Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR WATCHES ME DIE

tw: suicide

---

Yao Shen's head swims with the influx of new information going through it. He feels momentarily dizzy, on the verge of losing his footing, and then the scene around him solidifies and he sees a great willow tree, two stone tablets below its swaying branches.

"It's not right to bury him here," Tan Liansi says, looking mournfully at the two graves.

"They should remain together in death like they weren't able to in life," Xin Hulei says, his gaze shuttered and far away.

Tan Liansi frowns. "He was a demon, he should have been buried in-," she cuts herself off abruptly.

"In Modu?" Xin Hulei asks, without any malice.

Neither of them has gotten used to the idea that Modu is gone. Watching from behind the willow tree, feeling like an outsider prying into something intimate, Yao Shen wonders if they ever will.

"Still," her lower lip trembles as if she's on the verge of tears. "This isn't...," she rubs the sleeve of her robes across her eyes. "This isn't right."

Xin Hulei says nothing. Yao Shen looks into his eyes, trying to make sense of what he's thinking.

"Go ahead, I'll be right behind you."

Tan Liansi grumbles something under her breath, but Xin Hulei shoots her a look, and eventually she lowers her head and leaves.

Xin Hulei waits for her to go, and then kneels beside Xie Huan's grave. He lifts the stone tablet and takes something from beneath it. Yao Shen approaches behind his shoulder so he can take a closer look at it and sees a brilliant red stone in his palm.

His eyes widen in recollection. He's seen this stone before, in Xin Hulei's lacquered box, where he also found the jade token the Crown Prince gave Xin Hulei.

Xin Hulei looks down at the stone. "I'll leave your body here with him, and find somewhere in the Underworld for your soul." He closes his fist around the stone. "One day, there will be somewhere for you."

Yao Shen watches as Xin Hulei follows Tan Liansi's path away from the willow tree and the two graves.

While Yan Shuyi might have already reincarnated several times by now, but whatever remained of Xie Huan was buried under that stone tablet, and kept in a lacquered box in Xin Hulei's closet.

---

In another blink of the eyes, Yao Shen finds himself back in the Meng Po's house. She'ss drying some dishes, while Xin Hulei and Tan Liansi stand on the doorway.

"We're going old woman," Xin Hulei says. "Thank you for your help. We don't know when we'll ever see each other again."

"Yeah," Tan Liansi says, clearing her throat awkwardly, "Thanks."

Meng Po nods. "I wish you both well," she sighs, "if there's something I can say with some propriety is that time heals all wounds, and what it doesn't heal it at least scabs."

Xin Hulei nods. "Like I said, for now, there's nothing here for us, but who knows..."

Meng Po nods again. "The future to the gods belongs."

Xin Hulei's lips tighten into a grim line. He doesn't have much use for gods, if anything, he blames them for his rotten luck, for the injustices they have allowed to happen without doing anything.

Yao Shen can see it all written in his dark gaze, for once, as candid as a mirror.

Tan Liansi gives voice to his thoughts with a derisive snort. "I don't think the gods have much sympathy for us demons."