"… What?" Xianyu swatted aimlessly at the air, nearly falling to the ground as he rolled over onto his side.
The young prince having earlier been lounging aimlessly on his day bed, had promptly fallen asleep not that long later. By the time he'd woken up, late afternoon had departed and early evening had arrived. Which only served to make him quite miserable, as he'd not even woken up all that long ago either.
Of course, if he dared complain about that aloud, Jiang would certainly chide him for waking late in the first place.
"Your letter was delivered to Your Highness's elder brother earlier today."
"'Earlier today' makes it sound like it's been longer than it has," Xianyu complained, rolling away from the edge of the bed and sitting up slowly. His movements were slow, drowsy, and he was very much regretting having fallen asleep earlier. "Why didn't you wake me?"
"I did wake you," the eunuch replied casually. "That is why Your Highness is not currently still asleep."
With a humph, Xianyu raised a hand to his hair in an attempt to figure out what sort of mess it had become. However, despite having fallen asleep with a plethora of pins and accessories in his head, his hand found nothing there but a simple silk tie keeping the wavy locks held back in a low ponytail.
Having served their masters almost all his life, the maids and servants of the household knew how to undo Xianyu's hair with such care that they did not wake him. To them, ensuring their master's happiness was of utmost importance.
"Jiang," Xianyu mumbled, reaching toward his attendant with a clinginess that was unusual between two people of such stations. "I want red bean soup for dinner."
"It's not dinner time yet, Your Highness."
"Isn't it? It feels like it's dinner time."
"It is not."
Xianyu blinked his wide eyes slowly, the evening light too bright on his newly woken eyes. It was all too noticeable, how his pupils constricted, against the backdrop of his strangely pale brown irises.
For just a few seconds, the world stood still in the dim light. And for those few moments, Xianyu almost seemed as elegant and careful as people claimed him to be when he was disguised as Yuehua. The ways the light filtered in through the wooden lattice, casting intricate shadows over delicate features that leaned far too feminine for a man. His long lashes fluttered as he blinked, slow and careful like a beautiful young maiden; the tip of his nose blushed ever so slightly pink from having been rubbed against his sleeves in his sleep. Everything made him almost surreal in beauty.
It was almost obvious why people claimed he rivaled even the concubines themselves in beauty. A statement often made when Xianyu was not disguised in Yuehua's identity and poise.
Then, of course, he shattered that illusion by promptly flopping forward like an under-stuffed doll and jutting his butt up into the air.
"Jiaaaang," he wailed, all serenity forgotten. "I wanna know about Mystery Man! He was so beautiful!!!
"I wanna know; I wanna know; I wanna know!
"There has to be a way to find out, there has to be. You're so smart, won't you help me find out? Has gege not replied to me? Why is no one helping me investigate!? All of you are so horrible!"
"Your Highness, it's not being that long since your letter was sent out."
"Gege doesn't live that far away," the young prince sulked quietly. "It would have been faster if I'd just went to visit myself."
"Your brother must be busy," Jiang replied, "He may not have the time to reply to you. And, Your Highness is the one who insisted on sending the letter."
"Because I thought it would be faster!" Xianyu wailed in reply, arms flailing like an upset toddler, his bottom still up in the air. "You should have warned me before."
Then, before the eunuch could reply, the young prince suddenly shot straight up with new found vigour. He'd just formed a bright new idea! One that obviously couldn't fail. Probably…
"What if I just went straight to gege now?" He clapped his hands together, already scrambling to his feet without waiting for a reply.
In his mind, this was the absolute perfect answer to his problem. Surely gege had simply misplaced the letter, or there was no way Jingrui would ignore his beloved baby brother's request. After all, in twelve years of Xianyu having tailed his gege around like a little puppy, he had never once been turned down!
By the time Jiang had registered what his master had said, the young prince had already flitted out of the room. Unfortunately, he was missing most of his outer layers from his earlier nap.
In reaction to this, half the servants lingering around the edges of the room and outside in the corridors chased after their master, scrambling to ensure the young prince did not skip off into the night in only his innerwear. Especially with how dangerous the city could be at night.
***
"I'm sad…" Xianyu's wobbly little whine sounded as the little prince cuddled one of the tinier boys in his service. This was one of His Highness's favourite past times: pestering his companions!
