Little Pink Starfish

On screen, the black-clad man’s face was still the same, but this time Yuan Yuanyuan was temporarily wearing a tavern helper’s uniform. The helpers’ uniforms in the tavern were traditional in style—light brown, kind of like what servers wore in period dramas.

She had thought the outfit felt a bit big at the time, and sure enough, it looked oversized in the comic. A short tunic looked like a full-length robe on her, and the rope belt at her waist was tied loosely.

The black-clad figure was dragging the protagonist along, from the staged kidnapping all the way to the breakout. The scenes were narrated from the protagonist’s inner monologue. Yuan Yuanyuan had lived through every moment of it, but this was her first time seeing it from the protagonist’s point of view.

She watched as the protagonist glanced up at her face, and a thought popped into his head:

【This guy looks like this… could he be some kind of fox-type demon? One of those flirtatious foxes from old ghost stories?】

【Faning lowered his eyes again, thinking, if he is a fox, then maybe he knows some sort of seductive magic… quite a few demons do, but he felt this one must be particularly skilled.】

【Otherwise, how did he get everyone to turn and follow him so easily? Must’ve used some kind of charm spell.】

【Faning silently raised his guard. This demon was definitely no pushover. He’d seen him kill other demons before. What if he used his powers on him too? What was his goal?】

…Flirtatious fox?

Seriously? That choice of words… classic exorcist thinking.

Yuan Yuanyuan had been guessed to be all sorts of creatures by people before… and honestly, she was curious herself. She had a few vague guesses, but nothing solid—she didn’t really understand this stuff, so she didn’t dare speculate.

But one thing she was absolutely sure of… she had nothing to do with foxes. She’d never grown a tail. And she’d never smelled even a hint of that musky fox scent.

She forced herself to keep reading, flipped another page, and suddenly felt the urge to hurl her phone.

…What the hell is this? This is not what she had in mind at all.

An overwhelming frustration she had never felt before surged through her. She couldn’t even look at her on-screen self anymore. She wanted to cut out every panel that had to do with the black-clad man.

What happened to the cool, mysterious figure she’d envisioned? She had specifically made a point to keep her expression stoic—and then the protagonist comes in with “flirtatious fox”? Flirtatious my ass.

This is flirtatious? THIS?! Yuan Yuanyuan wanted to march up to Faning and shove the phone in his face.

She’d seen readers comment in previous chapters that the black-clad man looked “too demonic” or “too femme,” but she always just pretended not to see those comments and scrolled past them.

She had deliberately kept her expression serious and cold. But once it was drawn… something about the eyes ruined the whole vibe. It was like expecting a savory tomato-and-egg stir-fry, and biting into a sugary version instead.

Just… not right. Something was off.

If this were a restaurant, she wouldn’t even pay the bill—but now she had no choice but to keep watching, because the person causing her all this anxiety… was herself.

She had tried to channel a cold and aloof character, and ended up coming off as some flamboyant, seductive weirdo. Was this… talent? In a very unfortunate, ironic way?

She flopped down on a small stool, picked her phone back up with a sigh. Her frustration wasn’t just because of the portrayal—it was the panic beneath. That whole seductive-demon vibe? In manga terms, that’s not a good label. Even in real life, being called “seductive” usually wasn’t a compliment.

She had chosen this role because the manga lacked a proper “cold and cool” male lead. That kind of guy was a sure bet—if he looked good and stayed in character, he’d be everyone’s white moonlight. A guaranteed win.

And now her sure-win choice had completely derailed… This flamboyant portrayal probably wouldn’t appeal to the male readers. Even among female readers, some definitely wouldn’t like it. And the protagonist’s very first reaction? “Flirtatious fox.”

Do people even like this kind of character?! Yuan Yuanyuan sighed deeply. Most readers want characters they can relate to… ethereal, pure, distant, maybe a little melancholic…

But seductive?

That’s a tough sell. If done well, it’s unique and iconic. But the line between that and “annoying feminine dude” is razor-thin.

She never intended to play this type, and didn’t think she could do it well anyway.

It felt like she was in an elimination round now… what to do? She had hoped this character would keep her “alive” a while longer.

She’d read so many comics and honestly had never fallen in love with a seductive demon character. Most of the time, they just had nice faces and left a small impression. But it was never her type, so now she was extra lost—she didn’t even have a reference point.

