Chapter Text
One of them, as everyone knows, is the Imperial Great Grandmother, who loves children, in particularly, the child of her most favoured grandchild, Grand Princess Jinyang.
The other is well, the Emperor himself. Even his own more favoured son Jingxuan is not allowed the liberties that the young Lin Shu has, from fearlessly clambering onto his lap at dinner and demanding for attention to bursting in on his study for the sole sake of looking for his uncle to right a perceived wrong. Lin Shu, at the fine age of six, has already honed his skills of manipulation and carefully treads the line of being endearing while ensuring that everyone around him is reminded of his favoured status.
Grand Princess Jinyang is still quite sore about that time where she wanted to punish Lin Shu for a particular transgression involving a eunuch and a bucket of table scraps, but he carefully planned it such that the Emperor witnessed the scene and gained such humour from it, he rewarded Lin Shu with an expensive set of brushes. She took much pleasure in confiscating them and using them for herself, especially in criticising Lin Shu’s essays. His handwriting is absolutely atrocious.
+
The main reason why Lin Shu was brought to Jingyan to begin with, was that Jingyu had hoped that his sweet tempered baby brother Jingyan would temper Lin Shu’s spirited nature, while he would bring Jingyan out of his shell. Jingyan, who would much rather prefer the company of his brother, is slightly doubtful of the new Lin Shu that Jingyu insists on having him meet but agreed amicably enough.
In restropect, everything went wrong in the first meeting.
Jingyan is nine and Jinghuan is thirteen and a bully and despite Jingyan’s best efforts he’s currently getting his floor wiped by Jinghuan’s brute strength. Lin Shu, upon witnessing this injustice throws himself at Jinghuan who trips and falls into the pond, leaving Lin Shu staring at a fallen Jingyan.
Jingyan brightens upon seeing his saviour - not many would go against Jinghuan’s mother, the Empress. “Thank you for saving me.”
The boy looks down on him and scoffs. “You’re pretty useless aren’t you? Jingyu-gege must be so ashamed of you.”
Generally, everyone agrees that Jingyan took after his mother’s gentle nature, more inclined to staying out of the limelight and avoiding confrontations. But they forget that he’s his father’s child too, and he has a temper underneath his usual sweetness.
For reasons that even Jingyan can be hard pressed to answer-
He shoves his saviour into the water.
+
Concubine Jing is the only one unsurprised by the news that Jingyan pushed Lin Shu into the water. The whole palace, devoid of other exciting news, have already forgotten about the incident of which Jingxuan was found keeping a toad inside his robes and accidentally letting it loose on his mother’s prized rouges, takes to Jingyan’s rare show of temper.
“My Jingyan?” Jingyu was reputed to ask, a scandalised hand over his fragile heart and his noble countenance drawn up in confusion. “My brother the seventh prince Jingyan? Pushed Lin Shu into the water?”
“Yes,” the palace maid replied, unable to hide her glee at being the first to share the news. “Right after the young marshall broke up his fight with the fifth prince. Then the fifth prince went screaming and threatening to tell the Empress, but everyone was too distracted by the fight.”
“But-!!!” He exclaimed in dismay. “impossible! My brother would never - Mother, please stop laughing, Jingyan just pushed a boy younger than him into the water-“
“Jingyu, you know better than me what a temper Jingyan has, remember that time he caught the Empress’ maids bullying his mother? What a delightful scene it was where he demanded an apology, and then scowled at all of them until they did.”
“Mother please.” Jingyu pleaded. “That was different. He bullied a boy almost two years younger than him.”
“And it’s not as though you’ve met Lin Shu for the first time. Does that child seem like the kind to be bullied? Furthermore, the maids tell me he dragged Jingyan in and certainly did his best to stuff his face full of pond weed. Certainly sounds like an auspicious friendship to me."
+
The emperor roars in delight upon hearing how Jingyan pushed Lin Shu into the water and praises Jingyan for a fine show of spirit. Concubine Jing smiles in her serene manner, but the look she shoots Jingyan has his hesitant smile faltering. Still sporting the black eye that Lin Shu gave him and with the hot flush of shame of his mother’s disapproval, Jingyan is decidedly uncharitable and when Lin Shu circles the area around his eye in a smug manner, he scowls at him fiercely, even if it causes his eye to throb somewhat painful enough to make him tear.
