Chapter 127 - My Costar Believes Me

Yao Shen wakes up with the feeling of something soft brushing against his cheek. 

His body feels as if it's made of syrup, too unyielding for him to move. Even his eyelids are too heavy to lift, fluttering uselessly while he struggles to open his eyes.

The soft touches on his cheek travel down his jaw, and his neck, trailing a path of sweet heat in their wake. They become sharp around the collarbones, when teeth join lips in nipping softly at the jutting bone. 

Yao Shen's mind wakes up in stages, and then all at once, when a warm, wet mouth closes around his nipple.

He opens his eyes and finds Xin Hulei's dark head on his chest, his red lips sucking hungrily on his hard nipple.

Dizzily, Yao Shen wraps his arms around Xin Hulei's head. "You fucked me so ruthlessly last night, and now expect me to feed you?"

Xin Hulei smiles around his nipple, and redoubles his efforts.

Yao Shen lets out a hiss, feeling other parts of him respond to the stimulation. 

Xin Hulei pulls away from Yao Shen with a wet smack of his lips. "Nothing is coming out," he says, disappointed. His hand slides down Yao Shen's abdomen and then wraps around his hard cock. "I wonder if I suck here, instead..."

Yao Shen cants his hips up into his tight fist, encouraging that train of thought. His sudden movement makes him aware of the sticky, wet state of his thighs and some of his soft, tender, early-morning feelings for Xin Hulei disappear. 

He's about to berate him for letting him sleep an entire night in such a state, when a harsh knock rattles the bedroom door from the outside.

"Yo, where's breakfast?" Heimao asks, pounding his fist against the locked door.

"Your kibble is under the kitchen sink!" Yao Shen snaps, annoyed by the interruption.

Xin Hulei muffles his chuckle against Yao Shen's chest, but his warm hand lets go of Yao Shen's hard cock. "Coming," he shouts in reply to Heimao's nagging.

Yao Shen grumbles something under his breath about the fact that he's clearly not coming.

Xin Hulei waits to hear the sound of Heimao's footsteps fading in the distance, to jump out of bed and pull Yao Shen into his arms, carrying him towards the ensuite bathroom.

"I'll clean you up before breakfast," he says, his tone warm and leading. "I'll be through."

Yao Shen melts into his arms and lets himself be carried. Maybe he can still get a good-morning orgasm.

---

A shower and two orgasms later, Yao Shen is sitting at the table feeling fresh as a daisy, and radiating smugness. He's only wearing a pair of Xin Hulei's underwear, and proudly displaying the marks of last night's, and this morning's, activities all over his body.

Jincan, sitting across from him, looks seconds away from throwing a knife at him.

"Pass the baozi," Yao Shen says, gesturing to the basket next to his arm.

Jincan all but hurls it towards him, throwing the basket in Yao Shen's direction as if it's a frisbee.

The more annoyed he is, the wider Yao Shen's smirk grows.

At Jincan's side, Heimao looks between him and Yao Shen with a frown of confusion.

"What's going on between the two of you," he asks finally, pointing between Yao Shen and Xin Hulei. "And what happened to your chest?"

Yao Shen ignores the remark about the pink and purple bruises littering his chest and collarbones, and takes a bite of his baozi. He chews slowly, before swallowing and answering, with a smile. "Your Master has taken a first wife." 

Jincan sputters in indignation. "You-"

Yao Shen points a finger in Jincan's face, shutting him up. "I run the Imperial Harem now, so you're going to shut up and do as I say."

His lower lip trembling, Jincan looks up at Xin Hulei, his bright golden eyes rimmed with red. "Master, this harlot you found on the street is bullying me."

Xin Hulei doesn't lift his eyes from his teacup. "Do as your stepfather says."

Heimao wraps one arm around Jincan's hunched shoulders. "Don't be mean to him."

Jincan drops from under Heimao's arms away with a frown. "Let go of me, what's gotten into you? Tonight too, you spent the entire time clinging to me, so hot and uncomfortable."

Heimao lets his arm drop, with an aggrieved look on his eyes.