She had never been a bold or flamboyant person herself… and now, she truly didn’t know what to do.

She sat at the kitchen doorway, listening as the noise inside quieted. Staring blankly at the ceiling until suddenly someone came out.

“Yuanyuan, bring me that thing again—I want to take another look,” Li Zi Jie said hoarsely. Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t even turn her head, just handed her the phone. Li Zi Jie flipped through a few pages, then stood by the door and asked, “Is this comic popular?”

“Very.”

“…” Li Zi Jie sat down, face unreadable. “My brother said he got into a fight last week…”

“With the comic’s protagonist,” Yuan Yuanyuan said, shaking the phone. “This whole series is based on his experiences.”

“…Then I should go kill him,” Li Zi Jie stood up, but Yuan Yuanyuan immediately grabbed her.

“Wait, wait, wait. Calm down, sis. It’s just a drawing, no big deal. I’m in it too, and it’s fine. If we don’t run into him again, it won’t keep happening.”

“That artist is cursed, you don’t understand,” Li Zi Jie said. “Plenty of demons who got drawn by him ended up dead. And even after they died, they still got drawn. That out-of-town demon who showed up a while back? He died in our tavern, then appeared in the comic.”

…Ah. That one. Yuan Yuanyuan remembered—she was the one who’d killed him.

Li Zi Jie was determined to leave. Yuan Yuanyuan couldn’t stop her, no matter how much she tried to reason with her. She watched Li Zi Jie storm off and figured she wouldn’t be able to find the protagonist anyway. That guy was good at hiding.

Once Li Zi Jie was gone, Yuan Yuanyuan opened her phone again. The next part was the scene where she treated Faning’s wounds—she bent down to wrap a bandage around him, and he looked up to ask her name. She looked up and casually replied with a single syllable.

Faning didn’t know which “Yuan” it was, so he asked, “Which yuan?”

She remembered not explaining further. In the comic, she thought Jiuqiu might clarify, but nope—not even he wrote the character. He just marked it as pinyin.

So now, even the readers didn’t know which “yuan” she meant.

Yuan Yuanyuan had originally planned to check the comments to see what readers thought about her name, but instead, she found something totally unexpected.

【Yuan-daren looks amazing in that outfit!!! That tiny waist! OMG they’ve definitely lived a long time—imagine all the ancient outfits they’ve worn in the past! I’m dying here.】

【Did you notice? Even though Yuan-daren says he’s not telling the truth, he doesn’t really lie either.】

【Yeah! His speech is kind of half-truth, half-lie, and it’s super intriguing. I don’t know if you get what I mean, but it feels like how actors or opera singers talk…】

【Yeah yeah! That old-school “actor’s speech”—half-truths that sound poetic. He looks like someone who used to be in opera. Every word is 80% truth, 20% lie. Feels like a good person.】

【Yuan-daren is both femme and manly at the same time… I don’t know why, but when he carried the protagonist out, I thought, ‘what a man!’ And then when he was applying medicine, I thought, ‘wow, kinda girly…’】

【Guys, can we settle on one name? Also, can we talk about the guy in white clothes? Damn, he’s hot as hell! I stared at that panel for so long. I think I’m in love again.】

【YES! That white-clad demon! If he’s in the Dreamman popularity contest, I’ll spend 30 bucks to vote for him!】

【Who is he?! Beating people up like a boss—totally my type. Cold and badass.】

…White-clothed little bro?

Yuan Yuanyuan frowned and flipped back through the comic to reread the chapter. The more she read, the more baffled her expression became.

Five minutes later, she closed her phone and thought: Yup, you can’t judge yourself. It’s like how people can’t smell their own B.O. You’re just too close to it to see clearly.

Take these two characters the comments mentioned—she honestly didn’t recognize either of them.

Are we… reading the same comic?

Whether it was “the mysterious former opera singer master” or “the cold, violent pretty boy,” neither of them aligned with her original image.

Just then, someone walked out of the room. Yuan Yuanyuan glanced at them from the corner of her eye, then looked away.

Cold, violent pretty boy… Ha. Not a chance. Not with this fluffy-headed pretty boy washing dishes beside me.

Total illusion. Absolutely fiction.