Yao Shen spends the better part of the next day in a boiling state of unmitigated rage.

He scowls all through hair and makeup.

Fumes through the breaks between scenes (thankfully absent Xin Hulei for the morning portion, at least)

And seethes through a bland lunch of instant noodles, alone in his trailer.

He can\'t wrap his mind around why Xin Hulei would like that stupid comment. It\'s impossible for him to know Yao Shen was the one behind the account, so why did he like it? Does he just like stirring up chaos among his own fanbase?

In any case, it only draws attention to Yao Shen\'s ill-advised rant, lending undue credibility to a random anonymous account.

Everything Xin Hulei does is a completely baffling, he can\'t even guess at what he\'s thinking half the time.

[He\'s a demon king, being duplicitous is in his nature.]

"Who asked you?" Yao Shen grumbles into his styrofoam bowl of noodles.

At least Xin Hulei has kept his word, and his agency hasn\'t issued any statement on the rumors, which saves Yao Shen from the headache of getting more vaguely threatening phone calls from HuaHua management, but he wonders how long that will last with Xin Hulei stoking the flames of online gossip.

His phone is constantly buzzing with direct messages and mentions in his official weibo account ever since the \'incident\' -- as Yao Shen has taken to calling it in his mind.

He hasn\'t been brave enough to check any of them, but neither can he push himself to turn off notifications altogether. It\'s like the faint vibration of his mobile is the barometer for how much shit he\'s in.

Suddenly a chime goes off, that he recognizes immediately as a WeChat alert.

He usually has everything fully on silent, but since his phone is vibrating so much, he switched the permissions of a few messaging apps or he\'d never know if someone was trying to reach him.

[Sunrise: Ge, are you busy, can we talk?]

Yao Shen is confused as to why Ye Fang is messaging him instead of finding him for a face to face conversation. She\'s probably on lunch break too.

Unless she wants to talk about something she\'s too embarrassed to tell him in person.

He grins at her cute little bunny filter display picture.

Could it be that Ye Fang wants to confess to him? How long has it been since a cute girl confessed to him?

Suddenly, some of Yao Shen\'s bad mood vanishes.

He doesn\'t think this is the moment to enter into a relationship, but he\'s a master at letting people down easy, and if he\'s being honest, he has always liked the confession far more than the relationship that follows.

[there\'s no monster here: Sure! What\'s on meimei\'s mind?]

[Sunrise: this is really embarrassing, I don\'t know how to start sweatdrop.jpg]

Yao Shen grins down at his mobile. He has never confessed to anyone, but he knows it\'s normal for the person doing the confessing to feel embarrassed.

[there\'s no monster here: don\'t worry meimei, you can do it!]

[Sunrise: uhm, anyway, I want to apologize for yesterday, for leaving with Xin laoshi]

[there\'s no monster here: why would you apologize for that?]

Yao Shen is genuinely confused.

[Sunrise: I didn\'t know gege had feelings for Xin laoshi, I never put much stock into online gossip, but I know better now, and I want to apologize for my behaviour]

[Sunrise: I swear nothing happened between us, I was just indulging my childish crush]

He looks down at his phone in confusion, what the hell is Ye Fang talking about?

[there\'s no monster here: I think meimei is confused]

Yao Shen is still typing when Ye Fang\'s next reply pops up.

[Sunrise: There\'s no need to mince words for my sake, I understand everything now, and I swear I won\'t come between gege and Xin laoshi kowtow.jpg]

[Sunrise: Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest to ensure there aren\'t any misunderstandings between us. I value gege\'s friendship heart.jpg I\'m rooting for the two of you!]

Filled with mortification, Yao Shen types a short answer.

[there\'s no monster here: thanks :)]

Yao Shen switches his status on WeChat to offline after that, too annoyed to consider the implications of what happened.

Did he do something last night to make Ye Fang think he had feelings for Xin Hulei?

That\'s impossible, he\'s sure he didn\'t do anything out of the ordinary, if anything he was even more openly antagonistic than usual.

Most likely it was something Xin Hulei told her during their ride to the hotel.

He drains the last of the noodle stock down the sink and and throws the empty cup in the trash, all the way fantasizing about how he can make Xin Hulei pay for humiliating him at every turn.

---

Their next scene together is going to be the classic, \'beautiful Shizun takes a bath in the hot springs while horny disciple peeps on him\', a classic for a reason -- meant to show the first stirrings of lust in Xie Huan as well as peel away some of Yan Shuyi\'s \'lofty immortal\' veneer.

All fine, except that it\'s not very conductive to Yao Shen having the upper hand in his confrontation with Yao Shen.

The cameras will only be shooting them from the waist up, and even then Yan Shuyi is going to be wearing underwear and a thin inner robe, but he would still prefer to be wearing more clothes for their confrontation.

Yao Shen gets changed behind a privacy screen, and all the non-essential people on set are dismissed because the director wants to create a realistic intimate mood.

Once he\'s ready, he nods at the director who yells action, and the cameras start filming Yan Shuyi\'s graceful descent into the pool.

Yao Shen is overly conscious of how his footsteps will look on camera as it pans up his toes, his ankles, his bare calves, until he finally enters the pool and lowers himself into the bench around the edge.

He\'s lucky the weather is mild, because the water isn\'t warm in the least. He schools his features into a mask of relaxation and tranquility although the cold water makes his muscles seize painfully.

He settles himself against the fake rocks around the edge of the pool, and runs his fingers through Yan Shuyi\'s long hair, turning his bare neck to the side so the camera has an unimpeded view for a long beauty closeup.

Yao Shen has no experience filming this kind of beauty shot, his secondary roles never warranted anything like this.

He feels a little silly, pretending to luxuriate in the cold waters at the same time he tries to make a believable effort of looking like he\'s washing himself while partially clothed.

It\'s a fine balance, but the director doesn\'t yell cut, so Yao Shen assumes he\'s doing a decent job of it.

That is, until a cold voice rings from behind the wall of screens next to the director\'s chair. "That was all wrong," Xin Hulei says, stepping towards the edge of the pool, Xie Huan\'s vibrant robes making him look all the more eye-catching.

Yao Shen glares up at him and stands up in the shallow pool, his wet robes clinging to his body. "What\'s your problem?"

Xin Hulei\'s eyes drift down to the dip of Yao Shen\'s waist, where the thin fabric of the robes gathers, riding up his thighs. "Yan Shuyi wouldn\'t look so wanton and openly seductive. He\'s a refined Daoist master, not a brothel slut."

---

The Fang in Ye Fang\'s name means dawn, which is why her WeChat display name is Sunrise. The Yao in Yao Shen\'s last name, is a homophone for another yao that can mean monster, demon, ghost ;D If it wasn\'t clear, he changed his WeChat display name from the last time he talked with Gao Wu, he\'ll keep changing it, because I think it\'s fun