Little Pink Starfish

Two cups of tea sat on the table. Yuan Yuanyuan sat on the left, Si Qun on the right.

On the surface, Yuan Yuanyuan looked calm and collected—but inside, her mind was already spinning at a hundred miles an hour.

What the hell…? Little match boy Si Qun, what are you doing here?

She stared at Si Qun’s face across from her, racking her brain to figure out why he’d shown up.

First of all, her secret identity absolutely could not be exposed. She was currently wearing a completely different face from usual.

She reminded herself of that repeatedly. Though… yeah, sharing the same space with Si Qun right now did feel pretty weird.

Tang Shi, Qiu Ling, and Liu An were all sitting nearby, sneaking constant glances their way.

Yuan Yuanyuan looked at their beady little eyes and thought to herself, I don’t even know this guy, okay? We’re strangers. So stop staring at me like I just lured some innocent citizen into my shady dungeon.

I’m a good person! Seriously, I am!

Liu An kept glancing sideways at the person sitting beside him.

Holy crap!! Isn’t this guy— that guy?! That guy!!

From the moment Si Qun walked in, Liu An’s inner world had exploded. Though he kept a straight face as usual, so he hadn’t drawn attention.

He hadn’t seen clearly earlier when the guy was still outside, but now that Si Qun had sat down, his face was completely visible.

And Liu An… yeah, his expression was not the same as usual.

He’d already suspected that his boss wasn’t just some ordinary person. But he’d never imagined she was this powerful.

I mean, come on—this guy just casually drops by?! What kind of connections are these?!

Liu An touched his face. He’d fantasized before about clinging to his boss’s leg to get ahead in life, but had given up, figuring he had no chance. And now? This?

Not bad. Pretty damn impressive.

Maybe fainting in front of this shop was fate after all. No wonder the legendary Jiǔ Qiū was said to be so good at manipulating people…

And look at that guy over there. The way he strolls around in a thin shirt in this freezing weather—peak cool guy energy. Definitely not something a regular person could pull off.

As Liu An continued his little internal drama, Yuan Yuanyuan looked at Si Qun across the table. He was staring at his feet, completely silent, head down.

Anyone who didn’t know him would probably fall for the act and think he was some brooding cool guy. Honestly, Si Qun looked kind of convincing like that—his face had that misleading charm.

But still… God forbid he opens his mouth. The second he talks, his face goes red and that shy little bottom vibe hits hard.

“May I ask… why are you here?” Yuan Yuanyuan finally spoke, breaking the silence.

Si Qun’s head snapped up, like he’d been startled. Based on Yuan Yuanyuan’s extensive experience… that was probably fear.

Great. Definitely gotta take the gentle route with this one, she thought miserably.

Si Qun didn’t respond. He just pushed the box in his hands across the table toward her, then went back to sitting silently.

Yuan Yuanyuan took the box and looked at the pretty pastel-pink packaging. Then she glanced up at Si Qun.

Holy crap, how did he carry this here?

Yuan Yuanyuan nearly slipped up and broke character. She gritted her teeth and lifted the box. It was surprisingly heavy. The box itself was beautiful—soft pink, expensive-looking, and oddly fitting for someone like Si Qun.

The packaging was luxurious despite its girlish color, with a rich, weighty feel. On the box was a seal with bold characters: “To Yuan, Personal Delivery.”

So… he really had come because of Yuan.

But there was something Yuan Yuanyuan couldn’t figure out—how the hell did anyone know Yuan was staying in this tiny shop? Aside from high-level folks, who else would even have a clue? And this timid little Si Qun—who sent him to deliver this?

“…Eh? You’re leaving already?” Liu An called out when Si Qun suddenly stood and headed for the door without a word.

No surprise, Si Qun didn’t look back. Yuan Yuanyuan watched his thin white shirt flapping in the cold and sighed. She told Liu An to take off his big coat and give it to him while she found another one.

But once Si Qun decided to leave, no one could stop him. Wearing Liu An’s old army coat, he dashed off down the street and vanished in no time.

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at the box in her hands, then glanced at the three people who were all gawking at her. She grabbed the box and bolted upstairs.

“Hey! Who was that guy just now? How does Boss know someone like that?” the moment she left, the others started buzzing with questions.

Even Liu An, who usually avoided gossip, came over to listen. The girls were already in full fangirl mode.

“That seal on the box—that’s from the Li family! Oh my god.” Tang Shi’s cheeks flushed with excitement.

