Little Pink Starfish

Yuan Yuanyuan looked at the new chapter of the manga with great satisfaction. Last time, she had deliberately hinted in front of Fa Ning that she knew who Seventeen was—and sure enough, this issue had picked it up.

It felt like a small wish fulfilled. She lay on her bed, reading the panel where Fa Ning asked Yuan, “Do you know who Seventeen is?” and Yuan, with a sly grin, replied that he did.

Yuan’s face really did have that classic villain look—very deceptive. Yuan Yuanyuan stared at the page and thought, Isn’t this going to be labeled “sweet” by a bunch of lunatic shippers? If this is what they call sweet, that’s just insane.

She considered going back to sleep when suddenly she heard someone knocking at her door. She opened it to find… no one. Just a cat sitting on the floor.

“…Fat Cat, why are you here again?” Yuan Yuanyuan picked up the black-and-white cat and gave its belly a rub.

The cat meowed in her arms. Yuan Yuanyuan grabbed its little paws and carried it inside, then called Xiao Ying to come over and pet it.

Why call Xiao Ying? Because she always brought snacks, and since she once had a massive crush on Fat Cat, Fat Cat could mooch food cooked by Xiao Ying’s mom—sometimes Yuan Yuanyuan got a share too.

Stroking Fat Cat’s head, she asked, “Why didn’t you say anything before showing up again?”

“I told you earlier, I found something big,” Fat Cat said while licking his whiskers. “Thought it’d be risky to post online—since it’s related to the human side. If it were about demons, I wouldn’t be this cautious.”

Yuan Yuanyuan rubbed his belly again, then his tail. Fat Cat let her and Xiao Ying manhandle him however they liked. Xiao Ying hesitantly asked, “Sister Yuan, isn’t this kind of mean to Mr. Cat…?” But Fat Cat lazily replied, “Nah, sometimes when I don’t want to go home and have no money, I find someone to carry me home like this.”

…Wait, that’s a thing?!

Yuan Yuanyuan, who couldn’t transform and still wasn’t sure what kind of demon she was, suddenly felt her old days of hiding around were incredibly dumb. Fat Cat finished eating and began talking about what he and Black and Red had recently discovered.

He said he had uncovered some curious things about Fa Ning’s background.

Yuan Yuanyuan munched on a sausage stick she’d snatched from Xiao Ying (meant for Fat Cat) and followed along Fat Cat’s train of thought. “You mean, you suspected there was something strange about Fa Ning being chosen as the protagonist, so you went digging… and found something?”

“Yeah,” said Fat Cat. “I mean, Naruto had a Hokage dad, Gon had a Hunter dad… these days, protagonists without overpowered parents just don’t exist. So I went to Sanqing Sect, then stopped by my hometown. Heard some things.”

Yuan Yuanyuan looked at the photo Fat Cat showed her and immediately got chills. “Whoa! That really looks like him! Why does it look so much like him?”

The picture on Fat Cat’s phone was of a faded painting—one that Yuan Yuanyuan had vaguely seen before, but didn’t recall clearly. This one, however, was much clearer.

It depicted a battle between demons and Taoists. The demon side was a dark cloud full of countless blood-red eyes.

And on the Taoist side, Yuan Yuanyuan could now make out not just the leading figure but also the two people behind him—one of whom looked exactly like Fa Ning.

“Holy crap.” Yuan Yuanyuan stared at the image, dumbfounded. “You guys just found Fa Ning’s dad…”

“No no no,” Fat Cat flicked his tail. “Judging by the age, it should be his grandfather. Or even great-grandfather… That part’s not important. What is important is that I don’t remember there being any famous Taoist like this guy. Even in previous versions of the painting, his face was always smudged out.”

“How are we supposed to play the game like this…” Yuan Yuanyuan pointed at the guy on the screen. “Dude’s family is clearly OP. What’s the point of struggling?”

She understood why Fat Cat and Black and Red were so obsessed with this stuff—trying to get into the manga themselves, or uncover the mystery of Yuan or Seventeen. The two, normally lazy and cynical, had actually argued about this in their chat group for several nights.

Demon Chronicles might be a manga, but it was based on reality, which gave it an oddly sincere yet naïve feel. Everyone knew that in shonen manga, the hero always defeats the villain and restores peace. But who were the villains in Demon Chronicles? Clearly, the demons who opposed humans.

Fat Cat and Black and Red had always feared that the final outcome would be disastrous for the demon world… maybe even erase their space to exist.

Thus began their tragic, almost suicidal quest…

Well, their determination and anxiety really weren’t something anyone could laugh at.

Fat Cat’s tail swished anxiously. His ears drooped. Yuan Yuanyuan knew that dogs drooped their ears when sad—but did cats too?

She grabbed Fat Cat in a hug, buried her face in his fur, and took a deep sniff. “It’s okay. It’s okay. No matter how it ends, you two are heroes. Big heroes. Even if nobody else knows…”

Then suddenly, she paused. “Fat Cat, why do you smell so… funky?”

“Ah, well, finding that painting wasn’t easy,” Fat Cat said. “I found it on an unburned wall deep inside the Sanqing temple. Then got chased for days. Lived like a stray cat for two weeks…”

“So this smell is…”

“It’s Apple Fanta,” he said. “I hypnotized myself into believing that the mysterious liquid was Apple Fanta.”

