Chapter 7 Special Tutoring:

Sunlight shone on the cutting board.

Rong Xie slicing ginger into thin strips with a "thump-thump" sound, crushing spices with a stone mortar and pestle, and categorizing them into a six-petaled condiment dish.

After doing all that, he washed his hands and opened the window.

The kitchen window faces the courtyard, where a large weeping plum tree grows, reaching a height of three zhang (approximately 10 meters), making it a magnificent sight.

The weeping plum blossoms are in full bloom, and when the wind blows, the pink petals fall in waves.

A few flakes flew over the window frame and landed on the cutting board.

Rong Xie stared at those few petals, lost in thought.

Life at Huanxue Manor was really comfortable; there was no better place in the world. Was he really going to leave Huanxue Manor just because of a dream?

Yes, no matter how realistic the experience is, it's still just a dream. Should he doubt Shen Bingsi's deep friendship for him just because of a dream?

This is utterly insane.

Fortunately, he didn't tell Shen Bingsi about the dream, otherwise she would definitely laugh at him.

Suddenly, a surge of spiritual energy emanated from the gate.

Someone has come to visit.

Rong Xie was taken aback. Who could be coming at this time?

...

Shen Bingsi returned to Huanxue Manor from the Mirror Palace, wishing she could fly on her sword the whole way, but some ceremony was being held at the front mountain of the Lingjing Sect, and flying was prohibited in the front mountain square. According to the old sect master Xue Baoshan, no matter if you are the Heavenly King or the Jade Emperor, you have to get off and exchange your token to walk.

Shen Bingsi wanted to remind the old sect leader that the Heavenly King and the Jade Emperor might be the same person, but he didn't have the chance. As soon as he landed, he was squeezed into the middle by a swarm of enthusiastic fellow disciples.

"Is Senior Brother Shen here to watch the battle?" "Which peak does Senior Brother Shen favor to win?" "I heard that the winner of the sword fight will receive personal guidance from Senior Brother Shen at Huanxue Manor. Is that true?"

...

Shen Bingsi pushed through the crowd expressionlessly, but he glanced at one of them more than once: "It's not true, don't spread rumors!"

The young disciple never expected to stand out from so many fellow disciples and receive a personal answer from Senior Brother Shen. He couldn't help but beam with joy, repeatedly savoring this precious guidance in his heart.

Seeing her fellow disciples surging forward even more enthusiastically, Shen Bingsi had no choice but to activate her stealth technique, transforming into a phantom and weaving through the crowd, eventually emerging from the front mountain square via a secluded ramp.

"It's that time of year again for the sect competition? Time really flies," Shen Bingsi remarked. "But why isn't there anyone maintaining order this year? Where are the elders from each peak?"

When Shen Bingsi returned to Huanxue Manor on his sword, he saw a constant stream of people and finally realized where all the elders from the various peaks had gone.

The beautiful plum tree in the courtyard was in full bloom, with many thick branches like pythons stretching down from the sky, covered with clusters of pink flowers. Every now and then a gust of wind would come, and the petals would flutter down, landing on the old men sitting at the stone table under the tree.

Shen Bingsi was shocked and rushed to the stone table to see what it was—his fish!

That plump and healthy Heyang fish, which I saw last time was still jumping vigorously in the fish basket, has now become leftovers.

Shen Bingsi stared at the plate of fish bones in the center of the stone table, which the old man had eaten clean. Anger rose in her heart, and a surge of powerful fire spirit cleaved in her palm.

That's right, these old men who were trying to take advantage of the situation were none other than the elders of each peak.

Perhaps sensing the ominous fluctuations of spiritual energy in the air, the elders of each peak turned around and warmly welcomed Shen Bingsi, even pulling him down to sit and eat with them.

"Nephew Shen, where did you find this steward? His skills are truly excellent!"

"It's much better than the canteen in Fengli."

"I heard he's a friend from my hometown. Heyang really produces talented people."

"..."

