Chapter 41 Ricksha Bondage
Her punishment for wasting the well water now completed, Lin and Dao
dragged Cici bodily outside into the cool night air. At Chiang Chan's imperious
gesture, they unceremoniously let her fall to the ground next to the ricksha
that they had purloined from the drunken coolie on their way back from the
harbor. The rainclouds had blown over for the moment and the moon and stars
cast a fair amount of light on Ci-ci's body, which was still dark with coal dust
except for her clean-stropped buttocks, and brush-scrubbed breasts.
"Well, boys," Chiang Chan asked his comrades, "Have you ever had a ride in
a ricksha?"
The three men shook their heads, no. Ricksha rides in China typically
consisted of the very poor ferrying the very rich; Chiang Chan knew that it
would be a bit of a treat for the three working-class Scorpions to be accorded
this luxurious method of travel, even if they had no particular place to go.
Especially when one considered that their porter was going to be a nubile,
naked sixteen-year-old wench.
"On your feet, girl -- you are going to take each of the boys for a little
ride to the Black Pagoda and back. And be quick about it. Remember -- you're
bathwater's heating inside. If you dawdle too long, the water might get
uncomfortably hot." Chiang Chan winked at his comrades, as Ci-ci climbed to her
feet.
"Who's first? Lin? Very well. Why don't you get the buggy whip from the
horse cart, boy? Just to make sure she moves at a good clip." Lin eagerly
climbed into the cart, retrieved the light whip, and then, cradling one of the
bottles of rice wine in his hands, seated himself in the carriage portion of the
ricksha, while Ci-ci, her back to the carriage, took each of the rail-shaped
ricksha handles in her small hands.
She looked out across the grassy courtyard which separated the Pit from the
Black Pagoda. In the moonlight she could see that the lawn was encircled by a
circular cobblestone pathway. She judged that the Pagoda was approximately
seventy yards away as the crow flies, and therefore the circular drive was
perhaps a furlong in circumference. An eighth of a mile; not too great a
distance, she thought to herself. She could surely manage four circuits of such
a course, given that the cobblestone path was fairly level.
"Hurry up! I want to go for a ride," Lin giggled half-drunkenly. A split
second later Ci-ci felt a sharp crack on her shoulder.
"Let's go, girl! And be quick about it!" And the Drooler took another
pull at his bottle and flicked her again with the buggy whip he had appropriated
from the horse cart.
Ci-ci lifted the rails, and started forward.
As she had expected, pulling the ricksha along the cobblestone path was not
too arduous. It would have been even easier, had it not been for the fact that
Lin was liberal in his use of the buggy whip, flicking her every few seconds
across the shoulders and back.
****************
As she lugged the cart around the circular path, Ci-ci's thoughts turned
once again to her beloved sister, Peony. Now it was clear to her that her
sister had tried to warn her on their last meeting.
The last time she had seen her sister had been the day after Richard
Chan's brother had brought that exotic-looking blonde woman to the Black Pagoda.
The following day had been Ci-ci's one afternoon off each week, and she had
stopped by the tiny lodgings that she and her sister had shared.
When she had tapped at the door her sister had cried out, "No, don't come
in yet." and she had had to wait in the hallway for a minute or two.
When at last Peony had come to the door, Ci-ci had taken one look at her
and assumed that she had been ill; she seemed to have aged a year in a week;
her eyes seemed to be puffy from crying, and she moved with the slowness of one
whose every step was wracked with pain.
When Peony saw that it was her sister on the threshhold she threw herself
upon Ci-ci and held her close, saying "I'm glad you have come. There may yet be
time for you."
Puzzled by this enigmatic remark, Ci-ci asked "What are you talking about,
my sister? And what has happened to you? Are you not well?"
Peony had taken her face in her hands. "Please, Ci-ci. I beg of you. Do
not go back to the Black Pagoda. You don't know... you can't know... The
Chans..."
