One Who Desires a Humble Wine Pool and Meat Forest?
One Who Desires a Humble Wine Pool and Meat Forest?
She stepped into the room, keeping her heavy tension in check.
There it was: a lavishly set table heaped with delicacies,
and that man.
Yuan Shu.
Her children's benefactor, who had saved them,
and the one with the strength to keep them safe.
Watching him seated with two female officers flanking him, Sun Jian bowed formally with all due courtesy.
"I, Sun Jian, have come at General Yuan's summons."
"I've been waiting. Have a seat."
"Yes, General."
Sun Jian settled into her place with demure bearing.
It was proper in such a setting for a woman to pour wine for a man, so she immediately reached for the wine bottle.
But...
"Here, have a cup."
"Pardon? Ah... yes. General."
Before she could act, Yuan Shu took up the bottle first and began pouring for her.
He was treating her less like a woman and more like a fellow officer—which was a little unexpected. Sun Jian carefully accepted the cup.
"So, how are the children? A long time spent in captivity—they must have had it hard."
"They are fine. Ce will need some time before her injuries fully recover, but Gwon-i and Hyang-i should be back to normal after a few days of rest."
"That's good to hear. It isn't my place to tell you, but take good care of them. Those children will amount to something great someday."
"Thank you for thinking so highly of them, General."
"Now, drink up. For tonight, set your worries aside and enjoy yourself."
"Yes, General."
Yuan Shu's words were full of consideration.
She knew it was a way to warm the mood before they went further, but given what lay ahead, it wasn't a bad sign.
She had come to Yuan Shu dressed in her finest, all for the sake of her children. If this man looked favorably upon them, that could only be called a good omen.
'So... is it finally... about to begin?'
Light chatter and a cup or two of wine had set the atmosphere.
A husband would normally be reaching for her by now.
Yet amidst all this, Sun Jian found one unanswered question nagging at her.
'Still... why are those two in here?'
The two female officers sat there showing no sign of leaving.
They had always stuck close to Yuan Shu, and now they were seated right alongside him, drinking in an easy, uninhibited way.
At first she'd taken them for simple guards, but their clothing and bearing were far too casual for that.
Above all, guards or not, it was awkward in every respect for them to stay at his side even in a situation where a man and a woman were about to join bodies...
'!... Ah... No... Could this be... that?'
A weighty realization abruptly struck her.
Those two were too strikingly beautiful to be dismissed as mere officers.
'Now that I think of it, I did once hear... that coupling between men and women does not always happen one-on-one...'
Those who held great power, she had heard, sometimes took three or four women—or men—and enjoyed them all at once.
Even the Wine Pool and Meat Forest that the tyrant King Zhou, last ruler of the Xia, was said to have created—wasn't it a banquet hall filled with wine and meat where countless men and women tangled naked, coupling like beasts?
And no need to go as far back as the Xia. There were rumors that right now, inside the Luoyang Imperial Palace, the Emperor himself gathered a dozen women at a time for orgies that lasted all night.
It was a lewdness like animals mating in disorder, yet it was through such debauched displays that those in power had flaunted their might and authority.
In that light, though this was modest indeed compared to those earlier examples, Sun Jian could well accept that Yuan Shu might have such tastes.
'So that was it... No wonder they've been drinking hard in attire too light for guards. These two aren't just officers—they're General Yuan's concubines... or perhaps even his wives.'
She did not know the details of Yuan Shu's family arrangements.
But from the perspective of Sun Jian, who had herself married at fourteen, a man past twenty like Yuan Shu had long since reached marriageable age. It wouldn't have been strange at all if he'd wed long ago.
And this fact...
The fact that from her very first "race"—her first joining of bodies here—she would be running alongside competitors,
began to weigh heavily on Sun Jian, who had come determined to capture Yuan Shu's heart somehow.
'But I can't give up now. For the children's sake, I must leave a deep impression on General Yuan tonight...'
Above all, she needed to firmly secure a position as a concubine, building something lasting from what for now might prove to be nothing more than a one-night diversion.
Fortunately, having borne three children, she possessed considerable veteran experience in such matters.
Through the passionate times spent with her husband, didn't she already know the ways to satisfy a man like the back of her hand?
'... I have... confidence. Haha... I really have... How did I come to think such things...'
A bitter laugh crept over her.
It had plainly begun as simply giving her body because she had no other choice, to save her children.
How had she come, in just a few days, to a place where she was contemplating "competition"?
Her own course of action was absurd to her, yet she had no intention of giving up.
Her children had returned safely, but the terror that she might have lost forever those who were dearer than her own life still had deep roots in her heart.
For the children's safety, she could endure such things as this any number of times.
"Is something troubling you? You've barely been eating since earlier. Perhaps the food does not suit your taste?"
"Hm?... Ah... Well... It's..."
Yuan Shu's sudden question.
Sun Jian forced her attention back out of those deep thoughts.
