Didn\'t Xin Hulei mention that the Fragrant Peony was a brothel?

How did Yao Shen meet him there?

He wants to crawl back into bed and forget any of this is happening.

"I\'m just an actor," Yao Shen says, his eyes shifting pleadingly between all the three perfect faces looking down at him.

Instead of sympathy he gets condescension.

The slender, barefooted man shakes his head with a forlorn sigh, his long crane-like neck catching the light. "You\'ve always been the less ambitious of us."

The woman glares at him. "Who cares about your stupid human life?"

Yao Shen does, it\'s the only life he has.

Surprisingly, it\'s the serious man with the sculpted jade features that says something in his defense. "It\'s not his fault, we made him drink Meng Po\'s soup each time he reincarnated. He doesn\'t remember anything."

The woman sighs, and crosses her arms, holding the pipe parallel to her forearm. "It\'s still annoying."

The barefooted beauty approached Yao Shen, peering deeply into his eyes. "Still, one does wonder, why he managed to finally get back here while still alive, unlike all the other reincarnations, when we only got to see him after each death."

The woman doesn\'t seem very concerned about this, her keen eyes boring into Yao Shen. "Easier this way no? He didn\'t do a very good job of killing Xin Hulei in his other lives."

She turns to the little ghoul standing motionless by the door. "You are sure they have met, this time around?"

The ghoul smiles, showing the rows of sharp teeth that don\'t look like they should fit inside his child\'s mouth. "Very sure."

She waves a bare arm towards the barefooted man. "See? Progress."

Yao Shen feels as if he\'s only understanding fragments of their conversation. How come they are so surprised that Yao Shen managed to get close to Xin Hulei? Aren\'t they the ones who put the system in him?

"What about the system? Isn\'t that why I\'m here?" Yao Shen asks, looking at them in confusion.

He figured the most recent update was the reason behind why he could open the \'door\' into Youdu.

The woman in the red qipao tilts her head to the side and gives him a curious look. "Is he broken? He\'s talking nonsense."

Yao Shen\'s face flushes in embarrassment at the realization she isn\'t even talking with him, as if he isn\'t there.

The serious faced one frowns. "Right now he\'s just a human, this is all too much for him."

"What am I doing here? What do you want from me?" Yao Shen asks, backing away from them and towards the door.

He decides not to say anything else about the System. If they don\'t know he should keep it to himself. In fact, now that he thinks about it, the System never told him to kill Xin Hulei, just to capture his spirit stone and send him back the demonic realm -- whatever that is.

The barefooted man leans against a pillar and smiles at him, maybe he thinks it\'s reassuring but Yao Shen can recognize the threat hidden behind it. "We just want to remind you of what your task is. You need to kill Xin Hulei, once you do that your position as Ghost King will be reinstated and all debts will be forgotten."

"What debts?" Yao Shen asks, feeling the air in the room disappear.

"That\'s for us to keep tabs on and for you to repay," the woman says, smirking.

The dour faced man nods. "Let\'s just say that we have the means to make your current human life much shorter than expected."

"Like we did the other reincarnations, when it become obvious you wouldn\'t be of any use," says the still smiling man with the long loose hair, one shoulder of his robes nearly sliding down into the crook of his elbow.

Yao Shen is terrified by what they\'re saying. How can things have ended up like this?

He\'s just an actor, not even a famous one at that, how can he also be a former Ghost King with a debt to repay?

The woman in the red qipao coos at the terrified look in Yao Shen\'s face. "Oh, don\'t look like that. Everything will be fine once you get rid of Xin Hulei." She pauses. "And you will, won\'t you?"

What else can he do but nod?

She claps her hands together, and makes her way across the room and into a nearby lacquered cabinet. She comes back with a tiny rosewood box that she deposits in his hands. "Wait for him to fall asleep and slip the insect inside his mouth, it will do the rest of the job for you."

Yao Shen swallows thickly and pockets the box.

"So good to see you again, Shi Wang (1)," the barefooted man tells Yao Shen, his voice ringing with insincerity. "The little ghoul will take you back now." The man pats the ghoul\'s head as if he is a well-behaved dog, his jade-like fingers tangling into the stringy strands of his hair. "He\'ll keep an eye on you, too. Won\'t you?"

The ghoul smiles at Yao Shen, all teeth. "Yes, your Majesty."

---

Yao Shen follows the ghoul back to the alley where they came from in a daze. His mind spinning so fast he can\'t hold on to a single thought for more than a second.

The ghoul disappears with a cryptic. "I\'ll see you around," and Yao Shen crawls into bed with a wounded groan, anxious to fall asleep and put the whole thing out of his mind.

He wants to wake up in the morning and pretend none of this is real.

He takes a glance at his mobile, to check the time, and despair at how little sleep he still has left, when he notices he has an unread message from Xin Hulei.

[Xin Hulei: Sleep well heart.jpg]

From the timestamp, Xin Hulei sent it right after his goodnight text, Yao Shen just didn\'t see it. He spends a lot of time looking at the little heart emoji, his eyes hot and his throat tight.

---

(1) - 10th King