Little Pink Starfish

【…How did you guys imagine so much from just one brief interaction? Why didn’t I see any of this?】
【Strong. God-tier. I’m sold on this ship. Got any more?】
【You got the roles reversed. Black-clothed guy is clearly the top. Fa Ning should just obediently play the role of the big bird moe girl. Who’s ever heard of a big bird moe girl being the top?】
【Uh… I’ve read a few where the big bird moe girl was the top…】
【So what kind of pairing is this? Demonish bottom × big bird moe girl top?】

Yuan Yuanyuan scrolled through the comments, kept reading for a good ten minutes… and then suddenly couldn’t load any more. Turned out, the post had been reported and taken down.

…

Well done reporting. Harmony in society, harmony in life.

She tossed her phone aside and absentmindedly fingered the pendant on her chest. When she was in her transformed form, the pendant was red; in her human form, it turned white.

The fact that it could change color based on her transformation was… unsettling if you thought about it too hard. So she chose not to.

This whole kindergarten-level CP fanfic explosion was really unexpected. After years of shipping others, she never thought one day she’d be on the receiving end of it. Thinking about it that way, it did kind of feel like karma.

But Yuan Yuanyuan also knew full well—this kind of thing was just for fun. Sure, there were CP shippers, but hardly any of it was genuine emotional investment. Most people were just here for the hype.

And besides, she barely interacted with the protagonist. Compared to others, her role was absolute side character fodder. The real hot pairings were those that Ji Qiu explicitly wrote. The MC wasn’t single, for one—he had a childhood fiancée and several ambiguous female demon entanglements. Those were the top CPs.

Demon Dream was clearly a shounen manga aimed at male readers. It leaned more toward realistic themes, and with the protagonist’s multiple romantic threads, the male audience far outnumbered the female. Ji Qiu was obviously a straight dude, which was why Yuan Yuanyuan, despite never seeing his face, instinctively referred to him as “he.” That aura of straight-man energy in his work was no joke.

Up until the last few chapters, Yuan Yuanyuan honestly thought there wouldn’t be a hint of BL in this manga. Who would’ve guessed Ji Qiu could play even dirtier than she could… busting out the big bird moe girl trope like it was nothing.

What could she say… as a straight man, Ji Qiu was fearless. He didn’t care about gossip.

I admit defeat. The man’s a pro.

Yuan Yuanyuan mentally gave a salute, then got up and headed to work. She’d thought few women actually followed Demon Dream, but after today, it was clear there were quite a few—they’d just all been lurking.

Probably scared the regular readers half to death with how cult-like these CP fans were.

Li Zi Jie had said they’d be recruiting new demons soon, so Yuan Yuanyuan would have to keep pretending to be “Hongxiu” until they found a replacement.

“Hongxiu offers incense while studying under the moonlight”—her only job was to tend the incense burner. Pouring wine was considered too technically demanding for someone as… borderline useless as Yuan Yuanyuan, so Li Zi Jie had wisely spared her from that task.

So Yuan Yuanyuan remained stationed at the corridor pavilion. Today, the incense burned much better than yesterday. She added incense bit by bit, gradually figuring out the right amount. She started estimating how much to add just by feel.

Time passed.

One day, two days… until the next Demon Memoir chapter updated.

…

Last time, the MC disguised himself as a big bird moe girl and crashed the tavern. This time, the plot was probably still centered on his mission to purge demons for humanity.

Yuan Yuanyuan thought the MC was kind of nuts, but she still had to admit—he was a badass. Even though she’d never seen his real face in the 3D world, she still had a lot of respect for him.

Only someone in her position would understand how dangerous and difficult what he was doing actually was. It wasn’t something a few manga panels could ever properly convey. People said Demon Dream was a “realistic” story, but Yuan Yuanyuan knew that even this level wasn’t enough. Not by a long shot.

Ji Qiu had already toned down or blurred a lot of stuff. Many of the bloodier scenes were stylized with beautiful imagery. That was probably the only reason the manga hadn’t been censored yet.

Yuan Yuanyuan peeled off her long, heavy red robe, one long claw-like fake nail at a time, then removed her wig.

