Capturing My Demon King Costar

Tan Liansi sits down beside Ye Fang on the cot. "Meimei can tell us if something is happening."

Yao Shen has never seen Tan Liansi be so solicitous, or her voice sound so mellow outside of her "cute girl-next-door" public persona. 

Ye Fang nods, her gaze vacant. "I've been hearing voices," she says. "It sounds like someone calling out a name."

"Whose name?"

Her eyebrows knit in concentration as she tries to recall. "It sounds like, 'Jia Hao', but the voice is very faint, distant...It could be something else."

It's not something else, but Yao Shen schools his features into a mask of neutrality. "And where did you hear this?"

"Sometimes in my bedroom, sometimes when I'm walking the halls of the hotel, sometimes even on set at night." A powerful shiver goes through her thin frame and she wraps her arms around herself. "It's why I've asked jiejie if she would let me stay with her."

Tan Liansi's encouraging smile slips minutely before she tugs the corners of her lips back up. Yao Shen sympathises with her disappointment, but he doesn't think fear was the only reason Ye Fang wanted to stay with her.

"Thank you for sharing that," Yao Shen says. "We'll see what we can do."

"The last time I told you about something weird you found that awful footage," Ye Fang says, looking up at them, her eyes huge and humid. "Does this mean that Gao Wu's spirit hasn't moved on?"

Yao Shen shrugs. "We don't know, but don't worry. Everything will be okay."

He and Xin Hulei leave after that, leaving Ye Fang in Tan Liansi's care.

"Tonight," Xin Hulei says, while they make their way back towards the set. "We can have a look around the hotel. Maybe check his room again."

"I think the police sealed it off," Yao Shen says.

"We won't touch anything."

---

Filming goes by in much the same manner it did the day before. Yao Shen continues to grit his teeth through the hushed conversations going on around him, and Director Chen's snappish remarks.

The end of the day can't come soon enough.

By the time Bi Jialu rides with him back to the hotel, he's ready to fall asleep in the car, and doesn't have much interest in conducting a nighttime paranormal investigation.

Xin Hulei meets him in his hotel room, and the two set out to search for any signs of Gao Wu.

They start by walking through the hallways, looking for cold spots or any odd sounds.

"Once again, Ye Fang's collection of protection talismans and amulets is drawing out exactly what she wants to avoid," Xin Hulei says. 

"Should have brought some of our own."

Xin Hulei is walking at a leisurely pace with his hands shoved inside of his tracksuit pants. He pulls out the corner of yellowed talisman out of his pocket to show Yao Shen. "Let's set these up in his room."

Yao Shen finds it so sexy when he plans ahead.

---

They go back to Yao Shen's room, so that Xin Hulei can take them directly inside Gao Wu's room, and in the meantime bypass the security cameras on the hotel's hallways.

Inside Gao Wu's room things don't look any different than the last time they were there.

Xin Hulei attaches the talisman to the nearest stretch of bare wall.

"Now we wait," he says, crossing his arms and looking at the talisman intently, as if willing it to draw out Gao Wu.

His air of deep concentration makes Yao Shen let out a chuckle, which dies down the moment he feels a cold breath on the back of his neck.

He turns around and comes face of face with an empty gaze, a pale face and a slack mouth.

"Gao Wu," he asks, trying to get him to react to his presence.

Gao Wu's only reaction is to try and move his mouth, but his vitreous eyes look unseeing. His appearance is extremely unsettling, and the uncoordinated way in which he moves makes the fine hairs on Yao Shen's body stand on end.

After some effort, Gao Wu manages to say, "Jia Hao."

Xin Hulei narrows his eyes at him. "A ghost's appearance, if they died under traumatic circumstances, always reflects their manner of death somehow. I think he was poisoned."

That would explain his lethargic movements, and the lack of blood when Ye Fang found his body, and why the police are keeping the cause of death under wraps. 

