Chapter 25: Ten Fingers Interlocked
Rong Xie went back to his room and lay down for a while, vaguely sensing someone moving at the head of the bed.
There was no third person who could enter the bedroom.
Rong Xie asked groggily, “Why are you back so soon?”
“Nothing major, just went to the Spirit Beast Garden to pick out a few sheep and deer. I’ll have them delivered another day for you to have a feast,” Shen Bingsi said, pressing down on Rong Xie’s quilt as he lay on top.
“Hm? Why are you lying down again?” Rong Xie pushed him gently. “I’m getting up.”
Shen Bingsi didn’t respond, remaining pressed there.
Rong Xie opened his eyes and was startled to see Shen Bingsi lying on his side next to his pillow, his face very close, observing him seriously.
Observing… yes, observing. It seemed like when they learned the White Crane Sword Art, Shen Bingsi would specifically observe the standing, lying, and walking postures of the cranes on the main peak.
Now, he was observing Rong Xie with that same gaze.
Rong Xie shuddered, his drowsiness vanishing instantly. “What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me?”
“Last night…” Shen Bingsi’s deep voice sounded from very close range. “Did you not feel good?”
“…” Rong Xie.
It was… a review. Shen Bingsi was actually reviewing.
Regarding last night, which Rong Xie didn’t even want to mention, Shen Bingsi was seriously asking about his feelings.
The embarrassment and annoyance from not sleeping well seemed to dissipate a bit.
“It was okay, just… I’m not used to it yet.” Rong Xie didn’t know how to describe that feeling. “A bit… uncomfortable.”
After speaking, as if afraid of being misunderstood, he added, “With your arm stretched out like this, I can’t lie flat. Keeping a suspended posture all the time makes me a bit tired.”
Shen Bingsi nodded thoughtfully.
“Why don’t we try another position?” He leaned closer, his palm naturally resting on Rong Xie’s shoulder.
Rong Xie felt his vision unknowingly filled by Shen Bingsi. He was falling into that hot embrace again, feeling a bit dizzy, like lying on a small boat drifting on the lake in April.
“I, I have something to do… I have to check on them.” Rong Xie explained in a small voice. “I just assigned them the task of cleaning the backyard. I have to see how they’re doing…”
“Don’t go.” Shen Bingsi pressed down on Rong Xie’s feet through the quilt.
This way, his whole person clung to Rong Xie like an octopus.
Rong Xie tried to struggle but failed.
“Then just… hug.” He looked away and said quietly.
The two tried several positions on the bed and came to a conclusion: sleeping while hugging was uncomfortable no matter what.
Either the waist hurt, the neck hurt, or the shoulders hurt.
Finally, they chose a relatively compromised position—removing the pillow and replacing it with Shen Bingsi’s arm.
Lying facing each other, Shen Bingsi lay on his side, his lower arm stretched forward, and Rong Xie lay in the middle of his upper arm.
Rong Xie curled his arms nervously, hugging the edge of the quilt to his chest. Looking up, he saw Shen Bingsi’s neck and chin. From this close distance, he could clearly feel the rise and fall of his chest and the heat of his breath. Rong Xie involuntarily tensed his body, lifting his head slightly to reduce the weight on Shen Bingsi’s upper arm.
Shen Bingsi seemed to smile and asked, “Is this comfortable?”
“It’s… okay.”
“Doesn’t look very comfortable to me,” Shen Bingsi laughed. “Why are you stiff? Relax a little.”
Saying this, a warm palm covered Rong Xie’s ear, pressing his head back onto the upper arm. The finger pads covered in thin calluses inadvertently brushed against Rong Xie’s cheek, causing his cheek and the part touching his ear to burn immediately.
“Mmh.” Rong Xie hugged the quilt tighter, subconsciously arching his body, his head escaping towards Shen Bingsi until the top of his head hit his chin.
So… so awkward.
This seemed even more like throwing himself into his arms.
For a moment, Rong Xie’s mind went blank, only the pounding heartbeat exceptionally clear.
Shen Bingsi’s low chuckle came from very close.
“This is good,” he said.
