By the time Kan Yin had left for war it was night and snowing, although they melted by the time they touched the floor. Lady Ai and Lady Miao hung out in Shui Lian's room now the men didn't visit, although they had to keep doors to his room open to prove they weren't having a triple way affair.

"Isn't it lonely not having your prince come and take walks with you?" Ai teased.

"It is."

Miao and Ai looked at one another in horror.

Shui Lian never admitted his real feelings!

"I miss him, and that makes me remember how it felt when I was with him." Shui Lian rested his head on his arm listlessly. "No one used to care for me."

"I gave you books for five years!" Ai yelled.

At one point Ai was intrigued by the new eunuch who joined. She didn't have boobs as big as now but was already well-endowed and took her lessons in boredom. Miao was always a stickler for rules and passing every test in go or guzheng, and Ai was surprised Miao took care of the eunuch.

In curiosity the two talked to him who was only sixteen and hated Peony Palace with all his heart. Miao and Ai taught him to read and snuck him books passed around the courtesans.

They all had their own mysterious paths. Miao was seventeen as of this year, barely fifteen when she met Shui Lian. Ai was the oldest at twenty-two, but back then she was seventeen.

Ai was sold, and she never spoke of whether she was in a slave trade or her own family abandoned her, and Miao was chosen by the Crown Prince. She'd been a favorite for two weeks then thankfully left alone, after all, he was a fickle one.

Ai drummed her fingers before poking Shui Lian, whose head simply rolled back and he buried his face.

"Are you in love?" she asked.

"I don't know."

Miao and Ai shared another look of "No way!" before clearing their throats.

"Do you want to kiss him?"

"I don't know. I have never been kissed normally."

"Ah, you've never had consensual sex, I forget," Miao said. Sometimes Ai wondered why she said such things before giving it up to the fact both her juniors were pains to deal with.

"Do you want him to hug you?" Ai asked.

"Well, truthfully he's always holding or hugging me so I would like to sit by his side normally."

"So you'd not mind sleeping with him?"

"I slept on him once. I think he said his back hurt after staying in the position for three hours—"

"As you slept on him?"

Ai shook her head. There was no helping Shui Lian. How did fifth prince ever fall for such treatment! Maybe he enjoyed being treated coldly? Masochism? It was a common hobby for men.

"I think you like him," Miao suddenly decided.

"What?" Ai asked.

"Listen, first loves are like that, you're confused and maybe initially reject it, but soon you'll miss him—"

"I already do."

Shui Lian sighed and turned to his friends.

"Why are feelings so bothersome? I know it's love, and that's why it annoys me more. What's good about that tall and clingy prince? Sure, he fights with the army, but I couldn't care less. I might like him more if he was at my beck and call."

"I give up!" Ai threw her hands up in the air. "Let's be honest, you love him, but as courtesans we make them love us!"

"Lady Ran says he's already enraptured by me," Shui Lian disagreed.

"Obviously he won't always be," Miao said bitterly. "You must hold him down. Viciously. Who knows, maybe on the battlefield he'd find another pretty-faced general to sleep with—"

"No!" Ai reached out and held Miao, burying her face in her breasts. "Ignoring that, you're already the most beautiful, how can anyone ignore that?"

"What if he wants a female genitalia?" Shui Lian asked. "Also, Miao is choking."

Ai released Miao and shook her head. "I can show you books. Some men don't know it but there are techniques for having sex with a man."

"I know, I bled a lot with those techniques," Shui Lian said.

"No," Ai argued. "That is the fundamental. Untaught men only look for a hole, but there are ways of pleasuring a man with lips and mouth, fragrant oils, and once a man is loosened—"

"Why do you know so much?" Shui Lian pointed out. Ai blushed.

"It's akin to when women visit the brothel."

"Women do?" Shui Lian narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

"Yes, and in all the classes you missed we learned about techniques for men who want insertion and women who want to insert into you." Ai played with her hair and looked at Miao who feigned ignorance. Miao didn't like talking about her vast knowledge of sec.

"What do they insert?" Shui Lian asked, unable to think of Ai possessing a penis, on her body itself or even a cut off penis. Shui Lian's castration did leave a penis that could become erect but it was the size of a sixteen year old. It never grew.

"They insert fingers, one, or two, and they insert tongues—"

"Have you pleased a women before?"

"Your interruptions are of utmost disrespect when I am trying to educate you." Ai finally found a way out of the absurd conversation.

"May I feel your breasts?" Shui Lian asked.

Ai smiled. He was a sixteen year old at heart, after all. Also, it was much better than talking about having sex with the second princess, which was technically still a secret.

"Well, if you wish," Ai said, standing up with no problems.

"And what will I do, watch?" Miao asked. "It's inappropriate, stop at once!"

"Why? I've always wondered because I am as flat as the table," Shui Lian said sadly. "I don't understand both the pleasure of having it nor the pleasure of touching them."

"Don't worry, my breasts aren't my erogenous zones, I've had customers fondle with it, caress it, and of course kiss and bit on my nipples but I—"

"That's too much information, Ai! And remember, you two will do this clothes! No nipples!"

"Sure."

Shui Lian closed his eyes because he didn't think he'd be ever be aroused at the sight of Ai but as he moved his hand up and down, a breast in each, he felt stranger with with each movement. They could be described as heavy water balloons in cloth.

Shui Lian could understand that for most people who were breastfed they could feel at home with boobs so soft. However, the more he imagined adult men sucking on them like babies, thinking of their mommies it made him disgusted and he withdrew his hands.

"Thank you, Ai. You've help me get through my fear of big breasts."

"Your fear of big breasts? Are you saying you always feared my chest?"

"Was mine too small?" Miao asked.

The two girls jested but inside, they expected it to be something like that.

This was Peony Palace, a boring place for courtesans to laugh and fool around, one of them being Shui Lian. He was still wary of others but recently the younger girls popped in to see him and were in awe of his beauty. Shui Lian never spoke much, but he did feel their awe was more because of Kai Yin's visitation.

Women had strange imaginations, Shui Lian concluded and followed Ai and Miao downstairs. Smiling, he saw some of the girls run out into the snow and their fur boots brought back snow with them, much to Lady Ran's distress.

"It's so pure," Miao whispered as she walked to the windows and reached out for a touch.

The snow broke and crumbled down to Miao's despair. Feeling strange Shui Lian clutched his chest as though the snow falling meant something bigger, as though that the snow was Kai Yin himself.