Little Pink Starfish

In the middle of the night, Yuan Yuanyuan rushed to the tavern to find the proprietress—only to stop in front of the door, cursing herself for being dumb.

Why am I here in the middle of the night…?
It felt weird. This wasn’t some urgent state secret. Coming like this, all flustered, just made her look panicked and desperate—not a good look. And what if she startled the proprietress?

Yuan Yuanyuan stood hesitating outside for a long while, not going in. Just as she was about to turn and leave, the door suddenly opened. The proprietress stood there in a single thin robe, staring at her coldly.

…Big sis, how long have you been standing there? Yuan Yuanyuan was speechless for a second, then quickly followed her inside. The proprietress huffed, slamming the door behind her.

Once inside, Yuan Yuanyuan let out a long breath. The weather was getting colder now—it was clearly turning to autumn. Standing out there in the dead of night had been freezing. But inside, the air was warm, full of perfume and the scent of alcohol.

“What were you doing standing outside at this hour?” the proprietress asked, her tone chilly as ever.

“…Couldn’t sleep,” Yuan Yuanyuan replied.

“And coming here is supposed to help you sleep?” the proprietress snapped.

Well… no, not really. Yuan Yuanyuan realized this probably wasn’t something she should be discussing with the proprietress anyway. Seventeen wouldn’t have been this dumb—if he were here, he would’ve figured everything out already.

Ugh… she really had acted on impulse. But now that she was here, she wasn’t planning on leaving empty-handed. She wanted to at least fish for some information.

Just as she was thinking this, the proprietress suddenly called her over. “Bad mood?”

Huh?

Yuan Yuanyuan blinked, then nodded vigorously.

“Want a drink?” the proprietress asked.

More vigorous nodding.

The proprietress rolled her eyes, turned with a dramatic swish of her robe, and walked away. Yuan Yuanyuan understood instantly and hurried after her.

Sometimes Yuan Yuanyuan felt the proprietress was pretty easy to read… Maybe it was just girl-to-girl logic—she could use her old romance-novel reading brain to predict her moves.

As the two of them began drinking, elsewhere, Gao Ling had just finished reading the latest comic chapter, staying up late to do it.

The group chat was still buzzing with night owls. Everyone was discussing the chapter with wild guesses:

【Boss! What do you think?】
【C’mon, explain this! What’s going on?】
【What really happened back then?!】

Gao Ling scrolled through the chat, sighing silently. How would I know? Just because I leaked some insider info before, you all think I’m some kind of spy…

She hadn’t even realized something like that had happened in the northwest. On first reading, it had totally flown over her head. Now, thinking back, she realized the calm surface of the comic masked all kinds of undercurrents.

She sighed, feeling a little exhausted. But she quickly pulled herself together—no choice really. What else could she do?

Anyway, from the looks of it, the red-dress girl was living happily and carefree… which meant Yuan must be fine too.

Sometimes Gao Ling couldn’t help but admire Yuan. How had he managed to remove himself so cleanly from such a tangled situation? Who would’ve guessed he was now that red-dress woman?

Gao Ling opened her computer. The internet was already full of speculation about Yuan’s next move. Some people argued that with Yuan’s brain, he couldn’t possibly have missed the fact that everyone around him was watching him. Others thought maybe he had been too distracted—traumatized by past events—and just didn’t notice.

In any case, it was all a mess. Gao Ling sat in her chair and looked up at the sky. Ever since she had started seeing monsters, she often noticed strange lights or beautiful auras in the sky.

That night, she saw more beautiful lights again.

As she gazed up, she suddenly felt how tiny she was. From above, wouldn’t she look like nothing more than an ant?

And then, just as she was looking, a blinding streak of red light shot across the sky—gone in an instant like a meteor.

Gao Ling froze. A rumbling sound reached her ears. She quickly shut the window, then ran to the living room to close that window too.

“Why are you shutting the windows?” her mom asked.

“…It’s cold,” Gao Ling said. “Let’s just keep them closed for now.”

Sometimes being able to see what others couldn’t was more of a burden than a gift… At least back then, she didn’t live in constant fear.

