Little Pink Starfish

Yuan Yuanyuan stared blankly at the piece of human skin in her hand for a long time.

She touched the area on her chest where the skin had peeled off. Strangely, it didn’t hurt much—just a slight pain, and more of a numb, itchy feeling.

After peeling off that patch of skin, Yuan Yuanyuan scratched herself again. The itchiness grew stronger, making her want to scratch the newly exposed area even more.

The sensation was really unbearable, much like the feeling of a healing wound. Luckily, Yuan Yuanyuan had some self-control and didn’t scratch further, though her expression looked pretty terrible.

She glared at the piece of skin in her hand for a long time. This wasn’t the kind of thin skin that peels off in summer from sunburn.

This skin was thick—on the back side, you could even see traces of blood and flesh, though not much.

In other words, this wasn’t just superficial damage; it was a whole piece of human skin peeling off. If it were any bigger, you could probably make it into a boot.

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at the piece for a while, then quickly wiped herself dry with a towel and stumbled out of the bathroom.

Damn it, let me calm down for a second…

She collapsed onto the sofa in the living room, holding the piece of skin, flipping it over and examining it over and over again.

The more she looked, the more she felt that it could actually make a pretty decent tea coaster… The size and material seemed perfect…

Wasn’t there something really wrong about this…?

Normally, any other demon would have been scared out of their mind at a situation like this. But Yuan Yuanyuan wasn’t particularly frightened. She touched the exposed area on her chest. It didn’t even hurt now, and that unbearable itch had passed. When she touched it, it just felt hollow.

She lowered her head and looked at her chest. There was a gaping hole where the skin had peeled off. She reached out cautiously to feel it—and her finger easily poked right through.

Yuan Yuanyuan’s hand paused.

She felt something smooth, round, and slightly cool.

Her finger had already gone about two centimeters deep into the hole—and still, she felt no pain at all, exactly like touching healthy skin.

…

Yuan Yuanyuan sneaked back into the bathroom.

This time, she was holding a small flashlight, one just thick enough as a thumb, the kind used to peer into small spaces.

Under the bathroom light, she aimed the flashlight into the hole, trying to see the smooth, round thing she had touched earlier.

…It was white. Under the flashlight beam, it even shone with a jade-like luster.

It was bone.

Her chest bone—her rib.

…

Wow… how amazing.

…

“Boss, you’re finally awake!” Liu An shouted excitedly.

He watched as his boss, who had been lying motionless in bed, calmly sat up, went downstairs without saying a word, and headed straight into the kitchen. She lifted the pot lid and pulled out two reheated buns to eat.

“Boss!” Liu An yelled again. He had been scared out of his mind just now—his boss had been lying there, eyes closed, completely unresponsive no matter how he shouted.

Liu An didn’t even know where the demon hospitals were around here, and he had been about to panic. But then, miraculously, his boss just got up and went straight to eat.

“Can you…” Liu An roared from the kitchen, furious, “can you say something before you start eating?! Can you at least put down the chopsticks first?!”

“Don’t, don’t shout.” The boss practically had her face buried in the bowl. “Are these beef and carrot buns? Let me eat some to replenish my blood.”

“Huh?” Liu An was stunned. “Oh… oh, there’s still some frozen beef in the freezer, want some?”

“Bring it over,” the boss said while grabbing a second bun.

Liu An dashed to the freezer. Meanwhile, Yuan Yuanyuan tugged at her collar to loosen it a bit, glanced at her chest, then lowered her head and continued eating.

“The beef’s here!” Liu An rushed back. Yuan Yuanyuan casually pointed at the big pot on the stove. “Throw it in there and boil it… it’ll be our late-night snack.”

Liu An fetched water, added wood to the stove, sliced some ginger, poured in some cooking wine, and tossed the beef in to blanch.

After Yuan Yuanyuan retracted her illusion shell, she felt slightly more at ease. Ever since her shop had been trashed, she had made a habit of carrying a few leaves around, just in case.

Turned out she had needed them for the comic con.

She picked up a cup of hot tea, wrapped herself in a huge blanket, and sat like an old grandma—just missing the knitting needles and yarn.

While the beef was cooking, Liu An tried to chat a little.

“Um… how should I put this,” Yuan Yuanyuan said, “That guy back there, he was probably using some kind of poison. So I just… Ugh, why are you looking at me with that weird face?”

“Me?” Liu An blinked. “I guess I’m too weak, so he didn’t bother poisoning me?”

“Don’t joke,” Yuan Yuanyuan patted Liu An’s shoulder. She recalled that strange, silver thing she saw…

“Boss, you actually saw what it was?” Liu An asked.

“Uh… I did see it,” Yuan Yuanyuan said, but she honestly had no idea what it was… Maybe she could ask Fat Cat later—he might know.

Yuan Yuanyuan and Liu An chatted for a while, ate the beef, washed up, and then went to sleep. Lying in bed, Yuan Yuanyuan couldn’t help poking at her chest again.

