Little Pink Starfish

Fa Ning and Changsheng crouched at the gate. Changsheng’s stealth skills weren’t as sharp as Fa Ning’s, and even Fa Ning wasn’t daring to move forward at this point.

The two of them stood just outside, observing the guards at the entrance. Fa Ning pointed toward the gate and said to Changsheng, “See that? Another batch just went in.”

Changsheng followed his line of sight.

“They definitely won’t be coming out again,” Fa Ning added.

“How long have those red clouds been in the sky?” Changsheng asked.

“One day.”

“…Then there’s still time.” Changsheng suddenly stood up and tugged Fa Ning to head back.

“What—what’s wrong?” Fa Ning looked at Changsheng’s face, vaguely sensing something bad.

“Let’s go back,” Changsheng said. “I’ll explain it all to you.”

…

Inside the residence, the King of All Demons was still struggling to breathe, but what surprised everyone was that his breathing was gradually stabilizing.

The maidservants nearby trembled and didn’t dare look up. Blood stained various spots of the courtyard floor, trailing all the way into the well in the backyard.

“Right now, the Li Family Head’s biggest obsession is probably the King of All Demons,” Fat Cat said.

Yuan Yuanyuan instinctively wanted to turn her head and ask why, but she forced herself to stop. She suddenly remembered—she was supposed to be Yuan.

“Why is that?” Another demon nearby asked in her stead. “I thought he might not care about the King of All Demons anymore. Given the current situation… wouldn’t it be better for him to seize the throne for himself?”

“You’re not very bright, are you,” Fat Cat lazily yawned and flicked his tail. “He’s backed by bloodline loyalists. Maintaining the purity of the bloodline is a given.”

“The King of All Demons is the bloodline he wants to preserve,” Yuan Yuanyuan added, picking up where Fat Cat left off. She had only just figured it out herself, but she spoke smoothly, as if she’d understood it all along.

“Oh…” The demon beside them looked enlightened.

“At this point, if the King of All Demons were to die, the war would be easier to win,” Fat Cat said. “Whether the Li Family Head gives up completely or goes insane, at least it wouldn’t be this current stalemate.”

“Seems like you didn’t hit him too hard then,” Yuan Yuanyuan said toward the house.

“No, I went all out,” Fat Cat replied. “But I don’t know what method the Li Family Head used to keep him hanging onto life.”

Yuan Yuanyuan turned her head again. The red clouds above deepened suddenly. At this moment, she could clearly tell that the red cloud was absolutely tied to some sort of demonic technique.

Though she still didn’t understand exactly how it worked.

While she was lost in thought, she suddenly felt something heavy on her leg. Looking down, she found that Fat Cat had climbed onto her.

…Huh?

Fat Cat, you’re getting pretty bold, huh.

As she thought that, her phone suddenly buzzed. She looked down—it was a text message.

A text?

In this day and age, people usually used messaging apps. Texts were mostly from service providers like 10086. Seeing an unknown number send a text, Yuan Yuanyuan instinctively thought it was spam and didn’t want to open it.

But then again, she instinctively tapped it open anyway.

It turned out to be an MMS, which took a while to load.

The first image slowly appeared, and Yuan Yuanyuan froze—it was Demon Chronicles.

It was a drawing of the Li Family Head. Beautifully drawn, but oddly unfamiliar to her. She couldn’t recall which issue it came from.

Who sent this? As she pondered the question, she scrolled down—and a few seconds later, realization struck.

Wait… what issue is this from?

Her grip on Fat Cat tightened. She quickly opened the DreamMan app to check the current issue of Demon Chronicles—then suddenly realized:

The image she had just seen… might be from an upcoming chapter.

So, who would’ve sent it to her?

She instinctively kept Fat Cat tightly in place to keep him from seeing the screen—her muscles were already stiff from holding the pose.

She didn’t realize that Fat Cat was also frozen, equally stiff despite appearing relaxed on the outside.

Yuan Yuanyuan flipped through the manga. A well appeared on one of the pages, with vivid red blood scattered around it. At first, she thought it was a flashback. But then she noticed something odd.

This wasn’t a flashback—because Red Sand Well didn’t look like that. She had no idea what this well was, only that it bore an uncanny resemblance to Red Sand Well.

The image was brief, barely a frame, then cut to a figure sitting in a corridor—her features unclear.

But the cat in her arms was clearly visible.

