Little Pink Starfish

It felt like… some kind of bizarre character had just jumped out of nowhere.

Yuan Yuanyuan clutched her kidney and stared at the person ahead, who was completely shrouded in holy light. Just looking made her eyes hurt.

The person looked tall—definitely a man. He was so blindingly radiant that Yuan Yuanyuan couldn’t see much else.

He slowly lifted his head, and Yuan Yuanyuan saw the light completely envelop him. Then, all of a sudden, he disappeared from her sight.

So bright, so bright—holy crap, so bright…

She could barely see from all the afterimages, but vaguely, she noticed that all the people who had been chasing her were collapsing one by one in the light, like wooden dolls.

Everything was eerily quiet. They fell in a wave of white light—silent and swift, immediately unconscious.

A very gentle… way of killing.

Yuan Yuanyuan stood there watching and, for some reason, this incredibly cringey thought popped into her head.

The man turned his head slowly. Amid the holy light, Yuan Yuanyuan finally saw his face.

Calling it “delicate” wouldn’t be quite right, but it was the best she could think of. His expression was calm, and his features were the most harmonious and pleasing she had ever seen.

There’s a special kind of person whose facial features make people think, Wow, that’s a really balanced face—it’s not overwhelmingly beautiful, but somehow it’s perfect.
This guy had that quality. Yuan Yuanyuan was pretty confident she was better looking, but his aura—now that was one of a kind.

A surreal feeling.

She had just watched this man calmly and cleanly wipe out the group in front of him—the most peaceful, elegant fighting style she’d ever seen.

Just like the man himself: calm and clean.

Before Yuan Yuanyuan could say anything, he turned toward her and said, “This way.”

When he saw she wasn’t moving (Yuan Yuanyuan hadn’t planned to move at all—she had no idea how the plot had spiraled this far), he assumed she was too weak. So he walked over and gently supported her.

The moment he touched her, Yuan Yuanyuan’s mind went blank.

So now she had to follow? What the hell kind of plot development was this? She just came out to show her face a bit!

Though she didn’t know who he was, she could tell he was strong—so she didn’t dare let him notice anything off. Still clutching her “kidney,” she followed him weakly.

As they walked, she leaned all her weight on him and kept panting and panting…

For some reason, she remembered how she used to fake being sick as a kid—just to go home early. She’d shiver whenever she had a fever, so when she faked one, she overacted the shivering.

Later, she learned that while she felt the shivers, others couldn’t see them. That one time, she acted so exaggeratedly that her teacher and parents thought she was having a seizure…

The takeaway? Her idea of “faking illness” didn’t match what others expected. So now, she reminded herself not to overdo it—just stay silent. Silence is golden.

Fortunately, the man beside her wasn’t chatty either. He led her through alley after alley. Just as she was about to get dizzy from all the turns, they arrived at a rundown house.

This was a demolition zone, with broken walls and ruins everywhere. The residents had moved out months ago—except for one stubborn holdout. The man helped her stumble into a room, where a strange, circular, blood-red symbol like a summoning circle was drawn on the wall.

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at it, wondering where he planned to take her. Then she saw him reach out and gently place his hand on the center of the circle. In an instant, he turned into a scatter of glowing light.

Even more terrifying—Yuan Yuanyuan realized she’d become light too, and was being absorbed into the summoning circle.

Her figure vanished from the alley. Thus, the hunted “Yuan” finally disappeared completely without a trace.

If Yuan Yuanyuan had to name her savior… she’d say it was Ultraman Tiga.

And a very good-looking Tiga, at that.

…Ah, she turned into light.

…

Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t think normally. And she always managed to do inappropriate things at inappropriate times. Take now, for example—somehow she’d been brought to this strange place, with no phone or computer, totally cut off.

She had nothing to do but read smutty novels. With no tasks, all she did was eat and sleep—sleeping more and more. It actually matched her situation well.

Three days of sleep, one meal. That was basically how she lived during college. Bonus: unexpected weight loss.

That morning, she heard a knock at the door. She got up and opened it.

Outside stood the man who had brought her here three days ago. He held a bowl of porridge, looked at her and said, “You don’t look well. I’ll ask someone to check on you.”

