Little Pink Starfish

The clothing shop’s business didn’t pick up just because Liu An showed up.

The truth was, no one had wanted to come into this store to begin with. So of course, no clothes were being sold. At first, Yuan Yuanyuan had thought about cleaning Liu An up a bit and making him presentable—basically just using him as the store’s front. But in the end, she gave up and let things run wild.

Anyway, the guy always had a cold face. If he really tried to sell clothes, the customers might catch a cold just from looking at him.

Yuan Yuanyuan had been busy lately dealing with the wanted posters that the gentlemen had posted. She had no idea if any of those reckless gentlemen would actually show up. If one really did come, C City would probably be thrown into chaos again.

The big white snake incident had just passed a few days ago, and Yuan Yuanyuan really didn’t want to see another month of perfectly blue skies.

She was flipping through her phone, looking at a message from Lucky Rain.

That cat had clearly started thinking up some twisted ideas lately. Just by glancing at these system messages, Yuan Yuanyuan could already tell what the fat cat was trying to write.

[Group Owner: Circle, when you draw the comic, do you ever feel like Ji Qiu is based on something?]

[Circle: …I don’t really get what you mean.]

[Group Owner: What I mean is, when you’re drawing the comic, do you ever get a sense… like someone is secretly watching you and sneakily recording your every move?]

[Circle: …Fat cat, what are you trying to pull? Don’t start anything weird.]

[Group Owner: I’m not messing around. I just want to test that feeling.]

Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t know why, but every time she saw a message from the fat cat now, she got a headache. She should’ve realized earlier: in this world where humans and monsters are deeply divided, two monsters who can go online, use QQ, and even play games… are pretty bizarre.

Despite looking young, those two were probably in their forties or fifties at least.

With the fat cat as the ringleader and the black-and-red one following him in stirring up trouble, it was clear they’d now set their sights on Monster Chronicles.

As the saying goes, “Curiosity killed the cat”… Yuan Yuanyuan felt that this fat cat’s curiosity was no joke—and worse, he didn’t seem to fear death at all.

Looking at the two monsters, Yuan Yuanyuan really felt like she had no way to deal with them. After thinking for a bit, she replied, [I’ve never felt like I was being watched. I never sensed anything before the comic was published.]

[Group Owner: That makes it tricky… We don’t have anyone here with a connection to the comic. Not even a background character. So it might be tough for us to get in.]

[Circle: …]

Yuan Yuanyuan put down her phone, not sure what to say. On one hand, she was trying so hard not to appear in the comic. On the other, someone was trying desperately to get into the comic. She couldn’t wrap her head around it.

Still, Yuan Yuanyuan did share everything she knew with the fat cat. When it came to the experience of “appearing in the comic,” not many people could compare to her.

She thought for a few seconds and suddenly typed on the screen:
[If you’re talking about how to appear in the comic… don’t try to strike a pose, and don’t force a character setting on yourself. Ji Qiu is… odd. He sees through the surface to the essence.]

[Group Owner: Huh?]

[Circle: I mean… if you end up in the comic, then disguises and fake personas don’t really matter. For example… I always thought I had a very graceful way of pouring drinks in the tavern. But when I appeared in the comic, I ended up looking super macho.]

[Group Owner: Oh, you’re talking about that time? But haven’t you always been kinda macho?]

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at the fat cat’s reply and was momentarily speechless.

That wasn’t what she meant, but she couldn’t bring herself to explain it.

She had just been thinking about her first appearance in the comic as “Yuan.” Back then, she’d gone all out trying to create a cold, aloof, icy persona. But Ji Qiu had somehow drawn Yuan with this strangely soft and elegant vibe.

Yuan Yuanyuan was already rough to begin with. Among women, she was about as coarse as they come. That’s probably how she’d managed to play the role of “Yuan” for so long, with only one person ever vaguely suggesting she seemed a bit feminine—but no one had ever suspected her actual gender.

If it had been another girl, readers would’ve figured out immediately it was a woman pretending to be a man.

But even someone as rough as Yuan Yuanyuan… still did things that normal guys simply couldn’t.

Even now, when she looked at the comic, she could see traces of herself in the “Yuan” character—tiny, feminine gestures she wasn’t even aware she made.

Girls are just different. Take something as simple as flicking hair—guys and girls do it in completely different ways.

Yuan Yuanyuan hadn’t thought much of it when she did it. But after she saw it drawn in the comic, she was stunned. Same motion—but it felt like it came from a completely different person depending on the gender.

At the very least, women were far more likely to do such a move, so many readers were seeing it for the first time in a male character.

And it didn’t just bring novelty—it created something hard to describe.

What the readers didn’t know… was that “Yuan” was, in fact, very much a woman. So the whole experience hit differently for them.

