Long Aotian’s Beautiful Butler Has Run Away chapter 75

Chapter 75: Lying to Him

The next day, Shen Yan brought copying talisman paper to find Shen Bingsi.

Shen Bingsi reluctantly pulled the crumpled letter from his robe and spread it on the desk. “Copy it. Finish copying it here.”

Shen Yan looked at the paper, harboring doubts about what exactly Shen Bingsi had done to it last night.

“Cough, by the way, when do you plan to write a reply?” Shen Bingsi asked.

The copying talisman emitted a faint purple glow, and the words on the letter appeared verbatim on another blank sheet of paper.

As Shen Yan injected spiritual energy into the talisman paper, he answered Shen Bingsi, “Answering the Villa Master, Brother Rong didn’t say we definitely had to reply.”

In truth, Shen Yan had a transmission stone. They didn’t necessarily have to use letter writing to contact Rong Xie. It was just that Brother Rong was cautious and wanted to put the villa management matters down on paper, which was why he wrote a long handwritten letter.

“How can that be?” Shen Bingsi said. “A reply must be written. Besides, I have some things I want to ask him.”

Shen Yan’s brow twitched as he looked at Shen Bingsi.

What did Shen Bingsi want to ask? It couldn’t be the specific address of the new home in Lanyuan, or perhaps digging up old matters that hadn’t been cleared up before?

In short, Shen Yan had a premonition it wouldn’t be anything good.

“Cough.” Shen Bingsi cleared his throat posturingly again. Seeing Shen Yan staring at him in confusion, he asked unhappily, “Why aren’t you taking notes with a pen?”

Shen Yan: ?

He had to take notes?

However, since they were serving as attendants on someone else’s turf—eating their food and taking their money—if the boss felt it necessary to take notes, then notes would be taken.

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Shen Yan took a charcoal pencil and a blank sheet of paper. “Please speak, Villa Master.”

“Write this—”

Shen Bingsi thought for a moment, and his train of thought gushed like a spring: “Don’t you hate going out the most? Isn’t riding in a carriage your most hated thing? How come you traveled thousands of miles back and forth, sitting for two months straight, and suddenly you’re fine with it?”

“And those restaurants outside. weren’t you afraid of whatever might be crawling in the dark corners under the stove? How can you eat outside now?”

“You said you hated dealing with people the most. Now, between auction house managers, brokerage agents, and government officials, aren’t you getting along quite well? You established an independent household so quickly, and bought a house in Lanyuan… By the way, didn’t you say you liked Capital-style mansions the best? Why did you buy a Southern Province style house?”

“You liar!”

Things Shen Bingsi had pondered all night without understanding now erupted like water from a tapped spring. He spoke volubly at great length. Before he finished, he saw Shen Yan holding the charcoal pencil, looking at him with a bewildered face.

“Write it down. Why aren’t you writing? How much of what I just said did you catch?” Shen Bingsi looked at the paper under Shen Yan’s pen.

“Uh… Villa Master, you spoke too fast. Do these really need to be written into the letter?” Shen Yan asked uncertainly.

“What else? Of course, they go in the letter. If I could say them to his face, would I need you to write a letter? Wait, saying it to his face isn’t impossible. I’ll fly to Lanyuan right now and ask for a clear explanation.” Shen Bingsi slapped the armrest, stood up from the square table, and walked around it toward the outside.

“Villa Master, stay!” Sweat broke out on Shen Yan’s forehead. “I’ll write. I’ll write it right now.”

The final result was that Shen Yan almost broke his hand. He wrote ten pages with wild, dancing strokes—longer than the letter Rong Xie had sent—before Shen Bingsi finally let him off.

“Wait.” As Shen Yan prepared to leave, Shen Bingsi stopped him. “Leave my part of the letter here first.”

“We don’t need to mail it?” Shen Yan looked up.

“Mm.”

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Shen Yan couldn’t have asked for better. Taking the copied version of Rong Xie’s letter, he excused himself.

Shen Bingsi opened the desk drawer, stuffed the ten pages covered in words inside, and pushed it shut with a snap.

He wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t really mail such a long-winded diatribe to Rong Xie.

It would be fine if only Rong Xie saw it, but if that Manager Lu, or Hermit Baishui, or the broker happened to see it, wouldn’t they laugh their heads off?

Shen Bingsi had deliberately made Shen Yan write those words simply to administer a small punishment.

It was payback for Shen Yan’s poor attitude while reading the letter yesterday, mercilessly interrupting Shen Bingsi’s fantasies and dryly saying “No,” leaving Shen Bingsi with not a single shred of hope.

Although, the fact was indeed “No.”

Shen Bingsi thought and thought, and still felt Rong Xie was lying to him.

Everything was too illogical. How could someone like Rong Xie, who had extremely high demands for quality of life but no experience in the world, have everything go smoothly after leaving him? Finding a dream house so easily, especially when money was tight and the only thing of value to sell was a single Lightning White Orchid?

Rong Xie definitely wasn’t telling the truth. He had that gentle personality where he would suffer grievances without speaking up, saying everything was fine to the outside world. And sadly, some fools actually believed him…

Shen Bingsi recalled many moments from the past. After he said something stupid, Rong Xie’s face would turn pale, staring at him blankly. After a long silence, he would say nothing in the end. And Shen Bingsi had been stupid enough to think that silence meant it was fine.

Enduring to the limit, until it was unbearable, his always gentle best friend suddenly exploded and walked away without looking back. That was the consequence of assuming everything was fine.

“…No, I still have to go there personally.” Shen Bingsi muttered to himself. He pulled out the Shengxie Sword and walked to the study door. Before he even crossed the threshold, man and sword merged into one, turning into a streak of golden light flying toward the Capital.

