Author Notes: Hello again, everyone! Enjoy this next chapter :)

- Chapter Start -

QiRen brought her hand to his lips in turn, pressing a kiss onto the delicate knuckles.

"You know what I mean, Sisi. Teach me."

Sisi's eyes welled with more tears, blurring QiRen's solemn visage. She had to blink a few times before he came back into focus, before she could speak again.

Lan QiRen, uncle to the Twin Jades of Gusu, renowned teacher throughout the cultivation world, was not only admitting ignorance before a courtesan - no, before his bride - but asking her to teach him?

Could she feel anymore blessed?

Sitting up, Sisi took in a shaky breath and smiled.

"Well, you could start by removing my ribbon and taking down my hair."

QiRen sat up as well, drawing his legs in to sit cross legged. He removed the brand new forehead ribbon he had tied on for her earlier and rolled it up neatly before setting it on the small bedside table. Next, he removed her hair clasp and then the hairpins, drawing them out one by one.

Soon, there was a little pile on the bedside table and Sisi's long hair lay around her shoulders, loosely curled.

"So beautiful," QiRen murmured. He closed his fingers around a handful and leaned in to bury his nose in them. "You smell good."

"Thank you."

"Now, what next?" He asked, straightening up, as attentive as a student.

Sisi wanted to giggle.

"I'll take down your hair," she replied and rose onto her knees so she could see his hair clasp. "May I touch your forehead ribbon?"

QiRen gave a deliberate nod like he was fighting the teachings of a lifetime. He moistened his lips.

"Yes."

Sisi smiled. She was finally entitled to touch it, to remove it for him at nights, and to retie it for him in the mornings. She moved closer, aware that it put him on an eye level with her chest and wondering if he would do anything about it.

He didn't.

She removed his ribbon and hair clasp as carefully as he had done for her. She didn't see a comb so she ran her fingers through his hair before sitting back on her heels.

Oh. QiRen looked even younger with his hair down!

"What next?" He asked, sounding almost anxious.

Sisi's smile widened as she reached out to caress his chin.

"Why did you shave it off?" She asked instead.

"You didn't like it," he reminded her.

In any other person, she would have said he was pouting.

"I never said that," she demurred, once again fighting the urge to laugh.

"You didn't have to," he replied in a tone so dry she just had to laugh out loud. Right this minute, she could so relate to GuangYao and WuXian - these Lan men were simply adorable!

Cupping QiRen's cheek, she tried to apologise, but he shook his head and took her hand, clasping it between his own.

"Did you like having one?" She asked.

Now he looked abashed, fingers tightening around hers.

"It made me... I thought it made me look more distinguished," he admitted.

"For all the responsibilities you'd taken on," Sisi finished for him, her heart turning over in her chest.

QiRen had told her during their walks together that he was content to be the younger son, free to follow his passion of studying and teaching, to be both scholar and teacher. Somehow, despite his many responsibilities, he had still achieved both.

"Your nephews were right to pay you respect on their wedding day," she said.

"I would rather not think of them on my wedding night."

Sisi blinked and then she laughed again, raising her free hand to cover her mouth. Seeing him looking smug, she pulled her other hand free and slid both arms around his neck.

"We won't," she assured him. "Kiss me."

She already knew how passionate their kisses could be. This was no different. The lack of facial hair tickling her face was a welcome change as were his hands, previously so obediently still, now roaming hungrily over her neck and shoulders and back.

While he was distracted, she undid the fastenings on his heavy robes and pushed them off his shoulders, feeling smooth warm skin under her fingertips. Leaving the sleeves pooled at his elbows, she drew back to admire the sight.

As she had expected, QiRen was lean and wiry rather than overly muscled. He also looked like he was the fighting the urge to cover himself.

"You look very nice," she assured him and began unfastening her own robes.

He sucked in a breath when she shrugged off the first two layers, her breasts swaying, only half concealed beneath her thin inner robe.

"What would you like to touch?" She invited.

QiRen gulped audibly, widened eyes going over every inch of her, from her loosened hair to her throat, arms and upper chest. Then he dragged his gaze up to hers.

