Over the next few days Yao Shen tries to make things right with Bi Jialu.

"I thought laoshi was calling to inform me that another of his relatives died under mysterious circumstances," she says, as soon as she picks up the phone. "Just so laoshi knows most people only have two pairs of grandparents."

Yao Shen makes his excuses and apologies over the course of a few more calls, and eventually she relents and stops giving him the cold shoulder.

She also gives him a warning. "Maybe laoshi should continue to stay out of social media. There\'s been a lot of speculation online lately. It\'s not only laoshi who\'s been missing appointments. Xin laoshi is also been absent from the public eye the last couple of months, so netizens have come up with all kinds of theories."

Yao Shen can imagine, and is happy to stay away from all that.

After Bi Jialu reassures him for millionth time that everything is ready for the return to Hengdian when filming resumes, he finally stops bothering her.

They have a little issue of their own in the apartment right now. The apartment was never all that big to begin with, and is feeling positively cramped with five people in it.

Especially when one of those people is Jincan, who takes up as much physical and psychological room as at least five.

"But I want to be on set," he whines for the fifth time that day, when they\'re at the table having lunch. "You can\'t expect the two of us to spend the entire day locked in a hotel room."

Heimao is conspicuously silent on the whole thing. Yao Shen can tell from his lowered eyes that he actually wouldn\'t mind spending the entire day alone with Jincan.

Xin Hulei decided to stretch his creative muscles in the kitchen, so they\'re all eating tuna steak with tartar sauce, forks and knifes and everything.

Mostly Yao Shen thinks Xin Hulei did it to get back at Jincan for being so annoying. Since he has to shut up every so often to focus on trying to use his fork and knife the right way.

"What do you think you\'re going to do on set?" Xin Hulei asks, his tone even. "People on set have jobs."

Tan Liansi snickers. "Well, most of them."

Xin Hulei shoots her a charged look, although his expression remains unchanged.

"I can do anything! I can get people cups of water," Jincan pleads.

"That\'s not a job, no one does that," Yao Shen says.

Jincan glares at him. "Who asked you?"

Yao Shen raises both his arms in surrender. They\'ve been enjoying a sort of tense peace, and Yao Shen would like to keep it that way.

"Maybe you can say he\'s your new assistant," Tan Liansi suggests. Now that she\'s no longer worried about when anyone will recover from their sudden \'sleeping beauty syndrome\' she\'s back to being a little shit, and causing trouble on purpose.

Jincan perks up immediately. "That\'s it! I could do that. I already take care of Master\'s well-being. I can do it on set too."

"How do you take care of me?" Xin Hulei asks, deadpan.

Jincan\'s face crumples. "I don\'t help Master?"

Heimao wraps one arm around his shoulder and rubs his arm up and down. "Of course you do."

He glares at Xin Hulei, who is no longer looking in their direction.

They drop the issue for now, and the five of them finish their meal in silence, but Yao Shen knows it\'s not the last he\'ll hear of it.

---

That night in Xin Hulei\'s bedroom, Yao Shen tries to make a case for Jincan. Something he never thought he\'d do.

"I never thought I\'d hear you defend Jincan," Xin Hulei says, from his position as Yao Shen\'s personal mattress

Yao Shen draws patterns with his fingers on Xin Hulei\'s chest. "I guess...I feel sorry for him."

Xin Hulei give him a look. "Is this from anything you saw in your dreams?"

Slowly, Yao Shen nods. "He seemed scared of being alone."

"He won\'t be alone, he\'ll be with Heimao."

Yao Shen sighs. He does think Xin Hulei\'s straightforward personality is charming. He didn\'t in the beginning, but he has come to learn how to appreciate it. However, it means that sometimes he can be oblivious to certain things.

"Jincan has this deep-seated need to impress you. It\'s probably why he\'s always going on about marrying you." Xin Hulei\'s chest is really smooth and warm under Yao Shen\'s hands and he grows momentarily distracted.

"Anyway, he thinks he\'ll be able to repay all you\'ve done for him, by marrying you."

Xin Hulei hums thoughtfully. "An antiquated vision of marriage."

