Little Pink Starfish

After the carriage came to a stop, Hua Rongyue was about to get off. She and Jiang Lianhuan were heading to different places, so she simply and decisively alighted first.

“You’re going out dressed like that?” Jiang Lianhuan poked his head out of the carriage and asked.

“What’s so strange about me going out like this?” Hua Rongyue replied.

Jiang Lianhuan’s expression suddenly turned odd, as if he had a strong urge to criticize her. He glanced over her outfit: today she wore a high-quality silk robe in grayish-blue, a black belt cinched at the waist, and a simple dark-colored hairband with silver embroidery holding her hair up.

Handsome as jade, elegant as a tree in the wind.

Yes, that was Hua Rongyue’s typical fashion style.

Yet Jiang Lianhuan suddenly found it hard to look at her straight.

“Are you going to a banquet or to kill someone?” The elder in the carriage grew anxious after hearing Hua Rongyue’s response. “Put this on before you go.”

He tossed down a bundle from the carriage. Hua Rongyue caught it and watched as the carriage rolled away. Opening the bundle, she found a plain black robe inside.

Very ordinary, very common, simple and casual—matching the usual unrestrained style of those who roam the martial world.

But Hua Rongyue had never worn such things.

Even when she was in Yi Lou, she always dressed herself neatly, as if she were not a killer at all.

The bundle also included a small silver ring and a mask that covered half the face. The ring was meant to be worn to prove her identity.

Hua Rongyue slid the ring onto her left pinky and stood there alone, watching the departing carriage. She tossed the robe aside and silently picked up the mask.

Jiang Lianhuan and the elder continued on in the carriage without speaking. It slowly pulled up to a residence, where Jiang Lianhuan got off with a warm smile already on his face.

“Lianhuan, you’re here!” The residence was filled with people. Someone greeted him with enthusiasm. Whether or not Jiang Lianhuan knew them didn’t matter—he could chat and joke with anyone.

Hua Rongyue recognized most of the people here, though perhaps she hadn’t yet reached the rank in the Six Doors where she should be familiar with them.

Jiang Lianhuan hadn’t told Hua Rongyue what exactly he was coming here for. Today, in a rare moment of calm, he quietly found a corner to sit and sip tea.

The atmosphere inside was unusual. The elder who came with Jiang Lianhuan wasn’t anyone particularly important here.

Behind a screen at the far end of the room sat two people. Everyone else sat outside, leaving a respectful distance between themselves and the pair.

One of the two was the same interviewer Hua Rongyue had met during her “interview.” The other person sitting with him had his face hidden as well.

“I heard you chose the candidate for Yi Linglong?”

“I did,” said the interviewer.

The man opposite chuckled, “I heard… this person is rather quiet?”

“Quiet” was absolutely the wrong word for Yi Linglong. Everyone in the room was clever and could read between the lines—they sensed the implication immediately.

“I just found them pleasing to the eye, so I kept them,” said the interviewer, tone unreadable.

“You’ve always acted on your own,” the other man said. “There are many people here today. If your choice causes a scandal… that won’t be easy to clean up.”

The person behind the curtain didn’t speak, only chuckled softly. As the two conversed, silence fell over the entire room.

Jiang Lianhuan thought, What’s with these two? Their words clearly clash—maybe there’s some personal grudge, and they’re using Hua Rongyue as a pawn.

Looks like… today won’t be easy for Hua Rongyue.

He looked down at the floor, feeling a bit annoyed. When I agreed to come, no one said anything about it being this messy.

Hua Rongyue, on the other hand, had no idea what was happening on Jiang Lianhuan’s side. She was inspecting the mask in her hand—it felt solid and heavy, silver, with a fine texture. She found it fascinating. After all, she’d seen things like this in costume dramas before, but now she got to try one on herself.

Six Doors wanted the world to believe Yi Linglong was still alive. So they needed Hua Rongyue to do one thing—

Retrieve a lantern.

What was so special about a lantern? Its significance lay in its origin.

—Yi Lou’s kill order on Yi Linglong had attracted many opportunists. Rumors spread that Yi Linglong was in Jiangnan, and someone had hung a small lantern—just palm-sized, a glazed lotus lantern—on the most famous restaurant in Jiangnan, the Eighth Floor.