Though the little prince had originally ran off with the pure intention to go visit his gege, he had quickly realised that the night air was far too cold and his clothes far too thin for that kind of venture. Therefore, he had willingly let himself be dragged back into his residence, bathed, and plopped down onto the daybed where he was now attempting to bite the little boy sat on his lap.
This particular child came from a scholar's family, though Xianyu didn't pay much mind to this kind of thing. All he cared about was how cute and doe-eyed the child was!
"Your Highness is so beautiful," the twelve-year-old chirped in response. Even he, at his young age, knew full well what kind of person the prince was. Nothing made His Highness happier than compliments.
"Ah, really," Xianyu brightened up, pressing his cheek into the crown of the kid's head. "Then do you think Mystery Man noticed me? Would he think me pretty?"
"Mmm!" the child, nicknamed Xiao Tian by the prince, agreed enthusiastically. After all, no one with working eyes could not say His Highness was beuatiful. And, Xiao Tian very dearly adored Xianyu, the way a child might look up to a very friendly senior with slightly below average self awareness.
Xianyu giggled too, easily delighted by the happiness of others. Even if he never did find Mystery Man, the prince fully believed that the nation's goddess, the Moon Spirit, had at the very least blessed him with the opportunity to witness the sight!
Not that he was a particularly devout person of course. Had the goddess's statues not been as beautiful as they were, he likely would have paid very little mind to her.
For this, his gege has often scolded him when they were children. It was also for his brother's sake that he dedicatedly remembered to pray to the goddess when he could.
"Please, please, please let me see that man again," he prayed, burying his face into Xiao Tian's hair and flopping backwards. Luckily, the younger boy was quite small for his age and was easily lifted around by the prince. After all, Xianyu wasn't particularly tall or muscular either. Had the boy been any larger, he may not have been able to be carried by His Highness as easily.
"You'll definitely meet him again!" the boy cheered. "The goddess loves Your Highness so very much."
The door to the room clicked quietly in the corner, causing both boys to glance up from where they were laughing.
"Your Highness, Xiao Tian was sent to you to learn, not to be treated as a doll or gossip partner."
It was Jiang. And the eunuch looked very much displeased by his master's lack of discipline.
"But what fun is that?" Xianyu huffed. "Tian, you don't want to study do you? That wouldn't be fun at all!"
The younger boy nodded his head, his topknot coming undone from having been tossed about by the prince for the past hour or so. He looked ever so adorable — like a lost little puppy who'd been playing too much.
Without a second thought, Xianyu sat up, moving the younger boy off his lap with ease. "He couldn't learn anything from me anyways. The boy is so much smarter after all."
"Then you could stand to learn from him," Jiang replied flatly, unimpressed by the attempt to deflect. "I am sure the tutors would more than appreciate if you could sit still for one lesson. And maybe pretend you care about the knowledge they are trying to instill in you."
"But they're so boring," Xianyu sighed in reply, lifting his arms to stretch. "If they really wanted me to listen, they'd make themselves more interesting."
And, ever the agreeable little puppy, Xiao Tian nodded along as well.
"On another note, Your Highness had received a letter," Jiang said, swiftly changing the topic back to his original purpose of coming to his master's room.
The letter had arrived not long ago, neatly folded and addressed clearly to a certain young prince. At a single glance, it wasn't hard for anyone to tell who the letter had been written by, even ignoring the seal that clearly indicated the writer's identity.
People rarely wrote to the young prince, unless it was an invitation to attend a gathering or party. And in recent times, even those had started to wane in number, as he had started declining many of them in favour of running off the teahouses and flirting with men who had no way of recognising his face. From Xianyu's own words, it simply wasn't as fun to go after people when they already knew his true status and name.
Combined with his utter lack of standing in court, and his mild illiteracy in formal documents, there were next to zero people who would write such a comprehensive letter to His Highness.
"Gege!" Xianyu's face brightened from its earlier half-sulk to an unbashed grin. "I knew he'd reply within today."
Jingrui never could quite leave the younger prince to silence for more than a few hours at most. This was, possibly, one of many reasons Xianyu had grown into such a self-indulgent person.
But really, if you asked Xianyu, wasn't that natural? Why would anyone want to deny him, such an adorable beauty, the true joy of indulgence and freedom? Gege was more than right to give him what he wanted! It wasn't like he turned out spoiled or anything… Probably.
No, of course not! Xianyu shook away the thought, the sudden movement gaining a curious look from the two other boys in the room.
"Ehe, if gege's letter is waiting for me, I shouldn't delay any longer!"