Chapter 52 The Scarlet Letter and the Vain Concubine
Chapter 52 The Scarlet Letter and the Vain Concubine
In the dark hours before dawn two nights later a shrouded figure crept
stealthily toward the main gate of the Black Pagoda and slid a small package
through the heavy iron grating.
When the parcel was found in the morning by the gatekeeper, the gatekeeper
brought it to a footman, who in turn brought it to Richard Chan's chamberlain.
The chamberlain, or head-servant, one Bao-tseng, was a small, slender, crafty
man slightly past middle age, whose head continually turned from side to side,
hawk-like, as if watchful for danger from an unexpected quarter. As well he
might; petty jealousies and rivalries were rife in the Black Pagoda, among the
male servants as well as the female concubines. Great power appertained to
those who had the ear of Richard Chan and, apart from his brother, no man was
closer to Richard Chan than Bao-tseng. He was one of the few servants -- Ci-ci
had been another -- who was permitted to approach the bedchambers of the Richard
Chan's palatial residence.
Chan's chamberlain took the mysterious parcel from the footman, taking
pains to give his underling a supercilious glance to remind him of their
considerable difference in status. Bao-tseng examined the package thoughtfully.
It was wrapped in brown paper and inscribed with the courtly inscription, "To
the Personal Attention of His Excellency, Richard Chan" in bold scarlet
characters. The self-important chamberlain put the parcel under his arm and
strode officiously down the long hallway, his wary eyes darting left and right
as he passed each doorway en route to the magnificent bed-chamber where the Lord
of the Black Pagoda had spent the night.
********
That eminent personage was at that moment reclining, his ebony-trimmed
silver night-robe unsashed, on a spacious divan in the Sapphire Room, one of the
four bedchambers he shared with his favorite concubine. Mai-Lee, clad in only in
a short, sheer pale-blue nightgown, was lying face down between his naked thighs
when they first heard Bao tapping at the door. The exotic courtesan paid the
untimely interruption no heed whatever, stroking her master's towering penis
with one hand while taking each of Richard's apricot-sized testicles in turn
into her talented mouth, licking and nibbling at his hairy man-balls as if they
were the most succulent of litchi fruits.
The tapping at the chamber door stopped and then resumed again. "Can't you
tell that fool to go away?" Mai-Lee asked, in between mouthfuls, while she slid
her soft hand up and down Chan's upright erection. Her green-black eyes
flashed with prideful spirit. "Your servants, Richard, are all such imbeciles."
And then she attacked the incredibly sensitive root of his manhood with her
glistening tongue; although still in her early twenties she knew, from her own
erotic experimentation, more about the pleasure zones of a man's body than an
entire colloquium of tiresome professors of anatomy.
Richard Chan was tempted to admonish her conceit by rejoining, "Never
forget, Mai-Lee, that you, too, are a servant here, albeit a servant in a gilded
cage," but the overpowering sensuality of her touch induced him to reward her
impudence by pressing the back of her silky-haired head down harder against his
throbbing genitals. There would be time enough to address her unseemly pride
and insolence later.
So stimulating and zestful were Mai-Lee's expert oral caresses that Richard
Chan ignored the second and third raps on the door as well. When the rapping
still continued, Chan snappishly instructed the majordomo to come back later.
But Bao-tseng was insistent. "Your excellency, this appears to be a matter of
grave importance."
"Oh, all right, then!" Chan growled as he pushed away his pouting,
moist-mouthed concubine, pulled his robe together around his waist, and went to
the door, opening it part way. "This had better be critical."
Bao-tseng, who had straightened from his peeping posture at the keyhole
while his master strode toward the door, explained. "The wrapping is marked
"Extremely Urgent", sire," the avian-faced chamberlain explained, pointing to
the characters on the wrapping of the package. But while his fingers pointed to
the package his darting eyes were surveying the interior of the Sapphire Room.
Mai-Lee was stretched luxuriantly out on the long divan on her side, her black
hair wild around her nude shoulders, her long, luscious legs bare beneath a
brief chemise that clung lovingly to her stiff-nippled breasts. The voyeuristic
Bao-tseng had seen generations of toothsome beauties come and go in his long
service at the Black Pagoda, which dated back to the years when Richard Chan's
late father, Jiang Shao Chan, had ruled the largely ill-gotten Chan holdings.
But of all those seductive creatures, all those slaves to the passions of the
House of Chan, none were more shameless, more vain or more seductive than the
arrogant Eurasian beauty, Mai-Lee.
Mai-Lee stared back at the majordomo brazenly, contemptuously, as she
stroked a long golden thigh with her crimson-tipped fingernails. And gave him a
flaunting glance that seemed to say, "Don't you wish, little man? Don't you wish
that you could have me, if only for an hour?"
Unconscious of the fact that Bao-tseng was ogling his number one concubine
as if he'd like to devour her, Richard Chan inspected the wrapper and muttered
impatiently, "Hmm, very well. Hand it over. Wait out here."
As the servant bowed and backed away in the traditionally deferential
manner of Chinese servants, the Lord of the Black Scorpions closed the door and
opened the package. As he did, Mai-Lee changed position so that she was
kneeling on her hands and knees at the end of the divan closest to her master,
facing him, with one chemise strap at half-mast around her upper arm, thus
baring most of her honey-gold right breast. As he removed the wrapping,
Mai-Lee caught a momentary glimpse of an expanse of white paper, covered with
scarlet characters, and then the unmistakable sparkle of precious stones. She
was quite surprised to see Richard Chan, normally the most inscrutable of men,
looking quite disconcerted.
