Chapter 5 Liu Sang Also reminder for the sex at the end of the chapter.
Liu Sang woke with arms wrapped around him, snuggled back against a warm, hard chest. Though this feeling wasn’t all that unusual after the last week, the hard rock beneath him and the extra set of breathing noises made it a whole new experience. He stiffened, heart pounding for just a moment before forcing himself to relax again, listening to the slow heartbeat of his Ouxiang who had definitely NOT been laying between himself and Wu Xie when he fell asleep.
On the other side of the pile, Pangzi rolled to his feet and wandered off towards the river, muttering to himself about his back and the hard stone and how he was getting too old for flimsy sleeping bags. Wu Xie made a snuffly noise and Ouxiang’s upper hand tightened on his shirt with a slight tug.
Giving in, Liu Sang rolled over, letting his cheek rest on Ouxiang’s arm, and met smiling eyes. Ouxiang slid a hand up and pulled the hair tie off his sleep-loosened ponytail, then cupped his head and drew him in for a kiss. Liu Sang’s breath caught and his skin tingled. Leaning forward, he brought their chests together, an unconnected hand trapped between them. Liu Sang twitched a bit in surprise but Ouxiang just pulled him in deeper. Wu Xie’s hand on Ouxiang’s chest curled and then moved, traveling up over his chest to caress Liu Sang’s cheek as Ouxiang continued to control his mouth. Then, through his growing haze, he heard Pangzi coming back.
Liu Sang stiffened and pushed his head back against Ouxiang’s hand. Ouxiang hesitated and then gentled the kiss to a close, letting him duck his head down and force Wu Xie’s hand from his cheek into his hair.
“Aiyo - you three! Right in front of my breakfast!”
“Pangzi!!” Wu Xie sounded like a combination of shocked, amazed and verging on hysterical laughter. “How do you even KNOW that?”
Pangzi gasped. “How do I know that? Do I not use the internet? How do YOU know that? Aiii, no, no, no, no, don’t tell me. Just get up now and Pangye will start breakfast.”
Wu Xie rolled flat on his back and just laughed. Liu Sang pressed his face closer into Ouxiang’s hoodie and waited for his blush to fade. Ouxiang patted him, then with a stretch, reached out and handed Liu Sang his glasses.
Jamming them on, Liu Sang got up and made his way to the river for a shortened morning routine, enjoying the refreshing splash of cold water on his face and a few moments to pull himself back together. He knew there was no real reason to be embarrassed, but it was hard not to feel awkward about the three of them showing affection in front of Pangzi. He supposed it was something he should start getting used to. He kind of hoped it was.
Back at the fire, Pangzi had the camp stove going and a kettle on while he and Wu Xie bickered about internet memes; a perfectly normal morning for them. Hair damp and feeling somewhat more composed, Liu Sang sat down, accepting a cup of tea from Wu Xie. Ouxiang settled next to him, drops of water sparkling on the shoulders of his black hoodie.
“So,” Wu Xie took a gulp of his tea, “apparently Xiaoge had a busy night.”
Liu Sang looked at him in surprise.
Ouxiang nodded. “There is a set of rooms over on the other wall. At least one is full of writings, both books and walls.”
Wu Xie was almost vibrating with excitement. “So that’s where I’ll be spending the morning! And then I want to have a closer look at the altar and everything on the other side of the cavern.” He gave Pangzi a significant look.
The man heaved a sigh. “Yay. A morning full of research with old dusty records. So much fun.” His deliberately slowed eating pace even showed his joy over the prospect. Liu Sang stifled a snicker.
“You are mapping, yes?”
Liu Sang swallowed and nodded at Wu Xie, trying not to get lost in his fond smile. “I expect it’s going to take most of the morning. Especially if there are multiple levels.”
“And Xiaoge is going to…?” Wu Xie trailed off as Ouxiang just raised an eyebrow a tiny amount. “...going to do Xiaoge things that we don’t need to know or worry about.” Wu Xie grinned.
After breakfast, they split up; Ouxiang taking the other two to the rooms he’d found. Wu Xie was already peppering him with questions that Ouxiang mostly ignored with Pangzi grumbling and slouching along in the rear. After a moment, Liu Sang retrieved his whistles and pad, laying them and an extra pen on his sleeping bag. He settled himself comfortably, adjusted the light and took a moment to mentally block out the noises of the river and the people.
