Little Pink Starfish

It must have been that the way I shattered the void was incorrect.
Noyce: “……”
Gu Bai: “……”
Is it really okay to be this blunt about throwing one’s weight around? In the original novel, the second male lead always did stuff like this, but he never said it outright! Has he never heard of subtlety?! Of putting on a front?! How can you be so straightforward—was the second male lead always like this?!

Or… had he mutated?

Either way, Noyce was clearly reassured.

Thus, the plot continued.

Zhu Ning unapologetically hauled away a huge amount of high-level rare stones from this private mining zone, loudly packed them into energy boxes, and walked up to Noyce.
Noyce, the moment he saw Zhu Ning, forgot all about his concerns over mental health. Not only was his heart full of nothing but the protagonist shou, his eyes were equally filled with adoration and tenderness.

Unfortunately, Zhu Ning still didn’t notice this “tender man with a tough exterior.”
He was only grateful for Noyce’s behind-the-scenes support and, without hesitation, publicly handed over the Level 7 and 8 rare stones to Noyce.
Noyce’s eyes lit up, and a dopey grin spread across his face.

Qiguan Rui: Too dumb.
Gu Bai: Too dumb.
Zhu Ning: Something feels weird…

Then, the four of them were supposed to leave—
Qiguan Rui was still a little unhappy. He had finally gotten a chance to go out on a date with gege, and now the place they chose had problems? What a scam.
Plus, with one glance, he could already tell that there weren’t many high-level raw stones left in the zone. No point staying here any longer.

Yes, even though his current beastman body couldn’t see through raw stones, his soul power was so strong that the slightest probe let him see through stone shells with zero pressure.
Just like Gu Bai—for him, a stone containing a rare core might as well be a lightbulb glowing in the night. This ability even surpassed the protagonist shou’s.
It wasn’t the original body’s gift, but Gu Bai’s own soul power being too monstrous ╮(╯▽╰)╭
…Though Gu Bai himself was completely unaware of this.

Back to the story—just as the four were about to leave, someone appeared.
Which meant… the plot wasn’t over yet.
Of course not—wherever the protagonist is, events are bound to explode!

On this very day, at this very mining zone under the name of a female, the very same female—Lianxin—came with her already-married partner, Trean, for an inspection.
Just in time to be briefed by the manager on today’s major event.

Naturally, that pitiful, delicate white lotus blocked the group’s path in full public view.
Zhu Ning: This btch! Ugh, I really want to kill him… endure, endure!*
Then he saw that trash Trean, nervously hovering and clearly protective of Lianxin. Zhu Ning felt like he was choking on blood—absolutely unbearable!
But still, he endured.

Zhu Ning took a deep breath.
Gu Bai’s eyes sparkled.
It’s happening! The showdown between the reborn protagonist and the white lotus!
Will there be a slapfest—

Qiguan Rui noticed gege’s strange excitement.
He paused, not saying a word.
If gege liked this sort of thing, of course he’d accompany him to watch… And if gege wasn’t satisfied, maybe he could capture them and have them perform the drama properly?

Lianxin Senter’s face was full of innocence, tears threatening to fall: “Sirs, were you the ones who bought all those rare stones from our mine?”

Zhu Ning’s temple twitched, and he said irritably, “Yeah, so what? What, are you going to try to take them back by force just because you’ve got power?”

Lianxin waved his hands: “No no no, you misunderstand. Lianxin… Lianxin just really admires your skills. Although you’ve bought most of the high-level rare stones we had…” His voice trailed off pitifully, “Lianxin has no other intention. It’s just that in the future, other customers may not find anything good anymore… It’s Lianxin’s fault for not preparing better. It’s not the guests’ fault at all.”
That voice—just brimming with self-blame, wow.

Because of this sudden block, a bunch of beastmen who had watched Zhu Ning gamble stones earlier were now slowly gathering again. Hearing Lianxin’s words, many of them felt a little sour.
Yeah, if all the good stones were gone, wouldn’t that mean lower chances of finding anything worthwhile? A big waste of money!

With that, their eyes turned a bit unfriendly toward Zhu Ning and his group.
When they looked at the fragile little sub-female Lianxin again, they thought he was so pitiable. These guys who came to buy stones were too aggressive.

Zhu Ning sneered coldly: “So what, I’ve got good eyes and found good stones. I paid for them, didn’t I? Just because I cut out more rare stones, you want me to give up my gains for some ridiculous reason? So you can only cut trash here, but if someone cuts too many rare stones, they’ve harmed your livelihood and deserve to be hated? Is that how it works?
If I’d cut forty garbage stones here, would you people sympathize and refund me even a tenth—no, even a hundredth—of my money?
You guys make a fortune off beastmen’s hard-earned money, and when we finally get some return, you want to shame us?
What low standards your mining zone has—trying to take all the advantages for yourselves and treating others like idiots!”

