Little Pink Starfish

There’s never a shortage of bosses talking tough in manga… but the effect of an average-level boss making threats is nothing like when one of the top bosses does it.

Take Li Zi Jie, for example… when he talks tough, it’s absolutely at a top-boss level.

At the very least, the vibe he gives now is that he absolutely means what he says. Yuan Yuanyuan’s first instinct when she saw it was just that—he means it.

Naturally, this caused a stir online… the ones most shaken were those who still believed Yuan hadn’t died. They stared at the manga with wide eyes, thinking, No way, what kind of plot twist is this…?

【WTF, what do you mean “send you off”? What is he planning??】
【Wait… what does this mean? Could it be that Yuan’s previous death was his doing too?】
【Yuan… how did he die? Fell from the sky?】
【No… I don’t think that’s it. Maybe Yuan fell, and then he did something else that led to Yuan’s death?】
【Holy crap!】

Today, while Yuan Yuanyuan was tidying up, she didn’t dare go near Li Zi Jie. There was an invisible circle of death around her—anyone who entered would be done for. Yuan Yuanyuan wasn’t about to join that chaos.

Even though this was technically her turf—her boss’s place—she and the boss lady had never revealed Yuan Yuanyuan’s true identity to anyone. They both kept it airtight, so even among their own people, no one really knew.

Still, Yuan Yuanyuan suspected that Li Zi Jie probably knew… after all, Si Qun had appeared in the manga back then… but if she didn’t figure it out, then whatever. Yuan Yuanyuan wasn’t going to push it.

She curled up in a corner holding Si Qun, trembling just like she had when she first started working here…

Online, theories about why Yuan had died were flying around. If not for the current timing, Yuan Yuanyuan wouldn’t have realized that Yuan actually had so many fans. Or maybe… it was only after seeing that he really was dead this time that those fans suddenly appeared?

Right now, people were cursing Ji Qiu while waiting for the next update. No way they were quitting the series—they couldn’t draw their own, so all they could do was argue online to kill time…

Yuan Yuanyuan was also dying to know what the next issue would reveal. She didn’t know the hidden plotlines either, so now she was just like the other readers—cursing “WTF” while secretly shouting, so intense!

And so, the next few issues—Ji Qiu really delivered the intensity.

The Saturday issue told the story of Li Zi Jie’s so-called reverse aging. Only then did Yuan Yuanyuan realize that her previous suspicions were actually pretty justified. If Li Zi Jie had aged normally, he definitely wouldn’t look this old now. The reason he looked this aged was due to a severe injury he’d sustained long ago.

The details of the injury weren’t spelled out, but it was hinted that it had damaged him at the core. The manga subtly implied that this injury was related to the previous King of the Hundred Demons.

This was quite a twist, since Yuan Yuanyuan remembered that it was the King of the Hundred Demons who had screwed over Seventeen… but in the end, he screwed over Li Zi Jie too?

Then, in the Monday issue, Yuan Yingli suddenly vanished without a word. Fa Ning was completely baffled, searching everywhere but finding not even a note.

Yuan Yuanyuan was also thrown—Fat Cat disappeared that day too… nowhere to be found.

Even though Yuan Yingli’s disappearance was sudden and quiet, Fa Ning still made a few guesses. His best one? That Yuan Yingli had gone to find Yuan…

Yuan Yuanyuan suspected Fat Cat might have gone to find Yuan too, but she had no proof. She tried calling out for Fat Cat online, but there was zero response. That radio silence just left her frustrated.

Come the next Saturday issue…

Ji Qiu’s pen shifted focus back to Yuan Yuanyuan. A conversation she’d had earlier with Fa Ning was suddenly included in the manga, and it caught her off guard. She couldn’t make sense of the timing.

【Fa Ning and the woman in red stood beneath a tree. The woman in red crouched slightly; Fa Ning stood. Snowflakes fluttered from the sky.】

The woman in red rarely appeared in public, yet here she was. Readers were stunned to see her so suddenly. Only Ji Qiu could make her appear like this—it really drove home Fa Ning’s protagonist status.

Though Yuan Yuanyuan knew the two weren’t like that, the way it was drawn… it did look like the woman in red was purposely waiting for Fa Ning. That’s how other mangas usually depicted this sort of scene.