She sniffed herself. Every time she worked, Li Zi Jie would spray her down with some overpowering perfume that masked her human scent completely—so much so that even a bloodhound would only smell the perfume within a five-meter radius.

She still had no idea what that perfume was.

Back in the kitchen, she greeted Si Qun, who was still as quiet as ever. Yuan Yuanyuan watched a tiny demon not even as tall as her knee try to talk to him—and still Si Qun got shy.

How did this guy even survive to adulthood?

“Our tavern made it into that comic,” Li Zi Jie grumbled. “If I ever find that Ji Qiu guy, I’m gonna kill him. Getting smashed was bad enough. Now the whole world knows about it. The girls all bailed, and even customers are staying away.”

“Don’t be mad, Li Zi Jie. No matter what, the boss will still pay us, right?” Yuan Yuanyuan patted her on the shoulder and walked off.

At home, she came back with nearly-expired bread and eggs, made herself a quick dinner, and started budgeting for the month.

She’d made a decent chunk just adding incense these past few days… enough to cover the heating bill, pay the internet, and even hire someone to look at her eternally clogged toilet drain.

God, life is hard.

She glanced at the jade pendant on her chest. Could I sell this for money…?

She looked at the time, filled a basin with hot water, and soaked her feet while scrolling through the manga forums.

There was always interesting stuff on forums these days. Tons of big-name creators lurked there. Just yesterday, she was halfway through a fluffy “mentor × apprentice” age-gap CP mini-fic that had her grinning like an idiot. She opened the post again to finish the rest.

Hehehehehe…

This was one of the few bright spots left in Yuan Yuanyuan’s life. With a pervy little smile on her face, she soaked her feet and opened her browser history. Right then, she noticed a trending “red” post on the homepage—it had hundreds of replies already.

New CP to ship? Curious, she clicked on it… and instantly jolted.

[Post by: Wen Rong]

Holy crap, it’s a big name! No wonder it blew up so fast!

Yuan Yuanyuan’s face lit up. Wen Rong was a well-known creator on the forum, famous for drawing little comic shorts. Rumor had it she was also an official artist for Dream Comic, and she often posted snippets for free.

And free content from high-level creators? That was a goldmine. Yuan Yuanyuan had browsed these forums for years, and Wen Rong was among the top people she admired.

But this post wasn’t a comic—just a question.

【…I want to ask—if the original work is a male-oriented manga, would drawing a BL short story get me flamed?】

The comments came fast and furious.

【Nah. Tons of shounen manga got popular thanks to BL ships…】
【At least half of shounen series have gay ships. Don’t worry—draw away! I wanna see!】
【You’ll probably get flamed… but who cares. It’s your art. Ship who you wanna ship.】

Yuan Yuanyuan thought for a moment, then replied herself:

【If you wanna draw, then draw. BL ships are king these days. Who hasn’t shipped a crack pairing before? It’s free fanlove, not monetized. Don’t overthink it. Hug hug~】

She sent her reply, poured out her footbath, and came back to find her post already buried—didn’t even make a ripple.

CPs, huh… She shook her head. Wen Rong’s shorts were always incredibly cute. There was something about them that felt harmonious, even when the pairings were completely out of left field. A few of her crack ships had even become meme-tier legendary.

One time, Yuan Yuanyuan got pulled into a frozen-dead fandom thanks to Wen Rong’s art… and she still hadn’t escaped.

Shaking her head again, she saved the post and moved on. Nothing else really interesting in the thread—just people encouraging or discouraging Wen Rong, and others speculating which CP she meant.

She spent the rest of the night scrolling through mini-comics, all the way till 11:30 p.m. Then she opened the Dream Comic app, got up for a glass of water, grabbed a discounted snack bun, and got ready to read the latest Demon Dream chapter the moment it dropped at midnight.

Right on cue, the streetlights outside turned off at midnight.

Yuan Yuanyuan opened Demon Dream, went to the latest chapter, and focused.

The first panel was a gruesome scene—blood, flesh, and horror.

She nearly choked on her bun.

What the hell—starting off with a body count? What’s going on?

She looked closer at the dead character’s face… and suddenly realized why it looked familiar.

It was one of the throwaway demon characters that got eliminated in the preliminary popularity round.