Long Aotian’s Beautiful Butler Has Run Away chapter 21.4

Part 4

“Of course not. I’m recruiting servant boys to share the villa’s affairs so I can focus… focus on learning Dual Cultivation.” When saying the last two words, Rong Xie still felt it was incredibly difficult to utter. His brow and eyes burned, his eyelids heavy, daring not look at Shen Bingsi even once, his voice thinning to a mosquito’s buzz at the end.

Fortunately, Shen Bingsi’s hearing was superb. Hearing the words he wanted to hear was as clear as spring thunder resounding across the earth. Shen Bingsi shouted with joy, lifting Rong Xie’s body up and spinning him half a circle before putting him back on the ground. Rong Xie was startled, tightly clutching the fabric below Shen Bingsi’s shoulder line, his heart still pounding when his feet touched the floor.

“Bingsi, can you not do that so suddenly…” Rong Xie patted his chest, whispering a protest against Shen Bingsi’s jumpy behavior. “We’re not children anymore…”

“I like children, I like children best! Come on, let’s go recruit them all right now!” Shen Bingsi laughed, reaching out to open the door.

“Wait a minute.” Rong Xie was thankful he had pasted the Silence Talisman when coming in; otherwise, with Shen Bingsi making such a commotion, the people outside would think he had gone mad. The Villa Master’s dignity would collapse, and once that collapsed, those sharp little kids would be hard to manage.

“Hm?” Shen Bingsi looked at Rong Xie.

Rong Xie straightened Shen Bingsi’s collar, stepped back to inspect him, and confirmed there were no issues. He verbally instructed Shen Bingsi to continue putting on airs after going out, saying he would smooth things over, and that the servant boy selection would still follow the top three from the exam.

“Okay, got it.” Shen Bingsi agreed readily.

Rong Xie removed the Silence Talisman, and the two came out of the secret room. The noisy voices in the study outside instantly quieted down.

“Apologies for keeping everyone waiting. Villa Master Shen and I have discussed it, and we will still follow…”

Before Rong Xie could finish, a piercing voice cut in. It was Head Steward Shen.

“Steward Rong, this is ungenerous of you, isn’t it? You changed the rules again and again, and we tolerated it. The relative you wanted to shove in has also been shoved in. But in the end, you don’t want us at all? Then why did you make us come all this way? To play us for fools?”

Rong Xie was stunned. He looked at Head Steward Shen, who seemed extremely agitated. The expressions of the surrounding children had also become strange. It seemed that while Rong Xie and Shen Bingsi were speaking in the secret room, Head Steward Shen had said something to the children outside. Looking at their expressions, Rong Xie knew it was definitely nothing favorable to him.

“Shen Uncle, there might be some misunderstanding…”

“Misunderstanding? There is none!” Head Steward Shen sneered. “I saw through your dirty tricks long ago! Isn’t it just that you don’t want newcomers coming in? Isn’t it just that you want to monopolize this huge Huanxue Villa for yourself? Why act so hypocritically? If you didn’t call us, naturally we wouldn’t have come, and we wouldn’t have had to cooperate with your performance of ‘The Shen Family has no talent’ in front of the Second Young Master!”

Bang!

A palm slammed heavily onto the hardwood desk, producing a loud noise.

Everyone was shaken and looked toward the desk in unison. Shen Bingsi stood there with a dark face, a chilling aura surrounding him.

“Have you said enough?” Shen Bingsi asked expressionlessly, his voice seeming to contain ice shards condensed in extreme cold.

Head Steward Shen flinched. His surging momentum deflated in an instant, and his tone was no longer as self-righteous as before, but he didn’t give up complaining to Shen Bingsi: “Second Young Master, the family members at the Shen Clan Estate miss you very much. You haven’t been back for so many years, and they can’t come to see you. We are all Shen family members sharing the same blood, connected by broken bones and tendons. Yet, after so many years, we have unknowingly become estranged. Have you ever thought about whose fault that is?”