Of course that\'s what he\'d get out of Yao Shen\'s explanation. Yao Shen has half a mind to suffocate him with a pillow.

"Sure," he says with a sigh, balancing himself on his elbow to get off from Xin Hulei and relocate to his own side of the bed.

Xin Hulei stops him with both hands around his waist. "We\'ll do as you say. I\'ll tell everyone Jincan is my assistant." He thinks this over. "You can tell Bi Jialu to babysit him."

Bi Jialu is probably going to kill him if he sics Jincan on her. He\'ll annoy her to death.

"You\'re evil, why are you roping me into your problems."

Xin Hulei pecks him on the cheek. "You roped yourself in by standing up for Jincan."

Yao Shen wants to argue with that slanderous accusation but Xin Hulei silences him with a kiss, and then says he\'ll give him a kiss somewhere else if he promises to be a very good boy and not make any noise.

Yao Shen is not a good boy, but by then Xin Hulei\'s mouth is already otherwise occupied.

---

That night only serves to make Yao Shen\'s accumulated sexual frustration boil over. He can\'t wait until he and Xin Hulei are finally alone in his Hengdian apartment.

In the meantime, coexistence in the Beijing apartment becomes even more strained.

Xin Hulei tells Jincan that he can be his "assistant" on the set, and while that means Jincan is elated, Heimao starts sulking in the corners.

Unable to handle his teenage angst any longer, Yao Shen just blurts out that they can find an assistant job for him as well. And that finally perks up his droopy ears.

Two days before their return to Hengdian, Tan Liansi returns to her own apartment to get her own stuff ready. This is the kind of trip where it\'s important both her and Xin Hulei are seen behaving like normal humans -- which means taking planes to Hengdian, and then cars to the hotels.

Bi Jialu sends Yao Shen his flight information and hotel room details, and he\'s surprised to find that they\'re no longer staying at the same hotel they did in the spring.

"People died there," Xin Hulei says, "and humans can\'t help being superstitious, even when the living are a much bigger danger to them than the dead."

The night before they\'re set to fly to Hengdian, Xin Hulei takes Yao Shen back to his apartment -- just as dusty and mildewy as Yao Shen left it.

Yao Shen doesn\'t want to risk Xin Hulei staying too long, in case that\'s enough for Si Wang to do something. He\'s still out there, and while he can\'t leave the Underworld, Yao Shen only needs to prod at that dormant place at the back of his mind to remember his presence.

Xin Hulei kisses him goodbye anyway, and just before he leaves, tells Yao Shen, "When we\'re done filming the drama you won\'t need to return here." His crimson gaze holds Yao Shen\'s, filled with warm determination. "I want you to live with me."

Yao Shen\'s heart wrenches painfully inside his chest.

Are they moving too fast? Does he care?

He decides that he doesn\'t and throws his arms around Xin Hulei\'s neck, pulling himself up to wrap his legs around his waist too. "I\'d like that."

Xin Hulei supports his weight under the legs and pecks him on the lips. "Good, but it wasn\'t a question."

Yao Shen laughs into his mouth and Xin Hulei swallows his laughter down with more kisses.

---

That night Yao Shen has some weird nightmares that he barely remembers in the morning, but which leave him feeling exhausted when he wakes up.

He assumes it\'s anxiety due to the stress of going back to set, and puts it out of his mind until he\'s on the plane to Hengdian. This time he\'s flying executive, which is a nice surprise, except for how insufferable the other passengers are. Instead of enjoying the amenities, most of them are business men and women who spend the entire flight talking loudly on their phones, or in videoconference meetings.

Yao Shen is tired from his restless night, and wishes he could catch some sleep before landing, but the loud chatter on top of the plane\'s noise isn\'t making it easy for him.

He\'s wrapped up in a blanket, his eyes halfway closed, when a short figure passes across his line of sight.

Yao Shen blinks his eyes open, but by then the figure is already gone, and so are the last vestiges of Yao Shen\'s sleep.

It might have been his tired mind playing tricks on him, but he could have sworn he saw a ghoul.