Chapter 14: Unforgettable (刻骨铭心)
Everything happened all at once. The animal-headed gangbangers screamed. Cum burst from the cocks in the youth's hands. Daiwen scrambled to their feet, waving their hands and bowing apologies. Their foot slipped in the resin cum puddle.
Daiwen yelped. Their back slammed the hardwood. A wooden door slid open behind their head.
Daiwen tilted their head back. A huge, catlike dragons' head filled the whole doorway with its golden scales and white whiskers. Its gold, feline eyes narrowed on Daiwen. The dragoncat screeched. Daiwen screamed.
It pounced through the doorway and snapped Daiwen up behind the wall of its razor-sharp teeth, each as large as a small child. It bolted.
Daiwen fell to its rough, bristled tongue. They grabbed at the bristles to keep from sliding down its gullet. Saliva shook down from above and surge up from below, drenching them. They clamped their mouth shut over another scream.
They could barely breathe the hot, muggy breath in the dragoncat's mouth. Their weakening fingers slipped. They slid down the tongue bristles to the black hole of its throat.
The dragoncat jerked to a stop, head lowered. Daiwen smacked against the wet pink of the roof of its mouth. They grunted and dropped. The dragoncat opened its mouth, its tongue stretching out like a carpet. Daiwen tumbled down onto hard, wooden boards with a sticky smack. They struggled to sit up under the layers of saliva and dissolving cum weighing them down.
An enormous fireplace crackled to their side, lining the lower, waist-high section of the entire wall with flames. The wooden ceiling soared overhead, all rafters invisible at that height. The doors opposite Daiwen slid open to either side of a circular doorframe.
A tall, lithe human wearing gold silk and their black hair long stepped through the doors. No, not entirely human. As they approached, their pale skin and the gold, slit pupils of their monolid black eyes caught the firelight with fishscale shimmers.
They turned a wooden armchair as large as throne away from the fire wall to face Daiwen and the dragoncat. They waved a hand dismissively, their melodic voice low with command.
"Thank you, Yishao (依哨). You may leave us."
They sat with their legs crossed and spread their arms wide, reminding Daiwen at once of Mistress He.
"Good evening. I am Director Cai (采), he/him. Who might you be?"
"Daiwen. I'm sorry about earlier."
"Ah, yes. The customer was highly unsatisfied. I had to offer her a full refund. Which you'll be paying, of course."
Director Cai cupped his hand to the side of his mouth.
"Yishao!"
The door behind Daiwen slid open to the dragoncat's head once more. Daiwen crouched behind a second wooden armchair. Heat-dried residue of the cum and spit flaked off them like snow.
Yishao opened their maw. The punching doll backpack, coated in spit, rolled down their tongue. They shut their jaws with a low, bodily growl that resonated in Daiwen's chest, but withdrew their head through the doorway. The door slid closed by magic.
"That'll be five thousand gold."
All the blood and strength bled out through the soles of Daiwen's feet. They barely caught themself on the arm of the chair. White flakes flurried to the floorboards.
"I don't-I-"
Had never seen that much money in their entire life. Director Cai let them gape and flail like a landed fish for a full minute before raising his palm.
"You don't have any money, do you?" he sighed.
"N-no. But I'm a hard worker!"
"Are you a shapeshifter certified in sex work?"
"No, but-"
"I can't offer the customers anything less than the best-"
"I can clean. Sex is messy. Even rich people brothel sex."
"That...is true. I can put you on our janitorial staff at once. I'll need your chop."
"I don't have one."
Not on them. Their chop, a small wooden block carved to stamp their name on official documents, was back in their village in the Mortal Realm.
"No matter," said the director, stretching languidly as he stood. "I'll make you one."
He walked to the fire wall and, much to Daiwen's horror, reached into the flames. He withdrew his fist completely unscathed, his skin glimmering in the red light. He opened his hand over the desk on the opposite wall, revealing a small, unburnt cylinder of wood and a smoking stick of charcoal.
"Give me your hand."
He dropped the charcoal into their open palm. It was warm but not hot.
"Can you write?"
"Only my name."
He passed them a small scrap of parchment. Daiwen scrawled their full name (安代玟) and passed it back. The director held up a single finger. One moment it was human. The next, it was covered in sleek, orange-gold scales, a long black talon curving from the tip.
Director Cai's claw dug woden curls out from the hard cylinder as easily as scooping out wax with an earpick. His finger shifted back in the blink of an eye. He pressed the carved end of the chop into a pad of red ink and left it standing. He slid a contract across the table for janitorial services with 'Shengtaiguan Sexual Theme Park.'
Without much choice, Daiwen stamped their new chop in the signature box. It left their name in red ink and the fluid characters of ancient Tien.
The director placed a single finger at the top of the contract. It rolled into a little scroll and sealed itself with a little bow of red string. He filed the scroll under the table.
"Welcome to Shengtaiguan Park!" (生態館遊樂園)
Rather than force Daiwen to start immediately, Director Cai arranged for them to start a brief janitorial training and safety course tomorrow morning.
"As for tonight, seeing as it's your first time here, how would you like a tour?"
"Sure, thanks, I've never been to a brothel."
"Sexual theme park-let me show you."
The difference left Daiwen confused but curious. As utterly exhausted as they were, they grabbed their flaking backpack and took the director's arm with a quiet, lip-biting eagerness. He led them from his office and down the hall to a balcony platform that opened to a road made of rails suspended three stories above the ground.
A low shushing sounded from the bend of the rails. Three black and gold lacquered carts on wheels rolled leisurely down the road. A trio of musicians sat in the third cart playing a bamboo flute, a drum, and a four-stringed lute as they chanted: 'Sh-sh-sh, sh-sh-sh.'
