Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR IS UNAWARE OF THE DANGER

Yao Shen never gets to hear Xin Hulei's reply. As the scene dissolves into the next one, he isn't sure if he's glad for it or not.

There's a lot to be said about seeing your current lover fucking a version of you from a past life. Maybe the mental disconnect would be too much for Yao Shen -- maybe that odd feeling of being jealous of himself would resurface.

It's already threatening to do so, when he watches Xin Hulei and the Crown Prince holding each other on a bed, hidden from view of the small living area by a silk curtain. He can tell they're both naked under the sheets, and the Crown Prince is no longer wearing the veil.

He must have already told Xin Hulei his name -- Yao Shen.

Xin Hulei is carding his fingers through the Crown Prince's hair, softly, a distant look in his eyes.

Once again, Yao Shen wonders how he's going to forget it all, or at least pieces of it. He remembers the Crown Prince's face, well enough to be suspicious when they meet during the audition, yet, he has no recollection of that disastrous talent show.

"What are you thinking about?" the Crown Prince asks, his head pillowed on Xin Hulei's chest.

"Of how much I've left my original mission get away from me." He inhales, his gaze drifting upwards towards the canopy. "I've left my own frustrations get in the way of what I was supposed to do."

The Crown Prince hums. "Because of your shizun?"

Xin Hulei makes an affirmative sound. "Have you ever heard about Modu?"

The Prince goes still in Xin Hulei's arms, his fingers curling up into a fist over Xin Hulei's skin. "I have...it's something of a topic in Youdu at the moment."

Xin Hulei doesn't think much of his words, and just hums. "Then you probably know that our defences are failing."

The Crown Prince doesn't say anything, he just lets Xin Hulei speak.

"The revenants are getting closer and closer to the city, soon they'll be able to breach our walls. We need a human artefact to work as an amplifier so that we can strengthen the wards."

He stops himself suddenly. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you all this, you have nothing to do with it."

"No...I...maybe there's something I can do to help." He relaxes his fingers and starts drawing random shapes on Xin Hulei's bare chest. "What's stopping you from getting this artefact?"

Xin Hulei chuckles, but there's no humour in it. "Well, in a perfect display of how fate has a penchant for irony, the artefact we need is protected by wards much stronger than the ones Modu has." He shakes his head. "We haven't found a way to cross them, or deactivate them."

Yao Shen can see the gears turning in the Crown Prince's mind, he must be recalling some conversation. Something that he was made to overhear on purpose for this exact moment -- to unwittingly set in motion Modu's downfall.

Si Wang might not have known what transpired between Yao Shen and Xin Hulei, but he knew that his brother was against the destruction of Modu, as did the other ghosts -- any of them could have used his compassion and empathy to manipulate him into doing their dirty work for them. Without him being any the wiser.

It's a terrible thing, an awful thing, and Yao Shen can only watch as the Crown Prince's face shifts into a mask of determination, and he says, "I think I know how I can help you."

With those few words, meant in good fate, he's sealing his fate, Xin Hulei's fate, and the fate of several people he will never meet.

Hundreads of years down the line, Yao Shen is a silent witness to it all -- standing in the corner of the room, watching a memory play out -- unable to do anything to stop the events that follow it.