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“Sloppy work.”
“Is that the first thing you can say?”
“What else can I say?” A Tou frowned. “Look at yourself. Look at my tattoos. You can see the difference easily. Mine is quality work. Yours is sloppy.”
“It’s not finished yet!” Liu Sang said defensively, pulling his shirt back up.
“Yeah well, it’s obvious. You’d need a better master to finish it, though,” A Tou shrugged. “But not now. We’ll have to get you something that will definitely keep that area covered.”
Liu Sang huffed, while buttoning up his shirt.
“I could just wear a suit.”
“That would be too obvious,” Bai Haotian scolded him. “Also the dress code clearly says no suits.”
Liu Sang groaned, throwing himself back on the couch.
“Stupid Pangzi. This is all his fault.”
“Is that what you fall back on?” Bai Haotian asked cheerfully. “When in doubt, blame Pang-ye?”
“This is his fault,” Liu Sang insisted, raising his head. “First of all, this whole new Jiumen thing is his brainchild and you know it. Second of all, he is the one spreading rumors.”
“I’m sure he isn’t the one who spread the rumor that you are a woman,” A Tou shrugged. “He seems content with talking shit about things you actually did. Something just probably got lost in translation, like in a game of telephone. It started with the middle three gates having two women, and somehow people think now all three of the middle gates are women. It happens.”
“It doesn’t just happen!” Liu Sang complained. “And even if it does, it doesn’t mean we have to go with it! We can correct them!”
“Maybe later but for now, the best option would be to go with it,” A Tou shrugged. “We need to go to this party, but it’s only for women.”
“So I shouldn’t go then!”
“It’d be ideal,” Bai Haotian nodded. “But the problem is, we’ll need your ears in there.”
“And before you say - no I’m not going to grovel to Yin Nanfeng to borrow one of her hearing servants,” A Tou looked at him pointedly. “I’m not going to owe her.”
Bai Haotian stood up, walking over to Liu Sang, gently placing a hand over his hand.
“If you really don’t want to do it, we can just go, the two of us,” She said with a soft voice. “We will figure something out.”
Liu Sang sighed, leaning back.
“Just don’t make me look like a fool.”
Bai Haotian’s face lit up, and A Tou smirked.
“Take off your shirt. We need to get some measurements.”
“Why? My chest will need padding either way.”
“Damn right. You are kind of flat.”
“Hey!”
“Besides, we need to check your waist too. So off with your shirt.”
Liu Sang was reasonably sure that hugging his waist was not required that much but nevertheless.
“Nice waist. We should have a good selection of choices,” A Tou nodded.
“And preference in color?” Bai Haotian asked in a chirpy tone, opening up her laptop.
“Green or black,” Liu Sang said, resigned.
If he’ll end up doing it, at least have the least amount of hassle about it.
Anyway, it turned out to be a hassle nevertheless. Because of course it was.
First question was whether he could walk in high heels or not - and the ladies were both delighted to find out that he could.
“I just don’t see the point of them. Not really practical.”
“You aren’t going tomb-crawling,” A Tou waved him off. “You are going there to dazzle people.”
“I thought I was going there to eavesdrop.”
“Honey, you are a giant without the high heels and you are going to wear heels anyway. You absolutely are going to attract attention. So better not bring shame to us.”
Bai Haotian ended up ordering a lot of different dresses for Liu Sang to try on, and A Tou was delighted to help him out with it, with Bai Haotian fussing around, getting matching shoes for all the dresses.
“You have very long pretty legs,” Bai Haotian mused. “I really think we’ll need a dress to show it off.”
“But also something that covers his chest,” A Tou said, taking Liu Sang’s hair between her hands, twisting it into a bun. “Here. Will get your hair done properly after the dress is picked out.”
“How about I just go with a qipao?” Liu Sang asked, tired. That could cover my chest.”
“Ooooh, I have the perfect one!” Bai Haotian said cheerfully, running over to the clothes rack she set up.