The carts rolled to a stop at the balcony, the balcony's rails parting upwards like metal wings. Daiwen sat with Director Cai in the front. The metal wings swooped closed, and the carts were off, gently rolling three stories over the heart of the Mingdao Wood.
"If you'll look to your right, you'll see our tropical-themed Jungleland."
Daiwen looked wide-eyed and gasping at a horizontal and vertical stretch of treehouses in towering, foreign trees from the Valashmai Jungle that stretched across all of southern Tian-Xia. The director pointed out the sexually-stimulating rides: the Vine Swing, the Swallowing Tar, and the Monkey Bars.
As Daiwen took in the erotic sights and unavoidable sounds with a spreading flush, the musical trio began to sing:
"I got some troubles, but they won't last
I'm gonna lay right down here in the leaves
And pretty soon all my troubles will flee
'Cause I'm in sh-sh-sh, sh-sh-sh
Sh-sh, sh-sh, sh-sh Shengtaiguan."
"Straight ahead is our desert-themed Duneland."
There it was, a miniature desert in the middle of the forest. The rentable rooms were domed, cave-like structures half-buried in the titular dunes of golden sand. The far more visible rides were the Camel Humps, the Lashing Palms, and the Spiceworm.
The musicians continued to sing:
"I never had a dog that liked me some
Never had a friend or wanted one
So I just lay back and laugh at the sun
'Cause I'm in sh-sh-sh, sh-sh-sh
Sh-sh, sh-sh, sh-sh Shengtaiguan."
"Now, if you'll kindly direct your eyes upward, you'll see our gravity-defying Aerie."
Thick, metal posts soared far above the treeline and the railroad, holding room-sized bird nests to the clouded night sky. Ship-like rigging and rope bridges connected the rooms to the rides: the Mile High Slide, the Observation Wheel, and the Zero G Fall.
The musicians sang over the screams:
"Yesterday it rained in Valashma-i
I heard it also rained in Po-o-li
But not a drop fell on little old me
'Cause I was in sh-sh-sh, sh-sh-sh
Sh-sh, sh-sh, sh-sh Shengtaiguan."
"And last but not least, our ocean-themed Laguna Deep. You may want to hold onto your hats and glasses."
The carts plunged three stories down into a lake. Daiwen screamed. They squeezed their doll and the director's arm to their chest for dear life. Their still-bare ass lifted off the seat. The dive threw their stomach against their lungs, but the carts slowed before it all spilled out their mouth.
Daiwen's breath hitched. Glass orbs swayed on braided ropes of kelp nursing a hazy glow around the glass tunnel and throughout the lake. Larger, room-sized orbs of stained glass drifted through the water, trailing koi-like tails of shimmering spider silk.
Daiwen wouldn't have noticed the rides at all if not for a nudge from the arm still pressed to their chest. They released the director with a sheepish grin and pried their eyes off the glowing glass to note the rides: the Anchor Seat, the Den of Squids, and the Sucking Vortex.
The musicians, who'd stopped their song out of necessity during the drop, picked up the tune once more:
"If I had a million gold pieces or ten
I'd give to ya, world, and then
You'd go away and let me spend
My life in sh-sh-sh, sh-sh-sh
Sh-sh, sh-sh, sh-sh Shengtaiguan."
Daiwen found themself humming along with them as the carts rolled to a stop at a balcony on the opposite side of the central tower, the Yueliang Stairs (月亮樓梯). Director Cai led Daiwen up flight after flight of the titular stairs past overnight rooms and a bathhouse that took up the entire top floor. They didn't stop until they'd reached the door to the roof.
The director squeezed Daiwen's hand. They stepped through the sliding door into a lush garden. High, flowering green walls lined the soft, grassy walkway. The walls broke for narrow green alleys whose leaves rustled in time with sighs from within. Director Cai trailed his free hand over the leaves.
"Sound selective, thanks to magic, of course."
Clouds rumbled in the dark morning sky above. Lightning flashed and thunder muted to the same low rumble as the first shook the garden. No rain fell. Director Cai froze.
"Do you want to see something off-limits."
"Yes."
"Hold on."
Daiwen wrapped their arms around the director. The punching doll fell to the ground in ring of white flakes. Director Cai swept Daiwen off their feet and rose into the air. Gossamer, orange-gold fins trailed through his golden robes and floated out behind him as they flew closer to the flashing clouds.
Daiwen shivered as the air chilled. Then they saw the rain, and all the cold melted away.
The rain fell, but everywhere over Shengtaiguan Park, the drops curved off into star-like sheets the flowed over the grounds to magically-designated reservoirs. Director Cai and Daiwen floated up between the sheets. Daiwen laughed in sheer, marvelling delight as the beads of flying rain danced around them.
The clouds flashed and rumbled. The director laughed with them. The sound travelled straight from his chest into Daiwen's. Their eyes met his.
"Thank you."
"Daiwen…"
"Yeah?"
"If you've never been with a sex-certified shifter before, you should try it while you're here. I'll give you one free token, but after that it's pay-to-play."
"Is that how you hook all the rich people?"
"Well, yes, but that's not why I want you to have it."
"Then why?"
"It's been years since I've been out of that office. To see how much joy this park can bring, seeing you enjoy yourself-it's intoxicating. I want to hold onto this memory. This is my, sorry, literal token of thanks."
"Keep it."
"Oh, alright, sure. I hope I haven't offend-"
"Oh no, I meant...you're a sex-certified shifter, right?"
"I am."
"Then, I'd rather you were the one to fuck me."
The director's gold slit pupils dilated. Daiwen gave him the slightest nod. He crushed them to his chest, growling into them as he tasted their mouth. Daiwen pulled back, breathing hard. Fins and rain swirled around them.
-/-
Explicit encounter on AO3