Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR HAS A PLAN

As soon as they arrive in Xin Hulei's apartment, Heimao comes bounding up to them with a loud meow.

He rubs himself up and around Yao Shen's legs, his tail curling up on itself like a question mark.

Absentmindedly, Yao Shen scratches his head on his way to follow Xin Hulei into the bedroom.

He sits down next to Xin Hulei as he plugs the memory card into his laptop.

"You don't need to watch," Xin Hulei says, drawing the screen away from Yao Shen.

Yao Shen pulls the laptop towards him, "We'll only watch enough to find our their identities."

Even saying that, he still holds his breath in trepidation when the video starts playing.

With the way the camera was mounted, they have a view of the semi-circle of sofas where the men were sitting.

A simple hidden camera set up like the one Du Liyan installed in the hotel room wouldn't be able to record sound, so Yao Shen and Xin Hulei are left trying to lip-read.

The first few minutes of footage show nothing out of the ordinary, and yet Yao Shen can't help the disgust bubbling in his stomach -- he knows what's going to happen. He knows that these men pretending to be human are monsters in disguise.

It makes him want to ask the System why it's so concerned about Xin Hulei when flesh and blood humans get to walk around committing atrocities.

Who cares about demons destroying the mortal realm, when humans do it just fine themselves?

He feels a gentle hand covering his restless knee. "You're grinding your teeth," Xin Hulei says, steadying Yao Shen's legs, and uncurling the fingers of his right hand from the fist he's making.

"I'm sorry."

Xin Hulei lifts Yao Shen's hand to his lips and brushes a gentle kiss over his knuckles. "Don't apologize for caring, not enough people do."

Those quiet words and the intensity in Xin Hulei's eyes renders Yao Shen speechless, all he can do is lower his eyes, and try not to blush.

On the laptop, the video continues playing. Yao Shen forces himself to look, despite how much all of it turns his stomach.

The girls are acting tipsy, even though Yao Shen can tell most of them are watering down their drinks, or only pretending to drink -- except of course for the clueless Hua Mei.

Eventually, one of them stumbles into a tray of drinks and almost brings them crashing down. Only Du Liyan's quick intervention, prevents it from toppling into the briefcases resting against the end table.

All the businessmen jump in with vicious reprimands, one of them even slaps the girl who bumped into the drinks.

Another curses up a storm, judging by his red face and the vein throbbing on his temple. He sits down on the sofa and pulls one of the briefcases into his lap. He painstakingly examines all the files inside, to make sure none of them were damaged.

"Wait," Yao Shen says, and Xin Hulei immediately freezes the frame.

On the screen, he can see a bright pink logo in one of the folders the man pulls out. It resembles two halves of a heart like puzzle pieces about to fit together and become whole.

"I've seen that logo before," Yao Shen says, wracking his mind to try and remember exactly where.

Xin Hulei goes very still. "'Missing Piece of Love'"

Yao Shen gives him a confused look. "What?"

"It's the name of the dating show we watched the other day," Xin Hulei points at the logo, "that's their logo from two seasons ago, which aired two years ago. It's slightly different now, but overall the design is only slightly altered."