Having contrived to remove her rival, Ci-Ci, from the Black Pagoda, Mai-Lee
had been particularly sexually attentive these last few days, not wishing to
give her imperious master the slightest cause to regret having dismissed his
nubile young maidservant. Mai-Lee had heard it whispered that, after flogging
her severely, Richard had turned her ex-rival over to his brutal minions, and
that Ci-ci had been the Scorpions' barracks-girl ever since. Such a fate served
the soft-skinned little slut right, Mai-Lee had rationalized to herself, for
daring to threaten her own position as number one concubine to the Lord of the
Scorpions.
Said Lord, meanwhile, was staring enigmatically at the paper that had
fallen out of the parcel.
"What is it, Master?"
"I'm not quite sure," he whispered, half to himself.
Richard opened his hand to reveal one of Mai-Lee's diamond earrings, which
had been missing since the interrogation of Liu, and two of the twenty-odd
pearls from the spectacular necklace that Ming-tsu had draped around Liu's
throat for the purpose of taunting Li Chang. Mai-Lee clapped her hands with
greedy child-like delight at the sight of her precious stones. The enclosed
paper appeared to be a letter, neatly folded in two and sealed at the edges with
a drop of red wax.
Richard Chan opened the letter, sat down in the midnight blue armchair in
the center of the Sapphire Room and began to read the carefully inscribed
scarlet characters.
Your Excellency,
For reasons you will soon understand, Mr. Chan, I wish to remain
anonymous. I am a pawnbroker in the city, a merchant who sometimes deals in
valuables with uncertain histories, if you understand my meaning. A day or two
ago a young woman of great beauty { and the letter went on to describe Ming-tsu
perfectly} came to me and said that she was in the possession of some diamonds
and pearls which she hoped to sell.
When she showed them to me, I was astonished. In all my years in this
business, I have never seen their like, sire. They were perfect in every
respect.
"Madam," I told her, "I cannot possibly raise the value of gems of this
caliber overnight."
"How much can you pay; I need money quickly," she said.
I offered to pay her the equivalent of a hundred pieces of gold for one of
the diamonds, and two of the pearls, with the understanding that, in thirty days
time, I would raise the money to buy the rest. With each of us in possession of
one diamond, I felt confident that she would return to me to complete the
transaction, rather than to one of my rivals; the pair of diamonds earrings
together was worth much more than each of them separately.
She agreed, and I gave her the money in currency.
But then, this morning, I heard a rumor in the teahouse that there were
priceless gems of this description missing from your household. And knowing
your power and influence in the city, I have hastened to return them to you.
One day soon, after you have recovered the others, I will come to you and
ask to be reimbursed for my losses; but for now, it is enough that I have done
you a good service. Your excellency, I am willing to put my faith in your
generosity even as you may have confidence in my loyalty to your interests. A
man in my business can accomplish much with powerful friends.
There was no signature.
Richard rose from the chair, and strode back across the room with a
determined look on his face. He opened the chamber door to find the sycophantic
Bao-tseng standing patiently across the hallway awaiting instructons.
"Chamberlain! Send for my brother and his son and have them come to me
immediately. Tell them it is a matter of the utmost urgency. Now!" Richard
said in a decisive voice to the waiting headservant, who backed away quickly,
bowing obsequiously.
"It shall be done sire. Immediately."
Richard closed the door and sank back thoughtfully into the armchair again,
considering the contents of the letter. Had Ming-tsu been tempted to make one
cobra-quick strike at instant wealth? If she had, he vowed angrily, she would
soon learn that Richard Chan would strike back with the ferocity of a
snake-killing mongoose. The fact that she was his brother's concubine would not
spare her from his wrath.
Meanwhile his luscious green-eyed courtesan had slipped off the divan and
begun crawling sensuously across the room toward him on her hands and knees.
One slender powder-blue strap had slipped off her shoulder and halfway down her
arm, and Mai-Lee's delectably close-set breasts were well on their way to
winning their sensuous battle with the U-shaped neckline of her skimpy
nightgown. She knew her master well; when he took a seat in the great armchair
or reclined on the divan in the Sapphire Room, it was almost an unspoken signal
that he would welcome her amorous attentions. It was only when he took a seat
behind the businesslike oaken desk in the far corner of the room that she knew
that he did not wish to be disturbed.
Mai-Lee padded across the thick carpet with a feline grace and a practiced
pout on her mouth; she knew that he never failed to find such kittenish
submissiveness arousing.
The decadent Lord of the Scorpions read the pawnbroker's letter a second
time while Mai-Lee once again undid the sash of his robe, and spread his knees
slightly, so that she could slide closer to him. Kneeling between his legs she
positioned herself artfully so that by turning her head and shoulders from side
to side, her marvelous mane of ebony hair could swish tinglingly back and forth
across Richard Chan's upper thighs, his randy testicles and his semi-tumescent
phallus, even as her warm, thinly veiled breast-cones brushed against his lower
thighs with tantalizing sensuality. Mai-Lee's lips were also busy, tongueing
her master's muscular legs reverently, as if the fine hairs on his legs were the
most flavorful of delicacies. She continued worshiping his body with her lips
and breasts and hair as she teased his ardent manhood slowly back to life.
Chan's throbbing member lengthened and thickened with each passing brush of her
dark tresses.
Then Mai-Lee's talented pink tongue reached for his penis and swirled
around Richard's blood-swollen cock-tip as if it were the tastiest confection in
Shanghai. Just as she had done in their private box at the Chinese opera the
prior evening ...
