"Grandfather!" Rin Tin Tin burst into The Grand Hall of the Yin and Yang Sect. Her legs advanced with long, confident strides on the red carpet towards the old man relaxing on his modest throne. "What is your meaning?" Right now, she was fuming and cared little about deference. Anyway, this was a family matter.
Sect Mast Rin shifted his gaze to her. "Not even a bow?"
As if he had never spoken, Rin Tin Tin continued her tirade, "Explain, why did you free Ku Lo?" Her stride stopped at the edge of the raised platform on which only the sect master was allowed to stand. "Do you understand what kind of setback you have caused to my cultivation?"
"You were keeping a fellow disciple as a prisoner," he retorted, keeping his tone and facial expression still.
"Did you bother to think about why?"
"Young girl's infatuation."
Rin Tin Tin felt her jaw drop. "Me?" Grandfather's reasoning was ludicrous!
"I have watched you interact with him. It wasn't the cold, calculative Rin Tin Tin I know as my granddaughter."
"W-what?"
"You are talented, not strong."
Rin Tin Tin stared amazed, maybe even frightened, at her grandfather who still hadn't moved an inch during their discussion.
"Now imagine if it had been someone else in the room? Grand Elder Yao, for example."
The anger in her began to vanish as she considered his words. "I… I have been too arrogant." She bent into a deep bow.
"I hope you learn from this."
"I have, and will."
"Rise."
Rin Tin Tin straightened her back. "But even then," she said. "Although I might have let my emotions influence my actions, it was so because the reward blinded me."
At last, Sect Master Rin's face moved as one of his eyebrows rose. "So there's something special in that boy, Ku Lo."
"I would have come asking for your advice today with this anyway-" While speaking, Rin Tin Tin took out the Cultivation Partner Assessment Tool she had used with Ku Lo. "This is beyond my understanding." She tossed it.
Although old, Sect Master Rin was more agile and quicker in his reactions than his appearance gave credit for, so his hand caught the board without any problem. "Blinded…"
With a smug smile on her face, Rin Tin Tin waited long as was needed.
"This is beyond my understanding." He, speaking mimicked words, tossed it back.
"Don't you have someone who can have a look?" She tossed it back.
"I'll see." Sect Master Rin caught the Cultivation Partner Assessment Tool and placed it within his own storage artefact. "The end result doesn't matter much for us."
"I told you the reward blinded me."
"So much you can't see he's beyond our capacities?" he countered. "We have enough trouble as it is. I say we inform the Yang—"
"Yin," Rin Tin Tin corrected her grandfather, who didn't know better. Though Ku Lo might flourish as a member of the Yang Palace just as well.
"The Yin Palace," he corrected. "They will pick him up and give us some goodies in exchange, maybe deal with the Rising Sun Sect while they are here."
"Grandfather, I'm not letting him go…" She pretended to take a step onto the platform. There was no way she actually dared to take the step, yet she wished to show her conviction to near stupidity on this matter.
Sect Master Rin's sharp eyes shot at her leg, hovering above the platform. "He can't stay here for long, they will find out. Or he himself will."
"I'll go with him."
"Your duty is here. As my replacement."
"In some fifty-odd years."
"Ten. We're skipping your father."
Rin Tin Tin's amber eyes opened wide. "Father is a good man!" She had heard rumours, but would never believe them in the slightest. "He's…. He'll be strong enough in ten years!"
"I know my own son, he will not improve much anymore. It also doesn't help that he had to fight with the Yang Palace's current Sect Master when they were kids."
"This isn't easy for me either," he added.
"Ten years…" Rin Tin Tin envisioned herself on the throne and all the responsibility which came with sitting on it.
She didn't want it. "Ten years is still enough time to see the world and return." Before this week she had been okay with fifty odd-years of freedom till she took the sect's reins. However, after meeting Ku Lo, the notion had somewhat faded to the background as a thing to be worried of later. Now she felt a need to find a way out.
"Blinded. Infatuated," Sect Master Rin had two words to say. "Even if I allow you to wander out into the world, how are you going to remedy your relationship with him?"
"Thanks to you, it'll be hard," she murmured.
"So you were tinkering with his mind."
"I'll let you know everything would have gone smoothly if not for my hurried actions," she noted. "Give me a month. That is all I ask."
