Little Pink Starfish

Now that people had read the comic, they should all know by now—it was the red-clothed woman who gave the bone whistle to Yuan.

So… they probably wouldn’t be trying to force Yuan out anymore, right? Yuan Yuanyuan thought. In that case, could the toxic stuff they’d been spreading outside finally come to a halt?

Just as this thought crossed her mind, she suddenly felt better sitting in the room. Even though the red gauze was still there, it obviously couldn’t completely block out the dust and toxins from outside. Still, this was the most comfortable she’d felt in days, and she collapsed onto the floor like jelly.

Ah… speaking of which, the timing…

Yuan Yuanyuan glanced at the clock. It had been twenty minutes since the Demon Memoirs comic updated. She figured everyone else must be the same—they read it as soon as it dropped. Just like her, the other side must have read it too, realized something was off, and called off their plan. They were perfectly synchronized.

In a way, that comic just saved my life, she thought, climbing to her feet, preparing to go home.

She hadn’t been home in days. As soon as she stepped inside, she heard Fat Cat snoring. She crawled into her bedroom and lay down on her tiny bed, turning on the bedside lamp. The second she did, she felt every bone in her body finally relax.

The tavern wasn’t a bad place—it was fine to stay there—but a golden nest or a silver nest still couldn’t compare to one’s own doghouse. Yuan Yuanyuan curled up in her own bed and felt like there wasn’t a more comfortable place in the world. Even the blood-red sky outside somehow seemed less terrifying.

She opened the comic and skimmed through the latest chapter. This issue was a bit of a mixed bag, mostly covering all the recent chaos in C City—though it all traced back to the moment she took out the bone whistle.

Fa Ning and Yuan Yingli had both believed that was the most critical moment, so they borrowed the whistle from Yuan Yuanyuan. That’s when all the trouble began.

But trouble like this wasn’t something you could avoid—it was like a ticking time bomb. Sooner or later, it would go off.

From the comic, Yuan Yuanyuan learned a lot she hadn’t known before. Apparently, right after Fa Ning blew the whistle, a group of people dressed in brown clothing and wearing strange headgear suddenly arrived in C City. At first, both sides in the battle were confused—where had they come from, and who were they fighting for?

Then, shockingly, those newcomers started fighting each other, going at it as if it were life or death.

Yuan Yuanyuan tried to analyze who these people might be. The most likely explanation was that after Seventeen died, the Demon King of a Hundred Beasts double-crossed everyone and took action. But the comic didn’t go into much detail on that part—readers were more focused on the owner of the bone whistle.

At first, the public guessed it belonged to Yuan. The reason wasn’t clearly shown, but that was more than enough for readers to go wild with speculation.

The outside world erupted. Many people began to suspect that Yuan hadn’t actually died, and that he’d really returned. Initially, there weren’t that many believers, but as time went on and more people caught wind of what had happened, the theory started gaining traction.

That in turn attracted a batch of strange individuals—nobody knew their names or appearances. Their job was to go to tall buildings, burn something, and use wind to scatter it across the entire city.

Eventually, it all came back to the red-clothed woman. This issue of the comic revealed that it was her who gave the bone whistle to Fa Ning.

Yuan Yuanyuan figured this action alone would earn her quite a bit of hate, so she scrolled down to check the comments—and sure enough, that was exactly what happened. A whole bunch of people were complaining and venting their frustrations.

【Ah… that was too fast. Just like that, my fantasy was crushed. I thought Yuan really hadn’t died and was about to come back.】

【Demon Memoirs is the most unpredictable official comic I’ve ever read. Usually, popular characters get resurrected as soon as possible. But here, it’s like the official team deliberately did nothing. At this rate, Yuan is doomed.】

【Why! That whistle is obviously super important… Why give it to the red-dressed woman?! Was she his widow or something?!】

【Looks like they weren’t just lovers but also comrades-in-arms… Otherwise, why entrust something so vital to her?】

【So unfair! Why couldn’t they wait for me for a few more years! Just like that, she—a faceless woman—got ahead of me?!】

That last comment… had to be from some demon bro surfing the web. The vibe was unmistakable.

Yuan Yuanyuan scrolled through the comments, thinking it was fair enough. If people had complaints, she’d just take the heat herself—at least she wasn’t bothering anyone else with it.

