Chapter 73 of 90
The Merchants’ Party
A day later, the great merchants of Nalan City came to the City Lord's Mansion to talk about money.
It was the drought. It was always the drought. The wells in the south quarter had gone brackish. The river was a brown thread between banks of cracked mud. There was grain in the granaries—Li Yuguo's grain, out of a bracelet nobody asked questions about—but there would not be enough to see the city through to the next harvest unless the City Lord could pay for more. And the only way to pay for more was to raise the merchants' tax.
Nalan Meng had called the meeting herself. She had drafted the proposal herself. She had lain awake half the night going over the numbers.
And now she stood in front of her wardrobe and could not make herself put on a robe.
It was dark green silk. The least revealing thing she owned now. Which was to say—not very.
It was cut in the old style, like a traditional court robe, crossing over the breast and tying at the side. But the cross was cut low. It held her breasts from beneath, cupping them, lifting them, and the edge of the silk ran across them just above the nipples, so that the whole upper curve of each breast swelled bare and white above it. Below, the skirt was split on both sides from the hem to the waist, in the ordinary fashion.
The design was ordinary. The material was not.
It was thin. Thinner than anything she had worn before Li Yuguo began choosing her clothes. And she was not wearing a breastband—she was not allowed a breastband—so her nipples pushed out against the silk in two clear, hard points that anyone in the room would see. If she stood in the light from a window, the dark green went faintly translucent, and the shadows of her nipples showed through.
And beneath it, she wore a string. Only a string. It vanished into the cleft of her ass, so that there was no line, no seam, no edge anywhere under the silk behind her. Just the round shape of her, bare under one thin layer, for any eye to trace.
She stood in front of the mirror and looked.
I'll have to get used to it, she told herself. I'll have to.
She took a breath, as if she were about to step onto a battlefield. And went out.
The guards stared at her as she passed. They always did now. She did not look at them.
The meeting hall was full when she came in. The long room was lined with chairs, and every chair had someone important in it. The elders of the city council in their gray robes and square caps. Li Yutang in his armor at the head of the officers. Li Yuguo, in a pale robe, lounging in his chair near the dais as if he had wandered in by mistake. The King of Thieves standing behind him.
And the merchants.
All the great merchants of Nalan City were there. Shi Dacheng, of course, in purple silk, with his belly resting on his knees. The weapons merchant, a hard-faced man with scarred hands and gold rings on every finger. The cloth merchant, the grain merchant, the salt merchant, the merchant who owned half the inns on the caravan road. They were all fat, or nearly. They were all dressed in silks and brocades that would have fed a family in the south quarter for a year.
And they were all men.
Every single person in that long room was a man. Every one of them looked up when she walked in.
None of them could stop looking.
They tried. Some of them did. They kept their faces turned respectfully toward the dais. But their eyes slid down, and down, and stuck. To her breasts swelling bare above the edge of the green silk. To her nipples, two hard points under the cloth. To her hips, her legs flashing white through the side slits as she climbed the steps. To her ass, round and clear under the thin silk as she turned to sit.
Li Yuguo was smiling. Everyone else was staring with their mouths slightly open, like dogs in front of a butcher's stall.
These men had beauties in their own houses. Wives, concubines, dancing girls bought from the capital at a hundred taels apiece. But Nalan Meng was on another level entirely. And everyone in this room had heard by now that the City Lord had begun to dress differently. Everyone had seen the robes. Nobody had said a word to her about it. Nobody would have dreamed of saying a word. If anything, they would have been happiest if she simply came naked.
She sat down in the City Lord's chair in the middle of the dais, and crossed her legs. The silk fell away from her thigh. A long white curve of it, bare almost to the hip.
Twenty men forgot how to breathe.
She began.
She laid out the situation in the city. The drought. The wells. The grain that would not last. The cost of more. She did it clearly and coldly and without a wasted word, the way she always did. And then she told them about the tax.
The merchants muttered among themselves. They argued. The grain merchant protested; the salt merchant protested louder. It went on for a while. Then they drew together in a knot at the foot of the dais, whispering.
At last Shi Dacheng heaved himself up and stepped forward.
"City Lord." He bowed, as far as his belly would allow. "We have decided to accept your proposal. We are all responsible citizens of Nalan City, after all." He smiled. "But. As is our tradition, every year we merchants hold a party. Our union party. We would be very happy to accept the tax increase—if the City Lord and her honored household would also come to our party. And enjoy it with us."
Li Yuguo looked at the merchant's smile, and then at the faces of the men behind him.
He knew what this was. The fat weapons merchant at the back was looking at Nalan Meng's thighs like a starving wolf. This was his idea, Li Yuguo thought. He brought it to Dacheng. And Dacheng put a bow on it.
"Why not?" he said, before Nalan Meng could speak. "We'll be more than happy to join your party."