The elders understood the saying "one cannot hit a smiling face," and showered Shen Bingsi with praise. They went on to praise everything from the fish to the steward, and from the steward to Shen Bingsi's ability to recognize talent. In short, if it weren't for Shen Bingsi's discerning eye, they wouldn't have been able to eat so heartily and finish their meal without even realizing it...

Shen Bingsi remained unmoved, her expression even turning colder: "My fellow disciples, you really have short memories. Rong Xie was originally a disciple of our Lingjing Sect, coming from the inner sect. He could be considered half a disciple of yours. Don't you remember him at all?"

The elders exchanged bewildered glances: "We didn't hear him say that..."

"I didn't hear him say he was treating you to fish, so why are you eating so enthusiastically?" Shen Bingsi picked up her chopsticks and flipped the fish bones over. "Heh, you ate it all up so cleanly, you didn't leave me a single bit."

Seeing that Shen Bingsi would actually get angry with them over a plate of fish, the elders quickly explained, "We didn't come here specifically to eat fish. We were worried about you, nephew. You released your spiritual sense early this morning, causing chaos on all the peaks. Even the old sect leader, who was in seclusion, came out to ask what was wrong with our little Shen and whether he regularly visits Huanxue Manor to check on his life..."

Shen Bingsi slammed down her chopsticks: "Is this how you care about me? I only have this one plate of fish! And all of you are just eating this one!"

"That's because Junior Nephew Rong's cooking is too good, hehe." The elders, realizing they were in the wrong, stood up one after another, saying that they had urgent business on the peak and took their leave first.

Shen Bingsi wasn't about to let them leave so easily. She had to leave something behind: the vegetables grown on the peak, the chickens, ducks, and geese raised there—she had to prepare everything and send someone over as soon as possible.

Even so, Shen Bingsi was still furious. The fish soup he had been looking forward to all morning was ruined, no, there wasn't even any soup left.

He shuffled into the kitchen, used his spiritual fire to turn the fish bones in the plate into ash, and poured it into the pile of firewood under the stove.

Rong Xie was still busy in the kitchen, moving the salt shaker around and arranging the bowls and plates. There was endless work to do in the kitchen, so he didn't have to go out and face the elders of the various peaks.

He was a little nervous when Shen Bingsi came in, but he breathed a sigh of relief when he looked up and saw that it was Shen Bingsi.

"Have they left?" Rong Xie cautiously peered outside.

"They're gone," Shen Bingsi said angrily. "I chased them all away!"

Rong Xie panicked: "That won't do, they are, after all, our superiors..."

"They're eating and drinking for free, and they're disrespectful to their elders. Why should we respect them?" Shen Bingsi told Rong Xie about how he had forced the elders of each peak to deliver vegetables and meat to his door, so that Rong Xie would be careful to accept the deliveries. That way, he wouldn't have to travel thousands of miles to the market to buy vegetables for a while.

In fact, the sect would send rice, flour, oil, and salt over, so Huanxue Manor was never short of daily necessities. However, if they wanted to cook some special dishes, they needed top-quality ingredients, especially meat.

This certainly saved Rong Xie the trouble of purchasing, but he was not at ease at all.

“They came because they were worried about you. How could you ask them for things…” Rong Xie looked at Shen Bing Si with a look of astonishment, as if to say, “You’re being too disrespectful.”

However, Shen Bingsi was a perverse person who prioritized his own feelings above all else.

"A teacher should act like a teacher. What kind of teacher doesn't even remember the students he taught?" Shen Bingsi sneered.

Rong Xie didn't know what Shen Bingsi meant, but not getting to eat fish clearly made him very angry, which wasn't surprising, since he had been looking forward to it all morning...

Rong Xie tugged at Shen Bingsi's sleeve.

"Hmm?" Shen Bingsi looked at him in confusion.

Rong Xie led him to a wooden bucket in the corner of the kitchen, opened the lid, and a plump Heyang fish was swimming inside.

Shen Bingsi's eyes widened.