But the important stuff still hadn’t been revealed. What exactly were they burning? Who told them to burn it? Yuan Yuanyuan racked her brain, but no answers came. Puzzled and frustrated, she fell asleep.

She slept for a long time. When she finally woke up and looked at the sky, it had returned to its normal color. After so many days of red skies, seeing a pure blue sky felt almost unfamiliar.

Looking down, she saw many demons on the streets cleaning up.

Not far off, she spotted a group of people from C City’s special department, lifting one body after another onto stretchers. Passersby couldn’t see them, so the demons moved freely through the crowds.

Yuan Yuanyuan got herself together and stepped out onto the street. She overheard a couple of people heading to work sigh in relief.

“The sky’s back to normal today… The past few days were…”

“Yeah…” said an old man walking nearby. “Those days were really…”

As they chatted, two demons passed by carrying a stretcher covered with a white sheet. The humans couldn’t see them, so they didn’t react at all. They even moved closer together, forcing the demons to veer off their path slightly.

Yuan Yuanyuan stepped sideways through the space between the two humans. On a nearby wall, she noticed a poster advertising the live-action adaptation of Demon Memoirs. The smiling face on the poster looked oddly out of place to her.

Why did it look so carefree? Was it just her imagination?

Some things, Yuan Yuanyuan had sensed long ago—like how demons had a rougher time than humans… and how they tended to take death a lot more lightly. Most demons were prepared to die violently in the street. Since their lives were constantly at risk, they rarely wasted time on sentiment.

But in some ways, humans could be even more ruthless than demons.

Then again, it wasn’t entirely their fault—they simply didn’t know any better.

Yuan Yuanyuan followed the street in the direction where the most demons were gathered. She could smell the sharp, unpleasant mixture of odors in the air. Her sense of smell had grown extremely sharp lately, making her feel even worse.

But as she walked, she suddenly caught a familiar scent. It made her stop in her tracks and glance in that direction.

There was a crowd of demons over there, looking quite congested. She didn’t know what they were doing. Frowning, she stared at the group and zeroed in on a figure—then, suddenly, she followed.

She pushed through the crowd and even changed her own face into a very plain one. The nearby demons glanced at her briefly but didn’t recognize her, so they went back to whatever they were doing.

Those people were moving toward a more crowded area. Yuan Yuanyuan squeezed in behind them—not because she wanted to know where they were going, but to confirm their identities. After all, she’d seen them before.

If she wasn’t mistaken, those were the same people who had pulled out that silver thread at the comic convention years ago.

She’d felt sick the moment she smelled that thing back then, which was why she hadn’t fought. She’d just scared them off. The scent of some of those demons had been burned into her memory. She thought she’d forgotten, but clearly, she hadn’t.

What were they doing here now? Wait… they were the ones who burned the silver thread half a year ago. So now they were here again—could it be…

Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t keep following. Once she confirmed it was them, she stopped. She was afraid they might still have that stuff. If she forced a confrontation, she might not make it out alive.

Still, that was a pretty big discovery—it confirmed that the group from back then and now were the same people.

She memorized their faces but still couldn’t figure out who they were. So, she returned to the tavern. As she entered, she heard a familiar voice:

“There are so many street cleaners out today… Back in the day when I worked in C City, I used to be one too.”

“Huh? That’s the first time you’ve said that. Didn’t you work at some important place, according to the comic? How could you have been a cleaner?”

“Important? Nah… Maybe the comic left it out because it was embarrassing. I was so scared people would find out I was a cleaner, I used to take long detours just to avoid being seen. Funny thing is, the person who took me in back then… was Yuan. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have hidden it. He probably figured it out long ago.”

…Yuan Yuanyuan silently pushed open the curtain and stepped in, her face expressionless, quietly sitting behind the curtain. The red gauze in the room had already been removed, so the place felt brighter and more open.

“Oh, you’re finally here,” Fa Ning and Yuan Yingli greeted her. Yuan Yuanyuan looked at Fa Ning and suddenly felt a little awkward. For some reason, his face just seemed… off.

“I remember a few days ago this room was covered in red curtains,” Fa Ning said, waving to her. “Why’d they all suddenly disappear overnight?”