Floating World Bitten Peach

In the near distance, the lilting voice of Ping—Tranquility—supported by strums on his lute, set the mood in the summer pavilion, where the heat of the two young men added to the warm, humid breeze wafting down the Yangtze River and whispering up to the

nanleshijia

—the male pleasure house—setting the bamboo shoots screening the summer pavilion swaying and adding to the music of the lute.

"We must go no farther," jinan in training, Xiu, murmured in a small, hoarse voice. "No, you must not," he pleaded in a tone that regretted what it was duty-bound to say. "Oh, oh. ohhh."

"I must not do this?" the

baoan

—the nanleshijia protector—growled in a low, hoarse mutter. "And I must stop this?"

The young prostitute-in-training moaned a deep moan, his vermillion

hanfu

—ceremonial robe—rustling, as he moved his hand inside the folds and clasped Niu's hand that had begun to move on his hardened cock.

"Your sweet yang chu is not telling me to cease, little one," Niu said, as he took one of Xiu's ears in his mouth and stuck his tongue in it. The young man shuddered and groaned. Niu began to match the rhythm of his tongue darting in and out of Xiu's ear with the hand stroking of the young man's cock. He placed his thumb on Xiu's bulb head and rubbed the slit there as he stroked. Xiu was trembling, and Niu knew the youth was his.

"I cannot be ruined," Xiu whispered forlornly.

"No one need ever know, not if we merely play suck the fruit," Niu said. "And you have been trained right up to the act with a man's yang chu. Can you not tell that having done this, nothing can be detected?—not if you do not tell. I can take the bite of the peach and, as long as you react to a client that the peach is still perfect, it is."

"I cannot," Xiu moaned. "The

zhaoguzhe

—the caretaker—would know. He would know."

"Not if you did not tell him. Neither would he know that you have permitted this," Niu muttered. He brushed aside the folds of Xiu's outer and inner robes and lifted the silk underskirt, exposing the young man's slim thighs and his hand-encased

yang chu

—cock—and pert little ball sack.

"He would know; he would know," Xiu was still murmuring. Then he gave a gasp as Niu's lips slid down the cylinder of his yang chu, replacing his hand as it, in turn, initially cupped Xiu's ball sack and then extended two fingers down along his perineum and back to the rim of the virginal ass channel.

Niu sucked hard on Xiu's bulb for a very few moments, with Xiu shuddering and giving little cries, before the young prostitute in training jerked three time and gave his seed up. Niu's finger penetrated Xiu's bulb. Xiu shuddered and his thighs went to rubber, parting, and opening the pathway to paradise.

"There, that much," Niu murmured. "No one would ever know if you acted your part well." The finger moved and pressed deeper inside. Xiu moaned. "Now . . ."

"No. It's not the same," Xiu objected, but he rolled his buttock up, giving the finger deeper access.

"What you reveal can be what you want to reveal," Niu insisted.

With his free hand, Niu unbound the sash of his own, more basic hanfu, and pushed it open. His throbbing manhood was in enormous erection. Xiu would have fainted to see it, but although Niu intended that the young man would feel it inside him, he felt there was no reason for Xiu to see it until after it had mastered him. He moved a hand back to Xiu's cock, which was already hardening again.

"He would not know. There is no reason anyone would know if you did not tell them," he relentlessly repeated in a whisper. "You are no longer entirely pure now, anyway." He inserted a second finger, pressing them apart, opening the channel. Xiu began to pant and moan.

"You will do it so much better that first time for the man who pays for your virginity if you have already given it to me. I can teach you so much more of pleasing and being pleased by the yang chu than that old dried-up zhaoguzhe ever could."

"I cannot. Nothing can—"

"Nothing can?" Niu muttered, with a snort. "Then what are these twigs doing inside you? What is the difference between one thing inside you and another?" He moved the fingers that were now fully encased in the youth's channel so that Xiu could have no doubts he was fully possessed by them. Niu spread the fingers wider apart, opening the channel more. It would have to be well open for what he was planning, for what he'd been looking forward to and preparing for for some time. Xiu was objecting with his mouth, but his body wasn't objecting. His legs were bent, feet flat on the mat. He pushed his pelvis up into Niu hand, spreading his thighs even further, taking the fingers deep.

