Little Pink Starfish

Yuan Yuanyuan drifted between sleep and wakefulness. She vaguely knew she was dreaming… but since nothing too scary had happened in the dream so far, she just kept her eyes shut and didn’t bother trying to wake up.

She dreamed of a small corridor… The edges of the dream were misty and hazy, yet oddly, she could still see everything around her with perfect clarity.

She realized she was in the same hallway she had visited during the day. It was dark, no lights were on, but she could walk around freely—almost as if she knew this place like the back of her hand.

She moved down the hallway, not quite knowing where she was going, but feeling no fear or confusion. It was all strangely familiar.

At the end of the hall, she saw a small room.

She pushed the door open and entered.

The room looked just like the ones where the monsters were staying—but stripped of modern touches like radiators, electric lights, or outlets.

She walked around a folding screen, heading deeper into the room.

There, on a small bamboo bed, lay someone she knew very well—Yuan.

His hands were quietly folded across his chest, eyes gently shut… it wasn’t clear whether they could ever open again.

In that instant, Yuan Yuanyuan felt something flicker through her mind, but in the murkiness of the dream, she was too sluggish to grasp it clearly.

She stared at him, lying so still, as the faint candlelight flickered around the room. Everything was so quiet.
No one else was there.

She glanced back at the door she had come through.

The sound of voices… was that coming from outside?

She could hear people murmuring, whispering just beyond the door, but no matter how she tried, she couldn’t make out what they were saying.
Just a constant droning, buzzing sound—

“Buzz buzz… buzz buzz…”

Honestly, it sounded more like a swarm of flies.

She then heard the soft drip of water hitting the floor.

A ring of deep red circles—concentric, blood-colored—began to bloom on the ground.
Drip.
Drip.

She looked for the source.

It was the bedspread.

From the thick, red blanket on the bamboo bed, blood was dripping steadily, forming those concentric rings like blooming red lotuses on a pond.

Just as Yuan Yuanyuan was trying to make sense of what she was seeing, she suddenly heard the sound of a door opening behind her.

She wanted to turn around—
But she couldn’t move.
Her body was frozen.

For one terrifying moment, her vision turned pitch-black. All she could see was a single arc of demonic script glowing in front of her eyes—indecipherable, floating.

She couldn’t see—but she could hear.

Footsteps.
A man had entered.

He stopped beside the bed and spoke. His voice was deep and smooth, resonating with a kind of cold detachment.

“Everyone claims they’d die for you. But how many truly mean it?

Only you can lie and make it sound so real.

So if you mean it—prove it.

With death.”

“Maybe, in your next life, you can come back and prove your loyalty again.

Maybe then… I’ll believe you, just a little.”

“Next life?” Yuan Yuanyuan thought distantly.

“There’s no such thing as a next life.”

People died and turned to dust. If there was reincarnation, wouldn’t this world fall into chaos?

She usually didn’t talk much about this kind of thing, but she had to admit—she really didn’t buy it.
All that “reincarnation,” “rebirth,” “heaven and hell” stuff… it was just fiction to her.

Because if there was a next life… then I wouldn’t remember you.

And if I don’t remember you—aren’t you as good as never having existed?

Even if the soul is reborn, if the memories, appearance, and personality are all different…
Are you still the same person?

That thought was clear in her dream mind—yet she couldn’t speak.

Her chest felt tight. Words wouldn’t come. Her vision refused to clear.

Frustrated, she forced her eyes open just a crack, enough to glimpse—

A small, shiny, golden object.

---

Meanwhile, outside the dream, in the real world—

Several girls were still frantically searching the hallway for that painting, nearly scouring the place down to the floorboards.

“This one looks bloody enough…” one muttered.

“Well, which one looks the most like it?” another asked.

“Forget that for now,” a third interrupted. “Let’s talk about Yuan—what would be the best way to strike up a conversation with him?”

“I mean… just talk to him normally?” someone offered.

“No, no,” the girl flipped through the manga, “We’re thinking about this all wrong. Don’t follow the characters—follow his path!”