At noon, Shen Bingsi arrived in Lanyuan.

At his sword-flying speed, he could arrive in less than an hour. However, Lanyuan was monitored by the Xuantian Sect’s Sect Heaven Eye. Flying around wildly on a sword without declaring it would attract the attention of some big figures. The last time Shen Bingsi flew over, he had alarmed some of them, and upon returning to the sect, the Council of Elders had nagged him for a long time.

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This time, he was more cautious. He landed before entering the range of the Sect Heaven Eye. First, he used the Bone Shrinking Art to change his appearance, then dressed up slightly, transforming into an unremarkable old servant. Such a person wouldn’t attract attention no matter where he appeared.

However, hiring a carriage proved troublesome. No one believed an old servant could be wealthy enough to casually pull out enough money to buy a carriage. Shen Bingsi had to waste quite a bit of breath to convince them he was a servant of Grand Secretary Wang’s family, out on a special mission in disguise.

“You really look the part in that getup,” the stable master laughed, assigning a decent carriage to Shen Bingsi.

“Right? You can’t tell at all, but I’m actually only in my twenties,” Shen Bingsi spouted nonsense happily.

“That can’t be. You’re at least thirty or forty, right?” The stable master laughed.

Shen Bingsi took it as a compliment on his maturity and stability.

Arriving in Lanyuan, the driver dutifully delivered Shen Bingsi to the entrance of the Lanyuan Villa District and even offered to call the gatekeeper for him. Shen Bingsi claimed his mission was secret and inconvenient to enter from the front, finally shaking off the driver to walk alone toward the Lanyuan Brokerage.

He paced back and forth in front of the brokerage with his hands behind his back. The two bodyguards at the door eyed him warily. Finally, a broker came out, and Shen Bingsi stepped forward to ask:

“Are there any recently sold Southern Province style residences nearby?”

The broker looked at him strangely and said, “Why do you ask, old uncle?”

“I’m scouting for my master. I want to ask about the scale and price of Southern Province style residences,” Shen Bingsi said with affected seriousness.

Naturally, the broker wouldn’t let slip any potential client, even if Shen Bingsi didn’t look like one. He took out the brokerage’s map and explained to Shen Bingsi where the Southern style houses were distributed, their sizes, and courtyard layouts.

Shen Bingsi listened for a long time but didn’t hear what he wanted. He grew impatient. “I asked you about the ones just sold. Why are you rambling on about all this?”

“This…” The broker looked troubled. The real estate business had always been fiercely competitive; a moment of carelessness could let a rival ruin a deal with dirty tactics. Therefore, even if a house was sold, they wouldn’t reveal specific details. The broker claimed he didn’t know and went inside to ask. Coming out a moment later, he smiled apologetically at Shen Bingsi, saying no one else in the firm knew either. “Perhaps you heard wrong, old uncle.”

Shen Bingsi was surprised. “Truly none? None in transaction either?”

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“This… is inconvenient for us to reveal.” The broker’s smile strained, and he began to scrutinize Shen Bingsi with suspicion.

“So that’s how it is… I understand.” Shen Bingsi nodded, turned, and strode away.

Watching his vigorous stride, the broker realized he was right—it really was a competitor in disguise! He wasn’t even pretending anymore! Thankfully, he hadn’t revealed the Southern style house with front and rear courtyards in Zhuli Lane; otherwise, who knew what trouble would arise.

“Was it really made up…” Shen Bingsi pondered as he walked. Since Rong Xie hadn’t completed a house transaction, where was he living now?

Walking on the bluestone street, scenes of him and Rong Xie touring this place months ago flashed before Shen Bingsi’s eyes. He suddenly realized with a start that Rong Xie seemed to have been laying the groundwork for this moment back then.

In the guest room of the Fanshi Pavilion, Rong Xie had taken out the prepared “Record of Capital Elegance” and told Shen Bingsi, “Let’s go here. Let’s go to Lanyuan. I want to see the houses in Lanyuan.”

By the Cuyu River in the Capital, Shen Bingsi had gone down to the dock to hire a boat first. When he turned back, Rong Xie was nowhere to be seen. After searching for a long time, he found him coming out of a brokerage.

…

Could he not bear it as early as then?

He had thought what prompted Rong Xie’s decision to leave was that night on the Southern Island, when he said those hurtful words.

It turned out it was even earlier than that?

As Shen Bingsi walked, he turned over the events of the past repeatedly in his mind.

Feelings of longing grew like wild weeds, flourishing in the wind. Before he knew it, they had filled his heart again. He would wait until the next use of the Heaven-Severing Blade to cut a crop, only for another crop to grow.

Suddenly, the bloody words on the dried animal skin suicide note his Master left behind appeared vividly before his eyes: The Heaven-Severing Blade is but plugging one’s ears while stealing a bell. Breaking the Heartless Path is by no means a long-term solution. However, the Path of Heartlessness is a supreme principle of heaven and earth. I failed to see through it, leaving it for future generations.

Plugging one’s ears… while stealing a bell?

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Shen Bingsi stopped and looked up. Unknowingly, he had walked into a small street lined with bamboo on both sides. Three simple and clumsy characters “Zhuli Lane” (Bamboo Lane) were written at the entrance. The lane was very quiet, lined with residences of green tiles and white walls.

Suddenly, two familiar figures, one large and one small, turned out from somewhere, walking through the bamboo shadows toward Shen Bingsi.

It was Rong Xie and… that child of Wet Nurse Wang?

Shen Bingsi hadn’t expected to run into the person in question so quickly. Panic seized his heart, and his form vanished instantly.

In the next moment, a white shadow seemed to shift on the white wall, merging completely with it.