The two tossed and turned on the bed for a full hour. By the time they got up, the sun had risen to the zenith.
“I’m doomed…” Rong Xie quickly put on his clothes and shoes, grabbed a comb in front of the bronze mirror, and vigorously combed his messy hair. “I told them to sleep for only an hour, now it’s been more than two hours…”
“What’s the rush?” Shen Bingsi sat on the edge of the bed, his long legs stretched out casually, tossing the luminous pearl Rong Xie usually kept under his pillow for lighting. “Don’t forget what we recruited them for.”
Rong Xie paused slightly, then continued combing his hair quickly. “I know, but they just arrived and aren’t familiar with things yet. I’m afraid if I don’t watch them, they’ll cause trouble, which would be even more troublesome.”
“Then punish them.” Shen Bingsi said nonchalantly. “Shen Black Dog’s method, fast and effective.”
“…” Rong Xie thought to himself, Didn’t you use to hate Shen Black Dog’s ways the most, often going against him? What is this? The dragon slayer eventually becomes the dragon?
“If you can’t bear to do it, I can do it for you. I just think they aren’t worth so much of your effort. Like you said, once you reach Foundation Establishment, whether you want them or not is another matter.” Shen Bingsi was always sober and cold.
“…It’s not really much effort. It’s just, I feel that punishing them without teaching them what is right will only make them afraid. Fear only alienates people.”
Shen Bingsi concentrated slightly, seeming to ponder Rong Xie’s words. His gaze fell on his best friend’s straight back, watching his fair and slender fingers moving through his black hair, quickly tying a low ponytail, then retrieving the hair ribbon from his mouth and tying it neatly at the root. Every movement was so elegant and perfect.
“How is it?” Rong Xie noticed Shen Bingsi looking at him in the bronze mirror and asked after letting down the rest of his hair.
“Mm.” Shen Bingsi nodded. “Very good.”
The two came out of the bedroom courtyard and headed to the front.
Walking side by side, Shen Bingsi didn’t mention punishment again but brought up another matter.
“Today when I passed the Red Fragrance Pavilion, I heard a pair of Dao Companions exchanging experiences…” Shen Bingsi mentioned casually.
The Red Fragrance Pavilion was a scripture library specifically set up for Dao Companions within the sect. Shen Bingsi never used to go there. Even when passing by for a shortcut, he would walk quickly, his disdain palpable.
Now, he actually went there to eavesdrop.
“They were talking privately, why did you eavesdrop…” Rong Xie didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Shen Bingsi really would do anything for cultivation, which was his so-called “where there is a will, there is a way.” Rong Xie admired this greatly, but… regarding this matter, he couldn’t praise him.
“Their experience happened to corroborate my thoughts, so I listened to a couple of sentences.” Shen Bingsi said seriously. “Do you know what is most important in Dual Cultivation?”
Yang Spirit must not be released! Rong Xie answered instantly in his heart.
However, he couldn’t say it out loud no matter what.
Rong Xie’s face heated up due to his quick reaction.
Shen Bingsi didn’t notice Rong Xie’s reaction and continued triumphantly, “The most important thing in Dual Cultivation is tacit understanding. It can be done between old couples, but not in casual flings.”
Oh… it’s tacit understanding. Rong Xie thought.
“The key lies in one sentence: You touch me, I touch you, just like the left hand touching the right hand.” Shen Bingsi got a bit excited here. Whenever he mentioned cultivation secrets or predecessors’ insights, he would be like this, completely immersed in the pleasure of “hearing the Dao in the morning, dying content in the evening.”
“What touch…” Rong Xie couldn’t say it. This mantra was too vulgar! Presumably, the private talk of a young Dao Couple wouldn’t be refined either. So, the only one at fault was Shen Bingsi. He shouldn’t have listened, and after listening, he shouldn’t be sharing it everywhere in broad daylight.
“Look.” Shen Bingsi grabbed Rong Xie’s hand. “…”
Rong Xie didn’t hear what he said afterwards. All his consciousness was focused on the left hand grabbed by him. The hot touch was infinitely magnified, even more stimulating than sharing a bed.
