Mm but that impugns the virtue of the men, not the discipline.

None of the disciplines here are worse than any other, don’t you think? Even An Ding. I have never understood antagonizing them. At the house, you treated whoever was on kitchen duty really well or you weren’t eating…

I used to have a client who was studying for the public service exams. He would come by just to put his head in my lap and cry while I told him he was working hard enough and would not disappoint his family…

Scholars outside the jianghu can’t be working that hard to be useless, right?

I went to the beast master peak and watched how they were being handled as I painted. When the young ones play they learn to guard their weak points…

I could just say I got in a fight with a Bai Zhan disciple.

[He knelt down in front of his Master, eyes searching his face for signs of approval or disapproval as he read. The tiredness pulled on his old fears, making it easier to believe that everything could be taken away again.]

Not with that attitude, it’s not

It is a dangerous time. You are bringing a life into the world. It is easy for you to fall through and lose your own life in the process.

[he had lost too many colleagues that way. Bearing the children of men who didn’t even come back for their children in the end much less the women bearing them.]

“Of course you do not. No one does. One wrong turn in this town and you land in a pretty boy’s bed. I understand how it is.”

He winked. “I promise I will not tell any of your wives.”

Or try at least. Unless there was something he was missing, he would need some special pills to be bred…

Rong Jiu couldn’t help but feel a little turned on by the show of defensiveness. He wrapped his arms around his saviour’s chest from behind and kissed the nape of his neck.

“I am wearing everything I can take with me. Let’s just leave… find a place to let me fulfill my end of the bargain…”

“That and trying to make arrangements for when it gets a little too obvious… a midwife, a cottage to recover in…”

He knew how pregnancy went better than most. He’d had to be the helper in more than a few of his jiejies’ births.

He hadn’t been able to resist a little flourish of possessiveness and the hems were embroidered with silver spider lilies, matching the one tattooed onto Rong Jiu’s shoulder.

@pickledpeaklord.bsky.social

“Shizun, good morning! I took the liberty of acquiring some more… adjustable… robes for you.”

He laid out a new set of green robes, with a loose coat that would provide enough structure to hide the bump for a few months at least.

@blacklotusbinghe.bsky.social

“My Lord, Madam Meiyin has told the girls and I of your prowess but you needn’t come already half undressed… there is time for that in the bedroom…”

@whit3reaper.bsky.social

“My Lady what brings you to my humble room tonight?”

He flipped a wooden comb between his fingers as if considering something and biting his tongue about it.

“Happily, Master Shen. Come inside before too many people see you and invent wild tales of your brutality.”

He laughed under his breath. He couldn’t think of anyone less likely to be brutal than the girls’ favourite pillow.