Little Pink Starfish

The fat cat was fuming and motioned for Yuan Yuanyuan to come closer. She held his big feline face and asked, “What’s wrong?”

The fat cat’s flat face stared into Yuan Yuanyuan’s eyes for a while. Suddenly, a faint mist filled the room, and Yuan Yuanyuan felt the soft face under her hands turning hard—there were bones underneath now.

As the smoke cleared, a gloomy human face appeared in front of Yuan Yuanyuan. She hadn’t seen this face in a long time. All this time, she’d been looking at the cat face of the fat cat and had almost forgotten that this guy, like Teacher Cat, had both a cat form and a posturing form.

…She wasn’t used to it.

The fat cat stood up, still wearing his loose cow-patterned pajamas, looking sickly. Yuan Yuanyuan watched him leave the room, as if heading out. She quickly called after him, “Hey, where are you going?”

The fat cat had been unwell lately and hadn’t fully recovered. Yuan Yuanyuan was worried he might collapse if he suddenly went out without a word.

“I can’t take it anymore,” the fat cat said in a dark tone. “I’m going to infiltrate the anti-war organization…”

What?

Yuan Yuanyuan was dumbfounded for a few seconds, then suddenly realized—oh hell, this cat really was that kind of personality… Always courting disaster. This wasn’t the first time.

But it was the first time Yuan Yuanyuan had witnessed it with her own eyes.

She recalled how, in the past, the fat cat and Hei Hongse got bored, dragged Li along, and charged straight into the enemy camp. They went silent for nearly a month, and in the end, the fat cat was beaten up badly and had to be rescued by Yuan Yuanyuan disguised as Yuan…

And last time… Yuan Yuanyuan, while thinking, grabbed a handful of cat fur—actually, it was the cow-print fabric of the fat cat’s pajamas—and said, “Don’t go. Calm down.”

As she spoke, her grip tightened. Back when the fat cat caused trouble, Yuan Yuanyuan had no way to stop him. But now…?

Heh.

After walking for a bit, the fat cat realized he couldn’t move forward. He turned around and saw Yuan Yuanyuan calmly gripping his collar.

“Back, back, back,” Yuan Yuanyuan said evenly as she dragged the bewildered fat cat back. “What are you going to do over there, huh? Die again and come back? You’d barely be more than an appetizer over there.”

“Y-Your grip is kinda strong…” the fat cat said weakly. Yuan Yuanyuan patted his shoulder without a care. “Come on, little brother, don’t be so tense. If you’ve got ideas, let’s think long term. Rushing off like that never works out.”

The fat cat was dragged back and handed a cup of milk tea, which he silently sipped.

Yuan Yuanyuan let out a sigh of relief. It wasn’t just for show—if the fat cat had gone, who knows what kind of mess he would’ve stirred up? This guy seriously underestimated his ability to cause trouble.

What the heck had he read that got him so angry? Yuan Yuanyuan flipped through the comic and saw that after Faning and Yuan Yingli fled from that grave, they ended up in a deserted place.

[Yuan Yingli was panting hard. He asked, “What—what did you see? Why did you run like that?”]

[“…” Faning stayed silent, but his face was getting darker.]

[Seeing his expression, Yuan Yingli grew more anxious. Then Faning said, “Do you remember… when you first came here, there was a particularly famous Mirror Demon?”]

[“Mirror Demon?” Yuan Yingli racked his brain and quickly remembered a figure.]

[This Mirror Demon had quite the presence—highly respected here.]

[When Yuan Yingli first arrived, he’d heard many stories about the Mirror Demon. Back then, the Mirror Demon was at the height of his fame. People said he was always loyal and emotional, sharp-tongued but soft-hearted—a guy who seemed fierce on the outside but was incredibly kind inside.]

[Then something happened that made Yuan Yingli remember him even more—the Mirror Demon died.]

[—Killed by Yuan.]

[When that news came out, the entire demon realm was shaken. Two things happened—first, the Mask Organization placed complete trust in Yuan, even promoting him to the top position. Second, the anti-war organization came to hate Yuan even more.]

