Chapter 25 Interlocking Fingers (Rewritten):

Rong Xie went back to his room and lay down for a while, vaguely feeling someone shaking at the head of his bed.

No third person was allowed into the bedroom.

Rong Xie asked in a daze, "Why are you back so soon?"

"It's nothing serious, I just went to the spirit beast garden and picked out a few sheep and deer. I'll have them bring them over another day so you can have a treat," Shen Bingsi said, pressing down on Rong Xie's blanket to lie down on top of him.

"Hmm? Why are you lying down again?" Rong Xie gently nudged him. "I'm getting up."

Shen Bingsi did not agree and remained pressed there.

Rong Xie opened his eyes and was startled to see Shen Bingsi lying on her side next to his pillow, her face very close, observing him with a serious expression.

Observation... Yes, observation. It seems that when Shen Bingsi was learning the White Crane Sword Technique, he 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 look in his eyes.

Rong Xie jolted awake, all sleepiness gone: "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me?"

"Last night..." Shen Bingsi's deep voice rang out from very close range, "Were you feeling unwell?"

"..." Rong Xie.

Yes... a recap, Shen Bingsi is actually recapping.

Last night, which Rong Xie didn't even want to mention, Shen Bingsi earnestly asked him how he felt.

The embarrassment and anger from not sleeping well seem to have dissipated somewhat.

"It's alright, it's just... I haven't gotten used to it yet." Rong Xie didn't know how to describe the feeling, "It's a bit... uncomfortable."

After saying that, as if afraid of causing ambiguity, he added, "With your arm outstretched like that, I can't lie flat. It'll be a bit tiring to keep it suspended in the air."

Shen Bingsi nodded, seemingly lost in thought.

"How about we try some other positions?" He leaned closer, his hand naturally resting on Rong Xie's shoulder.

Rong Xie felt his vision being filled by Shen Bingsi without him realizing it. He was once again trapped in that warm embrace. He felt a little dizzy, as if he were lying on a small boat floating on a lake in April.

"I...I have something to do...I need to go check on them," Rong Xie explained softly. "I just assigned them the task of sweeping the backyard, and I need to see how they're doing..."

"I'm not going." Shen Bingsi pressed Rong Xie's feet down through the blanket.

In this way, he clung to Rong Xie like an octopus.

Rong Xie tried to struggle, but failed.

"Then... let's hug." He looked away and said softly.

The two tried several positions on the bed and came to the conclusion that no matter how they cuddled while sleeping, it was never comfortable.

It's either my back, my neck, or my shoulders that hurt.

Finally, they opted for a compromise—removing the pillow and using Shen Bingsi's arm instead.

The two lay facing each other. Shen Bingsi lay on his side with his arm outstretched downwards, and Rong Xie lay between his upper arms.

Rong Xie nervously curled up his arms and hugged the blanket to his chest. When he looked up, he could see Shen Bingsi's neck and chin. At such close distance, he could clearly feel the rise and fall of his chest and the warmth of his breath. Rong Xie involuntarily straightened his body and raised his head slightly to reduce the weight on Shen Bingsi's upper arm.

Shen Bingsi seemed to smile slightly and asked, "Is this comfortable?"

"It's...it's alright."

"You don't look very comfortable," Shen Bingsi said with a smile. "Why are you holding it in? Can't you relax a little?"

As he spoke, a warm hand covered Rong Xie's ear, pressing his head back onto his upper arm. The calloused fingertips accidentally brushed against Rong Xie's cheek, and the part of his cheek that touched his ear immediately burned.

"Hmm." Rong Xie hugged the blanket tighter, subconsciously arching his body and trying to escape towards Shen Bing Si until his head hit Shen Bing Si's chin.

Uh...how embarrassing.

This seems to make her even more eager to be embraced.

For a moment, Rong Xie's mind went blank, with only the sound of his heart pounding clearly audible.

Shen Bingsi's soft laughter came from very close by.

“That’s good,” he said.

