Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR UNRAVELS [+18]

Yan Jiang follows her son to the kitchen, leaving Yao Shen and Xin Hulei to stare at each other in shock.

"Did she..." Yao Shen starts, not sure how he's supposed to finish that thought.

"I think she did."

Yan Jiang returns a few moments later with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry about that, he can be a handful." She sits back on the armchair with a huff. "I hoped that he would have his namesake's calm temperament, but no such luck."

"You named him after Yan Shuyi?" Yao Shen asks, his tone tentative.

Yan Jiang nods, picking up her forgotten teacup again. "It seemed apt, what with our family name." She notices the looks on their faces but doesn't understand their confusion. "I mean, he's a fictional character, there's no harm in it." Her eyes widen suddenly. "Did you ancestor name him after a real person?"

Yao Shen shifts around on his seat. How is he supposed to answer that? "I was just surprised," he says, sidestepping the question entirely.

She laughs, self-consciously. "Ah well, I wasn't making very sound decisions back then." She remembers something suddenly, and laughs again. "You know what's funny? A little boy a few doors over is named Xie Huan."

Xin Hulei digs his fingers into the loveseat's upholstery. "Is that so?"

Yan Jiang nods, completely unaware of the turmoil brewing inside both of them. "Life is full of coincidences, turns out his mother is a fan of the novel! Not that she knows I'm the author, but people make assumptions because of A-Shu's name, she was happy to meet a fellow fan."

Yao Shen keeps chancing sideways glances at Xin Hulei, trying to see how he's doing through all these revelations.

"Well, her husband's surname is Xie, same character as Xie Huan's family name, so she thought it would be cute if she named her son Xie Huan, because he's fer favourite character." She shakes her head. "What are the odds, uh?"

Yao Shen isn't touching that, he just hums noncommittally. "Indeed."

She's on a roll now, and is going to keep talking about it no matter how much neither of them want her too. "Pity they don't get along," she chuckles," of course there's the age difference, but Little Huan likes to pester A-Shu and he just loses his temper with him. What are you going to do, children, right?"

"Right," Yao Shen says, gritting his teeth. He spares one last sideways look at Xin Hulei and gets up from his seat. "Well, we should get going, we've already taken too much of your time."

Xin Hulei gets up as well, lost in his own thoughts.

"Nonsense, it was a pleasure having you over, it's not everyday I meet two famous actors," she giggles. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you were here."

She walks them to the door, still smiling.

Yao Shen is already across the threshold when he remembers something. "I'm sorry for being curious, but...how did you come up with the pen name 'Shi Shi'?"

Her eyes widen, as if just remembering something. She reaches for the file under Yao Shen's arm and rummages through it. She takes out a yellowed photo, blurry and water-damaged. It shows a young man wearing an improvised uniform. The most visible thing about the photo is the "1010" emblazoned above his breast pocket.

Yan Jiang shows the photo to Yao Shen. "I believe this might have been your ancestor, most of those pages are signed "1010". I came up with the pen name as an homage to him." She frowns, paying closer attention to the photo. "The two of you really look alike."