"Everything."

Pleased, Sisi removed her inner robe, baring her upper half completely.

"What about now? What would you like to touch first?"

"Your neck."

Sisi blinked at him, taken aback. Most - no, all her clients went for her breasts the instant they were revealed or even before. Hers were high and firm, neither too small nor too large. They had certainly received a lot of praise and attention.

But it seemed she had married a neck man instead.

"I want to kiss your neck," QiRen said, sounding both breathless and determined.

Sisi stared at him.

How was it possible that this man, who professed to know nothing of loving a woman, still managed to stun her speechless at every turn?

"Well," she said with a shaky smile, "you may. You may kiss me there or anywhere you like."

His eyes darted to her exposed chest and then back up to her neck again.

"Yes. Anywhere," he muttered, getting onto his knees and shuffling closer. "I want to-"

That was when his knee caught in a fold of his robes and he lost his balance, pitching forward.

"Oh!" With the wall behind her, Sisi barely had time to wonder if she would spend her wedding night concussed and in the Infirmary (again) when QiRen whipped his arm around her and swung them sideways. She found herself on her back, pressed between his chest and the mattress, her head at the foot of the bed and tipped back, her throat exposed.

"... sorry." QiRen began peppering her neck with kisses, her jawline, the sensitive spots beneath her ears, her collarbones.

Sisi bit her lip, squirming a bit as her neck was sensitive. Looping her arms around him, she pressed her lips to his forehead, aware of the burgeoning hardness against her thigh.

"I'm all yours," she assured him and squirmed again, laughing when he licked her ear, his breath hot on her skin.

- o -

Time slipped by unnoticed, marked by soft pants, whispered words of encouragement and the rustle of silk against silk.

Sisi didn't have to coax QiRen to touch her after that. He was eager to acquaint himself with things he had never known before - the gentle curve of a woman's throat, the graceful slope of her shoulders, the rounded smoothness of her arms, and the weight of her breasts in his hands.

When he finally sat up, his face was flushed, his eyes hot.

"More?" She teased and smiled at his eager nod.

"Let me," he said, pulling free the ties of her inner trousers and pulling them down. Then he went very still.

"Oh." Slowly, he reached out a shaky hand that hovered over the joining of her thighs and then he curled that hand into a fist, dragged it away.

"Why don't you remove your trousers first?" She suggested.

Licking his lips, QiRen gave another jerky nod and almost leaped off the bed in his haste to obey. He shrugged off his robes, started to fold them, thought the better of it with a furtive glance at her, and draped them carefully over the nearest chair instead, smoothing out a wrinkle or two.

Then he untied his outer trousers and paused when he had to work them over a part of his body that jutted outward. He glanced at Sisi again, ears glowing red.

"Show me," she said softly.

Taking a deep breath, QiRen untied his inner trousers and eased both pairs over his hips, allowing them to fall. Then he just stood there, hands giving aborted movements as if he wanted to shield himself from her eyes.

"You're beautiful," Sisi told him and she meant it. She sat up and smiled, holding out her arms. "Come here, husband."

- o -

QiRen had planned to spend his wedding night learning all about a woman's body - Sisi's body - and how to please her. Dual cultivation could come later. Yet here he was, not having even seen what lay between her legs and already crouching between them, supporting his weight on straightened arms.

"Sisi, wait," he said urgently, "teach me about f-foreplay first."

He almost choked on that foreign, never before uttered word.

"No need for that," she assured him, sliding her palms over his arms and shoulders.

"But..." He shuddered as his sensitive flesh nudged up against something soft and moist. "I would rather be instructed than make a mistake and hurt you. Or disrespect you."

His eyes widened in alarm as a tear escaped from each of Sisi's eyes, soaking into her hair.

"Sisi? Are you-"

A slender finger across his lips stopped him.

"QiRen, you've given me love, a home and a family. There's nothing you can do at this point that would hurt or disrespect me."

"If you're not ready, I could cause you pain," he argued. He knew that much.

