Sunset ^beta

Shouting at her husband was never satisfying, usually embarrassing, and yet was the only way Yin Binwan could seem to get anything done around here. Every time she did, she felt her reputation as a cultivator and politician in her own right wither away and die just a little more. Today had been especially catastrophic; her boor of a husband had brought a whore into the dining hall at lunch, sitting her on his lap for all the world to see. This was clearly an embarrassment for the entire clan, and yet it had been left to her to correct him, again in public, again ignored when she raised the issue in a whisper to avoid public scrutiny.

Binwan rubbed her eyes as she was undressed and readied for the evening in her rooms. She still had a route to maintaining respectability: the children. She had spent her time as Jin-furen raising her son to be the opposite of his pig of a father, worthy of inheriting the leadership of the Jin clan. Ziyuan-shijie had raised her daughter with the same aim. The only thing left to do was to preserve their engagement and train them to complement each other. Their personalities were nicely matched, although she would have to work on her boy’s stiffness and dedication to strict adherence to social hierarchy; where he had gotten the idea that women were so below him in it, she had a strong idea. She would break him of this, and he and Jiang Yanli would be perfectly matched.

She summoned shijie’s a-Li for the first night of this training.

Binwan dismissed the servants as a-Li walked into her suite. The girl was a pretty little doll, her heart-shaped face the spitting image of her mother’s, though it was said her cultivation left much to be desired – not a problem in the Jin sect, who preferred their women dainty and weak, Binwan knew all too well. Her manners were impeccable, her work ethic strong. She would make a good wife for her son, a good daughter to her. Binwan’s taste in this, as in all things, was impeccable. She just needed a little training.

She took Yanli’s hands and led her to sit with her on the small sofa. “A-Li,” she said, “I will ask you just once, and I will rely on your word.” Yanli’s peach-blossom eyes looked up into hers, and oh, Ziyuan-shijie had never looked up at her—never mind. “Child, are you a virgin?”

A-Li blushed and looked down, her long dark eyelashes setting against rose-petal cheeks, her hands tightening in their grip on hers. “Yes, Jin-furen,” she said firmly. So unlike her mother in actions; so like her in words and voice. Binwan felt electricity down her spine. She clamped it down.

“You are going to be married to my Zixuan before long,” she said, running her thumbs along a-Li’s fingers as a comfort. “You may call me Mother.” She smiled encouragingly.

“Yes, Mother,” a-Li parroted back, ever the polite young lady.

“Good girl,” Binwan said, letting praise drop from her lips like nectar. She watched carefully as a-Li breathed deeply at this, her lips slightly open. She was a natural seductress in her innocence, this girl. She was the perfect raw material to mold into the perfect gift for her son.

“Now, a-Li, you are a smart girl,” she said softly. “You will be a good wife for Zixuan. And you do want to please him, don’t you?”

“Yes, Mother,” a-Li replied.

Binwan slowly unfurled one of a-Li’s hands, taking it in both of hers. “Let me teach you what your mother taught me, a-Li.” She heard a-Li’s breath catch again. “Any harlot off the street can please a man with her beauty; it takes a lady to please him with her mind. You must capture his five senses. First, touch.” She dragged her fingertips lightly down a-Li’s palm and thumb to drive the point. “Soft, elegant, fleeting, leaving him grasping.” A-Li looked down at their joined hands, eyes following Binwan’s touch. Good; she was learning.

“Second: scent,” Binwan said, now caressing a-Li’s index finger. “The distinct perfume of a lady, the scent of her designed to draw in her husband. Flowers; fruit; fragrances pleasing to both his mind and his body.” A-Li’s breaths were becoming shallow and ragged, her perky breasts moving up and down within the fabric of her robe. The faint impression of erect nipples was beginning to emerge through the pale cloth.

Binwan tore her eyes away. “Sound,” she said, continuing onto a-Li’s middle finger, bare and naked as her mother’s had never been. Binwan wanted to lick it, do what Ziyuan-shijie had never let her do. She delicately ran a nail up the finger to the wrist. “Your voice sticking in his mind, firm and feminine; your laugh, clear and delicate as the spirit bell you wear at your hip.” Binwan slowly removed one hand down to touch that bell for emphasis, as a-Li’s eyes widened and her breaths grew shorter.

“Mother—” a-Li said, her voice high. Binwan waited, holding a-Li’s gaze. When a-Li didn’t continue, Binwan did.

“Sight,” she said, “not only your beauty, my child, but your gaze. A look that lingers, promises, commands him to you.” Binwan watched a-Li’s face, her wide eyes, then her mouth, her perfect lips open in a little “o,” little breaths escaping. She looked just like the Ziyuan-shijie of Binwan’s wildest dreams, waiting to be taken. Binwan licked her lips staring at that little mouth.

