The moment Song Pu said this, Tantai Yi’s expression froze. After a pause, he spoke in a low voice, “What did you say, Lord Song? Say it again.”
Song Pu truly had nerve. At that, he actually dared to repeat himself. “This is rape. You’ll end up in prison. I advise you to stop now. If you do, I won’t report you. Otherwise, I’ll use the law to bring you to justice.”
Tantai Yi ignored his rambling, narrowing his eyes as though shooting out cold arrows. “The previous sentence. What did you call me?”
Song Pu frowned and tried hard to recall, then answered honestly, “I don’t remember.”
Tantai Yi said, “You called me a dog of an emperor.”
Song Pu: “…”
“I didn’t,” he said.
Tantai Yi had no interest in arguing the point. He took several deep breaths and tried to reassure himself. At least Lord Song truly liked him. He was only spouting nonsense because he was drunk. It could not be taken seriously.
Thinking this, his mood improved. He seized Song Pu and threatened, “My ears are not for decoration. I heard everything. I told you those three words are forbidden, yet you repeat them again and again. If I do not punish you, how am I to be head of this household, ruler of this realm?”
As he spoke, he tore open Song Pu’s robes with one hand and declared, “I will take you right here in this carriage.”
With that, he grabbed him and kissed him fiercely. If he went any further, things would become awkward, so he could only take the chance to steal a few more glances at that soft, flushed patch of skin. A heat surged in his nose, and bright red blood began to run.
Tantai Yi touched it with his fingertip, both embarrassed and irritated. He was a man who had seen the world. How could he keep getting nosebleeds over this? It was utterly absurd.
Still, embarrassment aside, a place that had never even taken the jade insert could hardly accommodate him. He had only meant to frighten Lord Song. If he truly went through with it, he feared he might injure him badly. What ought to be a pleasant affair might turn into a disaster. That would hardly be worth it.
Yet letting it go like this left him unwilling. Just as he hesitated, Song Pu, thoroughly frightened by his actions, had tears welling in his eyes. His voice came out hoarse. “Your Majesty, wait. I really can’t.”
Tantai Yi gave a cold snort. “When you refused the jade insert, did you not think you couldn’t? This day was always coming. You dared deceive me because you thought I would never take you? Outrageous. Do you take me for some virtuous gentleman who can endure it for a lifetime?”
Seeing him reach to pull his legs apart again, Song Pu panicked and blurted out, “Then I… I’ll use my mouth. Your Majesty, please don’t use that place. I know I was wrong. When we return, I’ll definitely use the jade insert, I swear I will. If I don’t, Your Majesty may punish me then. Just this once, let me serve you another way, all right?”
That immediately stirred Tantai Yi’s excitement. His golden eyes gleamed almost like a beast’s, yet he forced himself to maintain an aloof, dignified air. “Do you even understand what you are saying?”
Song Pu stared at him blankly. Though it was daytime, the carriage was dim. Tantai Yi sat by the window, blocking most of the light, his face half-hidden in shadow.
Though his mind was muddled, Song Pu was unusually alert when it came to this matter. He seemed almost sober. “I… I understand. I can use my mouth. Your Majesty doesn’t know how useful it is. It’s cleaner, more flexible. In short, it’s better than that place. If something else will do, then use something else. Just… not the rear…”
He rambled on, terrified that even a moment’s delay would see Tantai Yi force his way in and split him open. Scrambling upright, he made his way over.
Tantai Yi watched as he tugged at his clothes, watched as those full, reddened lips truly took him in.
Another rush of heat surged through his nose. He wiped at it and, sure enough, came away with blood again. Grabbing Song Pu’s soft hair, he said with a mixture of grievance and indignation, “You possess such skill, yet you hid it from me. This is truly too much.”
For all his words, the sensation was undeniably pleasurable. Tantai Yi felt it all the way to his scalp.
With this, it ended faster than usual. Driven by sheer instinct, he refused to let Song Pu withdraw, forcing him to take everything.
The intensity left his golden eyes tinged red, his chest heaving, his thoughts still muddled.
