Chapter 154

Chapter 154

The Queen would never leave something so important lying around carelessly.

There was too little time, and Tu Nan didn’t dare make too much noise for fear of attracting attention.

She took out the Teething Stick the Witch had given her, but for a moment, she had no idea how she was supposed to use it.

It wasn’t as if the Magic Mirror were a dog that would come bounding out the second she pulled out a Teething Stick.

Tu Nan held the Teething Stick in her hand and gave it a tentative shake.

…

As expected, nothing happened.

Maybe it was too far away, and the Magic Mirror couldn’t sense it.

Holding the Teething Stick, Tu Nan circled the entire room, but still came up empty-handed.

Strange.

Could the Magic Mirror not be in the Queen’s bedroom?

She swept her gaze around the bedroom once more.

In the corner stood an enormous full-length mirror, practically the most eye-catching decoration in the entire room.

Its frame was traced in gold powder, and the intricate, luxurious patterns all showed just how expensive the mirror was.

Tu Nan had noticed it the moment she entered, but she had subconsciously assumed the Queen wouldn’t display something like the Magic Mirror so brazenly in such an obvious place.

But perhaps that was exactly how she meant to mislead people.

Tu Nan walked up to the mirror. Her face immediately appeared in its surface.

There was no doubt that the Queen was beautiful.

She stepped closer, trying to see if there was anything unusual about the mirror.

Her slender fingers touched the glass, and the person in the mirror made the same movement as her.

Tu Nan’s eyes narrowed slightly. At last, she noticed what was wrong.

With an ordinary mirror, when a person’s finger touched the surface, there would be a small gap between the fingertip in the mirror and the fingertip in reality. But now, the finger of the person in the mirror was connected to hers.

She lifted her eyes slightly and met the gaze of the person in the mirror.

The “Queen” in the mirror lifted her eyes to look back at her as well. Then-the corners of her lips curved upward.

The person in the mirror was smiling at her.

Tu Nan’s pupils constricted. Before she could react, she suddenly felt a tremendous force pulling at her from inside the mirror.

The next second, Tu Nan vanished from where she stood.
—
The world spun around her, and Tu Nan involuntarily closed her eyes.

Several breaths later, she finally felt her feet land on solid ground.

She slowly opened her eyes, then widened them in surprise.

Hundreds of mirrors floated before her. Each one looked different, silently suspended in midair, with nothing obviously special about any of them.

She reached out and grabbed the mirror in front of her. Her current face was reflected in the glass.

It seemed the Magic Mirror was hidden among them.

To keep others from finding it, the Queen had deliberately mixed the Magic Mirror in with hundreds of ordinary mirrors. If Tu Nan couldn’t find the right mirror, she probably wouldn’t be able to leave either.

Good thing she had the Teething Stick Nemesis had given her.

Tu Nan took out the Teething Stick and waved it through the air.

In the corner, one motionless mirror suddenly twitched.

She continued waving the Teething Stick in her hand while carefully observing the mirrors before her.

No movement?

Tu Nan thought for a moment, then brought the Teething Stick to her lips and deliberately took a deep sniff. In an exaggerated voice, she said, “What a fragrant Teething Stick-”

The floating mirrors still stayed quietly where they were.

Had she misunderstood?

Tu Nan’s eyes shifted, and she made as if she were about to take a small bite.

“Since this Teething Stick smells so good, I guess I’ll just have to enjoy it myself-”

Holding the Teething Stick in one hand, Tu Nan blinked and suddenly felt that she was being rather ridiculous.

She sighed inwardly and was just about to lower the Teething Stick in her hand when she suddenly heard a faint sound.
“No, no.”

Tu Nan’s spirits lifted. She swiftly glanced around. “Who’s talking?”

No one answered.

Once she confirmed that the Teething Stick worked, her confidence soared. She immediately opened her mouth wide, ready to shove the Teething Stick inside.

“No, no.”

This time, Tu Nan finally heard where the voice was coming from.

It was in the corner directly ahead of her-a plain, unassuming antique silver mirror.

She walked over to the mirror, crouched down, and stared at it. “Was that you talking?”

The mirror remained motionless and gave no response.

Tu Nan picked it up.

The mirror wasn’t very large, roughly the size of two palms. She turned the reflective side toward herself and saw Judy’s appearance in the glass.

Tu Nan jumped in fright.

She hurriedly glanced at her hands. The vivid colors on her nails were still there, which proved the potion had not worn off yet.

This mirror could actually reflect her true appearance inside the Instance.

“You’re the Magic Mirror,” she said with certainty.

The mirror still refused to speak.

“If you won’t talk…” Tu Nan’s eyes shifted, her gaze landing on the Teething Stick.

She summoned the Fairy Tale Compendium, flipped it open to reveal that enormous mouth, then raised the Teething Stick over the mouth in a threatening gesture. “Then I’ll give this Teething Stick to someone else.”

Fairy Tale Compendium: “…”

It realized Tu Nan was getting more and more skilled at using it.

A crying face appeared on the mirror’s surface. The glass gradually blurred, like ripples spreading across water, and then a voice came from within the mirror.

“No, no… How do you have that? Wuwuwu, I really, really want to eat it.”

The ripples on the mirror’s surface shook even harder, as if it were truly crying.

“Please, please, just let me have one bite.”

The Magic Mirror’s voice sounded childish, like a little kid who hadn’t grown up yet, giving Tu Nan the strange illusion that she was bullying a child.

Her face stayed cold. “I can give it to you, but you have to answer one question for me.”

“What question?” the Magic Mirror asked pitifully.

Tu Nan was just about to speak when the Fairy Tale Compendium suddenly reminded her, “Items like this usually have major restrictions. You’d better think carefully before asking.”

Tu Nan froze for a moment and glanced at the Fairy Tale Compendium in surprise. She hadn’t expected it to warn her about something like this.

There was never any harm in being cautious.

Tu Nan examined the Magic Mirror closely and, to her surprise, actually found several lines of tiny text on the back.

The characters were carved extremely small and shallow, so easy to overlook that one would mistake them for mere scratches on the mirror.

“You rotten thing!” the Magic Mirror angrily cursed at the Fairy Tale Compendium.

“You’re pretty scheming yourself.” Tu Nan curled her finger and tapped the mirror’s surface. The Magic Mirror instantly fell silent.

She flipped the mirror over, brought it close to her eyes, narrowed them, and read with some difficulty.

What passed yesterday is moon in water, flower in mirror.

What comes tomorrow cannot be glimpsed.

What is known exists only in this moment.

In other words, this mirror only knew what was happening right now.

She could ask what the Queen was doing at the moment, but she couldn’t ask whether the Queen was actually Aphro.

For the Magic Mirror, that question was beyond the scope of the syllabus.

Tu Nan couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed. But after thinking it over, if this mirror really were omniscient, it would be a bug in the Instance too difficult to patch.

If she wanted to clear the Instance, wouldn’t she just have to ask the Magic Mirror directly?