Ning Chen thought about it and nodded his head.

He only wanted to try the good wine. He was absolutely not hungry for Miss Yudie’s body.

Yudie’s eyes were bright with pleasure.

“Young Master Ning. Please come with this girl.”

Ning Chen followed her up the stairs under the envious, jealous, hateful eyes of the whole pack of animals.

“Miss Yudie, Ning Chen is still a little virgin chick who has never been with a woman. Be gentle with him.”

Feng Qizheng bellowed it at the top of his voice.

Ning Chen stumbled on the stairs and very nearly went down head first.

He turned and glared savagely at Feng Qizheng, that scoundrel. Pure jealousy.

Every one of them had a look that said this was too good. So Ning Chen is still a little virgin chick.

They came to a room.

It was large, laid out with great elegance, with a faint scent of orchid in the air.

“Young Master Ning, please sit.”

A low table stood in front of the screen, with cakes and little things to eat on it.

Yudie sent the maid out and drew the door behind her, then went into the inner room. A little while later she came out carrying a jug of wine.

She sat down facing him and poured two cups.

“Young Master Ning. This is a fine apricot-blossom rain. Please try it.”

Ning Chen took the cup and drank it off.

The wine was good, considerably more full-bodied and fragrant than what they had been drinking downstairs.

Then Yudie removed the white veil from her face.

Ning Chen stared.

A small face the size of a palm, white skin so fine it might have been blown away by a breath, a prettily upturned nose, a small mouth red as cherries, and a pair of bright, wet eyes. She was like a perfect little doll.

In all honesty, in the world he had come from or this one, of all the women he had seen there was not one who could hold a candle to Yudie.

Though in looks the Ninth Princess might be a match for her… in figure there was simply no comparison. The Ninth Princess was still a child and not yet fully grown. Who could say what she would become?

Yudie herself was not much older, and looked about eighteen or nineteen.

“Am I pretty?”

Yudie looked at him with a smile and asked it.

Ning Chen nodded. “Very.”

“Thank you for saying so, young master… Come. Another cup.”

With a beauty beside him and delicate hands pouring the wine, Ning Chen drank more than he meant to without noticing.

“Young Master Ning looks a little tired. Would this girl rub your shoulders?”

He had just come out of the cells, and he was tired.

He nodded and said “Mm.”

Yudie moved beside him and kneaded his shoulders gently.

She had a good touch, and Ning Chen’s face was all pleasure.

“Lie down, young master. This girl will work on your head.”

Ning Chen looked back and found there was nothing to lay his head on.

“If the young master does not think it beneath him, this girl’s lap is there.”

He did not think it beneath him. Of course he did not.

Ning Chen lay down and put his head in her lap.

Yudie worked gently on the pressure points in his head.

From this angle he could not see her face at all. What was in the way was quite remarkable, and would have blocked anyone’s view.

She is so slim. How can it be that size?

There was no such thing as augmentation in this world. Yudie’s was entirely her own.

A woman who cannot see her own feet when she looks down is the rarest beauty in the world.

Lying in Yudie’s soft and yielding lap, enjoying the hands working on him, and with the wine on top of it, Ning Chen went and fell comfortably asleep.

When he woke he had no idea what hour it was.

“Young master is awake?”

Ning Chen sat up and stretched. “How long did I sleep?”

“About two hours, young master.”

That surprised him. Two hours. He looked at Yudie. “You did not move for two hours? Why did you not wake me?”

Yudie gave a shy little nod and said, “The young master was sleeping so soundly this girl did not dare disturb him.”

As she spoke she slowly tried to get up — but two hours without moving, the blood not flowing, and before she was fully upright her legs gave out. She softened, pitched forward toward the floor, and let out a little cry of fright.

Ning Chen’s hand moved before his eye did and he caught her.

She fell straight into his arms, and both of them went over.

He could feel quite clearly just how remarkable it was.

At that distance, her fine features close to his own and her lips red as cherries, his breathing went a little heavier, and he kissed her.

To hesitate for a single second at this moment would be to show Yudie a lack of respect.

She froze. Her bright wet eyes went wider still. When she came back to herself she made a token effort to pull away, but there was not much force in it.

Ning Chen let her go.

Yudie was still for a moment, and something that might have been disappointment showed in her eyes. Then she got up off him.

Ning Chen sat up and looked at her. “Have you been with a man before?”

Yudie shook her head gently.

Ning Chen laughed. “Good. Then you will have one soon enough. You. I want you. You’ll come with me from now on.”

“Of course, if you don’t want to, I won’t push you.”

Yudie looked down and thought for a moment, and then nodded, her small face pink.

She was one of the twelve houses, certainly, but as long as she was in the courtesans’ quarter, she would have to give herself sooner or later.

The first night of a woman of the pleasure houses was auctioned by the madam, and went to the highest bidder.

Yudie was one of the twelve, the pride of the place, and the madam generally would not press them.

But there was no guarantee that one day, with the sight of money softening the old madam’s head, she would not sell Yudie’s first night to someone.

Better to give herself to him than to see it go to a stranger.

He was brimming with talent, and more to the point he was still untouched himself. She was not coming out the worse of it.

“Then… then this girl will help the young master bathe.”

Ning Chen laughed. “I had a bath before I came.”

As he said it he picked her up outright and walked in long strides into the inner room.

“Young master. Should this girl call the mistress of the house?”

The mistress was the owner of the establishment. The madam.

That stopped him. “What for?”

“To advise us. This girl has heard a great deal from her sisters, but she has no experience at all herself, and she is afraid she will not serve the young master well.”

Ning Chen’s forehead was full of black lines.

That sort of thing needs advising? This is not a film set.

“Cough… Entirely unnecessary.”

Yudie said, shy with it, “But is the young master not also — for the first time?”

In this body it is the first time, certainly, Ning Chen said to himself. But in my last life I had a great deal of experience.

“I am a natural at most things. A great deal of it comes to me without being taught.”

As he spoke he carried her into the inner room… The room was not large, but the bed was, and Ning Chen approved.

He set her down gently on it.

“Young master. One moment.”

Yudie got up off the bed, searched around for a while, and found a length of white silk, which she spread on the bed.

Ning Chen thought about it and understood. It was to receive the proof of her virtue.

Yudie climbed shyly back onto the bed and lay there, her bright wet eyes blinking and blinking, waiting and afraid at once.

Ning Chen’s mouth curved up. He took off his boots, climbed onto the bed, and let down the curtain around it.

Very soon one garment after another came flying out from behind the curtain, and fell across the floor.

“Young master. Please be gentle with me. I am afraid of the pain.”

Yudie’s small voice came from inside the curtain.

The answer she got was Ning Chen’s voice, full of surprise. “Holy shit. It’s huge!“

(End of Chapter 79)