Lin and the Good Boys

Chapter Two

Bruce arrived home and asked Lin what was the matter. He was mostly oblivious, but did tend to look at her face too closely at inopportune times. She answered that she had problems with the dinner, because she realized in that moment that she had entirely forgotten to fix them dinner. Without missing a beat, Bruce fussed about for the number and then ordered them some Chinese food for delivery. She knew that he knew that something was up, and he was treating her so nicely she wanted to hit him, but she kissed him instead, several times, with full tongue. It made her feel a little better.

Bruce was so revved up from a combination of his nasty but probably correct suspicions and all the kissing that when the food arrived he suggested they go to bed early and eat the food in bed. It was a messy suggestion, but Lin didn't have the moral position to deny him anything, so she acquiesced with as good a grace as she could manage.

Within fifteen minutes of climbing on the bed, Bruce had Lin expose her naked body to him as they ate. She did as he asked without argument or hesitation. Soon after she was fully naked, their chow mein was set aside, and he was plunging his cock into her with as much vigor as she had ever experienced from him, maybe more.

It felt natural for Lin to humiliate herself for whatever nasty whim Bruce had. She hated him for being a cuckold, and she loved him for humiliating her and using her roughly, for punishing her transgression, however indirectly. Because her nasty cunt was still humming from Tom ramming it right here in their bed a mere few hours earlier, she came for her husband loudly once in the middle of his pleasure and once at the end, even though only a few minutes passed before he shot his spunk deep into her slutty hole.

They finished their food. When Lin returned to the bedroom after cleaning up their dishes, Bruce was standing naked and indicated she should get on her knees in front of him. She almost started to yell at him, but then sighed heavily and got down on her knees in front of him. She hated giving him the least bit of oral sex. It was frankly very unsanitary. However much he begged, she would touch her mouth to his dick maybe once a year, and then only if he was right out of the shower, and then only for a short time, just enough to get him to shut up about it for a while.

This time Bruce's semi-erect penis was rank with Lin's lubrication and with his cum. She almost threw up into her mouth as her face approached the stinking dirty member. Then she smelled it: the unmistakable smell of Thomas's cum as well. Her demon loins began to quiver with excitement at this. She tried to quell the response by starting to clean off Bruce's dirty dick with her mouth, first the head, then farther down the shaft. He grew hard as she relentlessly punished herself with this sickening activity. Tom's scent became even stronger in her nostrils as she forced herself, and she could feel her moist response to this abomination.

Finally it was time for Lin to attempt what she had seen the sluts in porn do, take Bruce deep in her mouth. She had never attempted this before with anyone. Bruce hadn't even asked for it. She didn't care. She ventured to put in more, but gagged and reflexively backed away. As tears began to roll down her face, she tried again and again and again and again until Bruce stopped her by grabbing her head in his hands and stepping back with a tortured expression. "I appreciate it, honey, but I'm already hard."

Bruce put Lin on all fours at the edge of the bed, and standing behind her, took her in the pussy. This was actually her easiest position. As he pounded her quickly and relentlessly, she came every few minutes for him for some time, the lingering scent of Tom in her mouth and nostrils keeping her wet and at the top edge of excitement. Soon, however, she became preoccupied by drips of sweat beginning to rain from her husband. He was torturing himself now. He went on and on. Finally she began to beg him, "Take a break. Please, take a break." But he would not stop. Finally, after what seemed like an hour of speeding up and slowing down, he tensed behind her and chuckled weakly. He was finally done with her.

She helped his sweat-drenched body into bed and rubbed his neck as he quickly fell into a deep sleep. She looked at him for a while, not knowing now what to do with herself. Her dirty cunt was now sore, and it served her right. Perhaps it would be sore for days. She stared at him for a while, sleepless in the dark, and then went to take another shower.

Despite Lin's wish, her dirty cunt was just fine the next day and every day thereafter. During the week, she settled down to a routine of having Thomas take her quickly against the prep table in the morning after the coffee rush and then again more slowly after hours generally on the small mattress. They had more time after hours. Tom settled into an afternoon routine of taking her quickly on the mattress to begin with, then massaging her sciatica painfully and pleasurably while he recovered, and then taking her a second time for longer. If he was very excited or came quickly the second time, he would sometimes then lick and suck her to several orgasms and then have her a third time.

