Chapter 9: The Pig Farm
Shen Bingsi was angry.
He was angry. Extremely, terribly angry.
Rong Xie knew this well.
But there was nothing he could do about it.
They had grown up together, so no one knew Shen Bingsi’s temperament better than he did. When others got furious, they would shout and scream. But Shen Bingsi? He would go completely silent, the vitality evaporating from his body in an instant, as if he had transformed into a dummy wearing a stone mask.
The first time Rong Xie saw Shen Bingsi like this was back at the Shen Plum Garden. It had been raining heavily that morning, and Rong Xie had crawled through a breach in the garden wall to find Shen Bingsi to play. When he looked up, he saw a bizarre stone statue sitting on the steps of a corner room. Rainwater streamed from its hair, washing over a pale, gray face that held no expression whatsoever. Its eyes were wooden, staring unblinkingly straight ahead.
Rong Xie had been so frightened he fell backward into the tall grass, fear taking root in his heart. He wondered who would place such an ominous stone statue there, right facing the breach in the wall. Had the Eldest Miss of the Shen family discovered he often snuck in to play with Shen Bingsi and deliberately placed this terrifying thing here to ward him off?
But… who would carve a stone statue in the likeness of their own son?
Rong Xie had peeked his head out, secretly observing the statue on the steps, until the thing’s eyeballs suddenly moved, and it pushed itself up from the steps and walked away.
Later, Rong Xie learned that under specific extreme circumstances, Shen Bingsi would turn into this.
After leaving the Shen estate and entering the inner sect of the Lingjing Sect, Shen Bingsi rarely had these episodes. There were only one or two extreme instances later on where Shen Bingsi reverted to that state, but by then, Rong Xie was no longer afraid. He knew exactly how to coax him back.
As long as Shen Bingsi didn’t grow legs and run away on his own, Rong Xie was confident he could coax him back to normal within twenty-four hours. Making delicious food, gifting him a hand-woven sword tassel, or massaging his shoulders and legs usually did the trick. Moreover, the process of him melting from stone back to normal was incredibly cute; Shen Bingsi would get a little shy, a side of him one would never see otherwise.
But this time, Shen Bingsi had grown legs. He had run away, and there was no telling when he would return.
Creak—
The main gate wasn’t latched; the door panels swayed in the wind.
Rong Xie walked over and stood by the door, staring blankly for a while. The noon sunlight illuminated the vegetation and river within Huanxue Valley, making everything sparkle. The sprouting greenery hinted at the lush prosperity to come, yet in such beautiful scenery, there was no trace of Shen Bingsi—he was long gone.
Although he knew Shen Bingsi possessed profound cultivation and astonishing swordsmanship, Rong Xie still felt a pang of anxiety. What if Shen Bingsi, in his rage, encountered danger or made a wrong judgment?
Rong Xie closed his eyes, telling himself that such things wouldn’t happen. Yet, his heart remained empty, as if a piece of it had gone missing.
He hadn’t angered Shen Bingsi this badly in a very long time.
Rong Xie reached out to close the gate and turned around to face the courtyard scattered with fallen petals. Just moments ago, they were eating fish together at that stone table, cooking and washing dishes in the kitchen, their laughter still echoing in his ears. But now, the person was gone.
The quiet he usually found so comfortable had suddenly become unbearable…
Rong Xie lowered his head and walked quickly across the yard.
Only when he returned to the study and smelled the reassuring scent of books did he feel slightly better.
He sat down and whispered to himself, “Rong Xie, you did well.”
He had to reject Shen Bingsi like that. He had to maintain distance. Only then would they avoid developing feelings that went beyond friendship. Shen Bingsi’s Dao Heart wouldn’t be obstructed, and Rong Xie wouldn’t be killed to prove the Dao. They would reach a true happy ending where no one got hurt.