After a while, Rong Xie came back to his senses, hearing Shen Bingsi’s voice intermittently: “This way it won’t… this way it will…”
This way what? Rong Xie tried hard to understand what Shen Bingsi was saying.
Shen Bingsi spread his fingers, as if to let go. The next moment, the finger pads covered with thin calluses rubbed clearly and powerfully against Rong Xie’s palm, pushing down until Rong Xie’s curled fingers opened completely. The rough knuckles squeezed into the soft gaps between the fingers bit by bit, rubbing against the sensitive inner sides, until ten fingers were tightly interlocked.
Rong Xie never knew holding hands could be this stimulating. A tingling sensation rose from the interlocked fingers, spreading from the inner arm all the way to the armpit. This was even more intimate than Shen Bingsi hugging his waist from behind last night, as if the most hidden parts inside the body fit together.
The urge to flee rose in his heart again.
“Mmh.” Rong Xie’s cheeks burned rapidly, from his neck all the way to his ears. He stared at Shen Bingsi with moist eyes in shock.
Shen Bingsi smiled at him and said, “Does this feel strange? Not just you, even I feel quite strange.”
Thump, thump.
Rong Xie clearly heard his own heartbeat, accompanying Shen Bingsi’s words, knocking incessantly on his heart’s door.
Do you also feel strange?
Do you…
Also have a heart beating as heavily and painfully as this?
Time seemed to be infinitely stretched. In the early summer noon, sunlight spilled down from the dense tree canopy, landing warmly on the two.
A breeze rose, and the leaves rubbed intimately, making a soft rustling sound. The wind on the face felt like a lover’s caress.
“This is because we never hold hands like this, so it feels strange…” Shen Bingsi said with a smile. His tone was steady, rational, objective, and even carried a bit of ease after enlightenment. “If we hold hands like this often, it will be like just now, without much feeling.”
Rong Xie’s emotion-filled gaze seemed to hit an invisible wall of air.
Shen Bingsi wouldn’t have a heartbeat like his, nor would he have the same feelings, because he had long since… ceased to have those feelings.
He cultivated… the Heartless Path of Severing Love and Emotion.
Do you know that the Heartless Path is also divided into many kinds?
Yesterday, right in this place, Rong Xie had just told the three little servant boys this.
This was only natural. From the moment they entered the Lingjing Sect’s Inner Sect, Rong Xie had accepted this fact.
However, there had never been a moment when Rong Xie felt it so deeply, feeling it like a thorny caltrop embedding itself inch by inch into his soft heart.
Sensing a momentary change in his best friend’s expression, Shen Bingsi suddenly panicked a little.
“Rong’er, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Just then, three small figures turned onto the path from the backyard study.
“We’re done cleaning up. What do we do now?”
“Don’t know. Is Brother Rong not up yet? Should we cook first?”
“…”
Suddenly, the three stopped in their tracks.
“What happened? What was that just now?” Long Shaoye shouted in surprise.
“Ah…” Fang Renji also widened his eyes.
“Don’t panic. Now, step back.” Shen Yan pressed his hand backward.
The three stepped back three paces straight, then rubbed the parts that hurt from hitting the invisible air wall.
Long Shaoye’s nose was red, Fang Renji covered his forehead, and Shen Yan looked calm, but his big toe hurt like hell.
Just now, in broad daylight, in the middle of an empty road, the three of them hit an invisible wall of air without warning!
“Did we take the wrong path? Is there a restriction here?” Long Shaoye rubbed his nose.
“We came from here just now…” Fang Renji said tearfully.
Shen Yan walked forward carefully, extending his arm to test, walking all the way to where they hit just now, but touched nothing.
“Eh?”
The restriction was gone.
Was it… a temporary martial law?
📖 Advance Access: Complete Novel
You are purchasing Advance Reader Access to the complete translated compilation for:
"Long Aotian’s Beautiful Butler Has Run Away"
⚡ After Payment, Follow These 2 Steps:
- Option 1: Note your email on PayPal/Ko-fi.
- Option 2: Email proof to beezzzreads@gmail.com.
- Option 3: Comment below.
Notice: Manual approval. Please allow 12–24 hours for access.
Recommended Reads