"Dear sister," Ci-ci had responded patiently, "We have been over this
before. I know that Richard Chan has shady dealings. No, wait." she continued
as Peony tried to interrupt. "He is a rich and powerful man. I know he did not
make his fortune teaching children to sing hymns. But he likes me." She gave
Peony a warm smile. "I know it's hard for you to believe, because I'm not half
so pretty as you, but he finds me attractive."
"Ci-ci, in the name of our mother, I beg..."
"No, Peony. It's all right. Don't cry ...You know as well as I do that we
must help the children as best we can." She hugged Peony tighter. "And this is
the only way I am able to help you help them, Peony. Do not be afraid on my
account."
"Now," Ci-ci had continued, holding out a small purse, "here are my wages
for the week. Take it, Peony; there should be enough there to buy a book for
Lee Yuan -- he's such a bright little boy. We must see that he has a chance to
go to school. And a doll for the girls. Ci-ci held Peony at arm's length and
squeezed her hands warmly. "Don't worry about me, my sister. The spirit of our
mother will protect me. Now I must get back -- I have to clean Mr Chan's
library tonight."
And she turned on her heels and left. And Peony, who had been too ashamed
to speak of her dreadful ordeal at the Black Pagoda, had watched her younger
sister walk quickly away, back to the home of Richard Chan, who had presided
over her own cruel flogging and rape there only the day before. Peony had stood
there waving with one hand, tears streaming down her face. Praying desperately
that her sweet young sister would not fall, as she had, into the clutches of
the Black Scorpions.
When Ci-ci reached the corner, she had turned and given Peony one last
quick smile and a brief wave. They had not seen each other since. And as Ci-ci
felt Lin's lash sting the delicate skin of her back yet again, she wondered if
she would live to see her dear and beautiful sister again.
**********
Ci-ci's legs had begun to tire as she neared the halfway point of her
first lap around the circular path. When she began to slow, Lin began to sting
her buttocks with the light whip.
"Bring those knees up, girl!" Lin chortled gleefully. He reveled in his
new-found aristocracy -- the bottle of wine, the ride in a ricksha in the
moonlight. And best of all, a perfect view of the tapering back, shapely legs
and nicely rounded asscheeks of his pretty little pack animal.
Halfway around the first lap Ci-ci glanced up at the dark spires of the
Black Pagoda that towered above her. One room, near the top of the great
palace, seemed still to be illuminated, even at this very late hour. Ci-ci
thought, but could not be sure, that she saw dark shadows standing in the
window. She noticed that Lin had quieted down as they neared Richard Chan's
princely residence, probably because he was in fear of waking the Lord of the
Scorpions or his mistress, Mai-Lee, who Ci-ci suspected of conspiring to
incriminate her.
As she passed the pagoda and jogged into the backstretch leading back
toward the other three Scorpions, Ci-ci noted that ahead of her there seemed to
be a pathway that began some twenty or thirty yards off to the right of the the
circular track and which led into a wooded area. FLICK!! the whip stung her
deep-clefted buttocks again as she tried to force herself to think. Where could
that pathway lead? Was there a chance to escape the Scorpions' dark underworld,
by dropping the ricksha and running for her life?
FLICK!! the whip cracked her bottom again. "Higher, girl! Lift those knees
higher. Hee-hee" Lin laughed drunkenly. "That's better! That's the way to
jiggle that ass!"
Lin was the youngest of the four, and presumably the swiftest. It would be
risky indeed to challenge his speed, especially in her exhausted state.
But the Ox...surely she could outrun him...
A hundred yards and a dozen stinging flicks of the whip later, Ci-ci pulled
up in front of the other three men, back where she had started, a few yards from
the entrance to the Pit. She stood there motionless, her chest and shoulders
heaving from her exertion, while Lin climbed out. "She's a good little pony, she
is, Ox" he told the huge man who was next to take his seat in the carriage.
"But you've got to use the whip if you really want to get that sweet ass in
motion."
