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Chapter 142: The Messy Timeline

Gloomy-looking Bluebeard got up from the ground without making a sound. He rolled his eyes and slid into another small alley without saying anything. Lin Sanjiu followed him immediately, without thinking. As she followed him, she scanned her surroundings. Once she started following Bluebeard, the previous buildings around slowly faded into the background and disappeared into thin air, like a soaked watercolor painting. After a cool breeze blew past them, she saw a small village shrouded in mist. In contrast to the town, the village appeared run-down and stricken with poverty. She didn’t see anyone else even after walking for quite some time. However, Bluebeard, who lived there, seemed comfortable with the environment. It was as if he didn’t even notice that their surroundings had changed. He walked briskly, stirring up quite a lot of dust.

[If I kill him here, Lila wouldn’t die in the future— ] This tempting thought suddenly flashed in her mind and echoed in her ears. If she thought about it carefully, Bluebeard’s story was special and different from the two other stories. He was the only one who could exist in a state of past and future in a single point in time. There was also some sort of connection between his story and Cinderella’s… If she killed him, it might change something. However, she couldn’t link his story to Red Riding Hood’s. In the end, Lin Sanjiu decided against that.

Lin Sanjiu followed behind Bluebeard for some time and estimated that more than ten minutes had already passed. She couldn’t help feeling anxious. Bluebeard’s father was an alcoholic and his mother was abusive. Neither of them showed a single shred of concern for their ugly son. After watching for awhile, Lin Sanjiu realized that Bluebeard had a pitiful childhood, considering the environment he was raised in. However, Lin Sanjiu still had no clue what she should do even after some time.

Unfortunately, time waits for no one. The sun which hung on the horizon like a yellow boiled egg yolk disappeared past the hills in a distance before she even noticed. Lin Sanjiu guessed that at least twenty minutes had passed since she saw the stone tablet. After, Bluebeard muttered something quickly to himself as he sat by the river. His eyes remained very still and if Lin Sanjiu didn’t see him breathing, she would have thought he died.

“So he was weird even when young…” Lin Sanjiu said to herself. She couldn’t wait any longer but everything around was totally foreign to her so she didn’t know where to go even if she wanted to leave. Just when she was stuck in this dilemma, she heard a bubbling sound coming from the river. Suddenly, a wet human head surfaced from the water…

“Are you the little chap looking for me?” The person who rose from the water wiped the water droplets off his face and flung back his clumps of gray-white hair to the back. He revealed a long wrinkly, wart-covered old face.

Lin Sanjiu stared blankly at the Old Man Fairy. She unconsciously made her breathing lighter, afraid to miss out on a single word. By the looks of it, Bluebeard was also surprised that the fairy summoning incarnation he accidentally stumbled upon really worked. He stammered and told the fairy his wish in a haphazard manner. The Old Man Fairy chuckled twice and didn’t reply but instead looked behind the boy.

Lin Sanjiu did not know if she was delusional, but she felt that the Old Man Fairy gave her a glance.

“If you wish to be incredibly rich, I could make a deal with you, dearie,” the old man said with his crafty and hoarse voice. “But it is too early now. You will have to wait for your 25th birthday, I will definitely look for you then…”

Bluebeard wanted to say something quickly but the Old Man Fairy raised his hand and stopped him, “Eighteen years pass quicker than you think… Okay, I still have to go to another pitiful little lady’s house to make a deal. She lost her biological mother and fell into a sorry state…”

[Cinderella?] This was the first name that came to Lin Sanjiu. [But, the timeline doesn’t fit? If Emma and Bluebeard’s age made it probable for them to exist in the same time, how could Cinderella, who was only older than Red Riding Hood by ten years or so, be a teenager at this point in time? Is he talking about someone else?]

Lin Sanjiu had never known herself to be that intelligent, so her mind was just in a confused mess. The Old Man Fairy got out from the river, shook his fly-like wings and stretched them, flying away into the distance. With no time to think, Lin Sanjiu just followed the man.

It was really quite strange to chase after a fairy.

No matter how fast she ran, she occasionally lost sight of him. That hunched back often disappeared from mid-air and reappeared in another direction before she could react. His body glowed slightly but it wasn’t that obvious, it was only visible because it would be night time soon. Lin Sanjiu was quite afraid that she would lose her way.