Liu Sang loved the feeling of mapping; the thrill of finding places forgotten for centuries and deliberately hidden, even from the people who were supposed to be using the space. He could find them all: traps, pockets, niches, secret rooms, hidden tunnels; the sounds told him everything. The years of practice and training, while brutal, had given him a skill that he actually enjoyed using; enjoyed the sense of pride as the corridors and rooms took shape under his pen.
Almost two hours later, he blew one final, extended blast and just listened, making sure the echoes all came back to match what he expected. Coming out of his mapping haze, he was amazed to see that he’d covered four pages with three levels of twisting passages, nooks and small rooms circling a massive open area.
Laying the pad down, he stood and stretched, then focused his awareness to find his companions. Pangzi’s voice came to him first, followed by the small sounds of moving, breathing and heartbeats from them all. They were still in the rooms Ouxiang found across the cavern, sounding content. Satisfied, Liu Sang popped his muffling earplugs in, enjoying the quiet after all the intense listening even if it was only for a few minutes.
He grabbed a bottle of water, his camera and a light and decided to take a walk to see some of the new places he’d heard. First, he strolled over to the wall near where the river was entering the room and headed away from the water along the wall. As he walked, he passed several chambers that, when he paused in each doorway, seemed to have been storage areas. There were large jugs and jars, stone tools where the handles had rotted away, piles of moldering cloth, and several dozens of wooden clubs that upon closer inspection were actually torches soaked in oil, which seemed to have slowed the decomposition.
He meandered around the perimeter of the wall, listening down the tunnels he passed, the echoes speaking of the rubble blocking them. He was picking his way past where they came in when a small convoy of beetles, each about the length of his first knuckle, scurried past his feet. He lurched back, banged his shoulder into a stalagmite and knocked into a glass decoration which gave a sharp crack as it shattered on the floor. It took a moment to get his breath back while silently berating himself for being jumpy over some damn bugs. Shoving his glasses back up, he continued around the wall towards the water, passing the collection of rooms where the others were currently located.
Eventually, Liu Sang reached the bank of the river again, a loose piece of hair wafting past his nose in the light breeze, and followed the water downstream to where it rushed out of sight beneath a towering tree carved meticulously into the wall. The carved roots framed the edges of the waterway opening and the massive trunk reached upward with a huge spread of branches covering the rock for meters in every direction. He ran a hand over some of the lower leaves, studded with large pieces of green glass and smaller chips of green jade and peridot. The flowers, he realized, were magnolias, picked out with glass and stones in shades of pink, pale purple and white.
He started slightly when another hand reached up next to his to trace a neighboring flower. The white noise from the river and his fascination with the “tree” must be why he didn’t notice anyone approaching.
“Hi,” he felt a little shiver of happiness as Wu Xie smiled and leaned into him. “You done researching already?”
Wu Xie shook his head. “At least half the books are too faded to read. I think the air’s too humid here for paper. The bamboo books held up better so I took them back to camp to read in better light. Besides, I want to finish exploring the cave and the next thing on the list is the altar.” He took several photos of the tree then turned and pointed across the river. “You coming?” Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed Liu Sang’s sleeve and headed in that direction.
The whole length of the bank was worked flat and they followed it easily upstream. When they reached about the halfway point of the cavern, Ouxiang fell into step on Liu Sang’s other side, bumping his shoulder companionably. Soon after, they came to a point where the river narrowed and the path led to a wide shallow platform. Three stubby rectangular brick structures, each at least a meter wide, but only a handful of centimeters above the surface, were equally spaced across the water and each of these foundations had a pair of taller, thinner columns rising from the narrow sides, as if they were intended to support side rails. The water danced more vigorously around the base of the structures. It was deeper here and flowing faster than the area downstream. The tops of a few large rocks peppered the bed both upstream and downstream.
“Used to be a bridge here.” Ouxiang said.
“Yes.” Wu Xie crouched and pulled a few splinters from a hole in the platform. “Looks like age and maybe several floods destroyed it. I guess we’ll have to…”
Ouxiang took a step forward and bounded lightly, like a deer, across to the other bank.
“...jump.” Wu Xie finished with a sigh.
