Chapter 75: He was lying to him.
The next day, Shen Yan brought the talisman paper to find Shen Bingsi.
Shen Bingsi reluctantly pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and spread it on the table: "Copy it, finish copying it here."
Shen Yan looked at the letter, wondering what Shen Bingsi had done to it last night.
"Oh, by the way, when do you plan to write back?" Shen Bingsi asked.
The overprinting talisman emitted a faint purple light, and the words on the letter paper appeared exactly on another blank sheet of paper.
As Shen Yan poured spiritual power into the overprinting talisman, she replied to Shen Bingsi, "Reporting to the Master, Brother Rong did not say that he had to reply."
Actually, Shen Yan had a communication stone, so they didn't necessarily have to use letters to contact Rong Xie. It was just that Rong was cautious and insisted on putting the management of the manor on paper, which is why he wrote a long letter by hand.
“How can that be?” Shen Bingsi said. “I definitely have to write a reply, and I also have some questions I want to ask him.”
Shen Yan's brow twitched as she looked at Shen Bingsi.
What was Shen Bingsi going to ask? Was it the specific address of Lan Yuan's new residence, or some old story that hadn't been cleared up before?
In short, Shen Yan had a premonition that it wouldn't be a good thing.
"Ahem," Shen Bingsi cleared his throat again, feigning nonchalance. Seeing Shen Yan staring at him with suspicion, he asked him with displeasure, "Why didn't you take a note?"
Shen Yan: ?
Do I need to write this down?
However, since they were serving as servants on someone else's turf, they felt obligated to keep track of it, so they did.
Shen Yan took a charcoal pencil and a blank sheet of paper: "Please speak, Master."
"Just write—"
Shen Bingsi pondered for a moment, her thoughts flowing like a gushing spring: "Didn't you hate going out the most? Didn't you hate riding in a carriage the most? How come you can handle traveling thousands of miles back and forth for two months at a time?"
"And those restaurants outside, weren't you afraid of what might be crawling in those dark corners under the stove? How come you can eat out again now?"
"You said you hated dealing with people the most, but now you have an auction house manager on one side, a broker on the other, and a magistrate from the government, and you're getting along with them all pretty well, aren't you? You've set up your own business so quickly, and you've even bought a house in Lanyuan... By the way, didn't you say you liked houses in the Shengjing style the most? Why did you buy a house in the Nanzhou style?"
"You liar!"
The things Shen Bingsi had been pondering all night without understanding suddenly burst forth like a spring that had been pierced, and he spoke at length. Before he could finish, he saw Shen Yan holding a charcoal pencil, staring at him with a bewildered expression.
"Write it down, why aren't you writing it down? How much of what I just said did you write down?" Shen Bingsi looked at the paper under Shen Yan's pen.
"Uh... Master, you're speaking too quickly. Do you really want to write all of this in the letter?" Shen Yan asked uncertainly.
"Otherwise what? It has to be written in a letter. If we could say it face to face, would I need you to write a letter? Wait, saying it face to face isn't impossible. I'll fly to Lanyuan on my sword right now and find out." Shen Bingsi slapped the armrest, stood up from the octagonal chair, walked around the table, and headed out.
"Please wait, Master!" Shen Yan exclaimed, sweat beading on her forehead. "I'll write it down, I'll write it down right now."
In the end, Shen Yan almost broke his hand from writing so much that he wrote ten pages, longer than the letter Rong Xie had sent, before Shen Bing Si finally let him go.
"Wait." Shen Bingsi called out to Shen Yan as he was about to leave, "I'll leave this part of the letter here first."
"Don't we need to send it?" Shen Yan looked up.
"Um."
Shen Yan was more than happy to accept this offer. She took the copy of Rong Xie's letter and then took her leave.
Shen Bingsi opened the desk drawer, stuffed ten sheets of paper covered in writing into it, and slammed it shut.
He's not stupid; he wouldn't actually write down all those words in a long, rambling message and send it to Rong Xie.
If Rong Xie saw the letter, that would be fine, but if that Manager Lu, Bai Shuishanren, or that broker next to him accidentally saw it, wouldn't he laugh his head off?
Shen Bingsi deliberately made Shen Yan write these words, just to give her a small punishment.
Who told Shen Yan to be so rude when she read the letter yesterday, ruthlessly interrupting Shen Bingsi's reverie and dryly saying "no," leaving Shen Bingsi no room for further thought?
Although, the truth is indeed "no".
Shen Bingsi thought about it again and again, but still felt that Rong Xie was lying to him.
Everything is too illogical. How could someone like Rong Xie, who has extremely high standards for quality of life and no experience in worldly affairs, have everything go smoothly after leaving him? How could he find his ideal house so easily, especially when he was short of money and only had a single bulb of white orchid that he could sell for a price?
Rong Xie definitely wasn't telling the truth. He's the kind of gentle person who wouldn't complain even if he was wronged. He always acts perfectly fine to outsiders, and some fools just actually believe it...
Shen Bingsi recalled many moments in the past when, after he said some foolish things, Rong Xie's face turned pale, and he stared at him blankly for a long time without saying anything. And he was really stupid enough to think that everything would be fine if he didn't say anything.
When you've reached your limit and can't take it anymore, your usually gentle best friend suddenly explodes and walks away without looking back. That's the consequence of thinking everything is fine.
“…No, I still have to go there in person.” Shen Bingsi muttered to himself. He drew his Shengxie Sword, walked to the door of the study, and before he even stepped out of the threshold, he became one with the sword, transforming into a golden light and flying towards Shengjing.