“Go on, Mother,” a-Li whispered in a high, breathless voice.

“Taste,” Binwan breathed, and slowly closed the inches between them. She kissed the girl, licking her the rest of the way open, showing her what to do. A-Li kissed back as though by instinct, rising into her, gasping, chasing even as Binwan pulled back.

“Smart girl,” Binwan purred, watching a-Li’s heavy breathing, her wide eyes. “What a quick learner you are. I knew your mother raised you well.” She watched as a-Li shivered and let out a gasp.

“Your daughter may need more lessons,” a-Li breathed, then looked surprised. Impishness had come easily to Ziyuan-shijie when they were girls, and it seemed a-Li had the capacity even if Ziyuan-shijie had not encouraged it in her daughter. It electrified Binwan, seeing Ziyuan-shijie rise to the surface in this girl. She could not refuse her.

“Very well,” she said, and kissed her again, pressing into her as a man does. She exhilarated as a-Li pressed back, hands searching for her face. Binwan held her by the waist, steadying her; as a-Li’s body rubbed against hers, one hand moved to cup the back of her skull, clutching her hair. A-Li moaned “Mother” and “yes, yes” for her as Binwan’s teeth scraped against her bottom lip, whimpered when her hair was lightly pulled; responsive, just as one should be with a man, with only instinct as her guide. In some ways she was truly her mother’s daughter, but in this she was different; Ziyuan-shijie had never been demonstrative in this way, instead upping the ante, harder faster fiercer. She had liked the way her shimei had demonstrated her ardor, gasping her name as they moved with each other.

This time as Binwan pulled away, they were both breathing heavily, their outer robes in disarray. A-Li’s hair was mussed, falling out of its style as pins were disrupted, just as Ziyuan-shijie’s used to. Binwan felt her pulse jump as she thought for a second that the Ziyuan-shijie in front of her would grin and push her down and open her legs just as she did when they were girls. This Ziyuan-shijie, however, did not; instead, a-Li reached up to try to fix her hair.

“Let me,” Binwan said maternally, steadying a-Li by the shoulders. She plucked out the hairpins, letting her hair fall. “There we are, my dear,” she said. She rose and took one of a-Li’s hands in hers once again, raising her up to stand. “Now, I believe it is time to go to bed. I will have you here tomorrow for another lesson.”

A-Li bowed, and Binwan pressed her hairpins into her palm. As a-Li left, Binwan was filled with both the moment just lived and times long past, her long lonely spell without the touch of her best friend and lover. She retrieved a small box with a rounded jade obelisk, given to her by Ziyuan-shijie now two decades ago, and a note which read “Think only of me.” Until now, she had always honored this command when she was alone in her quarters, thoughts of her lover’s body and touch all-consuming as tried to work herself into the state Ziyuan-shijie could achieve. The jade held her shijie’s spiritual energy, coursing through her like Zidian, electric and powerful.

Now, however, fantasies and memories of Ziyuan-shijie were mixed with her daughter, with the submissiveness and delicacy and youthful eagerness of the girl she was bringing into her family. As Binwan climaxed, she thought of how it would look for her to bring Ziyuan-shijie to this point of pleasure, to watch for once instead of being watched, to be the cause rather than the effect, and how she might yet see it in little a-Li’s peach-blossom eyes and delicate skin.

--

Ziyuan-shijie was visiting home when Binwan’s engagement to Jin Guangshan, the First Young Master of the Lanling Jin clan, was announced, in her nineteenth summer. “He’s a dog,” she warned. “He’ll fuck anything and anyone; no class whatsoever.”

Binwan lazed on the sofa in her room, her robes slumped around her shoulders, opened indecently in the summer heat. She batted her eyes at her shijie, feigning innocence. “Then he’ll have more experience than Fengmian-xiong, won’t he?” She shrugged, letting her robes dip further down, exposing more of her voluptuous chest.

As expected, Ziyuan-shijie rolled her eyes. “A child would be more experienced than Fengmian,” she complained, as she had countless times before in her letters. “One would think his time ‘adventuring’ with that slut Cangse would have taught him something, but she must have been a virgin or something.”

“Like me?” Binwan teased, loosening her robes again. “Ziyuan-shijie is so cruel, claiming a virgin can’t know what she likes.” She smirked as she leaned forward, watching Ziyuan’s eyes snap to her breasts bouncing with the movement. “Or will Ziyuan-shijie show her shimei what it is to be a virgin?”

Ziyuan made a little growling sound in her throat as she stalked forward, like a tiger in the grass. She always moved like a predator, lithe and exact. She snatched up Binwan like prey, like a princess, like something to eat and something to protect.

