Little Pink Starfish

The moonlit setting was full of poetic atmosphere. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been so many people throughout the ages choosing to compose poetry or paint beneath the moon.

So this time, Ji Qiu chose this scene to paint: the moon practically filled the entire sky, and beneath it were two tiny figures sitting on a rooftop, looking up at the moon above them.

Tonight was a full moon.

[One of them held a small wine flask, with just under half filled with wine.]

[He raised the flask, not using a cup, just brought the spout to his lips and took a deep drink.]

[Below the roof, lights blazed and crowds swarmed, but on the rooftop, there were only two people.]

…

“Ugh, where’s my phone?” Yuan Yuanyuan searched around the room. She circled once, unable to find where she had tossed that broken phone of hers.

“Boss, why don’t you use mine first?” Tang Shi, beside her, held up her phone and waved it.

Since Yuan Yuanyuan couldn’t find her phone, she scratched her head and took Tang Shi’s phone to have a look. She had been searching for nearly half an hour—by now, Tang Shi had already finished reading the update.

She tapped it open and looked at today’s update. At this point, many readers had already read it, and the number of comments had shot into four digits.

Before even opening the chapter, she suddenly noticed a newly posted comment at the top. Her attention was drawn immediately, and she took a closer look.

The comment was posted by a user with the ID “Shuise Shamo” (Water-Colored Desert).

They had written a long string of words. Judging by their level, they seemed to be a long-time loyal reader of Demon Chronicles.

Yuan Yuanyuan glanced at it and read the passage aloud.

[If one day you open your eyes and suddenly find yourself living in a strange world, what would you do?]

[In that world, you are still you—but not quite. Your world is still your world—but no longer really your world.]

[You find many people appearing around you, people you used to dream of meeting. Yet you start to feel fear toward this world. What would you do then?]

It read like one of those filler-style, word-count-padding rants, but Yuan Yuanyuan knew it wasn’t. As soon as she refreshed the page, the comment was suddenly deleted—it hadn’t stayed up for long at all.

Yuan Yuanyuan sighed. She thought the person who posted that comment was probably terrified now. Otherwise, why post something like that in the Demon Chronicles comment section?

…They’d probably get freaked out again once they realized the comment got deleted in less than a second.

Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t think too hard about the stranger’s affairs, though the whole thing was kind of interesting to ponder.

Maybe, at this moment, the person on the other side of the computer felt like they were being pulled into an invisible abyss… Maybe with enough experience, they could even write a dark fantasy epic out of it.

But in reality, things were often a lot simpler… wasn’t it just a madman hiring a few actors to put on a show?

Yuan Yuanyuan let it go and opened the comic to check the latest content.

The moment she opened it, a strange smile spread across her face.

Moonlit night. Blossoms before the moon. Warm wine and a small stove.

She looked at the two figures in the comic, sitting quietly under the moonlight drinking together, and thought—

This CP… damn, it’s rock solid.

…

[Ahhhhhhhhhhhh WTF!! Don’t break up my CP ahhhhh I just started shipping Yuan x Fa! Dammit they keep feeding us sugar every day!!]

[…Guys, you do remember this is supposed to be a shonen action comic, right?]

[Yes, we remember. But Ji Qiu obviously now fully grasps the three core essences of shonen manga—hot-blooded action, more action, and… gay undertones.]

[…]

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at the red-clad boss in the comic. With her many years of comic-reading experience, she could tell this character was clearly a uke—and an older uke at that.

She wasn’t even sure why she thought so. It’s all in the face, really. Fa Ning’s face was way too righteous—it didn’t suit a uke vibe at all. But switch it around, and as a seme, he totally fit the public’s ideal.

The red-robed man sat on the rooftop, his gaze dreamy. He raised the wine flask again and took another sip.

Suddenly, he turned and asked, “You seem to really like demon techniques?”

Fa Ning, sitting beside him, tensed slightly—barely noticeable—but quickly returned to calm.

[He knew this master was actually a demon, and a very powerful one. But because his aura concealment was so strong, no one had suspected his true identity.]

At that point, Yuan Yuanyuan suddenly let out an “Ah-leh?”

Wait wait wait…

He’s a demon?!

Yuan Yuanyuan leapt up from her chair. Tang Shi, munching sunflower seeds nearby, looked bewildered. “Boss?”

“Don’t get too excited. Go run a couple laps to cool off,” Yuan Yuanyuan said calmly.

Tang Shi did just that. After finishing her laps, she silently returned to her seat and resumed working on her homework.

What the hell?! This plot… is… is this—?!

Going by the usual tropes, this character—no, this demon—would definitely teach Fa Ning a couple techniques. But because of their natural enmity, the two would inevitably become estranged.

Classic tragic romance! This totally hit all of Yuan Yuanyuan’s favorite tropes!

She tried desperately to calm herself. Thank goodness she ran a couple laps just now—otherwise, she felt like she might’ve exploded on the spot.

She kept reminding herself that this demon master was probably a real person in the real world and might have an even more tragic backstory than hers. But that didn’t stop her heart from bubbling over with fujoshi excitement. Because shipping… is like hunger or that other thing—it can’t be stopped.