Yuan Yuanyuan: “…”

The cat. She thought, You made it into the frame, huh.

No, that wasn’t the problem. The real issue was that the scene could easily lead to some dangerous misunderstandings.

Fat Cat’s identity had already been exposed. Technically, he was part of Fa Ning’s faction—but…

To put it simply, he was working for the King, but no one knew who had sent him.

Oh no! Yuan Yuanyuan wailed internally. Though the character’s face in the comic wasn’t clearly drawn—maybe Ji Qiu didn’t want to reveal her identity just yet—eventually, people were going to blame this on her…

Yuan Yuanyuan wasn’t the type to compete for credit. Besides, this was not the kind of “credit” you wanted. It could be deadly. Whoever took the kill would draw serious consequences.

At that moment, Fat Cat lazily flicked his tail and said, “You look quite relaxed. Not worried at all. Is it because you’re confident in victory?”

…Shut up!

Yuan Yuanyuan was on the verge of tears. Stop talking. You’re going to push me over the edge.

While she was still wrestling with this, her phone buzzed again. She tremblingly picked it up—another unfamiliar number.

Another message. Another comic panel—clearly a freshly drawn one.

In it, Fat Cat looked particularly cheerful. Despite having recently recovered from a serious illness, his size hadn’t changed. Still just as fat.

His whole depiction was cartoonishly cute, which only made the black-clad figure beside him look even more like a mysterious big shot.

And why did this person feel like a big shot? Well… at such a tense moment, they could still brazenly pet a cat. That had to mean they were powerful.

On the page, cartoon-Fat Cat looked up with a smiling cat face and said, “You look quite relaxed. Not worried at all. Is it because you’re confident in victory?”

Too much!

Yuan Yuanyuan put her phone down and silently shifted Fat Cat to the side. She had to admit—he was extremely soft, especially around the belly. Back when she was just her old self, Fat Cat never let her hold him like this.

After setting Fat Cat aside, she took a deep breath and made a running pose.

One… two… three…

Run!

In a flash, Yuan Yuanyuan was gone. Fat Cat hadn’t even had time to react before she vanished on the spot.

Fat Cat’s moment had really only been a small interlude. Ji Qiu had sent it in as a little joke to ease the tension. Because the next part of the comic… was far from calming.

Yuan Yuanyuan saw Fa Ning and Changsheng standing off to the side. Changsheng spoke seriously to Fa Ning:

【“Do you know the story of Red Sand Well?”】

【“No… not really.” Fa Ning had started to nod, but after seeing Changsheng’s expression, he shook his head.】

【“Alright, I’ll tell you now. But you have to promise me—not to get angry, and not to interrupt until I’ve finished.”】

Then, Yuan Yuanyuan just stood there outside the house… and read manga for half an hour.

…

It was completely dark when Yuan Yuanyuan finally came back in. Her face was expressionless, her mood clearly low.

Fat Cat had sprawled back onto the kang bed again. He was, unsurprisingly, a total bully. When Yuan Yuanyuan petted him, even the slightest wrong move earned her a glare. But when it came to the person who had drawn him and then dumped him halfway through a cuddle session—he obediently acted cute.

Yuan Yuanyuan’s mind was racing like a projector playing out every scenario that could follow this comic reveal.

Only now did she finally learn the secret of Red Sand Well. So what were those red clouds in the sky? Was the Li Family Head trying to create a second Red Sand Well here?

Absolutely not!

Yuan Yuanyuan was angry. Her stance aligned completely with Seventeen’s. If something happened to Seventeen, there was no way she’d stand by and do nothing. Now that she knew the truth, there was no way she could pretend otherwise.

This was the first time Ji Qiu had sent her the comic ahead of release. Yuan Yuanyuan felt a little confident—this probably meant Ji Qiu was on their side.

When Fat Cat saw her return, he looked up, then jumped down and began circling her, acting all cute. Yuan Yuanyuan looked down and asked, “You don’t want to go back? I can send you.”

“Nope,” Fat Cat replied bluntly. “I want to stay here.”

Fine then. Yuan Yuanyuan didn’t really plan to send him off anyway. Fat Cat was clearly risking everything for his idol. She didn’t understand, but she respected his choice.

Just as Yuan Yuanyuan was fuming internally, a northern-region demon suddenly barged in through the door. He was breathless, face alight with excitement, eyes practically glowing.

The moment Yuan Yuanyuan saw him, her anger dissipated in an instant… and was replaced by guilt.