“You think you’re a virgin?” she asked, nipping Binwan’s neck, walking her to the bed.

“I’ve never been with a man before,” Binwan said with faux innocence, playfully riling up her shijie. “I wouldn’t know what to do with a man’s touch.”

Ziyuan-shijie dropped her onto the bed, a little rougher than was called for in Binwan’s opinion. “Let me teach you,” she said in a low, husky voice. She opened Binwan’s robes. “A man is impatient,” she said, casting them aside without looking to see where they were going. Still fully clothed herself, Ziyuan-shijie lowered herself over Binwan’s naked body and kissed her roughly, biting her lip as Binwan clutched at her, grabbing a fistful of hair. Her tongue rolled against Binwan’s palate, capturing her moans before they could escape.

Ziyuan broke the kiss, rising up. “A man is rough,” she said, then abruptly came down again, nipping and licking at Binwan’s neck as Binwan whimpered and gasped. At the clavicle, she bit down with spiritual energy and Binwan arched her back, the pain and the pleasure coursing through her like Zidian’s electricity through her veins.

“And worst of all, shimei,” Ziyuan-shijie said, her husky voice bitter, “they don’t know what this is.” Ziyuan-shijie reached down to Binwan’s vulva with the elegance and precision that comes from years of practice and stroked her clitoris with her thumb, listening to Binwan moan her name before infusing it with spiritual energy just as Binwan began to orgasm. Blinding ecstasy overtook Binwan’s senses as she took in Ziyuan-shijie’s spiritual power, merging it into her own golden core.

When she returned to herself, Ziyuan-shijie was gone, leaving her alone with her lust and the nagging feeling that something was not quite right between them.

--

The last time she had a-Li in to learn to kiss, the girl’s eyes had been hot with lust and need, her hips rocking against Binwan’s with urgency and desire. It would be cruel to deny her. She was ready for the next lesson.

“You are ready,” she told the girl standing before her, “for the next lesson.” She stood, taking a-Li’s face in her hands. “You are doing so well, child; you are a very quick learner!”

“Thank you, Mother,” a-Li said, so sweetly, a smile on her lips. She was adorable, which Ziyuan-shijie had never been interested in being. She had the impulse to kiss the girl then and there, to lick and bite her and make her scream—but then, she would not learn that way. Lessons must be taught, so she must narrate.

“To seduce Zixuan is only the first step. Now, a-Li, let me teach you how to please him, how to make him come to you again and again, as your mother taught me.

“The first lesson is: men are impatient. When he comes to your chambers, wear only a single robe, or nothing at all.” Binwan let her fingers trail down a-Li’s robes, pulling gently at the knots that held them together. “A man does not know or care how to undo you gently like I do, so make it easy for him.” When a-Li was down to her innermost robe, Binwan nodded approvingly. “This is good for your everyday, a-Li, but wear something prettier on special occasions. I have a Meishan brocade given to me by your mother many years ago that will suit you nicely.”

A-Li blushed at this, the silly girl. “Mother, I couldn’t possibly accept—”

“Nonsense,” Binwan said firmly. “You are family, not a charity case, and there is nothing shameful about accepting gifts from family. Now, a-Li, men are impatient; do not try derail your husband from his objective.”

A-Li bowed her head, ceding the point. A flurry of arousal rushed through Binwan; she had never been able to out-talk Ziyuan-shijie. The power was heady. She placed a single elegant finger under a-Li’s chin, lifting it up so the child would look at her.

“The other lesson your mother taught me,” Binwan continued, “is that men are rough. Your husband will not know how to love you. He might accidentally hurt you. You must teach him how to love you in a way that will please him best, without hurting you.”

She patted a-Li’s cheek. “Now be a good girl and sit on the bed for me.”

Binwan watched as the girl sat on the edge, waiting for her, watching. Instead of going directly to her, she turned to the dresser, where her little box sat. She opened it and removed the jade obelisk, placing it on the dresser. A-Li’s eyes grew dark, her breaths heavier, just from seeing it. Good; she knew what she was looking at.

Binwan approached the bed and pulled a-Li’s knees apart, reveling in the shocked gasp of the girl. “Now, your husband might want to enter you directly,” she said, watching as a-Li’s breathing grew labored with just one touch. “If you can, redirect him. You are not loose enough, yet; it will be painful. Ask him to kiss you.

“Kiss me, Mother,” a-Li breathed.

Binwan leaned down and obliged, pushing a-Li into the mattress. She kissed and licked her lips, the inside of her mouth, as a-Li leaned up into her touch, just as she had leaned into Ziyuan-shijie’s so many times.