“No need.” Yuan Yuanyuan took the porridge and shut the door right in his face, leaving only a very defensive expression behind.

Yeah right. Let a doctor examine her? What if they noticed something was off?

After closing the door, she crouched down to eavesdrop. Over the past few days, she suspected she’d ended up in some sort of mysterious base.

She still didn’t know who her “rescuer” was, but he brought her food and medicine every day.

She clearly remembered him calling her “Seventeen” that first day. What shocked her most was that everyone here knew she was Seventeen.

Well… not that there were many people. Counting Yuan Yuanyuan and the dog at the door, there were seven living beings total.

Apparently, there were usually only five people—two were out right now, according to the boy who brought her food.

Yuan Yuanyuan continued peeking through the door crack.

Did I just… accidentally join some weird cult or secret organization? What do they even do here? What’s their goal?

This wasn’t some quaint countryside cottage or a horror-filled forest. This place was sealed-off, like a giant egg. Inside were small rooms, and she had no idea where on Earth this “egg” was.

There wasn’t even a sun or moon. Just a dark sky, with candles burning everywhere, giving the place a strange clarity.

She looked up at the oval-shaped sky, clueless about her location—but very aware that she probably couldn’t leave easily now.

That guy had said he was saving her, but honestly, if he were threatening her, it’d be just as believable. She had no clue where she was, or how to escape.

…

“How’s your recovery?” A new face—someone she hadn’t seen before—approached and tossed a small jade stone in front of her.

His tone was totally different from the other man. Cold, icy. Dressed all in black. Yuan Yuanyuan was also wearing black, but even she wouldn’t go so far as to have a black hair tie.

Seeing the cold, casual toss, Yuan Yuanyuan hesitated, then picked it up and glanced at it. It was full of recent info about “Yuan.”

She read it over. Most of it she already knew—stuff like “Yuan escapes capture,” and “Analysis of Yuan’s Demon Technique,” etc.

She didn’t know why these people—who clearly knew that Yuan was Seventeen—had brought her here. But over the past few days, she’d had a hunch. It started with that guy’s line: “You’re this miserable—have you never thought about changing?”

Yuan Yuanyuan looked up at the man opposite her, curious what he’d say next. He stared back at her with piercingly cold eyes, and she held his gaze.

Just as she was about to break, he asked, “Do you realize you can’t go back anymore?”

Yuan Yuanyuan sat on the bed in silence.

“Monsters are hunting you. Humans are hunting you,” he continued.

Still, she said nothing.

“If this keeps up, you’ll die.”

His voice grew colder, and that coldness made the scene feel even more theatrical.

At this moment, Yuan Yuanyuan sat on the bed, the man stood below. The whole thing felt like a drama.

You’re seriously underestimating me, Yuan Yuanyuan thought. Even if I die, I won’t die. My ability to survive is top-notch. I’ve maxed out my turtle-mode skills.

“Can I ask why you’re so insistent on staying in City C?”

I don’t know. Probably because all my stuff’s there.

“Let me guess… is it because City C offered some compensation to the Blood Jade Demon Army?”

The moment he said that, Yuan Yuanyuan’s heart skipped a beat. She couldn’t help blinking.

“Heh.” The man let out a cold chuckle. He clearly wasn’t good at smiling—his attempt looked really off.

He pushed the door open and left. Before going, he said:

“You really are a stubborn old man.”

…

After he left, the room fell silent.

Yuan Yuanyuan sat on the bed, thinking… for a long, long time.

She looked at her own hand.

She could accept being called all sorts of things—“shut-in,” “couch potato,” “older single woman”…

But today, a new title shattered her personal records.

“Stubborn old man.”

She lay on the bed, thinking and thinking and thinking…

Eventually, she tried to comfort herself.
Well, it’s not totally wrong. Seventeen really is an “old man”… if he were still alive, anyway.

Still, having that title applied to her made her think of some greasy middle-aged uncle…

Please don’t let me turn into that, she prayed earnestly.

And thus, within a month, her nickname among the manga readers changed—

From “a good-looking traitor” to
“an old man.”

That terrible nickname would haunt Yuan for the rest of her life.