Chapter 26: Jealousy
Shen Bingsi attributed Rong Xie's reaction that day to her own haste.
The fact that Rong Xie was willing to share a bed with him and get closer to him was already a huge step forward. Why did he have to insist on holding hands?
Although... it really felt good to hold hands with Rong Xie. Rong Xie's hands were cool, like a handful of soft jade, with long and delicate fingers that were tightly clasped together, their shapes perfectly matching his.
They are like a sword and its sheath, perfectly matched in every way, inseparable from each other, and only when they are together are they complete.
"It's alright, we'll take it slow. If you don't like holding hands, then we won't," Shen Bingsi said patiently.
When he said that, Rong Xie's expression didn't improve at all. He didn't know when he had stopped being able to read his best friend's feelings at a glance.
The following day.
The open space in front of Huanxue Mountain Villa.
"Just put it here," Shen Bingsi told the two high-ranking disciples, pointing to a patch of somewhat bare grass.
The two bowed respectfully to Shen Bingsi, and then used a teleportation spell, which brought cages of birds and livestock to the location designated by Shen Bingsi.
The startled squawking of chickens, ducks, geese, and grunting of pigs once again filled the open space in front of the villa.
There were also buckets of live, wriggling fish, shrimp, and shellfish, some of which were clearly not from the local area.
"Senior Brother Shen, we brought the feed for these animals with us this time. We'll send more when they run out in a while," the two said enthusiastically. As the yellowish-brown light shone, boxes of feed appeared next to the cages.
"Okay." Shen Bingsi nodded. "Say hello to your elder and tell him that I have received his kind words."
"Yes, we will definitely convey the message!"
After receiving the poultry and livestock delivered by Elder Yunfeng, Shen Bingsi returned briskly to the front yard to find Rong Xie.
He wanted to tell Rong Xie the good news that the poultry and livestock had arrived, so that they could finally eat meat again.
But when they found the person, lo and behold, Rong Xie was personally teaching Long Shaoye how to use a talisman to clean the ground.
"That gesture is wrong. You have to follow the trajectory drawn on the talisman." Rong Xie held Long Shaoye's wrist and guided him to draw the talisman in the air.
A stream of water essence was injected into the talisman, and a thin layer of water appeared on the ground, flowing in all directions and quickly washing the ground within a zhang (approximately 3.3 meters) around it.
"Wow, this is amazing!" Long Shaoye exclaimed in surprise.
Suddenly, the water on the ground hissed and turned into white smoke, disappearing without a trace, leaving only a dry patch of ground.
Long Shaoye thought it was Shen Yan returning, and happily looked up, calling out "Yanzi". But his smile vanished instantly – it was the Grand Master of the Manor. He was a little afraid of this Grand Master of the Manor.
"You don't even know how to use talismans? Manager Rong isn't your master, so he has to teach you everything. Take these talismans and copy them a hundred times each. Give them to me before you rest today." Shen Bingsi casually took out a stack of newly written talisman papers and put them on the railing of the corridor.
Long Shaoye lowered his head: "Yes."
That's a thick stack of talisman paper! Each one needs to be copied a hundred times; even three days wouldn't be enough for him!
However, Long Shaoye dared not refute. The last time he refuted someone during the servant assessment, it left him with psychological trauma. In short, it was best not to directly confront the Grand Master's sharp edge.
After the head of the manor leaves, he'll talk to Brother Rong again and ask for a few more days of financial relief. Brother Rong will definitely help him.
Thinking this, Long Shaoye breathed a slight sigh of relief.
"Come out for a second, I have something good to show you." Shen Bingsi turned to Rong Xie and said mysteriously, her face becoming lively and her eyes filled with obvious laughter, completely unlike when she was talking to Long Shaoye and the others.
“Copying it a hundred times is too much… Hmm? What is that?” Rong Xie’s attention was drawn to Shen Bing Si, and the two walked side by side.
Long Shaoye was left bewildered, wondering how his lifeline had been taken away too!
