Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR IS IMPRESSIVE

The bachelor is a handsome guy, tall and trim with the kind of painstaking good looks that take a lot of effort and time to put together.

His name is Jiang Zhan and he radiates smugness, overly conscious of his appearance, of the cameras on him, chasing the best lighting like a preening sunflower.

Like the female contestants, it's clear he's not happy about having to share his thunder with three actors all of a sudden, but unlike them, he's better about disguising his annoyance.

Jiang Zhan thinks it's only a matter of time until he becomes a star.

Yao Shen admires his confidence, maybe even envies it. He wishes he could feel that at ease in his own skin, so full of himself that it takes up the whole room. It's not a quality, but in an artist, it doesn't look out of place. It's even expected.

Yao Shen always feels as if he has 'just happy to be here' written all over his face.

He still doesn't know how he managed to land the role of Yan Shuyi.

Oh...

That's right, it was Xin Hulei -- Xin Hulei noticed him.

It feels significant somehow, even if Xin Hulei claims to have no memory of seeing his performance in the actor survival show, that he was the one who thought Yao Shen was right for the role of Yan Shuyi.

Jiang Zhan is saying some bullshit about how all the remaining contestants are so wonderful, and he has such a difficult decision to make, but Yao Shen is barely listening to any of it, hyperaware of Xin Hulei's presence at his side.

Compared to Jiang Zhan's blatant peacocking, Xin Hulei's confidence wafts off of him like good cologne, suffusing the air around him and turning heads with his mere presence.

Maybe that's why Yao Shen has a hard time imagining someone like him being hopelessly addicted to dating shows.

It's much easier to compartmentalize whatever he's feeling if Xin Hulei is some flawless superstar ascended straight from the Underworld to conquer the masses, instead of Yao Shen's gorgeous, funny, costar with terrible taste in daytime tv.

"Everything alright, Yao laoshi?" Tan Liansi asks, her smile straining her rouged cheeks.

Yao Shen nods, arranging his features into a mask of bereavement. "I'm just overwhelmed by how hard a choice Jiang Zhan must make." He sighs and looks off camera, to where the contestants are seated. "I just hope that the two contestants who aren't chosen remember how special and talented they are, and that they will definitely find love, one day."

Jiang Zhan nods solemnly in understanding, while Yao Shen bites the inside of his cheek not to laugh.

Maybe this isn't so bad if you just lean into the ridiculousness and stop caring.

"Yao laoshi is right, but I must make a choice," Jiang Zhan closes his eyes as a tense music rises up on the set.

After milking his closeup for as long as he can, Jiang Zhan finally sighs and hands Xin Hulei a heart shaped pen drive, resembling the 'Missing Piece of Love' logo.

Since they're special celebrity guests, one of them is supposed to go up to a stage and fit the pen drive into a heart-shaped monitor at center stage, that will then play the winner's favorite song -- which they will have revealed at some point during the show.

The pen drive Xin Hulei takes up to the statue might be a gimmick, but the computer is very much real, and connected to the large screens set up around the stage.

It was very easy for them to sneak in with an actual functioning pen drive with footage from the hidden camera. -- in fact, it was much harder to buy a pen drive in the first place, since these days no one really uses them that much.