Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR IS ATTENTIVE

Yao Shen doesn't see anything that resembles the little ghoul boy during his flight, but he's shaken for the rest of the morning.

The taxi ride into the city and his hotel passes by in a blur. The hotel is no less luxurious than the previous one they stayed at. Although the facade is a lot more understated, but it's also closer to set.

The room Bi Jialu helps him carry his luggage into is just as spacious as the previous one, but along with the living room area comes a small dining nook by the windows, and the novelty of a balcony with a hot tub. The balcony is hidden from view from the other floors and any people on the street by a few bamboo stalks planted alongside the protective railing.

Some of Yao Shen's unease is dispelled by the promising sight of that hot tub.. He bets he and Xin Hulei can have a lot of fun in it.

He remembers the threat of Si Wang dropping into his mind and his new-found enthusiasm promptly fizzles.

Somehow, he needs to find the time to make it to Youdu and handle him for good. He feels a little more at ease knowing that Xie Bian and Fan Wujiu are handling things for him, and will let him know if something goes wrong.

He hides the two-way gold mirror in one of the nightstand drawers, because he can't have cleaning staff happening on it.

He'll probably take it with him to Xin Hulei's apartment. In any case, if things go extremely wrong either Xie Bian or Fan Wujiu will come get him in person.

Yao Shen has barely gotten his stuff out of the way when Bi Jialu knocks on his door.

"If laoshi is ready, we should go to the set at once," she says, rummaging for something in her bag. She finds a bag of corn chips and hands it to him. "Laoshi can eat on the car, we don't have much time."

Yao Shen eyes the chips with disappointment but still takes them from Bi Jialu before following her out of the room.

---

It's obvious as soon as Yao Shen arrives on set that everyone is working as fast as they can to shoot as many scenes as possible. Several actors are moving around standing in profile and looking thoughtfully into the middle distance next to the buildings that make up Frozen Peak sect, to get quick 'wintertime' shots to add to select footage. Making it faster and cheaper than getting all the actors involved in a particular scene together.

The crew has been working even before the actors arrived, and they still look harried and overworked. The mood is completely different from when they started filming in the beginning in spring.

Yao Shen goes through makeup and costuming much faster than usual -- even the stylists seem to be working under pressure.

His first scene of the day is with Ye Fang, she looks just as confused as he does, albeit a little more worried.

"Ah, Ye-jie, good to see you. I hope the break was good," Yao Shen says, feeling a little sheepish that her hopefully created Groupchat got so little use.

She doesn't seem to hold it against him, and smiles warmly. "Yes, it's good to be back, though." She casts her eyes around the set. "Although, it seems the rumours I heard are true."

"What rumours?"

"That some of the investors in the drama pulled their funding," Ye Fang says, her large eyes even wider. "Supposedly it's connected to the criminal activities laoshi helped expose."

"How is that related? If anything that gave the drama more notoriety. The criminals have all been arrested," Yao Shen says, his tone serious.

Ye Fang nods, the bangs of her wig going everywhere with her enthusiasm. "That's why some of the speculation is that the criminal's families are pressuring the investors as some type of pushback for revealing their crimes. After all, they might have been arrested, but their family members haven't been implicated in anything, and the fines they had to pay are only a drop of their vast fortunes."