Little Pink Starfish

…Of course, the first thing to do right now was still to inspect the industries.

Along the way, Lanniel ganjue a very deep unease.
From what he knew, his elven race—if you wanted to put it nicely, they were innocent and pure; if you put it badly, they were a bunch of airheaded simpletons. Whether they lived a thousand years or ten years actually didn’t make much difference. Most elves, unless caught up in large-scale wars among the land’s races, would never leave the Elven Forest their entire lives—doing business? What even was that?

Forget opening businesses across the continent, they usually just lived in self-sufficiency. If outsiders wanted anything from the elves, they either had to sneak into the Elven Forest to steal it, or befriend the elves and receive it as a gift. Trying to buy or trade with money or profit? That was an impossible event.

And precisely because many elves had stayed in one place for many years, they inevitably got bored, lonely, and cold. When curiosity couldn’t be held back anymore, many would sneak out of the forest and enter the human world to enjoy the bustle and adventures of human society.
…Even though all those elves auctioned off over the years across the continent were basically all caught during such “adventures.”

Lanniel had once been one of those curious elves.
Back then he had secretly snuck out of the Elven Forest. If he hadn’t accidentally run into a group of good people, he would’ve already been caught by slave hunters and truly become an auction house commodity—instead of like now, also on an auction stage, but totally incapable of being trapped.

So Lanniel knew that although humans had a lot of bad people, there were still many good people too. These years he’d been hanging around outside and didn’t want to go back to the Elven Forest because, even though life outside was sometimes hard, it was still lively and happy. Meanwhile the forest felt thin and cold.

But what was going on now!
The Elven Queen brought the newly born prince out to inspect industries!
And she was even negotiating business deals with people!
And how the hell did she disguise herself so well—she totally looked like a real man!

Especially when Lanniel saw that not-yet-adult prince haggling skillfully and successfully closing several big business deals, he felt even more uneasy.
He only now realized…
Alright, he hadn’t returned to the Elven Forest for a thousand years. Had the intelligence of the elves evolved to this level already?

A bit hard to believe.
But with a race like this, should he maybe go back and do a little research?

After spending several months, the group finally finished inspecting all the businesses.
Gu Bai was quite impressed with the protagonist’s ancestor. This guy was straightforward and refreshingly blunt, truly a fighter jet among straight men, didn’t show the slightest bit of bending—truly a plot-preserving little helper! Meanwhile, Lanniel kept sending left and right signals, top and bottom hints, and that guy’s signal receiver was apparently broken, not catching a single thing. Lanniel wasted a whole bunch of scheming for nothing.

But just when Gu Bai felt it was pretty nice to know Arthur, and Arthur also thought this Elven King, while cold on the surface, was actually fun to talk to—two other people weren’t happy anymore!

Lanniel’s elegant brows furrowed, the pressure was immense.
He knew Arthur liked women. The Elven Queen now looked like a man, but she was actually a woman! If they returned to the forest and she reverted to female form, wouldn’t Arthur immediately be drawn to her?

Qiguan Rui was also very unhappy.
Clearly, he had brought his gege out to inspect industries and enjoy the mortal world, clearly he had planned to wait until he grew up and could charm his gege’s face off—but why… why were there suddenly two massive third wheels! And the third wheels even wanted to follow them back to the Elven Forest!!!

He wouldn’t let them go.
Everyone who disturbed his time with gege… would be punished.

·

At the outskirts of the Elven Forest, it was still as quiet as ever.
In a mountain hollow there was a small town, which was quite lively.

The reason was simple—the Elven Forest was too famous. Besides a few who bore ill will toward elves or wanted to try their luck at the forest’s edge, most people came because of admiration for the elves’ fame, wanting to experience elven culture and glimpse the scenery of the forest—if lucky, maybe even spot one or two elegant elf figures darting across the treetops!

So this little town had tourists year-round, and quite a few elven forest specialties.
Like “elven wine” or something… though these so-called elven wines actually had nothing to do with the elves at all—just used the name to scam people!

This day, the group walked through here.
Among them were too many who were too pretty! Too eye-catching! Too noticeable!
Many people got the urge to crowd around, but once they did…

They couldn’t help but sigh:

“So unfortunate.”

——

——

How to marry!

At the same time, the man walking next to those handsome pretty boys became especially conspicuous.
But even as he stood out, the onlookers’ gazes turned full of pity.