"Oh, ohhh," he moaned, moving his hips, back and forth, moving on Niu's fingers and in rhythm with the stroking of his cock. The campaign was complete, Niu realized with a secret smile. No matter with Xiu's lips said now, his body was Niu's. Nothing could stop Niu from adding another virgin to his collection.

"They pleasure you, do they not? My yang chu will equally pleasure you in their stead."

Niu knew the pleasure part would be real for the young man—when he was fully saddled and possessed—but he also knew that having his yang chu inside the youth was nothing like just these two fingers, no matter how plump they were.

Xiu looked at Niu plaintively.

"Do you want me?" Niu asked, knowing full well what the answer was. He had slowly prepared Xiu for this for months. "And do you trust me that we can pleasure ourselves and the zhaoguzhe will never know?"

Xiu did not answer, but he did not struggle either. Niu placed the palm of a hand in the young man's sternum and gently pressed him back onto the pillows deeply piled on the summer pavilion platform. The young man's thighs were spread, his legs bent, his feet flat on the mat, his pelvis thrust up. The pleasure path was open to Niu.

The youth was whimpering and Niu could feel the trembling going through the young man's body as he grasped Xiu's legs and parted and raised them, twisted his own body around, and came up on his knees between the young man's thighs.

What did he want? What was his goal beyond burying his yang chu deep inside this beautiful young man, splitting him, and making him quiver in the biting of his peach, the losing of his virginity? Niu had not thought beyond achieving the forbidden. Did he want to hold back until the jinan begged for it, or did he want to ruin him? Did Niu want to stay in a position he despised in the nanleshijia, which would mean that he would have to help Xiu cover up his deflowering? Or did he want to brutalize the so-sweet young channel and then strike off on his own?

He moved the bulbous cap of his club to the trembling rim of the besotted, trusting young courtesan to be, still undecided whether to thrust or to work his way in gently. All he had known was that he wanted to collect as many virgin deflowerings in his life as he could as long as his virility was at its peak.

As he was about to close his mind down and let his body do what it wished to do, the tinkling of the bells along the pathway from the main house to the summer pavilion, set off by the movement of the robe hems of the walker, performed the task they were meant to do—to give warning of an approaching figure.

Niu barely had time to jump up from the pillows and tie his sash and move to attention near the entrance arbor and for Xiu to likewise readjust his hanfu and lay back in the pillows and close his eyes as if taking a sleep, when the zhaoguzhe—the caretaker—swept into the pavilion. He cast a suspicious look at both the jinan in preparation and the baoan, but, not being able to discern that anything was amiss, turned and spoke to Niu gruffly.

"You are to come with me, baoan."

"We . . . I have only arrived. Xiu was missing from the main pavilion and I came looking for him."

The zhaoguzhe looked at Niu with increased suspicion. It can be folly to give too much of an excuse where none was requested. Be that as it may, however, this particular problem was already solved.

"You are to come with me because you are leaving the nanleshijia," the caretaker said in a near growl.

"Leaving?"

"Yes. You expressed a wish—an ambition—some time ago, and I have remembered and have made it so."

"An ambition?"

"Yes. I have sold you to the Duke of Shi. You are to enter military service with him in Yangzhou. You stated your wish to become a warrior. So, a warrior you will become."

"Yangzhou? The Duke of Shi?" Niu was bewildered, but his voice was joyous and a broad grin spread across his face.

Hearing the effect that the news had on Niu, Xiu slitted his eyes open and an involuntary look of despair spread across his own face.

This was not lost on the zhaoguzhe, who now hoped that he had been in time to divert disaster.

* * * *

The four guards pressed in close to Niu on all sides as they climbed the circling stone stairs up and up into the tower of the Duke of Shi's castle in Yangzhou, the seat of Nanfeng, the prefecture Nantung was in. Niu had never been this high from the ground before—not even when he was a youth and climbed trees to look down on the world and imagine that everything he could see was his.

He didn't know why he had been roughly awakened before dawn and marched through the castle. He had trained well as a warrior. He knew he'd done so. And he could tell that the Duke of Shi was pleased, as he had watched Niu closely in the training sessions.

Next to Niu himself, the duke was the tallest and most muscular figure on the training ground. His commanding presence and fierce attitude could not be ignored. Niu knew that if and when they went to battle, the duke would stand his ground and would be in the forefront of battle. He would make the enemy melt away from him simply by drawing himself up to his full, magnificent stature and glowering at the enemy.

