Long Aotian’s Beautiful Butler Has Run Away chapter 113

Chapter 113: Words by the Couch

Lu Yingqi scrutinized them seriously for a while.

Then he pointed to the one on the right and said, “You are fake.”

The Rong Xie on the left smiled. The one on the right raised his eyebrows, surprised and baffled: “Why am I fake? Senior Brother Lu, are you mistaken?”

“Shen Bingsi, stop pretending,” Rong Xie couldn’t help but nudge Shen Bingsi’s arm. “Hurry up and ask Senior Brother Lu where exactly your transformation is lacking. There’s still time to correct it.”

Shen Bingsi had thought his transformation was exceptionally good. He hadn’t expected Lu Yingqi to distinguish them so easily. He was also curious and stared at Lu Yingqi questioningly.

Lu Yingqi said calmly, “It’s nothing special. It’s just that the Junior Brother Rong transformed by Sword Saint Shen emits a hazy layer of light. He doesn’t look like a real person, but like a monster under an illusion spell.”

“…”

Rong Xie and Shen Bingsi fell silent simultaneously. Neither had expected this reason.

Rong Xie stepped back a few paces, looked Shen Bingsi up and down, and found it was indeed true.

The version of him Shen Bingsi had turned into emitted an unrealistic glow, as if standing under moonlight. But there was no moonlight here, so the dissonance was apparent.

Rong Xie had only focused on details earlier and hadn’t looked at the overall picture, so he hadn’t noticed this obvious problem.

“Light? Where is there light?” Shen Bingsi was still searching all over himself. “Is there something wrong with your eyes!”

Lu Yingqi scoffed lightly. “If you can’t even discover the problem yourself, of course you can’t fix it.”

Shen Bingsi looked up at him angrily. “You want a duel, right? Let’s go outside and find a place to fight right now!”

“Shen Bingsi.” Rong Xie tugged at him. “Don’t forget what you said before coming here. Now that Senior Brother Lu has seen you’re fake, instead of correcting your flaws, you’re resorting to sophistry. That’s too much.”

“…” Shen Bingsi muttered, “But where is the light? How can I fix something that isn’t there?”

“Fixing it is actually simple,” Lu Yingqi said calmly.

“How to fix it?” Rong Xie hurriedly asked. “Please instruct us, Senior Brother Lu.”

“When Sword Saint Shen transforms, do not transform according to the image in your memory. Just transform according to the reality,” Lu Yingqi said.

“Don’t transform according to memory…” Rong Xie looked at Shen Bingsi. “Did you transform according to your memory?”

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Shen Bingsi was silent, which meant yes.

“Senior Brother Lu is amazing,” Rong Xie praised. “No wonder I felt something was weird. So it was transformed from memory. Sometimes memory can indeed be distorted. In that case, let’s wait until tomorrow morning when the sun comes out, and Shen Bingsi can transform again looking at me. Then there won’t be any problems.”

“Mn.” Lu Yingqi agreed.

The matter of transformation was settled. Shen Bingsi seemed somewhat dejected, lost in thought about something.

Rong Xie tugged his sleeve, signaling him to return to the study. Shen Bingsi followed Rong Xie, but stopped at the door.

“Besides the light?” Shen Bingsi asked. “Besides the light, did you find anything else different?”

Lu Yingqi was about to enter meditation. Hearing Shen Bingsi’s question, he shook his head. “I found nothing else.”

Hearing this, Shen Bingsi’s expression improved slightly. In other words, apart from that strange “light,” Lu Yingqi couldn’t tell who was real and who was fake between him and Rong Xie.

Indeed, how could anyone understand Rong Xie better than he did?

Rong Xie led Shen Bingsi back to the study and instructed him to transform strictly according to his appearance tomorrow, not to improvise.

“Just like when you transformed into Qu Huaiyan,” Rong Xie said.

Shen Bingsi was still somewhat indignant, feeling Lu Yingqi’s comment wasn’t fair. “He’s only seen you for a few days? I’ve seen you every day since childhood. I know what you look like better than Nanny Wang.”

