Little Pink Starfish

“Boss… what are you doing?” Tang Shi looked at Yuan Yuanyuan standing there in silence and finally asked.

“Mm… pretending to be cool,” Yuan Yuanyuan replied, holding a long tobacco pipe that was slowly releasing wisps of white smoke. The smoke came in broken puffs, looking like it hadn’t been properly lit at all.

“Where’d you get that thing? Looks expensive. Did you steal it off someone?” Tang Shi walked over and touched the pipe in Yuan Yuanyuan’s hand.

“What kind of image do you have of me in your head? Go on, shoo, get lost. I need to figure out how this thing is supposed to be lit.” Yuan Yuanyuan waved her little fan at the pipe, trying to help it ignite, hoping it would suddenly flare up.

She’d been clicking her lighter for ages with no success. The crushed demon pearl powder refused to catch, and Yuan Yuanyuan was totally out of ideas. The powder just sat there glowing faintly red, like dying embers—close to burning, but never quite catching.

Still, Yuan Yuanyuan wasn’t one to give up easily. She kept clicking the lighter until it was too hot to hold and finally gave up with a sigh, putting it down in frustration.

Damn it, she’d spent all night yesterday grinding this stuff, and now it wouldn’t even burn. It was beyond frustrating. Yuan Yuanyuan was absolutely fed up.

She looked at the pipe, now basically just a fancy useless chimney, then turned to leave. She planned to sneak over to the tavern that evening and watch someone else light demon pearl powder, hoping to figure out the trick.

Liu An was wearing a black cotton coat—a new one Yuan Yuanyuan had found for him. His old coat was currently hanging outside, drying on a rack.

Tang Shi and Qiu Ling had exams these days, so they stayed at Yuan Yuanyuan’s house for lunch. Liu An made meals for four all by himself and still went out to work at night, sleeping only six hours a day. Sometimes Yuan Yuanyuan watched him and thought he looked completely exhausted. She’d once offered to give him a raise, but he’d turned her down.

Demon students had to take two exams: one with human students, and another separately. In the nursery district, most schools had a few demon teachers. On the surface, they were regular subject teachers—math, English, Chinese—but in reality, they taught a lot of other stuff.

Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t ask Tang Shi how her tests were going. In her eyes, Tang Shi had zero academic talent. She’d pretty much given up on her.

But Tang Shi did have talent in direct combat-style demon techniques. The other day, Yuan Yuanyuan had idly taught her a fire technique split from the Blood Jade Demon Technique. She thought it would take Tang Shi ages to learn, but Tang Shi just looked at it once and mastered it in a single evening.

Yuan Yuanyuan was shocked. The technique still contained traces of the Blood Jade’s sinister core, even though she’d removed the parts requiring human blood. Honestly, she hadn’t expected Tang Shi to grasp it.

Still, Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t teach her anything else. That one time was just on a whim. Teaching too much of this stuff could lead to trouble—especially since the spell’s cultivation method was inherently… shady.

She put on her coat and prepared to go out for a walk. The nursery district had been calm for a while after the disappearance of that blue barrier, but lately things were getting weird again. More demons were sneaking in.

Yuan Yuanyuan had never quite understood the pattern, but the influx of outsiders seemed to follow a strange and unpredictable curve. Mask on, she stepped out from her home and started her walk around the district.

…

After lunch, Tang Shi packed up and got ready to head to school. Her bag contained her dinner.

This afternoon marked the end of the final two written exams, but that night, she had to take one on trick techniques and other “weird stuff.” She deeply resented the idea of midnight testing, but there was nothing she could do. Demon exams were always like this. Even if she wanted to protest, she didn’t know where to start.

Before leaving, she glanced at the boss—he was also about to go out, putting on his coat. His hair had grown slightly longer, and while he still had his usual lazy slacker aura, he looked a bit more imposing these days.

“If I bomb this exam… will my dad come beat you up?” she asked, a little nervously.

“…Probably not,” the boss said after a pause, lifting his head to look at her.

“…My dad’s actually really powerful. He just has a bad personality. Otherwise, he’d have become a great demon by now. If he comes and hits you, you might not win. I’ll text you if my score sucks, and you…” she trailed off.

“Well, that’ll be a problem,” the boss replied casually, like it was a joke, then turned and walked out.

Tang Shi stared at his retreating back.

What kind of attitude is that? Are you teasing a kid?!

