Little Pink Starfish

What Is Going On?

Having just finished all the textbooks, Yuan Yuanyuan could now effortlessly recall every detail in them. But give her a few more days, and she’d probably forget it all.

As for what she’d told Tang Shi about bringing classmates over to visit… she’d already forgotten half of it. She figured Tang Shi wouldn’t really be so outrageous as to actually bring them over… right?

Yuan Yuanyuan sat at the table with a few books. Lately, a strange idea had popped into her head—she wanted to try mimicking what Yi Qi had been like in the past. It was admittedly a bit cringe, a little middle school–edgy, but since her face was nearly identical to Yi Qi’s, it didn’t feel that out of place unless she made some exaggerated expressions.

So she took out the manga chapter where Yi Qi had made an appearance, flipped through it over and over, and began mimicking his poses—sometimes doing all sorts of bizarre movements. But halfway through, her expression would stiffen, and she’d have to start all over again.

In the empty house, you could see her pacing around aimlessly. Now and then, she’d stop suddenly, then backtrack a few steps.

Still didn’t feel right…

Yuan Yuanyuan just kept wandering around like this.

She often worried whether any observant readers out there could instantly tell that the former Yi Qi and the current Yuan were completely different people. Because to her, it was incredibly easy to distinguish which one was her and which one was Yi Qi.

But after scrolling through some online comments, she realized… it seemed like she was the only one sensitive to that. Most of the readers didn’t have imaginations that big.

Well, that’s not quite true. They did notice the change—but they figured that the “former Yuan” was just more gentle and scheming, while the current one was more lazy and scheming… Either way, he was still scheming. The only thing that changed was the outward vibe.

People change after going through big events, after all. Now that everyone knew Yuan had survived a brush with death back in the day, no one thought it was weird that his personality had shifted. In fact, they were even coming up with reasons to justify it.

Like a boss character who starts off normal, then turns edgy in the later stages… Yuan Yuanyuan couldn’t help thinking—what if this so-called turn to the dark side was just because someone else had taken his place? Otherwise, how could he feel so different?

Of course, most human readers hadn’t thought that far. Some didn’t even realize that Yi Qi and Yuan were technically the same person—at least in the manga.

Online, people were still buzzing about who “Yi Qi” really was. Based on Ji Qiu’s usual style, they guessed it’d be a long time before Yi Qi showed up again. Speculations ran wild about who had written the book. From the looks of it, this person might even be a dual-practitioner of Dao and demon arts.

[Yi Qi… sounds like a serial number. What if it turns out to be some secret organization? Like Yi Qi, Er Qi, and so on.]
[Even if it is an organization, it’s gotta be a mix of humans and monsters. Would a group like that really exist during wartime?]
[Something big’s gonna happen… I can feel it.]

Something big, huh… Yuan Yuanyuan thought that was a weird way to phrase it. But in a way, they weren’t wrong.

It had been a long time since she’d gone out with Yi Qi’s face. After spending the whole day unsuccessfully trying to act like him, she suddenly decided to just put on his face and take a walk.

Of course, she wasn’t brave enough to actually do anything, so she just wandered around the nearby square. There, she noticed a few small boxes sitting alone on the ground.

She walked over. The boxes were clearly dusty, like no one had touched them in ages. She’d seen them here last time too. Since they were still here, she figured they must have some symbolic meaning—like offerings to the earth god or something. So she hadn’t messed with them.

Weird stuff by the roadside was best left alone—it might bring trouble. Yuan Yuanyuan wasn’t afraid, but she didn’t want to cause unnecessary problems either. So she wandered over to a vending machine, bought a Coke, and sat down to quietly watch the streetlights.

Lately, mosquitoes had started appearing again. Moths flitted under the lights. But none of them flew near Yuan Yuanyuan—not even the mosquitoes dared bite her. Sometimes she thought that might be one of the perks of being a half-demon. But then again, if even mosquitoes found her unappetizing, that was just kind of depressing.

She hadn’t brought any weapons today—just a T-shirt and jeans. No place to stash her long daggers.

So she sat under the streetlamp, mind wandering. If an enemy attacked now… maybe I could use the vending machine as a weapon. Lift it up like a Justice Hammer or something… Wonder if Ji Qiu would get sued for copyright.

