Little Pink Starfish

The first thing Jiang Lianhuan did when he came over today was ask her if she could still recall that feeling from that day. Hua Rongyue thought he wanted to help her relive what it felt like to be a blade saint. But after she twirled the blade a few times in front of him, he told her to stop.

“What’s wrong? Did I do something off?” Hua Rongyue asked, puzzled.

He looked her up and down for quite a while. Hua Rongyue waited for his judgment. He pinched the bridge of his nose and said, “I think you’re quite the mystery.”

“Mysterious? In what way?” Hua Rongyue asked.

“At first, I didn’t think you were the type to show off. You actually seemed rather dull. But somehow, you manage to pull off things only people with loud personalities could do.” He walked closer, eyeing her again. “But now, seeing you like this today, I suddenly feel like the version of you I saw a few days ago was just an illusion.”

After making that odd statement, Jiang Lianhuan looked at Hua Rongyue. She turned her head away, silently choosing not to engage.

There it goes again.

According to Yi Linglong’s memories, whenever he got “excited,” he’d start rambling random nonsense. It was best not to get involved during those moments.

Jiang Lianhuan continued watching her practice with the blade, and Hua Rongyue suddenly had a suspicious thought.

—He didn’t come here to watch her wield a blade or to guide her training. Could it be that he was trying to see whether she was hiding her true personality?

Thinking about that made Hua Rongyue a bit uneasy, but then she thought—why worry? It was Yi Linglong who had taken over that day, not her. Still, she couldn’t pretend nothing had happened. The thought left her feeling strange inside.

No wonder Jiang Lianhuan had battled Yi Linglong for half a lifetime in their past lives. When she talked to him as her real self, he could be cold and distant. But as soon as Yi Linglong emerged, he could suddenly tolerate Hua Rongyue’s usual dullness and stare at her for hours.

Hua Rongyue felt a strange sense of melancholy. How ironic—could it be that your mortal enemy understands you the best? Yi Linglong might no longer exist in this world, but just because she bore a faint trace of her, Jiang Lianhuan had come running.

What was this strange undertone of tragic romance? Hmm… this vibe between them was starting to get weird.

Hua Rongyue kept pondering while practicing, keeping a straight face as always. No one ever knew what she was thinking, so her daydreaming didn’t worry her—in fact, it amused her. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she nearly forgot Jiang Lianhuan was still standing there.

After a long while, she turned her head and was startled to find him still staring straight at her. “You’re still here?”

“I want to ask you something,” Jiang Lianhuan said. “I heard someone came to see you recently and told you that you could be more free in your actions from now on?”

“Huh? How do you know that?” Hua Rongyue asked.

“Aren’t you curious why they would let you do that?” Jiang Lianhuan asked.

“Because I’ve been performing well?” Hua Rongyue replied. But as soon as she said it, she realized something was off.

The Six Doors shouldn’t need her performance to make decisions. They probably preferred her to be a total puppet.

But Hua Rongyue had never really thought much about this, maybe because she didn’t know where to start, so she set the issue aside. It wasn’t something she considered important—no matter what the higher-ups thought, they couldn’t interfere with her plans.

By the way, Hua Rongyue didn’t think Lin Qiya appeared on that mountain. With her personality, even if she was down and out, she wouldn’t go to a “marketplace” like that. It just didn’t suit her.

Jiang Lianhuan, however, was in full gossip mode. “Actually, you were supposed to be punished this time around. But I heard the big shot above you overruled everyone else and even praised you publicly. That’s how you avoided it. What’s your relationship with him?”

Huh? That guy?

Hua Rongyue looked troubled. A lot of people in the Six Doors thought she got in through connections… because she had suddenly parachuted in. Apparently, Yi Linglong’s “actor” had already been selected before her. Something happened, and she got pulled in instead.

But if she had to say she had any relationship with that big shot—she really didn’t. She remembered everything clearly: she tried on a costume, he nodded, and that was it.

“Seriously, there’s nothing between us,” Hua Rongyue said helplessly.

Jiang Lianhuan replied, “I kind of figured. You seem too honest. But I don’t think the others in the Six Doors would believe that.”

