Chapter 373: Because She is Lin Sanjiu

It wasn"t entirely accurate to say that this place was spooky.

Lin Sanjiu was walking through an alley under darkness" reign with her hands in her pockets and eyes on the surroundings. As she ventured further through the alley, uneasiness seeped quickly into her mind and overtook her thoughts.

The visibility was poor, and the only thing that was particularly visible was the vast blanket of dust that hung heavily in the air. The alley looked as if G.o.d had had a crisis of perfectionism and decided to take an eraser and remove the urban landscape, but Lin Sanjiu knew it wasn"t true. Behind the dense white dust were many twenty-four hour skysc.r.a.pers with chimneys constantly pumping out reeking smog that a.s.saulted whosever nostrils with pungent ammoniacal scent. There were puddles of filthy water here and there among the highways and alleys even though there was no rain. The foul water splashed over the s.h.i.+ns of all who were unfortunate enough to step on them.

It seemed that dampness was the constant nuisance here for at least the past 50 years as the houses that spa.r.s.ely scattered along the alley appeared to be badly in need of improvements. Mildew crawled up their walls, and a thick layer of black stains streaked along the dingy brick walls, dripping off at the eaves around the height of Lin Sanjiu"s eyebrows. Even in the real world that had been ruined by the apocalypse, it was rare to see such a wasteland.

The hem of Snow White"s silky white satin dress had been smeared with brownish dark mud after they had traversed the alley for ten or so minutes. While her dress looked pretty awful, her expression was even viler.

The dwarfs had stopped on the urban fringe and did not escort their princess back to her castle. While they were walking, Lin Sanjiu cast a sidelong glance at her companion, pondering whether or not she should ask the question that lingered in her mind. At last, she decided to throw everything to the wind and get straight to the matter, "You were born here? No offense, Snow White, but you and the city look like two different cartoons…"

"The h.e.l.l are you talking about?! How dare you compare my kingdom to this filthy piece of land!" Snow White"s voice was ear-splitting, "The sky above my kingdom is like a cloudless diamond, clear and sparking. Our streams are aquarium-blue, winding their merry way around the forest. Our forests are dense, full of lush, green trees that make the perfect spot for an afternoon nap. My kingdom might be small, but it"s wonderful. It"s nothing like this! I don"t know this place!"

"A likely story." Lin Sanjiu stopped moving, "Guess my help is not needed anymore, then? That"s fine; I"m leaving now."

Hearing her reply, Snow White turned into Snow Red. Her skin flushed red, and her delicate oval face grew wretched with nervousness, "No, that"s not what I meant. I know this place, but… Hey, don"t leave! Okay, fine, fine, you win. This place was my kingdom, but it was never like this before—"

Lin Sanjiu knew Snow White had been hiding something from her as she had had a pretty good grasp of the whole story. She had only wanted to make Snow White anxious. While turning a deaf ear to Snow White"s nonsense that wasn"t going to end soon, she tore a piece of paper from the wall of a residential house.

It seemed that the paper had been left on the wall long enough for the dirt to acc.u.mulate on it. Perhaps due to being exposed to the high humidity all these years, the paper had become soggy and lost the resilience paper should have. Yellow stains covered the surface of the paper masking the words and making the paper illegible. Lin Sanjiu raised her head and realized there were more of this paper as far as her eyes could see lining all the way from the beginning until the end of the alley on the wall of every house.

Then, she lowered her head and again looked at the page. Shaking the paper to get a better look, Lin Sanjiu decided to take a closer look. Concurrently, Snow White had stopped mumbling. She stood on her toes and craned her neck to look at the paper as well.

After a minute of reading, Lin Sanjiu lowered her hand, and an almost ludicrous expression of astonishment spread over her face.

It required a strenuous amount of effort to differentiate the words beneath the mildew and stain. If her eyes didn"t fail her, the paper in her hand was a poster for an election.

At the bottom of the poster, there was "VOTE FOR" printed in extra bold font. It seemed that someone had been canva.s.sing support among the voters. After Lin Sanjiu squinted, she was able to distinguish the long and unfamiliar western name behind the call to action.

"McDuck?"

Lin Sanjiu was taken aback by what she saw. She quickly glanced over the yellow stain, and she finally understood why the stain appeared in the same spot in all posters.

She turned her head and stared into Snow White, "Scrooge McDuck is your dad?" 

The young lady"s two cherry red lips gaped into an "O." She didn"t seem to be a part of the duck lineage, "What do you mean? Are you dumb?"

"Look at it yourself," Lin Sanjiu snarled and shoved the poster into Snow White"s face, "This poster was printed by Scrooge McDuck when he was competing for this country"s presidency!"

