Chapter 264
Chapter 264
“Your Highness, I’d like to say goodbye to my companions,” Mu Xin said.
She was currently standing on the Flower Prince’s flower. Unless he willingly let her leave, she had no way to get off.
Left with no other choice, Mu Xin could only try to secure his permission.
The Flower Prince had already furrowed his brow, looking somewhat displeased. “Friends?”
“Yes. A lot of people helped me get here and see you again, Your Highness. I want to thank them, and if possible, I’d also like to invite them to our wedding.” At that, Mu Xin feigned a bashful expression.
The last part clearly delighted the Flower Prince.
“All right. We’ll go find them,” he said.
Mu Xin had no idea where Jian Fan and the others were, so she could only have the Flower Prince take her around in search of them.
At the same time, there was something else she needed to do.
“Your Highness, do you remember what happened just now?” Mu Xin asked.
The Flower Prince looked puzzled. “What do you mean? What are you asking about?”
Mu Xin carefully tested the waters. “I think I heard a gunshot earlier.”
“A gunshot?” The Flower Prince appeared shocked. He shook his head. “I didn’t hear anything. Where did you hear it? If there was gunfire here, we need to leave as soon as possible. It’s dangerous.”
Judging by his reaction, he didn’t seem to be lying. Did that mean the NPCs who had remained at the ball had completely forgotten that entire sequence of events?
Mu Xin put on a conflicted expression. “I’m not sure. Maybe I misheard. I thought I heard it here at the ball, but if you didn’t hear anything, Your Highness, then I must have been mistaken.”
The Flower Prince readily accepted her explanation.
Now that Mu Xin knew he didn’t remember, she naturally had no intention of pursuing the subject.
She still hadn’t found Jian Fan and the others, which meant she had to remain with the Flower Prince for now. Naturally, she intended to make full use of this NPC while she could.
Granted, deceiving a child’s feelings was rather unscrupulous…
Ahem.
But what could be more important than staying alive?
Mu Xin continued fishing for information. “By the way, who is the host of this ball trying to find? Prince, do you know?”
The Flower Prince didn’t seem to think much of the question. “I do.”
“Who is it?” Mu Xin asked curiously. As she spoke, she reached out and tugged on his sleeve, acting as though she relied on him completely.
The Flower Prince clearly enjoyed this. He smiled and answered her question. “Snow White’s Stepmother.”
“What?” Mu Xin had known this already, but she still put on a shocked expression. “Why is he looking for Snow White’s Stepmother? Oh, I remember him saying she almost became his mother-in-law. Could he be Snow White’s fiancé?”
The Flower Prince nodded. “That’s him.”
“Goodness, what in the world happened?” Mu Xin looked even more curious. She shook his sleeve. “Please tell me, all right?”
How could the Flower Prince possibly resist Mu Xin acting coy with him?
It wasn’t particularly important information to begin with, so he immediately told her the whole story as he knew it.
“Actually, before the Stepmother Queen married Snow White’s father, the King, she had already met that Prince,” the Flower Prince said.
Mu Xin wasn’t especially surprised by this, but she still had to look shocked.
The Flower Prince glanced at her before continuing. “They didn’t just know each other. They were lovers.”
Mu Xin: “???”
This time, she was genuinely shocked.
“But the Stepmother Queen… could that be why she wanted to hurt Snow White?” Mu Xin ventured timidly. Of course, that was not what she truly believed. She simply had to act a little more innocent in front of the Flower Prince.
The Flower Prince chuckled and tapped her on the head. “You’re oversimplifying things.”
“Then what really happened?” Mu Xin asked at once.
“The Stepmother Queen never truly loved the Prince. She was an extremely ambitious woman, and to her, the Prince was nothing more than a stepping stone on her climb to the top. But the Prince took their relationship seriously. He even wanted to marry her. When he proposed, the Stepmother Queen finally realized how serious he was and immediately decided to extricate herself from the relationship. It was around that time that Snow White’s father asked for her hand in marriage. The Stepmother Queen wanted to put an end to the Prince’s entanglement with her, and she was also very satisfied with Snow White’s father’s status, so she chose to marry him.”
Mu Xin: “???”
Unexpected, yet somehow not all that surprising.
The Flower Prince continued.
“After losing contact with the Stepmother Queen, the Prince searched for her for years, but never found any trace of her. Then one day, the Prince’s father ordered him to seek Snow White’s hand in marriage.”
“The Prince was extremely reluctant, but someone told him that the Stepmother Queen had apparently been seen in Snow White’s kingdom. Determined to find the woman he loved, the Prince eventually set off for the neighboring kingdom.”
“But that’s not the version I heard.” Mu Xin deliberately put on a conflicted expression.
The Flower Prince smiled. “That story was merely spread by certain people to protect the Prince’s reputation.”
“Then what actually happened back then?” Mu Xin asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
She might finally be able to unravel the mystery surrounding Jian Fan and Qin Nan.
The Flower Prince noticed nothing amiss. Since Mu Xin had asked, he simply told her.
“After marrying into the kingdom, the Stepmother Queen met Snow White. In truth, she treated Snow White very well. Snow White posed no threat to her ambitions, and the Stepmother Queen also happened to be very fond of beautiful people. She often asked the Magic Mirror who the most beautiful woman in the world was. The Magic Mirror had always answered that it was her, but one day, it told her that the most beautiful maiden was Snow White. After that, the Stepmother Queen grew even fonder of Snow White.”
“She loved anything that stood at the very top: the most powerful, the most beautiful,” the Flower Prince said.
“Eventually, the two of them fell in love.” The Flower Prince’s expression turned rather strange as he said this.
Mu Xin’s expression became equally strange.
So even a dark fairy tale could go down the girls’ love route?
Outwardly, however, Mu Xin still had to maintain her innocent act. She immediately feigned shock. “But aren’t they both women?”
“Yes, but they truly did develop a peculiar emotional bond. And that was precisely when the Prince appeared.” The Flower Prince sighed.
Mu Xin could more or less guess where the story went from there.
The Prince loved the Stepmother Queen, but the Stepmother Queen was now in love with Snow White. How could the Prince possibly stand that? Of course he would go after Snow White.
Tsk.
Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that this warped retelling would take such a turn.
Breaking up the canon couple was one thing, but the villain had become the hero while the male lead had become the villain. The entire story had been turned on its head. It could hardly be said to bear even the slightest resemblance to the original.