But…
Rong Xie thought with some hesitation, could he really last until the grand finale? At the rate his spiritual energy was drying up, he might die of old age before the Heavenly Demon even emerged.
In the end, the problem still lay in Rong Xie’s cultivation.
Rong Xie took a deep breath and walked over to the large chest in the corner of the study.
The chest was filled with various odds and ends brought over from the inner sect disciples’ quarters. He had only tidied them up slightly the day he moved in, then sealed them away here, never opening the chest again.
Inside were many items that stirred painful memories for Rong Xie: the inner sect uniform with unraveled seams from washing, worn-out practice shoes, the peach wood sword issued during the first swordsmanship class, and the textbooks for the five foundational courses: Breathing, Meridians, Mental Cultivation, External Kung Fu, and Swordsmanship.
Since transferring out of the inner sect, he had no use for these anymore.
Rong Xie dug out the five textbooks from the bottom of the chest, stacked them up, and moved them to the desk.
Lighting a stick of Calming Incense, Rong Xie opened the Mental Cultivation textbook and began to read. Every word that met his eyes was familiar.
Once, Rong Xie could recite these texts backward and forward.
But what use was that?
Among the inner sect disciples in his batch, the guy who slept until noon and skipped class reached Foundation Establishment. The one who got the acupoint names wrong every time reached Foundation Establishment. Even the one who always invented his own sword moves and ignored the rules reached Foundation Establishment.
But Rong Xie did not.
Because he was late to reach Foundation Establishment, Rong Xie studied with the next batch of new inner disciples for three years. Then he studied with the batch after that for another three years. Then the batch after that…
Twelve years passed, and he still hadn’t reached Foundation Establishment. In fact, the night before his Foundation Establishment exam, he had damaged his meridians by practicing all night, vomiting blood ceaselessly. If Shen Bingsi hadn’t forcibly dragged him out of his meditative state, he likely would have suffered Qi Deviation.
Even after all these years, Rong Xie often dreamed he was back in the exam hall, waking up cold and terrified under the icy gaze of the proctoring elder.
“Sigh…”
Rong Xie sighed, resting his chin in his hand. He flipped through a few pages of the textbook but found he couldn’t absorb a thing.
He understood the content perfectly well. It was just that during actual practice, he had to try so hard just to feel a tiny bit of Qi. Cultivation required balancing so many aspects simultaneously; trying to force every aspect led to him getting flustered, and eventually, making a mess of everything.
Unknowingly, the sky darkened outside. Rong Xie rubbed the space between his eyebrows and lit the oil lamp.
His eyes involuntarily drifted to the fragment of the Tura Paradox scroll lying to the side.
By the time he realized what he was doing, he was already reading with relish about the names of the islands, the local specialties offered as tribute, and the strange customs of the savages…
“Rong Xie, oh Rong Xie, you can’t be like this anymore!”
Rong Xie patted his cheeks with both hands, admonishing himself.
He put the Tura Paradox fragment back into the bookshelf, reopened Mental Cultivation, and began to channel his spiritual energy as he read.
The next morning, Rong Xie woke up to a wave of spiritual fluctuations.
He jerked his head up from the desk, fumbled at his waist, found his Transmission Jade, and pressed it to his ear.
He waited for a long time, but there was no sound from the jade. The spiritual fluctuations, however, were still spreading.
“It’s not the jade…” Rong Xie rubbed his face. “Could it be… someone calling at the gate?”
If they were knocking at the gate, it definitely wasn’t Shen Bingsi.
Quack—quack quack quack!
Cluck cluck cluck!
Oink oink~
…
Standing in front of the main gate of Huanxue Villa, Rong Xie stared in shock at the ground covered in cages. The cages were filled with chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep, all jumping and lively. Beside them sat a large water tank filled with various types of plump fish.
“Rong Xie? Are you Rong Xie?” asked two tall young cultivators. Dressed in the attire of high-ranking disciples, they were clearly personal disciples serving the elders of the various peaks. They stepped forward and bowed to Rong Xie with cupped fists.