Rong Xie followed Shen Bingsi out of the courtyard and saw a dark mass of cages, large and small, filled with an even greater variety of poultry and livestock than last time. He was immediately stunned.
Actually, he had heard the commotion in the front yard earlier. He didn't expect so much this time. He had just forgotten the unpleasant memory of scooping and feeding the poop last time, and now it's happening again...
"Isn't this too much? There are only five of us, and we can't possibly eat meat every single meal."
"If you keep them like this in the cage, they'll smell bad, no matter how much you clean."
Rong Xie's worries did not affect Shen Bingsi.
He waved his hand and said, "I plan to fence off a piece of land here and let these animals graze freely. That way, their meat will be firmer and more delicious."
Looking at the area affected by his palm, Rong Xie felt as if the entire meadow beside the lake had been engulfed.
"That's a huge project," Rong Xie reminded him.
“It’s alright. Aren’t there three new lads here? Let them do it. It’s a good opportunity to test their skills.” Shen Bingsi made the decision.
Rong Xie thought to himself, "They were hired to be servants, not carpenters. Besides, the fence of this enclosure is extremely difficult to build. At the Shen family manor, they would hire a group of young and strong carpenters to do this. Shen Yan and the others are just half-grown boys. It's not just that they can't do it, but what if they get injured? The wooden stakes at the four corners are more than a person tall. If they are driven straight down, they could break a leg if they are slightly off-center."
“We recruited them to be useful. We can’t just let them idle around in the backyard all day, can we?” Shen Bingsi observed Rong Xie’s expression and knew he was worried, so she comforted him, “They are not ordinary servants. They were carefully selected by you and me. Their aptitude is enough to make them inner disciples in any small sect. We didn’t ask them to go to the heavens or the seas. We just built a fence, which is very easy.”
Rong Xie was puzzled: "When have they been idle? I asked them to sweep the backyard. The backyard hasn't been swept for many days. There's a layer of dust everywhere, and things aren't put away. It's as messy as a vegetable market."
“No vegetable market looks like this,” Shen Bingsi said. He was used to his best friend’s almost nitpicky requirements for hygiene. “They can sweep and clean, but they can’t walk around in the backyard every day, and they can’t occupy your space.”
After saying that, he emphasized again: "Especially, I can't let you take over and teach them how to use talismans step by step—why don't I let you feed them?"
Rong Xie finally understood why Shen Bingsi had been causing them trouble. He was both amused and exasperated. What was this? Was she just being jealous?
...Of course, the kind between close friends.
Shen Bingsi made the final decision, assigning the installation of fences, construction of chicken coops, and building of cowsheds to the three junior staff members. He asked them to come up with a project plan and bring it to him for review. He would proceed only if it seemed feasible, thus providing an explanation to the concerned manager, Rong.
As for wages, he would pay the three juniors according to market prices, in spirit stones.
The three children were overjoyed when they heard this. With spirit stones, they could buy novelties from the cultivation world, such as magic weapons, talismans, and props. They had been eyeing them ever since they visited Yingbin Town.
Seeing the three kids still grinning foolishly after getting on the wrong boat, Rong Xie had no choice but to give them an address and tell them to go to Yingbin Town and find a carpenter foreman named Master Qiu, so that Master Qiu could come up with a reliable plan and quote.
The three younger ones were happy to do it. Except for Long Shaoye, who hadn't finished copying the spirit talismans yet. Shen Bingsi gave him a few days' grace out of consideration for Rong Xie, but he had to finish copying them before he could go out to do anything else.
Long Shaoye, his right arm hunched, watched with a bitter expression as his two companions walked out of the room and into the sunlight.
By putting the three small expenses to work, the backyard regained its former harmony.
Shen Bingsi ate at the same table with Rong Xie during the day and slept under the same blanket with Rong Xie at night. Whenever their hands were free, they would hold each other.
Gradually, Rong Xie got used to sleeping with his head on Shen Bingsi's arm, got used to occasional hugs, and even accepted holding hands.
