Little Pink Starfish

When Zhang Qiu heard that familiar nickname, his heart warmed—but then he quickly remembered that Li Shu had lost his memory. How could he possibly call him “Coward”?

He immediately spat on the ground and fiercely kicked at the person, raising his dagger high to stab down.

But the other reacted swiftly, circled around him, and pulled him into an embrace. The familiar scent hit Zhang Qiu’s nose. His frantic struggles slowed, but he still gripped the dagger tightly, wary as he looked up. The face was Li Shu’s.

“Li Shu?”

The man nodded. Zhang Qiu’s expression remained guarded—until he heard Qi Xi behind him calling, “Xiao Qiuqiu, what were you freaking out about just now? I’ve been yelling at you and you didn’t even respond!”

“Daddy! Daddy!” Little Jiang came running over, ding ding dang dang—the bell bracelet jingling as he ran.

Zhang Qiu felt the thick fog begin to lift as the bell neared. He turned to see Second Brother, Qi Xi, and the rest approaching. He looked back at the ground—no headless child, no Jiangshi, no ghosts at all.

“Yoyoyo, how long have you two been apart that you can’t even wait anymore?” Qi Xi teased suggestively. “Doing this in a place like this… kinda exciting, though.”

Zhang Qiu didn’t know what nonsense Qi Xi was spewing. “What’re you talking about!”

Qi Xi pointed to his own neck. “Let everyone take a look—your neck’s full of red marks. And how long do you two plan on hugging?”

Zhang Qiu finally realized Li Shu was still holding him. He coughed awkwardly. Then he remembered how Li Shu had just called him “Coward” and lit up. He was about to ask if Li Shu had remembered something when Second Brother came over and yanked down his collar.

“Sec-Second Brother?”

“Ghost hand,” Zhang Yushui said, pulling out a spray and spritzing Zhang Qiu’s neck twice. A burning pain flared.

Qi Xi screeched, “It turned black that fast! Li Shu, your grip’s way too strong!”

“Shut it.” Zhang Qiu kicked Qi Xi and then recounted what had just happened.

Qi Xi said, “You looked possessed earlier. I called you from behind and you ignored me, just kept heading this way. From afar, we saw you going in circles like you were possessed and desperate to find someone.”

Zhang Yushui glanced at the sky and said quickly, “We need to get down. No more delays.”

“What about Qi Zhirong and the others?”

“They stayed where they were. We came to find you. Pei Qing and Xiapi Prince stayed back—should be fine,” said Qi Xi.

Zhang Qiu didn’t dare waste more time. He pinched his son’s soft little cheeks. This is what real feels like. He and Li Shu walked at the back. Remembering that Li Shu had just called him “Coward,” his neck didn’t hurt anymore. He grinned and teased, “Little Uncle, did you remember who I am?”

“Who?”

Zhang Qiu’s smile froze. He slowly turned his head and searched Li Shu’s face for signs of joking, but Li Shu was dead serious.

“You haven’t remembered?!”

Li Shu furrowed his brow and said earnestly, “Just now, I suddenly felt like calling you that. So we really knew each other before?”

Not just knew each other. We already… everything. Zhang Qiu’s heart hurt. They’d already… seen everything, and now they had to start from scratch. But… that had a certain appeal too. Hehe. Zhang Qiu’s eyes twinkled and he smiled slyly, “Wanna know the truth?”

Li Shu nodded. Ever since they met, he’d found Zhang Qiu familiar. Random memories always included him. Maybe… Zhang Qiu hadn’t mistaken him after all.

“Well, from the moment we met, you totally adored me. You were madly in love and even agreed to bear my child. See—Little Jiang is our son.”

“Pfft.”

Zhang Qiu heard Qi Xi’s stifled laughter from behind and wanted to stomp him flat. Under Li Shu’s suspicious gaze, he realized he couldn’t stretch the truth too far. He quickly said, “Later on, I felt bad for you! So to be fair, you once, I once. Our second child, I’m carrying now.”

Looks like he’d never top in this relationship, but taking turns was still a dream worth pursuing. Especially now, with Li Shu’s memory gone—easier to coax! Zhang Qiu patted his belly with a grin. “Number two!”

Li Shu’s gaze drifted to Zhang Qiu’s stomach. So that’s who “number two” was.

Seeing Li Shu not react, still with that cold face, Zhang Qiu hurriedly added, “It’s okay if you don’t remember yet. We can take it slow, build feelings again. I’m a responsible man—you can trust I won’t abandon you.”

Little Jiang, having heard everything, had a complicated expression on his round face. Still, he loyally supported his dad and softly called out to Li Shu, “Mama.”

Li Shu gave him a blank look.

Little Jiang froze and quickly corrected, “Big Daddy.”

Though his son had slipped up, his heart was in the right place. Zhang Qiu waved it off magnanimously, “Titles don’t matter in our family. As long as the roles are right.”

By now, they had returned. A headcount confirmed everyone was present. Zhang Qiu was in such a good mood he felt he could take on a hundred Jiangshi in one go.

Second Brother announced it was nearly one o’clock.

This hill was small—they were halfway down already and should reach the bottom in ten minutes.

The fog had mostly dispersed. The flat land below was clearly visible. The hill was lush and green, while the plain was bare—completely red, like soaked in blood.

Agui, who’d been leading them, looked paler and paler. Zhang Qiu felt something was wrong. Before he could ask, Zhang Yushui stepped forward. Just as he reached out, Agui flinched, eyes filled with horror, and pointed shakily toward the plain.