Thankfully, after running for a short while, the old man who flew carefreely in front of her suddenly stopped. He changed his direction and flew down toward the garden at the back of a mansion. Without taking a second look, Lin Sanjiu was sure that it was Cinderella’s house. Cinderella was kneeling on the ground with her skinny frame and was grabbing her own arms, sobbing. She looked just like the last time Lin Sanjiu saw her, around sixteen, and had a head of golden hair.

For a second, Lin Sanjiu only felt shocked and baffled. She really couldn’t make sense of anything. [Is the timeline in this pocket dimension just a jumbled mess? If that was so, how could she figure out what is the “one action” which would change everything?] She stared mindlessly at the two people in the garden. Though she did not take her eyes off them, her mind was in complete disarray. She only got her focus back when she heard Cinderella’s slightly raised voice, “I don’t understand what you mean. I don’t know what you mean when you say I have to pay a price…”

The old man gave a helpless expression, as if he had a headache, “Ah, ah, ah… Well, it is just something like digging some holes along a road. Come. Just sign here and agree to my conditions. I will send you to the ball right now…”

[Digging holes?] That was one more mind-boggling question for Lin Sanjiu. She watched Cinderella, who was partially numbed by all these but still anxious.

Cinderella bit on the pen with some hesitation. She looked at the sheepskin parchment which was almost one meter in length and quickly dismissed the thought of reading through the entire thing. When she heard the word “ball” she clenched her teeth and signed her name on the line that the old man was pointing to. The Old Man Fairy laughed out happily. He shook his hand and the contract disappeared into countless dots of light which entered his bracelet.

[That sheepskin parchment was a special item!] Lin Sanjiu’s mind raced. She was way too familiar with that. Even though she didn’t know what magic was supposed to look like, she had seen so many special items and those small dots of lights definitely meant that the parchment was a special item!

“Hahaha! That’s great, dearie!” The old man laughed loudly as he waved his hands and a wand appeared in them. There was a flash of golden light and Cinderella’s hair was quickly bundled into a beautiful bun with a gem-studded hair accessory. A beautiful necklace hung from her neck over her dazzling dress.

If Lin Sanjiu launched a sneak attack at that right moment, she might get that sheepskin parchment and even stop Cinderella from going to the ball. If Cinderella couldn’t go to the ball, the prince could die a thousand times and the royal family would not look for her… However, it seemed impossible to save all three people.

The pumpkin carriage pulled out from the garden, rumbling, and Lin Sanjiu leaped and landed on top of it. In her moment of hesitation, she lost sight of the Old Man Fairy. The only people left were Cinderella and that horse which had turned into a footman. The howling wind blew Lin Sanjiu’s hair to the back of her ears. She sat on the top of the carriage, feeling at a loss of what to do next. She didn’t know how much time she had left. The palace ball was a great event as it was opened to the entire kingdom. Many lavish carriages headed in the same direction, converging toward the road to the palace. Cinderella pulled the curtains aside and looked outside, and asked her footman, “Who are the people in those carriages? They look different.”

Lin Sanjiu looked up and realized that she could recognize those people.

“That is the dance troupe that would be performing for the king… Miss Cinderella,” the footman replied politely. “Other than the dance troupe, do you see those carriages? The best circus in the kingdom would also be performing in the palace!”

Lin Sanjiu was stunned. She looked over and saw a colorful troop of carriages nearby. There was even a sign on one of the carriages which wrote, “Come see the extraordinary man with a natural blue beard! It’s magical!” The sign was shaped like a splatter of butter and gradually disappeared from her sight into the darkness and the carriage pulled further and further away from her.

Like an old computer processor, Lin Sanjiu’s brain finally crashed and she could no longer process anything. [What should I do next?] Lin Sanjiu laughed wryly. Just then, she suddenly saw something blinking at the corner of her eyes.

She looked down and she noticed a line of words which had appeared on the roof of the carriage at some unknown time.

“Countdown: You have only 59 seconds remaining of your 30 minutes limit.”

She had to execute an action within this 59 seconds to save all three people…