Little Pink Starfish

“Ah ah ah ah ah——”
“My face, my face!”
“What the hell is this thing?!”
“Blood blood blood blood——”
“Tha-that-that, who is that!”
“How could something like this happen! I demand an explanation!”

A whole lot of chaotic shouting exploded all at once right after that pause of silence, like someone hit the unpause button, and in an instant, it felt like the whole greenhouse was about to be blown apart.
The noble ladies screamed shrilly, like ducks with their necks wrung—it couldn’t be more tragic. The noblemen were just as frightened.

No helping it, this scene was just too sudden.
Who would’ve thought they’d just been led over by someone with an agenda to catch a bit of scandalous fun, expecting to see someone end up humiliated, but instead of a scandal, they got blood and flesh from a beta boy’s corpse splattered all over their faces.
What the hell, how could anyone tolerate that!

This wasn’t some battlefield splash after killing enemies, this was chunks and pieces, blobs and lumps of blood and flesh, alright?!
Most importantly! Blood! And meat!
Just thinking about it was upsetting!

Let alone that those who got covered weren’t just rough men and women—there were also fragile-hearted omega men and women who were already married and only rarely brought along to social gatherings.
Coming to this kind of event just once, and they got scared half to death, okay?
Their fragile little hearts were shattered, okay?
Their courage was torn apart, okay?
After going home they’d definitely be haunted by nightmares and even traumatized into stupidity, unable to recover for a long time! Okay?!

—Everyone said yes.
Damn, they really saw something new today.

Besides the screaming, most of the people’s reactions were to immediately find handkerchiefs, tissues—those who had nothing would even tear off a leaf if they had to, just to wipe off the stuff on their face and calm down.
Otherwise, the smell of blood was wafting up nostrils in thick waves—so damn… indescribable.

Among all the people, only one person’s face wasn’t splattered with anything.
That was Gu Bai.

Because the moment Gu Bai realized what was happening, three words immediately flashed through his mind:
[Yao er zi] (tricks and schemes)

This kind of familiar plot, familiar setup, lame tactics—weren’t they just like the ones in all those palace scheming novels! How could he not be on guard!
And Gu Bai’s brain turned fast. He could already guess this incident was likely aimed at him—who told him to be the one at this banquet with the highest social standing? And among those with the highest standing, the one with the strongest overall capability.
According to the usual novel logic, wasn’t someone like that the one who always got drawn in to be schemed against?

Also, since that pervert wasn’t by his side this time, Gu Bai already had a hunch.
Plus, with the powerful intuition he’d trained over the years…
At the very instant it happened, he’d randomly grabbed something nearby and blocked his face with it.

“Puff puff puff.”
Sure enough, not a single bit landed on him!

Gu Bai: …that was close.
That damned pervert, don’t think that just because you’re hiding I don’t know it’s you. Who else but that pervert could pull something like this! He saw it super clearly okay—managing to get just the right amount of blood and flesh on everyone’s face, that could only be the pervert!
Yes, it was all his fault.
He created the wrong protagonist, and caused this serious consequence…
He repented.
Heh.

As for the crowd who got splattered, they were quickly tidying themselves up.
But things weren’t the kind you could resolve with just a few screams and a quick cleanup. Especially since this banquet was hosted by Marquis Li—and something like this happened at his banquet—it was way beyond the occasional suggestive scandal. A person had died. That wasn’t something to joke about!

Marquis Li took the lead, immediately stepping forward to investigate what the hell had happened here.
First thing to determine: the identity of the beta boy who had died and left not even a bone behind.

—It had to be said, although the boy had exploded, his various seductive actions earlier had already been seen by everyone present.
And that delicate, beautiful face that could almost rival a pureblood omega had certainly been noticed by many, some even recognized him.

Yameng Helan.
A child from a fallen marquis family, known for his stunning looks, drifting among many mediocre alphas or somewhat prominent betas, but never settling with any for a long-term relationship.

To put it nicely, he was a heartthrob still searching for true love. Less nicely, he was a self-important social butterfly. Typically, someone like him would end up as a lover of a high-ranking noble, or choose one of his many entanglements to marry.
Among nobles, marriage was about interest or pure bloodlines—he was neither a pureblood omega nor from a powerful family, so these were his only options.

However, no matter what, he was still a marquis’s descendant, with decent status—and to those climbing upwards, he was very attractive.
So, why did someone like this show up here?