He was a man who always got his way. Of that Niu was sure.

Perhaps he had shown too much interest in Niu, the former baoan thought. Niu thought that the nanleshijia—the male courtesan training school—was rife with intrigue and scheming, but it had been nothing there like it was here at the center of power of one of the Wu kingdom's foremost prefectures. Perhaps others, jealous that the duke could show favor to Niu, were doing something to take Niu out of the equation.

But this proved not to be the case.

When Niu and his escorts reached the room at the top of the tower, he found the duke himself, in hanfu—robes—of royal blue, reclining against pillows with a tea table set in front of him. This tableau was set up in the middle of the round chamber. The only other furniture in the room was a substantial cot piled high with animal skins, four torches set at intervals around on the stone walls, a piss pot against the wall near the bed, and a frame contraption across the room from the bed, which seemed to be some sort of high-raised chair, with the leather hide of a cow slung between the corners of the frame. There were four slit windows set at intervals around the walls that were too narrow for a man to get his head through, meant for observing and firing arrows upon a sieging enemy from the protection of stone walls.

"Niu. Thank you for coming to see me," the duke said in a calm, even voice.

Niu almost laughed, knowing that he had been brought here by no choice of his own.

"Come. Come, sit with me. No, not across from me. Here, beside me."

When Niu had tentatively knelt down beside where the duke sat in the pillows, the duke leaned over the table and poured tea into a cup and offered it to Niu.

Niu carefully took the cup, almost overwhelmed by the honor that was being bestowed on him by this gesture.

"Shall we become more comfortable?" the duke murmured, giving Niu a smile. He reached over then and untied Niu's sash and parted the young man's hanfu. Having barely had time to leave his bed when summoned, Niu was naked underneath.

"I see that our military training has toughened you up nicely," the duke murmured.

Niu moved instinctively to pull his hanfu closed again, but two guards were at his back in a flash, growling, and letting him know that he had overstepped his bounds.

"Let us not forget that you are in my service, Niu. That I own you." At a signal from the duke, the other two guards stepped to his side, one leaned over and untied his sash, and the other slowly pulled the robes off the duke's shoulders, revealing a massive, barrel chest that was heavily marked with healed wounds and slash marks.

"Feel these, Niu. These are marks of honor." He took one of Niu's hands in his. At first Niu resisted but at a growl and the pressure of hands on his naked shoulders, he relaxed and let the duke take his fingers to the marks on his chest and trace the wounds.

"I have watched you in training, Niu. You are worthy to be in my guard—my own bodyguard."

"Thank you, sire," Niu murmured, knowing the honor this was and not knowing what else to say. His mind was racing on the situation he was in, though. What was expected of him; where was this headed?

"My guards must be completely loyal, Niu. They must desire nothing more than what I desire; they must dedicate themselves to me completely."

The duke was moving Niu's hand down his torso, into the folds of robing gathered around the duke's waist. His yang chu was hard as a rock and in full erection.

"Show me that you are prepared to fully serve me, Niu," the duke whispered, his voice thick with arousal. His hand was encasing Niu's hand, which was encasing the duke's cock.

"Sire," Niu murmured.

"You pleasure yang chus in your throat, Niu. I know that you do. The soldiers tell me that you have done that here. You have, I believe, ruined every virgin male in my guard. You have feasted on peaches enough to fill an orchard."

I prepare them and then I fuck them, yes, Niu thought. Is that what the duke wants me to do? To pleasure his yang chu and then to ride his noble ass?

"And you, Niu? Are you as yet an unbitten peach? Has no one feasted on your fruit?"

Niu blanched. Was this what would transpire here now? For the first time in his life Niu considered how precious a man's anal virginity was—now that it was his own that possibly was in play. "No, sire. I have never been in that position before."

"Ah, that is good to know. But that is not what I am hungry for in this moment." The duke nodded to the guards.

One of the guards was pushing Niu's face down into the duke's lap, while the other one knelt beside Niu and swallowed Niu's cock and began to work it.

Niu gave the duke suck, and the duke sighed and reclined back on the pillows. As was Niu's technique, he began working a hand between the duke's thighs after giving his ball sack into play. But before his fingers could reach the duke's rim, the warrior growled and guards were right there, slapping Niu's hand away and trapping his arms behind his back.

