Little Pink Starfish

It was Thursday night, and everything around was silent — as if the whole world had fallen asleep.

Yuan Yuanyuan stepped out of her house, dressed in a pure black shirt, walking alone on the streets, cautiously scanning her surroundings as she went.

She moved carefully, like a hamster poking its head out of its burrow. For her, going out right now wasn’t ideal — but she had no choice.

Dressed in black, she boarded the subway alone, riding from the western side of the city all the way to the east, emerging in a quiet, out-of-the-way neighborhood.

She was out tonight to “show her face,” because Ji Qiu’s manga updates were very regular — typically every Monday and Saturday, with the occasional bonus update. Since Saturday was coming up, she wanted to make an appearance beforehand to increase her chances of showing up in the next chapter.

Currently, Demon Chronicles had released 14 issues. In those 14 issues, she’d only appeared twice — once when she took out the lizard demon in a black trench coat, and once during the exorcism of the white-clad ghost woman. For a character aiming to gain popularity, this kind of screen time was nowhere near enough.

Yuan Yuanyuan knew she had some advantages. After all, everyone knew that the earlier a character appeared in a story, the more likely they were to become important.

…That is, unless they were destined to die young or be used as stepping stones for the protagonist early on.

Yuan Yuanyuan really didn’t know how to increase her screen time. She felt like one of those comic relief hosts on variety shows, desperately pulling out weird antics just to get more attention.

She had spent all day lying in bed thinking and finally came up with a very simple plan.

…Since her current role was that of a demon with a fondness for humans, she might as well lean hard into that. After all, it’s humans reading the manga — and between a demon who slaughters humans and a demon who protects them, it’s obvious which one people would like more.

Especially in Demon Chronicles, which didn’t follow typical conventions. Most demons in the manga were flashy, overpowered, and in hostile relationships with humans. Her character — “the man in black” — stood out because he was the only one whose attitude toward humans was somewhat ambiguous. Maybe taking this unique angle could really work in her favor.

The area she’d come to tonight was a remote one, technically no longer under her boss’s jurisdiction — it belonged to someone else. She knew her boss didn’t get along with the demon boss in this district, and since demons from different territories carried different scents, she rarely ventured here.

But ever since she was blocked from entering her own home last time, she had discovered something curious — after transforming, her physical body actually changed too. She became a completely different person.

…

Well, at this point, nothing Ji Qiu did could surprise her anymore.

Her own boss was actively hunting her down — but as the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Maybe this district wouldn’t be as sensitive to the “man in black.”

She was out looking for misbehaving demons. If she could catch one in the act and step in to save a human at the right moment…

If the human was a girl, then it’d be a classic hero saves the beauty moment.
If the human was a guy, then… uh…

Yuan Yuanyuan shook the strange thoughts out of her head and continued walking the streets, trying to sense any nearby demonic auras.

Over the years, she’d taken down quite a few demons. Even though she always called herself weak, the truth was, if she were truly weak, she wouldn’t have survived this long.

She didn’t know many of the standard demon abilities, but when it came to fighting, she had sharp, instinctual reactions.

Most demons didn’t have the same kind of hands-on parenting humans did. Many were born and left to fend for themselves. So a lot of things were just known from birth.

It was like how baby antelopes in wildlife documentaries could walk minutes after being born, while human babies needed months to do the same.

In some ways, demons reminded Yuan Yuanyuan of animals — especially since many demons were originally animals.

Things like survival instinct, or using scent to identify others… it got to the point where every time she watched wildlife documentaries, scenes of lions marking territory with urine, or male dung beetles tracking females by scent, made her feel… complicated.

Cough cough.

Enough rambling — time to focus. She only had this one stretch of time before the evening. She still had to catch the 9 PM train back to her side of the city for work.

In the city, the relationship between humans and demons was complicated. Before becoming a demon, Yuan Yuanyuan had never realized how many dangerous individuals were hiding in everyday life.

