Long Aotian’s Beautiful Butler Has Run Away chapter 84

Chapter 84: The Person from Nanzhou

Shen Bingsi felt as though his emotions had been dragged through a tempest just by taking a few steps into the garden today. Thankfully, it turned out to be a false alarm.

However, if he continued to let Rong Xie wander around freely, the fake rumors would eventually turn into reality.

“Where is Rong Xie right now? I have business with him,” Shen Bingsi asked. “Is he in the courtyard of that steward from the Big Black Gate?”

“He has already returned… wait,” Steward Wang stopped Shen Bingsi. “Immortal Master Shen, Young Master Rong likely already knows about your disguise. If you go to see him like this, I fear you’ll give the game away.”

Shen Bingsi had almost forgotten that his identity as the old servant had been compromised. He nodded. “I understand. Is there a convenient place to change clothes?”

After the time it took to burn a stick of incense, Shen Bingsi and Steward Wang emerged from the tailor’s room.

Steward Wang stared at the small child on the ground, who was sporting horn-braids and wearing a servant boy’s outfit: “…”

The child opened his mouth. His voice was tender and immature, yet the tone was indescribably annoying. “As the old saying goes, all is fair in war. I have now transformed into Steward Wang’s nephew… Why are you looking at me like that? Do you have any idea how powerful one must be to master the Bone Shrinking Technique to this level?”

Steward Wang didn’t know what to say. He took a breath and replied, “Immortal Master Shen, this lowly one’s nephew is already in his twenties.”

“I can’t keep track of your mortal generational hierarchies, and it doesn’t matter. Just assign me a task right now. Send me to Bamboo Lane to deliver something,” the child said, lifting his tender little chin and ordering him around imperiously.

Steward Wang choked. It had been a long time since he’d experienced the sensation of a grandchild riding on his head and barking orders. Everyone in his family usually treated him with the utmost respect, relying on him as the head of the household for their livelihood… oddly enough, this feeling was quite novel.

“Then… help me deliver an account book.” Steward Wang patted his clothes and actually produced a palm-sized booklet, handing it to Shen Bingsi.

Shen Bingsi opened it to see dense rows of numbers. “What account book is this? Is this his work? Didn’t he go home to rest? Why are you making him calculate accounts again?”

“…” Steward Wang thought to himself, I don’t have a grandson this troublesome! On the surface, he smiled apologetically and explained, “It’s not his work. It’s the income record for the flowers and fruits from another garden, just for his reference.”

“Oh, got it.” Shen Bingsi tucked the booklet into his chest and waved at Steward Wang. “See you later.”

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Steward Wang gave a dry laugh.

Shen Bingsi took two steps, then turned back to sternly warn Steward Wang that no more matchmaking was allowed for Rong Xie. Only after grabbing Steward Wang and making him agree to everything—and promise to convey this message to his colleagues—did Shen Bingsi fly off.

Bamboo Lane. A sunny afternoon after the snow.

Rong Xie showed Linglong around his place and treated her to a cup of freshly brewed flower tea. Linglong sat in the small hall by the water, so comfortable she didn’t want to leave. She chattered on to Rong Xie about the Treasure Hunting Team, seemingly still intent on recruiting him.

“We mostly operate around Shengjing now. The nobles in the capital really have money, and there are plenty of private jobs. On days when there are no treasures to hunt, we do private work for the nobles. We’re actually living better than before,” Linglong sighed. “It’s just boring.”

“Is it very boring?” It was the first time Rong Xie had heard anyone call Shengjing boring. Lu Yinglin had praised the capital as if it were paradise. Rong Xie himself quite liked Shengjing; he had originally thought of settling in the Blue Plateau because it was convenient to visit the capital. Now he realized that without money, he couldn’t go anywhere regardless.