The facial expression Sect Master Rin had changed many times before he sighed, "If I don't see you together by then, I'll inform the two suzerain sects and you'll become the next sect master."
"Fine," she snapped as she spun around on her heels.
As she walked out, Rin Tin Tin had a hopeful smile on her sharp face. 'A month is enough, more than enough.'
…
Elsewhere, Ku Lo had just entered Deacon Dai's home, a building slightly larger than Rin Tin Tin's, though this one had no balcony and was in a row amongst many similar buildings.
"I should have cleaned," Lady Dai said as they entered her apartment filled with all manners of clutter in literal piles. "But I didn't plan on bringing anyone home today."
Ku Lo looked around, almost finding himself at home amongst these piles of clutter. "I don't mind, and at least your house has stuff, unlike my empty box."
"Right, you live in one of those." She turned around, glancing at the unused furniture. "If you want a bed or anything else, take it."
"Then I'll have you, Lady Dai." So far, the mission nicknamed every boy's dream was a success, and so he pushed the envelope further.
"Daring are we?" she giggled, continuing to walk further into the house.
The conversation ended there. Ku Lo followed Lady Dai, yet whenever his eyes started to wander on her body, a strange sense of discomfort and paranoia befell him. 'Did Rin Tin Tin do something to me?'
As he pondered what might be the deal with him, Lady Dai led him to a room which at first seemed clean — though, after a closer inspection, he noted that the clutter in this room 'hid' behind a massive couch bed hybrid. 'So there happens the magic,' he thought, trying not to be taken aback as this would be the norm from now on.
'Man up Ku Lo,' he braced himself before reaching for Lady Dai's waist with his hand. "Here's a good spot."
There came little resistance from her taking a seat with his hand around her waist.
She placed her own hand atop it, beginning to fondle and caress it with great care.
"You have drinks?"
She looked at him. "Nervous?"
"My last time wasn't the best," he spoke honestly. "We rushed things… it ended terribly for both."
"I understand, every year I hear many such cases-" Her other hand reached down towards the floor for what came to be a bottle. "With the nature of our sect, these things are common. Unhappy marriages, broken homes, life long traumas. I could go on and on."
The empathy she showed made him feel much livelier and relaxed.
Ku Lo took the bottle she offered, not caring if the bottle's mouth had been washed.
Downing a full mouth, he felt a sharp warmth in his throat before it rose to his head. "Strong stuff," he cackled.
Lady Dai drank straight from the bottle's mouth too before responding, "Good stuff-" She offered the bottle back. "Have some more."
Ku Lo took a turn on the bottle, and they began drinking.
Soon this boiled down to him, listening to her blabber.
"When I first joined the sect…" At first, her stories were something one would tell during a family gathering. "I've had my share of heartbreaks. One time I…" As more alcohol went past her throat, the stories changed towards the more private sort. "I once did it with a girl you know…" In the end, the stories she told would probably be outrageous to most inhabitants of this world, but weren't that unusual to Ku Lo, who had lived in a world where most of it was considered normal.
Of course, Ku Lo told some of his own, yet he wasn't a light drinker nor a blabbermouth. Most of his attention went into fondling her massive breast with the hand around her waist. He could touch them as he wanted, for Deacon Dai wore a revealing dress with a cleavage that almost reached her navel with straps covering her breasts.
Finally, when it came clear that there was nothing in the bottle to drink anymore, their attention shifted to the other.
"Now, let me feel what you're made of," she lured him in with sweet words.
"As the lady wishes."
"But not so fast-" She put her hand on his chest, blocking him from advancing towards her mouth. "Call me Meifen."
As her teeth bit her lower lip, he responded, "Meifen, I'm going to open those puffy, sweet lips of yours."
Meifen set aside the hand blocking him. "I welcome you to try~"
Unbound, he lunged after her falling on her back. Supported by a hand reaching for hers and the other for the slim neck, his main attack plunged towards her cherry-red lips.
In contact, he first sensed how her lips were a lot larger than his. Her lips surrounded his with every kiss they shared. It was a unique feeling compared to last time, the whole experience, not just the lip size difference. With Dai Meifen, he could feel his lips push into hers and taste how sweet they were.
Still, to be a man of his words, he began prying her rows of teeth apart from each other.
He parted just to breathe and say, "Now let me enjoy your tongue."