***
“Who did you say we’re going to see?”
Late at night, inside the carriage, Yoon Yun-gyeom asked Sansan in a stern voice. It was five days after the concubine selection day.
“……F-Father-in-law.”
“Since he’s an elder who said he’d give you a daughter despite you being unable to fulfill a man’s role, you must always be grateful and respectful, listening well to what he says. Understand?”
“Yes, yes.”
“He said if he sees you and you don’t please him, he’ll reject you, so conduct yourself well. Hmm?”
“……Yes, Father.”
Sansan answered in a voice that had almost crawled inside itself. Yoon Yun-gyeom leaned his upper body against the carriage as if displeased and looked his son up and down.
Though he was now twenty-three, if you didn’t know and looked at him, he still seemed like an undergrown boy. It wasn’t that he was short either. Was it because of that clueless-looking face? His worry about whether he could get through the night’s business safely was no small matter.
“Director Jo Heon of the Ministry of Public Works has a daughter who became a nun, but in truth the reason she became a nun was due to discord with the elder. They say after the elder drove out even his main wife for being too jealous, he spends every other night only with young men. Though San-i is a eunuch, how could he compare to those lowborn male prostitutes? How about bringing him to show first, and if the elder is pleased, suggesting taking him as a live-in son-in-law?”
Director Jo Heon of the Ministry of Public Works was a stubborn old man who had turned seventy this year. Though an old man, he still had good physique and vigorous energy, but still, at that age, he hadn’t known the man was obsessed with homosexuality to the point of driving out even his wife.
Yoon Yun-gyeom was momentarily surprised anew by his second wife’s information-gathering ability, then felt quite satisfied, thinking that indeed someone from a courtesan background was different.
If this matter was resolved well, he could get rid of that eunuch bastard who only wasted food at home, and also send Sanwol into the palace as a concubine, so he was unusually excited. Without realizing it, he couldn’t stop grinning foolishly while looking at his son.
“Why are you so frozen?”
“……”
“Child, come here. Hmm? Come here.”
A hand with bluish veins bulging grabbed and pulled Sansan, who stood blankly. No matter how tall and well-built, time couldn’t be hidden, and the skin on the back of his hands that sagged like snake scales fully revealed the old man’s age.
“My, how pretty you are. So, child, you’re twenty-three this year?”
“……Yes, yes. F-Father-in-law.”
Though it was an old man he’d only met for the first time one shichen ago, since he was told to call him that, Sansan addressed the old man as father-in-law.
The residence he visited with just his father was about twice as large as Sansan’s house. Since Sansan rarely had occasion to go outside, even though it was nighttime, there was fun in looking around. Sansan kept looking around this way and that while following his father all the way inside.
Passing through the front courtyard and main gate, through the inner courtyard to the main hall at the north end, a kindly-looking grandfather greeted them. The old man told Sansan he was the person who would become Sansan’s father-in-law.
While Sansan was surprised to be getting married so suddenly, he also felt a bit relieved thinking that if he married, Sanwol wouldn’t have any more hardships.
But the person who would be his wife wasn’t visible. Sansan first bowed to the old man, then silently waited for a woman to appear.
However, no matter how long he waited, the woman who would be his wife didn’t come, and only his father, who had been having incomprehensible conversations with the old man all along, suddenly left abruptly saying it was late.
“Since it’s late at night, you stay here and sleep for now, and Father will contact you again later. You must listen well to what your father-in-law says, understand?”
After that, Sansan was led by his father-in-law’s hand into the rear chamber located behind the main hall. And from then on, the old man began smiling disgustingly at Sansan.
The old man’s hand kneaded Sansan’s slender thigh over his clothes.
“So soft and tender—just looking at your face, you’re just a child, aren’t you, child? Hmm? Has grass grown down below on you?”
While his hand stealthily climbed up the inside of the thigh, the old man brought his lips to Sansan’s cheek. Then he kept spitting out teasing words.
“G-grass?”
“I mean pubic hair. Hmm? Has hair grown here?”
When he asked while subtly rubbing Sansan’s pubic area over his clothes, Sansan stamped his feet while tears dripped down.
“It hasn’t grown there…… Father-in-law, h-how can you do this? This is strange. P-please stop.”
“My, even the way you speak is cute, making this old man’s lower parts get all heated up. How can you be so cute? Come, touch it, hmm? Even though it looks like this, it’s a thing that made many men cry when I was young.”