As soon as the Ox had settled himself in the cart, Ci-ci knew that the next
circuit would be far more difficult. The giant was twice the weight of Lin, and
three times her own. But the balance of the ricksha was praiseworthy, and she
took the rails in her hands and set out again, albeit much more slowly now that
she was towing such an over-sized passenger.
Had she been able to see the Ox's face she might have been astonished; the
man mountain sat in the ricksha seat, his legs widespread, wearing a childlike
look of wonder on his vacant face as Ci-ci padded her way toward the Black
Pagoda. The giant's mind was as small as his body was huge.
As she jogged slowly along, laboring under Zheng's immense weight, her
tender feet feeling every uneven edge of the cobblestones,Ci-ci tried to
calculate the odds of escaping the ponderous giant by fleeing down the pathway
she had seen earlier. Surely he was the slowest of the foursome; this was her
best chance -- in all likelihood her only chance -- would she even be able to
survive several more hours of the Scorpions' 'hospitality'?
She tried to preserve her strength for her dash for freedom, slowing down
as she passed the Pagoda for the second time. But when the Ox sensed that she
was slowing down and taking the fun out of his ride, he mumbled "Faster, girl!"
and cracked her smartly across the shoulders with his whip.
"Ouwww!" Ci-ci grimaced; Zheng's lightest flick stung more than the boy's
hardest stroke.
As she rounded the curve and began heading back toward the Pit, she noticed
the two shadowy figures waiting for her back at the starting line. But she gave
them only a moment's thought, as she trained her eyes on the darkness to her
right, searching for the beginning of the path. And suddenly there it was!
Perhaps thirty yards ahead.
Her heart was pounding in her chest and her shoulders ached from the strain
of pulling the Ox's ponderous body around the cobblestone drive. Ci-ci decided
that it would be best to get as close as possible to the path before making a
run for it. Twenty yards... fifteen...ten...five... And then she dropped the
ricksha rails and sprinted madly toward the opening between the trees.
"WHAAA?!?" the Ox bellowed as the ricksha stopped dead, and the slim figure
of the Scorpions' slave-girl raced off into the darkness. Clumsily the big man
clambered down from the seat and lumbered off in pursuit.
Ci-ci had only taken a step or two away from the ricksha when a sudden
thought nagged at her consciousness -- there was something wrong. Something not
quite right. But what?
Hearing the ponderous brute behind her, she tried to run even faster. Lungs
pounding, she tried desperately to increase the gap between herself and the Ox.
She was only a few yards from the entrance to the path when she realized in
a flash of insight what had been troubling her. Just as it struck her that she
had only seen two of the three waiting Scorpions at the finish line, a tall
shadow, no doubt that of a small tree, seemed to loom toward her on her right.
Where had the third man gone?, she wondered as the looming shadow seemed to
move suddenly in her direction. And then her query was answered when Dao's
switch came whizzing out of the darkness only to bury itself in the yielding
flesh of her plump young breasts.
"AAAAUGGHHH!" Ci-ci screamed, the impact of his vicious swing having been
increased exponentially by her onrushing speed. The blow threw her off balance
and she careened headlong into the thicket of brambles that lined one edge of
the path.
She cried out again, as the prickers and thorns tore at her flesh, as she
scrambled frantically to free herself from the sharp embrace of the thornbush
that enveloped her as if it had has a life of its own. The more she struggled
the deeper she seemed to sink into the devilish hedge.
THWICKK!! THWICCKK!! THWICCKKK!!!!
Ci-ci felt Dao's switch crease her bottomflesh, once, twice, three times as
she struggled to escape the thorns..
"It was clever of the boy to notice the path; and cleverer still for Chiang
Chan to send me to guard it, foolish girl!" Dao bellowed as he continued to
slash at the backs of her thighs which gleamed in the moonlight.
Just then the Ox joined them, wheezing from the exertion of his short
sprint.
"The little slut tried to run away, Zheng," Dao confided. "She tried to
make you look foolish."
