Little Pink Starfish

When Yuan Yuanyuan got asked for her name, she was honestly just… speechless.

She never really liked getting involved in crap like this. Even full-blooded demons avoided the topic; here she was, a half-demon, sticking her nose in like a fool. At this point, all she wanted was to bail—ASAP. Every second she stayed here made her feel like ants were crawling under her skin.

But… all those demons around her were staring. She came here today just to act cool—if she turned and walked away now, everything she did up till this point would feel meaningless.

So Yuan Yuanyuan just stood there, racking her brain for something halfway decent to say. Maybe something like, “My name? The one you’re thinking of.” Or… “I no longer have a name. Call me Yuan.”

No matter how she phrased it, it still sounded like she was trying way too hard to be cool.

She stood there forever, and nothing came out. Cold sweat started to bead on her back. She realized: being a badass manga character and spouting iconic lines? Yeah, not as easy as it looks.

She’d never been a class rep, never done public speaking—now here she was, totally choking.

So all the demons around her just saw this black-clad figure standing beneath the plum tree, stone-faced and dead silent, lips pressed into a line.

Honestly though, being labeled as a “great demon” did have its perks—none of the other demons dared say a word, just stared at “Yuan” in the center of the field.

What’s going on? Why the weird silence? The atmosphere’s… off.

Wait—is she about to bolt?

All Wu Jin did was ask her one question: what her real name was. After all, she’d said herself “Yuan” wasn’t her original name.

Was that really such a taboo question? Just that one sentence, and now the whole vibe is collapsing?

The silence dragged on. Pressure built in the crowd. Even the clueless younger demons felt the tension. Some of the smarter ones were already backing away quietly, leaving the less savvy ones to stand out front like cannon fodder.

Jixiangyu didn’t back away, though. He stayed in place, quietly watching, as if he didn’t notice how tense things were.

Wu Jin was still staring straight at Yuan Yuanyuan. He might’ve been hurt, but he was holding out.

Yuan Yuanyuan could tell he was close to his limit—but she still didn’t know why he was so hung up on this.

Just as the silence was getting unbearable, Wu Jin’s expression relaxed. He said, “If senior doesn’t wish to answer, then I will call you Senior Yuan. Even without your answer, I already understand some things in my heart. I just have one more question.”

Wu Jin lifted his head, eyes locking with Yuan’s.

“Which side are you on?”

…

The next morning, fog blanketed Mount Sanquan. This was completely at odds with the “clear skies” forecast from the day before, and a lot of people who’d planned early hikes had to call it off—it was just too dangerous to climb in fog that thick.

When Yuan Yuanyuan found Jixiangyu, he was passed out inside the tent. It held a thick blanket, a herbal pillow, and a bunch of camera gear.

There was a big lump under the blanket. Yuan gave it a pat and said, “Hey, get up. I’m here to take you down the mountain. We’ll grab breakfast and crash. I’ve been up all night.”

The lump shifted but didn’t make a sound. Yuan pulled the blanket open while scolding, “Get up or I’m going to see everything—”

Under the blanket wasn’t Jixiangyu.

It was… a fat cow-patterned cat.

Massive. Round.

It took up a whole section of the tent. Without lifting the blanket, you’d never know there was a cat inside.

Totally defied everything she knew about cat sizes.

Yuan immediately slammed the blanket back down, then paused—wait a second, Jixiangyu had been sleeping here last night. So where the heck was he now?

She lifted the blanket again and stared at the totally motionless cat. After a while, she tentatively scratched its head.

“Don’t touch my head… I can’t move. Didn’t sleep all day yesterday—this morning I’m about to die.” The cow-patterned cat let out a long wheeze, like a dying man taking his final breath.

“Put the… cough cough… camera away. Then… carry me down.”

Yuan looked at him. He might really be dying—his voice was hoarse as hell, even raspier than his usual smoker’s cough.

