Chapter Eight: The Contracted Servant (Seeking Votes, Grateful for Your Support)

Seeing the attributes of the bread and the expression on the landlady’s face earlier, Mu Rongxun knew there was definitely some secret being concealed here.

“Something must have happened after Little Red Riding Hood entered the mist, but she came back afterward.”

Mu Rongxun frowned.

“It’s just that no one knows what she did after returning, which is why the townsfolk remain so tight-lipped about her. And with Pinocchio saying she isn’t herself, it must mean she’s undergone some change—probably due to the mist.”

“Ah, young sir, I don’t understand a word of what you just said!” Zhong Ye scratched the back of his head.

“You ask me to fight and I’m fine with that, but using my brain is just too much trouble,” Mu Rongxun smiled wryly.

Well, it seemed discussing things with others was out of the question. He was just an ordinary person who didn’t know how to solve puzzles or mysteries. Being asked to investigate all this was really putting him in a difficult spot.

Considering he hadn’t eaten all morning, he took Zhong Ye back to their temporary lodging to wait for the others.

Inside the dilapidated house, he set up his portable kitchen and began to prepare food.

Since his personal space had expanded, he had stored plenty of ingredients inside, allowing him to cook at any time.

After much practice, his cooking skills were now passable—not terrible.

While he was busy, Ding Xiang and Ye Cangyi returned.

What surprised Mu Rongxun and Zhong Ye was that a young girl followed behind them.

“Hey, where did you two pick up a little girl?” Zhong Ye joked.

Ding Xiang turned to look at the small hand clutching his coat and his face darkened.

“Hehe!” Ye Cangyi laughed mischievously, clearly enjoying the spectacle.

“Look at your side quest,” he said.

At his words, Mu Rongxun and Zhong Ye opened their personal information screens and widened their eyes.

Side Quest Three: The Rabbit Kingdom Princess’s Wish—this mission had somehow been completed just like that.

“How did you manage that?” Zhong Ye scratched his head, confused that they had completed a quest just by going out once.

“Look!” Ye Cangyi gestured toward Ding Xiang and the girl.

“Oh!” Zhong Ye suddenly understood.

He was a simple man who didn’t like to think, but that didn’t mean he was clueless.

Mu Rongxun couldn’t help but glance at the girl.

He noticed the young lady’s delicate, rosy lips and white teeth—she was quite pretty.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that what she wore on her head wasn’t a mere accessory but two fluffy rabbit ears!

“Hello!” The girl shyly greeted, clinging tightly to Ding Xiang’s side.

Ding Xiang tried to pull his coat free from her grip, but she held on firmly, so he gave up.

Thanks to Ye Cangyi’s embellished storytelling, Mu Rongxun and Zhong Ye learned that when the two were gathering intelligence in the town, they encountered the Rabbit Princess again. At that time, she wasn’t in her rabbit form but appeared as a human girl, so they hadn’t recognized her.

The story that followed was quite melodramatic: through an accident, Ding Xiang kissed the Rabbit Princess, who then believed he was her destined true love. She revealed her other hidden ear, and just like that, the quest was completed in a rather haphazard way.

Mu Rongxun didn’t care much about how the quest was finished; the important thing was that they had obtained the reward—the space button—and that was what mattered.

At this moment, however, he was curious about something else.

“What exactly did you do to make the Red Peach Castle chase after you?”

Seeing Mu Rongxun, the Rabbit Princess nestled closer to Ding Xiang’s chest.

“I just took something that belonged to her!” the Rabbit Princess muttered, pouting unhappily.

Looking at her, Mu Rongxun felt helpless. She looked like a teenage girl, but her mindset was as immature as a small child’s!

Finally, he turned his gaze to Ding Xiang.

After soothing her gently, Ding Xiang got the Rabbit Princess to tell the truth.

The Rabbit Princess had run away from the Rabbit Kingdom in search of her true love and accidentally entered Red Peach Castle. After taking an item from there, she escaped with the help of the Rabbit Kingdom’s treasured space button but had been pursued ever since.

“Here, this is it,” she said, producing a statue.

[Summoning Statue: The Red Peach Queen’s Treasure!]

[Quality: Legendary]

[Effect: Summons a Flying Dragon!]

Now Mu Rongxun understood why the Red Peach Queen was relentlessly chasing her—this was the foundation of her power. Would anyone just let her take it?

“Why did you take someone else’s treasure?” Ding Xiang only realized the gravity of the object now.

