Meng Yi smiles. “As is your privilege…” a deliberate pause. “…Young Master Xian Qigang.”

I sigh once more. “Heaven give me strength,” I mutter dramatically.

—❈—

Meng Yi titters, and I roll my eyes at her, then roll out of bed with a grace and fluidity that shocks me.

“Whoa,” I say.

I bounce on the balls of my feet, rolling my shoulders.

Curiously, I get down on the floor and do a pushup; one, two, three… I think I could literally fall asleep like this.

I pull my right arm off the floor and fold it at my back, my body not even needing to adjust its weight distribution; with raw strength alone, my body is posed in a position that requires two arms.

I do a pushup like this; one, two, three, still no strain.

Deciding to see how far I can take this, I lift my legs off the ground, suspended perfectly straight in the air with a single arm.

I dip into three more pushups; nothing. It’s like I weigh nothing.

Pushing with my fingers, I lift my left palm off the ground, suspending my weight on my fingertips. Still nothing.

I lift my thumb. Nothing. My forefinger. Nada. My middle finger, and finally, with only the tips of the pinkie and ring finger of my left hand holding up my entire body’s weight, I feel some strain, but only in those fingers.

Bloody hell.

Xian Qigang’s… my new body was always a well-oiled machine, functioning in ways that made me wonder if that is what it felt like to be an Olympic acrobat.

This though (no doubt the result of my new noble rank cultivation) is some supersoldier level crap.

No normal human can accomplish this, and certainly not with the level of ease that I have.

“Having fun, Young Master?” Meng Yi asks, and I start, catching myself before I faceplant on the ground.

I rush to my feet, face red with embarrassment, and Meng Yi shoots me a teasing smile.

“Right, um, you said something about introducing me to the world?” I ask, changing the topic with all the grace of a bull in a china shop.

Meng Yi’s smile doesn’t fully go away, but she graciously lets me maintain what’s left of my dignity as she rises and says; “Indeed, Young Master. A bath has been drawn for you.”

We walk together to the master bath, a huge room with a small pool and the usual opulence casually displayed in every corner of this house; like silver faucets, a floor-to-(the very high)ceiling mirror, and the aforementioned (heated) pool that former me would probably have called ‘a small tub’ or something equally ridiculous.

We walk into the bathroom, two maids standing there beside two racks of towels and bathing accessories that I can’t even imagine what half of them do.

“Good morning, Young Master,” the young women bow.

“Um, yeah, good morning,” I say, and I notice them shoot surprised glances at Meng Yi, who replies with a look of ‘told you so’.

Ah. I see her plan is already in motion.

Well, in that case, time to help it along.

“So, uh, what are your names?” I ask.

The women look up at me, eyes wide, but when they meet my gaze, they quickly look down again.

“This one is Fan Si, Young Master,” the one to my left says. “And this is my sister, Fan Hai.”

Sisters? Huh, never would have guessed. They look nothing alike.

“Well, Si and Hai, I’m sure I’ve met you both before but, as I’m sure Meng Yi has told you, my memory isn’t exactly what it once was. So, whether I’ve done this before or not, let me welcome you to my home.”

The women look astounded.

“Um, thank you, Young Master Xian, you honour us,” Si, the spokesperson for the pair, and likely the older of the sisters, says.

“Si, Hai, excuse us, please,” Meng Yi says, and with a bow at her, and a lower one at me, they make their exit, door closing behind them.

“In five minutes, the whole manor will know what happened here; in an hour all of Silver Springs,” Meng Yi tells me. “You did well.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Glad I could help, fair maiden,” I say, bowing graciously, and Meng Yi’s face twists like she just saw someone murder a baby.

I rise slowly. “I’m guessing it’s the bow,” I say, a little sheepish.

Meng Yi nods woodenly. “Please, never do that again,” she says.

I nod seriously.

It’s a little ridiculous, in my opinion, her reacting so strongly to a simple bow, especially when she’s aware that I’m not really Xian Qigang.

Regardless of my feelings on the matter though, if the expert on this world’s cultures says not to bow, then I’m not bowing. Simple as that, I guess.

“Anyway, uh, I should bathe,” I say.

“Not yet,” Meng Yi counters. “You need a shave. Come.”

She beckons me over to the bench before the mirror, then she pulls the racks of towels and accessories over.

What follows is an… interesting experience.

Meng Yi cuts my hair, shaves my beard, and then proceeds to shave the rest of me too.

And by that I mean the rest of me.