So about three seconds later, Yuan Yuanyuan realized that reminding herself this was based on a real person wasn’t calming her down at all—in fact, it made her more excited…

Damn! It’s a real-life person! A real-life person!!

“Boss, do you know you’re acting super weird today?” Tang Shi looked at her boss with a face full of disdain.

“I mean, don’t you think the guy in red in today’s comic looks especially hot?” Yuan Yuanyuan leaned over, showing her the screen.

“He’s pretty hot, yeah. Then again, anyone looks hotter than you,” Tang Shi said.

Yuan Yuanyuan ignored the jab, happily cradling the phone again. Ever since she showed up in the comic, she’d regained her passion for Demon Chronicles.

This probably wasn’t something Ji Qiu had done on purpose… That guy always claimed to be straight. But if what he drew was this shippy, maybe he wasn’t so straight after all…

She kept reading. After asking Fa Ning if he liked demon techniques, the red-clad master suddenly turned his head to look at the bright full moon.

[“You like demon techniques?” he asked. “Then I’ll teach you.”]

[In that moment, even the wind seemed to still, yet the courtyard’s cluster of red spider lilies continued swaying quietly.]

[Fa Ning suddenly froze, sneaking a glance at the red-robed man beside him.]

[Just for a moment, he thought about drawing his Taoist sword—worried the red-robed master might have some hidden agenda.]

[But the next second, the red-clad man gently placed his wine flask on the rooftop.]

[In that moment, Fa Ning saw the red-clad master vanish into thin air—the rooftop was now empty.]

Yuan Yuanyuan’s eyes widened at the screen. She recognized it—that guy in red had just used a demon technique.

She knew that move—it was Ghost Step.

It was hard to recognize Ghost Step just from illustrations, but for Yuan Yuanyuan, it was doable.

Some less-experienced demons or humans probably couldn’t tell, since this wasn’t like other anime where you shout “Rasengan!” before using a special move. You had to catch the clues from details.

Yuan Yuanyuan figured there weren’t many demons who could recognize it either, because the red-robed man’s Ghost Step was especially elegant. It barely even looked like Ghost Step.

Ghost Step included a technique called Phantom Waltz—known for being visually distinct since it resembled dancing. But this guy in red had turned all of Ghost Step into a waltz-like performance.

[Under the clear moonlight, a red silhouette darted back and forth, leaving afterimages in the air, too fast to follow.]

[Fa Ning’s eyes were wide, fixed on the red-clad master as he unleashed a string of demon techniques—afraid to miss a single detail.]

[The red spider lilies swayed in the courtyard. As the red figure flitted overhead, the flowers continued moving at the same rhythm, as if they hadn’t noticed anyone pass by.]

[While the flowers still swayed, the red-clad man was already back on the rooftop. He picked up the wine flask he had just set down.]

[He raised the flask, leaned halfway against the slanted rooftop, and took another sip—like he had never moved at all.]

[Fa Ning felt dumbfounded. He stared blankly at the red-clad man beside him, suddenly feeling like he had just missed something important.]

Damn… this guy in red is ridiculously hot. Yuan Yuanyuan stared at the screen, still savoring the last few frames.

There was no way to explain that kind of vibe, but that man in red definitely hit all her weak spots.

Especially that pose—drinking under the moon with the wine flask—it looked way too good.

…

“Hoo…” Liu An breathed a sigh of relief after reading the new chapter.

Ji Qiu really was something—managing to blend two events into one storyline. In a way, it was a pretty clever move.

Though back then, what the boss taught him wasn’t Ghost Step—it was Illusion. Ghost Step was what the boss had used to teach that little girl, and Liu An had secretly learned it by watching from behind.

He was very good at secretly learning things. Back when he was on the mountain, he only needed to see something once to figure it out on his own—and no one ever knew.

The comic wasn’t done yet—there was still a little more.

[“You… don’t seem in a good mood today,” Fa Ning tried to say as tactfully as possible to the red-clad master.]

[He recalled that after some visitors came that afternoon, the man had been quietly drinking alone for a long time.]

[“Heh, don’t worry about him. Just some strangers,” the man in red replied.]

Liu An read the comic. Back then, the boss’s actual words had been: “Don’t worry. Just a random rich guy I don’t know.”

Liu An remembered being speechless for quite a while after hearing that.

Damn, where do you find rich people like that? I’d love to know a few.

[“By the way… your demon technique looks really cool,” Fa Ning said.]

[The red-clad man turned to glance at him.]

[That glance held a mix of complicated emotions.]

[He suddenly spoke, saying—]

…

“As long as I’m here, no one will ever surpass me in this.”

“Because I’ve never lost—not even once.”

…

Liu An paused.

Huh? When did the boss ever say that?

Meanwhile, Yuan Yuanyuan, staring at her phone, also froze.

Why… does that line sound so familiar?

As she was thinking, a loud noise suddenly erupted by the window.

Startled, she looked up—just in time to see her window glass shatter.

A group of black-clad men stormed in through the door.