This routine was Tom learning Lin's preferences. She didn't like such things as foreplay getting in the way of Tom satisfying himself in and on her as early and as frequently as possible. She was very excited by the excitement and pleasure she caused her beautiful young man simply by passively laying there and allowing him his way. That said, she didn't dislike other kinds of play within certain limits; she just never wanted any of that to get in the way of her impatient need to see the lust and excitement light up his face or feel the punch of his frequent and powerful orgasms deep inside her.

She would then go home wet and ready to her husband, who would take her again in the evening, and was happy to mention as politely as possible that her newfound readiness and randiness in the evenings was pleasing to him. Because of her feelings of obligation to him, he also had carte blanche to pursue what Lin thought of as his perversions, although she knew they were more common practices nowadays than in the culture she was raised in.

Regarding the anal, they came to an agreement that if he wanted anal, she would go perform an enema on herself so that the smell was not disgusting to her. He always took pains before beginning to lubricate her anus and rectum thoroughly. If she was looking fraught to him, he would insert a butt plug into her anus while he fucked her for a while in the normal fashion to make it easier for her to accept him. As he demanded and she capitulated, she learned to enjoy and even have an occasional profound orgasm from the practice. She enjoyed that it was something, like tongue kissing, that she was withholding from Tom and reserving exclusively for her natural husband.

Another seeming perversion Lin continued to attempt was to get on her knees and open her throat to Bruce's thrusting cock. He was disturbed that she had so tortured herself on her first attempt, so he bought instructional videos for her to study. She dutifully followed these instructions, and so within a few months she could take him down her throat without too much gagging.

Because Lin was inclined to passivity and having her men use her as they wished, they got into a habit where Bruce would hold her firmly by the head or hair and fuck her throat as he wished. Normally, he just started using this technique to get hard, but this was enough oral stimulation to allow Bruce to cum from her oral sex for the first time in their relationship. The first time he went this far, he politely warned her, but Lin had never tasted a man's semen before, and she threw up immediately and forcefully, much to both their dismay.

After this incident, Bruce started requiring Lin to put in her mouth, show him, and then swallow at least a small amount of semen that leaked from her pussy after each time they had their normal sex. Although the practice disgusted her, after a few weeks of this, the next time he came from fucking her throat, she was able to choke it down and even show him some of it beforehand. Oral sex became another practice that, however distasteful and perverse, she felt proud she was reserving for her husband.

Because Lin was receiving such frequent and regular attention during the week compared to the weekend, where she had only Bruce perhaps once in the morning and then once in the evening, she began to look for discreet ways to sneak off and see Tom on the weekends as well. Bruce forbid her from opening her shop on the weekends at all, fearing it would burn her out. She was able to get away from time to time for some "shopping," but she and Tom could not find any kind of regular time that worked for them on the weekend, so she remained somewhat frustrated on the weekends and somewhat impatient for Mondays.

Another matter came about to impact Lin's routine with Tom. As her business got busier, she had to hire help, so she hired a young coed by the name of Huan Dandan to help in the shop. She would only think of hiring a girl, because boys did not know how to clean things and were lazy. Boys had their uses in her world, the first being the crazy money they could produce in a man's world, the others being not a subject for decent conversation.

Huan proved to be neat enough and diligent enough to not displease Lin, rare qualities in any mortal. However, her very diligence caused immediate concern for Lin. Until she could figure it out, she immediately eliminated her morning quickies with Tom. She would only make love to him after hours. Before Huan even started, Lin began storing the mattress in the trunk of her car. There was no reliable way of getting it back into the shop without drawing attention, so more and more often, she would just have Tom take her against the prep table after hours. Needless to say, these changes immediately began to seriously affect their relationship.

To try to make it up to Tom, Lin rejoined the dangerous practice of inviting Tom into her home and bed. They had not attempted this since their first foray given Lin's unexpectedly strong feelings about it. Now there was a need. She swallowed hard and began to invite him home every weekday afternoon. She was scrupulous, so Bruce didn't seem to suspect anything had changed.

The trysts were luxurious, filled with both guilt and feelings of revenge for Bruce's perversions, such complex feelings. She had never had weekday upon unrelenting weekday, week upon unrelenting week, of such extraordinary happiness and pleasure. She was sometimes abject on the weekends waiting for Monday, no matter how much Bruce tried to cheer her up. She sometimes cried that she was now old and barren because her loins so lusted for Thomas's seed to catch hold in her.