Rong Xie realized Shen Bingsi couldn’t let this go. For the smooth progress of tomorrow’s main event, Rong Xie soothed him, “Yes, yes, you know best what I look like.”

“You are just this pale, have this much hair, black and soft. Your neck is slender, your head is round…” Shen Bingsi searched his poor vocabulary to describe his best friend’s appearance. “You are simply the best-looking person in the world.”

“…” Rong Xie was silent.

To be honest, hearing the earlier crude descriptions, Rong Xie suspected the “him” in Shen Bingsi’s memory was a slender-necked monster with a watermelon-sized head. Hearing the end, without any transition, he was suddenly hit with praise.

Rong Xie’s mood was somewhat complicated for a moment.

If he didn’t know Shen Bingsi lacked that kind of feeling, he would have misunderstood again.

“Thanks, you’re quite good-looking too,” Rong Xie returned the compliment.

However, Shen Bingsi didn’t look triumphant, nor did he take the opportunity to boast about his own looks. He still looked a bit disappointed, as if not quite satisfied with Rong Xie’s answer.

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“Change back first.” Rong Xie patted his shoulder. The feeling of facing himself was just too strange.

“Oh.”

Thousands of golden threads burst from Shen Bingsi, and his body began to expand. Rong Xie’s clothes emitted the sound of seams popping.

A moment later, Shen Bingsi appeared before Rong Xie again, draped in the shrunken casual clothes.

Even though they were the same size, the clothes looked especially small on Shen Bingsi.

Rong Xie distressingly peeled the clothes off Shen Bingsi. In a moment of inattention, the clothes ripped further and were unwearable. This was one of the few new casual outfits he had tailored.

Shen Bingsi scratched the back of his head. “Find Tailor Zhang to make a few more when we get back. This is fabric from the Huahong Garment Shop, right?”

“Yes…” Rong Xie folded the torn clothes and put them away. “I’ll ask Tailor Zhang to alter them later.”

“By the way, does this pair of pants need mending too?” Rong Xie’s gaze went down. Shen Bingsi’s pants still had a big hole. Earlier, Rong Xie’s casual robe covered it, so it wasn’t visible, but now it was exposed again.

“No need,” Shen Bingsi said. “I have many pairs of pants; I don’t lack this one.”

“You can’t just throw it away.” Rong Xie felt Shen Bingsi’s wasteful behavior wasn’t good.

“I won’t throw it; I’ll put it away,” Shen Bingsi said.

Rong Xie felt he was being too fussy again. They were living separate lives now; why did he care how the other person handled a pair of torn pants?

“It’s getting late.” Shen Bingsi turned around, picked up the small table in the middle of the sitting couch, set it aside, and smoothed out the cushion on the couch. “Are you going to rest?”

“I don’t have to rest,” Rong Xie said.

“That won’t do. You go up and rest; I’ll meditate on the side.” Shen Bingsi pushed Rong Xie, grabbed a chair from across the room, placed it next to the sitting couch, and sat cross-legged on it.

Rong Xie did want to rest. There were important things to do tomorrow, and being a mortal, pulling an all-nighter might leave him with insufficient energy.

Rong Xie took a quilt from his spatial pouch, spread it on the sitting couch, and lay down on his side.

After lying there for a while, he felt a burning gaze staring at his back.

…

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Rong Xie turned his head and saw that Shen Bingsi had moved the chair to directly face the sitting couch at some point. He wasn’t meditating; he was just sitting there, staring at him in a daze.

“What are you doing?” Rong Xie couldn’t help asking.

“Mn?” Shen Bingsi snapped out of it. “I’m looking at you.”

“I know you’re looking at me. Why are you looking at me?” Rong Xie was puzzled.

“Observing… to transform more accurately tomorrow,” Shen Bingsi said.