—What could be more miserable than walking with guys prettier than girls, while the guy wasn’t even a girl, and that stunningly beautiful face was completely useless?

So, under these looks and comments, the group kept walking and walking, and walking… and no one dared stop them.
Suddenly, someone shouted: “Th-th-that s-s-super beautiful guy—is he an elf ah ah ah!”

Couldn’t even speak clearly you have mu you!

At the same time, the whole town was in uproar.

“Ahhh!”

“Woc that really could be an elf!”

“I can finally brag to mom that I saw an elf muah muah!”

Later, the four-person group’s figures disappeared into the Elven Forest…

I cao!
They really were elves, dammit!

That handsome guy! Let me take the elf beside you!
A male elf from the Elven Race! That’s not just any guy ah ah ah!

And those four, no matter what race they were, had already entered deep into the Elven Forest.
They moved especially fast.

·

Inside the Elven Forest, nature’s aura was everywhere—fragrant plants, lush trees, scenery and atmosphere were all top-tier excellent.
Arthur had never been here before, Lanniel hadn’t been back in ages, and the two looked around with quite happy moods.
Gu Bai and Qiguan Rui walked in front.

Suddenly, Qiguan Rui tugged Gu Bai, and the two of them leapt swiftly behind a large tree!
The next moment, countless arrows shot out from deep within the forest, from countless treetops, “swish swish” like a storm, raining down toward Arthur and Lanniel!

Lanniel was shocked, pushed both hands forward, and quickly began chanting a spell.
Immediately, a huge shield rose in front of them, its green glow firmly protecting them behind it.
Arthur reacted quickly too—his greatsword swung, and fierce battle energy slashed out from the blade, shattering many arrows, reducing the shield’s burden.

Then came wave after wave of arrow rain…
After successive volleys, Lanniel’s shield grew dimmer and dimmer. The magic in his body was clearly being heavily depleted, and being in the Elven Forest, he didn’t dare use overly powerful magic—after all, he was still a nature-loving elf. Worse still, while he could still hold on, Arthur was nearly at his limit. To protect Arthur, the shield consumed even more!

The arrow rain grew denser!
The shield, after continuous assault, could no longer be maintained… with a pu, it flickered out.

Lanniel was horrified: We’re done for! Gonna be turned into hedgehogs!
Arthur: Damn it, I’m a friend, not an enemy, elf bros!

However, just when the two thought they were about to die, Lanniel hugged Arthur and did several fierce rolls, image completely gone… and the arrow rain “swish swish swish swish,” “pu pu pu pu”—all flew past brushing their clothes, their hair, their skin.

The arrows pierced the dirt, surrounding them.

Arthur wiped off cold sweat.
So glad we didn’t get neng to death…

Then the two looked up—at some point, at least dozens of elves were already standing on the branches up ahead! No wonder that arrow rain had been so intense!

The elf girl in front lightly jumped down, half-knelt on the ground: “Welcome back, Your Majesty! Welcome back, Your Highness!”

The other elves also half-knelt in the treetops: “Welcome back, Your Majesty! Welcome back, Your Highness!”

They knelt beneath a certain great tree.
There, Gu Bai and Qiguan Rui—who had fully restored their elven appearances—stood side by side.

Gu Bai nodded faintly.
Qiguan Rui smiled gently: “You did well.”

The elf girl quickly rose, walked over to Lanniel and Arthur, smiled softly like a glacier melting, extremely beautiful: “We used the grandest ceremony to welcome our guest from afar and our returned kin. Please come with us into the clan!”

Arthur: “……”
So that arrow barrage earlier… was the welcoming ceremony?
This was way too unique, okay!

Lanniel was even more confused!
Was it that his way of returning to the Elven Forest was wrong?! That arrow rain was actually to welcome them? Long ago that was only used to annihilate enemies!
When warning invaders back then, they’d just shoot an arrow at their feet! Now they’d nearly turned them into sieves, and dared call it a welcome!?

Lanniel looked up and saw his still-as-beautiful-as-before fellow elves.
Their smiles were still pure, and from his understanding of his people, he was totally sure—they really meant it! They sincerely believed that nearly shooting him to death with arrow rain was a warm welcome!

Just who the hell implanted that idea!
Also… can someone tell him whether this meant elven intelligence had finally activated, or had actually grown crooked into some other bizarre direction?!

This was just too miserable.
He only came back to impress his crush a little, that’s all…