Xin Hulei returns Yao Shen to his trailer, and then leaves out the door, after the hidden paparazzi have probably photographed him going in and then staying for an hour.

Yao Shen leaves shortly after him, making sure his costume and wig look impeccable and that if any photos of him surface no one will be under the impression that something untoward happen.

Ever since the whole mess with the leaked photos of him drunkenly clinging to Xin Hulei they have been toeing the thin line of CP baiting enough that people will be interested in the drama, but not so much that it will generate a new scandal.

The nature of the entertainment industry is that it is profitable for people to believe any two stars are in a relationship, as long as it\'s never confirmed, the moment it is, their marketability and revenue power plummets.

The irony doesn\'t escape Yao Shen. An actor\'s private life is meant to be as make-belief as the roles they play on screen.

It\'s a cruel expectation for the public to have, but one every actor learns to navigate eventually.

Clearly, Xin Hulei doesn\'t care, either because he has such a high status already that he doesn\'t worry about the hit to his popularity as China\'s most eligible bachelor four years running, or being a Demon means people will keep on loving him no matter what.

Yao Shen worries how that all works out , with the whole feeding on fan worship on his way to the filming location, when a disgruntled voice in his head interrupts his train of thought.

[Congratulations Host, for growing 30% closer to the Demon King...uh all at once. Fourth and fifth rewards unlocked: Invisibility and Sleep Upgrade II]

Yao Shen almost stumbles on the hem of his long robes. What the hell? Invisibility, that\'s not possible, right?

[Uhm, could Host please clarify how he grew closer to the Demon King by two ranks? I have no record of those interactions but I have the information that it happened.]

Scrambling the System\'s omniscient functionalities is one of the only good things about going to \'Hell on Earth\'. Yao Shen isn\'t sure he wants the System knowing all his business.

The System must feel his reluctance to elaborate, because it falls silent.

\'Hello, what\'s up with the invisibility perk?\' Yao Shen asks the System silently, trying not to mouth the words as he walks.

[Answering Host: Invisibility allows Host to be invisible in any circumstance for no longer than five minutes once per day. To activate it Host needs only to say the idiom: "what remains unseen is deemed to be clean". Sleep upgrade II allows Host to feel rested with even fewer hours of sleep than Sleep Upgrade I, and on occasion can bestow Host with prophetic dreams.]

Wait? Prophetic dreams?

This time the System doesn\'t elaborate, having gone stubbornly quiet, perhaps in retaliation for Yao Shen\'s lack of transparency.

He\'s reminded of the dream from earlier that morning -- he isn\'t sure if it was prophetic, but it definitely felt odd.

More like a half-forgotten memory, a snippet of the past rather than something yet to happen. For a moment there Yao Shen was actually worried it was a side-effect of Yao Shen\'s demon blood, but maybe the first Sleep Upgrade just had some side effects the System didn\'t bother telling him about.

Yeah, that makes more sense.

---

Shooting the training scene with Xin Hulei is as odd as Yao Shen expected it to be.

He\'s supposed to play a powerful cultivator, teaching his disciple how to improve his fighting technique, but on the meta-level, Yao Shen keeps getting blocked by how much more experienced than him Xin Hulei is in filming fight sequences, how much taller, how much stronger.

He\'s a literal demon king!

Yao Shen is overly conscious of how much work he has to put into selling this performance for the end-result to look convincing, otherwise he\'ll end up looking like a mouse trying to battle a mountain.

Director Chen interrupts him not five minutes into the first take. "Yao laoshi, you\'re thinking too much, don\'t worry so much about how the scene will look on screen, that\'s my job."

He\'s immediately cowed, and humiliated. His acting only suffers more for it.

They\'re on the fourth take when Xin Hulei calls for a break.

Yao Shen expects him to have some more dismissive criticism for him, and is bracing for it when Xin Hulei offers him a bottle of water. "You think I\'m more talented than you, but I\'m not, I\'m just more experienced."

Yao Shen accepts the water bottle and gives Xin Hulei a confused look as he uncaps it. "From where I\'m standing that doesn\'t seem to make much of a difference."

Xin Hulei pulls all his long hair to the side, leaving his neck bare in a small concession to the heat that has begun to creep into the spring days in Hengdian.

That bare patch of pale skin draws Yao Shen\'s attention, he can\'t take his eyes away from it. It looks almost vulnerable, exposed under the bright glare of the sun like that.

It reminds him of the dream in which Xin Hulei lowered his head to kiss the inside of his thigh, his sleek hair spilling around his shoulders and exposing that same sliver of vulnerable nape.

Yao Shen drinks almost half the bottle of water in one go.

"The difference is that talent is innate, while experience is something you achieve." He turns to Yao Shen, with something that could almost be called a smile curling in his lips. "When you have lived as many years as I have, it\'s natural to become good at a lot of different things, so you shouldn\'t interpret that as a shortcoming on your part."

No one who overhears them will think Xin Hulei is doing anything but exaggerating their age difference, but Yao Shen understands all too well the meaning of what he\'s implying.

"Then what do you suggest?"

"Stop thinking, lose yourself in the scene."

Xin Hulei adopts the same fighting stance he did during shooting. "I\'m not Xin Hulei, I\'m Xie Huan, and you\'re Yan Shuyi," he says, his steady gaze not leaving Yao Shen.

Yao Shen gives the water to Bi Jialu standing close by with her phone and trusty planner in hand, and attacks Xin Hulei like the fight choreographer told him to.

This time, instead of worrying that he\'ll look weaker than Xin Hulei, Yao Shen focuses on looking effortless.

Because even if Xie Huan has the raw power, Yan Shuyi has the experience.

Their situation is a perfect mirror to his and Xin Hulei\'s.

This time around, Yao Shen takes inspiration from Xin Hulei\'s dignified bearing, and channels some of that frostiness into his own movements.

He catches himself wondering again how someone impulsive and intense like Xie Huan could have become so aloof and cool.

That part of the mystery rankles at Yao Shen, he wants to get to the bottom of it.

Xin Hulei said Yao Shen was mysterious and he couldn\'t help himself from wanting to learn more.

Well, Yao Shen feels exactly the same way. By the time their short practice session comes to an end and they get ready to shoot the scene for real, Yao Shen has figured out how he can put his new Invisibility skill to the test.