The two tossed and turned in bed for a full half hour, and when they got up, the sun was high in the sky.

"I'm doomed..." Rong Xie quickly dressed and put on his shoes, grabbed a comb and frantically combed his messy hair in front of the bronze mirror. "I told them I would only sleep for half an hour, and now it's been more than an hour..."

"What's the rush?" Shen Bingsi sat on the edge of the bed, her long legs casually stretched out, tossing the luminous pearl that Rong Xie usually kept under his pillow for lighting back and forth. "Don't forget why we brought them in here."

Rong Xie paused slightly, then continued combing her hair quickly: "I know, but they've only just arrived and haven't gotten started yet. I'm afraid if I don't keep an eye on them, they might cause trouble, which would be even more complicated."

“Then punish them,” Shen Bingsi said dismissively. “Shen Heigou’s methods are quick and effective.”

"..." Rong Xie thought to himself, "Didn't you used to hate Steward Shen's ways the most, and always go against him? What do you call that? The dragon slayer becomes the dragon himself?"

“If you can’t bear to do it, I can do it for you. I just feel that they are not worth so much effort from you. Like you said, once you reach the Foundation Establishment stage, do you still need them?” Shen Bingsi was always clear-headed and cold.

"...It's not that I put in a lot of effort, it's just that I feel that punishing them without teaching them what is right will only make them afraid, and fear will only alienate them."

Shen Bingsi paused slightly, seemingly pondering Rong Xie's words. His gaze fell on his best friend's upright back, watching his slender, white fingers twirl in his dark hair, quickly tying it into a low ponytail. He then went to the front to retrieve the hairband he had been holding in his mouth, neatly tying it at the base of his hair. Every movement was so elegant and perfect.

"How is it?" Rong Xie noticed that Shen Bingsi was looking at him in the bronze mirror. After letting down the rest of her hair, she asked him.

"Mm." Shen Bingsi nodded. "Very good."

The two of them came out of the bedroom courtyard and headed forward.

The two walked side by side. Shen Bingsi didn't mention the punishment again, but instead brought up another matter.

"When I passed by Hongxiang Tower today, I overheard a couple exchanging their experiences..." Shen Bingsi mentioned casually.

Hongxianglou was a scripture pavilion specially set up within the sect for Daoist couples. Shen Bingsi never used to go there. Even when he passed by by taking a shortcut, he would walk as fast as he could, his disdain evident in his words.

Now, he's gone there to eavesdrop.

"They're having a private conversation, why are you eavesdropping..." Rong Xie was both amused and exasperated.

Shen Bingsi is truly capable of anything for cultivation, which is what he calls "where there's a will, there's a way." Rong Xie admires him greatly for this, but... he can't praise him for this particular matter.

"Their experience perfectly corroborated my thoughts, so I only listened to a few words," Shen Bingsi said seriously. "Do you know what the most important thing in dual cultivation is?"

The sun is not leaking! Rong Xie answered immediately in his heart.

However, he simply couldn't bring himself to say it.

Rong Xie's face flushed because he had reacted too quickly.

Shen Bingsi didn't notice Rong Xie's reaction. He continued smugly, "The most important thing in dual cultivation is tacit understanding. What an old married couple can do, a casual fling can't."

Oh... it's tacit understanding. Rong Xie thought to himself.

"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 little excited as he said this. He would get like this when he talked about cultivation secrets and the insights of his predecessors, completely immersed in the joy of "hearing the Dao in the morning and dying content in the evening".

"What touch..." Rong Xie couldn't bring himself to say it; the incantation was far too vulgar! He figured that his little Daoist partner's private conversations wouldn't be anything fancy, so the only one who made a mistake was Shen Bing Si. He shouldn't have listened, and even after listening, he shouldn't have shared it everywhere in broad daylight.

“Look,” Shen Bingsi grabbed Rong Xie’s hand, “…”

Rong Xie didn't hear what he said after that. All his consciousness was focused on the left hand that he had grabbed. The hot touch was amplified infinitely, even more stimulating than sharing a bed.

