Gao Wu takes being addressed by Xin Hulei so suddenly in stride, and much more gracefully than Yao Shen would.

"I\'m happy to hear laoshi\'s suggestions," he says, stepping back from the edge of the spring.

Xin Hulei doesn\'t wait to be told twice, approaching him with steadfast strides, the skirts of his red robes swishing in the gentle breeze.

"Rong Zi has feelings for Yan Shuyi," he says. "At this point it\'s just infatuation, but you\'re acting as if the only thing holding him back is propriety or filial pity towards his Shizun. Your reticence should show his repressed desire too."

Gao Wu nods, paying close attention to Xin Hulei\'s words. Yao Shen watches them from the pool, once again wondering why Xin Hulei cares so much, what does this drama mean to him?

And why does he know so much about what Rong Zi feels?

If the events of the novel really took place, he should hate Rong Zi, not only because he\'s his romantic rival, but because of what Rong Zi\'s jealousy will cause later on.

Why should he care, if he\'s portrayed accurately in a drama based on a novel he hates, whose existence might or might not be related to his past?

If it was him, Yao Shen would do his damnedest to ensure his rival was depicted in the worst light possible.

For instance, in the drama of his life he would make sure the actor playing Xin Hulei talked only in monosyllables, and that his smile made little children cry.

As if feeling Yao Shen\'s uncharitable thoughts Xin Hulei\'s eyes dart towards him.

Amused by his own mental image of a wooden actor playing the "movie Emperor", Yao Shen smirks and waves in response to Xin Hulei\'s stony gaze.

Xin Hulei grips Gao Wu by the shoulders and turns him around to face Yao Shen in the pool.

"You have to look at him as if he is the most beautiful thing you\'ve ever seen," Xin Hulei says, his gaze unwavering as it bores into Yao Shen. "He\'s everything you didn\'t know you wanted."

Even in the cold water, Yao Shen feels a hot blush climb up his chest and throat.

How come Xin Hulei can always turn the tables on him? It\'s not fair, just once Yao Shen would like to get the upper hand, and to be the one to completely disconcert him.

Xin Hulei is not done, though. While Gao Wu nods attentively, he keeps going. "You want him, and yet you feel as if you can never have him."

Yao Shen lowers his eyes. He knows those words aren\'t directed at him, but he can\'t stand to be looked at like that, even if the person Xin Hulei is talking about is Yan Shuyi.

"Your shixiong complains about your Shizun so often, and so intensely, that you know he\'s halfway in love with him already, and you owe him too much to get in the way of his happiness," Xin Hulei says, his voice barely raising in tone, although Yao Shen thinks he can pick up a subtle undercurrent of genuine emotion.

Maybe he has gotten better at reading Xin Hulei.

It must have hurt, being betrayed like that by the person he thought was his closest friend, but Xin Hulei doesn\'t sound resentful just...resigned.

Once again, Yao Shen wonders where Yan Shuyi is in the middle of all this. Can that kind of epic love end with something as mundane as a breakup?

He imagines Xie Huan and Yan Shuyi falling out of step in the same way it happened to him and his previous girlfriends and can\'t really picture it.

Did they just stop talking with each other one day, and drift away quietly? Each following a separate path to an opposite destination -- all the joy and heartache between them washed out to shore like driftwood, the unidentifiable debris of what used to be a greater whole?

"Does Yao laoshi want to say something about the scene?" Xin Hulei asks, bringing Yao Shen out of his reverie.

He must have looked as if he was drifting away too.

"Yeah, uh, I think something in Rong Zi\'s posture should show his fear," Yao Shen says, not knowing what compels him. "Some sort of foresight into what\'s to come. He should waver because he\'s afraid of what giving in to his feelings for Yan Shuyi would mean. He\'s afraid of himself, of what he\'s capable of."

Xin Hulei holds his gaze for a long time, and then nods. "That\'s good, a taste of things to come."

---

Yao Shen is coming out of a bath when a knock sounds at his door. He didn\'t order room service, so it must be someone disturbing his peace and quiet.

He piles Yan Shuyi\'s wig on top of his head and secures it in place with a hairband, some strands slipping from the queue and falling around his face and neck.

When he opens the door he finds Xin Hulei standing in the doorway. Unlike Yao Shen he doesn\'t look freshly showered and ready for bed, but like he came over from somewhere else, or is about to go out.

Bizarrely, there\'s a cat in his arms.

Yao Shen can\'t help blurting out. "Where did you find a cat?"

The corner of Xin Hulei\'s lip raises sardonically, and he shoulders in past Yao Shen, toeing his shoes off at the doorway.

He walks into the living room and takes a seat on the sofa, the door shutting softly behind him as if blown closed by a miraculous gust of wind.

That should have been Yao Shen\'s first sign that something wasn\'t right.

The second should have been the moment Xin Hulei lets go of the cat in his arms and it treads all over the sofa on velvety paws, it\'s black fur gleaming like a raven\'s wing and its red eyes shining like rubies.

Ah.

Not an actual cat.

From the couch, Xin Hulei gives him a meaningful look. "I think we need to talk."