“Really?” Rong Xie was skeptical. He was sleeping with his back to Shen Bingsi; what could Shen Bingsi observe?

“Did I disturb your rest?” Shen Bingsi raised his eyebrows. “Then I won’t look.”

“Mm… never mind, I can’t sleep anyway.” Rong Xie rolled over to face Shen Bingsi directly. “It wasn’t convenient to go into details in front of Lu Yingqi earlier. Now let me tell you about the case I’m investigating.”

Shen Bingsi leaned forward, showing great interest.

Rong Xie didn’t know where to start for a moment. This matter involved a lot, and he had never mentioned it to Shen Bingsi. During their time apart, a pile of things Shen Bingsi didn’t know had accumulated unknowingly. Thinking about it felt troublesome.

“Just… let’s start with the well,” Rong Xie said. “The Lu family has a well. It is said to produce Spirit Spring water. Drinking the Spirit Spring water can make children without spiritual roots grow them, allowing them to cultivate.”

“Oh?” Shen Bingsi was surprised. “Lu Yingqi was able to cultivate because he drank this water?”

“Pfft, no.” Rong Xie hadn’t expected Shen Bingsi to think of that. “It’s about their family’s attendant boys. Their family adopts children externally. Villagers within ten miles—anyone who can’t afford or doesn’t want to raise a child sends them to the Lu family…”

Rong Xie thought it would take a long time to explain these things, but once he started, he couldn’t stop. Shen Bingsi always interjected at strange points, asking unexpected questions. Rong Xie unknowingly spoke at length, narrating and explaining, telling the story of the Lu family’s attendant boys from Lu Yinglin and Little Ya all the way to Lu Yingqi and Little Zhi. Shen Bingsi listened very seriously and believed whatever Rong Xie said. Some content was inherently bizarre, and Rong Xie had felt it absurd when he heard it, but Shen Bingsi accepted it all completely, doubting nothing unless Rong Xie told him there was another hidden story later.

Rong Xie wasn’t good at storytelling and lacked technique. When telling a story, he always tried to clarify the cause and effect, making it seem particularly boring. But he found that as long as there was a listener who believed everything, he could narrate smoothly. Thinking back, he hadn’t missed anything.

“That’s about it.” After recounting the encounter with Madam Mei today and the killing of the wild boar in the utility room, Rong Xie breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a sense of accomplishment.

“Such bullshit actually happens!” Shen Bingsi slapped the armrest of his chair. “The Lu estate openly disregards human life, and their two young masters turn a blind eye?”

“Mn…” Rong Xie thought, Shen Bingsi’s reaction was exactly as he guessed. “Can’t say they turn a blind eye. Lu Yinglin had no choice, and Lu Yingqi came back to ask, didn’t he? It’s just…”

“He should have asked long ago. The Lu family supported him. He knew the Lu family had this peculiarity, yet he dragged it out until today!” Shen Bingsi said. “No, since his family even has dangerous things like wild boars, who knows what’s in that well? I still have to go with you tomorrow.”

“You can’t go with me. You forgot Little Zhi is still in Madam Mei’s hands, and there are so many innocent attendant boys whose leverage is held by Madam Mei.” Rong Xie reminded him. “You have to stay here to hold the fort. You can’t let Madam Mei discover I’m missing. Also, you have to stabilize Lu Yingqi.”

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“But…” Shen Bingsi knew the key problem lay with Lu Yingqi. Lu Yingqi’s attitude was still wavering; otherwise, Rong Xie wouldn’t have to go in such a big circle.

“If there’s danger, I’ll call you,” Rong Xie said. “If there really are demons or monsters in the well, Lu Yingqi will also stand on our side. What in the world can’t be solved by two Nascent Souls joining forces? So, I’m not worried at all. This case is in the bag.”

Shen Bingsi still frowned, looking anxious, as if Rong Xie were about to jump into some terrible devil’s den.

Rong Xie had to open his hand and extend it to him: “Give it to me.”

“What?”

“Sound Transmission Jade Token.”