Chapter 97 - My Costar Holds Grudges

Xin Hulei's words chill Yao Shen to the marrow.

His arms are still loosely wrapped around Xin Hulei's neck and shoulders, but Yao Shen extricates them gingerly.

The cry of the cicadas has grown so loud that Yao Shen wonders if his distress is amplifying it.

"You don't know for sure if you've killed him?" He puts some space between himself and Xin Hulei. "What do you remember?"

Xin Hulei doesn't comment on Yao Shen's physical distancing. "Flashes. I remember reaching the brothel. We agreed on a date and time to meet. He was already waiting for me." Xin Hulei points to his eye, the one that's blind and milky when he is in his demon form. "He seemed surprised by this."

Yao Shen bets he was. He swallows dryly. "Then what?"

"Nothing, I remember him trying to deny everything, and then some others barging in. Ghost kings from the look of it. I think he was one too, but I can't be sure."

Yao Shen looks down at his hands, folded over his knees, and considers his options.

"Did he attack you?"

Xin Hulei shrugs. "I don't remember, but it was there that I got this." He points at his forehead, to where the broken off horn would be if he weren't in his human form. "I remember enough to know it wasn't civil."

"What would you do? If you saw him again," Yao Shen asks, voice thick with trepidation.

"I would finish the job," he says, direct and chilling. Then, mistaking Yao Shen's trepidation for fear, he cups his cheek and smiles into his wide eyes. "Are you scared? You have nothing to fear from me. Maybe the fact that your face looks like his is mere coincidence. Maybe you're even his reincarnation..."

Yao Shen goes very still, the breath freezing in his lungs, making them expand beyond capacity. "What then? What if I am?"

His heart is beating so loud, Yao Shen fears it's going to drown out the cicadas.

Xin Hulei gives him one of his indulgent smiles, the ones he seems to reserve only for Yao Shen. "Then you'd have to carry on your past life's burdens and make amends." 

When Yao Shen's lips grow bloodless, Xin Hulei chuckles lightly. "I'm joking. If you're his reincarnation that means he died, so our debt is repaid."

The relief Yao Shen feels is so powerful that a bubble of laughter escapes from his slack jaw. He dabs the back of his wrist on his forehead to dry the sweat gathering there. "Good, good to know."

Xin Hulei's expression hardens suddenly as a thought crosses his mind. "It's a different story if I find him again. If he's truly a ghost king he might have survived, and in that case he'll be in Youdu."

Just as quickly as it came, Yao Shen's relief vanishes. 

He's not a clean slate. The System and the ghost kings made sure of it. 

He has no idea whether Xin Hulei would really let go of his past grudge just because Yao Shen reincarnated, seeing as he's still so tied to the Underworld -- whether he wants to or not.

They even share the same name, him and the ghost king Xin Hulei met. It's a good thing he can't remember, or Yao Shen isn't sure if Xin Hulei would have stopped at those harmless tests back on 'Hell on Earth'.

"Why can't you go to Youdu, to see for yourself?" Yao Shen asks, after getting the roiling panic in his stomach under control.

Xin Hulei hooks two fingers on the collar of his costume, and pulls the robe to the side, revealing a strip of his pale chest.

His appearance flickers for a moment, his human features giving way to his demon form. After some time, a bright red seal appears on his chest, close to the sternum. The seal seems to shimmer and flare, the longer Yao Shen looks at it.

"Tan Liansi has one just like it," as he speaks the seal vanishes back into his smooth chest, moments later, he returns to his full human appearance. "My guess is that they couldn't kill us, so they did the next best thing and banished us."

Yao Shen's fingers are raised halfway towards Xin Hulei. He drops them abruptly. "Does that mean you can never go back to Youdu?"

Xin Hulei shakes his head. "Not unless a ghost king removes it."

A gasp almost makes its way past Yao Shen's lips, but he holds it back at the last minute.

Here it is! His opportunity to prove his honesty to Xin Hulei.

Of course, he isn't a ghost king yet, but the System promised him that he could return him his title and position. He already has all the abilities back.