The Ox tried to come to terms with the idea that the girl's actions had put
him in a bad light. Then he reached down, and grabbed Ci-ci by both pigtails,
and lifted her bodily from the thorn-hedge; Ci-ci groaned in pain as she felt
her flesh being torn by the tenacious prickers.
When she had been jerked clear of the thorns the Ox threw her to the ground
roughly, face up, her legs shamefully widespread.
"Not here," Dao cautioned his over-sized friend. "Let's get her back out
in the open."
The Ox growled, but reached down and grabbed Ci-ci by her pigtails, and
started dragging her supine body roughly back toward the ricksha.
By now Dao was aware that Chiang and Lin were also approaching from the
Pit, with the boy carrying a torch that helped to illuminate the dark night.
Soon all four were standing just outside the entrance to the pathway, with the
towers of the Black Pagoda once again in view.
Meanwhile the Ox jerked Ci-ci roughly to her feet, facing him. When Lin
drew closer with the torch, the four men saw that the front of Ci-ci's body was
criss-crossed with faint red trails -- stark testimony to her losing battle with
the thorn-hedge. Her legs, her loins, her tummy, her breasts and shoulders --
each sported a few of the spines that had broken off in her flesh.
"I ought to..." the Ox growled, as he formed a huge ham-fist intending to
direct a devastating blow at Ci-ci's unprotected torso.
"No, Zheng. Not now," Chiang Chan ordered sharply, as he put a hand on the
big man's shoulder. "One should not shoot an arrow at a beautiful bird until
one has tired of watching it fly and hearing it sing," Chiang philosophized.
"And our pretty little nightingale has songs we have not yet heard. Sad songs,
no doubt. Hold her!"
Dao's powerful arms pinned Ci-ci's arms behind her. Then Chiang Chan took
the torch Lin had brought and held it in front of him at chest height. Ci-ci's
body looked more desirable than ever in the uneven light given off by the
flaming brand. Her painful encounter with the thorn bush had removed much of
the remaining coal dust from the front of her body. Four cocks tightened with
resurgent lust at the sight of her thorn-studded breasts, her succulent nipples,
the gentle pressure of her rib cage against her flat stomach, and the delta of
the love-goddess, the inverted V of girlish pubic hair that seemed to beckon to
each of them.
Chiang Chan stepped closer, still holding the torch in front of him, as if
to illuminate her beauty in the nocturnal gloom even more; but it was not the
light of the torch that Ci-ci feared. As Chiang moved a few inches closer, she
felt the dragon's breath of the torch upon her protruding breasts. At first the
warmth felt good in the cool night air, but not for long. With a glint in his
eye, the leader of the Scorpions edged closer still. Not so close that the
flickering flames actually singed her flesh -- Chiang Chan was careful not to do
that -- but they seemed to bathe her dark-nippled love gourds in an infernally
hot caress.
As the fire's glow became more and more intense, Ci-ci's dark eyes searched
anxiously from one man to the next, but her silent appeal found only four pairs
of eyes that gleamed with the fierce intensity of unsated male lust. The gaze
of those menacingly thin-slitted eyes seemed to rake her girlish flesh with
desire. She struggled desperately in Dao's grasp, but his arms were bands of
steel enclosing hers.
"Hold this," Chiang said to Lin, extending the torch. The boy took the
torch from his leader's hand and held it as Chiang had done. Close enough to
Ci-ci's body to hurt, but not to burn.
"You should be more careful, wench." Chiang pushed Lin slightly to his
left so that the boy held the torch about a foot away from Ci-ci's right breast.
"You look like you've fallen into a patch of briars. Perhaps I can be of
assistance."
Dao and the Ox exchanged grins and nudges as Chiang Chan reached toward one
of the three barbs that were lodged in Ci-ci's left breast.
"It must hurt a great deal to have thorns as sharp as these stuck in your
pretty breasts?" Chiang's statement ended with the hint of a question mark.
"Y-yes..." Ci-ci replied cautiously.
"Well, don't be alarmed. My men and I will be happy to assist you. Hmmm.