Though drunk and far from clear-headed, he was nonetheless aware of what he was about to face. His sense of shame seemed to have lessened considerably with the drink, and when his hand closed around Tantai Yi’s already erect, rigid length, an indefinable heat stirred within him, kindling a faint thrill of excitement.
Tantai Yi’s cock was thick and long, throbbing imposingly against his palm. Owing to Tantai Yi’s exceptionally pale complexion, the shaft was a delicate pink, the glans alone flushed a deeper red—a perfectly rounded shape, like a duck’s egg, oddly pretty and endearing.
It was, truly, a handsome penis, a pleasure to behold.
Yet Song Pu, gripping it with both hands, could only feel a tremor of dread. A thing like that, if it were to be used for that sort of business, it would likely be more than a simple tearing; he’d be a hundred per cent certain to die in the bed, wouldn’t he?
It was a relief, then, that he could fob him off with his mouth; a stroke of luck, all things considered.
With that in mind, Song Pu swallowed, and first used his fingers to gently rub the slit at the tip, which had already begun to leak fluid, dampening his palm and easing the friction of his strokes.
But Tantai Yi was hardly about to be satisfied with mere handiwork. “Lord Song promised his mouth,” he said, impatient. “Why this delay?”
“Don’t rush me,” Song Pu muttered. “I need to work up to it.”
“Work up to it?” Tantai Yi retorted. “What more is there to work up to? Can you not simply put it in your mouth?!”
His composure was now beyond salvaging; the word ‘lust’ might as well have been written large across his brow.
Hustled by the urgency in his voice, Song Pu lowered his head, tapped the rounded glans with his lips, and ventured a tentative lick, tasting the salt-brine tang.
Tantai Yi was scrupulously clean, and his cock had no particular taste beyond the faint, cool, aromatic trace of his usual incense. For this, too, Song Pu felt some of his remaining reluctance ebb away, and he began to lap more deliberately at the slit.
Men know what pleases men, as the saying goes; drunk though he was, Song Pu knew precisely how to give Tantai Yi pleasure. Hearing the expected hitch in his breathing, he felt an unexpected swell of pride. If it came down to it, Tantai Yi might not even best him at this. He was a man who’d watched hundreds of gigs of porn, after all!
Buoyed by this thought, he set to licking Tantai Yi’s endearingly pretty glans with renewed vigour.
Tantai Yi’s scalp prickled with pleasure. Gazing down at Lord Song’s plump, red lips grazing the head of his cock, the delicate tongue probing the slit, he felt the visual alone strike him like a blow. His throat worked, and he reached to gather Song Pu’s hair, pressing him closer. “Lord Song,” he rasped, “don’t think to fob me off with just licking. I want to see you take it in.”
Before Song Pu could steel himself, Tantai Yi thrust his hips forward, the glans finding its way into Song Pu’s parted lips, silencing any protest with its bulk.
Once the head was in, the rest followed more easily. Though Song Pu’s mouth was small, it stretched to accommodate, and soon a good measure of the length was seated within, pressing against the base of his tongue, threatening to go deeper still. Alarmed, Song Pu began to struggle, but Tantai Yi caught his hands and coaxed, in a gentler tone: “Be good, Lord Song. I swear, I’ll only go halfway. See? It’s not even halfway yet. Just loosen your throat. I’ve seen the spring books, I know it can be done…”
If Song Pu had been sober, he’d have cursed him soundly. But now, not only was his mind clouded, his mouth was also thoroughly occupied. All that escaped him was saliva, running in a steady stream from his slack lips to soak Tantai Yi’s thick thatch of pubic hair.
Cradling Song Pu’s head, Tantai Yi pushed in a little further. Once he had gained about half his length, he began to feel the rhythmic compression, the suction. A surge of pleasure so acute it sparked a shiver up his spine and flushed his golden eyes red. Unable to resist, he pressed in again, though this seemed to be the limit; no more would fit, leaving the remaining half of his shaft outside, wanting.
He drew back, breathing deep, then thrust again—not too hard, not too soft—each stroke reigniting the exquisite sensation.
