Chapter 151

Chapter 151

The corner of Nemesis’s mouth twitched.

“Fine,” she said. “I do have a few little things that might help you.”

She rose and walked over to a cabinet. A collection of strange, odd little trinkets sat on top of it, and from appearances alone, there was no telling what any of them were for.

Nemesis seemed to hesitate for a moment over what to choose. In the end, she took two items from the cabinet and handed them to Tu Nan.

Tu Nan quickly accepted them.

[Produced by the Forest Witch:

Special Potion: Add just a bit of hair from the person you want to transform into, and you can take on their appearance.

Even the real person won’t be able to tell the difference!

Not 998, not 98, just 9.8, and you can take this Special Potion home today!

Of course, cheap things aren’t very effective. Duration: only half an hour. Please be careful not to transform back right in front of someone ^_^]

Tu Nan fell silent as she looked at the long block of explanation.

Did it think she had never read Harry Potter? This was clearly Polyjuice Potion!

“This potion can turn you into the Queen,” Nemesis explained. “All you need to do is add a bit of her hair. Also, based on my experiments, it only lasts for half an hour.”

Tu Nan nodded, then looked at the other item.

[Produced by the Forest Witch:

A rather useless Teething Stick.

If one absolutely had to say it was useful for something, it might be rather well liked by a certain mirror.]

Excellent.

She knew what it was for now.

“This Teething Stick is to help you find the Magic Mirror.” Nemesis’s face was expressionless, as if she did not find it absurd at all that a mirror would like teething sticks. “It likes using this to grind its teeth. If it smells the Teething Stick, it will definitely react.”

“These things are very useful.” Tu Nan nodded in thanks. “I’ll find out as soon as possible whether the Queen is Aphro or not.”

Nemesis nodded. The expression on her face was impossible to read-part anticipation, part worry.

An inexplicable emotion spread through her eyes like a surging sea.

“It’s getting late. You should go,” she said suddenly, her face blank.

Tu Nan looked out the window.

The forest was lush and dense, and sunlight already had a hard time filtering through. Now that the afternoon light had weakened, it had grown even dimmer.

Looking through the window, she realized it was already nearly dark.

Little Red Riding Hood, who had been asleep on the table, woke up just then as well.

She stretched, glanced out the window, and immediately turned pale with fright. “How did I fall asleep?”

She hopped down from the chair and said anxiously, “I still haven’t delivered the cake to Grandmother.”

The dark forest was somewhat dangerous for her.

“It’s all right.” Nemesis was always gentle and pleasant when facing Little Red Riding Hood. “I can take you there.”

“Really?” Little Red Riding Hood looked at Nemesis in delight, then hesitated. “But Mama said I can’t keep troubling other people.”

“Cute little girls don’t count,” Nemesis said with a beaming smile.

Only then did Little Red Riding Hood become happy again.

“As for you-” Nemesis looked at Tu Nan, her voice indifferent. “If I were you, I’d hurry up and leave.”

The speed at which she changed faces was truly impressive.

Tu Nan grumbled inwardly, but the smile on her face did not change. She nodded politely and said, “Then I’ll take my leave. I look forward to meeting you again.”

Nemesis said nothing.

“Goodbye, Sister Judy.” Little Red Riding Hood waved her little hand hard. “I hope I can see you again.”

Tu Nan lowered her eyes to look at her, her smile widening slightly. “I hope so too.”

Nemesis watched them, then suddenly said, “If you get lost, I suggest you head south.”
Tu Nan froze for a moment, then realized she had benefited from Little Red Riding Hood’s favor. She thanked Nemesis, waved to Little Red Riding Hood, and turned to leave the Witch’s cottage.
—
“Witch, do you hate Sister Judy?”

Only after Tu Nan had left the cottage did Little Red Riding Hood lift her head and ask in confusion.

Nemesis paused, then smiled and said, “I simply don’t like her, that’s all.”

To Little Red Riding Hood, there was no difference between the two.

“Why?” she asked, puzzled. “Sister Judy is nice to Little Red Riding Hood, just like you are. You’re both people Little Red Riding Hood likes!”

Nemesis crouched down and said to Little Red Riding Hood earnestly, “You’re still young. You don’t understand how complicated people’s hearts can be. Many things can’t be judged by appearances alone. Sometimes, even what your eyes see can deceive you.”

“I know!” Little Red Riding Hood lifted her head proudly. “I look with my heart.”

Nemesis couldn’t help laughing. She raised a hand and rubbed Little Red Riding Hood’s head. “Come on. I’ll take you to Grandmother’s house.”

But Little Red Riding Hood said very seriously, “Even though everyone says the Witch is evil, I know you’re a kind person. That’s because other people only use their ears to know you, but I use my heart.”

Her voice was childish, and her face held an almost innocent sincerity.

Yet because of those words, Nemesis stood frozen in place, unable to recover for a long time.
—
Night was about to fall.

Just in case, Tu Nan held the Lantern Flower at her side, constantly watching her surroundings as she hurried south.

She did not know if she was truly that unlucky, but before she realized it, fog had risen around her again.

Inside the fog, it was difficult to tell direction. Perhaps because night was approaching, even the temperature had dropped quite a bit. She felt a little cold.

Tu Nan held the Lantern Flower in one hand and rubbed her arm with the other, doing her best to identify the way.

Both the Rule and Nemesis had reminded her to head south. South should be the direction of the exit.

In the forest, telling direction was not actually difficult, but at that moment, fog surrounded her on all sides, making it a challenge.

At a time like this, she definitely could not rely on how dense or sparse the leaves were to judge direction. All she could do was crouch down again and again to check whether there were any ant holes or rocks nearby.

Naturally, that wasted a great deal of time.

The temperature around her grew colder and colder, so cold it was almost abnormal.

Tu Nan stopped. She kept feeling as though something in the fog was watching her.

She brought the Lantern Flower closer to herself, but she could still feel that sticky gaze falling on her, licking over her inch by inch with obvious malice.

After night fell, the forest was no longer safe.

Tu Nan’s breathing unconsciously quickened.

Right now, she was alone and helpless. Her only light source was the Lantern Flower in her hand, and visibility around her was extremely low. The only consolation was that she had already been walking for a while. Based on the time it had taken Xu Duoyi to lead them out of the forest yesterday, she should not be far from the exit now.

Perhaps she was only a few steps away from making it out.

Tu Nan steadied herself and crouched down to examine the ground.

Fortunately, she quickly found a stone and could use the moss on it to distinguish direction.

“Hiss… hiss…”

That sound… seemed to be coming from above her head.

Tu Nan’s body stiffened. Slowly, she raised her head.

In the fog, a pair of yellow vertical pupils met her eyes.