White Tigress Read Free Page B

no window lightened the dark interior nor did any breeze lessen the stale air. How did anyone—man or woman—breathe in here, much less do anything else?
    He knew the answer, of course. A pig did not care if his sty stank. Only the man forced to wade through it to find...
    A white woman, round and pale, chained to a bed. The shackles were not obvious but hidden beneath a thin blanket. Still, Ru Shan could see the telltale bulges even in the dim light of a single lantern.
    The proprietress was speaking, expounding on the woman's many assets—beauty, health, modesty, and of course absolute purity. He ignored her, stepping closer to search for whatever treasure Shi Po wished him to discern. The white woman's hair appeared dirty gold in the dim light, and her mouth was slack and revealed a dark, moist cave surrounded by full red lips. Her face was a pleasing oval, her ears round with long, solid lobes.
    "Well?" asked Shi Po, interrupting his thoughts. "Do you see it?"
    He frowned, annoyed that he would have to answer in the negative. "She is a white woman, drugged and chained to a bed. What should I see?"
    Shi Po frowned in annoyance, then waved the proprietress away. The woman bowed out, taking her half-breed with her and giving them the illusion of privacy. But it was only an illusion. Every room in this establishment likely had at least two different peepholes. Shi Po obviously understood that as well, for when she spoke, her voice remained barely audible despite its hard note of censure.
    "Look again at the girl," she ordered. "See how much water she has in her? See her breasts, how full and round they are? They will give much sustenance to a man with too much yang."
    Ru Shan grimaced, knowing she referred to him. Indeed that was the source of his problem, according to her: too much male yang. Too little female yin. And he could not deny the hunger he felt when he'd first viewed the white girl's plump breasts, only half-concealed beneath a gauzy shift. Still...
    "I need not go to a white slave woman for more yin," he snapped. That was why he'd gone to Shi Po. Still, he thought as his eyes drifted back to the full dusky circles of the girl's nipples, she would indeed give amply of her yin essence. Certainly much more than Shi Po, who was dominated by the wood element and could sometimes be quite stingy with her dew.
    And while these thoughts flowed through his mind, Shi Po drew closer to him, raising up as tall as she could so that she spoke directly into his ear. "You must replace what was lost. What you destroyed."
    "I cannot," he rasped, the pressure in his mind growing once again. "And if I could, it would not be with her."
    Shi Po exhaled in a loud rush of heat that scalded his cheek even through the fabric of her veil. "You are too hasty in your estimate. You see an egg and expect to see it crow—"
    "I see a crossbow and expect to see a dove roasting," he finished for her, the old proverb like ashes on his tongue. She was reminding him to be patient, to find the middle way of the Tao. "How can this woman replace what is lost?"
    Shi Po moved away from him, twisting so that her back was to the wall most likely to contain peepholes. Then she folded her arms and spoke crossly, her voice nearly a hiss despite her low tones. "You killed a white man, Ru Shan—"
    "I killed an animal!" he retorted, his voice equally low.
    "If that is so, then why has your sleep been disturbed? Why do you fast one moment only to eat like a starving slave the next? If you killed only an animal, then why have you so clearly abandoned the middle path?"
    He had no answer for her, because she spoke the truth. He was lost in the wilds and had been from that ill night over two years ago.
    "What you have taken must be restored."
    "I cannot bring him back to life. I do not even think I would if I could."
    She nodded, silently agreeing with his statement. "But you can raise up another white soul. Teach your treasure to another white foreigner, and in so