The Medicine Pouch
The moment I sent Chosun away, Xiahou Yuan woke up. I had no desire to deal with her, but I might as well answer when spoken to.
“You’re awake?”
“I never really fainted. That Dong Zhuo bastard should’ve hit harder. When I figured it wasn’t working, I played dead, and sure enough he fell for it. Aren’t I completely brilliant?”
“Uh… with that black eye and a bloody nose to match, the whole act is a little hard to trust. What the hell were you thinking? Why did you interfere with my work back there?”
I’d been ready to let it slide out of pity, but the moment she admitted even the fainting had been an act, I decided she needed a proper scolding.
Xiahou Yuan, however, seemed utterly unbothered. She came over, dropped down with a heavy thud, and leaned her back against the wall as if collapsing into bed.
“Ugh… Because you looked completely unreliable, so I stepped up first. How am I supposed to trust a guy who takes orders from a woman?”
“So you were listening to everything after all. Do you even understand the mistake you made? If I’d only had that treasured sword, I might actually have succeeded!”
This bitch stealing the Seven-Star Sword had been the root of every failure. With the item boost I might have stood a chance against Lü Bu; she, even with the same sword, would still have been beneath him.
“But what choice did I have? We finally killed Dong Zhuo—if you walked off with all the glory, how disappointed would my big brother be in me?”
“You threw away the only chance we had just so Cao Cao could climb a little higher? And isn’t that Cao Cao bastard cracked in the head? One minute he’s praising you as the family’s greatest talent, the next he’s throwing you into a suicide mission?”
“You… you know who I am?”
Only then did Xiahou Yuan realize her identity had been exposed. Perhaps because death was already so close, the surprise was mild; curiosity seemed to win out.
“I should have recognized you earlier… At the banquet everything was too chaotic for a proper look. Never thought it would come back to bite me like this, Xiahou Yuan.”
“You saw me then? Even so, how did you know just from hearing my name?”
“I’m a palace eunuch who serves the Son of Heaven. Do you really think there’s anything I don’t know? I even know when, where, and how that Cao Cao bastard is going to die.”
“Bullshit… I didn’t realize I was that famous. This almost turned into a disaster.”
She had slipped into the palace as a maid, certain no one would ever recognize her. Hearing that I knew not only her connection to Cao Cao but her very name must have sent a chill down her spine.
“Anyway, don’t we still have something left to do?”
“What do we have left to do? Sit here pissing ourselves until the branding irons heat up… Argh!”
Before the sentence even finished she threw her full weight onto me and slammed me flat. In one smooth motion she mounted me perfectly, then snapped both my arms down and pinned them.
“W-what the hell are you—”
“You know how I feel. I’ve been putting it off because of the mission, but who expected we’d end up locked in a room together? So we should play hard once, right?”
“Play hard? What exactly are you planning to—”
There was no time to finish. Xiahou Yuan’s hand darted into my robes, snatched something free, and held it high above her head for me to see.
The medicine pouch Chosun had given me.
“Always so thoroughly prepared. Big brother never even gave me anything like this—he was afraid I’d get soft.”
“Give that back right now.”
“I don’t want to. You know I’m not just a little pretty. How am I supposed to endure being violated by those lowly jailers? So this one’s mine.”
“Hey! So it’s fine if I get violated? I don’t know if you heard earlier, but Lü Bu is already hard just thinking about all the fun he’s going to have with my ass!”
“It’s a bit of a waste, but what can I do? Who told you to be born with an ass?”
“…”
Is that even a sentence? You’re the one born a woman, which is exactly why you’re trying to die before the humiliation starts.
“D-don’t touch that—give it back this instant. I’m serious! If you swallow that you’ll regret it more than you can imagine.”
“Regret? Why would I regret anything? If I was going to, I never would have come here.”
“It’s hard to explain, but you will regret it. Or what was that earlier—you wanted one last round of fun with me before you died? You’re really okay dying without that?”
“Are you insane? Why would I be so desperate I’d blow a guy like you? Anyway, I’m going first. If it really gets bad, just close your eyes and bite your tongue.”