They look quite entrenched. I don't think they'll pull straight out, do you,
Dao?"
"Looks like you might have to twist 'em, boss," Dao agreed, playing along
with his new squadron leader. Dao's tongue protruded licentiously between two of
his widely-spaced teeth as he tightened his grip on Ci-ci's arms. Standing
behind her, looking down over her shoulder, his eyes ravaged Ci-ci's
crimson-stippled breasts. This was going to be fun.
"No... don't...please..." But Ci-ci knew that her pleas for mercy would
fall on deaf ears.
"Yes, they look like tricky little devils. I wonder, which way should I
twist them? Like this, do you think?"
"Aaaaahhhhhh!!"
"Oh, forgive me. Did I twist it the wrong way? I'm only trying to help,
you understand."
"Help her some more, chief!" Lin's giggled as he moved the flaming torch a
centimeter closer to Ci-ci's sweat-sheened lust globes.
"Please...let me..."
"Certainly not... it is my pleasure, surely. I am delighted to be of
assistance." Chiang Chan bowed to her, enjoying his feigned courtliness. "Now,
where we? Oh yes. Perhaps if I twist the thorn in the other direction. Is
this better?
"Ooooughhhhhh ... don't..." Ci-ci groaned. It felt as if Chiang Chan had
plunged a hot needle into the soft outer curve of her breast and then given it a
quarter turn.
"Ah. I've got a good tight grip on it now. Hold her tight, Dao."
"N-no...it's alright..."
"Nonsense, girl. We'll take care of everything."
Ci-ci could feel the spine digging deeper into her tender breast as Chiang
secured his grip.
"Please... just leave it alo..."
"EEAHHHHHH!!"
"See, there it is." Chiang held up the offending thorn in the torchlight.
It was nearly an inch long, and half its length was coated with breast blood.
"That wasn't so bad, was it? What do you think, Dao? Should we try the one in
her nipple next?"
Ci-ci choked back her tears and looked down at the thick brown barb that
was lodged in her aureole, an eyelash below the tip of her left breast.
"No... please... I can do it mys..."
"Unghhhhhhhhhh!!"
"Hmmm, this is a tough one. It will be difficult to get a god grip on this
one; it's buried quiet deep, you see."
"Ohhh! Owwwwww!!
"Got it now. Out she comes." But as Chiang extracted the barb with
infinitesimal slowness, he wiggled it this way and that exacerbating Ci-ci's
discomfort.
It took Chan the younger another quarter of an hour to pluck the remaining
thorn barbs from Ci-ci's body, while Lin's torch threatened to slow-roast her
flesh, but at last, to her relief, he was done.
"Well, what do you say we return to the ricksha and let our friend, here,"
gesturing toward the mammoth figure of the Ox, "finish his ride?"
Zheng, his unhappiness at not being permitted to mete out his own
heavy-handed brand of violence on the soft body of their prisoner not forgotten,
acquiesced, and pushed Ci-ci forward ahead of them as the fivesome retraced
their steps back to the ricksha. The Ox gestured silently to his gap-toothed
colleague to hand him the switch, and the big man wasn't shy about using it on
the back and shoulders of the lovely young housemaid as he followed her and the
others back to the cart.
**********
The tall slender figure of Richard Chan lowered the field glasses from his
watchful eyes as he stepped back from the window. His blue silk dressing gown
was open and the hands and mouth of his naked mistress had been pleasuring his
throbbing erection even as he had taken voyeuristic pleasure in watching Ci-ci's
alfresco torment. Mai-Lee's lips seemed to suck salaciously at his manhood in
time with each of Ci-ci's breast-bouncing strides around the track. He had
licked his own lustful lips as he watched Lin and Zheng pepper those baby-soft
buttocks he loved so well with the buggy-whip. Even in the dim moonlight he had
been able to see Dao prepare his ambush and thwart Ci-ci's foolish bid for
freedom.