The master of Yi Lou said, If Yi Linglong is still alive and breathing, then come take down that lantern within three days.

—If they didn’t come, the world would assume they were dead.

By now, everyone in Jiangnan had heard. Not long after, even Doctor Qi caught wind of it.

So today—

Six Doors might send a fake Yi Linglong to retrieve the lantern. Or they might send no one and wait for the three-day limit to pass and announce the death.

If it had been the old Hua Rongyue who time-traveled here, she would’ve said: Then I just won’t go.

But after nine months in this chaotic world, she had found a sense of belonging. And once you have that, you realize—it’s not as simple as going or not going.

Reputation is one of the foundations for survival in the martial world. For some, it is life itself.

Hua Rongyue had asked herself before: If it weren’t for Six Doors, would I still go today?

If Yi Linglong didn’t show up, then even if they were alive, in the eyes of the martial world—they would be dead.

Yi Linglong had spent most of their time in the martial world shrouded in shadows and hardship, living through endless days of danger and blade.

Yet what made the martial world enchanting was that amid all the blood and strife, legends were born—stories passed down for generations, people remembered on rainy nights.

Hua Rongyue had been dropped off far from the restaurant and had to walk a good distance. She didn’t wear the mask. After using light-footwork to speed along, she finally reached a bustling street.

There, the tallest building had a plaque reading “Drunken Residence Pavilion.” From its eaves hung a curved roof corner, and beneath that—the glazed lotus lantern.

The person who hung it probably worried people might miss it, so they tied a red string beside it.

It was especially eye-catching. In a world without skyscrapers, this lantern stood as the clearest landmark.

Any place connected to the martial world carried a certain flair. Hua Rongyue tilted her head to gaze at the lantern. Her action wasn’t odd—everyone else on the street was doing the same.

The whole street was packed—crowds of all kinds, densely packed.

This was the charm of a wuxia world—it had a unique and vivid energy. In another world, a duel between masters might not take place in the Forbidden City, but here? Totally believable.

Passion and vengeance, swords and rivers—this was what made wuxia thrilling. Just like the inns and restaurants frequented by martial artists.

The “Drunken Residence Pavilion,” being the best restaurant in Jiangnan, hung the lantern openly and even used it to draw in customers.

All the nearby inns and restaurants were full of people… everyone was craning their necks to look at the lantern, then ducking back inside.

The show hadn’t started, but the audience had already blocked the streets.

—This was basically… the ancient version of the World Cup.

That thought popped into Hua Rongyue’s head, somewhat hilariously.

Families turned out together, friends gathered—it was a historic event and a good excuse for an outing. Something to brag about later.

Whether Yi Linglong came or not, this moment would become legend.

Jiang Lianhuan opened a window in a nearby restaurant to look for Hua Rongyue’s figure. But the crowd was too dense—he couldn’t spot her at all and gave up.

“Did you give it to her?” came a quiet voice from behind a curtain—the elder who had traveled with Jiang Lianhuan finally lost his patience and asked.

“I did,” the elder nodded.

Only then did Jiang Lianhuan realize that the robe and mask had been prepared by this higher-up.

He thought Hua Rongyue was too rigid—just like her usual outfits, not at all like him. Though Jiang Lianhuan also dressed sharply, he always wore a red jade earring to stand out.

He hated playing by the rules. Even if he had to disguise himself, he needed to add a unique flair. But Hua Rongyue wasn’t like that. She was almost “obedient”—doing exactly what she was told.

But imagining her in that black robe… Jiang Lianhuan found it hard to picture. It just didn’t feel right.

He often joked with Doctor Qi that Hua Rongyue looked nothing like a junior assassin—but now that the time had come to change her outfit, he couldn’t imagine her in anything else.

Hua Rongyue still wore the same outfit she had chosen before coming here. The folks at Six Doors didn’t know—that outfit had been carefully picked out by Hua Rongyue herself.

If she’d changed into something that looked ordinary to other martial artists… Yi Lou might have seen through her instantly. Because all the higher-ups there knew—Yi Linglong was someone obsessed with appearances.

They always appeared before others in the most elegant way possible.

Yi Linglong would never allow anyone to see them in a disheveled state.

Hua Rongyue looked up at the lantern once more—and quietly stepped into the Drunken Residence Pavilion.