Chapter 46 - My Costar Isn't Behind This

Yao Shen nearly falls out of his bed when he sees the boy again. 

He thought he would never see the creepy creature again. He put it all down to stress and tried to wipe the disturbing sight of his serrated teeth off his mind.

The boy just grins wider. He looks like a small child of two or three years, a baby really, but his keen gaze and mouth full of knife-like teeth make it clear he's everything but.

Yao Shen fervently hopes no human woman has given birth to him, at the very least.

"Get up, we need to see if you can cross," he says, waving Yao Shen up with one of his chubby arms.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Yao Shen says, wrapping the duvet around his head, in the hope that, just like when he was a child, it will keep the monsters at bay. If he can't see them, they can't see him.

Proving just how childish those hopes are, the duvet is ripped from above him with a sharp tug.

The creature gives him an unimpressed look. "Get up."

This time Yao Shen does what he says.

He crawls out of bed in his underwear wrapping his arms around himself as the kid continues to look at him in disdain.

"Wear something," the kid barks at him, after several minutes of Yao Shen just standing there, shivering in fear.

He scrambles to put on his pajama shorts and a loose tank top that he finds nearby.

The kid must think that's enough, because he points towards the bathroom door and says, "Open it."

Yao Shen points towards the closed door. "That?"

The kid gives him a look that says he thinks Yao Shen is an idiot. "No, the trap door under your feet. Hurry up."

If all this creature wants is for him to walk into his bathroom, then he can consider himself lucky.

He doesn't expect anything different when he opens the door, which is why he almost falls backwards on his ass when instead of the unlit view of his hotel room's bathroom he sees a narrow alley leading up to a bustling street which wouldn't look out of place in a period drama set.

Yao Shen slams the door shut with a yelp, his heart beating a frantic tattoo against his chest.

The creature nods at the closed door. "Good, you can get back."

"Back to where?" Yao Shen asks, feeling crazy.

"Youdu," the creature says, as if that's supposed to make any sense to Yao Shen.

He wracks his brain, trying to remember why the name is mildly familiar. 

Didn't Xin Hulei ask him if he had ever been to Youdu too?

"Where is that?" Yao Shen finally asks.

The creature sighs in annoyance, as if Yao Shen is a pesky child he has been unfortunate enough to have been tasked with babysitting. "The Underworld's capital city."

Feeling a little deranged, the first thing Yao Shen blurts out is, "The Underworld has a capital?"

The creature looks at him as if he's very stupid. "Everywhere has a capital."

"Right," Yao Shen says, nodding dumbly.

He has very little knowledge about the supernatural world. Ever since the System latched itself to him he feels like his worldview has been challenged on a daily basis, and he's beginning to crack under the pressure.

To think that before the audition for Yan Shuyi's role he was a staunch atheist. 

With this horrible creature talking with him calmly about the Underworld -- which apparently is accessible via his bathroom door -- Yao Shen realizes that maybe he hasn't fully digested the true implications of his recent discoveries.

"I need to lie down," he tells the little boy with the serrated teeth, feeling faint.

The creature glares at him. "Stop that, I tried to see in the plane if you could reach it, but when you opened the door nothing happened." He says this as if it's a great personal failing on Yao Shen's part.

"Is the Underworld only accessible via bathroom door?" Yao Shen blurts out, unable to stop himself from asking inappropriate questions when he's nervous.

The creature glares at him. "Let's go," he says, pushing Yao Shen towards the now closed door. He's much stronger than his diminutive stature would lead one to believe.

"Why are you taking me there?" Yao Shen asks, digging his heels into the plush rug.

He gets another glare in response to his dithering. "The Kings need to talk with you."

What Kings? Demon Kings, like Xin Hulei. What's going on?

"Did Xin Hulei send you?" Yao Shen asks the creature, trying to buy himself some time.

The glare he gets in reaction to his question is so malicious Yao Shen wonders if he has perhaps insulted twelve generations of his ancestors instead -- assuming a creature like him has any. 

"What does a demon have to do with me?" he asks. "I'm a ghoul at the service of the Ghost Kings of the Underworld."

He smirks showing his terrible serrated teeth. "You used to be one, too."

Yao Shen lets out a bubble of anxious laughter. "A ghoul?"

The creature's smile vanishes. "No idiot, a Ghost King." 

Yao Shen's nervous smile vanishes too, melting off into a panicked rictus. He can't even say anything, only make a garbled croak from the back of his throat.

The creature isn't done talking, though, "Of course you had to go and fuck it all up," he shakes his head, sparing Yao Shen a disdainful glance. "I guess you're paying the price now."