without thinking, which will lead to the other party thinking that he has feelings for them…

But this time Lin Xiao already had a plan, he couldn’t be nice and say misleading things, he had to tell the brutal truth and burst all her illusions.

“Actually…”