“Mm.” Liu Sang agreed. “Or wade.”
They both stood there a moment before Wu Xie shrugged. He backed up a couple of steps and grinned at Liu Sang like a small child; Liu Sang smiled helplessly back. Wu Xie took two running steps and sprang to the first column, hopping across easily but not nearly as gracefully as Ouxiang.
Until he got to the last foundation, where he landed a little short and the edge of the bricks crumbled under his foot. Wu Xie’s momentum sent him forward but the collapsing footing tipped him sideways. A flailing hand grasped the tall side column and Wu Xie swung around it, one foot going into the water to his knee. An instant later Ouxiang was there, hauling him back onto the bricks. It happened so fast that Liu Sang hardly even had a chance to panic.
Wu Xie laughed in the embrace. “Wooo!”
Ouxiang frowned hard and then whisked Wu Xie to the far side despite his objections that he could make the last jump himself, thank-you-very-much.
Taking a couple of deep breaths to calm his racing heart, Liu Sang met Ouxiang’s sharp gaze as he backed up, then took another breath, held it and started forward. His series of jumps went with no trouble and Wu Xie clapped him on the shoulder when he landed.
“You think Pangzi will make it?” Liu Sang asked as they walked up the slight slope to the altar area.
Wu Xie chuckled. “He’s surprisingly agile for a big man. He won't like it though.”
Liu Sang hummed in agreement, examining the area as they approached. This altar was much bigger than the ones in the trap rooms. It was carved and inlaid all over with peonies that sparkled like the rest of the room. More columns were arranged in a semi circle behind the altar, decorated mostly with peonies but interspersed with leaves, chrysanthemums, plum blossoms, orchids and a few other flowers that he didn’t recognize. The wall behind the columns was covered with a huge mural and Liu Sang could see more murals along the wall, becoming indistinct as they stretched into the dimness. Short pillars with shallow bowls on top ringed the entire area, including the half circle seating area which held the rotten remains of a variety of cushions and stools.
He walked up to the altar, trailing his fingers over the surface, feeling the same mixture of rough and smooth texture as the leaves on the tree. Circling around to the back, he was surprised to find several shelves carved out and filled with books.
“Wu Xie,” he called, “I’ve got more books.”
Wu Xie scrambled up from where he was sitting in the audience area. What was he doing out there? Feeling the vibes?
“Wonderful! These must be really important if they’re being stored by the main altar,” he enthused, pulling them out one by one and piling them on the top surface.
Just then a piercing whistle split the quiet of the cavern and they both turned sharply towards the sound.
“LUNCH!!!” Pangzi bellowed. “Whatever you’re looking at will still be there after you eat!!”
Wu Xie shrugged and picked up a stack of books, then shoved them into Liu Sang’s hands and grabbed the rest. “At least I can dry my foot while we eat.”
Liu Sang juggled them and his light a moment before realizing…“Where’s Ouxiang?”
Wu Xie shrugged again, heading down the path to the river. “I don’t know. Can you tell?”
Before Liu Sang could concentrate enough to listen for an answer, they cleared a cluster of columns to see the river crossing. “Well, I see where he’s been,” Wu Xie said fondly.
Apparently, as they’d been wandering around the altar area, Ouxiang had returned to camp and then strung ropes across the river, tying them to whatever rocks were convenient and making use of the support columns. The crossing seemed a bit safer now with something to grab for balance. Still, Liu Sang was just as nervous going back as he was crossing the first time, because now he was worried about the ancient books clutched in his arms. Despite that, his crossing was smooth and shortly they were back at the campsite.
Depositing his books next to the others Wu Xie had brought back, Liu Sang sat next to Ouxiang and accepted a bowl of noodles from Pangzi.
“So, Tianzhen, what have we learned?”
Wu Xie chewed and swallowed. “I’ve got most of a theory. The murals and carvings in the records room seem to be a summary of the rituals for this area. Also, there are a lot of regular books here, several with multiple copies, like they were teaching basic education. I suspect the carvings around the altar area are actually instructing their entire worship practice. Most of the rest of the carvings are flowers.” Wu Xie pointed at the distant carved trees with his chopsticks. “There are quite a variety, more than one would generally expect to see in a tomb, and this might not even be a tomb.” Wu Xie beamed. “I don’t know <i>what</i> it is yet! Anyway, the predominant ones, as you can see, are peonies. I’m SURE this is significant. Not that they’re actually worshiping the flowers, but that it’s a very meaningful symbol for them.”
