Bon Bao - Watching Ri Ran Paint

Watching Ri Ran paint someone else was a new experience for Bon Bao. Although the mousy rascal frequently included other tenants of Lady Wu's Riverside Mansion in the background of his work, this was the first painting which featured someone other than Lord Bon. Little Pin rested on his shins and facing the holes in his wall. Starving students looked back at him through the wall. Pin Fun's shins rested on what had become primarily his bed. Ri Ran arranged sheets and pillows to cover all but the tops of Pin Fun's legs. Bon Bao hungered for the twink's perfect dimples. This was the ideal pose for some anonymous old pervert to pin up in a hidden room.

Once again, Ri Ran wasn't painting what he saw. He transformed it. Bon Bao never watched the process before because he was always on the other side. Watching, he saw Ri Ran's skill in a new light. The little mouse painted with ink. Ink was unforgiving. As soon as the tip of an expensive brush touched expensive paper, there was no turning back. Of course, if the little mouse spent less of his percentage on brushes and paper – he could eat more and develop a nice round little rump.

Stroke by stroke, an entirely different Pin Fun extruded from the paper's whiteness. No longer merely an apex twink, Jian Peak's Number One Flower Knight became… an ancient tree demon. It was not the first mythological creature Bon Bao thought of when looking at Pin Fun. However, he made a damn fine tree demon. The crevice of the apex twink's perfect butt formed the boundary between two mighty roots. The geometry of his perfect shoulders merged. asymmetrically, with his perfect neck and head to become the stumps of mighty branches. The impression of a forest emerged from formless mists all around him. The starving students in the next room became haunting wraiths. 

Paintings depicting Bon Bao were overwhelming; this one was mesmerizing. Upon seeing it, Pin Fun completely overreacted. He threw himself onto the floor and begged for forgiveness. Bon Bao wanted to reach out and slap the apex twink's quivering behind, but doing so felt out of step with the moment. On second thought, screw that. Bon Bao slapped that quivering behind.

"Quit being ridiculous," he told Little Pin.

"Pin Fun apologies for teasing the hidden master," said Pin Fun.

Pin Fun refused to get up until Ri Ran forgave him three times.

"Really, Delicious Cupcake," said Bon Bao. "The painting is good. But isn't 'hidden master' taking things a bit far?"

"The hidden master's brushwork employs a technique lost halfway through the Lechun Dynasty," said Pin Fun. "The bureaucracy was hopelessly corrupt during that time. But ministers and nobles sought investment platforms to shield their wealth from inflation. As a result, the arts flourished. Even in Jian Peak Abbey, only five paintings could match this one's quality. None exceed it."

"Mousy Rascal!" said Bon Bao. "You need to charge more."

When he heard how much Ri Ran sold his paintings for, Pin Fun laughed out loud. They were worth a thousand times as much. The trick would be getting them in front of people who could both recognize the value – and pay the price.

"Jian Peak Abbey will obviously buy some," said Pin Fun. "But it may take a while to find other buyers."

"What about a descendant of the Last Lechun Emperor?" asked Bon Bao.

"Lord Bon," smiled Little Pin. "If you knew a descendant of the Last Lechun Emperor, wouldn't your life look different than it does?"

"Princess Iba Algi…," said Bon Bao.

A look of horror flashed across Pin Fun's perfect face. He sprang forward and covered Bon Bao's mouth with his hand. Bon Bao liked having the naked twink close. He also liked the taste of the naked twink's salty palms. Twinks were always flighty and melodramatic. All the naughty illustrated novels he'd ever read reaffirmed that reality.

But it was clear that Pin Fun would be high maintenance.

"Don't say that name so casually!" said Pin Fun.

"Delicious Cupcake," said Bon Bao, "you're being absurd."

"The Abbot of Jian Peak has almost touched the sky," said Pin Fun. "He is expected to succeed in twenty years. When he does, there won't be another new Empyrean for at least a century."

"What does that have to do with Princess…?" asked Bon Bao.

Salty palm.

"Sword Saint is the only grandmaster to touch the sky…," said Pin Fun.

"Lies," said Bon Bao. "There's the Empress and Snowblind Tigress."

Pin Fun shook his pretty head.

