Just as Cinderella got home, the clock struck midnight and her splendid gown instantly turned into rags.
The birds said, “That was close! Luckily, we got home in time, or you would have been exposed.”
Cinderella, however, worriedly said, “But I lost one of my glass slippers. If someone finds it and it turns into a broken shoe at midnight, and someone recognizes it as mine, they’ll know I was at the ball, and my stepmother will find out and definitely cause trouble.”
Meanwhile, the Prince found the glass slipper. Strangely, it hadn’t turned into a broken shoe.
A few days later, while the Prince was passing through the marketplace, he suddenly saw a figure who looked exactly like the girl he danced with at the ball.
The difference was that she wore shabby clothes and had ash on her face, while the girl at the ball was dressed in elegant, dazzling attire.
The Prince immediately followed her.
He saw her enter the backyard of a house, and then the door closed behind her.
The Prince quickly sent his servant to knock on the door.
Just as Cinderella entered the house, she heard someone knocking. Looking through the crack in the door, she saw the Prince.
She was at a loss about what to do, and the knocking grew louder.
At that moment, her stepmother stormed out and said, “It’s so noisy! Why don’t you open the door? Who’s knocking outside?”
She looked through the crack and saw the Prince.
She was about to open the door happily but suddenly noticed Cinderella standing nearby.
She thought, “She looks a bit like the girl the Prince liked at the ball. I mustn’t let the Prince see her.”
So she pushed Cinderella into a storeroom and then, with a smile, opened the door.
After some pleasantries, the Prince said, “I saw a girl enter here just now, and she seemed to be the same one I danced with at the ball.”
The stepmother, relieved that Cinderella was hidden, quickly denied it.
The Prince was puzzled. At that moment, the servant suggested, “Why don’t you let this family’s daughters try on the glass slipper? If it fits, she is the one.”
The Prince agreed.
The stepmother happily called her two daughters to try on the slipper.
The Prince observed them and said, “They were also at the ball, how could they be the girl?”
The stepmother responded, “Anything is possible!”
The elder daughter tried first.
She put her foot into the glass slipper but couldn’t get it on.
The Prince said, “Your heel is sticking out of the shoe. Your foot is too big.”
It was the second daughter’s turn. She put her foot into the glass slipper and slid it on easily.
She almost cheered.
But the prince said, “Of course you can wear it. Your foot is much smaller, and there’s a large gap at the back of the shoe.”
The Prince then said, “Let the other daughter try it on.”
The stepmother hurriedly said, “There are no other daughters. I only have two daughters.”
The Prince scanned the garden with a suspicious glance and finally fixed his gaze on the storeroom.
The stepmother grew nervous.
At that moment, Cinderella in the storeroom also became anxious.
Seeing the Prince looking in her direction through the crack in the door, she was worried that if he came in, she would have nowhere to hide.
The storeroom was very small and cluttered, leaving almost no room to move.
Sure enough, the Prince walked towards the storeroom and opened the door.
But it was empty inside.
It turned out that Cinderella used magic to become invisible in a hurry.
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