Little Pink Starfish

That night, Yuan Yuanyuan pulled an all-nighter cultivating, lying in her newly assigned room. It was much more comfortable—significantly better than the one upstairs.

This new room had air conditioning, a TV, and even a computer. Lying on the bed, Yuan was stunned to discover—seriously?—there was even working Wi-Fi…

At first, she sprawled out on the bed like a salted fish, mind filled only with one word: comfy. But the longer she lay there, the more unsettling it became.

I mean, with so many monsters around… how the hell is the Wi-Fi still working?

A vague sense of unease crept over her. She glanced at her phone. The old phone had dual SIM cards—one for her real life, and one for her identity as Yuan. She’d always kept them separate, and as far as she could remember, she’d never mixed them up.

She recalled that every time she’d encountered a Hyakki Yagyō (Night Parade of a Hundred Demons) at the tavern, her phone would completely lose signal. But now? The signal was perfectly stable. She had no idea how that was even possible.

Science? Or… pseudo-science?

She pondered it for a while but couldn’t make sense of it. It wasn’t her field anyway, so she opened her phone and checked the Wi-Fi—there was only one network nearby, and the name was Nanchun Restaurant.

Same as the hotel’s name. A name that had a distinct old-school feel.

She opened up her cache of saved comics. The room light was off, so only the phone’s glow lit up her face, dimming and brightening intermittently.

Frowning, she read through the latest issues she’d stockpiled.

The recent updates had all been drawn from the human perspective—nothing from the monsters’ side.

From the human point of view… Yuan saw a range of different opinions on the recent events that had shaken both the human world and the demon world—the very reason Yuan had come here.

That is, the incident involving the seven monsters who had been captured by humans.

[“The monsters are requesting negotiations.” Several people who looked like Taoists were discussing things. One of them, with a dark ruddy face and a clearly explosive temper, muttered, “Who knows what those people over there are thinking.”]

[“What do you mean, what are they thinking? You can’t coddle those shameless monsters. They never lose their wildness. If you beat them down, they act obedient like dogs. But if you’re weaker, they’ll sink their teeth into you. So, you’ve got to be stronger.” another person said slowly.]

[“I heard they want to come have a proper talk,” said the hot-tempered one. “Word is they’re sending a delegation to negotiate with humans.”]

[“Monsters haven’t tried talking to humans in decades. Why now?” someone asked in surprise. “Are you sure about this intel?”]

[“Who knows what’s gotten into them… Still, them suddenly wanting to talk like this—it’s unsettling,” another laughed. “I always thought monsters couldn’t even understand human speech… Then suddenly…”]

[“Ha.”]

[Fǎ Níng sat to the side, sipping cola and silently listening to their conversation.]

[He had returned to his sect a few days ago. Most of it had been rebuilt. This was his first time going back in a long while.]

[Disciples had started returning… Fǎ Níng even saw a few small figures—young children—preparing to head up the mountain. They were very young, brought here by their parents.]

[After staying for a bit, he didn’t go up the mountain. Instead, he turned around, got in a car, and went somewhere else.]

[He wanted to see how the monsters were planning to resolve this crisis. Why they had chosen, after so many years, to reestablish diplomatic relations with humans.]

[You see… Fǎ Níng hadn’t just been slacking off. He’d been reading up on historical records related to past events. They were hard to find, but he’d uncovered a few clues.]

[After the war, monsters had become the defeated side. Following treaty terms, they were required to maintain occasional contact with humans each year. On the surface, they appeared compliant—but in truth, they had always been wary.]

[For example, although monsters continued these yearly exchanges and reports, fewer and fewer humans lived in monster territory… Where there used to be Taoists and monsters living together, boundaries had now become sharply defined.]

[“I don’t really understand you anymore. All our communication now happens through books,” the narration continued. “And even if it’s full of nonsense, the other side pretends to believe it…”]

Yuan chuckled to herself. That’s so true. The monsters wrote up reports full of nonsense, sometimes giving random code names to invented “monster factions,” and the humans didn’t even bother reading—just copied it straight into their files.

Hell, if I’d written something ridiculous in my report, would they have even noticed?

Then it got more serious:

[“If the monsters really wanted to… they could’ve reclaimed those seven by now. But they didn’t. He usually handles far more corpses than just seven…”]

[“So what’s the goal?” Fǎ Níng pondered. “Cause some chaos while pretending to negotiate? But they don’t have the strength for that anymore.”]

Yuan laughed as she read, then slowly grew quiet. The following plot points laid everything out clearly, and she could practically imagine what Fǎ Níng had been thinking at the time.