[Yes...in exchange for Host capturing Xin Hulei.]

Yao Shen ignores the System's words. He's beginning to feel a little hopeful again.

"I think we've been here long enough," Xin Hulei says, getting up from the dingy little sofa and stretching out his long legs. "Do you want to go somewhere for dinner, or should I cook?"

The answer is on the tip of Yao Shen's lips when his phone starts vibrating intensely. 

He debates ignoring it, but eventually fishes it out from inside the costume's pockets with a long-suffering sigh. 

"Yes?" his tone is curt, on the other side of the line he hears the sound of someone moving around in a hurry.

"Laoshi? Where are you? I'm at your room but you're not answering the door."

Yao Shen curses under his breath. "Uh, I went out for some food."

"I'm sorry to bother, but can laoshi get back as soon as possible?" She sounds frantic, and it immediately sends Yao Shen into high alert.

He exchanges a look with Xin Hulei, who no doubt can hear Bi Jialu's side of the conversation as well, through the phone's crackling speakers. 

"Sure, I'll be right there."

Somehow, Yao Shen knows it's not the end to an already rough day.

---

Xin Hulei leaves him just at the end of the corridor on his floor. He can see Bi Jialu rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet as she looks down at her mobile.

"I'll text you with whatever she tells me," he says, turning around and hiding from view behind a wall, so that he can say goodbye to Xin Hulei.

He doesn't expect Xin Hulei to pin him against the wall and kiss him.

Yao Shen is thorn between returning the kiss enthusiastically, and his guilt over everything he's keeping from Xin Hulei.

Especially considering that Xin Hulei might not want to kiss him if he knew the truth of his identity.

In the end, he's weak to the delicious proximity of Xin Hulei's body and lets himself be swept by his smooth lips, his talented tongue.

When they finally pull away, there's a fine thread of glittering saliva linking their lips together.

Yao Shen watches it mesmerized, his mind foggy and overwhelmed.

Xin Hulei dries Yao Shen's lips with the pad of his thumb. "We'll pick up from where we stopped on your spreadsheet, later."

Yao Shen can only nod dumbly as Xin Hulei smirks. 

He's still feeling dazed by the time Xin Hulei disappears in a flurry of flames.

Bi Jialu spots him when he's halfway across the corridor and waves him over hurriedly.

She won't say anything until they're safely inside his hotel room, which only makes Yao Shen's anxiety mount.

"What's going on?" Yao Shen asks, taking off his shoes at the door.

"Maybe it's best if laoshi takes a seat," Bi Jialu says, motioning towards the sofa.

Extremely anxious, Yao Shen does.

"All the attention from the media about the murders has been making some of the investors in the drama nervous," Bi Jialu says, pacing back and forth in front of Yao Shen. "They think all this attention might end up causing problems, and making it harder for the drama to air once it goes through post production and reviewing."

"Are they canceling the drama?" Yao Shen asks. He feels overheated even under the full blast of the AC.

Bi Jialu shakes her head.

"No, but they're considering a delay."

"A delay?"

"Yes, they want to delay filming for a few months until the scandal blows over."

Yao Shen can understand the reasoning behind it, although it feels like jumping the gun. It's too early to tell which way the wind will blow. Investors are a scaredy, fidgety lot, though, so it doesn't surprise him that they'd be jumping at their own shadows this early on.

He sighs and hides his face in his open palms. 

It's a shock but it isn't the worst thing ever. It doesn't mean the show is cancelled, and no one is accusing him of breach of contract.

It sucks that filming will drag on even longer, but it is what it is.

"How are they going to do it?"

Bi Jialu bites her lower lip. "They don't want to reveal the real reason behind the delay, so the official justification is that the production is trying to be as realistic as possible. So we're filming all the summer scenes in the summer months, and all the winter scenes in the winter."

"Does that mean the shooting is on hold until winter?"

She nods. "It will resume in November."

This far up, Yao Shen can't hear the cry of the cicadas, but he can imagine it growing louder until it deafens all other sounds.