[It was the biggest event of that time. Yuan Yingli wasn’t stupid. The moment Faning brought it up, he instantly realized the man in that grave was… that Mirror Demon?]

[Yuan Yingli was stunned for a few seconds, then fell silent with Faning as they walked back home.]

[They didn’t speak on the way back, but that didn’t mean their minds were blank.]

[If the Mirror Demon was buried so carefully, then that woman in red and her companion must have known something. Even if the companion said those things, maybe she didn’t actually dislike the Mirror Demon. She sometimes said the opposite of what she meant. Who could tell?]

[The Mirror Demon was killed by Yuan, yet Yuan buried him with his own hands… what was their relationship? Yuan Yingli had a head full of questions. He had always believed they were enemies—at least that’s how it was portrayed. He’d been naïve. Thinking back now, there might have been a deeper story here.]

[Back home, Yuan Yingli shared his suspicions with Faning. Faning gave him a look—it meant he’d hit the mark. Yuan Yingli broke out in goosebumps, and then Faning said, “Their relationship wasn’t ordinary. I think they were good friends.”]

[That’s when everything clicked for Yuan Yingli.]

[Right… why did Yuan’s killing of the Mirror Demon cause such an uproar? If the Mirror Demon was famous in the anti-war camp, Yuan had taken out other big names before too. Unless… there was something else going on.]

[Because of Yuan’s mysterious identity, not many knew his social circles. Even info-loving Yuan Yingli couldn’t map out Yuan’s entire network. Missing one or two wasn’t surprising. Like the Mirror Demon… maybe he was part of Yuan’s most secret web—only the oldest demons knew about it.]

[The Mask Organization surely had old demons in their ranks, so when they saw Yuan kill that demon, they trusted him. But the anti-war camp likely didn’t have such elders, so they hated Yuan all the more.]

[This matter trickled down from the top. But did the anti-war group really have no contact with Yuan? Yuan Yingli didn’t believe that.]

[If Yuan could bury someone in their base, that meant both sides had been talking for a long time. And if the Mirror Demon was part of the anti-war organization, it could only mean one thing—]

[—Everyone knew from the start.]

[Yuan knew. The Mirror Demon knew. The woman in red knew. So did her companion.]

[Maybe… the whole thing had been planned by them from the beginning.]

[Yuan Yingli took a deep breath. The whole thing reeked of eerie manipulation, yet it also felt too perfectly orchestrated—and soaked in too much blood for him to dwell on it.]

[But in the end, he still asked Faning what else he saw.]

[“I saw Yuan kneeling in front of the grave,” Faning said. “He was covered in blood. The woman who sent us out was standing next to him. And… I saw him crying.”]

…

Yuan Yuanyuan stared at the comic with dead fish eyes. She quietly closed her phone, turned around, and drew her fruit knife…

The fat cat drinking his milk tea looked confused. What now? Things were just calming down—why was she exploding again?

“Wait, what now?” the fat cat asked, grabbing her arm. Yuan Yuanyuan, still wearing her dead fish expression, kept walking. “I’m suffocating…”

The fat cat, a six-foot man, couldn’t hold her back. She dragged him five or six meters toward the door.

But Yuan Yuanyuan’s clothes weren’t as tough as the fat cat’s skin. If she dragged him any farther, she might end up streaking. So she stopped at the doorway and exhaled deeply.

What was this supposed to mean…? So Yuan Yingli thinks she and that Mirror Demon staged an entire act? And now the Mirror Demon has somehow become a noble figure? Yuan Yuanyuan curled her lips and almost spat in frustration before stomping back inside.

Yuan Yuanyuan and the fat cat were mad for different reasons, but online, people had plenty of opinions about it.

Some sighed at how selfless the Mirror Demon was, and how ruthless Yuan had been…

That he’d killed his own friend just to gain the enemy’s trust.

The internet buzzed with theories, while Gao Ling sat motionless in front of her screen.

It clearly… wasn’t like that.

…But thinking about it this way, it was kind of a dramatic twist, wasn’t it?