Lin Sanjiu somewhat remembered that Scrooge McDuck was the uncle of Donald Duck and an incredibly wealthy business magnate. While she reveled in Snow White"s face-changing performance, a wild thought flashed into her mind, "Yea, the wealthy can do whatever they want. Scrooge McDuck is rich. Not ordinary rich, but extremely rich. Of course he can compete for a country"s presidency with his wealth. Guess not even Cartoon World could escape from that iron law."

"Since when did my kingdom implement democracy?" Snow White screamed again. A few ravens flew into the sky from a roof not far away from them, "Where is my father? Where is my stepmother? What has happened to them?"

Snow White blurted out all the question without hoping that Lin Sanjiu would give her the answer. Since Lin Sanjiu couldn"t answer her, she had to find the answer her own. Lifting the hem of her dress in one hand, she rushed forward in a hurry. Lin Sanjiu sighed before stretching her legs and following after Snow White.

Although the city had been expanded at least three or four times, the castle still stood staunchly at the heart of the city as a landmark. After losing their way several times in the cobweb-like routes and cursing the amateur urban designer that did his only given job poorly in their minds, Lin Sanjiu and Snow White finally found the correct path that led them to the castle.

Looking at the castle from a distance, Snow White"s anxiety-ridden expression eased a little bit.

Lin Sanjiu had never set foot in this city before, but even as a first-time visitor, she could see that in the middle of this tarnished and gloomy city, only the castle retained its former glory, giving people a look through time at how pretty this city had once been. The building was pure white as if it was built of jadestone. The delicately constructed rooftops spelled the word fantasy and stood steadfast at a different height in the haze. The occasional flashes of gold came from the castle"s golden finis.h.i.+ngs and adornment.

"This castle matches your mien better," Lin Sanjiu said to Snow White from behind her, "But how can the castle stay so sparkling clean while the air is so full of dust?"

"You are not from here, so you don"t know. There is a group of people specifically tasked to wipe and clean the facade of the castle…" Just as Snow White replied to Lin Sanjiu, a group of people with rags on their faces, each of them carrying buckets of water and cleaning tools, swarmed out from the castle. After the team had set up everything, they then began to clean the castle starting from the bottom.

This was the first time Lin Sanjiu saw living beings, asides from rats, ravens, and the faces that s.h.i.+lly-shallied behind windows after she stepped into this city.

"Let"s go," she tugged at Snow White"s sleeve, "Since we"re here, we might as well go up and ask them who this Scrooge McDuck is, and where your father is."

However, Snow White didn"t budge.

Lin Sanjiu stopped and looked over her shoulder at the young maiden.

Even though she did not exert much strength, Snow White wasn"t somebody who needed people to tote her around. Despite that, the young maiden looked like her soul had ascended from her mortal body. She had a stunned look on her face, and she refused to move an inch — her mouth ajar made her look stupid.

Following her gla.s.sy stare, Lin Sanjiu saw a short, dirty, old geezer stumbling his way over to them. He grew closer and closer.

"Snow White?" asked the old geezer. His face was covered with wrinkles and mud. His complexion had yellowed due to malnutrition, "Snow White, you"re back! Oh, my poor daughter, it"s such a relief to see that you"re fine."

"He is the king?"

Standing like a log, Snow White was petrified for a right amount of time in the embrace of that old geezer. Then, with her reddened, rheumy eyes, she pushed the old geezer away and studied him from his head to toe. She exclaimed in disbelief, "F-Father? What happened to you?!"

"Oh, many things happened in your absence, my dear Snow White. I"m no longer the rightful owner of this land; hence, I am not the king now," the scrawny old geezer waved his hand profusely, "The owner of this land is now President Scrooge McDuck. The reason our country has become a better place day after day is all thanks to the sagacity and acuity of President Scrooge McDuck. My time as the king has over, and I"m satisfied with what I am now."

Lin Sanjiu needed to narrow her eyes hard to see a slight similarity in between Snow White and the face of the old geezer beneath his dry and aged skin.

There was a saying that you shouldn"t mingle yourself with other people"s family affairs. Lin Sanjiu could neither solve their family affairs since Snow White"s stepmother was no longer around nor was she a master of politics, she thought that she should leave now.

"Who is that duck? What made you become like this, father?" Snow White"s face reddened. The veins on her neck bulged. She thrashed her hands around in the air and stomped her feet in fury, "How can we simply change the t.i.tle of the country"s monarch from the king to president—"

"Ha, ha, ha! Cause this is the will of the people!"

A croaky laughter sounded from behind the old geezer, and the three of them fell silent.

The first person to come back to senses was the former king. The old geezer quickly spun his body around and bowed to that person reverently, "Mr. President."

