Little Pink Starfish

“Did you see what just happened in the house?” Lin Gubone asked.

“Not clearly,” the woman in white replied. “Just now the whole house seemed to fog up.”

“Fog?” Lin Gubone said. “I don’t think it’s real fog… probably some kind of illusion spell. They don’t want anyone outside seeing what’s going on inside.”

“I’m not that curious,” the woman in white snorted. Lin Gubone, on the other hand, was buzzing with interest. “What do you think the two of them are talking about in there?”

“You’ll die fast, talking nonsense like that. Didn’t your elders ever tell you not to poke into stuff that’s none of your business?” the woman said. “Anyway, the timing of the Li family’s head showing up is just wrong. This kind of thing should be handled in private.”

“Yeah,” Lin Gubone agreed. “Honestly, anyone coming to see Yuan right now is up to no good. If the Li family head’s here, it must be something serious.”

“What kind of grudge do they have anyway?” the woman asked, shaking her head. “Two old monsters—if they fight, it’ll be a nightmare. Can’t they just sit down and talk?”

“Depends what kind of grudge it is,” Lin Gubone said. “I thought their feud wasn’t too deep…”

“But now it seems it’s pretty serious.”

—

Inside the house, everything looked hazy and dreamlike. Yuan Yuanyuan had no idea how it happened. She had only taken a single puff, and suddenly the entire room was like this.

It should have been strange, but for some reason, she didn’t find it out of place at all. In fact, it felt fitting for the mood.

In the smoky room, everything felt like a dream—half real, half illusion.

“Maybe you think what I did was wrong. But under those circumstances, what exactly did I do wrong?” the man across from her said slowly.

Yuan Yuanyuan looked up at him.

“Compared to what I remember, there’s something… unpleasant about your expression now,” his voice grew slower.

He had beautiful hands—even more so than Si Qun’s, in her memory.

His index finger began to curl slightly, his knuckles making a soft popping sound.

“So this is what you mean… by me having changed a lot?” Yuan Yuanyuan asked.

“You used to say the expressions on my face were fake—insincere, terribly artificial. You said that when I wanted to kill someone, my face looked nice but my eyes didn’t,” the man said. “But now, the two of us… we look exactly the same.”

His face now carried a thick layer of irony. Just earlier, he had the warmth of an old man, but now, in his young form, that warmth came off more like a glowing charm.

Yuan Yuanyuan slouched lazily in the chair, limp as if boneless. She heard what he said, picked up her smoking pipe, and took another drag.

“So… becoming the kind of person you once hated—how does that feel?” The man’s smile never faded. “I remember telling you that your face looked like a fox’s. If you wore sincerity, it was fine. But the moment you bore hatred or hypocrisy… your expression became cutting beyond belief.”

“And now, your face looks just like that—cutting.”

As he said this, his eyes bore into her. There was something in his gaze that made her deeply uncomfortable.

Mocking. Or maybe worse.

It was like he was laughing at her.

The room’s atmosphere froze for a second—then it was like nothing had happened at all.

Yuan Yuanyuan exhaled slowly, letting the smoke mix into the air.

She also breathed out the bitterness bottled up in her chest.

—

How cutting do I look right now?

—

Yuan Yuanyuan knew her expression must be terrible… even if she was smiling.

No normal person smiled like that. Even without a mirror, she could tell her grin was twisted and strangely beautiful.

She felt the corners of her mouth had stretched too far. But this was the only kind of smile that matched how she felt.

A smile like a dagger—feminine, sinister, fake.

She hated putting on masks because she had already endured too many herself.

So she always tried to face the world with something real. Even if sometimes, “real” needed quotation marks. Even if it made her uncomfortable.

But now, when she realized she couldn’t even suppress this terrifying smile, a sudden loathing welled up inside.

No matter why someone wears a mask… it always carries a kind of original sin.

Motives always morph into excuses.

The strangest part? That hatred always eats at the person feeling it—not the one it’s directed toward.

Isn’t that weird?

Yuan Yuanyuan had too many thoughts in her head… but her face still held that same expression.

Unchanging. Like a mask.

“Were you waiting for me this whole time?” the man asked. “You kept staring at the door when I walked in, like you weren’t even surprised. Sorry I’m late. I didn’t want to come, but it seems I had no choice.”

Yuan Yuanyuan casually added some more demon bead powder into the pipe. The little wooden box sat right beside her hand. “You came alone? What about your esteemed wife?”

“She’s at home. Not in great health. Do you want to see her?”

Yuan Yuanyuan’s smile suddenly grew sweeter, like hearing news of a long-lost lover.

Her voice was soft, dreamy. “How could I dare… I’d be afraid to scare her with my brashness.”

The man chuckled and shook his head, then glanced toward the staircase.

Suddenly, a cold voice rang out.

“What are you looking for?”

The atmosphere froze again. The man turned back. The woman sitting in the chair—her smile had vanished without a trace.

She was staring at him.