+
They gain a reputation of fighting. Not just antagonistic bantering, although there’s certainly enough of that with Lin Shu’s terribly sharp tongue lashing at Jingyan and finding his sore spots with unerring accuracy and malice, but full out brawling. Jingyan may be bigger, but they are almost of the same height, and Lin Shu is definitely heavier than skinny Jingyan, with a penchant for dirty brawling and hitting under the belt while Jingyan is afflicted with the unfortunate nature of worrying about going too far.
Lin Shu exploits it.
“Please, Xiao Shu,” Consort Chen chastises with little heat, handling him with the careless ease of a favoured aunt and pulling him off Jingyan. Despite her petite frame and constant chronic ills, she’s very much the scion of a military family and easily sweeps a still howling Lin Shu into her arms. “Watch the vase, it was a gift from your father for my birthday. And if you give Jingyan another black eye, Jingyu would be very cross with you.”
“It’s ugly anyway.” Lin Shu complains, twining his arms around her neck all the same. “Just like him.”
“You don’t mean that,” Consort Chen says, letting Jingyan who senses his position as treasured nephew threatened, throw himself at her leg. “After all, I overheard your mother saying you spent a lot of time complaining about how you couldn’t break the jaw of his pretty face.”
"Yeah he's pretty, like a girl," Lin Shu sneers, and makes an aborted movement to swipe at JIngyan's hair only to have her smack at his hand.
"Oh? I’m sure our Xiao Shu can be pretty too, if he combed his hair, Xiao Cai, bring my jade hairpin, we'll dress our Xiao Shu up today before I bring them to their imperial great grandmother. She'll be delighted at the addition of the new princess."
Jingyan smirks at Lin Shu.
Consort Chen smiles benevolently. “And bring my clothes for Jingyan. Two princesses it’ll be then."
+
The Imperial Great Grandmother is beyond delighted. “Is this our Xiao Shu? Come closer for Tainainai, oh what a precious child you are! And Jingyan too, so pretty.” She pinches Jingyan’s cheek even as she tries to hoist Lin Shu onto her lap. Lin Shu, that’s growing heavier by the day requires help from his exasperated mother, who gives him a warning look to behave when Jingyan is helped to the space next to them. “So much like your mothers the both of you. Jingyan has his mother’s beauty, and our Xiao Shu looks just like our Jinyang when she was younger and running around in the mud.”
“Grandmother!” Grand Princess Jinyang protests, glaring at her son when he hones in on her words with a child’s excitement at one-upping their parents.
“Tainainai,” Lin Shu says in a syrupy sweet voice, pitched higher than Nihuang’s. Jingyan gives him an incredulous look, but he ignores him. “Tainainai, is Lin Shu pretty today? Like Lin Shu’s mother? Did she really play in the mud?”
“Oh, she did my little darling. Always such a mess, and she would refuse to wash her hair because her brothers weren’t forced to wash theirs - only Liyang could ever get her to calm down. Come, have these snacks, Lin Shu they’re your favourite.” She says, stuffing a few into Lin Shu’s delighted mouth.
“Thank you~,” Lin Shu flutters his lashes, kissing her cheek and leaving crumbs.
“This child!”
“Jinyang,” Consort Chen laughs, drawing her closer if only to prevent her from ruining her nephew’s fun.
“And our Jingyan, so refined,” Jingyan who feels definitely not refined fidgets uncomfortably in his robes, but he refuses to lose at this game to Lin Shu, he absolutely refuses.
“Thank you for the praise,” he says, in a falsetto voice of what he thinks a girl would sound like, mainly his younger sister when she wants something from the emperor.
Lin Shu bursts into riotous laughter and falls off Tainainai’s lap, hitting his head on the floor, but he still doesn’t stop laughing.
“Shut up,” Jingyan growls, his face burning, making to kick Lin Shu, only for Consort Chen to swoop down on him like a dark red hawk before he could do actual damage.
Lin Shu gives him a beatific smile right before he flips Jingyan’s robes upwards to reveal his underclothes, earning a furious squawk of outrage.
“Just like our Jinyang,” Tainainai smiles fondly.
+
To add insult, to injury, everyone may love Lin Shu, but they seem to never have a bad word for Jingyan. Lin Shu feels extremely betrayed, when he attempts to discuss the faults of the useless seventh prince to Nihuang, who cocks her head to her side and frowns.