"Wonderful, wonderful!" Shi Dacheng beamed. "Only—it is a special party, you understand. For adults. Only men and women who come as couples may enter." He bowed toward Nalan Meng. "So the Consort must bring the City Lord. Naturally."
The merchants filed out, one by one, bowing.
Li Yuguo sat in his chair and watched them go.
It won't be that simple. It was Shi Dacheng. With Shi Dacheng, nothing was ever simple. He had written that man as a pig with a nose for money, and the pig had turned out to have a much better nose than he had ever given it credit for. And the plot of this world had changed so much now that he could not be sure of anything. There had been no merchants' party in his outline. Not one line.
On the dais, Nalan Meng was frowning. Why invite us to a party? she was thinking. What do they want?
But she stood, and went out. And the others followed.
Everyone was looking forward to that night.
In the evening, Li Yuguo went to Nalan Meng's room himself and stood in front of her wardrobe and chose what she would wear. Something thin. Something pale. Something that showed exactly what it covered. She put it on without a word while he watched.
Li Yutang was coming too. He wanted to follow Nalan Meng inside. So he had brought a partner—Bai Linglong, the pearl of Heaven Lust, the woman he had kept for three years. She was wearing something sheer and gold, cut low at the breast and high at the thigh, and she smiled at Li Yuguo across the courtyard with a perfect courtesan's smile and did not let one thing show in her eyes.
The King of Thieves was not coming. His wife was sick. He said it at the gate, gruffly, not looking at anyone, and went home.
The party was in a great house in the merchants' quarter. A big walled compound of three courtyards, with lanterns blazing in every window and guards at every gate—a great many guards, Li Yuguo noticed. More than a party needed.
All the merchants were there in the first courtyard, waiting. And when Nalan Meng and Bai Linglong came in through the gate, every one of them turned and looked at them with the same creepy smile.
There were plenty of beautiful women in that courtyard. The merchants had brought their wives, and some of their wives were very beautiful indeed. For men with money, a beautiful wife was not hard to find. But in the middle of all of them, Nalan Meng still stood out. Her body under the thin silk. Her face. The way she stood, like a queen among serving girls.
After a while, a servant struck a gong, and Shi Dacheng climbed onto a little platform and announced the main event.
"Honored guests! Now our party truly begins!" He spread his arms. "Gentlemen—to the hall on the left. Ladies—to the hall on the right. Inside, you will find costumes. And masks." He chuckled. "The costumes may be… unusual. Or not. But every guest will wear a mask, so no one will know who anyone is! So there is nothing to worry about. Tonight, you may enjoy the festival however you like—without any fear for your name!" He clapped his hands. "And then, we will play games!"
It was a simple idea.
And every merchant in that courtyard knew it was a lie. A mask could not hide a body like Nalan Meng's. Nothing could. Every one of them would know her the moment she walked out.
Li Yuguo saw it on their faces. And he saw his chance.
He leaned close to her ear. "Cooperate with the party," he murmured. "With all its rules. It's for the tax. For the citizens."
She looked at him. He could feel the hook in her chest answering, very faintly. An order.
"Yes," she said.
They went their separate ways.
Of course the organizer is Shi Dacheng, Li Yuguo thought, as he walked toward the men's hall. Of course it's going to be lewd. He invited Nalan Meng.
The men's hall was lined with racks of clothing.
It was not ordinary clothing. He walked down the racks and looked. Trousers with the crotch cut out entirely. Trousers with the seat cut out. Robes that were only sleeves and a collar. Some costumes that were only trousers, with no top at all. They were adult costumes. Costumes for very particular kinds of play.
He chose a pair of loose black trousers and a short open jacket, and put on a plain black mask. If this is what the men get, he thought, what are they giving the women?
In the women's hall, Nalan Meng and Bai Linglong walked in and stopped.
There were racks here too. A great many racks. And every single thing on them was sexy. Bikini tops that would cover only half of a breast. Bras made of little metal plates. Fluffy bras with cat ears to match. Below, there were mini skirts so short they would barely cover the curve of a hip, and skirts made of nothing but hanging chains, and long panels of silk so thin and white that it was almost transparent. Many of them looked exactly like the outfits on the second floor of Heaven Lust.
Nalan Meng felt her face go hot.
All around her, the merchants' wives were already undressing. They were picking costumes off the racks without hesitation, with little giggles, as if this were nothing unusual at all. They've done this before, she realized. Every year. And they were choosing fast—the most decent costumes first, the ones that covered the most. Nalan Meng and Bai Linglong looked at each other and understood at the same moment. If they did not choose now, they would be left with whatever was most shameless.
They hurried to the racks.
There was very little left.
Bai Linglong found a short skirt and a bikini top and put them on. The skirt was so short that the lower curve of her ass stuck out from under it at the back. The bikini cups were so small that her breasts hung out of them on every side. Her face went red under her paint.
Nalan Meng found two panels of white silk.