Lin kept looking for ways to have Bruce assuage these additional feelings of guilt within her. One evening, she had an idea. After the dinner plates were cleared, Lin sat down again across the dining table and simply requested, "Punish me." She looked away. As soon as the words left her lips, she felt a cooling breeze of absolution wash over her. No matter what he did with her remark, at least she was being honest that in her opinion she needed to be punished.

"Okay," Bruce replied somewhat uncertainly. He scooted out his chair and beckoned Lin towards him. He removed her skirt and pulled her panties down to her ankles. Then he set Lin over his lap and began to spank her ass cheeks, first the left one, and then the right. Bruce was a large and powerful man. His spanks got louder and louder until they were deafening cracks. Lin began to worry whether the neighbors could hear.

Although the spanks were painful, warmth spread outward and into Lin's loins from Bruce's spanking. She didn't feel like crying out. Instead she closed her eyes to better enjoy the pain and the warmth. The spanks went on and on. He changed arms and continued. After about an hour of spanking with him switching arms constantly near the end, his arms were too tired and he couldn't continue. Lin thanked him, pulled up her panties, and redressed in her skirt.

Before Lin could escape Bruce to finish the dishes, he spun her around, pushed and held her head down on the dining room table with one giant hand, and with the other roughly pulled her panties back down. His cock was only semi-hard, but her quim had become sloppy and open from the spanking, and his cock proved hard enough to begin to penetrate her. His cock hardened quickly as he slid it in and out of her with increasing speed and force, and within a minute he was pistoning in and out of her at full mast and she was whimpering and shaking with an orgasm, her head still pinned to the table.

The next day, Lin's employee Huan approached her after the lunch rush. Huan had begun to think of Lin as a kindly aunt, like another mother who understood her and was not so strict as her real mother. Huan confided in Lin in Mandarin, to avoid eavesdropping, "I am starting to have feelings for a boy, but I don't know what to do. My parents were very strict. I've never even kissed a boy. I don't know what to do."

"You're interested in him. Is he interested in you?"

"How would I know?"

"Has the boy you're interested in been in my shop?"

"Yes, he comes here often. He was here today."

Lin chuckled. "Then the answer is 'yes.' Haven't you noticed how all the boys look at you? How they often stammer when they speak to you? I know that some have asked you out. I keep hearing you say you're too busy."

"The boys who ask are not the one I'm interested in."

"Well, you aren't all dumb, girl. The boys I've seen ask you so far are scum and you should stay away from them."

"Then what do I do?"

"When he comes into the shop, look at him. Do you look at him?"

"No, I go into the back."

"Look at him!"

"It's so embarrassing!"

"Promise me you'll look at him. That's an order! Either that or I'll stand here and make you ogle every man who comes into the shop. By the end of the week, your man won't be able to get in here because our floor will be covered by men on their knees proposing to you!"

"All right," she promised resignedly.

"And smile at him!"

"Well, I couldn't help that. I guess that's why I run into the back."

"Stupid girl! Smile at him."

"Okay."

"Talk to him."

"What do I say?"

"Say anything. Tell him about the weather. Tell him you're off work at three o'clock."

"I could never!"

"All right, leave it to me. I'll tell him."

"No!"

"It will be fine. Let your auntie Lin be match maker. Who is he, darling? You can trust me. I would never let you down."

"It's Thomas."

Lin swallowed hard.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing, my sweet cinnabar. I'm simply amazed at your intuition. Thomas is a wonderful young man, the best of the best of them. You certainly have good taste in men. It will serve you well all your life. He's a quiet one, though. Only a girl with great discernment like yourself would even notice him."

Sitting at home that afternoon, waiting for Thomas to arrive for their tryst, Lin felt the full weight of her karmic crime. Her capitulation to her lust for Thomas was holding him back in life, was already hurting Huan, who was almost a daughter to her. She was derailing all of space and time to indulge her sick needs. This was too much. She was not going to go against nature or by her continued actions derail what ought to happen here.

Just then, Lin heard the garage door open and close. A minute later, her dearest Tom was in her arms. "What's wrong?" he asked, "Why so serious?"

"Don't worry," she replied, "It's good news. Everything will be just fine."

"What?"