They were really taking this seriously.
They handed the dress over to Liu Sang, and they helped him put it up - it was a dark green qipao with a velvety shine to it, and a silver brooch at the neck. It reached down to his ankles, but there was a long slit on it that showed off one of his legs, and also it was elbow-length.
It looked nice, especially with a pair of black high heels Bai Haotian grabbed for him.
“Oh, nice,” A Tou nodded, looking at Liu Sang from head to toe. “We only have to fix your face and your hair. But first of all. We gotta do something with your legs as well.”
Oh, joy.
“Are you done with your legs?”
Liu Sang was sitting on the couch in a bathrobe browsing on his phone, and just lifted a leg - Bai Haotian grabbed the leg, running her fingers up on his skin.
“Oooooh! Smooth! Nice! Look at his legs!”
Suddenly A Tou was there, grabbing Liu Sang’s other leg, making him topple over on the couch.
“Really nice.”
“Can I get my legs back?”
“No.”
“Absolutely not.”
Liu Sang sighed, and kept scrolling down on his phone, while the ladies were gushing over his skin.
“Did you get the new glasses I ordered?”
“Sure,” A Tou said, distracted while running her fingers up and down on Liu Sang’s leg. “It’s all prepared for tonight.”
Well. Maybe he could put up with the ladies’ hands on his legs a little more.
It was a nice feeling, after all.
Eventually, they helped him into his dress again, before making him sit down - A Tou was working on his makeup while Bai Haotian was working on his hair, straightening it.
He wasn’t sure that A Tou needed to sit on his lap to work on his makeup but anyways, he wasn’t going to complain.
“I wanted to pluck your brows, but I see you already did that,” A Tou was saying in a soft voice, as she was working on his eyebrows.
“Shut up.”
A Tou laughed a little - she laughed so rarely it made Liu Sang’s heart do a backflip in his chest.
This was getting embarrassing.
“I’m not complaining.”
“I’ll complain because your hair is so nice!” Bai Haotian was chirping, as she was combing through Liu Sang’s hair. “I wish my hair would be this nice.”
“Your hair is… nice?” Liu Sang muttered, immediately realizing how stupid his words sounded.
“Yeah but if I grow them out they get all messy. So it’s this short, or a total mess. While look at you! Your hair is unfairly pretty.”
Liu Sang resisted the urge to roll his eyes, because now A Tou moved on to do his eyeliner.
“Trust me. You’ll be the hottest bitch at that event.”
Well, it was hard to trust someone who had a sharp object to his eye, but he managed.
Truth to be told, the end result looked… nice.
Bai Haotian had straightened Liu Sang’s hair, and carefully combed it to the side, framing his head nicely - they even got a second pair of glasses for him, a smaller, dark green frame to complete the look. His makeup looked striking - his lips dark red, his eyes striking with dark eyeliner. They didn’t paint his nails - also Bai Haotian pointed out that his nails were carefully polished either way, that was bound to be enough.
“You look stunning, Sang-niang.”
Liu Sang rolled his eyes, ignoring the way his heart fluttered - and then he turned to look at Bai Haotian, and now that was harder to ignore.
Bai Haotian was wearing a silver dress with a single strap, and it reached down to her knee - and even her makeup was shiny. And so was her smile. But wasn’t that always?
“You are the one who is basically sparkling here, Xiao Bai.”
Hearing her nickname made Bai Haotian smile even wider, and she walked to Liu Sang’s side - she wasn’t wearing high heels, so the height difference between the two of them was even more obvious now, and Bai Haotian looked up at him.
And she was blushing.
Wait, she wasn’t looking at Liu Sang’s face.
Liu Sang sighed.
“You know they are not real, right?”
“Give her a break, they are very much at eye-level for her.”
When Liu Sang turned towards A Tou, his first thought was well that’s not what I expected.