"You won't," she assured him. "I'm already ready and wet for you, husband."

"Sisi!" He gaped down at her, so scandalised that his arms shook and he fell on her for the second time.

"Oof! Lan QiRen! Warn a woman before you squash the life out of her!"

"I'm sorry!" He scrambled to get off her, but she was quicker, winding her arms and legs around him and keeping him in place. His flesh pulsed, trapped between the heat of their bodies.

"Are you alright?" He asked into her ear.

"Yes," Sisi said and loosened her hold.

As soon as he raised himself, she framed his face with her hands and kissed him. He responded eagerly, only half aware of her shifting beneath him until he found his length pressed up against that same warmth.

Oh. She was wet.

"Enter me, QiRen. Make me yours," she whispered against his lips.

He raised his upper body again, looking down at where they were about to be joined and then back up to her face, as if caught staring at something he shouldn't.

"You can look," she reminded him. "You can look and you can touch anywhere you wish to."

Slowly, QiRen moved forward, sinking into what felt like hot, wet silk, mouth opening in awe. When he was halfway in, he uttered a groan and surged forward the rest of the way, seating himself fully inside her.

"Sisi!" He froze and stared down at her, very still except for the shudder that shook him.

"Good?" She asked, smiling.

He nodded. And nodded again.

"Very good," he breathed. He dared to move, pulling out halfway and then pushing back in. "Ahh!"

"That's it," she said. "Again."

He did it again and again and then with a huge effort, he stopped, a pained grimace on his face.

"Sisi?"

"It's alright," she told him. "Don't stop."

"But I'm not pleasing you right now."

She shook her head and smiled at him.

"We can do that later."

He shook his head too, but he wasn't smiling.

"What sort of husband would I be if I found pleasure alone?"

Sisi took a careful breath and wiped a tear away.

"In that case," she said, "stay inside me, like how you are now. Just... move against me."

"Against you?" QiRen glanced down, unsure of how it would help.

"Yes. It will also help you to last longer."

QiRen obeyed, face set in concentration as he rocked up against her. He felt her shift under him, thighs spread wide and feet sliding along the backs of his thighs.

"Like this?" He asked, moving again.

"Ah... yes, just like this... good..."

QiRen was new to this, but control and discipline had been his constant companions since young. Distancing himself from his body's urging, he rubbed against her, feeling her slick flesh slide around him. He drank in her expressions, cataloging how her eyes fluttered shut and her cheeks flushed with pleasure, how her breaths turned shallow and quick and her hands grasped his arms, how her body quivered and rippled and tightened around him until his control hung by a mere thread and he was sure he couldn't wait a second longer to begin thrusting again.

Luckily, Sisi cried out soon after that, writhing and trembling under him, her insides convulsing around him. He was breathing heavily by then, sweat beading on his forehead as he continued pleasing her until-

"E-enough, QiRen. I...enough," she panted, her eyes dazed and sated.

He stilled at once.

"I did it?" He asked in a wondering tone.

Sisi laughed, a soft and breathless sound that flowed over his senses, seeming to radiate bliss and repleteness.

"Yes, you did, QiRen. But you haven't come yet. Didn't you say we would find pleasure together?"

"I was distracted," he muttered. He began to move again, surprised to find her even wetter than before.

His steady strokes soon became faster and more erratic. Now that he wasn't fixated on pleasing her, the simple act of thrusting into her body, the friction of hard flesh into slick and tender depths... QiRen was unable to control himself and his climax swept over him almost before he knew it.

"Sisi!" He cried out, shaking as he released deep inside her before falling into her arms. He was trembling so hard he wondered for a moment if this was a form of qi deviation.

Long moments passed while his heart's frantic beating slowed and his body cooled. Then he stirred.

"Woman, you are going to be the death of me," he mumbled.

When Sisi laughed and wrapped her arms and legs even tighter around him. QiRen exulted in the fact that he had managed to please his bride after all. It was only the beginning and he had so much more to learn, but it was a good start.

- Chapter End -

A/N: Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you enjoyed it and take care :)