【“Do people always change in the end?” Fa Ning asked, his gaze a bit lost.】

【The woman in red didn’t respond. She pointed to a small mound of earth. Fa Ning, puzzled, asked, “Why are you pointing at that?”】

【“Just showing you,” the woman said flatly. “Don’t end up like him.”】

【Fa Ning was stunned. Then suddenly, he thought of the relationship between Yuan and Seventeen, and it all clicked.】

【But… how exactly did Seventeen die? He grew more and more suspicious.】

【He remembered that the person in that grave… had supposedly died by Yuan’s hand. Most people believed the two had faked a conflict to earn the trust of the Mask Organization. But if Seventeen really died…】

【Fa Ning thought deeply. He looked up—only to see the woman in red rising to leave. He quickly called out.】

【She stopped, back still turned.】

【“How did the one who survived manage to do it? Doesn’t it hurt?”】

【…】

【That question came out of nowhere.】

【…】

【The woman in red didn’t respond for a long time. Fa Ning grew more and more anxious. The silence only made him feel worse, like he’d said something incredibly stupid.】

【She didn’t seem like someone who’d joke around…】

【Eventually, she murmured something softly. Fa Ning asked, “Huh?” But the woman said nothing more—just turned and walked away.】

【Under the tree, Fa Ning stood alone. He recalled the three words she’d said. Judging by her lip movement, they seemed to be: “I suppose so.”】

【“I suppose so”… what does that even mean?】

—Saturday issue end.

…

Yuan Yuanyuan took her basket and went grocery shopping. New Year’s was around the corner, and it was time to stock up. She wasn’t so broke anymore that her pants were falling apart—she could afford to buy in bulk now.

She happened to pass the cat food section and paused to grab a few cans, tossing them into her cart before heading to the checkout.

Living large now, huh… she could actually afford cat food she wasn’t even sure anyone would eat.

Yuan Yuanyuan glanced at the items in her cart. At checkout, she grabbed a manga volume. The cashier was a stunning young woman who greeted her warmly, “Yuanyuan-jie, buying New Year goods too?”

“Yeah…” Yuan Yuanyuan watched her stuff get scanned, knowing full well why the girl was being so friendly—because she was a youkai too, a full-blooded one.

It had been said before: this apartment complex had a lot of youkai. Yuan Yuanyuan might be the only half-youkai here. Half-youkai seemed super rare—maybe due to reproductive isolation or something. She sometimes wished half-youkai could be badass like one-eyed ghouls. Weren’t hybrids supposed to be stronger? So why did it fall apart when it came to humans and youkai?

Yuan Yuanyuan headed into an alleyway downstairs—small, dim, with a flickering broken light no one had fixed.

As she climbed the stairs, a heavily bundled figure passed her—and suddenly stabbed at her.

Yuan Yuanyuan caught the attacker’s arm in a flash, then drove the blade back in return. The attacker collapsed, eyes wide in shock, as if unable to comprehend how a half-youkai could fight back.

She pulled back the hood—it was that cashier girl from earlier. Her eyes were wide with disbelief.

Had things really gotten this bad? Or was it that the anti-war group in the manga had seemed so weak lately that the purist faction was getting bold? Yuan Yuanyuan shook her head.

Come to think of it… in the last Harry Potter book, the Death Eaters had their little moment too. After Dumbledore died, everyone fell apart.

Yuan Yuanyuan pushed open her door, stuffed the groceries into the fridge, then flipped on the TV. No cat to pet, but she had kiwis—one in each hand. Not bad at all.

The news was on. She cracked open a Coke and scrolled on her phone while listening.

Suddenly—knock knock.

“What is it?” Yuan Yuanyuan opened the door. It was Xue-jie.

“You’ve got some nerve. Was it you who killed that girl who moved in downstairs a few days ago?” Xue-jie asked.

“What? No way.” Yuan Yuanyuan put on an innocent face.

“She wrote about you, you know.” Xue-jie handed over a notebook—it looked like a diary.

Yuan Yuanyuan opened it: page after page of things like “That half-youkai upstairs is disgusting”, “I want to kill her”…

Uh… got caught in the gutter this time. Who’d have thought she was the diary-keeping type?

Yuan Yuanyuan looked up at Xue-jie with big, innocent eyes. In general, youkai didn’t interfere in fights between their own kind, especially outside neutral zones.

Xue-jie stared at her with a helpless expression, then finally shook her head. “Forget it. Pack your things and come with me. You’re staying at the tavern for a while.”