But his control was slipping, and the force of his thrusts made Song Pu’s head ring, drawing pained whimpers from him. Tantai Yi paused, lightening his touch. “I know,” he murmured, “you don’t like pain. I’ll be gentler.”
He made a conscious effort to hold back, and from then on, with Song Pu no longer required to take the lead, Tantai Yi set his own rhythm: nine shallow, one deep, fucking Song Pu’s throat as he pleased.
For Song Pu, the sensation was one of relentless, distressing invasion. The great glans forced past the base of his tongue into his throat, triggering a powerful gag reflex. The paradoxical pleasure of fellatio lies in that very reflex. The convulsive squeezing of the soft flesh of the throat around the intrusion. A passage meant for swallowing food, now filled with a man’s sex. The stimulus was overwhelming.
He could feel the corner of his mouth tearing, the pain sharp and immediate, his sensitive nerves amplifying it tenfold. His head swam, and even Tantai Yi’s ragged breathing seemed to come from far away. A burning heat spread up his spine, leaving his limbs weak, so that he could only kneel, submissive, as Tantai Yi thrust into his mouth.
Time blurred. Then, with a deep, forceful thrust into Song Pu’s throat, Tantai Yi triggered a violent gag. In that convulsive clench, Song Pu felt the glans pulse, and a torrent of hot fluid shot forth.
Driven by a primal urge to claim, Tantai Yi did not withdraw. Instead, he pushed deeper still, forcing Song Pu to swallow. What he could not manage, spilling onto Tantai Yi’s skin, Tantai Yi gathered with his fingers and smeared across Song Pu’s lips.
Only when he had spent himself entirely inside Song Pu’s mouth did he draw out, reluctantly.
Song Pu’s tongue, slick and crimson, was striped with milky residue. Tantai Yi pressed a hand over his mouth. “Don’t waste it,” he said, with mock solemnity. “Swallow it all. Then you can bear me a child.”
It was Song Pu’s choked sob that brought him back to himself.
Tantai Yi’s anger was gone, extinguished. Lord Song was once more his cherished darling. He drew him close, his voice softening. “What are you crying for, Lord Song?”
The corner of Song Pu’s mouth was split. Tears welled, spilling over. “It hurts,” he gasped, voice cracking. “Fuck, it hurts so bloody much.”
The more he spoke, the more it hurt, and the more the tears came.
Tantai Yi cupped his chin, tilting it up to examine the damage… the torn skin, the bright blood welling there. Reaching into a hidden compartment, he felt around and retrieved a small pot of salve. Far-sighted, he always kept a supply of the Imperial Hospital’s special ointment at hand; meant originally for intimate use, it would serve just as well for this.
He scooped up a little and applied it gently. Song Pu howled, struggling in his arms, until Tantai Yi simply clamped him close. “Stop that caterwauling,” he said. “You’re a scholar, a man of letters. How is it that drink turns you into such a squalling brat? You’ll burst my eardrums.”
But Song Pu could not hold back. Frustrated, Tantai Yi bent his head and caught his mouth in a kiss.
The faint sweetness of the salve bloomed between them. Tantai Yi tightened his hold, deepening the kiss, and only after a long moment did he draw back, a smile curving his lips as he met Song Pu’s gaze. “There,” he said softly. “That doesn’t hurt so much now, does it?”
Song Pu stared back, dazed. The pain at the corner of his mouth had eased considerably.
Smiling, Tantai Yi applied the salve again. This time, Song Pu made no sound, merely watching him with a blank, wondering look.
When he was done, Tantai Yi said, “Mind you don’t lick it. If it gets worse, don’t come snivelling to me.”
He glanced up. “What are you staring at, Lord Song?”
Song Pu’s voice was hoarse. “Your Majesty,” he murmured, “is truly gentle with me.”
Tantai Yi gave a considering smack of his lips. “You’ve swallowed my seed,” he remarked. “The taste in your mouth is none too pleasant. In future, you’d best rinse before you kiss me.”
Song Pu: “…”
He flopped over, turning his back. “I’m going to sleep. Don’t bother me.”