“I-I saw…”

“Saw what?”

Agui looked dazed, on the verge of collapse, muttering over and over that he saw something. Zhang Yushui pressed again, “What did you see?”

“There—all our skins floating there. We’re already dead… dead… we’re all dead…”

“Bullsh*t! Agui, don’t talk nonsense.”

“Wait, I think I saw my own face. Am I dead?”

“I saw mine too. Am I… dead?”

The bodyguards looked panicked and terrified. Zhang Qiu’s scalp tingled—it felt like they weren’t alive anymore, but ghosts. How could that be? He looked down. In the air above the plain floated dozens of human skins. He spotted his own, Li Shu’s, and Little Jiang’s instantly. He stared longer and began to feel like maybe… they really were dead.

Zhang Qiu bit his tongue. The pain jolted him awake. “Don’t fall for it—don’t look at those things!”

Li Shu gripped Agui’s shoulder tightly, causing pain that snapped Agui back. His eyes cleared and he laughed, “It hurts—I’m alive!”

Qi Xi and Pei Qing slapped the other dazed bodyguards back to reality. Some cried, some laughed, but all came to.

“There’s too much yin energy here. Vengeful ghosts and illusions everywhere. As long as your talisman’s fine, we’re okay. Let’s go.” Zhang Yushui led the descent.

The bodyguards, scared silly by now, stuck close together. They protected Qi Zhirong tightly and followed Zhang Yushui closely. Qi Xi walked at the rear, glancing back often.

“What is it?” Zhang Qiu asked.

Qi Xi frowned, gaze locked on Qi Zhirong’s back. “Might’ve seen wrong…”

“It’s illusions!” Zhang Qiu clapped his shoulder. “These things just want to shake our confidence. But come on—we’ve got shamans, divine beasts, and I’m half divine myself!”

Qi Xi rolled his eyes. “You? You were the first one to fall behind!”

Zhang Qiu wanted to kick him, huffed, and jogged up to walk beside Li Shu.

In a few minutes, they reached the plain’s center. Second Brother watched his compass, and Zhang Qiu saw the needle spinning wildly, the mirror reflecting a sea of blood—no shadows or people.

Zhang Yushui handed the compass to Zhang Qiu. “Hold it steady.”

“I got it—” but before he could hold it long, Li Shu took it from him. Zhang Qiu was relieved.

Zhang Yushui glanced at them and chuckled. “Made up now?” Without waiting for an answer, he dipped a brush into a vial—Zhang Qiu’s blood—and started drawing on the compass.

Zhang Qiu stayed quiet. Concentrated, Second Brother’s brushstrokes glowed faintly gold despite using red blood. Sweat beaded on his forehead, but his hand never paused.

As the last stroke finished, the spinning needle froze. The mirror’s image turned from blood to a realm of ghosts.

The ghosts inside snarled hideously, as if trying to break through. A chilling cold hit Zhang Qiu.

Zhang Yushui looked up. “Looking for death.”

He took the compass back and did something—suddenly, the symbols around the edge floated, forming a formation in the air. Within, the previously invisible ghosts became visible.

Now trapped, the ghosts screamed. Some had missing limbs, some eyeless, some skinned, some with intestines hanging out…

Zhang Yushui raised a talisman. “Who ordered you? Refusing to reincarnate, taking lives and disturbing the heavens—I’ll destroy you!”

The spirits, long lost in hate and instinct, now trapped in a purifying formation, slowly regained consciousness.

One older female ghost, elegant but bloody and carrying a half-formed infant, wept, “My child, my child…”

“She was taken from Zhongshan, cut open for a sacrificial ritual to retrieve a treasure,” she sobbed.

Next, a man with no legs, pale and eunuch-like, claimed he’d been mutilated for the same purpose.

Everyone said the same: sacrifices for a treasure.

Zhang Yushui lost patience. As he raised his talisman to destroy them—

“Wait! Sir, I know what you want to know!” cried a little ghost, eyeless and around 7 or 8 years old.

He said the king was gravely ill, the country falling, and a mysterious man promised a treasure to restore power. After that, the palace turned into a slaughterhouse. He had his eyes gouged out. Later, something underground began draining them all.

Another ghost cried, “There was a fire—the yin energy leaked. We didn’t mean to hurt people…”

“You’ve sinned too much. Today I’ll purge your resentment. Go to the underworld—reincarnate or be judged.” Zhang Yushui’s talisman flared. The ghosts screamed. Their appearances softened and grew translucent.

Zhang Yushui flicked a drop of his blood. “Go!”

The ghosts vanished like wind.

Zhang Qiu felt the chill lessen. The clouds above thinned. Light began to pierce through.

“Master, people in town said there was a fire here five years ago,” Agui said.

Zhang Yushui nodded. These ghosts had been manipulated. He hadn’t killed them because of that.

“Below,” Li Shu said.

The ghosts had spoken of something underground draining their energy. Likely a tomb—perhaps what Qi Zhirong was looking for.

“I’ll locate it. The rest of you rest.” Zhang Yushui looked around. “This is a great place to gather yin and starlight, but not good tomb feng shui.”

“Why?” Zhang Qiu asked.

“Yin-rich burial grounds bless the dead’s descendants—bring prosperity. The soul rests in peace and may be reborn wealthy. But here, the soul is disturbed—easy for Jiangshi or vengeful spirits to form. No sane geomancer would choose this spot—unless it was intentional.”

Zhang Qiu thought of the “place below” the ghost had mentioned. He’d soon find out.

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