The Enemy General is a Bondservant

Events of days past (1)

The war had just begun, and Yao Country had yet to be conquered completely; only one city had fallen to Nanchu.

Li City, Yao Country, the third month of the year of Qingfeng.

The grasses grew tall, and the orioles didn’t sing as they normally did, flying silently in the skies instead.

Broken, crumbling walls could be seen everywhere, and the faces of people were despairing.

Li City had just fallen to Nanchu, and Nanchu soldiers were everywhere.

Duanmu Li was among them, basking in the glory of his first victory on Yao soil.

This city was his now.

The commoners of Li City all sank to their knees and kowtowed fervently whenever they saw Duanmu Li, as if he were their new Emperor.

Duanmu Li wasn’t the least bit interested in participating in the victory banquet, so he went to a small brothel house by himself.

He was only interested in men. The whole world knew this.

The boss of the brothel house knew that Duanmu Li was a Wangye of Nanchu and also the Great Fuguo General. He naturally took every care to provide him the best service available, sending forth all the most famous and charming courtesans in his brothel house to accompany Duanmu Li.

But Duanmu Li had not even glanced twice at a single one of them.

He hadn’t really thought of doing anything physical with these courtesans. He had just wanted to have a few of them by his side to accompany him as he drank wine. However, these courtesans all had far too much perfume on, and the smell irritated his nostrils, making him want to cough.

The brothel house boss was frightened and worried on seeing this. He was deathly afraid that, if he didn’t service this Wangye to his satisfaction, he would be in danger of losing his head!

At this moment, Duanmu Li’s gaze drifted over to the side and landed on a man.

The man was standing quietly in a corner. He didn’t attract any attention to himself at all, and the lower half of his face was covered with a white silk veil. Compared to the other gaudily clad courtesans, his clothes looked very plain and unattractive. He wore an all-white robe reminiscent of what one would think immortals from heaven wore, and his long, black hair fell down his shoulders in a dark waterfall, as silky as a bolt of fine brocade.

Duanmu Li didn’t know what came over him, but he was completely mesmerised by this man.

He was much taller than all the other male courtesans, and he had a thin-looking body, which made him look particularly slender and alluring.

The boss saw that Duanmu Li was interested in this man, and so he beckoned him over. “Little Bai, come here, quickly,” he said.

The man called “Little Bai” turned around gracefully, but didn’t walk over immediately. He seemed very timid.

“Come over here now!” the boss said, his patience running thin.

Little Bai finally walked over, cowering a little as if afraid that he would be hit. His head was bent low, as if he was too ashamed to look directly at anyone.

“Aiya, Wangye, please accept my apologies. This boy just came to our brothel recently, and hasn’t been properly trained yet!” the boss said, forcing a smile on his face as he made this explanation. He pushed Little Bai into Duanmu Li’s arms.

Now that the boy was in his arms, Duanmu Li was able to look at him closely, and he discovered that this Little Bai had a little tear mole at the corner of his left eye.

“Why is your face veiled?” Duanmu Li asked gently. Little Bai smelt wonderful; he had a clean, refreshing scent, and this suited Duanmu Li far better than the cloying perfume the other male courtesans wore.

“I… I’m afraid that my face may not be pleasing to…”

Before Little Bai could finish speaking, Duanmu Li pulled off his veil with a small rustle.

“Ah…”

Little Bai’s pretty black eyes went round in surprise, then, panicked, he quickly clapped his hands to his face to try and hide it.

Duanmu Li narrowed his eyes with interest.

Little Bai wasn’t ugly at all. In fact, he was very much better looking than the average person, but there was a pink patch on his face – a birthmark. In Duanmu Li’s eyes, that birthmark was exactly like that little tear mole at the corner of Little Bai’s eye; it wasn’t unpleasant to look at. To the contrary, it was sensual and provocative.

“Will you accompany me for a few drinks?” Duanmu Li asked, circling an arm around Little Bai’s slender waist.

Little Bai’s long eyelashes fanned upwards, and he looked up timidly at Duanmu Li for a moment before quickly looking down again. “If Wangye doesn’t dislike me, then…” he said in a soft voice.

“Haha!” Duanmu Li was very pleased. He rarely ever found male courtesans that were this much to his liking. “You’re new?” he asked.

His gaze fell upon Little Bai’s pale, slender fingers, which were wrapped around the handle of a green porcelain wine jar.

“How many days have you been here?” Duanmu Li asked again, before Little Bai could reply to his first question.

Little Bai nodded as he poured wine for Duanmu Li. “This one is new. I only arrived this morning,” he said.

“You must still be clean, then!”

Little Bai’s body stiffened immediately. This natural reaction didn’t offend Duanmu Li; to the contrary, his dark eyes curved into pleased half-moons.

“You’re not too bad. This Wang likes you very much. Come upstairs with me!” he said.

Duanmu Li threw back the wine in the winecup that Little Bai had poured for him in one big gulp, then stood up peremptorily.

The brothel house boss knew what it was that Duanmu Li wanted to do, so he dismissed all the other courtesans and hurried Little Bai up the stairs behind Duanmu Li.

Little Bai went lightly up the stairs behind Duanmu Li, still holding the wine jar in his hands. When he got to the second floor, he entered the room that the boss had specially prepared for Duanmu Li’s use.

Beansprout: So I have discovered that aggregator sites are stealing my work, as usual. If you’re reading this on an aggregator site, please consider reading this on flyingbeansprout.com instead! There are no ads or passwords on my site. ;p