“Yes, it’s very boring. It’s nothing but helping people catch cheaters… peh, peh, peh. Basically, the respectable people hand over the tasks they find inconvenient to us. Or if they lose something, they call us to find it. As long as the money is right, we do anything.” Linglong sighed. “No choice. Raising a team costs money. I can’t exactly ask Big Brother Zhao to perform in the streets.”

“That sounds interesting too. Peeling back the layers, observing the details, finding the truth, and getting a reward at the end,” Rong Xie smiled.

“Actually, it’s not like that! It’s usually simple and crude: grab an informant, beat him up, and make him spill the truth.” Linglong shook her head.

“Ah… is that so?”

Linglong sighed, reluctantly leaving the soft chair under the glazed window. She stood up to bid Rong Xie farewell. “Big Brother Rong, I have things to do later, so I won’t stay long. I’ll come find you next time. If I encounter an interesting case, I’ll tell you about it.”

“Alright.” Rong Xie also stood up. “I’ll walk you out.”

“Mhm. If my uncle and the others bother you about matchmaking again, just bring me up as a shield. That works best; I don’t mind,” Linglong said enthusiastically, looking like she knew the ways of the world. “Whatever you were saying before won’t work. An invisible ‘child bride’ simply doesn’t exist to them. My uncle and the others have been stewards for so many years; they are shrewd. Big Brother Rong, stay in the mortal world a bit longer and you’ll understand. It’s completely different from the cultivation world. They… well, they can’t understand why an adult wouldn’t have a family. As long as you don’t have a partner, they will ceaselessly shove people at you.”

Rong Xie noticed that as Linglong said this, she looked distressed herself. It seemed she was encountering the same trouble.

No wonder she was so active in offering herself as a shield.

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“As long as it doesn’t hinder Lady Ling, it doesn’t matter to me,” Rong Xie said.

“Hehe, no hindrance, no hindrance. Then it’s settled!” Linglong raised her hand, wanting to high-five Rong Xie as an oath.

Rong Xie didn’t understand why she raised her hand and thought she was waving goodbye. “No rush, let me walk you out first.”

“It was a high-five for the oath!” Linglong was discouraged, but seeing Rong Xie still smiling cluelessly, she had to lower her hand.

Rong Xie walked Linglong out the door.

The clear sky was as transparent as if washed by water. The accumulated snow sparkled under the sunlight, the reflection making everything distinct and bright.

A lively young girl in a goose-yellow jacket and a handsome young man in water-colored cloth robes stood facing each other. Against such a backdrop, they looked like a beautifully refined gongbi painting. Passersby couldn’t help but take a second look.

The small child who had been sprinting all the way suddenly slammed on the brakes. His face changed instantly, and he instinctively ducked behind a neighbor’s fence, his hands tightly gripping the gaps in the fence as he peered through.

“Big Brother Rong, I’m leaving then!” Linglong waved. “Go back inside quickly, it’s cold out.”

Rong Xie smiled. “Okay.”

Linglong tightened the collar of her jacket and walked away quickly with small steps toward the other end of the lane.

Rong Xie stood at the door, watching her walk a distance away before turning to go back inside.

Just as he was about to enter the house.

The neighbor’s door creaked open, and an elderly woman poked her head out. “Has our Little Rong found a girl he likes so quickly?”

Rong Xie smiled and bowed to the woman. He wanted to deny it, but remembering what Linglong had said before she left, he smiled and glossed over it.

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Neither confirming nor denying—in the eyes of enthusiastic neighbors, that was a tacit admission.

“That girl is truly pretty. She’s a perfect match for Little Rong!” The neighbor laughed. “Which family is she from? Her face seems unfamiliar.”

Rong Xie’s smile stiffened slightly. He thought glossing over it would be enough, but he didn’t expect the neighbor to dig for details. Not wanting to reveal too much about Linglong, he answered vaguely, “She is from Nanzhou.”

“That far away.”

Thump!

A child flipped down from the fence, splashing up a patch of snow that landed right on the steps in front of the neighbor’s door.

