Chapter 26: Jealous
Shen Bingsi attributed Rong Xie’s reaction that day to his own impatience.
Rong Xie being willing to share a quilt and get closer to him was already a huge improvement. Why insist on interlacing fingers?
Although… interlacing fingers with Rong Xie was truly comfortable. Rong Xie’s hand was cool, like a piece of soft jade, his fingers long and delicate, tightly fitting into the gaps between his own, the shape perfectly matching his.
They were like a sword and its scabbard, compatible in every aspect, inseparable. Only when together were they complete.
“No matter, we’ll take it slow. If you don’t like holding hands, we won’t,” Shen Bingsi said with great patience.
When he said this, Rong Xie’s expression didn’t improve at all. Since when could he no longer see through his best friend’s mood at a glance?
The next day.
In the clearing in front of Huanxue Villa.
“Put them here,” Shen Bingsi instructed two high-ranking disciples, pointing to a somewhat bald patch of grass.
The two bowed respectfully to Shen Bingsi, then used a transportation spell to move cages of livestock to the designated spot.
Frightened squawks of chickens, ducks, geese, and grunts of pigs once again filled the clearing in front of the villa.
There were also buckets of lively fish, prawns, and shellfish, some clearly not local produce.
“Senior Brother Shen, we also brought the feed for these animals this time. When it runs out, we’ll send more,” the two said enthusiastically as boxes of feed appeared next to the cages amidst flashes of earthy yellow light.
“Mm.” Shen Bingsi nodded. “Send my regards to your elder and tell him I’ve received his goodwill.”
“Yes, we will certainly convey it!”
After receiving the livestock sent by Elder Yun Feng, Shen Bingsi walked briskly back to the front courtyard to find Rong Xie.
He wanted to tell Rong Xie the good news about the livestock delivery; they could finally have meat.
But when he found him, he saw Rong Xie personally teaching Long Shaoye how to use a cleaning talisman.
“That gesture is wrong. You need to write according to the trajectory drawn on the talisman,” Rong Xie supported Long Shaoye’s wrist, guiding him to draw the talisman in the air.
A stream of water spiritual energy infused into the talisman, and a thin layer of water appeared on the ground, flowing in all directions, quickly washing the surrounding area within a zhang.
“Wow, this is amazing,” Long Shaoye exclaimed in surprise.
Suddenly, the water on the ground sizzled, turning into white smoke and evaporating, leaving only dry ground.
Long Shaoye thought Shen Yan was back and looked up happily, calling out “Yanzi,” but his smile vanished instantly—it was the Grand Villa Master. He was a bit afraid of this Grand Villa Master.
“Can’t even use a talisman? Steward Rong isn’t your master to teach you everything. Take these talismans and copy each one a hundred times. Hand them to me before resting today.” Shen Bingsi casually took out a stack of newly written talismans and slapped them on the railing of the corridor.
Long Shaoye lowered his head: “Yes.”
That was a thick stack of talismans! Even three days wouldn’t be enough to copy each one a hundred times!
But Long Shaoye dared not object. Objecting during the servant boy assessment last time had given him psychological trauma. In short, it was better not to face the Grand Villa Master’s sharp edge directly.
When the Grand Villa Master left, he would talk to Brother Rong. Brother Rong would surely help him get a few more days.
Thinking this, Long Shaoye breathed a sigh of relief.
“Come out for a moment, I have something good to show you.” Shen Bingsi turned to Rong Xie, speaking mysteriously, his face showing a lively expression and his eyes clearly smiling, completely unlike when he spoke to Long Shaoye.
“Copying a hundred times is too… huh? What good thing?” Rong Xie’s attention was drawn by Shen Bingsi, and the two walked away side by side.
Leaving Long Shaoye alone in the wind, messy. Wait, why did he take my lifesaver away too!
Rong Xie followed Shen Bingsi out of the courtyard gate and saw a mass of large and small cages containing an even richer variety of livestock than last time. He almost blacked out.
Actually, he had heard the commotion in the front courtyard just now, but he didn’t expect so many to be delivered this time. The unpleasant memories of shoveling manure and feeding them last time had just faded, and now this…
“Isn’t this too much? There are only five of us; we can’t eat them all even if we have meat every meal.”
“Keeping them in cages like this will stink. No matter how much we clean, there will be a smell.”
Rong Xie’s worry didn’t affect Shen Bingsi.
He waved his hand grandly: “I plan to fence off a piece of land here to free-range these animals. The meat will be firmer and tastier this way.”
Rong Xie looked at the area his hand covered, feeling like the entire grassland by the lake was included.
“That’s a huge project,” Rong Xie reminded him.
“No matter, don’t we have three new boys? Let them do it. It’s a good chance to test their capabilities,” Shen Bingsi decided.
Rong Xie thought to himself, They were hired as servant boys, not carpenters. Besides, building a fence for an enclosure is extremely difficult. In the Shen Clan Estate, a team of young and strong carpenters was hired for this. Shen Yan and the others are just half-grown boys. Failing is one thing, but what if they get hurt? Those wooden stakes at the corners are taller than a person. Driving them straight down, a slight deviation could break a leg.
“We hired people to use them. We can’t let them idle around all day, wandering in the backyard, right?” Observing Rong Xie’s expression and knowing he was worried, Shen Bingsi comforted him, “They aren’t ordinary servant boys either. They are carefully selected by us. Their aptitude is enough to be inner sect disciples in any small sect. I’m not asking them to ascend to heaven or enter the sea, just build a fence. It’s very easy.”
Rong Xie was puzzled: “When were they idle? I asked them to clean the backyard. It hasn’t been cleaned for many days, covered in dust everywhere, things unorganized, messy like a vegetable market.”