He turned to Liu Sang, “How did the mapping go?”
Putting down his bowl, Liu Sang grabbed his pad and flipped to the cavern page. “This complex continues to be huge. Here’s the map of just this cavern.” He pointed to a spot near the river. “This is where we are now.” Liu Sang dragged his finger around the line of the walls and pointed behind them with his other hand. “As you can see, it’s not just a simple cavern. There are a handful of rooms back here. I looked in a couple and they seem to be storage.” His finger moved again. “Here are entrances to the tunnels that link up to the collapsed exits in the other worship rooms.”
“Uh huh - makes sense.” Pangzi nodded.
“The really good stuff is on the other side of the river. Here’s the altar.” He pointed. “All along this wall here are bigger rooms and short corridors leading to what I’d call suites of smaller rooms.”
“Living areas?” Wu Xie asked.
“Possibly.” Liu Sang agreed and flipped the page, “and we were right in thinking this isn’t the main room. We’re here now.” He pointed to a space toward the side of the map. “And beyond here it just gets more complicated. There’s another large space there.“ He pointed to another spot further up the page. “It’s at least half again as big as this room.”
“Oh. My. God...” Pangzi moaned. “That’s huge!!!”
Liu Sang nodded and tucked some hair behind his ear. “Yes. There are two levels that circle that main cavern and one level beneath. The passages are all curved and filled with dead ends and weird little nooks. It’s very unusual, almost like a maze, and there’s no direct path through it. We essentially have to go through the maze to get to the center.”
“It’s a flower,” Ouxiang said.
“WHAT?!” Everyone exclaimed in various volumes.
Ouxiang pulled the book over and flipped back to the beginning of the lower maps. “Here,” he traced a long finger along their route. “Stem.” Then over the curving passages they hadn’t explored because they eventually returned to the main corridor, “leaves.” Ouxiang flipped back to the maze and traced the passages. “Petals.”
“Holy shit….” Wu Xie breathed. “Even the alternate worship rooms are at the tips of ‘leaves’.”
Liu Sang stared in astonishment. Even though he’d drawn it, he hadn’t seen it. Amazing!
Wu Xie took the notepad and spent several long moments over the pages, thoughts whirling behind his eyes, before Pangzi cleared his throat.
“Errrrrrm, so where’s the entrance to this maze?
Liu Sang tugged the book gently away from Wu Xie and pointed. “Here, in this back wall, but it doesn’t seem to be on the same level as the rest of the cavern floor.”
“Eh?”
“It’s up higher. Like where we came in? We came down all those steps.” Liu Sang raised an eyebrow and waved his hand vaguely back toward where they entered.
“AH!” Pangzi leaned back and brandished his flashlight. “Okay. So time to do more exploring!”
Wu Xie bounced up, enthusiasm almost brighter than his flashlight. Liu Sang took a moment to carefully stow his maps. A hand appeared in his vision; he grabbed it and let Ouxiang pull him to his feet.
“Thank you for the ropes.”
Ouxiang’s mouth tucked up in a tiny smile and they followed after the others who were halfway to the crossing already. Liu Sang grinned a little to himself as he watched Pangzi hop across the stones. Wu Xie was right - Pangzi was perfectly fine at it and hated doing it immensely.
“Show me the door.” Ouxiang murmured. Liu Sang caught his breath at the low tone for a moment before mentally slapping himself - it surely wasn’t intended to be seductive - and nodding. He couldn’t help the little glow of delight, though, at being alone with his idol. Wu Xie and Pangzi were working their way down the wall, examining the murals with much excited chatter and bickering over interpretations. He and Ouxiang walked past them to a point beyond the end of the murals and then past a few nondescript openings before they came to the right location, effectively in the opposite corner of the large room from the one where they’d entered.
“It's up there.” Liu Sang aimed his light about four meters up where there was a visibly smoother section of wall. Ouxiang nodded and made his way swiftly up the uneven wall. Liu Sang never failed to be amazed at how easy he made it look, when a normal person would have to actually climb. Liu Sang followed along with his light as he made his way up, but it was only a minute or two before Ouxiang flipped back off the wall and landed beside him, frowning.
