It turned out that this method, this art, devised thirteen hundred years ago, has real application in the modern world.”“I believe you taught your...elf Mandarin in order to study it?”“Well, yes, but don’t let that put viewers off! Since I first started, most of the key works have been translated into English. When I signed up for the course, though, I knew nothing of the language, Kòngzhì Rén, or Chinese culture apart from what I picked up at my local take-away.”Victoria smiled. “But now you’ve. I let the wife go to Missy’s room to tell her the conditions, while I went to the master bedroom to get the tools of discipline. We all arrived back in the living room at the same time.Missy looked at the wooden spoon and riding crop that I had placed on the table and realized that at least I was taking this seriously. I gave her the choice of what I would spank her with, but before she could answer, her mother grabbed the riding crop, effectively eliminating that choice, not surprising since. Jake watched her calmly, disappointed but not angry. She couldn’t meet his eyes. ‘You aren’t pregnant, are you?’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘I mean you aren’t pregnant,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I know you’re lying about this whole thing.’ ‘No, Jacob, I—’ ‘I can tell, Chelsea,’ he cut her off, and now he was angry. ‘At first, I believed every word you said. But I’m not stupid, and you’re lying. Now, what’s going on?’ She took a deep breath to reassert herself, allowed a few. She had married Steve because it seemed about time. She stuck out the middle years because of the kids -- and the money. And through the worst of the last years, it came down to money.For richer or for poorer, the minister had said. Well, it certainly hadn't been for richer. For as much as she'd done to push him ahead at work, he was always complaining about how hard it was to make ends meet. She couldn't get away from it, even on vacation. There they'd be in the suite she'd picked out on top.