"Snowblind Tigress touched the sky in a previous life," he said. "She started this one above the sky. The Empress was born above the sky lifetimes ago. The point is simple. My master is one of the most terrifying people currently alive. And he is terrified of…."

"Princess Iba Algi?" asked Bon Bao.

Bon Bao interrupted the salty palm with a powerful finger.

"Lord Bon!" said Pin Fun urgently. "This is serious!"

"I know something the Number One Flower Knight of Jian Peak Abbey doesn't," said Bon Bao.

"I'm sure you know many things I don't," said Pin Fun. "What did you have in mind?"

"The Insouciant Scholar's real identity," said Bon Bao.

"That Warakirikoban?" asked Pin Fun. "The pretty cute one?"

"Yes," said Bon Bao. "The supernaturally cute one. Don't be jealous. You're pretty cute yourself. In fact, I'm wondering if your invisible fingers failed to cheat him because he was too cute to lose."

Pin Fun hesitated.

"Maybe," he agreed. "Fine. Who is he really?"

Bon Bao whispered the answer and then licked Little Pin's delicious ear.

"What?" cried the twink.

"So I do in fact have a connection to Princess…."

Two salty palms.

"Then it's even more crucial for you to keep quiet!" said Pin Fun.

"Little Pin," sighed Bon Bao. "She's ten."

"The Empress was ten once!" cried Pin Fun. "The Abbot of Jian Peak Abbey cuts people into slices so thin they are transparent because he thinks it's beautiful – and he hasn't touched the sky yet!"

The starving students, who to that point had seen the conversation as a diversion, started taking it more seriously. Bon Bao could not dispute that the Empress was ten once.

"Are you saying the… subject of our conversation is a reincarnation of someone who has, as you put it, 'touched the sky?'" he asked.

"Possibly," said Pin Fun. "An alternate possibility is that…."

"She is a born Empyrean?" asked Bon Bao.

"It may already be too late," said Pin Fun.

"For what?" asked Bon Bao.

Pin Fun looked around the room. He rushed to the lattice doors and slid them open carefully to avoid damaging the rotting wood. Lord Bon's room was on the second floor. Outside its sliding doors, a balcony ran around what had once been a grand ballroom. Pin Fun moved deliberately along the balcony. He examined all the doors opening into the rooms of other tenants.

He turned to the ballroom. He bounced his salty palms on the bannister.

"Everything is falling apart now," he said, "but this mansion was once exceptional."

"It belonged to some marquis," said Bon Bao.

"Marquis Yue," said Ri Ran. "His family was executed by the founder of Great Yao."

"Marquis Yue!" said Pin Fun. "That's bad."

"Why?" asked Bon Bao.

"Marquis Yue was an infamous warlock. Have you always been a painting prodigy?"

Ri Ran twisted bashfully. Bon Bao wanted to pinch all his cheeks at the same time.

"I'd never call myself a prodigy," said Ri Ran. "But I've always painted well."

"In this style?" asked Pin Fun.

"Well…," said the mousy rascal, "close. But the specifics really developed…."

"Here," said Pin Fun.

"Yes," agreed Ri Ran. "Painting Lord Bon."

"There's energy in this place," said Pin Fun. "Bad energy."

"Any old mansion will be haunted," said Bon Bao. "Lady Wu's gotten things under control."

Pin Fun shook his head.

"There's more to it," he insisted. "Ghosts may be under control. Then again, maybe not as much as Lady Wu believes. But there's a different energy here, too. We were looking for energy like it."

"You and Hung Young Hero Mu Lang?"

"Yes," said Pin Fun. "On behalf of Jian Peak Abbot."

Bon Bao laughed. Then he wagged a big finger at Little Pin.

"You were telling me to stop saying that one name," said Bon Bao. "But the Insouciant Scholar wanted your clothes so that he could sniff them better. I thought he was just being an adorable little creep. He claimed that he was going to take them back to his people. If we assume that was actually true, then I don't need to tell you who his people are – do I?"

Pin Fun's expression became priceless.

"It's all because you let the only person alive cuter than you roll a three," said Bon Bao.

"Worse," said Pin Fun. "I didn't just allow him to win. I cheated on his behalf."

"Why?"

"I have no idea," confessed Little Pin. "Maybe I just like being naked too much."

He looked so dejected, Bon Bao could only hug him.