And after his nephew's men had tracked the escapee down somewhere in the
woods and dragged her back into view, he had watched with grim,
testicle-tightening satisfaction as Chiang Chan had done something to her
breasts, he could not quite make out what, that had caused her lovely brown eyes
to brim with tears.
Hers was a youthful beauty he had rarely known; he would miss her. But
there was no room for mercy at the Black Pagoda. Especially toward treacherous
thieves, be they ever so beautiful.
The Lord of the Black Scorpions had related the events he witnessed from
the window to Mai-Lee as they had transpired. He little knew that it was the
full-breasted Eurasian beauty who knelt before him, worshipping his cock with
her sublimely talented lips and tongue, who was responsible for this entire
chain of events. Nor did he see Mai-Lee's green-black eyes sparkle with
vicarious pleasure, nor her nipples firm with desire, as she heard of each
cruelty being inflicted on her former rival.
**********
When the four Scorpions had retraced their steps to the cobblestone
pathway, Ci-ci was directed to take the rails of the ricksha in her small hands
again and transport the Ox back to the starting point. But Zheng was no longer
inclined to dispense gentle flicks with the buggy-whips. On the remainder of
her lap, he lashed her with Dao's switch at every step. Ci-ci felt one
flesh-cutting stroke after another on her back, buttocks and thighs.
When at last Ci-ci made it back to the starting gate, she released the
rails and slumped, exhausted to her knees.
"Don't get too comfortable, sweetie," Dao taunted her. "You surely don't
think you're going to cheat me out of my ride, do you?"
"You know," Chiang Chan thought out loud. "We'd better make sure that our
pretty little beast of burden doesn't abandon us and try to run away again; Dao,
bring that rope from inside."
Dao disappeared back into the Pit and returned with the long rope that the
Scorpions had used to hogtie Ci-ci earlier. Ci-ci was not unduly alarmed by
this addition to her woes; binding her hands to the rails would not really make
her labors that much more arduous.
Dao, working quickly, tied the girl's left wrist to the rail of the
ricksha, and was about to cut the rope, so that he could bind her other wrist
when Chiang Chan spoke again.
"No; don't cut the rope. Pass it between her legs."
The gap-toothed thug considered the notion for a moment and then grinned,
and nodded. He proceeded to pull the long coarse rope forward around the front
of Ci-ci's left thigh, and then slipped it between her legs, stepped around to
her right and pulled the rough hemp through the gap between her legs, while
Ci-ci squirmed, anxious to avoid its scratchy caress.
"Good. Now pull it taut."
And with one powerful tug by the tall, homely Scorpion, the rope, which had
only been a nuisance, had found its way between the soft lips of Ci-ci's
ebony-fringed pussy.
"Unnnhhh...please... It's too tight!"
"Nonsense. Now the other wrist, Ox."
"You won't be dropping the rails during MY ride, sweetie," Dao smirked as
he wrapped the rope around Ci-ci's slender right wrist several times, before
looping it securely around the right ricksha rail and tying it off.
When he was done and had climbed into the ricksha seat, Ci-ci tried to move
forward, but had only taken half a step before she felt the rope chafing the
soft skin of her most intimate parts.
CRAACKK!! Dao's switch scalded her ripe buttocks again. "Get moving,
wench!"
Just then there was a brilliant flash of lightning, followed almost
instantaneously by a dreadful crackle of cosmic electricity, and then, a few
seconds later by a great roll of thunder that rumbled through the heavens. It
appeared that the weather -- which had been mild for hours after the squall of
the afternoon and evening - was going to take a turn for the worse again.
But it was the rope between her legs, not the disturbances in the
atmosphere, that troubled Ci-ci. The rope which chafed her girlish
pleasure-nook was not only painful, it slowed her progress greatly; while she
had been able to maintain a slow jog-trot when transporting Lin and Zheng, she
was slowed to a painful walk by her restrictive pussy-bondage.
Dao, of course, was not disposed to sympathize with her difficulties and he
peppered her rounded buttocks with cut after smarting cut with his rough-hewn
switch.