"Who poisoned you?" Yao Shen asks, trying to get Gao Wu's unseeing eyes to focus on him.

He gets no reaction, only that same vacant gaze, and gaping mouth, as if he's still under the effects of the poison who made all his muscles go slack before killing him.

The only sound he's capable of making is a guttural, raw, "Jia Hao", from the back of his throat.

"His death is too recent, and he can't move on," Xin Hulei says, almost as if talking to himself. "It could be that he knows the identity of the person who killed him."

He pauses. "Or maybe he's trying to warn someone."

As soon as Xin Hulei says that, Gao Wu makes another long guttural sound, and repeats Jia Hao's name.

"Are you trying to talk with Jia Hao?" Yao Shen asks.

Very slowly, Gao Wu nods, tilting his head sideways in a jerking motion.

"He's in Youdu, we've spoken with him, he tried to find the person responsible for your nightmares."

Xin Hulei interjects. "Is your death related to your nightmares?" Xin Hulei asks.

Gao Wu goes still, as if uncertain about it.

Yao Shen asks something else. "Do you know the person who killed you?"

Again, Gao Wu lets out that guttural sound, this time with more urgency.

Xin Hulei follows up with another question. "Do we know the person who killed you?"

Another affirmative jerking head tilt, and perhaps a glimmer of urgency in his eyes.

Someone close then, maybe not just a random crew member they've seen only in passing.

"Who are you trying to warn?" Yao Shen asks, acting on a gut feeling.

Slowly, and with great effort, Gao Wu manages to lift his arm, his index finger points right at Yao Shen.

"Me? Becuase of the nightmares or becuase of your death?"

Obviously Gao Wu can't form complex sentences and has no answer for him, but before he can even try to express himself, Yao Shen's phone lights up with an incoming call, illuminating the dark room.

Yao Shen curses under his breath and fishes it out of his pocket, trying to turn off the screen, but before he can do that, Gao Wu vanishes as completely as if he was never there.

The caller ID shows Bi Jialu's name, and Yao Shen decides maybe he should answer. It's probably important for her to be calling him at this time.

She lets out a relieved sigh as soon as she hears his voice, although there's a tremble of apprehension in her words. "Laoshi, I'm glad you picked up. I'm at your room, and uh, laoshi doesn't seem to be in?" 

Yao Shen exchanges a look with Xin Hulei. "I have company. What's this about?"

Bi Jialu chuckles nervously. "Ah, the police want to have a word with you."

"Just a moment, I'll open the door in a moment."

He disconnects the call. "This is trouble," he says, wrapping his arms around Xin Hulei's neck. 

"I'll be with you," Xin Hulei reassures him, kissing him on the forehead before returning them to Yao Shen's hotel room.

---

Yao Shen dishevels his own hair and runs his fingers through Xin Hulei's own, just to make their excuse a little more plausible. He would hate it for the police to think he and Xin Hulei have a boring sex life, especially when it couldn't be further from the truth.

Finally, he opens the door with a sheepish smile, Xin Hulei standing a few paces behind him. 

They think they're engaged, it makes perfect sense that they would spend their down time together.

"I'm sorry, we didn't hear the knocks," Yao Shen says, opening the door to allow Bi Jialu and the two investigators in.

Investigator Wei gives him a quizzical look. "The soundproofing in this hotel must be incredible. We were knocking quite loudly."

Yao Shen shrugs. It's not as if the police are going to ever find out that Xin Hulei can teleport them in a fraction of a second from one place to the other. At least he hopes not.

"Is everything okay officers? Is there anything I can do to help with the investigation?"

A look passes between the two of them, and Officer Wei takes a plastic bag out of his coat pocket, with a syringe inside.

Yao Shen calls on all his experience as an actor not to show any reaction. "I don't believe so."

"Curious, because this was found in this very same hotel room."

At her colleagues side, Inspector Song smiles.. "It's also the murder weapon in the currently ongoing murder investigation, involving your coworker and 'friend'."