“Who is he?” Hua Rongyue suddenly realized this might be the best time to dig for information.

“I’m not too sure,” Jiang Lianhuan said. As he lowered his voice, Hua Rongyue leaned in to listen.

Just as she expected.

Hua Rongyue felt like she’d just won the lottery. The answer was kind of predictable—think about it, who could hold that kind of status in ancient times? It had to be some prince.

A cliché answer, sure, but clichés tend to be grounded in truth. What she didn’t expect was Jiang Lianhuan’s next whisper: “Are you really not connected to him at all? Because those words of his didn’t sound like something a stranger would say.”

“What words?” Hua Rongyue asked curiously.

“That day, someone said you should be thrown in jail for defying the Six Doors’ orders. But he said there was no need, and sent those people packing,” Jiang Lianhuan said. “Then he said—‘Yi Linglong is supposed to be like this.’”

Hua Rongyue froze.

That sentence… didn’t sound like something a stranger would say.

Even after Jiang Lianhuan left, Hua Rongyue kept mulling over those words. The tone sounded so familiar, it was almost as if he had traveled through time. It gave her chills. What did he mean by “Yi Linglong is supposed to be like this”? Had he seen Yi Linglong dressed as a woman before?

That couldn’t be. Yi Linglong always appeared male in public since childhood. Plus, Hua Rongyue’s soul crossed over just before she went crazy—no one could’ve seen her “unleashed” side.

Still, this line of thought led Hua Rongyue to a bold guess—could he be from her hometown? Or maybe he was reincarnated too? Having read way too many novels, her thoughts spiraled out of control.

Just as she was burning with curiosity, her midday nap time arrived. Luckily, things weren’t too busy lately, so she had half an hour to rest. Despite her eagerness to identify a fellow time traveler, her nap took priority.

She lay down and slowly drifted off—then had a dream.

…

In the dream, she seemed to return to Yi Linglong’s childhood. As they say, what you think about during the day, you dream of at night. Hua Rongyue had skimmed Yi Linglong’s memories before. She wasn’t very thorough, but she had a general sense of things. That must’ve been why the dream took her there.

She vaguely remembered something.

Turns out, in the original timeline, someone had seen Yi Linglong in “women’s clothing.” But she was too young at the time, so Hua Rongyue hadn’t even considered it.

Ah… not a fellow time traveler, then. A bit of a disappointment.

She must’ve been groggy upon waking, because the only thing she remembered thinking in the dream was: “Am I homesick?”

The story traced back to a few years ago, when Yi Linglong was just a nameless little assassin in Tianyi Tower—not even as significant as a pawn on a board. Back then, she could only assist with minor tasks. But being in the Tower and the foster child of a high-ranking member, she sometimes got taken out for missions.

One such mission stood out. They needed a child—preferably a good-looking one. Coincidentally, Yi Linglong was chosen.

Ah, so that’s how it all connected.

Hua Rongyue recalled a scene from when Yi Linglong was eight—still a tiny kid, not yet developed. Even dressed as a boy, she looked like a girl: her voice hadn’t changed, and children’s features were naturally delicate. No matter how she dressed, the base appearance couldn’t be hidden. At worst, she looked like a delicate little boy, which wasn’t unusual.

Interestingly, Hua Rongyue discovered that the rumor of “Yi Linglong’s feminine features” actually started from this very incident.

Even at that age, Yi Linglong was the most agile among her peers. The mission originally required a girl, but the Tower’s girls in that age group weren’t very capable. Since the mission was crucial, the higher-ups hesitated.

Then someone suddenly said, “Linglong looks like a little girl, right? Why not send him?”

That was probably the first time eight-year-old Yi Linglong wore a pretty dress. Back then, she still liked pretty things, and the chance to wear a dress openly made her quite happy. She was then sent to a royal mansion, where she stayed with a young marquis for two months.

Hua Rongyue thought to herself—so now I finally know who that “big shot” is.

No wonder he’d defend a “pretty little sissy” against all opposition.

…What a tragic entanglement.