Tantai Yi watched him lie down, not the least offended. A feeling of self-satisfied elation… the nature of which he could not have articulated… settled in his chest. He reached out, draping a blanket over Song Pu with a smile that he fancied was exquisitely considerate.
*
When Song Pu woke, it was already the following afternoon. Lying on the bed, he opened his eyes, momentarily unsure of the time or place. After lying there for quite a while, his memories returned, and he abruptly sprang up.
Hearing the movement, Denglong hurried over. “Young Master, you’re finally awake. You’ve slept an entire day. The Master even came to look for you.”
Song Pu was still breathing a little fast. His memory remained stuck at the moment when Tantai Yi had spoken of bestowing a marriage upon Song Lingyun and Tantai Yetong. Of everything that followed, he remembered nothing.
Yet that matter was no small one. Song Lingyun would never accept such an arrangement. If Tantai Yi truly acted on a whim and issued the decree, Song Lingyun’s initial resistance might well deepen into outright opposition. That would benefit no one.
The more he thought of it, the more anxious he became. “Prepare the carriage—” he began, only to suck in a breath.
The moment he spoke, a tearing pain flared at the corner of his mouth.
Denglong paused, then said quickly, “Young Master, you haven’t eaten all day. If there’s something urgent, at least have a meal first?”
Song Pu covered his mouth, his voice lowering. “I told you to prepare the carriage. Do it. I need to enter the palace at once.”
Denglong had never seen him so urgent before and immediately changed his tone. “Young Master, please wash your face first. This servant will go at once.”
With that, he turned and left. Song Pu hastily splashed his face and used the remaining water to wipe himself down. Before he could leave, however, Duke Song arrived. The moment he saw him, he scolded, “Why have you gone and drunk yourself senseless again? Yesterday, His Majesty personally sent you back. Did you say anything in front of him?”
Song Pu froze. “His Majesty sent me back himself?”
The Duke frowned, having clearly been dwelling on the matter for some time, his expression anxious. “It matters little if you do not remember, but how many times have I told you not to drink? And yet you would not listen. If you spouted nonsense before His Majesty—”
At the thought of the consequences, he shook his head. “Why can you not learn your lesson?”
Song Pu tried to recall, but could not remember a single thing he had said or done after getting drunk. Only the pain at his lip remained. Could it be that Tantai Yi had struck him?
Perplexed and weighed down by concern for Song Lingyun, he could not settle himself. After offering a few perfunctory replies, he left the residence, boarded a carriage, and headed straight for the palace.
It was not long before he arrived. Cao Xi went in to report and soon came back out of Chunhe Palace.
Song Pu asked, “Did His Majesty say anything?”
Cao Xi wore a polite smile and lowered his voice. “His Majesty asks that Lord Song wait here for a moment.”
This had never happened before. Unease crept into Song Pu’s heart, and he could not help asking, “Eunuch Cao, do you know what His Majesty’s mood was like after he sent me back yesterday?”
Cao Xi thought for a moment. “His Majesty seemed in good spirits. He even had two bowls of sweet soup.”
Hearing this, Song Pu gained a rough sense of what might have happened after he had drunk himself insensible. Yet why was Tantai Yi now keeping him waiting?
He felt a faint discomfort, though he said nothing and waited quietly outside. Fortunately, he was not left long. Tantai Yi soon summoned him inside.
Upon entering Chunhe Hall, before he had even reached him, Tantai Yi’s voice sounded, “Lord Song, come here.”
There was a trace of coldness in his tone. Song Pu’s heart gave a small jolt as he approached.
Tantai Yi had just finished writing an imperial edict. He said, “I have completed the decree of betrothal.”
Alarmed, Song Pu blurted out, “Your Majesty, I have said this many times. If Your Majesty insists, would that not make my elder brother a man who breaks his word? My own reputation would also suffer. Even so, does Your Majesty not mind?”
Tantai Yi gave a cold snort. “Lord Song greatly overestimates himself. When did I ever say this decree concerned Song Lingyun? This is a betrothal between Lin Xuemei and Prince Gong.”
“Ah?” Song Pu was completely taken aback.