After a-Li’s first moan, Binwan rose and reached down to check on her progress, to see if a-Li was ready to be entered. A-Li shuddered and gasped at the light touch.

“You’re doing so well, darling,” she told her. “You’re learning very quickly.” She brushed her thumb against a-Li’s labia, stopping just short of her clitoris, as Ziyuan-shijie used to do to tease her.

“Mother,” she gasped, her hips rolling up into the touch.

“Does this feel good, a-Li?” Binwan asked. As a-Li moaned her yes, Binwan rubbed her clitoris. “Make sure you remember where this is, a-Li. This is where pleasure comes from,” she said, watching the girl writhe on her bed, listening to her call her “mother;” the memories from this moment merging with fantasies of what she and Yu Ziyuan could have done with each other if they could have been young forever.

She ghosted a kiss over the girl’s clitoris as she climaxed, an act of tenderness Ziyuan-shijie had done for her the first time. As it shuddered to an end, she gently moved her as a mother would into the bed more properly and tucked her in as she began to fall asleep, letting the girl cling to her in her post-coital haze. She had promised Ziyuan that she would take care of her daughter; this was the least she could do.

--

The last time Ziyuan-shijie had visited Yin Binwan at Koi Tower, they had been together on her husband’s bed. On clean sheets, of course – Binwan had no intention of contracting a disease.

The good-for-nothing son-of-a-bitch had one of his bastards try to one-up her son on his birthday, asking for some favor for his whore mother. His flight down the stairs had been the talk of the town, overcasting Zixuan’s ascent up the ladder to manhood. The same night, he had bought even more whores, carousing until dawn without a care in the world or a thought to his son or wife.

Ziyuan-shijie was already at Lanling, a guest for the celebrations on behalf of the Jiang sect. It was the first visit in years that she had conducted without her fool of a husband puttering about; she practically ran the sect, as far as Binwan could tell, but she needed him along to give male approval to everything she said. It was infuriating.

She had her servants bathe her and perfume her with spider-lilies, to remind Ziyuan-shijie of their girlhood together in Meishan. She had them dress her hair in a simple, elegant style that would come apart with the removal of a single hairpin; she had them dress her in the brocade her shijie had given her as a wedding gift, wrapped tightly around the waist but draped low across her chest. Then, allowing them to think her foolish enough to want to be touched by her pig of a husband, she dismissed them and summoned Ziyuan-shijie with a butterfly.

Fifth floor, second from the left of the staircase; come to me, shijie.

It seemed to take an age for Ziyuan to come find her. When she arrived, she took in the sight of Binwan so provocatively dressed, the giant bed freshly made, and smirked.

“Shimei,” she purred, Zidian sparking on her fingers.

Slowly she stalked toward her waiting prey, Binwan already breathing more heavily in anticipation. When she finally approached, she took her time slowly peeling the brocade, unwrapping Binwan like a deeply anticipated gift. Silently, she unpinned her hair, watching as it fell in waves along her shoulders.

Then she pounced.

They kissed like they would never kiss again, grasping and aching, pulling each other’s hair and biting each other’s tongues, desperate for a touch too long denied. Zidian crackled between them as they poured their spiritual energy into each other’s mouths, falling onto the bed, rolling into one another. Binwan pulled at Ziyuan-shijie’s belt, yearning for her bare skin. When it gave, Ziyuan’s breasts fell against hers, cloth giving way to flesh. Ziyuan pulled their hips together as Binwan moaned her name, gasping with each roll.

They were in sync in a way that had never been, even as girls together. After learning of the world, they returned more compatible than ever, their cultivation stronger.

As Binwan began to climax, she felt Ziyuan-shijie’s hand move from her sternum to her vulva, down to her vagina, stroking and massaging her until all she could think of was her touch, how ecstatic it was, how Zidian crackled against her and inside her.

As she came down, she looked up at Ziyuan-shijie with lidded eyes. “My turn,” she said softly, her sect madam voice abandoning her; she sounded to her own ears as though she were still sixteen. Ziyuan kissed her deeply.

Then she rose, retied her belt, and left Binwan on the bed alone, naked and smelling of Meishan and electricity.

She sat there longer than she should have. When her husband came to his room and asked disinterestedly whether she’d finally loosened up and gotten a man to fuck her or if she was still a frigid bitch, she was nearly glad to have an outlet for the anger she felt at being left there to begin with.

--

Her idiot of a son had nearly ruined everything, all over some stupid teenaged drama to defend the honor of a kitchen servant. Yin Binwan closed her eyes as she heard the news, so as not to show them rolling into the back of her head. A-Li had not come to her quarters last night; apparently, she had been cloistered by her brother and his head disciple, the latter of whom had threatened to fight Zixuan over her honor. The son of Cangse-sanren, no less. If any mere disciple could beat out the heir of the Jin on lineage, it would be her whelp. Nearly the first act of the brother as Jiang-zongzhu was to cancel the engagement.

