Chapter 168 - My Costar Is Intimidating

Yao Shen thinks Er Wang is talking with him, and gets up from the bed with a start, it's only when he looks to the side, that he sees the Crown Prince lying next to him, wearing his face and an expression of extreme disappointment. If it's disappointment at seeing her, or at waking up at all, Yao Shen can't tell.

The Prince gets up from the sofa and stretches his neck, along with his arms. "I couldn't get past the city walls."

Er Wang snorts. "We could see that, seeing as we found you outside Youdu's gates unconscious."

The Crown Prince ignores her, and moves towards the doors leading out of the administrative building that Er Wang and her cohort usually haunted.

"Not so fast, Si Wang informed us of an interesting development."

Yao Shen notices how the Crown Prince's back goes rigid at the mention of 'Si Wang'. "What does he want this time?" he spits out, through gritted teeth.

Er Wang coos. "Come on, Shi Wang, don't be jealous because he got here after you and is already proving himself, such a skilful...communicator."

Yao Shen would describe Si Wang using other adjectives, and he's sure the Crown Prince would do the same.

In any case, it's interesting to see that despite the tension between them, both of them agreed to keep their relationship as brothers secret from the other ghosts.

Er Wang waves with her pipe in the air, spreading the cloying smoke all around them. "Anyway, he's found that Xin Hulei is in Youdu."

It takes everything in the Crown Prince not to react to that name, but Yao Shen notices his shuddering intake of breath. 

"And what does Si Wang want me to do about it?" The Crown Prince asks, keeping his hands balled into fists at his side.

"Well, he's paying a visit to the Fragrant Peony...and Si Wang thinks you're in an unique position to approach him."

"Why me?" Shi Wang asks.

Er Wang shrugs one insouciant shoulder. "Honestly? I don't think he likes you very much."

The Crown Prince turns to her with a weary expression and a sad smile. "That must be it."

It's obvious that Er Wang doesn't understand what the Prince's odd mood means, but neither does she care much about it. "Anyway, it could be worse, Xin Hulei is attractive, as far as demons go. He's not trying to hide his identity, which means his guard will be lowered. He's close to the demon king Xie Huan, so getting close to him will be a huge advantage for us."

The Crown Prince nods, his gaze distant, and then sighs. "Why do you keep insisting on this? Why can't we leave the demons and Modu alone."

Er Wang's smug smirk slips. "In case you haven't noticed, we have ghosts already trying to move there. Pretty soon all the paper money, buildings, and resources the living burn will be going to Modu instead of Youdu...what then?"

The Crown Prince sighs, incredibly tired. Yao Shen knows he's seen it all before. People fighting over so-called "resources", convinced of their scarcity, without once considering that what they had to lose in that fight was much more valuable.

"They haven't done anything, we should stop this."

Er Wang is getting annoyed now, her feline eyes flash with barely restrained emotion, and she takes a deeper pull of her pipe. "For now...maybe they're bidding their time." She flicks her short hair to the side with her free hand. "Anyway the decision isn't up to you," she smirks," we had a vote, remember?"

His mouth flattens into a thin line. Yao Shen can imagine his opinion of that "vote", and with the added information of how the four ghost kings manipulated the other five...well, it's not surprising that things always turned out in their favour.

The Crown Prince leaves without another word, and the scene dissolves around him like paint being washed off a canvas.

---

This time, it barely takes Yao Shen any time to become aware of his surroundings. He would recognize the lavish inside of the Fragrant Peony anywhere.

It takes him a little longer to recognise the Xin Hulei sitting across from him and the Crown Prince.

Unlike, in his previous dreams of this scene, Xin Hulei is in his full demon form, with two obsidian horns protruding from his forehead, and his eyes crimson eyes fixed on the Crown Prince. He's wearing pale, Frozen Peak disciple robes, which sit at odds with his eyes and brilliant crimson eyes.

Yao Shen's heart seizes with the reminder that this is a Xin Hulei before the injuries which destroyed one of his horns and left him blind in one eye.

