Peach Blossom (桃花) (3)
In the original history, Liu Bei's forces knew that Cao Bao was a disloyal element who rejected their new rule, but they never did manage to purge him.
The commander of the Danyang Troops.
The second-in-command of Tao Qian's army.
A member of a local gentry clan from Xiapi Kingdom that wielded enormous influence.
Purge a magnate like that hastily and you'd face catastrophic blowback.
Cao Bao was placed under orders to keep the Danyang officers and men who were loyal to him under close surveillance. And to prevent the officers from Tao Qian's army from doing anything rash, military forces were concentrated around Pengcheng.
"You're telling me they beat him within an inch of his life... turned him into a living corpse?"
"My apologies! I will take responsibility! Punish me however you see fit!"
A pack of Danyang nobodies had dared to insult the eldest sister.
The youngest sister, possessed of both fierce devotion to her sisters and a reckless temperament, immediately assaulted Cao Bao and beat him until his whole body was a tattered ruin.
There were no filthy outbursts of desire, unlike those soldiers who used to revel in being lashed with insults by a slender, beautiful woman, begging, "Make me your boar, Lady Yide!" or "I am the ringleader! Trample me ruthlessly!"
Cao Bao, unfortunately, possessed a normal disposition.
As did the Danyang officers and men.
General of Valiant Cavalry.
By rank, Cao Bao was the superior officer.
Zhang Fei's belligerent resolve amounted to insubordination and assault upon a superior. Cao Bao, beaten to a rag, and the Danyang officers and men were raging, demanding Zhang Fei face punishment at once.
"Forgive me for saying this, but Liu Bei's forces always bring trouble with them. If you truly wished to exact vengeance on General of Valiant Cavalry Cao Bao and the Danyang officers, there would have been a wiser way to go about it."
"...I can only offer my deepest apologies."
Zhang Fei, the Governor of Langya, was placed in confinement.
And Colonel of Valiant Cavalry Cao Bao was ordered confined to quarters.
It was only a stopgap.
By tomorrow, punishment for the insubordination would have to be announced.
"Naturally, the true instigators of this are Cao Bao and the Danyang officers who insulted Liu Bei... but if I place all the blame squarely on Cao Bao and his subordinates and give Zhang Fei only a light reprimand, we will face fierce backlash and outrage. The officers from Tao Qian's army are loyal to Cao Bao. And the many local gentry of Xu Province will not sit idly by either."
"..."
How.
How should I handle this.
In the end, the only way is to force it through.
"I shall have a plan ready by tomorrow. You have worked hard today, Governor of Xiapi. You must be exhausted; return to your residence and rest."
"No, my younger sister's mischief has caused Your Highness the Crown Prince such distress. How could I shamelessly rest in comfort? I wish to remain at Your Highness's side."
"You have a strong sense of responsibility. And a stubborn streak to match."
"Nngh...!"
I said it in a tone laced with teasing.
At that, the face of the beautiful woman with flowing black hair flushed red.
* * *
Would she help me with the overtime, then?
Guan Yu accepted Liu Seong-hwi's request without hesitation.
"Are all of those bamboo slips piled on the desk... the tasks that had to be dealt with today?"
"They are."
Liu Seong-hwi was a man of playful and free-spirited character, yet he adhered to a thoroughness that never postponed his own duties and role. The reason a man like him was working a mountain of backlogged business as overtime was surely because of the regrettable incident that had occurred today.
An incident.
Her youngest sister had caused trouble.
She had debts of gratitude to repay,
debts she had accepted so shamelessly all this time...
The beautiful woman ran her fingers through her own lustrous hair, tangling it, revealing her complicated feelings. And with eyes filled with regret, she quietly gazed at Liu Seong-hwi as he focused on his work.
"..."
"Is there something you wish to say? You're staring at me openly."
"Ah, it is nothing!"
"Is that so."
Indeed, the Greatest Archer Under Heaven.
His intuition, honed in real combat, was sharper than an arrowhead.
He perceived, from mere presence, the glances she was stealing at him.
Guan Yu gave a startled reaction and let out a series of dry coughs. She even looked anxious that perhaps he had discovered her agony and the secret worries gnawing at her heart.
"What, precisely, is your relationship with my elder sister?"
"For now... lovers. I would call us lovers. Yes, lovers, probably."
She had committed the discourtesy of inquiring directly into his private relationships.
It was an unthinking question,
one that had passed through neither mind nor filter.
She did not know the reason.
Was it because they were alone together in the dim light of the office at dawn?
Ordinarily she would have cited propriety and protocol and concealed her true feelings as much as possible. But the moment she realized she was alone with the man toward whom she had lately begun to feel a deep, significant pull, her speech and conduct grew unconsciously bold.
"I... see..."
"..."
He was her elder sister's lover.
It was clearly a happy occasion, something to be glad about.
Her beloved eldest sister.
And the Crown Prince, the object of her respect and loyalty.
They were a handsome pair who would make a superb match.