Her son was in many ways the opposite of his father: honorable, handsome, valorous. He was also his opposite in being both stubborn and far too chivalrous for his own good.

Tonight she wouldn’t bring up the idiot boy at all, and she would persuade a-Li to take the engagement back up for her dear late mother’s sake.

She rapped twice on a-Li’s door before opening it, half-expecting the delicate flower of a girl to be weeping pretty tears over the ordeal. Instead, she found her busily sewing, apparently mending one of her or her brother’s Jiang purple garments.

“That industriousness comes from your mother,” Binwan said approvingly. A-Li jumped, apparently startled. “In Meishan, we had no time for tears while work needed doing.” She took the fabric from a-Li’s hands to examine the stitching. It was neat, with the beginnings of embroidery along the mended seam; this robe would be even more beautiful than it was before when the girl was done with it.

“This does you credit, daughter,” Binwan said with satisfaction. She smiled as a-Li blushed, allowing her to clear the sewing supplies from the settee, placing them on the table. “What, did your mother forget to praise you? Of course she did – shijie never praised anything,” she said, affecting the tone of a shared secret.

A-Li smiled. “Mother taught me how to sew,” she said softly. “I could not please her with much, but she approved of my embroidery.”

“Ah! She speaks. Did your mother tell you of the brocades we embroidered in Meishan?”

“Yes. Father had a robe that she made for her dower chest, and – I had one as well, before—” Ah. Fengmian and the loss of Lotus Pier. A downer for them both. Binwan rubbed a-Li’s cheek a little and changed the subject.

“Do you know, a-Li, this was my room when I first came to the Jin sect?”

“Yes, Mother,” the girl replied. “The servants informed me this suite was for the shao-furen when they helped me move in.”

“Your mother moved me in when I was a girl. I wasn’t at all fond of my fiancé, you know, but I thought I could change him. He was handsome but too roguish. I couldn’t change him, but I could change my son to be unlike him.” She knelt before a-Li, taking her hand. “Your mother and I promised the two of you to one another as soon as he was born. He has been molded to be your husband, the opposite of mine. His sense of chivalry is perhaps a touch too strong now, but give him time.” She squeezed the girl’s hand. “When I was married, my husband was already a grown man set in his ways. Zixuan is still a boy; I can still mold him, shape him to be perfect for you, sweet a-Li.”

A stray hair fluttered across a-Li’s face, and Binwan pushed it back behind her ear.

“Now, a-Li,” Binwan said, a-Li’s face in her hands, “will you renew your engagement and be good for your mother?”

A-Li’s eyes fluttered closed as she leaned forward, pressing her lips against Binwan’s, trembling with want. She was so eager, so ready to please, nearly ready to take Zixuan as her mother had taken Binwan. Binwan let her open her mouth, let her kiss and lick and taste, let her feel out how to lead.

“Oh, good girl, a-Li,” Binwan said approvingly when she finally pulled back. “You’re learning so quickly.”

On the settee, a-Li’s breath was already ragged. Binwan felt the pulse in her wrist, racing with desire and anticipation.

“A-Li, darling,” Binwan whispered into her ear, “tell me what you want most.”

“My mother—" a-Li said immediately, a trembling whisper. “Tell me about my mother— when you were young.”

“Oh, a-Li, you’re such a filial child,” Binwan said approvingly, kissing the pulse on her neck as a reward. “Such a good girl.” She ran two more kisses down a-Li’s neck.

“I wasn’t nearly so good as you. Ziyuan-shijie had to punish me.” She dragged her teeth across a-Li’s soft flesh, right above the clavicle, and felt her ragged breath. She bit down gently, and the girl let out a soft moan. Binwan licked the spot, to keep the teeth marks from showing on a-Li’s delicate paper skin.

“Then Ziyuan-shijie would have to make it up to me,” she said, slowly lifting a-Li to her feet. “Right here, in this bed. Be a good girl and I will show you how.”

Obediently, a-Li sat on the bed, her fine black hair only slightly tousled and her inner robe in perfect order.

“Good girl, a-Li.”

Binwan slowly peeled back a-Li’s robe and took her in properly. Naked, she looked even more the spitting image of her mother, with delicate fair skin and dimples at her hips, light brown areolas and erect nipples in the middle of well-balanced breasts; most of all, a hunger in the intense stare of her dark eyes, a hunger that could never be satisfied by any man.