The urge to escape was gradually replaced by a sense of security. He slept soundly in Shen Bingsi's arms all night. When he woke up and his consciousness was hazy, he looked at the person so close to him and wondered, "Is this what it feels like to be an old married couple?"
Therefore, there is nothing that cannot be mastered through practice.
As long as he practices diligently, he can get used to having only one person who likes him, silently feeling moved and secretly happy, while keeping his distance from his close friend who cultivates the ruthless path.
Just when Rong Xie felt he was getting the hang of things, Shen Bingsi suggested that they could move on to the next stage.
I'm instinctively a little afraid of new things, and the same goes for new phases. It would be great if I could just keep reviewing the old things.
“Humans are actually no different from animals, except that they have separated from the natural environment. By observing the behavior of animals in the natural environment, we can learn,” Shen Bingsi stood next to the newly built fence and gave a live demonstration to the little black sheep and deer grazing inside the fence, “Animals decide who to be with and who not to be with based on their scent. Animals of the same kind can smell each other’s scents that attract them, but different kinds are different. The places where they have urinated are warning zones.”
The two little black sheep sniffed each other and then lay down together. A passing deer stood for a while, twitched its ears, and leisurely walked away.
"Hmm..." Rong Xie felt that Shen Bingsi's thinking made a lot of sense, but what did it have to do with them?
"Your wariness of me stems from your unfamiliarity with my scent," Shen Bingsi said seriously. "Therefore, starting today, you will sleep in my room, use my blankets, wear my undergarments, shoes, and socks, and—"
Rong Xie's hair stood on end, and he shook his head in shock.
"No," he said.
Even though Rong Xie was very familiar with Shen Bingsi and could sleep in the same bed with him, his germaphobia made him unable to tolerate wearing Shen Bingsi's undergarments, shoes, and socks. This was going too far, and just thinking about it made him feel utterly devastated.
Moreover, that's not all; there's actually "more".
Rong Xie covered his ears. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to listen. Shen Bing Si's strange idea was just to tease him. What did it have to do with cultivation?
The last time I saw Rong Xie resist like this was when Shen Bingsi first proposed the method of dual cultivation to him.
However, the current Shen Bingsi is not the same Shen Bingsi as before.
He knew his best friend was well-behaved and didn't dislike him. He knew that as long as he took things one step at a time, he could sleep soundly with his warm and sweet best friend all night.
“Rong’er, listen to me.” Shen Bingsi grasped Rong Xie’s wrist and moved his hand away from his ear. “It’s not difficult at all. You can even be close to me in person, so why can’t you be close to my clothes and bedding? I’ve been a Nascent Soul cultivator for a long time now, and my body is in the best condition. I don’t sweat or have any odor. Besides, we bought our inner garments and socks together, and they’re all similar in style. Just think of it as buying a size too big. It’s not as scary as you think.”
That's what they say, but the psychological hurdle is really hard to overcome.
But Shen Bingsi wanted him to overcome the psychological hurdle.
That night.
At the door of Shen Bingsi's bedroom.
The door opened a crack about the width of a hand, and a rustling, scraping sound came from outside.
Rong Xie was wearing a loose-fitting inner robe, the hem of which dragged on the ground, and wooden clogs. Despite his efforts, he still couldn't wear Shen Bing Si's socks... He was holding his own pillow, which contained his luminous pearl.
Shen Bingsi had just set up the tatami table, intending to give his close friend some psychological buffer, when his gaze fell on the person who had just slipped in by the door.
Rong Xie dawdled in, and under Shen Bingsi's watchful gaze, he slowly made his way to the bedside, where he stood still, his hands still tightly clutching his pillow.
The warm light from the candlestick shone from behind him, making his ears glow red. He lowered his eyes, and his cheeks, hidden in the shadows, resembled fresh snow under the moon, radiating a soft light.
Shen Bingsi moved the table on the tatami mat away.
"Sit down," he said in a deep voice, quickly smoothing out the slightly wrinkled mattress.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com