“But Jingyan-gege is very nice, he always makes sure that Qing-er’s involved in our games, and helps me with my studies.”
Grand Princess Jinyang loves him, which Does Not Help with Lin Shu’s intense, almost irrational dislike for Xiao Jingyan and his furry brows. “He’s a sweet boy and greets everyone politely. Such lovely posture and so well behaved at dinners. You should do well to learn from him, Xiao Shu.”
Lin Shu, at that, commented if she wanted a well-behaved child she should have exchanged him for a dog.
“I tried, but your father wouldn’t let me.”
Nothing, however, could compare to the time where his most beloved, staunch supporter of the resident hellion Lin Shu, the Imperial Great Grandmother assumed that the mess in the kitchen was Lin Shu’s doing.
As though Lin Shu would be so stupid to let himself be caught, and for such a clumsily executed prank. While he’s throwing a huge sulk about it, lying face down in Tainainai’s robes and glaring daggers at an overly innocent Jingyan (who should have toned it down a little if he didn’t want to give himself away) she strokes his head fondly. “Xiao Shu ah, my little darling, you shouldn’t play like this in the kitchen - what if they can’t produce the snacks you love so much?”
“I DID NOT DO IT!!” Lin Shu sits up, protesting hotly and pointing at Jingyan. “IT WAS HIM!”
“Yes, yes, you did not do it,” Tainainai cajoles. “But next time not the kitchen okay?”
“I DID NOT DO IT!” Lin Shu pushes himself away from her, his fury at being wronged boiling over. “I DID NOT I DID NOT!”
“Okay, okay, you did not do it, now-“
“You don’t believe me,” Lin Shu gasps wetly, his clever mind latching on her patronising tone. “Tainainai, you don’t believe that it’s Jingyan who did it… You don’t… Believe me.” He hiccups, and it stops becoming an act, instead, he feels genuine distress boiling over in his little heart, because it’s Tainainai, it’s not his mother, it’s not his father or uncle, it’s Tainainai, who has always loved Lin Shu best-
“Lin Shu,” Always sensitive to Lin Shu’s needs, Tainainai reaches out to soothe him. “Of course, I believe you-“
“YOU DON’T!” Lin Shu shouts, shocking the room into silence. The smile that Jingyan had been hiding at first slides right off his face. Suddenly overcome with an overwhelming hatred for the seventh prince, Lin Shu whirls around on Jingyan, eyes blazing with anger as he pushes Jingyan down the steps. “I HATE YOU!”
“Lin Shu!” Tainainai never ever raises her voice at Lin Shu, but she’s raising it now all for stupid Jingyan-
“YOU DON’T LOVE ME!! YOU LOVE JINGYAN MORE!!” Lin Shu screams in childish fury at his imperial great grandmother, except he’s starting to cry in the embarrassing manner. “YOU ALWAYS SIDE WITH HIM!! JINGYAN IS NEVER WRONG!! JINGYAN IS ALWAYS THE MOST OBEDIENT!! YOU DON’T LOVE ME AT ALL!!”
Tainainai’s face crumples, as though Lin Shu physically landed a blow on her. Lin Shu has only a moment to feel a terrible satisfaction, before he bursts into noisy tears and runs blindly for the door, only for hands to grab him when he finds himself missing a step. Immediately, he recognises the smell of Meng Zhi’s sweat and hiccups, allowing for Meng Zhi to hoist him up.
“Is it Xiao Shu? What happened?” He hears Meng Zhi ask. “The maids asked me to come when I was in the area-“ Upon realising that he has a possible sympathiser, Lin Shu cries even harder, hee-hawing his way through his explanation and leaving his snot all over Meng Zhi’s neck. “I can’t understand you like this, but let me take you home first. Stop crying already, if you cry I’m really at a loss and they’re going to think I bullied you-”
“Meng-dage, you’re not smart enough.” Lin Shu mumbles into his neck, finally quietening.
“Xiao Shu, what did you say?”
“You like me more right, more than you like stupid Xiao Jingyan and his stupid eyebrows?”
“What is this about?”
“You prefer me right?!” Lin Shu asks, fiercely, digging his nails into Meng Zhi’s skin. “Way more than you do Jingyan. Right?”