They were for the bottom. One hung down in front and one behind, from a fine gold chain that went around her waist. Nothing more. They were so thin that she could see the skin of her own hand through them when she held them up to the lamp. And under them she was wearing only her string. With the string, it would be as if she were wearing nothing at all.
For the top, there was a band of the same white silk, to wrap around her breasts.
She put them on.
The top was the worst.
It clung. The white silk stretched over her breasts and stuck to them, shaping itself around every curve, and her nipples pushed out against it in two hard points. Through the thin cloth, the soft pink of them showed faintly. She knew—she could feel it—that a little sweat, a drop of water, a splash of wine, and the silk would go clear as glass, as if there were nothing there at all.
She looked at herself and wanted to sink into the floor.
But everyone around her was wearing things like this. And her husband had told her to go along with it.
She put on the white mask. Bai Linglong put on hers. And together they walked out to the main hall.
When they came through the door, the main hall went quiet.
It was a great high room with red pillars and lanterns hung in rows from the beams. Tables had been set up all through it—round ones, square ones, low ones with cushions—and the guests were already gathered around them in their costumes and their masks. Masks or not, everyone was looking at everyone else, trying to work out who was who. With so many people, it was hard. Only a few figures were easy. Shi Dacheng's enormous belly, of course. And a few tall, well-built men—Li Yuguo, Li Yutang—whose shapes were hard to mistake.
But most of the room had been waiting for one woman in particular.
They had been watching the door. They were sure they would know her. Her figure was the most stunning in the whole city. No mask could hide it.
They were right.
Two beautiful women had come through the door, and every eye in the room went to them, and every man knew. Nalan Meng. Bai Linglong. There was no question. Not with those bodies.
Everyone looked at Nalan Meng.
Her big, juicy breasts behind that thin little band of white silk, which hid almost none of them. Her nipples making two sharp points in the middle of it, and the pink of them showing faintly through. Her bottom panels stirring in the warm air of the hall, lifting, swaying, so that her white thighs showed all the way up to her waist—and at her sides, between the front panel and the back, the bare curves of her ass on both sides. Only the very center of her was hidden: the strip of silk hanging down over the crack.
She kept her hands pressed over the front of her crotch. Her string would hide nothing if the panel blew aside.
She looked magnificent. She looked obscene. Every person in that hall knew exactly who she was, mask or no mask.
So this is what Shi Dacheng was planning, thought Li Yuguo, and smiled behind his black mask.
He had meant not to go to her. He had meant to keep away, so that he would not make her identity too obvious. But there was no point in that now.
And Nalan Meng—standing in the middle of so many people, in this—felt something hot and shameful move in her belly. She was excited. She was looking around the hall for her husband.
Li Yutang drifted toward them through the crowd.
He did not make himself obvious. He came up quietly and stood a little behind them, as if he just happened to be there. He was staring at Nalan Meng's ass. The white panel at the back hid almost nothing; he could see the shape of her through it, and the bare curves on either side.
Every man in this party had a cock standing up like a rock right now. His was no different.
Then Li Yuguo came up too, and stood beside Nalan Meng, and leaned close to her ear.
"Remember," he said quietly. "Go along with it. No matter what. Just pretend nobody knows who you are behind the mask."
"Let the games begin!" Shi Dacheng announced from his platform, and laughed. "Play whatever you like! With whoever you like!"
There were games all over the hall. Cards. Dice. Number-guessing. Chess. Dancing. Drinking games. Archery at a little target at the end of the room. Since it was all for fun, nobody played for money. Instead, the losers took penalties. Forfeits. Strange things.
People began to play at once, as if there were nothing unusual about any of it. And all around the hall the forfeits began—dares, kisses, spankings, and other things, stranger things, whatever the players had agreed to.
Li Yuguo knew that if they stood around and did not play, they would stand out. So he walked toward one of the tables, as if to watch. Nalan Meng followed him.
Li Yutang was already sitting there. He had dragged Bai Linglong into the game with him; she had not had much choice. It was a card table. Two merchants were playing, and Li Yutang, and Bai Linglong, and another beautiful masked girl Li Yuguo did not recognize. The rule was simple: lowest card takes a forfeit, drawn at random from a deck of dare cards.
The cards were turned up. The masked girl had the lowest.
Of course she did. Li Yuguo saw the two merchants exchange a glance. They had cheated. They wanted to see her do a dare.
She drew a dare card from the women's deck and read it.
Show your breasts to everyone at the table.
She went red under her mask. But she lifted her bikini top, and showed them. Two round white breasts, bare in the lantern light, for the count of three. Then she pulled the top back down.
Nalan Meng and Bai Linglong both felt their faces go hot, watching.
The girl got up and left the table with her head down. The two merchants immediately turned to look at Nalan Meng.
"Hey, lady," said one of them. "Why don't you join the table, instead of standing there?"
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