She realized this wasn’t a joke. Looking at this insanely fat cat who used to be Jixiangyu…

She sat in the cab holding the giant cat in her arms—took both hands to manage it.

“Dude, do you need to go to a hospital?”

“No… cough cough… in my experience, I might just fake-die for a bit. If I start going cold, don’t toss me out, okay? I’ll come back. Really. Even if there are flies… just swat them away, don’t throw me out…”

“…You’re not seriously dying, right?! What the hell is this fake-dying crap? And how do you still have the energy to be dramatic?!”

But Jixiangyu stubbornly refused to go to the hospital. Yuan had no idea what to do. She dragged a little stool over and sat by the bed, ready to do CPR if needed.

So… his true form was a cow-spotted cat. There were lots of cat demons in stories, but in real life, Yuan had hardly seen any. No clue where they were hiding. This was the first one she’d ever met.

Cat coat colors came with their own quirks—like how almost all calicos are female, and the rare male ones are usually sterile. Orange cats weren’t all fat, but they were definitely fatter on average. Cow-patterned cats…

Yuan suddenly froze.

Wait. Cow-patterned cats were notoriously nuts.

She looked down at the fat ball in her lap.

…

Yesterday, when Wu Jin had asked her those two questions, she’d frozen on the first. Eventually, he let it go and asked another.

When he asked the second one, the crowd started stirring. Yuan saw a few demons start to move closer.

The reason she’d been shunned before was simple: she had survived. At first, she hadn’t understood why surviving could be a sin. But as she learned more, she came to grasp the mindset of demons.

Officially, the Blood Jade Demon Army were heroes. But as we all know, the ones praised the most… are the dead ones.

Complete annihilation carried a kind of tragic nobility—like Guan Yu’s last stand. It created this helpless, mournful sort of reverence. So demons worshipped the Blood Jade Army like gods.

And now, there was a crack in that statue.

These demons had grown up believing the entire Blood Jade Army was wiped out. Learning that one of them might have survived… it felt like when humans found out Pluto was no longer a planet.

In that moment, Yuan realized—if she didn’t answer the second question, she’d be facing endless enemies.

Right before she spoke, a strange thought came to her.

Right now… am I answering on Yi Qi’s behalf?

If she said she wasn’t on the demons’ side, would that be betraying Yi Qi’s wishes?

Because of that thought, Yuan felt awful all day. When she got back, she lit incense for Yi Qi again. Honestly, if Yi Qi were really still alive, she figured he’d be far more stubborn than she was—not faking it like her, surviving on acting skills.

Back home, she was too busy taking care of Jixiangyu to check the comic, so she didn’t know that the events of the previous night had already been published.

Recently, Demon Chronicle had mostly focused on the human characters. Demon world updates were rare, so when they did happen, it meant something huge. Last night’s chapter? That was the biggest news in the demon world right now.

In a traditional-looking office, a few old men sat in a circle.

“If I’m not mistaken…” said one sharp-looking elder, “That demon… should be Yi Qi.”

“Yi Qi?” another gray-haired man raised his brows. “If that’s him, heh… the demons are in for some chaos. I know him—he holds grudges.”

“What do you think the odds are we could get him on our side? Things are about to move soon. If we had him, it’d make things a lot easier.”

“The demons pissed him off bad back then. Now they’re too scared to even let anyone know he might still be alive.”

“You guys are being too optimistic.” The oldest man in the group finally spoke. His hair and beard were both snow-white.

“In terms of loyalty, I doubt any demon could top him. Even after everything that happened. Right now, the real question isn’t whether we should bring him in… but whether we can control him.”

Back home, Yuan Yuanyuan knew none of this.

She had no idea that someone who was supposed to be long dead could still shake things up so much—so much that even humans didn’t dare make a move against demons because of him.

In a way, that made Yi Qi one hell of a terrifying figure.

Right now, she was just staring at the cat on her bed.

Ah… it’s gone cold.