At some point, her head had tilted downward slightly, so now she was glaring upward at him from beneath.

That angle… gave off a strange viciousness.

Like a venomous snake lurking in a gutter—its eyes rolled back, pupils narrowed, locked on its prey.

…

The man paused, slowly pulling his gaze back.

Across from him, Yuan Yuanyuan slowly lifted her head. The smile reappeared.

The air in the room shifted again—tenser than before, heavy with an unspoken weight.

Yuan Yuanyuan had just flipped in mood, yet now she was smiling again.

No transition. No warning.

Like someone unhinged.

She had been smiling earlier. Now she still was. But to anyone who saw the change—it would be bone-chilling.

The man’s eyes sharpened. “So… is it true?”

What thing?

That’s what Yuan Yuanyuan should have asked.

But instead, she raised her head and looked straight at him. “So it’s already reached your ears?”

The man’s smile finally faded.

He let out his first sigh since entering.

“What’s your plan next?”

“I don’t know,” Yuan Yuanyuan said, watching the smoke swirl above. Her tone was relaxed. “Why don’t you take a guess?”

“You weren’t like this before,” he said. “Even if you somehow survived with some trick… I never imagined you’d turn into this.”

“What did I turn into?” Yuan Yuanyuan asked. “Someone like you? Doesn’t that make you happy?”

“I’m disappointed in you,” he said. “I’ve seen many people change, but I didn’t think you would. Even though I’ve always disliked you, I never thought you’d change. So now… I can’t shake the disappointment.”

“Disappointed?” Yuan Yuanyuan scoffed. “Do you think you deserve to use that word with me?”

“Then why did you come back?”

“I didn’t want to. They cried and begged me to,” Yuan Yuanyuan squinted slightly, exhaling smoke. Her tone was mocking. She turned and stared at him with the exact same expression he’d just used on her. “Don’t you know that?”

“What a good little brother,” the man suddenly sneered.

“What did you just say? Say that again.” Yuan Yuanyuan slammed her pipe on the table.

Her eyes were bloodshot.

Why could he say that… so casually?

She was furious! She was raging!

Even over someone she’d never met in person—she was livid!

And yet this man… dared to say that in that tone?

“Watch your words.” The man’s fingers tensed with a cracking sound. “Stray dog. Are you leaving C City or not?”

“No.”

“I’ll ask again. Leaving or not?”

“Not leaving!”

The man suddenly rose to his feet. Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t even see how he moved—all she felt was a jolt in her head, and blood bursting from her mouth.

A sharp ringing echoed in her ears. The smoke in the room began to slowly swirl.

“You dare threaten me?” Yuan Yuanyuan raised her head. Her eyes burned.

Her reaction clearly caught him off guard—he froze again.

Even Yuan Yuanyuan herself didn’t know where her strength came from. She suddenly pulled out her dagger.

In that instant—the mist in the room turned blood red.

Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t know what she was doing anymore. She looked at the man—his face so like Si Qun’s—and one thought shot through her mind.

Cut it open!

Cut it open!

She raised the blade—her speed reaching a level she’d never imagined possible.

The man sensed it just in time and dodged back.

But the blade still slashed across his left cheek—from the corner of his eye to the edge of his ear.

Yuan Yuanyuan had never felt so satisfied seeing blood… It thrilled her to the point every cell in her body trembled.

In that moment… she felt like she had become a shadow. A dark, unstoppable shadow.

No one could stop her!

No one could resist her!

Time stood still for a heartbeat—or maybe it raced forward by a lifetime.

A flash of silver. Blade drawn, man struck.

—

Yuan Yuanyuan appeared behind the man. At some point, the room’s blood-red hue had deepened to the extreme.

The man’s hair… had turned completely white.

“I have a message for you. Might sound harsh,” Yuan Yuanyuan said, looking at the blood on her blade.

She glanced at the moon outside. Through the haze, it looked stained with red.

“But I’ll say it anyway…”

“Try being human.”

—

Outside, Lin Gubone and the woman in white were practically glued to the window, sneaking peeks through something like a kaleidoscope.

“Can you see what they’re doing?” Lin Gubone asked.

“Nope… Why don’t you look?”

“I can’t see, damn it. What the hell? Why’d it suddenly turn red?” Lin Gubone stared at the blood-red window.

“Did they start fighting?” the woman said suddenly.

“You know… maybe.” Lin Gubone blinked. “Come on, it’s just in-laws. Do they really have to go this far? Should we tell the City Lord or the Li family?”

“Tell the City Lord,” the woman said. “And the Li family too. If someone dies in our territory, it’ll be a mess.”

“Good call,” Lin Gubone nodded. “Smart thinking.”

Actually… beneath this black sky… there was another black sky.

So seamless that no one had noticed it.

That second “black sky” had been squatting here for hours, hiding in the shadows.

Liu An looked at the red glow inside the house, then up at the few people talking above.

He thought to himself… What’s going on with the boss? And what the hell is this Li family anyway?