Yao Shen goes very still. Xin Hulei's words completely blindside him.
He has no idea what Xin Hulei could be keeping from him.
Slowly, Yao Shen sits down on the sofa, his eyes not leaving Xin Hulei.
For his part, Xin Hulei's expression remains unchanged. "I've been sharing your dreams."
"What?"
Xin Hulei looks away from Yao Shen, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I know you've been having nightmares."
"Why...why didn't you tell me?" Yao Shen asks, feeling very conflicted about the whole thing.
"I didn't think much of it, until I heard what Jia Hao said." Xin Hulei's expression grows a little conflicted. "I think it's related to the blood contract."
Yao Shen hasn't thought about the blood contract in so long that he almost forgot about it.
"Is that something it can do?"
Xin Hulei shrugs. "I don't know, you were the first person I signed one with."
Yao Shen lets out a dry chuckle. "Well, you know what I wanted to tell you about, then."
"I figured," Xin Hulei says, nodding. "I'm sorry, I should have said something earlier."
Yeah, he should. "Why didn't you?"
Xin Hulei rubs the back of his neck and looks away. "I regret that I ever made you sign that contract. I didn't know what I do now, or I never would have made you do it." Yao Shen can see the tense line of his back as he looks out the windows at the dark night sky. "It gives me certain powers over you. I've never used them, nor would I, but it still feels...wrong."
Like how he can sense where Yao Shen is, whenever they're both within a certain radius. He told Yao Shen about that, but Yao Shen didn't think much of it, and put the whole thing out of his mind.
"What powers exactly?" Yao Shen asks, closing his eyes against the dark thrill that goes down his spine.
Xin Hulei turns to look at him. "I don't know, I haven't tried to find out. I just know I can sense where you are, and now...this."
This.
Yao Shen feels some kind of way about the whole thing, but he can't fully voice his thoughts. Part of him is a little freaked out, in the same way Xin Hulei is, another, bigger part, can't stop thinking of the possibilities.
He puts all that out of his mind for now, and redirects the issue back to the conversation at hand.
"Uhm, what did you see, from my nightmares?"
"The first time it happened I didn't even know it was your nightmare. I thought it was mine, because of the cicadas."
Yao Shen remembers that one. Xin Hulei was talking about cicadas as Yao Shen fell asleep, and he dreamt about swarms of them blotting the skies.
"I only realised the dream was yours because everything in it ignored me, and was drawn to you instead." He looks at Yao Shen, his eyes dark and full of a feeling Yao Shen can't name. "I saw you cowering in fright, looking up at the swarms of cicadas as if you thought they were going to devour you."
The panic and despair of that dream is still present in Yao Shen's mind. He can recall with vivid clarity the feeling of seeing the world turn dark around him, as if the sky was about to fall on his head, and then...nothing. The nightmare vanished and he woke up.
"What did you do? In the dream?" Yao Shen asks.
"I went to you and hugged you. It didn't seem like you noticed, but after that, I woke up."
That would explain why Yao Shen never seems to get to the terrifying conclusion of his nightmares. Just as they're about to turn more frightening he wakes up.
It could also explain why Gao Wu was seemingly a lot more affected by his nightmares than Yao Shen is.
"Thank you," Yao Shen says, reaching up from the sofa to take Xin Hulei's hand.
Xin Hulei looks down at their joined hands. "You aren't upset?" he asks, his throat bobbing.
Yao Shen smiles at how Xin Hulei can't still look him in the eye. He feels crushing guilt at the idea of intruding in Yao Shen's space while he was in a vulnerable position.
It's an interesting parallel to just that morning, when Yao Shen woke up with Xin Hulei fucking him.
The problem then, is maybe not intruding into Yao Shen's space, but not having permission to do so.
"I think maybe the nightmares aren't so bad, because you were there with me."
Xin Hulei blinks twice, and then finally nods. "I helped?"
"You helped."
All the tension drains off his shoulders, and he lets out a small sigh. "Good, because I don't know how to stop it."
Yao Shen pulls him down by the hand and he falls on top of him on the sofa. "We'll have to figure out what else the contract allows you to do..." He gets an idea suddenly that makes him break into a smirk. "We need to find out if it's a two-way street."
Xin Hulei kisses him, and they don't talk much for a while, as their clothes fall to the floor and they arrange themselves on the cramped sofa in a jigsaw of sweaty limbs and hungry mouths.
---
Whereas before the hiatus waking up each day to go to set and film filled Yao Shen with glee and happiness, now he feels incredible dread just thinking about facing his coworkers.
The news of him being questioned by the police have already made across all the crew and cast, and the constant looks have not stopped since.
He even overhears someone comment: "They haven't arrested them yet, so maybe they didn't do anything?"
Yao Shen just grits his teeth and bears the intense scrutiny, reminding himself not to fall into the temptation of checking the much worse things people are certainly saying about him on weibo.
At lunch he and Xin Hulei manage to catch up with Tan Liansi, and tell her what they found out about Gao Wu's death, being mindful of the people around them, always eager to eavesdrop.
"I haven't seen any ghosts around," she says, slurping her noodles loudly. "Maybe he's moved on."
Yao Shen doesn't necessarily believe that. To him it feels more likely that Gao Wu is still around, although the circumstances of his death remain a mystery.
"You wouldn't be the first to notice if he was still around," Xin Hulei says, after a moment of silence. "Has Ye Fang said something?"
Tan Liansi immediately sits up straighter. "Uhm, she's been staying in my room, so I don't think she's seen anything."
Yao Shen exchanges an amused look with Xin Hulei, who has absolutely no reaction.
"Where is she now?" he asks.
---
Ye Fang is eating alone in her trailer, which strikes Yao Shen as odd, she seems at once startled and relieved to see them.
"Oh, what are you doing here?" She opens the door to the trailer to let them all in, which becomes quickly cramped with the four of them there.
"Why are you eating alone in here," Yao Shen asks, going directly to the point.
Ye Fang stammers, looking down at her feet for a moment. "Oh, I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts."
"What thoughts are those?" Xin Hulei asks, curt and to the point.
Ye Fang is clearly taken aback by his directness. Tan Liansi moves to her side and shoots Xin Hulei a glare. "We're just worried, with everything about Gao Wu's death, which is why we wanted to check on you."
Instead of reassuring her, Tan Liansi's words seem to leave Ye Fang even more distraught. "I'm fine, honestly."
Yao Shen can tell by the shiftiness in her eyes that she isn't comfortable with the direction the conversation is taking.
He decides there's no point beating around the bush, because she's going to keep avoiding and sidestepping any questions regarding Gao Wu. Which can only mean one thing: she knows something.
"Have you seen or heard anything?" Yao Shen asks, trying to measure his words not to sound too aggressive.
Her eyes widen dramatically. "What do you mean?" She lets out a nervous chuckle and edges closer to Tan Liansi.
"You might not know this, but Gao Wu came from a family of Daoist priests," Yao Shen says, deciding to keep close to the truth. "And while I don't necessarily believe that kind of thing, maybe he's somehow trying to contact us?" He shrugs, making his tone more casual. "Considering the current police investigation, in which we are suspects, any information would be useful."
Tan Liansi nods. "Maybe he could try to reach you, since you were the one who found his body."
All at once Ye Fang crumples, dropping to the narrow cot against the trailer's wall and hiding her face in her palms.
She looks up at them, her eyes rimmed with red.. "I feel like I'm going crazy with all this."