Lianxin’s tears immediately flowed: “Y-you… how can you say that…”

Zhu Ning: “You know what I mean. Save your tears to trick the males. I’m a sub-beastman, I don’t fall for that crap!”
He used to speak too slowly, too gently. But in this life, he finally understood—with this type of tearful manipulator, the only way was to tear open their act in front of everyone and speak with the sharpest words!

Gu Bai: …yep, it’s tearing time.
This kind of showdown with a white lotus?
Guaranteed fireworks!

Watching a soap opera in real life—it was really something.

Lianxin kept playing the pitiful card, while Zhu Ning heartlessly, ruthlessly, and reasonably tore apart every flaw in his logic.
Lianxin: blah blah sob sob
Zhu Ning: logic logic verbal beatdown

Gu Bai’s face went from (⊙o⊙) to (⊙_⊙) to “…”
Sub-beastman vs. female—what a drama.

After unloading all his post-rebirth verbal artillery and reducing the white lotus to trembling lips and teary silence, Zhu Ning stopped.
“Noyce, get the stuff. We’re leaving!”

Noyce, having watched Zhu Ning’s glorious rampage, had stars in his eyes. He cheerfully pulled the cart, loaded with rare stones, and left with him.

Gu Bai, staring at their heroic backs: Speechless.

So, they’d just been abandoned by those two dog men, huh…
Didn’t they just say they needed help?
Now they were nothing but background characters?

Gu Bai looked back again at Trean, who was busy consoling the sobbing white lotus with a resentful face.
There was a trace of pity in his eyes.
That scum gong… not much time left for good days.

Actually, in this rebirth-and-revenge story, the main plot focused on Zhu Ning’s romance with Noyce—Zhu Ning gradually blooming with charm, climbing higher, while Noyce’s strength also increased.
As for the revenge, white lotus beatdowns, and tormenting the scum gong?
Sure, it was part of the plot, but usually brought up every dozen or so chapters for dramatic effect.
A few chapters later: how they were getting punished.
A dozen more: a midterm report on the punishment.
Basically, death by a thousand cuts.
Whenever readers were about to forget, the villains would be dragged back out.
Only near the final arc would they be crushed completely.
Even in the extras, the author didn’t forget to flaunt the couple’s glory and describe the scum gong and white lotus’s tragic end in detail.
Especially when the scum gong, on his deathbed, recalled his childhood sweetheart in regret—
Zhu Ning showed up to rub in the truth about his rebirth, leaving the scum to die in eternal regret!

See? So cruel!

But for Gu Bai…
This really had nothing to do with him.
…Unless the second male lead offered him up.

Qiguan Rui gave his beloved gege a warm smile: “Carlo, since this place is no longer suitable, shall we go somewhere else?”
Gu Bai, expressionless: “Okay.”

And so, the two headed to another mining zone.
This one didn’t belong to the Senter Marquis household but to another noble family allied with them.
Still the same crowd—
So wrecking them would be just as satisfying!

Qiguan Rui: Date continues. Didn’t disappoint gege… how wonderful.
Gu Bai: Date going smoothly =v=

At that private mining site, Gu Bai once again picked out dozens of raw stones and cleaned out all the Level 8 and above ones.
Still as low-key as ever—not like the protagonist shou showing off and slapping faces in public.
So, he left without trouble.
When he got back, he continued throwing rare stones at the second male lead.

But soon after, news of Zhu Ning exploded across the capital.
Gu Bai hadn’t gone out of his way to investigate anything—
But Zhu Ning’s actions were creating too much of a stir, drawing attention from all sides.

Yes, every few days, Zhu Ning would hit up a mining site under the Senter family and gamble on stones.
Every time, he returned with a cart of Level 6 or higher stones—sometimes even multiple Level 8s and near-9s.
He always cut them in public and always clashed with the Senter family.
People noticed he had the backing of the Imman family and the full support of heir Noyce, making it hard for the Senters to retaliate.

More people noticed something else—
Zhu Ning’s insane accuracy.
Near 100% success.
Always picking out the highest-level rare stones.

Meanwhile, Gu Bai, upon finally realizing that someone had been tailing him, asked the Cardinorn butler to release the guy from the little black room.
Then… he hesitated.

Recently, he’d spent all his time with the second male lead.
His little flower of a servant boy had too little presence and kept getting forgotten.
Maybe he should find a better position for the boy to shine?

Like… pairing him with the protagonist shou.
One delicate little flower vs. one fragile white lotus.