"Never mind. Just a minor problem in the shop." Then she dragged him forcefully to her bedroom and fucked his brains out like there was no tomorrow.

Everything in the house was arranged a little too perfectly as usual by the time Bruce arrived home. From a pink shopping bag, he produced a short leather whip with many tassels. "Do you need punishing?"

"More than ever," Lin confessed with a relieved sigh.

"Pull down your panties."

"I need to turn off the stove first."

"It can wait. Pull down your panties!"

"Not if you want dinner," she said, stepping out of her panties and handing them to him.

"Part of your punishment is to spoil your dinner. Now bend over and pull up your skirt." He began whipping her across her ass and legs, first gently, and then with increasing force. It was much quieter than the spanks and felt much better to her, like scratching an itch she didn't know she had but that now consumed her. She shouldn't be enjoying being whipped this much. She really was a dirty perverted slut.

The whipping lasted well into the evening and eventually involved her ass, her legs front and back, her back, her arms, her breasts, her tummy, and even her quim. Lin could smell her food burning the whole time, which was a worse punishment. By the time he started whipping her cunt, she was actually dribbling a little. He whipped it harder and harder until she screamed out in real pain, then he stopped whipping her, bent her over the table, and took her with his growing erection as he had the night before.

After Lin orgasmed once, Bruce pushed her down on her knees, grabbed her painfully by the hair, and face fucked her with abandon. Within a minute or two he came down her throat, holding his cock there, and finally saying after he had recovered his senses, "There's your dinner!" Was this now a porn movie? Her husband had gone crazy. She understood he was trying really hard to make her feel better by doing his best to punish her, but he was terrible at it. She felt wonderful.

Finally, Lin was able to run into the kitchen and turn off the stove. Naked in the kitchen, she turned to him and joked, "What are you having for dinner?" Bruce set her ass up on the cold counter and bent over to lick her pussy. Perhaps she should not have joked. The licking continued for some time. It was terrible, because she became more and more excited while at the same time more and more uncomfortable because of the chill. At the end, she couldn't orgasm because she began shivering with cold, and finally he relented.

The next day, Lin was resting in Tom's arms after having an extremely satisfying series of orgasms. Tom was trying to have a deep discussion with her, perhaps even ask her advice, she wasn't clear. It was far from being her favorite activity with him. Tom continued, "So you see, George just needs to get laid. Everything would be fine for him." George was Tom's roommate.

As Lin gathered, George Matthews was the victim of a strict upbringing and had come straight to being Tom's roommate from an all-boys' school. George was on the swim team, tall, with dark hair. He was every bit as handsome as Tom and certainly more muscular. But George was painfully shy. He never chatted with Huan or himself. He just ordered in a quiet voice, paid, and left.

"How do you know he likes women?"

"Well that's a thought. Oh wait. I know he likes women. I've seen his browser history."

"Ewww!"

"I laughed. It was painfully tame stuff."

"Stop embarrassing yourself and your friend by discussing his private matters. I'm embarrassed for him in his absence."

"Point taken. Anyway, I thought you might help me set him up with Huan."

"Heavens no." First of all, they were both virgins. That couldn't go well. Secondly, there was the Tom thing. The thing she didn't want to think about.

"Why not?"

"It's not a good match."

"How are you so sure?"

"A WOMAN KNOWS THESE THINGS!"

"Okay, calm down. I didn't mean to get you so upset."

She was destroying Tom's life. "Please leave." She got up and ran to the shower, not looking back.

That evening after dinner, Bruce pulled another pink bag out of his attaché case. In the pink bag was a set of leather wrist cuffs and ankle cuffs. "Does my wife need punishing?" he asked with a bit of artificial glee, as if he was asking, "Does my wife need a little cheering up?"

"Fuck you," Lin responded. She knew Bruce was trying to help her, but it was all too much.

"I'll take that as a yes." Bruce spent the next hour or so reading instructions and attaching the wrist and ankle restraints to their bed. He showed Lin how they could be quickly detached so the bed looked normal again. She dutifully lay face down on the bed as he strapped her down. Then he got a little egg out of the pink bag and slowly worked it into her quim. He had his phone out. She shouted, "DON'T TAKE A PICTURE!"

"Don't worry," Bruce replied. He fiddled with his phone a little, and the device roared to life inside Lin. It was really quite intense. He then whipped her from arms to toes taking care to keep the tassels below the neck. Both the absolution and the sensation of the whipping felt wonderful. The vibrating was highly annoying.