“…”
She clearly had no intention of returning the pouch. I could have taken it by force, but she was so quick she would probably swallow it before I ever got close.
“Haa… Or how about we talk instead? Living as Cao Cao’s little sister, you must have had hardships you couldn’t tell anyone. Counseling’s one of the few things I’m actually decent at…”
“No need. If I keep talking my heart might soften without me noticing. I’ll just take it and die right here.”
“You saw what happened just now. Like that girl earlier, Cao Cao might come looking because he’s worried about you. Are you really okay dying without leaving your big brother a single last word?”
She froze.
The hand that had been about to dump the pills into her mouth went slack. Then she looked down at me with eyes stripped of every emotion—cold, murderous.
“There’s no way he’d come.”
“W-what do you mean all of a sudden…”
“I’m just a chess piece. At best a pawn or a soldier used as a meat shield on the front line. Do you think Cao Mengde, who’s aiming for the entire realm, would so much as blink if someone like me died?”
“Why so cynical again… Of course he’d blink at least once. If he heard you were dead he’d go mad with revenge and lose all reason.”
That much was true. Years later, when he lost Xiahou Yuan at Mount Dingjun, Cao Cao brushed aside every protest and personally led a great army into Hanzhong—only to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of Liu Bei, a man he had always considered his inferior. If he truly saw you as nothing more than a pawn, why would a man that clever make such a stupid choice?
“Don’t make me laugh. Do you even know my brother? He sent his own sister here knowing full well she would die. That alone should tell you what kind of man he is.”
“Must have a beast’s heart. But he probably prepared some kind of escape route. It just got tangled the moment I got involved.”
That had to be it. Xiahou Yuan was never meant to die here.
Cao Cao must have planned a way out for her; my presence had simply ruined it.
“…”
She said nothing. With her face a swollen mess of bruises, I couldn’t read a single thought.
“I’ll put off taking the medicine.”
“Really? Glad you changed your mind.”
“Instead, I’m doing it with you.”
“Sure, as long as you don’t swallow the pills, whatever you—w-wait. Doing what with me?”
Rip!
Xiahou Yuan was a woman of action, not words. Even after the beating she had taken, she somehow found the strength to tear my robes open and bare my chest.
“Y-you—what the hell are you doing?”
“Revenge. My whole life I’ve done everything big brother ordered. Now that it’s come to this, he doesn’t even think of coming to save me. So before I die I want to play filthy with you.”
“Hey, how is that revenge? That doesn’t make any sense!”
She leaned in until her face was inches from mine. The blizzard-queen beauty was buried under bruises, yet the raw sex in her eyes still hit my prostate like a spark.
“It is revenge. Because big brother hates losing more than he hates dying.”
“So what does that have to do with—”
“I always believed the first man I gave myself to would be big brother. But if it turns out to be a Chi-byung-nan-byung like you… wouldn’t that humiliate him quite a bit?”
“…”
I get that you’re only cousins by blood, but ending it like this is still…
“Haa… haa… So let’s do it one last time—hard enough that Mengde bastard never even crosses my mind. You can do that, right?”
“M-Miaocai? No—Lady Xiahou! Get a hold of yourself. Doing this won’t make Cao Cao feel defeated!”
“Haa… haa… Whether he feels defeated or not is for big brother to decide. And don’t pretend you’re not hard as hell right now. I’m soaked. So put it in. Cover me like a starving beast…”
“No!”
“What do you mean no, you bastard!? If you won’t put it in, I will. I’ll make you come as many times as you want. You have no idea how good I am.”
“Earlier you said you’d give your first time to Cao Cao—so what do you mean ‘good’? That’s not even the point. It’s the new moon! Today is the new moon!”
“…?”
Xiahou Yuan tilted her head, completely lost. I seized the opening and shoved her off me.
My eyes were already fixed on the narrow window, not on her. The night sky outside was unnaturally dark—no moonlight at all.
Because tonight was the one night each month when the shy moon completely hid her face.
Yonghan Year 1, Early Winter — October 189
The month had turned. It was time to leave this place.