“Path?” The others crowded around her in the dark hallway, pulling out flashlights and phones.

“Look here,” the leader pointed at a panel. “Remember when we first noticed something was off? During the meeting today, they only talked about the seven monsters, but the manga already shows them discussing the Northwest Line. That’s tomorrow’s topic.”

“It’s the sun too,” said the timid girl. “In the manga, it’s low in the east—morning. But today’s meeting started much earlier than that. No way that was today.”

“I still think we’re being a little… impulsive,” she added. “What if Ji Qiu just made it all up?”

“He? Improvise ten extra pages?” the leader scoffed. “Ji Qiu’s so lazy he barely finishes a chapter on time. This was the only issue ever with ten more pages than usual.”

“…Fair,” the timid girl admitted. “I was going to tell you all to go back to bed.”

“But you do have a point,” the leader said. “We’ve been searching forever. It might be easier to just… intercept him.”

“There’s nothing special about this hallway,” she went on, “but if we think about it strategically—”

“What strategy?” the timid girl looked wary.

“What’s Yuan’s top character trait?”

“Uh… rescuing pretty girls?”

“Exactly.” She pointed to herself and the others.

“No—no. Please.” The timid girl grabbed her arm. “We are not using anime logic right now. Stay grounded.”

“Even anime logic gets weird sometimes,” someone added. “Don’t forget those series that totally lost the plot in the second half…”

The girls all exchanged nervous glances.

Then—footsteps.

Voices.

They all jumped, shut off their flashlights, and ducked into the shadows.

“…You think we’ll really find it here?”

“Don’t know. Our senior said there are unused corridors. The hotel staff confirmed it.”

“Do you think Yuan even knows about that scene in the manga?”

“Nah. He probably doesn’t even read it. If he did, he’d have flipped by now.”

“Then… what made him cry?”

“Who knows? But if we find that painting first, we might discover something important.”

“Maybe we can even get on his good side,” someone whispered. “He’s the one holding the line for the monsters. If we build a relationship…”

“Maybe we can even mess with him a bit,” another said. “I just realized how powerful knowing the future can be—it’s like being a prophet. People believe you so easily.”

That was all the girls hiding could hear.

The leader suddenly stood up and stormed off toward the corridor.

“Hey! Where are you going?” the others tried to stop her.

---

Yuan Yuanyuan suddenly woke up, staring at the ceiling.

She sat up, rubbed her eyes, grabbed a cup from the nightstand and drank.

The sun had risen outside—it was warm and comforting.
The sunlight made her feel a little calmer.

She got up, checked the time.

Almost mealtime.

Better to head down.

But just as she stepped out the door—

She stopped.

She looked around.

Something… felt off.

This hallway had been sealed off for a long time.
No one ever came here.

She stood in front of her door, dumbfounded.

Right in front of her hung that painting.

Deep black.
Boundless red.

She walked up to it and touched it lightly.

Her mood was calm—
But after reading Monster Journal yesterday, she already knew what it was.

That painting… was of that war. The one from years ago.
It made sense—it was near the Northwest Line. The events of that war had been immortalized here.

Footsteps echoed down the hallway.
A girl came running.

But the closer she got, the slower she moved.

She saw Yuan Yuanyuan standing alone, staring at the painting.

And she froze.

For a moment, time itself seemed to stop.

She saw him cry.

In that instant, she felt like she had stepped into the manga itself.

She wanted to say something.
But nothing came.

Did you… know all of this would happen?

Yuan Yuanyuan wiped her face.
She turned around—

And saw the girl.

Startled, actually. Hadn’t noticed anyone was there.

She blinked. Wait—her face was wet.

Where… where am I? What am I doing? Who’s this girl?!

She looked at the painting again.

Why was she crying?

What the hell was happening this morning?

She hadn’t noticed anything until—

She saw the look on the girl’s face.

And that’s when she realized—

Uh… sis? I’m the one crying.
Why do you look like your heart just broke?!