Lin was able to withstand the vibrating demon inside her until Bruce started whipping her ass. Then she started wailing and shaking and her rippling rolling pleasure couldn't seem to stop. He whipped her ass firmly for several minutes until the orgasm passed. After that, he turned her over and continued, getting a little more daring with her breasts and stopping when she begged him not to whip her pussy again. She wished he would have whipped it anyway, but she was fine with a reprieve. This was really for him as far as she was concerned.

The next morning, Lin called Thomas on the phone. "Can you talk?"

"Yes, it's private."

"You know I care about you deeply and want the best for your life."

"Uh oh."

"Yes?"

"Yes."

"Huan is interested in you. She is a good girl close to your own age. You would probably make a good couple together and maybe marry. The only problem is that my greedy old pussy is holding you back. It's stopping your life. I can't stand it."

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"I'm a married woman. You know this."

"Then what are we? Nothing?"

"In truth, I love you as much as I love my husband. I love you like a husband and like a son. That's why I can't bear to hurt you like this."

"You're not hurting me Lin. I love you."

"It's up to you. You hurt yourself. If I am a stepping-stone to you, as I should be, I will be helping you to get to your rightful destination in life. If you use me as a wall, you will be hurting everybody, and I will be hurting you, and I can't bear that."

"Will I still see you at 3:30?"

"If you wish. I would enjoy that very much."

"I'll see you then."

"Will you listen? If you won't consider this, you are a much more stupid and weak-willed boy than I ever thought, and I've done much damage to your life by not considering this before allowing you to have me."

"I'll consider it, okay? I'll see you at 3:30."

"Thank you. I guess I've said it now, so you should remember too that I love you."

"Okay. I love you, too. Bye."

Tom was young, Lin thought. This was hard for him. This was exactly what was so wrong with what she did in the first place. She had lured him into her barren womb where there could be no long-term happiness or real life for him, only to serve her wanton desires.

That lunch, not surprisingly, Tom did not show up in the store for the first time. Huan was beside herself with worry. At the end of the lunch rush, she practically screamed at Lin in Mandarin, "What the hell happened?"

"Don't worry," said Lin, "I spoke to him. He's as shy as you are in many ways. I'm going to meet face to face with him after the shop closes today. I will calm him down if he needs calming down. I know he is not already spoken for, but I also know he had a girlfriend back home that he was still interested in a while back. It's time for him to get real and get on with his life. I'll convince him. I can be very persuasive. You'll see."

At 3:30, neither Lin nor Tom said a word. He carried her to the bedroom and made love to her like there was no tomorrow. They had started doing that lately, and now Tom knew why.

Afterwards, Lin said, "New rules. You must give her a chance. You can't hurt her, because I told you of her interest in confidence. I'm sorry, but you're obligated to this. And you can never ever tell her about us."

"Agreed, of course. I want only the best for Huan no matter what happens. I would have to be a monster to wish a sweet innocent girl like Huan ill in any way, and my life is committed to helping people, not hurting them. As for us, that's private. You're married, for God's sake. Haven't I been discreet? Do you think I've been telling all my friends?" Tom was in a bad mood talking about all this and was getting a bit irate.

"Of course I trust you, my love, but you're young and sometimes foolish. You're also a very honest man. In this case, there's a conflict. I wanted to make it clear. Are we agreed?"

"Yes."

"Thank you."

That evening, after Bruce gave her a thorough whipping, Lin said, "Untie me. I have to pee really bad."

"I have an idea," Bruce said as he was letting Lin loose, "Go into the shower instead."

"Whatever." Lin was pretty resigned to whatever perversions her husband wanted to try at this point. At least he had not forced her to pee all over the bed. It had a fairly waterproof layer near the mattress, but it could still be ruined. She had added it mostly because she often peed a little as Thomas fucked her. When Thomas was in their bed it generally was a very wet situation full of her piss, her cream, and his cum everywhere by the end.

Lin climbed naked into the shower followed closely by Bruce. "Now pee on my leg."

Lin gave Bruce a sour look. Even though she was ready to explode, this would be difficult. She strained for a few minutes and finally let loose a trickle which soon became a rushing stream, much to her relief. It reeked in the shower. She was so embarrassed. She hoped he was happy. She certainly wasn't.