It wasn’t much snow, but it would require sweeping again. The neighbor couldn’t help but curse, “Whose brat is that? Why are you jumping around?!”

The child had horn-braids and wore a servant boy’s outfit. He stood with legs spread wide in front of the door, acting like a little tyrant, glaring viciously at the neighbor. He actually managed to stare the neighbor down until she felt guilty and closed the door to retreat inside.

The child turned his head and stared at Rong Xie, his eyes harboring deep resentment, making Rong Xie feel baffled.

“Do you… need something from me?”

This child was, of course, Shen Bingsi in disguise, pretending to be a junior relative of Steward Wang to deliver the account book to Rong Xie.

He had come happily. The thought of seeing Rong Xie soon had swept away his depression. He had planned out excuses to sit in Rong Xie’s room. He wanted to sit in that flower hall by the water, eat something, or drink tea—doing anything would be fine. Rong Xie was so caring toward children; maybe he would even keep him for dinner. Shen Bingsi hadn’t eaten a meal cooked by Rong Xie in a long time; just thinking about it made his stomach ache with emptiness.

But instead, Rong Xie was standing at the door, reluctantly parting with some wild girl who had popped out of nowhere, even watching her until she was far away.

If someone else had told Shen Bingsi this scene, he would have beaten them to death rather than believe it.

Now, he had seen it with his own eyes.

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Perhaps the reflection from the snow was too intense. The scene pierced Shen Bingsi’s vision like a sharp, bright blade. He had to close his eyes for a moment to recover from the impact of the image.

We agreed to be best friends for a lifetime. No matter what happens, we would rely on each other, support each other, and let no person or matter come between us. The path of cultivation is long; we must walk it together…

Was he the only one who took those words seriously?!

No, it couldn’t be.

So what if he saw it with his own eyes? Seeing isn’t always believing!

Rong Xie was just walking a girl out. Maybe she had some business dealings with him that required entering the house to finalize.

Rong Xie just smiled at her. Someone as gentle and considerate as Rong Xie would smile when speaking just to avoid awkwardness, even if he didn’t want to.

Rong Xie just watched her walk away. The snowy road was slippery; hoping someone leaving your house didn’t slip in the lane was just human nature.

Thinking this way, Shen Bingsi coaxed himself into feeling better.

However, in the next moment, the neighbor poked her head out to ask a question, shattering his fantasy once again.

“Has our Little Rong found a girl he likes so quickly?”

“That girl is truly pretty. She’s a perfect match for Little Rong!”

“Which family is she from?”

…

“She is from Nanzhou.”

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She is from Nanzhou.

Shen Bingsi felt like he was going mad. He saw it with his own eyes, heard it with his own ears. Rong Xie answered in a gentle and helpless tone: She is from Nanzhou.

The girl he liked was from Nanzhou.

A taste of blood surged up his throat. Since cultivating the Ruthless Path, he had never experienced such a fierce, sudden backlash. He didn’t even have time to suppress it with the Heaven-Severing Blade. His internal organs felt like they were being churned by sharp weapons, paining him to the extreme and contracting into a tight ball.

He couldn’t allow this to happen. He couldn’t… it wasn’t time to use the Heaven-Severing Blade yet.

Shen Bingsi endured the pain of the backlash and flipped down from the fence, rushing to the middle of the road. He felt several forces tearing at his body, making movement incredibly difficult. At the same time, his heart was being torn, hurting as if it were about to shatter. He couldn’t even open his mouth to speak. Fortunately, the neighbor had sensibly retreated under his glare.

The air carried the scent of soap locust and ink. That was Rong Xie’s scent. In the past, smelling this scent would smooth out Shen Bingsi’s mood no matter how anxious he was. But this time, he felt as if a piece of his heart had been gouged out.

The familiar scent was mixed with the smell of blood.

He was clearly aware that Rong Xie was standing right behind him.

But he didn’t dare turn back.