“The Li family?” Liu An wasn’t unfamiliar with the city, but that name was one even he rarely heard.

“Well duh, they had a body show up near their place a while back… hard to not know them.”

“That was an invitation! Boss actually got a New Year’s gift from the Li family!” Tang Shi was basically losing it. “Why’s she always acting like she’s broke?! That’s the Li family! Just being a servant for them is enough to get filthy rich!”

“So… who was that guy from the Li family?” Liu An asked.

“No idea. We’ll ask Boss later. I only know they have a young lady, an old patriarch, and a matriarch.”

Even normally chill Qiu Ling was bouncing around in excitement. When Liu An asked what was up, Tang Shi said, “She just saw her type—now she’s a mess.”

Upstairs, Yuan Yuanyuan opened the box. The seal peeled off easily. As usual, she grabbed rubber gloves and a long bamboo stick to poke around. It took a while, but she finally got the box open.

Inside, the first thing she saw was a large, delicate pink petal.

It was about the size of her palm, and a strong floral fragrance hit her as soon as the box opened.

She took it out. The petal had golden patterns on it—a magical data recording medium. She set it aside and dug deeper into the box.

…

“Holy crap!”

“AAAAHHHHH—what the hell is this?!”

“What is all this?! What the hell is going on?!”

From the room came Yuan Yuanyuan’s increasingly loud shouts.

Because the contents of the box were… not the kind of thing anyone could look at calmly.

Her head was buzzing. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, despite zero physical activity.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself.

No, no—calm down, Yuan Yuanyuan. Remember how that Fan Jin guy went nuts? Don’t lose it now.

That little box was packed with things that couldn’t even be described properly. Just the weight alone was enough to kill someone. After removing the upper layers of miscellaneous stuff, she discovered—

The bottom was filled with gold bars.

Gold.

Bars.

And honestly, those might’ve been the most normal items in there. Among the rest were rare artifacts she couldn’t even identify—like a flower that was glowing red-hot in her hands, emanating actual warmth.

There were strange pieces of jade, bizarre trinkets she’d never seen before… even a bottle of wine.

In short, the whole thing was like a treasure chest. Absolutely wild.

And yet… the gold bars made everything else seem pointless.

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at one of the bars, holding it up like it was sacred, examining every inch. She could practically feel her soul vibrating.

That’s when she noticed something—engraved on the bar was a tiny symbol.

It looked… familiar.

She racked her brain but couldn’t recall where she’d seen it. She set the bar down and turned her attention to the petal again.

She infused it with a touch of her demon power to activate it and read the message inside.

The text was all in traditional characters. Not hard to read, but definitely took more effort than usual.

She read through the entire message. It was written by an old acquaintance—someone clearly familiar with her, though they addressed her as Yuan. The tone was unmistakably familiar.

Even though she’d just seen a pile of gold, she still had enough reason to calm down and read the message thoroughly.

The writer talked about how things had been in City C lately, recent developments, even asked about Yuan’s health.

After going through all the rambling, Yuan Yuanyuan’s head was spinning.

She still couldn’t figure out what the real goal of the message was—but one sentence stood out:

“Do you hate me that much?”

That word—hate—was interesting.

Very interesting.

Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t get it. Not yet. She tucked the petal back into the box, sealed it up, and shoved the whole thing away.

Cowardly. Cautious. Yeah, she wasn’t touching this anymore. Besides, this thing was probably meant for No. 17 anyway—what did it have to do with her?

…

“Hey, are we ready with everything for the tavern?” Sister Li Zi said while heating up some wine. “Tell them to put everything in the main hall first, we’ll sort it later. Gotta make it look fancy for the New Year.”

“Other places are probably prepping too,” said another demon nearby. “Honestly, none of this really means anything. It’s just for show, for the festive mood.”

“Right? It’s like a tribute from little demons to big demons. Happens once a year. Most little demons won’t be dumb enough to embarrass their patrons… but there’s always one idiot who pisses everyone off and ends up with nothing.”

“Thankfully, our tavern has a good rep among the little guys. We’ve never had a problem showing face.”

“What about you? Doesn’t your family’s little demon bring you offerings? I thought that was tradition everywhere.” the female demon asked. “You seem pretty powerful—must rank high in your household, right?”

“Me?” Sister Li Zi laughed. “I’m not the official heiress or anything. Who’s gonna offer me gifts? Our offerings go by the main family line.”

“Our family’s young lady… no clue what’s going on with her this year.” She smiled again and turned to leave. “Let’s see what kind of drama our clan gives us this year.”