Niu realized now that it was not meant for him to be fucking the duke, although someone here would be fucked. He began to struggle against those holding him in thrall, but it was no use.

At the duke's direction, the four guards manhandled Niu up from the pillows and hauled him over to the seat-like contraption. They thrust him into a seated position in the sling and held his arms and legs down.

The duke rose from the pillows, shrugging his robes completely off his body. He turned, facing Niu. His erection was enormous, both longer and thicker than Niu's own, which itself was one of the most magnificent in Nantung. He no longer was in Nantung, though. In Nantung, he was the taker; no one had dared to try to top him.

The duke smiled a wicked smile and was stroking his cock, as he slowly approached the sling contraption. As he moved between Niu's legs, Niu cried out, "Mercy! I have yielded to no man!"

But, with a strong thrust inside Niu that made him howl, the duke growled, "I am no man. I am the Duke of Shi. And all who serve me are prepared to serve me fully."

Niu struggled mightily, but the four strong soldiers held him fast as the duke had his way with him and, with that, Niu himself became a bitten peach. Niu struggled, ineffectually, until the shaft was in deep. He collapsed, working to free himself of tension as the duke advised him he would want to do, as the duke began to stroke inside him. He was undone and realized he was. He had done what the duke was doing so many times before himself. He reclined there, whimpering internally, trying not to show weakness to the duke, and took the duke's cock as best he could, fighting the pain, surprised that the pain came with rising pleasure as well. He wasn't completely undone. The duke had wanted him, had wanted to be inside him. That gave him a certain amount of pride and control.

When the duke had come, he pulled out of Niu and said, "Very nice. You will do nicely. And as you service me, likewise you serve my four captains."

As the four soldiers, each in turn, fucked Niu as well, the duke moved back to the pillows and tea table, gathered his hanfu about him, reclined, and watched the takings with a smile.

When the fourth soldier was finished, Niu lay there in the sling chair, spent in body, but still defiant in mind.

Sensing this, the duke stood and said, "I like your spirit. But if you leave this room alive it will be in willing service to me. I leave you to think it over. When I come through that door again, you will beg for the yang chu if you have decided to serve me."

Niu looked upon the departing duke with dull eyes. He was prepared to fight at the man's side, but he was no one's woman.

The next night, the duke arrived—this time with six rather than four guards. Niu was as defiant. And Niu was taken seven times.

On the second night, the duke and eight guards were met at the door by a groveling Niu, who knelt at the duke's feet and begged to be taken, pledging devoted service to his master.

They fucked on the cot this time, with the guards watching but not needing to hold Niu down. Niu raised his bare buttocks to the duke and spread his own cheeks as the duke worked inside him. He also met each thrust of the duke's with a backward thrust of his own hips and cried out for the fuck, asking for more each time the duke was spent—and then receiving more when the duke was recovered. In the ultimate signal of surrender and subordination, Niu coaxed the duke on his back, straddled the duke's hips, impaled himself, and rode his master's shaft into the night, convincing the duke that his conquest was complete.

The third night, Niu was returned to the barracks to sleep with the other warriors of the duke's bodyguard.

On the fourth night, when the nightly count was taken in the barracks, Niu was missing.

* * * *

Shun was standing next to the shower stall at the nanleshijia, eyes downcast, holding Xiu's hanfu—robes—when he felt the strong pressure on his arm and looked up and into the eyes of the former baoan, Niu.

He's come back for me, was Shun's first thought, but then he saw that Niu was looking beyond him, to the shower stall, where Xiu stood under the cascade of water. The perfectly formed white orbs of his buttocks could be seen protruding beyond the side wall of the shower stall.

Niu gave Shun a meaningful look, and casting his eyes down again so that the former baoan couldn't see the pain and longing in them, Shun let the hanfu fall to the stone terrace and backed away.

Niu moved silently to the stall and came in close behind the young Xiu. He raised his hand to the one Xiu was using to pull on the chain loosing the water above his head, and, releasing the chain, Xiu gave a little gasp.

He turned his head, and his lips were met with those of Niu, which were brutal and demanding, demanding entrance. Xiu yielded his lips and the inner reaches of his mouth to the possessing lips and tongue of the man who would be his lover but who had deserted him for the life of a warrior.