Even if they were close kin of the same clan and surname.
There would be many twists and turns before they celebrated a formal wedding, but if Liu Seong-hwi someday achieved the great task of unifying the realm, he would be able to push through a marriage of close kin between cadet branches of the imperial clan.
"I have always wished to repay the favor. How might I repay the favor and trust of the Crown Prince, who took us in, who bestowed upon us significant offices and duties... I have agonized, and agonized again. For Your Highness is the only one who believed in the true worth of us Sworn Sisters when we were drifting as a vagrant force and entrusted us with important roles."
"That is excessive flattery."
Her black hair, cascading beautifully like the night sky.
And her milk-white skin, in stark contrast.
A woman of vivid beauty and charm was trembling, her shoulders quivering like a rabbit soaked in a sudden shower. In particular, the contrast between her cute, maidenly face and the svelte, alluring body that rose so lithely captured a man's heart.
I stroked her trembling cheek.
The black-haired beauty flinched and quivered but did not refuse.
She did not dislike it.
She wanted to be touched more.
As if responding to the rough hand stroking her cheek, she slowly bowed her head and clung to the touch.
"You may touch me more... No, you may touch me as you please..."
"Did you perhaps come here on purpose to seduce me? It looks like a deliberate design."
"All a mere military brute such as I can offer the Crown Prince as repayment... is, with this lewdly cultivated body, to pleasure Your Highness for a little while. That would be the sum of it."
"You are lewd, I'll grant you."
Her heavy breasts were in no way inferior to those of her eldest sister, Liu Bei.
A waist made taut and narrow by horsemanship.
Wide, childbearing hips, and a buttock so full that its contours showed even beneath her skirt.
She was a cool-headed heroine of blunt personality who valued principle and military discipline, and simultaneously, her perversely lewd figure—fit for a dancer or a courtesan seducing men in the back alleys—came across as a fatally attractive discord.
"A frivolous, lewd woman who seduces him without any backbone... does this displease you?"
"No, on the contrary, I like it."
Just as Liu Seong-hwi had placidly accepted Liu Bei when she had swayed her ample breasts and seduced him, he was not a man of such formidable patience that he would refuse a female who threw herself entirely into seducing him with a fatal, alluring lewdness.
Patience?
His bent was rather strongly impulsive.
He did not refuse any woman who came to him.
If she was a beauty who boasted the looks to topple a kingdom, he was so honest with his instincts and impulses that he would welcome her with both hands.
"...Your Highness?"
"You say you want to pleasure me. I would like to see if you have the resolve to match."
First, take off your clothes, lewdly.
Liu Seong-hwi gave the command as he slowly stroked her shoulders.
The rough grip that had been kneading her shoulders descended slowly, trailing down her spine. Every time she felt the touch transmitted through her clothing, her breathing grew more ragged, as if he were touching an erogenous zone.
"This is the first time I have been in such a situation, so I do not quite know how to proceed... but I will do my utmost, so that Your Highness may be pleased as much as possible."
Shh-whisper.
With trembling fingers, she untied the knots.
Then she shed her outer garment, now unfastened, and let it fall to the floor.
One piece,
slowly, one piece at a time, she removed them.
With each piece of clothing that fell to the floor, more of her pale white skin was bared.
She unwound the Chest Wrap that had been supporting her full breasts. As the pressure released, the enormous breasts swung up and down, wobbling, revealing themselves.
"...Ngh!"
She was ashamed.
A flood of shame surged in, enough to make her resolute determination seem foolish.
Her eldest sister's lover.
The lord to whom her eldest sister pledged loyalty was watching her.
Liu Seong-hwi's gaze swept over her whole body, as if appraising a beautiful sculpture. The moment Guan Yu let the undergarment that had compressed her full breasts fall to the floor, she covered her pretty pink nipples tightly with both hands.
"I will... remove the rest as well, uh..."
"No, let me remove the lower half. Bend over and hold onto the cloth covering the window."
There was no reason to refuse the command.
After all, this was something she wanted, to offer up her lewd body of her own will.
She bent over beneath the window.
And so that the Crown Prince might conveniently remove her skirt, she slowly raised her hips.
She was ashamed.
Her heart felt as though it might burst.
Bent over on the floor and thrusting out her buttocks, begging a man to strip off her lower garments like a bitch in heat. Even the whores in the brothels, who satisfy men for their wages, would not stoop to such depraved behavior.
Before she was a renowned commander of the age, she was merely a lewd female.
Guan Yu felt her whole body burn hot at the harsh command Liu Seong-hwi had given her.
"Hnng!"
His thick palm stroked her rear, thrust straight back.
At the same time, coarse fingers poked and prodded at her perineum, which was expelling ferocious heat.
"Th-there... not there! That place is unclean...!"
Squelch-!
The peerless beauty, her lustrous black hair tumbling all the way down to her buttocks, cried out in shame as she lay sprawled like a dog. But as if she, a lewd female, would be given no quarter, he toyed with the erogenous zone that was brimming with honey.