Women Looking for an Opening
Women Looking for an Opening
... Gulp...
"S-so... what then? Wh-what happened after that?..."
"Well... and then..."
Xu Rong and Sun Jian, both serving as Yuan Shu's subordinates and honored guests residing together in his estate.
Watching them lean forward with eager eyes was none other than the newly installed mistress of the Yuan household.
Dong Zhuo carefully continued sharing the tale of her experiences over the past several days, surrounded by the envious, captivated attention of the other women present.
An intense time filled with countless fainting spells and awakenings amid maddening pleasure.
Recalling moments when she was nearly crushed to death by the collision of agony and bliss, Dong Zhuo continued speaking with a slightly flushed face.
"So... in the end, I was seized by a fear I couldn't even put a name to and started begging, which brought the whole situation to a halt."
She sounded dejected. Her gaze then shifted to Sun Jian, seated before her.
"Hmm... so that's the whole story... um... what do you think? I have heard that a wife has a duty to thoroughly satisfy her husband, but the way things are going, it feels like there might be a problem..."
Among the three, Sun Jian was the only one who had been married and even had the experience of giving birth three times. Though now a widow, she naturally possessed far more experience and knowledge about such matters (?) than Dong Zhuo or anyone else.
Dong Zhuo was now seeking Sun Jian's counsel about her marital duties, which had recently begun to feel overwhelming.
Given her usually haughty nature and her newly elevated status as mistress of the house, the way she humbled herself to ask for help was enough to make not only Sun Jian but even the inexperienced Xu Rong sitting awkwardly with them grasp the gravity of the situation.
"Hmm... this is a difficult subject for me to address directly, but I have heard that while a man feels profoundly shamed if he perceives weakness in himself during the marital act, the opposite case—a wife finding herself overwhelmed—is generally considered a good thing. Shouldn't you take it in a positive light?"
"Xu Rong, you are not wrong... but even so, I feel this is simply too extreme. That is exactly why I sought advice. So, Sun Jian, how was it for you? Was your husband equally unbearable?"
"Ahem... well... there were certainly times I found it hard. However, men are like fire by nature. When they blaze, they blaze with reckless abandon, but once extinguished, they can become unreasonably quiet no matter how you try to rekindle them. In that sense, I believe you should watch and wait a little longer."
"Is-is that so? Hmm... I suppose you're right... it's only been a week, after all..."
Dong Zhuo reluctantly nodded in agreement with Sun Jian's assessment that it was still too early to draw any conclusions.
There were certainly stories where the flames burned more fiercely during the early days of a newlywed couple. They ultimately decided to endure the hardship a while longer, however difficult it might be.
But in that moment, Dong Zhuo, absorbed in her own concerns, failed to notice something.
She missed the sight of Sun Jian, whose face was flushed with an indescribable expression as she listened to those stories.
*
'Gulp...'
Even as she strove to answer Dong Zhuo's question, Sun Jian kept her face flushed and swallowed hard.
The story she had just heard from Dong Zhuo was intended as a plea for help from someone lacking in experience and knowledge. However, for the 'experienced' Sun Jian, this narrative was vivid enough to deliver a far more profound shock than it likely did for anyone else.
As a woman who had served a husband, she knew in her own way how the union of man and woman unfolded.
And at the same time, she also knew that what Dong Zhuo had just described was drastically beyond any normal threshold.
'This is insane... it was the size of a dagger? A-and without any special aphrodisiacs, they repeatedly engaged in relations straight through the night several times? What in the world...'
She knew well how formidable male lust directed toward a woman could be. Hadn't she heard the saying that a man will pursue a woman the very moment he has enough strength to lift his spoon?
Indeed, her late husband had been no different. Many were the times when the simple spark of her hiking her skirt a little sent him into a mindless, raging inferno as he embraced her.
Having three children at this young age was no mere coincidence.
Yet even her husband had operated within a certain 'range.' No matter how intense the lure of a woman, maintaining relations for longer than a single double-hour was never easy, and even that required considerable effort in what one might call foreplay.
In fact, continuing consecutively after one exhausting bout required a mandatory respite of some length.
In that context, this newlywed tale Dong Zhuo recounted about Yuan Shu...
was more than enough to make Sun Jian wonder if the man was some kind of monster straight out of a historical record.
'The Qin Dynasty had that man Lao Ai who was terrifyingly endowed... could General Yuan really be...?'
Of course, coming from Dong Zhuo, who was a complete novice in these matters, there was likely a fair degree of embellishment, but she still couldn't shake the thought: 'Wait, but is it really true?'
And such a realization gave Sun Jian—who secretly counted herself among those aspiring to become Yuan Shu's wife—considerable food for thought on several levels.
On a simple level, there was a curious anticipation: if she truly joined him in bed, would the experience be beyond all imagination?
And viewing the situation with a cooler (?) eye, Yuan Shu's staggering stamina made it highly likely that he would soon create the very 'opening' she desired.
Legally speaking, there was no problem with taking multiple principal wives and concubines, but that only meant it was 'permissible.'