After a moment, Rong Xie came to his senses. Shen Bingsi's voice reached his ears intermittently: "This way it won't...this way it will..."

What do you mean, "like this"? Rong Xie tried hard to understand what Shen Bing Si was saying.

Shen Bingsi stretched out her fingers as if to let go. The next moment, her calloused fingertips clearly and forcefully rubbed against Rong Xie's palm and pushed down until Rong Xie's curled fingers were fully opened. Her rough knuckles squeezed into the soft gaps between her fingers little by little, rubbing against the sensitive inner side and inserting until her ten fingers were tightly interlocked.

Rong Xie never knew that holding hands could be so stimulating. A tingling sensation rose from their intertwined fingers, spreading from the inside of their arms to their armpits. It was even more intimate than when Shen Bing Si hugged his waist from behind last night, as if the most intimate parts of their bodies had come together.

The urge to run away rose within him once again.

"Ugh." Rong Xie's cheeks burned rapidly, the heat spreading from his neck to his ears. He stared at Shen Bing Si in shock, his eyes still moist.

Shen Bingsi smiled at him and said, "Doesn't this feel strange? Not to mention you, I feel it's quite strange too."

Thump, thump.

Rong Xie could clearly hear his own heartbeat, which kept knocking on the door of his heart along with Shen Bingsi's words.

Do you also find it strange?

you……

Does your heart also beat so hard and painfully like this?

Time seemed to stretch out indefinitely. At midday in early summer, sunlight streamed down from the dense canopy of trees, warmly bathing the two of them.

A gust of wind rises, and the leaves rustle intimately against each other, making a soft whisper. The feeling of the wind on your face is like a lover's caress.

“It’s because we never hold hands like this, so it feels strange…” Shen Bingsi said with a smile. His tone was calm, rational, and objective, and even carried a hint of ease after a sudden realization. “If we held hands like this often, we wouldn’t feel anything like we did just now.”

Rong Xie's gaze, brimming with emotion, seemed to have struck an invisible wall of air.

Shen Bingsi's heart wouldn't beat like his, nor would he feel the same way, because he had long since... stopped feeling that way.

He cultivates... the ruthless path of severing all emotions and love.

Did you know that there are many kinds of the ruthless path?

Yesterday, right here, Rong Xie had just said these words to his three young servants.

This was a matter of course, a fact that Rong Xie had accepted from the moment they entered the inner sect of the Spirit Mirror Sect.

However, never before had Rong Xie perceived it so profoundly, as if it were a thorny thorn, inch by inch embedding itself into her soft heart.

Noticing the sudden change in her best friend's expression, Shen Bingsi suddenly felt a little flustered.

"Rong'er, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Just then, three small figures turned out from the path leading to the study in the backyard.

"We're done cleaning up, what do we do now?"

"I don't know. Is Rong-ge still asleep? Should we cook first?"

"..."

Suddenly, the three of them stopped in their tracks.

"What happened? What was that just now?" Long Shaoye exclaimed in surprise.

"Ah..." Fang Renji's eyes widened as well.

"Everyone, don't panic. Now, step back." Shen Yan gestured for people to step back.

The three of them took three steps back before rubbing the areas that had been painfully struck by the invisible wall of energy.

Long Shaoye's nose turned red, Fang Renji covered his forehead, and Shen Yan looked calm, but her big toe was hurting terribly.

Just now, in broad daylight, under the clear sky, in the middle of a blank road, the three of them crashed into an invisible wall of energy without warning!

"Did we take the wrong path? Is there a restriction here?" Long Shaoye rubbed his nose.

"We just came from here..." Fang Renji said, his eyes brimming with tears.

Shen Yan walked forward cautiously, stretching out her arm to probe the spot, until she reached the place where she had bumped into something, but she didn't touch anything.

"Huh?"

The restrictions are gone.

Is it... a temporary martial law?

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I wrote something wrong yesterday, so I rewrote it and it feels much better now!