“O-ow, stop stop yes, I do,” Meng Zhi replies. “There’s blood already!”
“Good, cause I need you to be my alibi when I kill Jingyan.”
+
“You’re not serious right about killing the seventh prince right?”
“I’m going to give him five horses.”
“Xiao Shu!”
+
Grand Princess Jinyang, who spent the entire day soothing the ruffled feathers of everyone involved in Lin Shu’s prank, is not in a good mood, especially when the serving maids of her grandmother’s palace reported to her about how Lin Shu threw the grandest of tantrums and stormed out of the palace, leaving behind her grandmother in tears. Jingyan, who was probably frightened by the tantrum that Lin Shu, started offering himself as the scapegoat of the prank, spinning some tale about how it was him setting Lin Shu up.
“Xiao Shu, you will come with me and apologise to Tainainai now, shame on you-“ She barges into her son’s room, except it’s empty. Her anger deflates, seeing her son’s discarded clothing on his bed, his messy shoes, replaced by worry instead.
She walks back to her room, and just as she thought so, her son’s all curled up underneath her blankets in a proper sulk. There are crumbs of some snack on her sheets and she feels her irritation spark. “Honestly Xiao Shu-“ She says as she tugs the blanket back, only for her child to throw himself at her and hug her waist.
“Don’t look! Don’t… Look.” Lin Shu hiccups, burying his face into her.
All her anger leaves her.
Her prideful boy. She remembers just like yesterday how he talked before he could walk, and looked up at her with bright eyes, and called for her. As a Grand Princess and the wife of a Marshall, she never ever coddled him, and he with all his sharp intelligence, never tolerated any form of it.
But he’s still a boy, and she’s still his mother. Jinyang strokes his hair, allows herself to breathe in the soft scent of his freshly washed hair, lets her child shake against her.
“I didn’t do it,” he says defiantly, almost daring her to deny it. She sighs, because she knows her son, and if he did, and was trying to escape punishment, he would not have alienated his strongest supporter in such a dramatic and hurtful manner.
So it means-
“I know.”
“The prank was stupid too. I wouldn’t do something like that.” He says resentfully. “Stupid Jingyan.”
She waits for him to untangle himself, sniffing and rubbing at his eyes. The blanket remains over his head and it shakes as he blows his nose noisily on the cloth.
“Tainainai asked for you.”
He remains resolutely silent, radiating a miasma of NOT WANTING TO TALK ABOUT IT. Knowing how stubborn he can be, Jinyang sighs, leaning forward to kiss his scalp and sighing when she realises that he missed a certain spot while scrubbing his scalp. “If you don’t eat dinner with us, you’ll have to go hungry.”
Knowing that her Xiao Shu would never starve himself, she allows him some time to put himself to order. He’s obviously tried to eat his feelings that silly child, but he’s discarded the half chewed snack somewhere underneath her pillow, she notes with a grimace, probably after losing his appetite half way.
Lin Shu brings the blanket with him to the table, and it’s almost comical if he’s still not radiating intense melodrama from underneath the blue silk. Lin Xie wants to comment on it, and the increasing stains on what Jinyang knows to be his favourite blanket but falls silent after Jinyang gives him a glare, stuffing his face with a bun.
The lump under the blanket makes a dismayed sound.
Jinyang sighs as Lin Xie hurriedly removes it from his mouth and slides it underneath the blanket.
+
Lin Shu bursts into her chambers, a boy sized blue mushroom lookalike. “I want to sleep with Mother tonight,” he airily informs Lin Xie, and from underneath the silk, his lower lip threatens to tremble. Weak to the threat of his son’s tears, Lin Xie agrees and lies down, patting the spot next to him in invitation.
But where Lin Xie is, is the exact place where Lin Shu wants to sleep.
“Lin Shu, your father’s going to sleep in your room okay?” He calls out from behind the door, hoping to gain some sympathy. Lin Shu turns his back to the door, huddling deeper into his blankets. “Jinyang,” Lin Xie says mournfully, and her lips curl at the edges, eyes twinkling as she pushes Lin Xie out. “Grand Princess Jinyang, your son took my spot…”
“Be good, and go to sleep, Marshall Lin,” Jinyang replies haughtily, even as she slides her hands down the front of his robes. “It’s only for a night.”
“Jinyang,” he pouts, angling for a kiss, but she laughs and closes the doors on him.