“But that <i>is</i> the door,” Liu Sang insisted.
Ouxiang tipped his head. “Yes. There are holes where there was a ladder.” Surprised, Liu Sang aimed his light on the floor looking for holes but didn’t see anything.
“Sangbei’er!” Liu Sang started at Pangzi’s call. “Come show Tianzhen where the interesting rooms are!” Liu Sang scowled and began to turn to tell him to shut up but was caught by Ouxiang’s gaze as he smiled, shook his head and winked.
“I need to look around more for the trigger. I will use my own light. Thank you.” Ouxiang clasped his hand and squeezed gently.
Pushing aside his vague hopes of having more time with just Ouxiang, Liu Sang sighed and shouted, “Coming!” Ouxiang inclined his head and turned back to the wall. Liu Sang watched the trim form for a few seconds more before heading back to the others.
Wu Xie and Pangzi were standing in front of the rooms he and Ouxiang had walked past earlier, clearly done looking through them. Liu Sang beckoned as he came up to them, altering his path to head across the cavern. As they cleared a group of columns, they came to another carefully worked path.
Liu Sang marveled that most of the floors in this entire cavern had been smoothed around the stalagmites and columns so that they weren’t climbing over and around formations; in this back half of the cavern it was even more obvious. That took TIME and EFFORT. This path, extending from the altar to the complex of rooms they were going to, had been carefully shaped to fit the terrain. There was even a carved channel cutting through the path no more than a handspan across and deep, carrying water from the river and across the room.
Shortly they were standing in a big open area before an outer wall. The remains of tables or benches and large shallow bowls filled with ash were scattered across the space. Several large brick stoves, each with a pair of holes for pots, were built against the wall between the doorways.
“A common area?” Wu Xie’s tone was amazed.
“Huh. Looks like.” Pangzi lit a match and wandered over to a bowl. He crouched and dropped it in. The match burned briefly among the ashes but shortly went out without igniting anything else. Pangzi shrugged and stood.
Pointing at the opening farthest to the rear Liu Sang said, “Big room, probably storage.” Moving his finger along the wall, “Probably storage, suite, corridor to more rooms, suite, corridor to more rooms and two more probably storage.”
“Traps?” Pangzi asked.
“Nothing I can hear.”
Wu Xie added, “Seems unlikely in the living area but be careful!”
They bumped fists and Pangzi headed off. “I’ll start over here. You guys have fun with the others.”
“Storage first or suites?” Wu Xie asked.
Liu Sang shrugged. “I looked in some storage rooms on the other side. They hadn’t held up well, but I suppose we should check to make sure.”
Wu Xie shoulder-bumped him as they walked off in the opposite direction from Pangzi. Liu Sang snorted at him.
“What did Xiaoge find?”
“Nothing yet. The door is there but the ladder up to it is gone and he didn’t find the trigger right there, so…”
“Unusual, but he’ll find it.” Wu Xie’s confidence was reassuring.
They reached the farthest room and went in. It did, in fact, look like the other storage rooms, only larger. There were rows of shelves that had been mostly emptied but still had collapsed with the weight of the years. Shards of pottery and other debris made a huge mess. Wu Xie swung his light around and sighed. “Let’s go.”
The second room was in slightly better shape. Larger jars and stacks of ceramic plates and bowls were placed on the floor and therefore still mostly intact. Liu Sang picked up a bowl, blowing the dust out to see an etched flower. He showed it to Wu Xie who nodded, unsurprised.
When they came to the next doorway, which ought to be one of the suites of rooms, the floor of the entrance was covered with hundreds of wooden beads. Liu Sang crouched and picked up a handful, shaking a loose piece of hair out of his eyes. “What are all these?”
Wu Xie picked up one for closer inspection then looked up at the top of the doorway. “Looks like they had a beaded curtain strung across.” He nudged a clear path through and went into the first room.
Following, Liu Sang found himself in a wide low-ceilinged room. There were niches carved in the walls covered in soot from the little bowl candles in them. Wu Xie was trying to light one and Liu Sang was pleased when he succeeded. The new light showed a massive garden carved into one wall and doorways in the far and left walls.