Yuan Yuanyuan froze for a second.

“It’s got a layered scent,” Fat Cat added. “The deeper notes come from a substance known as ‘pulp orange juice’…”

Yuan Yuanyuan grabbed the scruff of his neck, hauled him into the bathroom, filled the sink, and dunked him in—watching him blow bubbles in the water.

Fat Cat claimed his pursuers were all shaken off. Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t care—she saw him as a tiny, brave little warrior with lofty ideals. He might be a bit useless as a demon, but she could offer him sanctuary.

She kept browsing through the photos on Fat Cat’s phone. The picture clearly showed two sides—one with Taoists who had just uncovered a shocking secret, and one with demons that seemed… odd.

Yuan Yuanyuan frowned as she stared at the painting. Was it just her imagination? The image of dark clouds and red eyes looked so much like something she’d seen before…

It was a strange hunch she didn’t dare voice aloud—it might mislead others. But the impression stayed with her.

After settling Fat Cat, she remembered she hadn’t yet checked the new manga comments. Especially the weirdos on the forums. Without reading their nonsense, something just felt… incomplete.

So she opened her phone and started browsing again, eager to see how these fans were losing their minds.

She had come to terms with a lot… especially after seeing Yuan’s private life depicted in the manga. She felt she could handle anything.

These readers had such a habit of assigning bizarre personality traits to Yuan… Honestly, if she just ignored who the characters were, she could almost get into the shipping madness herself…

She opened a particularly famous thread. Lately, whenever “sugar” (sweet moments) dropped, everyone flocked there to dance. Whether it was real sugar or not… didn’t matter anymore. She joined in and noticed that the top dogs hadn’t posted yet—it was mostly minor players stirring things up.

[SUGAR DROP! Yuan has now spared Fa Ning twice!!]

[Can you believe it? Can you?? Yuan actually held back even when Fa Ning was provoking him?!]

Yuan Yuanyuan burst out laughing. Sure, she always held back when facing Fa Ning… But only hardcore CP fans latched onto that. Most readers just saw it as typical plot armor—villain monologues instead of killing the hero. Nothing unusual there.

But truthfully… no one would ever know for sure.

No one would know that all the things Yuan had said—were genuinely out of concern for Fa Ning.

Yuan Yuanyuan suddenly felt a little sad. So sad that she considered writing her own fanfic to reveal her true feelings to the audience…

She shook her head and refreshed the thread. Suddenly, a massive new post had appeared—long and eye-catching. She glanced at the ID and recognized it instantly: one of the fandom’s top-tier fanfic authors.

The big names might be late—but they never missed a beat. Yuan Yuanyuan propped her chin up and began to read:

[Yuan looked at Fa Ning, and a sudden wave of anger surged through his heart.]

[“How could he do this? How dare he?”]

[Yuan silently approached Fa Ning. The spiritual energy on him was one Yuan was intimately familiar with—every person who practiced that technique had died horribly.]

[Who gave it to him? And why?]

[Though his heart was in turmoil, Yuan’s face remained calm. He simply looked at Fa Ning and said coldly, “No wonder this energy felt so familiar… You’ve actually started training in that technique? Who taught you?”]

[Fa Ning met his gaze with an unsettling stare. Yuan felt uncomfortable but said nothing. He didn’t know how to express his concern—he never had. So all he could do was lash out with sarcasm.]

[He had never learned how to care for others.]

[“Don’t you know this technique leads to misery?” Yuan said. “You’ll die a terrible death.”]

[No one noticed the worry hidden in his deep, ocean-like eyes.]

[He turned to leave, still feeling Fa Ning’s hateful stare behind him. But his mind was spinning, searching desperately for a way to save him.]

[There was one method… extremely dangerous. But worth trying.]

Yuan Yuanyuan flipped to the end. Yep—same as always. Dry~ dramatic~ finale. She turned away with a “my eyes!” expression.

And the comments…

[Aaaaahhh Yuan is too tragic! Fa Ning you bastard, how could you!!]

[Author, get this on the official site! I’ll vote for you!!]

[Why is Yuan in fanfic so different from canon?! In canon he’s all gruff and distant, but in fanfic he’s so tsundere and soft—delicious! What will I do when I can’t get more of this sweet content?!]

Goddamn idiots.

With some malicious glee, Yuan Yuanyuan commented under the post: [Author-sama is amazing~ flowers for you~] Then she went to bed—after clearing her phone’s cache and history…

Because, well… this kind of content really shouldn’t linger on one’s phone overnight.

She drifted off quickly. Outside, the city lights glowed brightly. Countless people still walked the streets, living their nightlife.

Suddenly, Gao Ling sat up in bed, drenched in cold sweat.

She’d taken what Tang Shi said earlier as a joke… but as the saying goes, day thoughts, night dreams. While sleeping, she’d had a dream.

In the dream, Seventeen… was Yuan.

A lot of the dream made no sense on reflection—but Gao Ling couldn’t stop replaying it in her mind.

What’s going on? Why did I dream that? Is my imagination going too wild lately?

What kind of person was Yuan, anyway? Gao Ling thought slowly. To her, he was a reliable demon—stern on the outside, but deeply dependable.

But… could the Seventeen who was once betrayed and cast out by the demon world really be him?