It looked almost modest, if light-looking. It was skin-coloured, and loose-fitting, moving after her.
Then no.
It wasn’t right. His first idea, that is.
A Tou was wearing a sheer dress - and when she moved, her tattoos were obviously showing under it.
“...are you even wearing anything under that dress?”
A Tou smirked.
“You have to find that out yourself.”
That offer probably should not have been as tempting as it was.
They were indeed in the focus of people’s attention at that party.
And they indeed called him Sang-niang.
(Made sense, he figured. Calling him Wu-niang might have been too confusing, with Wu Xie’s own notoriety.)
The entire party was actually a bother, and the dress and the high heels were not the issue.
It was one of those power plays - people were here to gather information, form connections, play a game of mental chess.
And in this place, the three of them were in a good position. Three of the new Jiumen. The middle gates.
So Liu Sang decided to just go with the flow. Let himself be led by A Tou and Bai Haotian, and he could use his own aloof reputation to keep on the sidelines.
And keeping his ears open, and taking mental notes of what he heard.
A Tou herself was also moving around mostly on the sidelines, with Xiao Bai being the one talking the most with people.
And Liu Sang found himself distracted - by Xiao Bai’s shining outfits, hurrying around, and big smiles, and A Tou walking, her dress shifting, her tattoos showing underneath.
He turned his eyes away, looking at the other guests, and keeping his ears open.
He couldn’t afford to be this distracted.
Not yet, anyways.
All in all, he liked being Sang-niang. Usually people seemed to avoid him for superstitious reasons, but he figured part of it was that he usually did his best to ignore the nickname the industry (and Pangzi) gave him.
But as Sang-niang, he was there, head held high, lipstick on his lips, and towering over everyone there.
He kind of liked it.
And he especially liked Xiao Bai gravitating towards him, leaning on his side, and even getting out of her shoes.
“My legs hurt,” Xiao Bai whispered, hiding behind one of the tables.”
“Aren’t you cold like this?”
“You’ll warm me up right, Sang-niang?” Xiao Bai beamed.
“I’m not a space heater.”
“Hmmm. Next time we’ll need dresses with coats or capes. And pockets.”
Liu Sang still stood next to Xiao Bai, putting an arm around her, and she was comfortable snuggling up to Liu Sang’s side.
And A Tou… A Tou was indeed herself.
The way her tattoos showed under her dress made Liu Sang consider that maybe he should have worn some dress with sheer as well.
But…
Well.
Maybe another time.
And that day, after the party where the three of them left, with the information they needed, they went to A Tou’s place, and if Liu Sang and Xiao Bai found out if A Tou was wearing anything under that dress of hers or not, well.
That was their own business, wasn’t it?
“You know I only had one tattoo artist so far, but this doesn’t seem like the way to do it.”
“Yeah well, most tattoo artists couldn’t do it this way. But most artists are not me. Stay still. Xiao Bai, hold him in place.”
Bai Haotian giggled into Liu Sang’s ear, as he was leaning by her, and she was holding his hands down. Meanwhile A Tou was straddling him, like she was doing so while doing his makeup, and drawing on his chest.
Well.
At least she didn’t have the needle with her in this position.
That would really have him concerned.
“We’ll figure out a design to make this presentable. So next time we can give you a dress to show off your shoulders.”
A Tou was teasing, but Liu Sang’s eyes were fixed on the ceiling.
“Yeah, that’d be nice.”
He could feel Xiao Bai’s breath hitch a little, and A Tou’s hands also stopped working - then Xiao Bai pressed a kiss to Liu Sang’s ear, and A Tou chuckled.
“You know, you don’t need a special occasion for that either, Sang-niang.”
Hearing that from A Tou’s mouth sent a shiver down on Liu Sang’s spine, especially after A Tou leaned around for a kiss, and Bai Haotian’s arms were still there, surprisingly firm and gentle at the same time.
Yeah.
Liu Sang could get used to this.