Sponsored

Shen Bingsi’s eyelid twitched.

“Family?” He sneered, utterly contemptuous. “I don’t recall having such things. Shen Black Dog, it’s you who shouldn’t hypocritically try to get close to me. We were never close. If you ask why we became estranged, maybe it’s because, from the first day I went to the Shen family, you people never put me in your eyes.”

Head Steward Shen’s lips trembled. He hadn’t expected that his attempt to expose Rong Xie would backfire and provoke Shen Bingsi instead. Shen Bingsi didn’t even pretend to maintain the superficial family relationship anymore. If word got out that Shen Bingsi was at odds with the Shen family, it would be a colossal sin he couldn’t bear.

“Second Young Master, that was so many years ago, there must be misunderstandings. Regardless, we are all family,” Head Steward Shen hurriedly said. “I personally selected the children recommended this time, watching them grow up bit by bit. Even if there’s no merit, there’s hard work.”

Shen Bingsi scoffed coldly.

Seeing that playing the victim worked, Head Steward Shen sighed and persisted, “This old servant is getting on in years and can’t bear to see young children suffer grievances. Shen Yan is excellent; his background is a bit hard, but that shouldn’t be a reason for others to make things difficult for him. He has ambition and wants to revitalize his family; what is wrong with that? This doesn’t conflict with being a servant boy. If he does well here, the Villa Master is benevolent and will naturally recommend him to the Lingjing Sect’s Inner Sect. Even if you don’t recommend him to the Inner Sect, isn’t being a servant boy for one of the three Great Adjudicators of the cultivation world, the youngest Nascent Soul cultivator of the Heartless Path, the Demon-Slaying Sword Saint Shen Bingsi, a matter that brings glory to the family lintel? In my opinion, this matter is even more glorious, more worthy of boasting!”

Rong Xie: “…”

Hearing this, Rong Xie finally thoroughly understood why Head Steward Shen had suddenly turned hostile.

It turned out that Head Steward Shen, like him, had heard the probing intent in Shen Bingsi’s tempting words. Shen Bingsi didn’t intend to take Shen Yan, so he deliberately drew out Shen Yan’s ambition to prove he couldn’t settle down to do chores in the villa.

The people of Shen Clan Estate were all shrewd; what Rong Xie could hear, Head Steward Shen naturally could too.

However, Head Steward Shen pinned Shen Bingsi’s intention on Rong Xie, as if Rong Xie had instigated him to say it. He believed Rong Xie wouldn’t let newcomers pass the assessment in order to hog the position of the only butler of Huanxue Villa.

Rong Xie found it somewhat laughable.

Head Steward Shen had completely reversed his and Shen Bingsi’s positions… but it wasn’t surprising. Who asked him to be Rong Xie, and Shen Bingsi to be Shen Bingsi?

“Shen Uncle, if you really couldn’t bear to see young children suffer grievances, you shouldn’t have forced them to sign slave contracts.” Rong Xie said.

A plain sentence spoken out loud was like an ordinary stone thrown into a calm pool of water, shattering the reflections of flowers and brocade on the surface, leaving only the mess after lies were punctured.

The strange expressions on the children’s faces disappeared. One by one, they looked up at Head Steward Shen, hoping he could explain a sentence or two. But Head Steward Shen seemed deaf, skipping over Rong Xie’s sentence entirely.

“After all… it’s not a long-term plan. Steward Rong will have a day when he becomes old and weak. Even for his sake, you should…”

“Enough.” Shen Bingsi raised his hand. Head Steward Shen’s rambling suddenly stopped. He looked down in surprise, wanting to know what happened to his mouth, why it felt clamped by a large clip. He reached up to touch it, but there was nothing—that was Shen Bingsi’s Silencing Spell.

Shen Bingsi didn’t want to hear another word from Head Steward Shen. “After so many years, you Shen family people haven’t made any progress at all.”

His tone was full of disappointment. Head Steward Shen became terrified, shaking his head desperately, wanting to salvage the situation at the last moment.