The questioning gaze of three people was now fixed on her.
Sun Jian felt flustered—she had been so tangled in her own head that she'd lost awareness of her surroundings.
"Ah... No. It's only... I was wondering when we would start...!"
The words slipped out before she could stop them.
A moment of oh-no struck her at having raised this topic first, but there was no putting those already-spilled words back.
More than that, if they were going to do this anyway, wasn't seizing the initiative herself not a bad direction?
Just as Sun Jian was forcibly collecting her composure and trying to read the others' reactions.
Yuan Shu at last spoke.
"Start?... Ah. My apologies; now that you mention it, it had slipped my mind."
'! Is he... coming?'
Yuan Shu spoke as though he'd briefly forgotten.
At this, Sun Jian swallowed dryly...
But what followed unfolded a little differently from what she had expected.
"First, this is Ji Ling—my personal guard, and my right arm, holding the rank of Colonel."
Now that she thought of it, in all the chaos she hadn't been formally introduced until this moment.
Well... since they would be mixing their bodies together on the battlefield and in bed alike—yes?—learning names was necessary.
As Sun Jian was thinking this, Ji Ling spoke in a bright, lively voice.
"Pleasure. Let's get along well from now on, rookie!"
"Yes... I'm in your care, Colonel Ji Ling."
"Get along well," was it... With that glossy brown skin, a chest even fuller than hers, and the way she kept it wrapped in hemp cloth, her sex appeal seemed to overflow at a glance.
And the fact that she remained almost excessively bright and at ease in this situation said that the person before her possessed real, formidable veteran experience.
"And this one... you'll have already exchanged greetings while she was rescuing your daughters, I imagine. This is Xu Rong, likewise holding the rank of Colonel."
"I am called Xu Rong."
"Yes, once again, you have my gratitude for that."
She still felt grateful to her as the benefactor who had saved her daughters from danger.
But, regrettably, the Sun Jian of this moment could not view the Xu Rong before her with such pure eyes alone.
Compared to Ji Ling, she seemed somewhat lacking in sex appeal and veteran experience.
But Xu Rong's appearance—her hair tied back much like Sun Jian's own, her build almost a match—was strikingly similar.
Considering how their distinctive feminine features overlapped,
Sun Jian judged Xu Rong, rather than the wholly different allure of Ji Ling, as likely to be her main rival—yes?—in this contest.
"Both of you, I will be in your care going forward."
After those brief introductions,
Sun Jian, convinced that this time the business would truly begin, watched the situation before her with her emotions held steady.
What would this man do next?
Would he strip her clothes off first? Or would he lay hands on the female officer beside him first?
Through a stretch of tension that was brief yet felt interminably long,
Yuan Shu at last spoke.
"Well... Now that introductions are done, let's get started, shall we."
"Got it! So then... how about our rookie goes first?"
'Started? What in the world is...! I-it can't be?'
At Ji Ling's words, all three sets of eyes turned toward her.
A thought flickered sharply through Sun Jian's mind.
'These people... do they intend to make me undress myself?'
Now that she recalled, her husband Wu Guotai had sometimes asked her to strip in front of him before they began.
Something about a woman disrobing being like watching a butterfly tear free of its cocoon and take wing...
She had the thought that perhaps this man, Yuan Shu, also wanted to observe her as she removed her clothes before his eyes.
The difference was that unlike her husband, who had watched it alone, he had two other women flanking him left and right.
'Bold for an initiation rite... Fine... If that's how it is, I'll play along.'
It was plain to see that Ji Ling and Xu Rong already seemed accustomed to this sort of thing.
At this, bolstered by a light tipsiness from the wine, a strange competitive fire began to stir in Sun Jian.
"Hold on, Ji Ling. Before you order her around, you have to tell her exactly what we're doing. People might think you're telling her to dance a sword dance."
"Ah, sorry... I got a little drunk without noticing... What I mean is..."
Ji Ling began to get up with those words.
At that moment.
"It's all right. I think I have the general idea."
"Hm?"
"Is that so? You caught on already?"
"I have that much sense. Well then, as you said, I shall begin first."
"Good, then let's see it."
"Yes. General."
Sun Jian rose slowly from her place with those words.
With the mild tipsiness from the wine she'd drunk earlier,
and buoyed by the "resolve" she had carried in her heart the whole way here.
She set aside her shame and began to carefully reach for the ties of her clothes.
'Fine... if that's what you want, I'll show you. The striptease of this body!'
With a practiced motion, Sun Jian began loosening the ties and folding back her clothing.
With movements at once graceful and restrained, she deftly cast off her upper garment—like a butterfly shedding its cocoon and emerging.
The upper swell of her breasts came into view,
and Yuan Shu's smile deepened at the sight of her like this.
She answered him with a deliberately composed smile of her own.
Sun Jian began to remove the top she still had on, meaning to bare her full chest.
But...
"... Huh?"