That hunger gave Binwan power, at least in the walls of this room. Tonight, she would use that power to bestow her favor on this beautiful little doll, molding her as she had been molded.

“Your mother,” Binwan said, gently pushing a-Li into a lying position on the bed, “liked to be the one in charge.” When a-Li lay flat, Binwan pecked her lips to show her how good she was being, then moved down. “She would kiss me here—” the hollow of a-Li’s neck— “here—” her right nipple, hard with arousal— “here—” the stomach, just over the golden core that buzzed like a little hummingbird— “here.” Binwan took her time kissing a-Li’s pubis, feeling a-Li’s hips as they bucked and listening to her stifle her moans.

When she was done, she slowly pulled a-Li’s knees to the sides. “Shijie would open me up,” she said, “and she would kiss me here”— inside the thigh— “and here—” the thigh joint— “and she would come inside me, and we would cultivate together, like this.” A-Li was wet as Binwan licked her open, as wet as she herself had been when Ziyuan-shijie would do this with her. Binwan licked a-Li’s clitoris as Ziyuan-shijie used to, languid and overwhelming, and a-Li’s hips bucked up as she moaned in ecstasy. She licked a few more times, just as Ziyuan-shije had, to overwhelm her senses.

“Think only of me,” Ziyuan-shijie had commanded her. She did think only of her shijie, and the promises they made. The promise she was fulfilling now, by ensuring their children’s engagement.

“Oh a-Li, are you already there, child?” she asked kindly as she exited her, knowing she was. She watched this vision of Ziyuan-shijie arching her back in pleasure that only she could give, and a satisfied smile graced her face.

--

Ziyuan-shijie and Binwan had snuck into a guest wing of the main house, where they knew they were unlikely to be disturbed. As they made out on the unmade bed, Ziyuan pressed Binwan down into the mattress with a little more force than usual, kissing her more intensely than she had before, her pulses of spiritual energy sharper as they passed it back and forth between their lips.

“What’s—” Binwan asked in short breaths between open kisses, “wrong—shijie—ah!”

Ziyuan bit down on her lip, drawing her in with her teeth before breaking apart.

“Feiyu-shimei said she saw you looking at Bolin-shidi,” she said accusingly.

“So?”

“So don’t,” Ziyuan-shijie growled, then began to suck on her neck.

“Why not, shijie? We’re going to marry men someday, and it’s good to think about the future, isn’t it?”

Ziyuan-shijie sucked harder, working on a mark that Binwan would have to cover for at least a few days. As she worked, Binwan drew spirals down her back, trying to remember what she had been thinking about as she felt her shijie’s lips and tongue on her.

When Ziyuan finally pulled away to admire the mark she’d left on Binwan’s skin, she said very firmly, “Don’t think about the future. Men, marriage. Don’t think about it, not when you’re with me.” She reached into her qiankun pouch and pulled out the rounded jade obelisk Binwan had never seen before. “Anything a man could do for you, I can do better.”

She pushed and Binwan allowed herself to be pushed, laying obediently on her back for her shijie. She gasped as Ziyuan-shijie opened her legs, then spread her labia with her fingers, massaging her and relaxing her muscles even as she electrified every cell in Binwan’s body. As Binwan began to shudder, Ziyuan-shijie entered her vagina with that jade obelisk, working it into Binwan slowly but insistently.

“Think only of me,” Ziyuan-shijie commanded as Binwan gasped and moaned, feeling Ziyuan’s spiritual power being released inside her. Binwan felt Zidian gave the jade a buzz, any discomfort from the awkward fit entirely overwritten by Ziyuan, Ziyuan, Ziyuan, inside her, feeling her energy.

The next day, it was announced to the clan that as a condition of the end of hostilities with the Yunmeng Jiang, the Third Young Mistress of the Meishan Yu would be marrying their First Young Master, Jiang Fengmian. Yu Ziyuan would depart for Yunmeng before the end of the week, a bridal party selected by her parents and a Jiang representative in tow. Yin Binwan was not selected, whether despite or because of her close friendship with her shijie a topic of speculation and gossip among the disciples.

The morning after Ziyuan left, Binwan discovered a box left on her dresser, containing that jade obelisk her shijie had introduced to her and an unsigned note: “Think only of me.”

--

Yin Binwan poured over the documents from the head accountant, frustrated and growing more irate by the line. No matter how tightly the ship of state could be run, her husband spent money on wine and whores as though it were water, and no one in the finance department had the authority to refuse him. At the rate he was overspending the treasury, Zixuan would inherit a pauper’s throne. It seemed the only way to stave it off was a massive windfall.

