Capturing My Demon King Costar

Tan Liansi is taken aback by Yao Shen's words, but it buys them enough time for her rage to subside.

Hers and Gao Wu's both, whose eyes keep drifting towards the painting, his thick eyebrows furrowed in consternation.

Yao Shen is sorry to add one more sorrow to Tan Liansi's, undoubtedly, already long list. It's clear from her hazy gaze that she didn't consider the possibility of Mei Shuang trying to protect her and Xin Hulei in whatever way she could, until Tan Liansi found a way to get them out of Frozen Peak.

In fact, who's to say didn't try to help Xie Huan too?

If possible, Gao Wu is even more shaken than her. "All these generations... my family's purpose has been to eradicate evil from earth." He looks down into his hands one bloodied and one whole, both of them shaking. "I'm the last descendant of our family-I"

Yao Shen picks up the fallen horsetail whisk and holds it in front of himself and the dazed Tan Liansi. "If you attack us, I'll do everything in my power to kill you." He says, his gaze hardened by intention. "I won't stop Tan Liansi again either."

Gao Wu's eyes look lost when he lifts him again. "I- I've only wanted to protect the common people," he stammers. "That's why I became an actor, because we got reports that the entertainment industry was riddled with demons. I wanted to root them out...I-I..."

Yao Shen lets out a derisive snort. "There probably are plenty of terrible demons around the country and the world," Yao Shen says. "Probably no less than the number of terrible humans, however."

Yao Shen wraps one hand around Tan Liansi's shoulder and helps her stand up. "We found evidence of a terrible crime that happened in our own hotel in Hengdian by listening to the complaints of the victim's ghosts." 

His gaze grows narrow. "Does exposing a vile murder seem like the actions of someone bound on destruction?" 

Gao Wu looks at him in anguish. Not the anguish of physical pain, but the one born from having your worldviews forcefully reshaped. There's nothing more harrowing than confronting your own morality and finding it lacking.

"I didn't think about that...I thought, you and Tan Liansi weren't demons, I thought Xin Hulei was manipulating you."

Yao Shen points at the cell in the corner of the room. "That seems like very dramatic action for a couple of 'thoughts'."

Tan Liansi pats him on the back twice, her eyes still unfocused and distant. "Let's go. I don't want to be here anymore."

Yao Shen nods.

She dissolves the ice walls, and kicks down the frozen off cell door lock with a kick. It crumples to the ground.

Inside, none of them show any signs of regaining conscience soon, despite all the commotion outside the cell.

Yao Shen pulls the dark cloth bag covering Xin Hulei's head, while Tan Liansi releases their bindings.

Xin Hulei's eyes are closed in slumber, and his skin feels cold to the touch.

Yao Shen taps him a few times on the cheek but nothing changes.

He turns around to glare at Gao Wu. "What have you done to them?" he asks, the panic growing in his voice.

"I- I needed to put them under while I performed the ritual to send them back to the Underworld." Gao Wu stammers. "So I injected them with blood from a fresh corpse."

Tan Liansi roars. "That's poison to a demon."

From the look in his eyes, it's obvious Gao Wu was aware of that. 

"How long until it's out of their system?"

"Depends on the quantity," Tan Liansi says, her fingers stiffening into fists. "Too much can be fatal."

Both of them turn to look at Gao Wu who just shakes his head. "I have no idea of how much I used. I usually sent them to the Underworld right away so I have no idea if..."

'If they would have woken up either way' remains unsaid, hanging in the cramped room like the executioner's ax.

Tan Liansi looks like she's readying herself to claw Gao Wu's throat open.

Yao Shen holds her back, to Gao Wu he says, "You know...when you die, you'll have to answer for your sins in one of the ten courts of Youdu." His tone his chilling but not as much as his words. "If I was you, I'd start praying that mine is not the face that greets you on your judgement day."

Gao Wu has no answer for him, except a look of equal parts panic and confusion.