“No vegetable market looks like this,” Shen Bingsi said. He was long used to his best friend’s almost nitpicking hygiene standards. “They can clean, but they can’t walk around the backyard every day, nor can they occupy you.”
After speaking, he emphasized again: “Especially occupying you, making you teach them how to use talismans hand in hand—why don’t you just feed them?”
Rong Xie finally understood why Shen Bingsi found work for them. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. What was this? Being jealous?
…Of course, the kind between best friends.
Shen Bingsi finalized the matter, throwing the tasks of installing fences, building chicken coops, and constructing cow sheds to the three little ones. Shen Bingsi asked them to produce a project plan for him to review first, doing it only if it was reliable, which counted as an explanation to the worrying Steward Rong.
As for wages, he would pay the three little ones according to market price, in spiritual stones.
Hearing this, the three little ones jumped for joy. With spiritual stones, they could buy novelties in the cultivation world, magical artifacts, talismans, props. having walked through Welcome Town once, they were already envious.
Watching the three little ones silly happy after boarding the pirate ship, Rong Xie had no choice but to give them an address, telling them to find a carpenter head named Third Master Qiu in Welcome Town according to this, and ask Third Master Qiu to produce a reliable plan and quote.
The three little ones happily went to do it. Except for Long Shaoye, who hadn’t finished copying the talismans. Shen Bingsi gave him a few days’ grace for Rong Xie’s sake, but he had to finish copying before doing anything else.
Long Shaoye clutched his right arm, watching his two partners walk out of the room and into the sunshine with a bitter face.
With the three little ones sent away to work, the backyard returned to its former harmony.
Shen Bingsi ate at the same table with Rong Xie during the day and slept in the same quilt at night. Whenever their hands were free, they held hands.
Gradually, Rong Xie got used to sleeping on Shen Bingsi’s arm, used to occasional hugs, and could even accept interlacing fingers.
The impulse to flee was gradually replaced by peace of mind. Sleeping soundly in Shen Bingsi’s arms all night, waking up groggy and seeing the person close at hand, he would think, Is this the feeling of an old married couple?
So, there is nothing that cannot be mastered through practice.
As long as he practiced diligently, he could get used to loving alone, silently moved, secretly happy, while staying out of the way of his best friend who cultivated the Heartless Path.
Just when Rong Xie felt he was getting the hang of it, Shen Bingsi proposed they could proceed to the next stage.
Rong Xie was instinctively a bit afraid of new things. The same went for the new stage. If only they could keep reviewing the old ones.
“Humans are actually no different from animals, just separated from the natural environment. by observing the behavior of animals in the natural environment, we can know,” Shen Bingsi stood by the newly built fence, teaching on-site with the little black sheep and spirit deer eating grass inside, “Animals decide who to be with and who not to be with through scent. Similar kinds can smell mutually attractive scents, while different kinds are different. The places where they urinate are all warning zones.”
Two little black sheep sniffed each other and lay down together. A passing spirit deer stood for a while, shook its ears, and left leisurely.
“Mm…” Rong Xie felt Shen Bingsi’s thinking made sense, but what did this have to do with them?
“You are guarded against me because, fundamentally, you are not familiar with my scent.” Shen Bingsi said seriously. “So, starting today, you sleep in my room, use my quilt, wear my inner clothes, shoes, and socks, and also—”
The hair on Rong Xie’s back stood up, and he shook his head in shock.
“No,” he said.
Even though Rong Xie was very familiar with Shen Bingsi as a person and could sleep in the same quilt with him, his mysophobia couldn’t tolerate wearing Shen Bingsi’s inner clothes, shoes, and socks. This was too much, causing a breakdown just thinking about it.
And that wasn’t all; there was actually an “and also.”
Rong Xie covered his ears. He didn’t want to hear, he refused to listen. This weird idea Shen Bingsi came up with was simply to tease him. What did it have to do with cultivation!
The last time seeing Rong Xie resisting like this was when Shen Bingsi first proposed the Dual Cultivation method to him.
However, the current Shen Bingsi was no longer the Shen Bingsi of that time.
He knew deeply that his best friend was obedient and didn’t hate him. As long as he took it step by step, he could sleep all night holding his gentle and sweet best friend.
“Rong’er, listen to me.” Shen Bingsi held Rong Xie’s wrists, moving his hands away from his ears. “This isn’t difficult. You can be close to me personally, so why not my clothes and bedding? I’ve been a Nascent Soul cultivator for a long time, my body is in the best condition, no sweat or odor. Besides, we bought our inner clothes and socks together, the styles are similar. Just treat it as wearing a size larger. It’s not as scary as you imagine.”
That was true, but the psychological hurdle was hard to overcome.
But Shen Bingsi wanted him to overcome exactly this psychological hurdle.
That night.
At the door of Shen Bingsi’s bedroom.
The door opened a palm-width gap, and rustling sounds came from outside.
Rong Xie wore loose inner robes, the hem dragging on the floor, wooden clogs on his feet. Despite his fierce resistance, he still didn’t wear Shen Bingsi’s socks… holding his own pillow with his own luminous pearl inside.
Shen Bingsi had just set up the bed table, intending to give his best friend some psychological buffer zone, then his gaze fixed on the person who had just shuffled in by the door.
Rong Xie shuffled in, and under Shen Bingsi’s gaze, shuffled to the bedside, standing there, still holding his pillow tightly with both hands.
The warm light of the candle stand shone from diagonally behind him, illuminating his ear red and bright. He lowered his eyes, his cheeks hidden in the shadow emitting a faint glow like fresh snow under the moon.
Shen Bingsi moved the bed table away.
“Sit,” he said in a deep voice, quickly smoothing out the slightly wrinkled mattress.
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