She kept her head down, weaving through alleyways, carefully sensing the auras drifting through the air. In the more secluded spots, she began to hear faint noises — and they didn’t sound good.

In this chaotic city, it wasn’t hard to find such incidents. Not long after, Yuan Yuanyuan suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Her eyes locked onto a certain spot. It appeared empty — but her fingers slowly curled into fists.

…As much as she hated to admit it, Yuan Yuanyuan had always been the type to avoid trouble. In short, she was timid.

That’s why she’d spent so many years hiding and dodging, trying to avoid direct confrontation.

Deep down, she still longed for a normal human life. All these years she’d followed the rules — no littering, no spitting, never jaywalking…

But even she knew that in a demon’s daily life, blood and violence played a major role.

…

“Yuanyuan, we’ve got a lot of VIPs tonight, so it’s going to be busy. Get ready,” Li Zi Jie said.

“O-okay!” Yuan Yuanyuan gasped, out of breath, grabbing an apron and tying it around her waist. She wrapped a scarf around her hair.

She had just sprinted from the subway station to the bar like the wind and barely made it in time.

As a broke girl… she couldn’t afford to be late. Being late might not mean a pay cut, but it could definitely cost her the job next month.

Yuan Yuanyuan began washing the sake warmers with hot water, quietly grinning to herself.

She did great today.

Most importantly, she got a piece of intel: the boss of the neighboring district hadn’t listed the “man in black” as a threat.

She replayed the events of the morning in her mind, feeling satisfied. Should be good now, right? She really did her best to act cool today…

Every move she made, she tried to make it look slick — which also got her slashed twice, but hey, not the point.

Every action, she imagined it being drawn into the manga — a full-page panel, maybe even turned into a poster someday…

She couldn’t see her own face, but she imagined the scene clearly in her mind.

Her moves felt crisp and decisive — full of masculinity. She’d modeled every motion after her favorite male characters. It was pure action aesthetic — her mental image was of a sleek, cinematic fight scene.

Each move was just so cool, cool, cool…

“Yuanyuan! Is the sake ready?”

“…Oh! Coming!” snapped Yuan Yuanyuan out of her fantasy.

She hurriedly grabbed the warmed sake and rushed over, nearly tripping on something on the floor.

…Yeah. So. Maybe don’t daydream during work. Focus, girl.

…

That Saturday, the latest issue of Demon Chronicles was released.

Yuan Yuanyuan got up early, showered, burned incense, and used the last of the pork ribs to make a celebratory meal.

She sat on her bed, super excited, waiting for the new chapter to drop.

…At this point, she felt a mix of giddy excitement and secondhand embarrassment — like a celebrity watching themselves on TV for the first time, constantly rewinding their scenes and silently judging their own performance.

The moment the new chapter dropped, she immediately opened it — and sure enough, she had a scene.

It looked like her performance that day had paid off. Even though she hadn’t gone full force on that demon, the moment was still dramatic enough for Ji Qiu to include her in the scene.

She took a deep breath, heart pounding with both excitement and nerves, and began reading the newest issue. In her mind, she pictured a tall, cool man in black stepping out to protect a human from a rampaging demon — a true hero moment.

…She wondered if he looked cooler than her favorite characters.

But as the saying goes, things don’t always turn out the way you imagine.

There’s another saying: the way you see yourself is not how others see you.

Celebrities on TV often have their flaws magnified — small habits, awkward expressions, even the way they walk suddenly seem obvious.

And a manga that captures someone from every angle… is even more brutally honest than TV.

The moment the “man in black” appeared on the page, Yuan Yuanyuan was thrilled — but the more she read, the stiffer her expression became. Her smile slowly froze on her face…

In the end, her goal was achieved. The scene drew a lot of attention. Judging by the comment section, mentions of the “man in black” were shooting up. The top three liked comments were all about her.

However… the version of her in the manga… was not quite what she’d imagined.

…It had magnified all the things she didn’t notice about herself.