Chapter 164 - My Costar Doesn't Want Me To Blame Myself

After that, Bi Jialu breaks down and admits everything.

She tells them exactly how she was approached by one of HuaHua's new executives, who promised to make all of her family's debt go away if only she'd kill Gao Wu and frame Yao Shen for it.

Between sobs, she says, "I told myself that if you asked me, at least once, what was going on, that I wouldn't go ahead with it. I'd tell you everything and stop this."

Yao Shen goes deathly pale, shrinking into the sofa cushions. Does that mean that all this is his fault? If he'd payed more attention to Bi Jialu he could have prevented Gao Wu's death?

"You've been manipulated by people who took advantage of your desperation," Xin Hulei says, his dark eyes not leaving Bi Jialu, still sobbing on the floor. "We'll do our best to bring them to justice too."

That seems to kick her out of her stupor. "What do you mean?"

Her question is swallowed up by the sound of a fist banging loudly against the hotel room door.

Yao Shen gets up to open the door to the two detectives, still shaken up by Bi Jialu's words.

Inspectors Wei and Song burst into the room with their weapons drawn. "Bi Jialu you're under arrest for the murder of Gao Wu."

Bi Jialu is so shocked that she doesn't have any reaction, and lets herself be handcuffed without any struggle. She looks confused and lost, but her eyes widen in realisation when she sees Yao Shen zip off his hoodie and reveal the wiretap attached to his tshirt. He peels the thin wires off and gives them back to Inspector Song.

"Thanks for your help, we'll be in touch," she says with a curt nod.

"You tricked me!" Bi Jialu spits are eyes wild and furious. "You just wanted to save yourself!"

"I'll make sure nothing happens to your family, they won't lose their livelihoods," Yao Shen tells her, as she's escorted out of the room. That's all he can do for her now, although he has no idea where he's going to find the money to support several adults, and pay back their respective debts. 

'Crimson Promise' might be a big IP drama, but he still hasn't seen any of the hype materialize into money in his account. And likely won't, until his next project, where hopefully the notoriety of this one will help him negotiate a better contract.

Xin Hulei notices the haunted look on Yao Shen's face as the door closes behind Bi Jialu and the two police officers. "We'll get her good lawyers too. She acted on someone else's orders, that will reduce her sentence."

"I don't have money to-"

"I do, centuries of it collecting dust in a vault somewhere."

Yao Shen gives him an incredulous look. "How do you have that much money just lying around in a vault?"

Xin Hulei gives him a fond look. "When you've lived as long as I have, you'll learn that after a certain point money is just a number, the only thing it can do is grow. It can no longer do anything for anyone, and it's best forgotten."

"A lot of people could use that money," Yao Shen says, thinking about Bi Jialu's family and everyone in their village. 

Xin Hulei hums. "You can give it to them, all of it, but I think you're overestimating how much it will change their lives. The system that created their despair will still exist, and it will always find ways to reassert its power."

Yao Shen understands what he means, stories of lotto winners loosing all their winnings in the span of years and ending up in an even worse situation than before they won are all too common. There's no such thing as an easy way out of poverty for the poor.

"We still have to do something," Yao Shen says, knowing now, better than ever how the Crown Prince must have felt.

Xin Hulei nods. "We will, but I need you to remember that this isn't your fault," Xin Hulei says, looking Yao Shen in the eye, his gaze holding infinite tenderness. "You're not responsible for what happened. Those businessmen, their families, and everyone who looks at another person and sees only a step on a ladder, is."

His words aren't enough to absolve Yao Shen of the guilt he feels, but the vice around his heart releases some of its tightness. "It must get tiring...seeing the worst of humanity."

Xin Hulei is silent for a long time. "Seeing the best makes up for it." He smiles, and cups Yao Shen's cheek. "Let's get out of here."

---

Back in Xin Hulei's apartment, Yao Shen still feels restless and anxious. There's a lot of things that don't make sense.