If someone schemed against him—what then? Even if Yameng Helan’s family was fallen, if he was harmed, they would still find ways to respond, maybe even complain to the royal family.
Unless someone had a deep grudge against the Helan family—but they were just a fallen marquis house. What deep grudge could they possibly have caused?

So many people on-site analyzed that this was probably a scene originally set up by Yameng Helan and someone else.
The original setup should have been: Yameng Helan waiting in the greenhouse with a syringe of omega pheromones. Before the target arrived, he’d inject himself, then lie there naked and seductive, trying to lure the person he was scheming against.

At the time, someone sharp had noticed alpha pheromones in the air that hadn’t fully dissipated. If they met with omega pheromones…

These people, as coincidentally present witnesses to a coupling scandal, would force both parties into a marriage to cover up the disgrace.
So then, who was the one he intended to trap?
And where was that person now? Were they here… or not?

Many questions, many thoughts.
Among nobles, there was never a shortage of smart people and those good at conspiracy theories.
They were already narrowing down the suspect in their minds.

The pheromone setup—omega and alpha—meant the target had to be a beta. Yameng Helan was beta, so the victim would also be beta.
There were many betas present today. The most “worthy” target seemed to be the one with the highest status—Liu Rufeng (Gu Bai).
But anyone not completely stupid knew that for a beta to become the most valued, they must’ve undergone a lot of military training to ensure they weren’t easily affected by pheromones. Otherwise, how could they lead troops or keep alphas in line?

So Liu Rufeng looked like the most likely, but was in fact the least likely.
Yameng Helan, able to flirt with many men for so long, couldn’t be that dumb. Since he wasn’t dumb, he wouldn’t try to seduce Liu Rufeng.

So the question remained.
Which beta was it? Someone with enough status to interest Yameng Helan, someone who couldn’t afford a scandal… Thinking further, whoever was schemed against would surely lose reputation in others’ eyes, and suffer a drop in status within their family…

After careful thought, the suspect gradually became clear.
However, this move was a bit stupid. If it really was that family’s person, was it even necessary? Or maybe… were there changes they didn’t know yet? Should they go dig up some new information?

At this point, the nobles with minds full of twisty thoughts had cooled down a bit, and their mood became subtle.
↓
Clearly, the scheme had failed.
But no one knew why it failed.
Was it the schemed party? Did they have such powerful capabilities?
If not the schemed one, then a third party…?
Then it was a serious problem.

As for the beta stepmother from Duke Fang’s house, Madam Fang, she was utterly nervous now.
She had planned to perform beautifully after the scandal, to clear herself of suspicion and force that bastard to marry the whore. That way, his status would plummet, and more importantly, it would make the most valued disappointed in him—that was the most urgent goal!

But now?
Not only did the bastard completely vanish, her attempt to sow discord failed, and someone died!

A human life!
A noble’s life! Wouldn’t that be investigated thoroughly? Once the truth came out, would she be implicated, would it affect her son, would she lose everything?
No no no! That couldn’t happen!

Unfortunately, no matter how anxious, annoyed, or tangled Madam Fang was, Marquis Li had already ordered the greenhouse sealed off and began a full investigation.
Everyone who came to the banquet today had to stay here for the night and couldn’t leave immediately.
Even if they wanted to leave, they had to wait until the Imperial Guard came tomorrow to investigate and question each person one by one before they could go back.

Gu Bai had zero interest in any of this.
What he was thinking was…

Damn, this really blew up big. F**k, didn’t I tell that pervert to tone it down—now what do we do.
Also…
Human bombs were way too scary. This triggered those very unpleasant memories of his past “human fireworks,” okay? Please stop doing that stuff, the world shouldn’t be messed with like this.
And…

If this keeps up, dead pervert, do you realize we might get summoned by world will for a talk?! Damn!

While the pervert wanted to fight the world will any minute, Gu Bai had once been a novelist, and had no hostility toward the world will, which was like the incarnation of the narrator.
This time was no exception—even if the world (its body) was too damn weird.

So his gaze moved.
And with that movement, he met a particularly gentle pair of eyes.

That pervert didn’t know when he’d shown up, but was now silently standing at the back of the crowd, ahhh!
He was squeezing his way over…
Looking totally like he’d never done anything wrong!