They spent quite some time exploring the three rooms. Or rather Wu Xie explored and Liu Sang trailed around behind him making occasional noises to show that he was listening to the stream of speculations and trivia. Liu Sang guessed both rooms to be sleeping quarters though there wasn’t much in them beyond rotten wood frames.
Turning back to the doorway, Liu Sang started at the black figure filling it, sucking in a gasp. Then his eyes and ears registered Ouxiang and he scowled at his unnecessary jumpiness.
“Xiaoge!” Wu Xie sounded delighted as he went over and grasped his hand, tugging him into the room. “How did it go?”
“Mn. Didn’t find it.” Ouxiang’s frown was tinged with worry.
“It’s ok. You will. We will.” He leaned in and kissed him lightly, and then their whole demeanor changed as Wu Xie backed Ouxiang heatedly against a wall, a simple kiss turned into nothing less than an all out invitation to sex.
Liu Sang watched, frozen, entirely unsure how to react to this development, his mind going off on all sorts of wild tangents. Was this typical for them? Standard part of the tomb exploration package? Had they forgotten he was there?
And then the sight of them in the darkness of the room and the golden light coming in through the doorway reminded Liu Sang of their first night and he was instantly half-hard. In the past he hadn’t thought of himself as overly sexual, in fact he’d had a long dry spell before all this, but the last week of practically nothing but sex seemed to have rewired his brain. As he watched from across the room, the kiss became even more involved, Wu Xie sinking to his knees, pushing clothing aside and fumbling with Ouxiang’s belt buckle, and he was wholly overwhelmed by the depths of his passion.
Shaking with desire, Liu Sang looked up and caught Ouxiang’s eyes, dark and glittering in the light like the cavern outside. When Ouxiang raised a hand to him, his paralysis broke and he crossed the space in an instant, leaning up against that firm torso and claiming his own desperate kisses.
Moments, or hours later, Ouxiang pulled back with a gasp, knocking his head against the wall. Liu Sang dropped his head onto the nearest shoulder, breathing heavily, then reached down and brushed Wu Xie’s hair, admiring the erotic sight of Ouxiang’s cock disappearing into Wu Xie’s mouth.
Wu Xie opened his eyes and tipped his head enough to meet Liu Sang’s gaze. Pulling back, he gripped Ouxiang’s shaft and ran his tongue around the head, putting on a show. With his free hand, Wu Xie reached up and palmed Liu Sang’s crotch, causing him to moan loudly, his knees going weak.
“We’ll have to be quick,” Wu Xie murmured against Ouxiang’s skin, making him tremble slightly.
Ouxiang didn’t say anything, just tangled his fingers in Wu Xie’s hair and thrust in with determination. Wu Xie grunted and sucked hard, tightening his grip on Liu Sang’s cock at the same time. Fire shot through him and he worried vaguely about coming in his pants like a teenager. Beneath his head, Ouxiang’s chest rumbled almost subsonically as he tensed and shuddered, releasing into Wu Xie’s talented mouth.
Then, Wu Xie’s hands were shoving and twisting Liu Sang’s hips back against the wall and before he could process it, his pants were open. The cool air of the cave was briefly shocking, but immediately followed by the scorching heat of Wu Xie’s mouth. He could feel Ouxiang’s heaving chest against his arm before all thought was obliterated by the hot, soft, slick of Wu Xie’s tongue. The whole secret rendezvous feel of it, the fear of Pangzi catching them, his overwhelming desire for these two men, combined with the tension of the last few days; he wasn’t going to last long.
It felt like forever and no time at all before Wu Xie caught just the right spot with his tongue and cupped his balls in just the right way. Lightning shot up from his groin and the room went dark for a moment as he spilled into Wu Xie’s mouth. Liu Sang slouched, panting against the wall trying to reboot his brain when he heard Wu Xie yelp and felt a thud beside him.
Prying his eyes open, he turned his head to see that Ouxiang had swapped places with Wu Xie, who was now gasping against the wall with Ouxiang’s dark head buried in his crotch. Liu Sang reached out to sweep hair out of Ouxiang’s eyes, watching for a long moment, then straightened up and covered Wu Xie’s mouth with his own until his muffled cries and shaking ceased.
