Prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet

This is a form of backdoor bigotry from both normative facts (there are more straight than gay relationships) and well represented bigoted beliefs (men are superior to women).

Snow White’s dwarves keep her room exactly as she left it, and keep a wary eye on the horizon for the day she returns. When she does they treat her like a beloved daughter come home, cook her favourite meals, warn her to stay away from apples this time, and keep calling her the wrong name.

Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother found her a touch ungrateful last time, and has decided not to appear to her this time around to teach her a lesson in gratitude. This Cinderella, without the memory of the last time, is still a terrified, miserable woman desperate to escape her awful situation.

sure, the fairy godmother isn't going to help. but someone takes notice of poor cinderella and lends a hand. and when the replacement godmother hits a snag, or can't quite find a way over a hurdle, they suddenly find reality... shifts a little, bends to their will. by the time of the wedding, there's a new immortal being in the world.

the former godmother notices her power wane. her ageless visage wrinkles. and resent grows. jealousy takes root. this isn't meant to happen to her! she was meant to be immortal. and then there's that dang snow white (or whatever she's calling herself now) over there, flaunting her beauty...

sometimes, after a few rounds, the evil queen doesn't bother to change back. settles down. starts baking.

all the while, a generations old cabal of dramaturges have been experimenting with what changes can be made. a pear or other non-stone fruit can be used for snow white (speculations abound about the prohibition on stone fruits,); cinderella does require specifically glass slippers; little red riding hood can get very abstract.

the more obscure stories are a source of much debate. does 'the girl with silver hands' still occur with modern hand prosthetics? what does one need to activate 'the devil's grandmother'?

Here's how it works:

Someone starts a fire at an army draft office.

The cops look through their files for anyone who might be in the political orbit of someone who'd want to do that. People picked up at protests, for drug charges, vandalism, anyone who is already on their radar. They look into their known associates, anyone they live with, anyone they drink with.

Then they start subpoenaing these people for a grand jury summons. They give you immunity (but only for the matter of the grand jury!) so that you can't exercise the fifth amendment against self incrimination. If you say nothing, they can imprison you almost indefinitely for contempt of court. If they catch you in a lie, that's criminal perjury.

They'll ask you for information on everyone you know. Obviously they'll ask about their involvement in any crimes, but they're casting a wide net. Who knows who, where do they hang out, who talked to who about what and when. They'll ask you to spill interpersonal stuff, whether anyone is cheating on someone, whether people have substance abuse problems or embarrassing personal issues, if anyone is closeted, anything they consider dirt. Anyone you name is gonna get subpoenaed and they'll be asked for all this information on everyone they know, including you, and although you have immunity from your own testimony, you don't get immunity from each others.

Assuming you didn't personally do anything they can prosecute you for in the matter of the grand jury, they'll go after you based on what they know. The cops will arrest you on any little thing they have suspicion of, even if they know they can't prosecute you, just so that they can keep you in jail for a few days while you miss two shifts at work and your friends have to scramble to raise bail. They'll leak any embarrassing info that comes out, to your boss or your family or even the local press. Whatever they can do to make your life a little harder.

They will lean fucking hard on anyone who is involved in the scene but had second thoughts or felt like they were dragged into something they never wanted to do in the first place by their friends. The cops will say 'do you want to get your life ruined by people who did something stupid over something you barely even believe in' and sometimes that's a very compelling argument! If people have dependents or kids who they think won't be looked after if they go to prison, there's a lot of pressure to cooperate.

It's important to note two things:

1) Based on the ratio of actual prison sentences to maximum possible sentences for the charges, it's better for people not to cooperate with the jury both individually and as a group. People who talk still get sentenced, with the information they helped provide.

90% of the cdrama is fancy CGI fight scenes of swords falling from the sky and there's a perfunctory female love interest who falls into a pit with the main character but throughout it all su muyu demonstrates a spectacular lack of interest towards anything other than 'being a good person' and changhe. it consistently feels like neither the author nor the characters have any actual investment in muyu being straight beyond 'having a girlfriend' being a hallmark trait of Very Cool Heroes that the author tacked onto his protagonist.