"Let's go," Yao Shen tells Tan Liansi, cradling Xin Hulei's head to his chest. 

Tan Liansi holds onto Jincan's and Heimao's wrists with one hand, and to Yao Shen's shoulder with the other.

In the next moment, a flurry of snowflakes envelops them and takes them away.

---

They arrive in Xin Hulei's living room in the same position as they left the temple's basement.

Being away from that room and all its oppressive talismans doesn't seem to have made any difference to their state.

Yao Shen runs one hand down Xin Hulei's smooth cheek. "Please wake up."

He doesn't get any answer.

"Let's move them to their own rooms," Tan Liansi says, seemingly having shaken off some of her early distress.

She helps Yao Shen carry first Xin Hulei into his bed, and then Jincan and Heimao into their own bedroom.

"They're sleeping in the same bed?" Tan Liansi asks, after they have tucked the two of them in.

Yao Shen shrugs. "Yeah, don't ask me. Neither of them seems to realise why it's weird." 

In fact, maybe Heimao does, but he seems unwilling to expose himself.

"What do we do now?" Yao Shen asks, chewing on his thumbnail.

Tan Liansi sighs. "I don't know, I guess we wait for the blood to run its course."

"Yes but how long will that take?"

She meets his worried look with one of her own and shrugs. "I don't know."

"Well, I'm going to stay here and take care of them," Yao Shen says, knowing he won't be able to go back to his apartment while Xin Hulei remains unconscious.

With a resolute look in her eyes, Tan Liansi nods. "I'll help you. I'll also run interference back with 'Hell on Earth' to check if there's something that can help.

---

And so begins Yao Shen third career as a private nurse, on top of actor and ghost king.

Tan Liansi's trips back to 'Hell on Earth' reveal a slew of old medicinal books that offer a number of 'medicinal' tonics that have as much chance of making them worse as they do of making them better.

Yao Shen tries the love and care approach first. Which involves a lot of warm compresses on their foreheads, and a lot of ginger soup. 

He tries to talk with Xin Hulei, hoping that the sound of his voice will move him and make him wake up.

To Jincan he says that Xin Hulei has agreed to marry him, while to Heimao he says that Jincan is about to marry Xin Hulei.

This crafty plan doesn't produce the results he expects.

Tan Liansi stays by his side, more often than not, although she also travels far and wide in search of the exotic ingredients for the weird tonics the old books suggest.

"It's just a matter of time until you concede that we should give them a try," she says. 

Yao Shen's reticence wavers after one month with no results. Their condition isn't worsening, but neither is it improving.

All of them seem to be stuck in a permanent state of stasis.

Yao Shen has told Tan Liansi about the management changes in Youdu, and after a few days to wrap her mind around it, she agrees to postpone her angry outburst until after Xin Hulei and the others wake up.

Bi Jialu keeps calling him. Telling him about work opportunities that he declines with excuses that grow flimsier every day. He doesn't know how many more fictional distant relatives he can kill before Bi Jialu thinks he's the one behind their sudden deaths and just calls the police.

It's all too much some days, and the only thing that will pull Yao Shen from the precipice of his own feelings is laying down beside Xin Hulei, with his head over his chest and hearing the steady beat of his heart.

Finally, two months with no change, he tells Tan Liansi to go ahead and try the first creepy concoction.

It steams as she spoons it into Xin Hulei's mouth, which isn't reassuring, but at least nothing happens.

That is, nothing good or bad. He remains just in the same state as he did before.

"I told you it wouldn't work," Yao Shen says, hiding his growing despair with a knowing smirk.

She glares at him. "You've been giving them plain soup for months. Let's keep trying."

There's nothing else they can do.

That night, when Yao Shen lies beside Xin Hulei, as he has been doing every night since his rescue, he hopes that the next morning will be the one he finally opens his eyes -- a recurrent prayer which has remained unanswered thus far.

However, that night, something different happens: Xin Hulei dreams, but Yao Shen is there with him.