At noon, Shen Bingsi arrived at Lanyuan.
At his speed on his sword, he could arrive in less than an hour. However, Lan Yuan is under the watchful eye of the Xuan Tian Sect. Wandering around here on his sword without permission would attract the attention of some important figures. When Shen Bing Si came here on her sword last time, she alarmed some of them. Later, when she returned to the sect, the elders nagged her for a long time.
This time, he was even more cautious. Before entering the range of the sect's Heavenly Eye, he landed, first using his Bone Shrinking Technique to change his appearance, and then dressing up a bit to become an inconspicuous old handyman. Such a person would not attract attention no matter where he appeared.
However, when it came to hiring a carriage, things got a bit complicated. No one believed that an old handyman could be so wealthy as to casually pull out enough money to buy a carriage. Shen Bingsi had to use a lot of persuasion to convince them that she was a handyman in the Wang family, and that she was dressed as an old handyman because she had a special mission to carry out.
"Your attire is quite impressive," the stable master chuckled, providing Shen Bingsi with a respectable carriage.
"Right? You can't tell at all, I'm actually only in my twenties." Shen Bingsi said casually, in a cheerful mood.
"That can't be right, there must be at least thirty or forty, right?" the stable owner laughed.
Shen Bingsi simply took it as a compliment to his maturity and composure.
Upon arriving at Lanyuan, the coachman dutifully escorted Shen Bingsi to the entrance of Lanyuan Villa and even offered to call the gatekeeper for him. Shen Bingsi declined, saying that the mission was confidential and it was inconvenient to enter from the front, and then shook off the coachman, heading alone towards Lanyuan Brokerage.
He paced back and forth in front of the Lan Yuan brokerage, his hands behind his back. The two bodyguards at the entrance kept watching him warily. Finally, a broker came out, and Shen Bingsi stepped forward and asked:
"Are there any recently sold mansions in the Southern Zhou style nearby?"
The broker looked at him strangely and said, "Why do you ask that, sir?"
"I'm just making a preliminary inquiry for my master's family to find out the size and price of a mansion in the Nanzhou style," Shen Bingsi said seriously.
The broker naturally wouldn't let any potential customer slip by. Even though Shen Bingsi didn't look like a customer, he still took out a map of the brokerage firm and told Shen Bingsi about the locations, sizes, and layouts of the Southern State-style residences.
Shen Bingsi listened for a while but didn't hear what she wanted to hear, and became a little impatient: "I asked you about the one you just sold, why are you rambling on and on?"
"This..." The broker looked troubled. The real estate business is always highly competitive, and a slight mistake can lead to a competitor's dirty tricks ruining the deal. Therefore, even if the house has already been sold, they will not reveal specific information. The broker claimed that he did not know either and would go in to ask. After a while, he came out with a smile and said to Shen Bingsi that no one else in the business knew either. "I'm afraid you must have misheard, sir."
Shen Bingsi was somewhat surprised: "Really not? Not even those in the transactions?"
"This... we can't reveal it." The broker's smile faltered, and he was already scrutinizing Shen Bingsi with a suspicious look.
"I see... I understand." Shen Bingsi nodded, turned and strode away.
Seeing his brisk pace, the broker understood immediately. He was indeed an imposter, no longer bothering to pretend! Luckily, he hadn't revealed the Southern-style house with front and back yards in Zhuli Lane, otherwise, who knows what kind of trouble might have arisen.
"So it really was made up..." Shen Bingsi pondered as she walked. Since Rong Xie hadn't completed the house transaction yet, where was he living now?
As Shen Bingsi walked along the bluestone street, the scene of him and Rong Xie playing here together several months ago seemed to reappear before his eyes. He suddenly realized that Rong Xie seemed to be laying the groundwork for this moment back then.
In the guest room of Fanshige, Rong Xie took out the "Records of the Splendor of Shengjing" that he had prepared beforehand and said to Shen Bingsi, "Let's go here, let's go to Lanyuan. He wants to see the houses in Lanyuan."
On the banks of the Cuyu River in Shengjing City, Shen Bingsi went to the dock to hire a boat first. When she turned around, she could no longer see Rong Xie. After searching for a while, she finally found him coming out of a brokerage firm.
...
So you couldn't stand it anymore so early?
He also thought that what prompted Rong Xie to make the decision to leave was the hurtful things he said that night on the South Island.
So, it was even earlier than that?
As Shen Bingsi walked, she kept thinking back to what had happened in the past.
The feeling of longing is like weeds, growing in the wind and filling the heart without one realizing it. When the Blade of Heaven is used again, it will be cut down again, and then grow back again.
Suddenly, the dried blood on the animal-skin will left by my master before his departure came vividly to mind: "The Blade of Heaven's Severance is but a self-deceiving act; the ruthless path is not a long-term solution. Yet, the ruthless path is the ultimate truth of heaven and earth, which I have not yet comprehended, leaving it to future generations."
Are you trying to cover your ears... or are you stealing a bell?
Shen Bingsi stopped and looked up. Unconsciously, he walked into a small street lined with bamboo on both sides. The street entrance had three simple characters: "Bamboo Lane". The lane was very quiet, with houses with blue tiles and white walls on both sides.
Suddenly, two familiar figures, one tall and one short, appeared out of nowhere and walked through the shadows of the bamboo forest towards Shen Bingsi.
Is it Rong Xie and... that Wang Nanny's child?
Shen Bingsi didn't expect to run into the main character so soon. She panicked and suddenly disappeared.
The next moment, a white shadow seemed to move on the white wall, completely blending into the wall.
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