The last two issues were entirely from Fǎ Níng’s point of view. As a Taoist, his internal monologue highlighted some very sensitive thoughts—ones Yuan found especially pointed.

Everyone had known these things deep down—the eerie tension between humans and monsters. It was the kind of truth that made people uncomfortable when spoken aloud. But now the comic had laid it out bluntly… yikes.

Yuan felt a strange sense of schadenfreude. These problems had nothing to do with her—she was just a minor little monster who’d recently “come back to life,” not someone allowed to meddle in high-level affairs. Sitting on the sidelines with tea and sunflower seeds was just fine.

Reading this comic from her unique perspective… it struck her as oddly profound. Maybe she was the only one who could experience this kind of dissonance.

She flipped through page after page… only to find she hadn’t shown up in the story at all.

Somehow, that made her feel… weird.

When she reached the final page, she sat there on the bed, stunned.

That’s it?

She sat silently for a long while, unsure how to describe the feeling inside her.

It was strange to be excluded—but would it have felt stranger to be included?

She’d assumed there’d be something about her in there—after all, she had been quite active lately, and there had been a lot of recent developments. But now, nothing. The absence left her feeling oddly hollow.

After brooding for a while, she suddenly laughed quietly to herself.

If it’s there, it’s there. If not, it’s not. What’s with this weird attachment?

The fact that she was even bothered by it was kind of pathetic.

Eventually, she felt at ease again. She quietly made the bed—the hotel mattress was very comfortable. As she lay there hugging the thick comforter, she could smell the clean scent of laundry detergent and not a trace of anyone else’s presence.

The room was spotless… Finding such a clean, comfy bed while away from home—wasn’t that already a small blessing?

Yuan snuggled deeper into the blanket, pulled the curtains shut, and quietly closed her eyes to sleep.

The room was completely dark, with only the faintest glimmers of light… You could hear nothing but breathing.

Meanwhile, in another room…

Three young women who had just returned from their shifts sat together, staring at each other wide-eyed, unsure what to say.

“Oh come on, it’s just Yuan. Why are you two so worked up?” one of them said—clearly not a big comic reader. “It’s just seeing the real-life inspiration for a comic character… wait, no, I guess I should say seeing the original behind the character.”

“I… I don’t even know how to explain it,” another girl said. “I thought Yuan wouldn’t be in it this time. He hadn’t shown up in the latest issues. But if people outside find out about this…”

“The comic’s being told from Fǎ Níng’s perspective now,” the third girl chimed in. “Of course Yuan wouldn’t show up. Still, it feels like we just stepped into the comic world itself. And now that Fǎ Níng’s also here… do you think the two of them will cross paths?”

“They probably will,” one girl said uncertainly. “Everyone outside probably knows by now. There were a lot of reporters yesterday. The story must be spreading.”

“So Yuan came as a last-minute addition? The monsters agreed to bring him? Did you see him in person? What was he like?”

“In person…” The girl’s face suddenly flushed. “Way more approachable than in the comic. If I hadn’t seen the room number, I wouldn’t have known he was the Yuan… His voice though—totally matched what I imagined.”

“What kind of voice?”

“Magnetic,” the girl said. “Really nice to listen to. Before I even saw his face, I was mentally praising his voice… Actually, I didn’t really look at his face—I was kinda scared.”

“Why do you think he showed up last minute?” another girl asked. “He wasn’t listed in any of the earlier documents. Could the monsters be planning something? Have you heard anything?”

None of them had gone to sleep yet—too excited—so they went for a stroll in the hallway, listening in on the hushed conversations of others.

They’d learned a lot just by eavesdropping on Taoists in the corridors before the monsters arrived. This time was no different—they crept out and wandered.

At a corner, they finally heard a snippet of conversation—two middle-aged men who had just woken up and were stretching their legs, chatting casually.

Older guys loved gossiping about politics… and this time, they were talking about Yuan.

“Can’t believe Yuan actually came this time. Really caught us off guard,” one man said quietly. “That guy’s not one to be underestimated.”

“No wonder the monsters came in so openly,” the other replied. “Turns out they brought Yuan to back them up…”

“What can an old monster like Yuan even do?” another muttered. “People say… he might’ve been seriously injured at Hongsha Well…”

The three girls leaned in as far as they could—the last few words were barely audible, like they’d been squeezed out of someone’s throat.

“Who knows,” one man added. “Doesn’t seem too bad from the look of it. But with monsters… who can say? The old ones are the best at enduring. Still, the fact that they brought Yuan out like this as a shield—damn… I’m telling you, these monsters are dangerous.”