Finally, Lin was out of pee, and went to turn on the shower to wash it off them and down the drain. She felt a warm stream on her back and flinched away, turning to see that now Bruce was pissing on her! "Don't, stop, you disgusting brute!"

"Hold still," said Bruce. Lin sighed with resignation and stood still while he peed all over her breasts and tummy. Her pee had smelled bad enough, but his was absolutely rank. It smelled like a kennel full of sick dogs. Her skin stung slightly where the pee hit her skin tortured by her recent whipping. Oh, right. Punishment.

When Bruce was finished, Lin breathed a sigh of relief, turned on the shower, and washed it all away. Bruce said, "Interesting to try, but meh. I got nothing out of it. You?"

"Please never again, so unsanitary. I will get an infection and die," Lin said, making rare eye contact.

The next day at around noon, Huan's eyes were locked upon Thomas from across the street as he strolled up to the counter with somewhat practiced nonchalance, stood directly across from Huan behind the counter, and just looked down at her. Already she was beaming like a child who just learned she was going to Disneyland. Tom was struck dumb. A big dumb smile as big and dumb as Huan's crept onto his face. Lin was smiling at them both. It was infectious.

Finally, Tom said, "Hey" in that big deep voice of his.

"Hey Tom-Thomas," Huan stammered.

"Hey would you like to hang out sometime, like..."

"Now?"

Tom was taken aback. "Well, sure..." Tom looked at Lin.

"Go, go, go, go," said Lin, knowing two otherwise useless kids when she saw them. "Don't get killed in the street."

Huan grabbed two random Poke Balls, ducked under the counter drop, and joined Tom in the street. They were both still just grinning at each other, Huan holding both Poke Balls, as they wandered off in a random direction.

Huan staggered back an hour later, looking besotted.

"How did it go?" Lin ventured in Mandarin.

"Tom is taking me to the anime convention this weekend!" Huan thrilled, replying in English. "We both have Discovery cosplay outfits so we're going as that. I'm going to outrank him."

"It sounds like a date."

"It's more than a date!" said Huan, switching to Mandarin, "We're going to be together for two whole days, doing absolutely everything together!"

"Everything? Should I order baby clothes?"

"You're a disgusting old woman and I love you," said Huan, hugging Lin tight.

Tears unexpectedly started streaming from Lin's eyes. This was exactly the punishment she had been craving. This was exactly the absolution she had needed. It hurt more than her heart being ripped out of her chest. "I love you too, sweet cinnabar."

Lin was at home having a really thorough cry when the garage door opened and shut. It was 3:30. She was kind of stunned. When Tom walked in from the garage, she asked, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Didn't we..." Tom started, looking confused.

"So you expect the entire worldwide staff of Poke Balls, Inc. to open their legs for you in the same day?"

"Wait, what? Nothing happened! What are you talking about?"

"According to Huan, you'll be inseparable the whole weekend and wearing matching Star Trek costumes."

"Inseparable? I was thinking we would go together and come back together and hang out a fair amount together..."

"You'll be closer than arm's length to her the entire weekend or I'll use your balls for bongos!" she threatened.

"Yes, ma'am!"

"And at that rate, I expect that by midnight Saturday, you'll go where no man has gone before," she chuckled. She was pretty funny for a sad old lady.

"Holy Jesus, Lin! We need to get to know each other first. She needs to trust me. I need to trust myself. It would be terrible to rush this. I don't know what the hell is going on with this. You wanted this! Why are you so angry at me for doing what you wanted?"

"I don't know. Come here and hold me."

Tom sat down next to Lin on the couch, held her, and started kissing her neck.

"How can you be feeling amorous at a terrible time like this?"

"Look, it's just a weekend date. Maybe she won't like me. We don't even know. Right now though, it's Friday afternoon, and I showed up for a different date. The date we had starting at 3:30. And I still love you. That's why I'm feeling amorous."

"How can you forget about Huan like that?"

"Does being with me make you forget you're married?"

"My husband is a decided thing. I don't want to affect your decision making."

"Look. Who would Huan rather spend the weekend with: a man who is grieving because he just lost his stepping stone or a man who is enjoying life because his stepping stone is not in the way, but is supporting him still?"

Lin thought for a bit, and then took him to the bedroom.