Lin Sanjiu and Snow White finally saw who the speaker was after the old geezer turned his body around.

Of course, he couldn"t be called a human.

He wore a top hat and a pair of pince-nez gla.s.ses. Half of his plumpy figure was wrapped in a black frock coat while his lower torso was exposed to the air. He seemed the same as Donald Duck. The only notable difference was the two fluffy bushes of short fur that grew from either side of his cheek that indicated that he was an aged duck.

Scrooge McDuck looked more normal than Mickey, though he was still an oversized duck standing at almost twice the size of an ordinary person. When he opened his bill, it seemed that he could easily devour Snow White whole. When he blinked his eyes, like Mickey, they moved sideways toward the center.

"So you"re Snow White," said Scrooge McDuck while stroking his black frock coat. Then, a smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he said, "I have attended to and solved anything regarding your past royal internal affairs. The country is now coming to a new era, and I hope that you won"t be a hindrance to this progression."

As he was talking, he lowered his head. Then, he saw the poster that Snow White had been gripping.

"Oh my, oh my, how can this thing is still around?" Scrooge McDuck awkwardly flapped his wings. "The Congress has pa.s.sed the resolution of appointing me as the president for life of this country, and these useless posters should return to their rightful place… Why haven"t you people begun to clean the outer wall?"

His order toward the former king had sparked a flare in Snow White. She pushed her father away, walked two steps forward and pointed her finger in Scrooge McDuck"s broad face as she growled, "What do you mean by "solved," huh? Where is my stepmother, then? And how dare you ask my father to do the ch.o.r.es for you, you fowl!"

"Oh my, how can you call me a fowl?" Scrooge McDuck narrowed his eyes into two thin lines as his bill curled into a grin, "Your stepmother is not from this country. I have sent her back to her own country to continue to live her life as a princess like you… Oh, silly me. I have forgotten that you"re no longer a princess now. Oh my, oh my, life sure loves to make a joke with us, isn"t it? And what makes the matter worst is that you have to accept it no matter what. What a shame."

Snow White"s brain went blank. It wasn"t known if the information had come too sudden that her brain could not process it since she could not say anything now. Seizing his chance, Scrooge McDuck turned his attention towards Lin Sanjiu.

"Guess this beautiful lady over here must be our visitor from far," he politely flapped open his wing as his eyes narrowed toward the center, "I have heard from my nephew that a visitor was coming here for sightseeing, but I didn"t expect to meet you so soon. Anyway, if I may be so bold to ask a favor of you, I can provide you with all the help you"ll need."

He hinted so broadly by emphasizing the words "all the help you need" and made Lin Sanjiu remember Minnie"s golden ring.

She could finish this round if she found the golden ring. Doctor Meow was alone outside with Souls and Puppeteer, and what worried her the most was that his charm couldn"t affect either of them. She didn"t know what was going on outside, either. The only combatant, Puppeteer, had fallen unconscious and what if somebody with a wicked thought got near them...

She was okay if she did not think about it, but once she thought about them, she was instantly flooded by her anxiety and hoped that she could leave now.

"What do you need me to do?" Lin Sanjiu asked softly.

"Simple," Scrooge McDuck scrubbed his wings and said without minding the father and daughter beside him, "Snow White has a lot of complaints about me, so I hope she can continue her life in another land; I have found the place. All you need to do is take her there, as simple as that, and after everything is over, I"ll grant you whatever you want."

Snow White zoned out for a significant amount of time before she realized what Scrooge McDuck saying was. Her face instantly went pale.

"No, you can"t!" Snow White"s voice was filled with both anger and fear. After she yelled at Scrooge McDuck, she ran to Lin Sanjiu and stopped one step away from her. She stared at Lin Sanjiu, her eyes were full of worry, "You promised me that you"d get rid of my stepmother for me! Now that she is gone, help me get rid of this duck! We have made a deal!"

"Who has made a deal with you?" Lin Sanjiu looked at her before turning to Scrooge McDuck.

With a confident grin, Scrooge McDuck tilted his head, "It"s your call. Will you help me, a president as rich as Croesus or a little girl that has nothing."

"I knew it. This is yet another multiple choices question."

Lin Sanjiu heaved a sigh and returned her hands to her pockets. Raising her head, she peered into the somber sky.

"If I"d known this before, I would"ve left Snow White to die poisoned by the apple… Then, I wouldn"t have to go through all these headaches.," She retracted her gaze from the sky. After she stretched her neck and shoulders, a few crackles sounded out. Then, she said, "I"m sorry, but I"m a bit slow. You will get used to it somehow… Okay, my choice is: I"ll pick the little girl that has nothing."