“I am. You are…?” Rong Xie returned the bow nervously.
“Steward Rong, we are disciples under Elder Yun Feng. By the order of Elder Yun Feng, we have collected several chickens, ducks, pigs, sheep, and fish sent by the elders of the various peaks. Please accept them!”
Rong Xie froze. He had completely forgotten about that…
Shortly after, in the front courtyard, the two high-ranking disciples used telekinesis spells to move the cages of livestock inside one by one.
Amidst the cacophony of animal noises, they handed over a list for Rong Xie to verify, then bowed and took their leave.
“Wait…” Rong Xie looked at the cages stuffing the courtyard, feeling messy in the wind. “H-How am I supposed to raise them…”
Shen Bingsi had run away in anger, and who knew when he would return? If he ran off for a year or a half, was Rong Xie supposed to raise this livestock for a year or a half? Wouldn’t Huanxue Villa turn into a breeding farm?
Rong Xie felt his scalp go numb. He took out his Transmission Jade, intending to contact Shen Bingsi right now and tell him to send these things back.
Buzz—
Buzz—
The jade buzzed hollowly, with no response.
Right, he almost forgot.
For the first twenty-four hours of Shen Bingsi’s “petrification” mode, he was as stubborn and smelly as a rock in a latrine. He could cut off contact with everyone in the world. As long as he didn’t want to deal with Rong Xie, Rong Xie wouldn’t hear so much as a snort from him even if he blew the jade up.
“Ah…” Rong Xie muttered to himself amidst the shrieks of frightened poultry. “I’m doomed…”
Who would have thought that the very first day of deciding to be strong would be met with such trouble?
Rong Xie had no choice but to chase after the two high-ranking disciples.
Thankfully, they hadn’t gone far.
“Can you… can you take these living creatures back? Shen Bingsi isn’t at the Villa right now, and I don’t know when he’ll return…”
The two disciples looked at each other, confused. “Senior Brother Shen asked for these.”
“I know, but he’s not here…”
“Then just keep them until he comes back,” they stated their stance. “If Steward Rong wishes to return them, that is fine too; just have Senior Brother Shen contact our Elder. We cannot make that decision ourselves.”
“This…”
“Is there some inconvenience for Steward Rong?” Their attitude was polite, but their tone suggested they didn’t take Rong Xie’s opinion seriously.
Helpless, Rong Xie could only ask them to move the cages to the clearing outside the Villa to minimize the impact.
“These… how do I feed them?” Rong Xie asked worriedly.
“That… we don’t know either. Let us go back and ask, then we’ll return to inform you,” the two said.
The next day, bags upon bags of feed for the chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep were delivered.
Thank heavens Rong Xie had asked; otherwise, it would have been a sin to let these creatures starve to death at his doorstep.
And so, Rong Xie began a life of reading, cultivating, feeding chickens, and shoveling manure. It felt like a dream return to the Shen estate. Amidst the warm, pungent stench, Rong Xie sent contact signals to Shen Bingsi three times a day, devoutly praying for a quick response.
Shen Bingsi must be annoyed to death, but Rong Xie had no choice; he was worried to death too.
He even thought, if only he had kept his foster mother and that kid here, it would have been better.
In the blink of an eye, half a month passed.
Every day felt like a year to Rong Xie.
On this particular afternoon, Rong Xie took the dustpan to feed the pigs as usual. Suddenly, the Transmission Jade he kept close to his chest began to vibrate. Golden light pierced through his clothes, and Rong Xie lit up instantly.
The pigs and sheep in the cages backed away in fright, and the chickens and ducks fluttered up and down. Amidst the chaotic noise, Rong Xie picked up the Transmission Jade, weeping with joy.
“Shen Bingsi, come back quickly!” Rong Xie cried out aggrievedly. “When are you coming back?!”
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