It’s… weird, and a little scary, but also (as weird as it is to admit) nice.

I resist at first, of course. No one has ever handled me like that down there. And certainly not someone I’ve had carnal relations with.

But then Meng Yi reminds me of my position, telling me that I’ll need to get used to people waiting on me hand and foot now, and when I point out to her that there’s a clear difference between having someone lace my shoes or fluff my pillows and having them shave my balls, she points out in return that I don’t really have anything she hasn’t seen (or handled) before.

Not really having a counter to that, I give in and let her do her thing.

After all, even back on my (old) world people get full body waxes, butthole and all, so really, this isn’t so strange.

When she’s done, Meng Yi washes my hair and my back, and after measuring out all sorts of scented oils and soaps into the pool, I get in for a soak.

Sitting under the hot water with only my head sticking out, I stare at the placidly watching Meng Yi.

“What about you?” I ask. “Won’t you bathe?”

I hadn’t meant anything by it, but when Meng Yi’s eyebrow climbs, and she says; “Are you asking me to join you, Young Master?” I realize how the question could be seen.

I’m about to utter a quick denial when I think about it, why should I be the only one who gets to be naked and plucked and scrubbed and stared at?

I’m the young master here, I should be the most comfortable.

Not really in my nature to boldly answer yes to such a question though, I say instead; “What if I am?”

I’m not quite sure how I expected her to react to the question, but when Meng Yi begins to strip calmly, I’m surprised.

I don’t tell her to stop though… I don’t think I can.

Casually, the layers of her clothing come off, discarded on the floor one by one, and soon, what has to be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on in person is standing naked before me.

I think I may have forgotten how to breathe.

Meng Yi reaches up and pulls the pin holding up her hair, and a river of lustrous black pours down past her shoulders.

Slowly, she wades into the pool towards me.

I notice immediately that she isn’t trying to be sexy. There’s no extra sashay to her hips, no sultry eye contact. She simply is, and by God what she is is so beautiful.

Since that first moment waking up here, I’ve been distracted enough that I haven’t really had to try to not think of her in a sexual way, but, right now, the memory of those first few minutes of my arrival to this world is almost all I can think about.

Meng Yi reaches me finally, and with me sitting on the bench at this edge of the pool and her standing, my eyes are level with her plump breasts.

I do one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life and lift my gaze to hers.

“Well, Young Master,” Meng Yi says. “Here I am.”

There’s a look in her eyes that I can’t decipher, and something about it makes my mouth suddenly dry.

I swallow.

“What are you doing?” I ask, suddenly uncomfortable now that she’s so close I can just reach up and—

“Giving my Young Master what he asked,” she says, and with those simple words my raging libido loses some of its steam.

“And what if I ask to take you? Right here and right now?”

“Then you would take me,” she says, like it is a simple fact of life.

Although, I suppose for her, it is.

My libido loses more of its steam.

“But you wouldn’t really want me,” I say. “You’d just be protecting your job.”

And therein lies the rub. I want a woman to want me. That’s my desire. That’s my fantasy. That’s the thing that would make me so turned on I don’t think even a nuclear war would distract me from shagging her senseless.

Meng Yi’s response to my words is a shrug.

“People have done much worse for comfort,” she says.

“Yeah,” I agree. “But they shouldn’t have to.”

And to that she has no ready reply.

“What if I gave you money?” I ask. “Enough that you didn’t need this job anymore. You could quit and go do whatever you wanted with your life. God knows you’ve earned it after putting up with him all this time.”

Meng Yi blinks, completely caught off guard by the offer.

After a moment, she recovers and asks with a teasing smile; “And who would manage your estate if I quit?”

I hadn’t actually considered that.

“I’m sure I can find someone to take your place,” I say after a moment.

“And the cycle continues,” Meng Yi points out.

“I guess it does.”

I sigh and look at the naked, beautiful young woman ready and waiting to be taken by me.

I could probably do it, regardless of my hang-ups. But what then? What do I do after, when I wonder every time I look at her what she really thinks about me, regardless of whatever she said in the moment.

After all, by all evidence this woman was sexually involved with him, and I can’t imagine she liked him a whole lot. Clearly, she’s an expert at saying what wants to be heard.

I rise from the water, my desire cooled enough that my dick now hangs mostly limp between my legs.

“I think I’ve soaked long enough,” I say and walk out of the pool, Meng Yi following behind me.

—❈—

The man who was now Xian Qigang didn’t know it, and he probably never would, but he’d just passed a test he never even knew he’d been given with flying colours.