Even after reverting to her illusion form… the hole hadn’t disappeared.

The hole was pretty big—stretching from her chest almost up to the base of her neck. Wearing a shirt with a slightly wider collar would definitely expose it.

She recalled the scene she saw earlier with the flashlight.

No blood.

No flesh.

Only pristine white bone, like the framework inside a lantern.

Her bones were the framework, and her skin was the lantern covering.

Now that the covering had torn, you could see the bare framework inside. In the middle—it was just hollow. Empty.

Yuan Yuanyuan sighed. She knew the poison was deadly. After all, she had bled so much in the bathroom… She hadn’t been this seriously wounded in years.

But… what kind of poison could be so vicious it actually corroded flesh? She must’ve lost at least half a pound of meat… She could practically count it as an unexpected diet.

Thinking back to the blood she wiped up in the bathroom, a disgusting and horrifying guess suddenly crossed her mind.

Ugh… Could it be that the “blood” she saw dripping wasn’t just blood… but actually her melted flesh?

…

After that incident, Yuan Yuanyuan started a half-month-long food binge, stuffing herself with fish and meat every day. Over time, she realized she was surprisingly good at maintaining her health.

After that event, Demon Notes updated five more chapters, all focusing on Fa Ning’s recent activities, with no room for side characters to show up.

Well… not exactly none. The girl who was suspected to be the heroine had a bit of screen time—then vanished again.

Yuan Yuanyuan looked at the comment section filled with readers yelling “爽” (awesome), and realized that in hot-blooded shonen manga, readers mainly cared about the protagonist leveling up—that would always be the main theme. Everything else was secondary.

…

[Fa Ning has always worked in a place filled with corpses and death. Yet this experience hasn’t caused him any trauma.]

[On the contrary… he’s even become a somewhat famous figure in this area.]

Being a famous mortician… Does that count as a notable figure?

Liu An looked at the manga, speechless. This description made it sound like Fa Ning had become some legendary dark priest…

In reality, he was just quietly arranging proper burials for corpses, helping the dead according to human customs. Yet somehow he had become famous among demons.

Maybe because the death rate among wandering demons was so high—and proper corpse management facilities were basically nonexistent.

Rogue demons dying all over the place… it was a mess. Then somehow, word spread about a mortician who treated corpses properly, and it exploded from there.

One day, Liu An found a note on a dead demon saying: [I want the makeup artist for corpses to handle my burial.]

That was the moment he realized—he had somehow become famous…

[Fa Ning is walking the path of a necromancer now? Amazing.]

[In a few years, there might be a new type of exorcist—death mages—and Fa Ning would be the founding ancestor.]

[Looks like Fa Ning’s already working on corpses… Wonder if he’ll become a morally ambiguous exorcist someday. Good for humanity or bad?]

Liu An rolled his eyes. What are you guys worried about? It’s just a manga anyway.

Besides… there was no way he would conduct weird experiments on demon corpses. Those who dared to do that were the shady ones managing corpse-recovery operations.

Demon organs were highly valuable—dead or alive. Liu An knew of people who secretly harvested organs from dead demons, but he had never done that.

Otherwise… why would some dying demons leave those kinds of notes asking for him?

Liu An sighed and walked outside. When he saw the boss, he almost screamed, “Boss, you—”

“Shh.” Yuan Yuanyuan tugged at her shirt and said, “It’s halfway healed already… But if I cover it up all the time, it won’t heal faster. I’m letting it air out.”

“You… Air it out, my ass.” Liu An stared wide-eyed, circling the hole in shock. “Oh my god, I can see your bones… Shouldn’t you be putting some medicine on it?!”

“No need,” Yuan Yuanyuan said. “Honestly, I was worried at first, but now it’s healing so fast. If it were a human… they’d be long dead by now. But look at me—it’s regenerating.”

“I’ll still go buy you some medicine,” Liu An said. “How about hydrogen peroxide and gentian violet?”

“…Sure,” Yuan Yuanyuan replied.

Even though she didn’t think the wound would get infected, those two were at least mentally reassuring.

…Even if they probably wouldn’t actually help much.

…

[How will Yuan die in the future?]

Even half a month later, the group was still discussing this topic.

And the deeper they dug into it, the more unified their thoughts became.

[Yuan’s insanely powerful—definitely unbeatable.] Someone said, [So, what kind of death could possibly await such an invincible person?]

[You can reference Gong Jiu—characters written too strong usually end up self-destructing.] Someone else said. [But Yuan doesn’t really seem like the same type, right?]

[Then it’s like we discussed before,] another person said, [maybe like Itachi—dying from illness.]

[Yuan must be chronically ill… but I bet no one else, human or demon, knows about it except for a few of us.] Another chimed in. [Damn… are we being spoiled by the plot already?]

The group chat was blowing up with hundreds of messages—everyone was excited by the shocking idea.

Yet strangely, the only ones not participating were the ones who had actually attended the comic con and seen Yuan up close. Those few remained utterly silent.