Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR WATCHES ME BE FRAMED

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.