"When did you learn to conjure live fish out of thin air?" Shen Bingsi asked in surprise. Among the various types of magic he knew, there was none that could conjure living things out of thin air.

"This is the one I bought." Rong Xie couldn't help but chuckle. "I promised to make it for you, how could I let someone else eat it?"

Shen Bingsi raised his eyebrows, his surprised expression gradually turning into a big smile. He stepped forward, hugged Rong Xie tightly, lowered his head and took a deep sniff of his shoulder, and exclaimed, "I knew it, Rong'er is the best to me."

Rong Xie froze. Some unpleasant memories made his chest ache, and he had to hold his breath to keep quiet so that Shen Bingsi wouldn't notice his abnormality.

Only after Shen Bingsi let go of him did he shift his center of gravity slightly backward and lean against the cabinet behind him.

Shen Bingsi watched the fish in the water and didn't notice anything unusual about Rong Xie. He laughed and said a few jokes, then rolled up his sleeves and reached into the water to catch the fish.

In the following time, Shen Bingsi single-handedly completed the preparations such as killing the fish, scaling it, and removing its internal organs, and Rong Xie's mood also recovered considerably.

It's just a name. Shen Bingsi used to call him Rong'er when he was very happy. Shen Bingsi had his own twisted logic. He didn't like the word "Xie" because he felt that "Xie" belonged to others, while Rong belonged to Rong Xie himself. Of course, if Rong Xie was willing to change his name to Rong Bu Xie, he wouldn't mind calling him "Bu Xie".

"This name is awful." As a child, Rong Xie was a straightforward boy and directly rejected the name that Shen Bingsi had given him.

“Then I’ll call you Rong’er, Rong’er~” Shen Bingsi stretched out her hand, which was dirty from climbing the tree, and chuckled as she took a blade of grass from Rong Xie’s hair.

"Rong Xie?" Shen Bingsi's voice came.

"Here it comes." Rong Xie snapped out of his daze, dried his hands on his robe, took the sharp knife he used for slicing fish from the knife rack, and walked toward the cutting board.

Rong Xie's fish-slicing technique was extremely superb. Shen Bingsi had never seen such dazzling knife skills before. In just a short while, the plump Heyang fish on the cutting board was transformed into more than three hundred crystal-clear fish slices, arranged in the shape of ice jade hibiscus flowers, layer upon layer, each slice unfolding, with a fragrant and sweet aroma that made people drool.

"If you were to cultivate your swordsmanship to the Golden Core stage and master swords, wouldn't you be invincible?" Shen Bingsi praised. After thanking everyone for finishing the fish, he immediately placed the plate in a shady spot.

“But I only like cooking fish, not being invincible.” Rong Xie turned around, switched to a cleaver, chopped the fish bones in one stroke, threw the fish head into the pot to make soup, and put the remaining fish bones with some meat on them away to wait for frying.

"Yes, yes, I'm all you need to be invincible." Shen Bingsi circled around Rong Xie, glancing at the soup and touching the small jar of seasonings. "I'll protect the world, and you protect me... By the way, where did that fish come from?"

Rong Xie found it somewhat amusing: "Elder Yunfeng caught it fresh from the river."

"Oh..." Shen Bingsi suddenly realized, "It seems I misunderstood them."

However, Shen Bingsi will not admit her mistake.

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Elder Yunfeng would bring over a fish for no reason. He must have ulterior motives.” Shen Bingsi nodded, finding the idea increasingly plausible. “That’s right. I praised your fish cooking before, and they’ve been keeping an eye on it ever since. It’s quite alarming.”

"Pfft." Rong Xie laughed.

Seeing him smile, Shen Bingsi suddenly leaned over, stretched out her arm and braced it on the counter behind Rong Xie, trapping him between her body and the counter, and carefully examined his face.

Rong Xie was stunned for a moment, his body instinctively backing away, his gaze darting around, not daring to meet Shen Bing Si's eyes.

“There is definitely a problem.” Shen Bingsi’s tone was serious. “You’ve been avoiding me since last night.”