He doesn't understand the point of Gao Wu's dreams, and how, or if, Si Wang connects to the whole conspiracy on the mortal realm. 

He's tossing and turning in bed, trying to fall asleep when a familiar voice makes him sit up upright on the mattress. He can hear Xie Bian's annoyed tone coming from the closet, muffled by the closed door.

Yao Shen takes the mirror out and looks into Xie Bian's annoyed face. "Finally, I thought I was going to have to scream myself hoarse."

"What do you want? It's the middle of the night?" Yao Shen hisses, keeping his voice down in order not to disturb Xin Hulei.

"In case you haven't noticed it's kind of hard to tell in Youdu, but more importantly, I don't care." He smirks at Yao Shen's frown, and finally tells him the motive for his call. "Anyway, whatever you did worked. That guy, Gao something came here on his own, but he and that other idiot both refuse to leave. Just come down here and tell them the Wuji pavilion is not a bead and breakfast! They either enter the cycle of reincarnation or find something else to do in Youdu, I'm not a nanny."

After that tirade it's impossible for Xin Hulei to remain asleep. He sits up on the bed with a low groan. "What is it?"

"Gao Wu's souls went to Youdu," Yao Shen says, turning the mirror face-down and muffling whatever Xie Bian was going to say next.

Xin Hulei throws the covers off of himself and stretches leisurely. Yao Shen can't help appreciating the smoothness of his bare skin. There are so many, better, things for them to do, in the middle of the night than go to Youdu.

"What are you thinking about, Little Menace?" Xin Hulei asks, the right corner of his lips quirking up in amusement.

Yao Shen realises he was biting on his lower lip, making his thoughts obvious.

"Better uses for our time," Yao Shen says, looping his arms around Xin Hulei's neck and biting the sharp angle of his jaw.

"Later," Xin Hulei says, grabbing a handful of Yao Shen's ass and squeezing.

---

Fan Wujiu greets them warmly outside the Wuji pavilion, his stoic features softened by his kind smile. "Bian is in a bad mood."

"When is he not?" Yao Shen asks, walking past him and into the pavilion's main hall.

Inside, Xie Bian is brandishing a sword towards Jia Hao and Gao Wu, who are sitting down at a table, drinking a cup of tea and completely ignoring him.

"I'm telling you, leave, now," Xie Bian says, thrusting the blade of his sword forward threateningly. 

Jia Hao blows on the surface of his tea. "We're already dead, idiot."

Yao Shen clears his throat. "He has a point, also, would it kill you to stop being such an insufferable asshole? How are they bothering you?"

Xie Bian's eyes flash and he advances towards Yao Shen. He grips his collar of his t-shirt in his fist and brings their faces an hairsbreadth apart.

"Wujiu is an idiot, who won't do anything if there's someone else around."

Yao Shen is about to ask exactly what 'anything' means, when suddenly a light goes off in his mind. "Oh, you mean..." he mouths the words as if he's going to whisper them but then at the last minute raises his voice, "You mean you can't fuck because the two of them are here?"

Xie Bian's face goes pale and then purple, until finally he pushes Yao Shen away with a disgusted snarl.

Yao Shen is still laughing when he turns around to face Gao Wu and Jia Hao.

"Gege, thank you," Gao Wu says, as soon as their eyes meet. He's sitting very primly with his palms over his knees. The earnestness in his face makes Yao Shen feel uncomfortable.

"What are you thanking me fore? I didn't do anything, you're still dead."

Gao Wu shakes his head. "Gege tried to listen to me, and told me where Jia Hao was. It was more than I deserved, after...," he trails off.

Yao Shen shakes his head. "Don't say that, you tried to warn me about Bi Jialu, I'm the one who should thank you." 

Xin Hulei clears his throat, interrupting their conversation. "You were having nightmares before your death, Yao Shen is having them too. What were your nightmares about?"

Gao Wu's eyes widen and he gives Yao Shen a worried look.. "All of my nightmares were about my own death."