Perhaps Zixuan’s stunt of running off to join the war would ultimately pay off. Armies were not cheap, but the Jin soldiers were saving significantly on rations as they fed themselves on Wen rice and on weapon wear and tear as they largely avoided one-on-one combat and used clever tactics rather than mere force to win their battles. Her sources in Zixuan’s retinue conveyed to her a favorable view of his generalcy, having taken Sunzi to heart. They spoke especially highly of Luo Qingyang’s advice to him, which pleased her more still. The girl was clever and resourceful, and Zixuan lacked both of those traits entirely. Luo had been hand-picked by her to be Zixuan’s friend and a future high-ranking disciple of the clan, and her choice was paying off.

Looking to the window and noting the sun’s position low in the sky, Binwan rolled the scroll and stored it in her desk, summoning her servants to ready her for the rest of the evening. Her a-Li was due for another lesson in an hour or so. Despite the little setback with the inane soup drama, a-Li was coming along nicely. She was ready to learn how to take a man inside her, by far the most difficult lesson yet. It was a skill that could not be perfected before her wedding night, but Binwan could provide her with some practice.

When a-Li arrived for her lesson that night, Binwan had her jade ready, sitting out on the dressing table.

“My child,” she commanded, “disrobe and go to the bed.” A-Li did so, staring at the jade obelisk with wide dark eyes. She looked exactly like her mother, her delicate, graceful footfalls a distorted echo of Ziyuan’s more purposeful movements. As she sat on the bed, Binwan approached her with the obelisk now in hand.

“Good girl,” she said. “Now, show me what I’ve taught you.”

A-Li surged up and kissed her, hands at her face and neck. She felt like Ziyuan, tasted like Ziyuan. She pulled Binwan down as she laid back, nearly as possessive as her mother had been. Her tongue rolled across Binwan’s palate just as Ziyuan’s had, nearly causing Binwan to gasp herself.

Breaking for air, Binwan pulled away, and a-Li breathed shallowly and whined “Mother, oh, Mother, kiss me more.” A pretty sound, unoriginal, but Zixuan would likely only hear his name and not the rest. A-Li’s perky breasts, balanced well with her proportions and neither large nor small, moved up and down as she did, and Binwan moved down to them, kissing each of a-Li’s nipples. A little darker than her mother’s, they felt the same in her mouth. A-Li moaned and called out for her, beginning to move her hips.

The girl was ready. Binwan stood, leaving the girl cold and aching, pulling herself up to watch her. It was just for a moment; she would learn better this way. Men usually went in colder than this.

“Now, daughter, I am going to teach you how to take Zixuan inside you. This,” she held up her jade, “will reach deeper and last longer than any man. When you can take this, you will be ready to take your husband. Open your legs.”

A-Li spread herself for her, laying herself bare. Binwan massaged her open with her fingers, then slowly, gently pushed in the jade. She listened as a-Li moaned and called for her, “Mother, oh, Mother--!” The spiritual energy of the jade hummed slightly in Binwan’s hands, as though Ziyuan-shijie was still here, helping Binwan prepare her daughter for her marriage.

When the jade was as deep as it could go into a-Li’s virgin cunt, she pulsed a bit of her own spiritual energy through it, just as her husband eventually should. “Ah, Mother, ah!” a-Li cried out, climaxing, just at the correct time. Her husband likely would right about there as well. Dual cultivation through sex worked best when the orgasms synced, and the girl certainly would need it given her own relatively weak cultivation.

--

The engagement had been fully cancelled on the order of a mere servant. Her idiot of a husband had challenged the Jiang on this in public, in full view of the entire Jianghu. The brother would have had to decline anyway to avoid appearing weak. To allow a servant to answer on his behalf, no matter who his mother was, made them all seem weak – the Jin for listening, the Jiang for allowing it. This was a great discredit to them all.

Yin Binwan was furious. After the guests had left and the servants were breaking down the grand hall, she sought out her husband in a rage. She found the fool drunk with some slut – what else was new? – behind old Wen’s former throne. The girl’s robes were tangled, her voice hoarse as she groaned under her husband’s horrible little dick. She pulled him off her, dragging him to where she could yell at him more properly as the whore scurried off, probably back to the gutter where she belonged.

“What kind of an idiot are you?” she demanded.

Jin Guangshan looked around. “Where did the girl go?” he slurred. Binwan slapped him.

“Who cares about the girl! What were you thinking at the banquet, you lecherous old fool?”

“It was great. The bastard did a better job than you could have, you miserable bitch.”

“The Jiang boy cancelled Zixuan’s engagement, you idiot—”

“Who the fuck cares about the Jiangs, those kids are dead meat—”

“—and your real son needs a wife—”

“—the whole fucking sect is gone to shit—”

“—You’re practically cutting the Jin out of the victory—”

“—And why would I let Zixuan have a stupid, ugly nag like that anyway—”

“—Which your son earned, unlike your sorry excuse for a regime— Excuse me?”