It took Ci-ci a full five-minutes to complete half the circuit; when she
approached the half-way point, there was an another ominous roll of thunder that
seemed directly above them. Dao looked skyward briefly and then barked, "I'm
going to give you a break, wench. Take the short-cut. Cut across the grass."
At first Ci-ci was grateful for this reprieve; the distance across the
grass was about a third shorter than the remaining semi-circle on the path.
But she had only taken a few steps into the grass, when she realized that
how wrong she had been. The heavy rains earlier in the afternoon and evening had
softened the ground, and the wheels of the riksha quickly sank into the mud,
even as her own feet slipped on the wet grass.
"Hurry up, damn you!" Dao bellowed. "It's beginning to rain again!"
But Ci-ci could go no faster. Dao lashed her bottom with the switch at
each difficult stride as she struggled to drag the cart through the mud.
Several times her feet slid out from under her altogether on the wet ground, and
the full weight of her body pressed down against her binding crotch-rope.
"Faster, slut!" Dao roared again as they neared the half-way point across
the soggy plain. And for what seemed like the hundredth time, Ci-ci felt the
cruel bite of the switch on her tortured buttocks.
"I - I .. can't" she gasped as her feet slid out from under her once again,
and she fell heavily against the rope between her legs.
"Get moving, you lazy wench, I'm getting wet out here."
And in fact the wind had picked up and was blowing the cold rain almost
horizontally, directily into their faces, making it all the more difficult for
Ci-ci to make progress through the ever-more treacherous sea of mud that the
grassy area was becoming. She could no longer see Dao's companions on the
cobblestone circle; presumably they had ducked inside to escape the tempest.
It took every ounce of her strength, and every fiber of muscle in her taut,
straining back, arms, legs and shoulders, to get the wheeled cart in motion
again. The rain seemed to have turned into an unseasonal monsoon, blasting
sheets of rain at her with such force that that she could barely see; she would
have loved to have been able to wipe the raindrops from her eyes, but her hands
and wrists were securely lashed to the handrails of the ricksha.
Dao, anxious to get inside out of the storm, but not inclined to wade
through the muck and mire in which he found himself, continued to fume,
flogging his lovely porter's bottom frenziedly; fortunately for Ci-ci the switch
was becoming rather well-worn now, and its blows didn't have quite the bite of
those atrocious six cuts that he had given her when she had stood near the
stove.
Each step taken was a struggle, and every yard traversed a small victory,
as Ci-ci trudged nakedly through the muck, gasping for air, shivering violently
in the cold rain, desperately trying not to slip.
At last, though, she could make out the edge of the circular track through
the blinding downpour, perhaps five yards away. Summoning her last reserves of
strength, groaning under her heavy burden, she kept planting one bare, muddy
foot in front of the other, until at last she was able to drag the heavy cart
out of the muddy grass on to the cartpath. When her task was completed she would
have fallen to her knees, utterly spent, and oblivious to the pain of kneeling
on the uneven cobblestones, had it not been for the cruel pussy-rope. She
gasped for air as she glanced back over her shoulder at the ricksha's wheels
that were caked in inches of oozing mud. She wondered how she had ever managed
to pull the ungainly vehicle through the swamp-like sea of mud between the Pit
and the Black Pagoda. And then, as if some capricious sky god had been playing
a cruel trick on her, the rain eased up, and within a minute was once more
little more than a light drizzle.
"Bring her inside, Dao" she heard Lin call out gleefully from the barracks.
"The wench's bathwater is ready."
As Dao roughly untrussed her, Ci-ci groaned in despair; if it had not been
for her abortive escape attempt, the subsequent thorn-removal, and Dao's
"short-cut", the water she had carried to the stove earlier would probably have
been pleasantly warm. But by now it was probably bubbling merrily away...
The last of the wrist-ropes fell away just then, and Dao pushed her roughly
in the back.
"Get your sweet ass inside, girl. You should know better than to keep
Scorpions waiting!"