“Hmph, that big-headed woman is evil!” The Rabbit Princess frowned, puffing out her cheeks.

“I’m not a thief—I just wanted to teach her a lesson.”

“What makes her so bad?” Mu Rongxun wanted to hear her side, to understand how much the people in this world differed from what he knew.

If fairy tales were taken at face value, they wouldn’t even know how the characters truly died.

“Don’t you know?” The Rabbit Princess looked at them strangely.

“Isn’t it common knowledge? The Red Peach Queen, that wicked woman, after her father died, drove out her designated heir—her own sister—from the castle and claimed it all for herself, even changing its name.”

Mu Rongxun and Ding Xiang exchanged glances but didn’t interrupt.

This part wasn’t much different from what they knew.

“Her sister barely managed to survive and drifted to the Snow White Kingdom, where she married the Snow White King and became queen. People call her the White Queen,” the Rabbit Princess continued.

“Is there a Snow White?” Ye Cangyi couldn’t help but chuckle.

“How do you know that?” The Rabbit Princess was curious.

“You didn’t know before, right? But yes, the Snow White Kingdom does have a Snow White Princess. I heard she’s quite mischievous and always tries to escape the palace; not much like a princess at all.”

Mu Rongxun twitched at the corner of his mouth. He hadn’t expected the White Queen and the queen to be the same person, and apparently, she had a good reputation.

It was fortunate they asked about this; otherwise, they might have been unaware of the situation, risking mistakes in their plans.

But this change was truly enormous.

The White Queen had become the evil queen in Snow White’s story?

“Does the White Queen have a magic mirror?” Mu Rongxun asked.

“Don’t know!” The Rabbit Princess was unsure. She only knew bits and pieces from hearsay and hadn’t seen anything firsthand.

“All right, enough talk. Let’s eat!” Mu Rongxun called out after working for a while.

“Wow, it smells so good!” The Rabbit Princess cheered and hurried over to help.

At first, she was a bit shy, but after talking for a while and seeing they weren’t so scary, her fear lessened.

After the meal, Mu Rongxun and Ding Xiang exchanged information.

“Found anything on your side?” Ding Xiang asked.

The other three were best ignored—carefree and not worth discussing serious matters with.

“Sort of,” Mu Rongxun nodded.

“What do you mean?”

“I suspect all the people in this town are dead.”

Mu Rongxun’s words startled Ding Xiang.

“All dead?”

“That can’t be. You saw for yourself—they’re neither phantoms nor walking corpses.”

Although he knew the town was strange and full of secrets, he’d never considered that everyone might be dead.

“I can’t say for sure. Let’s wait until nightfall to investigate,” Mu Rongxun shook his head. Without evidence, he couldn’t be certain; his suspicion came only from his innate dark affinity and perception—hardly proof.

“At night?” Ding Xiang nodded, guessing Mu Rongxun had an idea.

Without concrete proof, speculation was best kept to oneself.

He didn’t mind, as he was the same way.

“Maybe we should try to find Pinocchio. He might be able to help.”

“Worth a shot. Fairy tale worlds have many mysterious beings; we could try to reach out.”

Mu Rongxun agreed.

“What puzzles me now is where exactly Red Peach Castle, Snow White Kingdom, and Rabbit Kingdom exist. The space button’s teleportation range is quite short. Even if the Rabbit Princess’s teleport was farther than ours, it can’t span millions of miles all at once.”

“That is a problem. But when I asked her, she refused to say.”

Ding Xiang was frustrated.

What annoyed him most was the Rabbit Princess clinging to him. Worse, she had the tower’s notarization, meaning they had a binding contract—there was no shaking her off now.

“Come on, you’re not losing out. I think she’s quite capable!” Mu Rongxun joked.

“Besides, that flying dragon she has is a major asset! In the original story, the Red Peach Queen had 300 card soldiers. Who knows how many now, but without the dragon, the threat level definitely drops.”

“Let’s hope so,” Ding Xiang sighed.

He feared the Red Peach Queen herself was formidable, just like the White Queen. Who would have thought the White Queen married the Snow White King and might possess a magic mirror as well?

This world was different from what they knew. Past memories were only references and could be misleading. If deceived, they could fall into endless despair.

You cannot assume someone is good just because the book says so. People change, and good and evil are relative—especially here, where things differ from their prior knowledge.

Because of this, reliable information was scarce, and that was why Ding Xiang felt so vexed.