He doesn't know that his life is about to be changed forever.

"How can this one serve you?" the Crown Prince asks, pouring Xin Hulei a glass of wine, his eyes lowered, and the bottom half of his face hidden by the veil.

It wouldn't make any difference either way, Xin Hulei was blind when they met, he has no idea what Yao Shen looks like.

However, looking at the Crown Prince's trembling lashes, Yao Shen suspects the veil is there to hide his true feelings, much more so than to protect his identity.

Xin Hulei sprawls back into his sofa. He looks down at the Crown Prince kneeling by the table and holding a wine pitcher with an inscrutable look in his eyes.

"Leave."

Yao Shen and the Crown Prince are both equally surprised by his words. The Crown Prince recovers faster.

"Apologies but it's our establishment's rules that guests must remain accompanied at all times." He keeps his eyes lowered demurely as he speaks.

Yao Shen can't help admiring his performance. It's obvious that he isn't the first one in their line of reincarnations to have some acting talent. It only makes him more curious to learn more about all his other reincarnations -- what lives must they have lived?

The Crown Prince doesn't wait for Xin Hulei's reply to get up to his feet. He puts down the pitcher and stretches himself out on the other sofa, supporting his head on his palm, while looking at Xin Hulei across the distance.

It doesn't take long for Xin Hulei to show signs of fraying under the scrutiny. He clears his throat. "So, what usually happens?"

"Usually we have sex," the Crown Prince says, keeping his voice steady, as if he really is a courtesan who sleeps with everyone who'll pay him for his time.

A muscle twitches above Xin Hulei's sharp, right eyebrow. "Why do that...after, life?"

Yao Shen can't help smiling a little to himself. A few months ago he asked someone the same question. Every brief reminder of everything he and Xin Hulei have in common makes his heart soar.

The Crown Prince is silent for some time, probably thinking up an answer, until finally, he shakes his head with a small laugh. "I guess we can't help making the same mistakes we did when we were alive." His dark gaze shifts over towards Xin Hulei, lingering first over his lips, and then his nose, before fixing on his crimson eyes. "Do we stop being who we were after we die?"

One corner of Xin Hulei's lips ticks up. "I don't know...and I never will. My kind doesn't reincarnate, it's the price we pay for our immortality."

The Crown Prince shifts in his seat. "That's...well, gods and ghost kings are immortal too, and they can reincarnate." The prince's tone implies that he finds the distinction unfair.

Perhaps Xin Hulei notices it because his smirk softens into the approximation of a genuine smile. "Do you know how ghost kings are made?"

The Crown Prince doesn't expect that question, even more so because he knows the answer to it -- intimately.

"I don't," he says, making the lie sound convincing despite how much it costs him.

"The same way gods are," Xin Hulei says, his smooth voice shaping the words in a way that compels the Crown Prince to lean towards him across the distance that separates them. "They do something great, or something terrifying, and someone takes note."

The Crown Prince frowns. "Something terrifying?"

"What the heavens look for is extraordinary individuals, who, out of their paltry mortal gifts, manage to create something extraordinary." He smirks, and this time it's cold and distant. "Saving one million people is as extraordinary as killing one million people."

The Crown Prince's eyes widen and he goes very still. 

"A tyrant can become a god?" The Crown Prince asks, very slowly. Yao Shen thinks he understands why he's asking this, and why his hands are trembling slightly on the edge of his sofa.

He knows under which circumstances he became a ghost king, but now he's probably wondering about his Fourth brother, who already has all the other ghost kings wrapped around his little finger.

"Does that surprise you?" Xin Hulei asks. "Is it written anywhere that gods must be good, must be merciful? Have you ever asked yourself why humans pay tribute to the gods? Is it out of respect for their great wisdom, or out of fear of what they can do?"

The Crown Prince probably isn't questioning any of that, his eyes look vague and unfocused until he finally asks, "what about you, what about demons?"

Xin Hulei smiles showing the points of two sharp canines.. "Demons know the truth."