Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR SPEAKS IN RIDDLES

[Host should take this opportunity to grow closer to the Demon King.]

Yao Shen would rather grow closer to a good night's sleep and a bowl of instant noodles.

"You're not leaving, are you?" he asks Xin Hulei, with a long-suffering sigh.

Xin Hulei unfolds a rolled up script from the inside of his jacket and spreads it out across his lap, smoothing out the well-thumbed pages.

"No," he says, without taking his eyes from the script. "This drama will shoot all the big scenes chronologically, but some smaller set pieces will be filmed out of order as sets become available."

He flips through the script until he finds the scene the two of them are shooting together. "Our scene tomorrow happens when Yan Shuyi and Xie Huan already have a rapport together, we can't be too stilted or it will jarring for the audience when they watch the drama."

His dark eyes meet Yao Shen's briefly before he pats the empty cushion next to him. "Come here."

It's an order, but the calm way Xin Hulei says it makes it sound like a request.

Before he knows it, Yao Shen is already sitting down on the sofa, keeping as much distance as possible between the two of them.

He leans over to drag his own script over from the coffee table.

"Ready when you are," Yao Shen says, glowering at Xin Hulei for making him do this when he's so tired from the awful plane ride.

Xin Hulei clears his throat, and in the next moment vanishes into Xie Huan, his cold face replaced by Xie Huan's fiery temper.

The change is so dramatic that Yao Shen could swear they look like two different people.

"This disciple has copied the passage Shizun requested," Xin Hulei says, eyes lowered in deference towards his master but a subtle curl of contempt twists his lips.

At the time, Yan Shuyi is in his own quarters, working on a piece of calligraphy, and merely hums in acknowledgement -- not lifting his eyes from his work.

"Did Xie Huan understand it?"

That's not what Xie Huan expected to hear, and Xin Hulei perfectly portrays his vexation with subtle twists of his eyebrows and the tension in his jaw.

Eventually Xie Huan admits, "I don't understand why there was a King named Wonton, and why the other Kings poked holes in him, and why he died."

Which is the same as admitting he understood nothing of the entire parable.

At that point Yan Shuyi finally puts down his brush and turns around to face Xie Huan. "What do you think Master Zhuang(1) was trying to say?"

Xie Huan frowns again. "I don't know, I got distracted by the Kings' stupid names."

The script comes with the passage Xie Huan was supposed to copy so that actors not familiar with the Daoist text can understand what's being discussed.

The gist of it is that there were three Emperors. The Emperor of the Southern Sea was called Lickity, the emperor of the Northern Sea was Split, and the emperor of the Center was Wonton.

The three Emperors often met in Wonton's lands -- who received them with hospitality.

Lickity and Split wanted to repay Wonton for his kindness, and so decided to poke seven holes in his face -- so that he could resemble them. Two eyes, two nostrils, one mouth, and two ears.

When the made the seventh hole Wonton died.

Yao Shen is the first to admit the true meaning of Master Zhuang's words also wasn't clear to him at first.