The trio looked up and saw the little maid. She crouched down, gently picking up Gus. "Are you alright?" Jaq and Lan Youzheng glanced at each other. 'What is she doing here? How come didn't we notice her?' The little maid carefully examined Gus's injuries. "You look horrible. What happened to you?"
"Glad you asked!" Instead of being wary Gus responded happily. "I, Octavius the Third, Honorable mouse of the Thornburgh-Beau-" "Stupid! She can't understand you!" Jaq rebuked. "Why not?" Gus frowned. "You told me Miss Ella could understand Lan, so why can't she understand me?" Jaq facepalmed. "Look at her face..."
Gus looked at the little maid. "Can you understand us?" The little maid laughed. "Sorry little one, I don't know what you're saying." "Owh..." Gus showed a disappointed face, ignoring the 'See I told you' face Jaq made. However both mice failed to notice she just answered his question perfectly. "Don't worry, I'll heal you." The little maid petted Gus his head and carefully placed him into one of her skirt's pockets. The she picked up the other two and put them in her skirt as well.
'System, who is she?'
[She is Cinderella's maid. Host, why are you asking the obvious?]
'Uhg...How could I forget you are really bad at giving proper answers.' Lan Youzheng's forgotten grudge against came back to his mind. 'No matter how smart System pretends to be, at his core he is still useless!' 'System, do you have more information about her?'
[System cannot find any information]
'This is useless, I keep going in circles. What am I missing? Everything is not going as planned but the mission is still the same. I need to make sure everything goes correctly. Okay, let's return to the basics.' Lan Youzheng sighed. 'Then System, can you give me the original fairy tale?'
[Searching database]
[System has retrieved information]
[Display source material]
Lan Youzheng carefully read the story, but he couldn't find any leads. 'System, once again what exactly is my mission?'
[Host's mission is to reconstruct the true fairy tale]
Lan Youzheng felt like he had all the pieces but he wasn't able to connect them.
[Sorry Host, System doesn't understand either]
'I already knew you were useless...'
While Lan Youzheng was conversing with System, the little maid was walking towards her room to get some gauze for Gus. However before she got to her room, a scream blasted though the mansion. "Oh, t-that's Miss Ella!" The little maid looked at the mice. "I'm sorry little one, you will have to wait for a bit." She quickly walked towards her mistress room.
"You, where is my afternoon snack?!" were the greeting words the little maid got when she entered the study. Behind the desk sat Cinderella looking sharply at the little maid. "You know, I was working...." The little maid trembled. "AND WHEN I GOT HUNGERY THERE WAS NOTHING!!!"
"F-fo-forgive m-me..." The little maid bowed deeply.
"Forgive you? Why should I?" Cinderella looked at her as if she was the crazy one. "Yesterday, you were a complete mess, this morning you already make 5 mistakes. How benevolent do you think I am? I have forgiven you so many times already. My patience is running dry, YOU USELESS MAID!!!"
"How dare she treats her like that!" Gus scoffs indignantly, ready to climb out of the maid's skirt to attack Cinderella. Jaq quickly pulled him back "Stupid, we're all dead if she knows we're here!" Suddenly a thick book was thrown at the head of the little maid. "You are lucky, next time I'll have my sword ready!" Cinderella threatened. "Now, GET OUT!!!"
The little maid hurriedly removed her presence from the room. "I'm sorry you had to see that." The little maid showed a sad smile. She picked up Gus and started petting him. "You know, Miss was really nice before. It's just that Master refuses to see her. Miss is just lonely, I'm sure she will be alright once Master returns."
"What lonely?! She is horrible!!!" Gus screamed. "That girl killed her own step-sisters!!!" "You can't let het treat you like this!" Jaq added, completely forgetting she can't understand them. "We'll help you!" Gus declared proudly.
'System, that's it!' Lan Youzheng finally found the answer.
[Host, what do you mean?]
'Of course, why didn't I notice it before? Hahaha....it was that simple!'
[Host...???]
'System, remember I have to reconstruct the true fairy tale not the original one! As you said, there are a lot of different versions so what do they got in common? A bullied girl who rescued by a guy! Our little maid is the protagonist not Cinderella!'
After Lan Youzheng realized that this world was about the little maid and not Cinderella, he felt that this mission was actually quite easy. Lan Youzheng only had to make sure the little maid would attend the ball and meet the prince. The plot will make sure they fall in love and he would have completed his first mission.
The prospect of a completed mission made Lan Youzheng so happy, he even played with Felix for a while. But once Felix started to lick him, he made sure to run away quickly. Lan Youzheng didn't understand why the cat was that clingy. Felix was at odds with the mice (well, the most enmity came from the mice) but liked to hang around him.
Why did Felix want to keep him? There were other animals in the mansion for him to play with if he wanted. When Lan Youzheng asked Felix answered saying he felt familiar. Lan Youzheng felt even more confused, but before he could ask more, Felix started to pet him with his tail. By now Lan Youzheng knew this was a sign he would try to lick him again, and he started to search for escape routes.
Together with all the mice, Lan Youzheng helped the little maid with doing the chores in the mansion. Furthermore they made sure Cinderella couldn't kill her before the upcoming ball. Luckily, the invitation for the ball had arrived and Cinderella was mostly busy getting everything prepared for her dress. Therefore the abuse of the little maid lessened.
However, Lan Youzheng was stressing out. How was he going to get a dress for the little maid? He didn't have magic nor he knew an fairy godmother who could make a dress. As last resort, he decide to ask if the useless System had records of different versions of this fairy tale.
[System has found 375 version in the database]
[Applying filter -godmother]
[Optimizing results]
[Display result]
System showed Lan Youzheng a Chinese version of Cinderella in that story the protagonist keeps bones of a fish that got killed by the step-mother and sisters. 'System don't tell me you want me to go find the bodies of the sisters?'
[System had found another internal bug]
[System is unable to assist Host during maintenance]
Lan Youzheng spitted blood. He didn't know what to do otherwise, System was already his last resort. But how was he going to find the bodies?
On Wikipedia you got a Cinderella adaptation from 1911, which is quite amusing to watch. Of course it's a silent film so you got to add your own soundtrack, or not if you can bear 14 of silent video. Lately I've been listen nonstop to my Mo Dao Zhu Shi playlist on YouTube (I love the novel and can't wait for the Donghua adaptation!) It was a strange combination... Also, my favorite Cinderella adaption when I was small was Aschenputtel 2010, it a German adaptation and I really liked the dresses, though the Disney version is pure nostaglia. (For the ones interested links are in my comment)
A special thank you for all my followers! I feel admired~ Please let me know all you thoughts!