Jin Guangshan tilted his chin up, evidently realizing he had stopped her so-called nagging. “Stupid. Ugly. Nag. Like her stupid ugly mother.”

Binwan breathed a single deep breath, which Jin Guangshan seemed to take as victory. Then she slapped him again with considerably more force, raking her nails across his cheek.

He stumbled back, clutching his face. “Cunt,” he spat at her. His golden core had never been strong, and his years of whoring rather than cultivating had only deteriorated it. He’d have scars for a week.

“Listen to me closely, husband. If you cut off the Jiangs, you cut the Jin out of the victory and out of the sects. We do not have historical alliances with the Nie and Lan and they are only working with us until Nie-zongzhu slashes your little bastard’s throat out. Your little friend Fengmian is dead. Zixuan will marry Jiang Yanli. Do not fuck this up further. Are we clear?”

“Fucking crystal. Get the hell out of my throne room, woman. And bring me a girl who can use her mouth for something actually useful, like a damned blowjob.”

Binwan turned on her heel. As she marched away, the idiot called out after her, “Better a whore than an uppity fucking wife, you fucking—you! And where did you hide that girl!”

She made her way to the quarters housing the Jiang retinue. On her inquiry, a terrified-looking Lan page informed her that one of the Lan boys had come looking for the Wei Wuxian, but the Jiang siblings and the Wei boy had left for Lotus Pier directly following the disaster at dinner. “Useless,” she snarled at him, and he scampered off to go meditate on the nature of the color white or something equally worthless.

She made for a-Li’s former room anyway; it was relatively isolated, a-Li being so far the only woman in the reconstructed sect, and Binwan needed to scream.

She yanked the door open and saw a-Li sitting at her desk, writing. The Lan boy was not only useless, but also a liar. Wasn’t that against their ten thousand rules?

“Mother—” a-Li said, rising with a start.

“Your brother must marry you to Zixuan,” she said, single-minded in her anger. “Ziyuan-shijie wanted you to be married, and you must marry—"

A-Li kissed her, and she stopped speaking.

A-Li was Ziyuan-shijie, possessing her, pulling her in. She gasped as a-Li bit her bottom lip, enthralled by Ziyuan’s touch, Ziyuan’s hand at her throat. Binwan was pushed down on the bed, a-Li kissing down her throat, light as a feather; Ziyuan biting down on her clavicle, making her moan wordlessly. Anger turned to pleasure, the present to the past.

A-Li pulled Binwan’s robes open enough to lick her sternum, to take her breast into her mouth and suck. Ziyuan sucked and kissed and licked. Binwan loosened her robes further, letting Ziyuan-shijie see her for the first time again.

As her robes fell away, a-Li came up from her, eyes dark. “Mother,” she said, her words but shijie’s voice, lusty and low. “You’re beautiful.”

Ziyuan-shijie had never told her that, but she knew it was true.

A-Li moved down her, kissing and licking as Binwan had taught her, as Ziyuan-shijie had taught her. Binwan rocked with her, encouraging, leading a-Li down to where Ziyuan-shijie had pleasured her so many times.

“Lick me, Ziyuan,” she begged, and a-Li did as she was told. Delicately and slowly, she ran her tongue across Binwan’s labia, her inexperience teasing until she found the clitoris. When she finally tasted it, Binwan’s hips bucked, surprising the girl.

“Am I there, Mother?” she asked, sounding anxious.

Binwan could only say, “More, more,” and a-Li did. As she did she grew more sure, grew into her mother. Ziyuan-shijie kept licking as Binwan reached orgasm, her tongue drawing Binwan up, and through, and overwhelming her senses.

When Binwan returned to herself, the girl was back, biting her lip, unsure. Binwan sat up, leaned forward, and kissed her forehead. “Good girl, a-Li,” she whispered. “So like your mother.” The girl tilted her chin up and closed her eyes at the praise. So easy to please, this child.

Binwan rose and gathered herself, re-tying her robes in brusque, quick motions. “You and Zixuan will make a perfect pair when you are wed,” she said, hoping to allay any fears a-Li had that she was offended at her brother's cancellation. She was, of course, deeply offended, but it would be politically stupid to show it to a-Li. “You are nearly as skilled as your mother was now.”

She felt a-Li’s eyes trace her movements, hanging onto her words. She pecked the girl’s lips before bidding her a good night and returning to her own chamber, the ghost of Ziyuan-shijie still ghosting her body, promising so much more than she had ever given in life.