The comment section had exploded. Tons of girls were screaming, “Aaaaahhhh!” while frantically yelling things like, “Why does a guy doing this look so damn good? So soft! So seductive!”

After some experimenting, Yuan Yuanyuan realized that feminine gestures, when done by a man, did get amplified. Some guys looked girly, others looked stunning. Yuan definitely fell into the latter category—but even she didn’t really know why.

She guessed it had something to do with the fact that these days, rugged guys were everywhere. Even if a man wasn’t rough, he still couldn’t do it like a girl. Some guys who tried just ended up looking greasy.

But someone with a female core and male appearance… could have both the outward masculine look and a natural flair for feminine gestures—making it seem effortless instead of forced.

Besides the hair flick, there were lots of other small, random gestures—things Yuan Yuanyuan had done unconsciously. But once drawn in the comic, they turned into beautifully androgynous movements.

Even though she found them a little baffling.

She kind of understood why the readers were going crazy… but she couldn’t join in. Not at all.

Because once she realized the person in the comic was her, she just couldn’t get into it—couldn’t feel the same excitement. In fact, she kind of looked at the fans who were excited and thought, what the hell is wrong with you people…

Then again, maybe those fans looked at her and thought the same thing…

So yeah. Mutual cringe.

Just as she was deep in these thoughts, someone walked through the door. Yuan Yuanyuan immediately tossed her phone aside, not chatting with the fat cat anymore.

She saw Liu An come in, wearing a military coat and holding a huge broom. Even though the tree in the courtyard was fake, the leaves that fell still needed to be swept—or they’d just pile up.

Liu An walked in, put down the broom, took off his coat, and leaned by the heater, looking up at the sky. Who knew what he was staring at? The moment Yuan Yuanyuan saw him, she remembered how he’d cried like a baby the night before.

She looked at him, pretended not to notice, and lowered her head, picking up her notebook and slowly flipping through it.

Liu An approached and looked at the boss. At first, he’d thought this boss must be super cold—probably because he had no idea how scary his own resting face looked. When he wasn’t smiling, he looked absolutely intimidating.

It was probably just his facial features. His face didn’t give off much warmth: thin lips, sharp brows, high-impact features. A kind of piercing, refined beauty.

But for some reason, the boss always smiled at people. His smile was beautiful—magical, really. The moment he smiled, his whole appearance softened.

If not for that, Liu An figured this guy would’ve been totally unapproachable… not that he had many friends even now.

Over the past couple days, Liu An realized this boss wasn’t actually all that hard to talk to. He walked over, handed in a draft, and cautiously said, “Boss, I want to talk to you about something.”

“Hm? What is it?” Yuan Yuanyuan looked up at him.

“I… I need to go out tonight. I found another part-time job. I’ll make sure everything here is cleaned and done before I leave. If you’re okay with it, I’d like to leave work a little early tonight.”

Yuan Yuanyuan looked up at him. His head was bowed, still in that army coat. The guy was easily six feet tall, but right now he looked like he’d shrunk a whole foot.

This had nothing to do with dignity… When you’re broke, who needs pride? Groveling was survival.

Yuan Yuanyuan remembered when she’d been looking for part-time jobs too—begging people like this. The only difference was, back then, she wore makeup and her best outfit.

She glanced around. The shop was tidy, the clothes folded. Even the second-floor windows she’d been too lazy to clean had been wiped.

She was poor, sure—but not a charity. Still, Liu An was clearly smart and dependable. With the shop in this state, she had no excuse to nitpick.

“Go ahead. Just make sure everything’s done before you leave, and lock the door. I might not be around much this week,” she said, looking back at her notebook.

Liu An visibly relaxed when he heard her agree. He’d seen an ad on the street earlier and was planning to ask if they were hiring.

Among both monsters and gentlemen, there were plenty of powerful freelance cultivators—and they had one thing in common: money.

And money could solve a lot of problems.

Liu An bowed, packed up his things, and quietly shut the door.

Yuan Yuanyuan watched him leave and wondered where nearby could be hiring… That pancake stand next door? No way. That old lady had been running it alone for years. Why would she hire help now?

She looked at her notebook again, once more trying to practice this demon technique. No matter how many times she’d tried before, it had never responded.

But Yuan Yuanyuan wasn’t too discouraged. She figured if she just kept trying, one day it would work.

She was bracing for another failure—when suddenly, a strange feeling surged through her head.

Her scalp tingled with pain.

A faint rhythm began echoing from within her body, like a slow, steady drumbeat.

“Thump. Thump.”

Yuan Yuanyuan lowered her head.

It was her own heartbeat.

She suddenly stood up and walked into the street. In her ears, the rhythm pounded louder—

“Thump. Thump.”

Countless tiny beats, almost imperceptible, wove themselves together inside her head… and slowly formed a map—crystal clear.

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Pinky asks: Does this make sense?