That night, everyone in C City with spiritual sensitivity was on edge. The sky cracked with strange booms all night. No one knew what was going on.

Not just C City—other border regions across the country were shaken. Something huge had happened in secret.

Actually, it wasn’t just that night. Tensions had been quietly building for some time—but something had clearly gone down last night, and it had made a lot of noise.

Loud enough to alarm someone like Gao Ling. But over at the tavern… Yuan Yuanyuan remained blissfully unaware.

She was drinking. The tavern was lively, filled with music and laughter, like nothing had happened.

When the first explosion echoed outside, Yuan Yuanyuan was having her third glass with the proprietress. She’d originally come to dig for information, but now she realized—there was no need. All she had to do was drink.

Because the proprietress drank even harder than she did. Yuan Yuanyuan tried to speak up once but then shut her mouth tight again.

At their pace, if either of them didn’t pass out, it would be a miracle. Thirty minutes later, Yuan Yuanyuan was dead drunk. The proprietress was in even worse shape.

Yuan Yuanyuan, barely clinging to consciousness, looked at the proprietress. Somewhere between waking and dreaming, she thought she heard her mutter something.

“Yuan… what were you thinking when you killed the Mirror Demon?”

Yuan Yuanyuan, completely out of it, had a blank mind. She vaguely wondered—Mirror Demon? Who?
Oh… the one buried in the backyard…

Flashes of blurry images drifted through her mind, most of them unrecognizable. In the end, she just held her glass and stared into space.

“I guess… I wasn’t thinking much. It just felt like… the result was already inevitable.” Yuan Yuanyuan murmured softly, not even realizing she had spoken.

Another explosion thundered nearby—this one close to the tavern. Yuan Yuanyuan looked out the window but was too drunk to react.

The sun rose.

Outside, the streets were a mess. This time, not just monster clans and taoist priests were involved—even the government stepped in to clean up. A shopping mall in the city center had suddenly exploded last night. Thankfully it had been empty.

The road was blocked off in the morning—no one allowed in.

Rumors flew everywhere. Some said the building had collapsed due to poor materials. Others even guessed it was a bomb… By noon, the official explanation was out: it had just been a burglary.

Gao Ling, dark circles under her eyes, wasn’t buying it. The ground had shaken at 3 a.m. She’d almost run to wake her parents up—if not for the realization that there was nowhere safe to go in the middle of the night, she might’ve done it.

What the hell happened last night? she wondered. Why did it feel like the world was ending?

Meanwhile, Yuan Yuanyuan groaned awake, clutching her aching head. Her whole body hurt.

She tried to recall what had happened last night—nothing came to mind.

What… happened?

She turned to wake the proprietress. “Hey, wake up. Why are you sleeping here?”

“Mm…” the proprietress groggily sat up, looked at Yuan Yuanyuan with zero expression, and waved her hand, “You can go now.”

…Yuan Yuanyuan paused for a second, unsure what that meant. But she obediently got up and left, pretending she totally understood.

Walking down the street, she suddenly noticed something was off. She frowned and saw a monster’s corpse being carried away.

She stared for a while. Then she turned her head—and her expression went blank.

Huh? What the hell happened?
Last night she had been drinking, and now…

She passed a shopping mall she frequented and looked back—half of it had collapsed.

Yuan Yuanyuan: “…”

It was like she woke up and the whole world had changed.

Wait… what happened last night?

Only now did it slowly dawn on her—she’d once again somehow avoided being caught up in something big.
But what was that thing?

She felt like the whole world was spinning as she stumbled home. At her front door, she saw the fat cat squatting there. Only then did she feel safe again.

“Fat Cat, what happened last night?” she asked.

“Some of the Hundred Demon Alliance tried to interfere in C City,” Fat Cat replied. “But outsiders weren’t having it. They called in help from the Anti-War group. The demons who came were forced to retreat. The Hundred Demon King isn’t ready to show up in person just yet.”

“…Huh?” Yuan Yuanyuan blinked.

“Huh?” she repeated, stunned.