The old man grabbed Sansan’s hand that was pushing him away and suddenly led it to his lower parts. At the touch of something hot and hard felt over the clothes, Sansan was horrified and bolted upright from the bed.
“Hmm? Why are you getting up?”
“……I, I need to pee. I think I’m going to wet myself, hngk, can I please go out for a bit, Father-in-law?”
Sansan wiped away tears roughly with the back of his hand and asked. It was clearly felt that he feared this situation. But originally, the tribe called men heat up more when a pretty thing does that. Even if that’s an old man past seventy.
“Oh my, why didn’t you say so earlier? You don’t need to go out. How can you go all the way to the outhouse at this time of night? There’s a chamber pot here. Use it here.”
Saying so, the old man took out a chamber pot from under the canopy bed where he’d been sitting and held it out to Sansan. Sansan was flustered and could only stand there shedding tears, unable to do this or that.
“You said you needed to pee—surely you didn’t lie to this father-in-law?”
Suddenly the old man asked with a serious expression. It was an expression suggesting he’d beat him up right away if it was a lie. Sansan felt even greater fear at the old man’s rapidly changing appearance.
“……No. I, I need to.”
“Then hurry up and pee. I’ll hold it for you here.”
The old man ostentatiously placed the chamber pot on the table and opened its lid. When Sansan kept hesitating while only holding his hem, the old man deliberately threw the chamber pot’s lid to the floor with a large motion. Watching the lid fly some distance away and roll on the floor with a loud noise, Sansan finally squeezed his eyes shut.
“Could you, t-turn around for a moment, Father-in-law?”
“We’re family now, so what does it matter? Just pee. Hurry.”
Sansan bit his lower lip and hurriedly pulled up his outer robe, bringing his hands to his waist. When he untied the waist knot of his pants, the wide pants dropped to the floor. Then as he was about to untie his undergarment—
“Hee, heek—!”
“My my, though you have no flesh at all, this little bottom is quite nice to touch.”
The old man, who had suddenly approached close from behind, pulled Sansan’s waist back sharply and groped the exposed white buttocks. Even though startled Sansan hiccupped and struggled, the hands were unrestrained. Rather, he casually untied the knot of the undergarment and reached his hands down below as well.
“Ah, aht!”
“This one really is a child with no grass grown yet, hmm? Yes, yes. Stay still. Haa, so soft and smooth—you must have been born to melt men. Come, this father-in-law will hold it for you, so hurry and pee. Hmm? Even without testicles, let’s see if your piss stream comes out refreshingly.”
***
“Your Majesty. It’s Jin.”
It was just past Jasi. The Emperor, who had been reading memorials with the lights on in the dim bedchamber, immediately turned his head at the voice heard from the tea room.
“What is it? Come in.”
A man wrapped entirely in black clothes quickly entered the bedchamber.
“The young master of the Yoon family has gone outside.”
“Where at this hour?”
“He moved in a carriage together with the Yoon family. They say he’s going to Director Jo Heon’s residence.”
The Emperor tossed the memorial he’d been holding onto the desk. Deep concern appeared in his handsome eyes.
“What are they doing going to someone else’s house at this late hour? Without staying quietly at the residence and waiting until I send word.”
Clicking his tongue as if displeased, the Emperor covered his face with his hand. He looked quite frustrated.
“……Han-ho-ya. What kind of person is this Jo Heon?”
“He’s someone in charge of practical affairs at the Ministry of Public Works, who can be said to be directly above Yoon Yun-gyeom. He’s seventy this year.”
Seeing that he hadn’t risen to any notable position even at that age and hadn’t retired either, it was telling. He couldn’t understand why on earth he’d bring his son to a meeting with his superior. Though he wanted to keep him only where his eyes could reach, it wasn’t time yet.
He was currently pouring all his energy without even sleeping at night to publicize the cheonin issue. Since Sansan wasn’t in a pregnant state like before, the situation was a bit more complicated. He planned to first gather witnesses as they came and announce the existence of cheonin, then after that, bring Sansan not as a male favorite but as an eum-in.
Now with just a little finishing left, thinking that the thing already flickering before his eyes was wandering outside on its own will, the Emperor’s throat burned.
At that moment, Sansan’s quiet voice brushed past the Emperor’s ear again.
“I really, really hate you, Your Majesty.”
Footnotes
1) Suhwamun: Gate installed between the main gate and inner courtyard.
2) Jasi: 11:00 PM – 1:00 AM.