She entered the testing room and immediately saw some familiar faces. Seats were reshuffled each time, but somehow it always ended up being the same few people.

Tang Shi sat down next to a classic overachiever. This guy always scored sky-high. She knew he came from a wealthy family with multiple private tutors. No one else could compare.

And it wasn’t just him. Everyone in this exam room came from families with powerful inherited demon techniques.

Their school had a few hundred demon students, divided behind the scenes into four tiers. Tang Shi belonged to the top tier—but was also the absolute weakest in it. Only ten students were in her tier.

Don’t ask how the rankings were done. Human schools used test scores. Demon schools ranked by bloodline and family background.

In short, demons had been “power ranking” since childhood—by bloodline, by talent, by inherited spells. And the sad part? It worked. Those from better families really did go farther.

Tang Shi sighed and picked up her test. She couldn’t help worrying that if she failed, her dad might go cause trouble for the boss. As lazy as he was, she didn’t want anything bad to happen to him.

“After you’ve completed your papers, bring them to the front. Don’t leave right away—everyone report to the field at 6:00 PM.”

“What are you doing? Focus!” Her supervising teacher knocked on her desk.

Tang Shi looked up. It was her favorite teacher—the one with a nasty temper but a rare sense of fairness. He never treated students differently based on their background.

Most teachers liked “good kids” and hated poor performers. But Tang Shi? She was both a bad student and the least privileged demon in a class full of rich kids.

Screw it… just write.

She lowered her head and began quietly working through her test.

…

“Holy crap, what’s that?!”

Yuan Yuanyuan stood stunned, staring behind her. She’d only been walking in the nursery district for a short time when a strong smell of blood hit her nose.

Following her usual instincts, she headed toward the source. A strong scent of blood in the nursery district was a serious issue. To her, all kids—human or demon—deserved to be protected.

So full of righteousness (and trembling nerves), Yuan Yuanyuan crept toward the scene, murmuring internally:

“You can do this, Yuanyuan! You’re amazing!”

Every time she ran into stuff like this, she was nervous as hell—but she’d pep talk herself into acting brave.

She peeked cautiously from behind a wall, trying to assess the enemy situation before charging in. If she could fight, she would. If not, she’d run.

But what she saw next was completely beyond her imagination.

She had never expected to witness something so melodramatic—so absurd—it nearly blinded her.

As someone who’d lived for years as a half-demon, Yuan Yuanyuan had never thought that a cheesy romance subplot would come to life right before her eyes.

A group was clearly chasing two people—a man and a woman—who were running ahead, hand in hand.

But that wasn’t the shocking part.

Yuan Yuanyuan rubbed her eyes several times, stunned.

A demon girl and a human boy.

The human guy was clearly struggling to keep up, panting heavily. The demon girl tugged him along, trying to keep him moving, but she herself was also breathing hard.

She wore only a plain white outfit, barefoot, hair loosely tied up. It wasn’t clear where she had come from.

From behind, Yuan Yuanyuan could hear shouts:

“Miss! Come back!”

“Stop!”

Judging from those calls, Yuan Yuanyuan pieced it together. It was… a noble demon girl being abducted by a poor human boy?

This plot… could be a whole romance novel.

Incredible. Seriously.

But just as she was mentally chuckling at how over-the-top the situation was, something horrifying happened.

A flash of spell light streaked past her—so fast she couldn’t even react.

It was like the Avada Kedavra curse.

The man collapsed like a dead leaf.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

…

“What the actual f?!”*

Yuan Yuanyuan had thought maybe—just maybe—those two would find a way out. Maybe they’d be dragged back. Maybe they’d escape. Maybe they’d flutter off like two butterflies into the “freedom” of the outside world.

She never thought it would end… like this.

She stood frozen, trembling.

The smell of blood thickened. The demon girl stopped, her face pale, feet bleeding. She stared at the group chasing her with eyes sharp as knives.

Yuan Yuanyuan realized—she had never once paid attention to that girl’s eyes.

The girl looked at them and spoke with a hoarse voice:

“Are you satisfied now?”

Her tone was icy—just like her gaze. No emotion at all.

…

Wait…

Yuan Yuanyuan frowned. Something about this didn’t add up.

Shouldn’t the girl be devastated? Heartbroken?

Something about her reaction was off.

The group behind her stepped forward and tried to pull her away. But when someone reached out to grab her, she slapped the hand away.

“Don’t touch me,” the girl said coldly, fending them off. “Touch me again, and I’ll kill myself.”