In practice, her late husband had never dared even to think of bringing in a concubine when faced with Sun Jian's own force of personality.
Of course, that was partly because their mutual affection was strong, and more importantly, because Sun Jian could thoroughly handle... no, to be blunt, wring every drop of desire out of him.
In any case, adding consorts beyond the first wife was a matter practically impossible without the permission of the one installed as Principal Wife.
But women, by nature, are never keen to let go of a man they've once embraced. Thus, Dong Zhuo's lamentation constituted a form of admission, acknowledging that her own power alone truly could not fully contain that man.
'I had been considering a political approach... but this might make things resolve much more easily.'
As Empress Dowager He had remarked, Yuan Shu's standing had objectively grown too large for Dong Zhuo alone to possess.
And if Dong Zhuo herself was struggling to handle this husband... then the door toward installing yet another wife could be considered officially beginning to open.
'Either way... this situation is working out favorably for us.'
With her greatest concern unexpectedly resolved, Sun Jian felt relieved... or perhaps not quite relieved. Still, the glimmer of a solution drew a quiet smile from her. She would have to discuss the details with Empress Dowager He.
While carefully stroking her lower belly, which had been starving ever since her husband's death...
*
"Strike them down!"
"Annihilate these thrice-damned government troops and rebuild the Great Enterprise of the Yellow Turban!"
"The Azure Heaven Is Dead; the Yellow Heaven Shall Rise!"
Countless enemies filled the view ahead.
As she watched the foes swarm forward like an endless column of ants, their ubiquitous yellow headbands bobbing, her lips gradually curled into a cool smile.
Cao Cao, General Who Conquers the East.
Immediately after Yuan Shu's wedding ceremony concluded, Cao Cao had departed, leading her troops straight toward this place, Qing Province, one of her command posts.
Some assumed she had hurried away out of heartbreak, seeing the man she cherished marry another woman.
Yet at this very moment, Cao Cao's own heart brimmed with profound joy.
'Everything is flowing perfectly... without a single deviation.'
Yuan Shu had finally become a woman's husband.
To suit Cao Cao's own secret taste, which she could never disclose to others, this signified that he had begun to slowly 'ripen.'
Ripen to suit her preference for fully mellowed fruit rather than fresh new growth.
But that fruit still needed some time to reach full ripeness. Moreover, Cao Cao fully understood that plucking it decisively required her own qualifications to become worthy of the prize.
At the very least, she needed a status and fame that did not fall short of what Dong Zhuo possessed, didn't she?
Within that framework, these Yellow Turban remnants now rushing toward her were not just targets to clean up. They were stepping stones for her own growth.
Stepping stones to swell her still-lacking forces and spread her military fame far and wide.
Exuding a presence like a predator sizing up its prey, Cao Cao issued an icy command to Xiahou Dun standing beside her.
"Begin."
"Yes, my lord. First line, advance!"
A unit of soldiers began marching forward according to Xiahou Dun's order. With the front entirely covered by stout shields, they advanced steadily toward the charging Yellow Turbans like a living wall.
"Blast! You bastards! Break! Break through, I said!"
"Urgh... they're not budging! Don't just stand there gaping, push harder!"
The Yellow Turbans struggled desperately to breach the shield formation. But lacking even basic training and armed with crude, pitiful weapons, they had no way to penetrate the tight defensive square of heavily armored elite troops.
They had stirred up trouble throughout Qing Province and gathered some combat experience, but this was their first real fight against a proper regular army.
The Yellow Turbans were just beginning to falter against the enemy's ironclad defense when it happened.
"Kwaaagh!"
"Guooorgh!"
Screams suddenly erupted from their rear lines. Thousands of armored cavalry had burst from some hidden position and were now butchering their yellow-headbanded comrades.
"Wh-what?"
"Those... those bastards! Where did they suddenly come from?!"
A completely unexpected ambush. Struck from behind while mindlessly pushing forward, the Yellow Turbans instantly plunged into chaos, losing all sense of direction.
Without a proper command structure or competent officers, such confusion inevitably led to the utter collapse of a fighting force. And at that very moment, Cao Cao's subordinates began driving in the final wedge.
"Those who surrender will be spared!"
"If you want to live, throw down your weapons and capitulate!"
Morale crushed and ranks shattered, the voices sounded like lifelines. Though they mouthed slogans about the Yellow Turban cause, in reality they were little more than bandits. The moment they saw a path to survival, they turned traitor without a shred of hesitation.
"P-please let me live!"
"Su-surrender! I surrender! Just... please, spare our lives!"
That was how the Yellow Turban horde, despite its absurdly inflated numbers of hundreds of thousands, collapsed in spectacular futility. Cao Cao took them prisoner, repatriating some peacefully to their native villages while drafting those who showed some combat ability into her own subordinate units.
The Qing Province Yellow Turbans, now being reorganized from a simple bandit mob into a disciplined regular force—as Cao Cao watched this so-called 'Qing Province Army' begin to take formidable shape, a single thought surfaced in her mind.
'Things here are now stable enough. I can finally send for sire.'