Just as she was halfway through her Coke, she suddenly heard a commotion behind her. She turned and saw a few punks harassing a girl. Seriously? One walk and I run into this kind of thing?

She was thinking about whether to help when the girl suddenly bolted—straight toward her.

The square was deserted. Ever since a newer, fancier one had been built nearby, nobody came here anymore. So Yuan Yuanyuan was the only person in sight.

Naturally, the girl ran to the only person she could see.

So… do I have to play the hero now? Yuan Yuanyuan thought.

Was this one of those storybook setups? Why now?

Before she could say anything, the girl ran behind her, trembling with fear.

The streetlamp above cast a cold, white light, making the area seem harsh and eerie.

The girl cowered behind her. The punks in front looked particularly rough. Yuan Yuanyuan held her Coke, her cold eyes hidden beneath her bangs, her mind full of “What the hell is happening?”

If you ignored the floating text box over her head, this looked just like the opening of a cliché Japanese romance anime.

One of the punks pointed at her and yelled, “Move, pretty boy!”

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at them, Coke in hand, eyes growing colder.

Behind her, the girl kept trembling. And when the punks called Yuan a “pretty boy,” she even started crying.

Yuan Yuanyuan stayed silent. Then, in one smooth motion, she downed the rest of the Coke and tossed the can into the trash.

The punks all pulled out machetes. Still seated on the bench, Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t move—until the first guy charged. Then she suddenly stood, grabbed his head, and—BANG—smashed him into a flowerbed.

The second guy ran over. Yuan Yuanyuan stuck out her foot and tripped him. His nose slammed into the ground.

Then she grabbed the third guy by the neck and tossed him into the bushes.

From start to finish, the whole fight lasted less than three minutes. If she hadn’t been worried about scaring the clearly-human girl, she could’ve taken them all down in seconds. Instead, she made it look more like a street brawl.

After becoming half-demon, she could do all sorts of weird moves. Like right now, she could probably pull off a 720-degree aerial backflip… Not that it was something to brag about.

The girl behind her was still shaking. Yuan Yuanyuan hesitated for a moment, then gently patted her on the shoulder. “It’s okay now… don’t be scared.”

The girl looked up. Judging by her uniform, she was a student from a nearby school. Yuan Yuanyuan had no idea what she was doing out this late. It reminded her of little Ying back then, who’d snuck out for night classes and ended up arrested. That had kind of been the start of her miserable arc…

She told the girl, “Hurry home. It’s dangerous out here at night.”

The girl didn’t respond. She just kept crying—and the sound was starting to seriously stress Yuan Yuanyuan out. From the start of this encounter, something had been gnawing at her. A kind of inexplicable anxiety.

Normally, she rarely felt that. The last time was… when she’d become a half-demon. Or when she joined Demon Chronicles.

With that feeling crawling through her chest, Yuan Yuanyuan realized something bad might be coming. She wanted to get home—felt like hiding might help her avoid whatever this was.

Normally, she’d insist on walking the girl home. But this time, she didn’t want to.

“Sorry, I’ve got something to do. You should head home soon too,” she said.

Then she stood up and left—ignoring whatever the girl called after her—and quickly disappeared down the street.

After a long while, the girl finally stopped crying. She raised her head, and the tears were completely gone. Her eyes—bright almond-shaped eyes—were clear and alert.

She sniffled, pulled out her phone, and typed:

“No good. He suddenly said he had something to do and left.”

“Something came up? What kind of thing? Yuan just suddenly left… Is something about to happen? How come we didn’t know?”

“Not sure. But I think I found some useful info.” the girl replied with a cheeky emoji.

“Did you talk to him?”

“Nope. He still doesn’t even know my name.”

“Then we’ll wait for the next chance. It took a ton of clues from Demon Chronicles to finally catch him here. Too bad you didn’t get a chance to speak. Try next time. Yuan’s carrying so much info—just being near him is safer than anywhere else.”

As the girl chatted, someone slowly poked their head out from an upper window above her—looking completely dumbfounded.

It was Yuan Yuanyuan, who had secretly come back and was now crouched behind a door sign, biting her fingernail and spying on the girl’s phone screen with her 1.0 vision.

…What the hell is going on?