Shooting Yao Shen one last glare, Jincan gets up from the table with a huff, leaving half of his breakfast untouched.

"So, did you learn anything tonight?" Yao Shen asks Heimao, grinning widely.

"Little beauty, you're twisted." He shakes his head and gets up as well, following after Jincan, his ears and tail drooping sadly.

Pleased with himself and his own petty gains, Yao Shen steals a baozi from Jincan's plate and bites into it with relish.

Beside him, Xin Hulei watches his antics with an indulgent glow in his eyes.

"The new Empress has just crossed the Imperial palace's threshold and already has thrown it into disarray."

Yao Shen gets up from his chair and sits across Xin Hulei's legs, burrowing his head against his neck. 

"We need to decide if I'm the ruthless new Empress or their new stepfather. I feel like it's important to keep this psychological torture coherent."

One of Xin Hulei's hand supports Yao Shen's back, while another rests on the outside of his thigh. "Why can't the Empress also be a stepfather?"

Yao Shen chuckles. "That would make for a terrible drama."

"Not if we acted in it."

This easy, carefree banter makes Yao Shen's heart swell with happiness. It wasn't long ago that he thought he would never have this again.

He toys with a strand of Xin Hulei's hair, thinking about how he never feels so at peace, so comfortable in his own skin, as he does when he is with him. 

Part of him wants to tell Xin Hulei how he feels, tell him he loves him and leave everything out in the open. A bigger, more frightened part, wants to keep it a secret close to his chest. 

He's afraid of ruining what little happiness he has managed to conquer. As if talking of love will invite disaster.

"What are you thinking about?" Xin Hulei asks, rubbing the frown between Yao Shen's eyebrows with his thumb.

"What made you change your mind?" Yao Shen asks, catching Xin Hulei's fingers between his own. "Why did you decide to forgive me?"

Xin Hulei looks away from Yao Shen, his eyes fixed on a point away from him. "For me," he says simply. 

"For you?"

"Maybe I'm bound to make the same mistakes twice, but that's better than being miserable."

Yao Shen's heart squeezes painfully. He cups Xin Hulei's jaw and looks up into his dark, inscrutable eyes. "I'll never hurt you again. I'll get my memories back, and I'll know, once and for all, everything that happened."

Slowly, Xin Hulei nods.

"I know I shouldn't have lied to you or hid things from you, but I promise I'll be honest from now on."

Xin Hulei brings their joined fingers to his lips, and kisses Yao Shen's knuckles. "I believe you."

Yao Shen holds his breath, waiting for the painful second half of that sentence, but it never comes.

Filled with gratitude for the second chance, Yao Shen loops one arm around Xin Hulei's neck and pulls him down into a kiss.

---

After clearing up the breakfast table, they go to Yao Shen's apartment to retrieve the clay vial with his memories from his nightstand.

Back in Xin Hulei's bedroom, Yao Shen inspects the little vial with trepidation.

"You don't need to do this." Xin Hulei's tone is reassuring. 

Yao Shen shakes his head. "The ghost kings are banking on my ignorance to manipulate me. If I want to go against them, I need to have the same information as they do. Otherwise I'll always be at a disadvantage."

A corner of Xin Hulei's lip hooks up. "I thought we were going to just barrel in with an army of demons and handle them that way."

"I don't know...it's not like I don't think Xie Bian and Fan Wujiu's plan won't work, is that I'm afraid the ghost kings are too slippery to let themselves be usurped." 

Above all, Yao Shen doesn't like the feeling of being in the dark, stumbling into everything while trying to find his way. For the longest time he didn't take the threat of the ghost kings seriously, and now he's paying the price for it.

His carelessness almost tore him and Xin Hulei apart. 

Yao Shen never asked for any of this, but he can't ignore it any longer.

If he doesn't get rid of the ghost kings, they'll never stop trying to harm Xin Hulei. 

He unstoppers the small vial, and exchanges one last look with Xin Hulei. "See you on the other side."

He drinks the contents of the entire vial in one go. 

And then he waits.

And waits.

Puzzled, Yao Shen turns to Xin Hulei, seeing his own confusion reflected in his dark eyes.. "Nothing happened."