Original Fiction

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Summary : Set in a dynasty era in China and revolves around the Crown Prince and his timid younger half-brother.

one day the younger brother falls sick with high fever and the Crown Prince stay by the little one's side till he regain back his health.

the incident became the key for the little brother to open up to his elder brother.

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Story Title : We get closer with a crisis

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it was a quite morning in the Royal palace, the sun was in full view and it was past the wake-up time. Wang Yunli --the crown prince-- was in his room and fully-drowned in writing with his elegant brush handling and his practiced wrist.

Yunli was copying "The scrolls of the temple's Nun" book for the empress dowager. the empress dowager was sick recently so Yunli decided to gift her a much-larger-sized-texted copy of the said book in one time of when he go pay respect to her.

Yunli remembered that the empress dowager many times expressed her disappointment with her aged and weakened vision that rendered her unable to read the said book on her own. the extremely-old book's text was noticeably much smaller than all of the other books.

Yunli wanted to show his consideration and decided to copy the whole book with a text  that's multiple-times bigger than the original one so even the empress dowager herself could read it easily without any trouble.

larger texts means longer brush strokes and it was an exhausting task and required skills and delicateness since every long stroke requires a steady wrist and speed.

Yunli began working on copying the book since almost three weeks ago and he's going to finish it by the end of the current writing session.

"Yu-gege! can I come in!", a voice called from behind the sliding door.

"you can come in Ji'Er", Yunli replied, he calls his 8 years old younger brother Jian as 'Ji'Er' affectionately.

little Jian entered the room and closed the door behind him quietly.

"I bow in respect to Yu-gege and wish him a thousand years of health, prosperity and piece" Jian said after he lowered himself to his knees and then pressed his forehead to the floor.

"what are you doing! I have told you hundred times to stop with such excessive formalities", Yunli said flustered but Jian didn't budge and kept on pressing his forehead to the floor.

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"I won't dare! you are the most respected man in this great country after the emperor and I should treat you with inferiority", Jian muttered to the floor and could feel the heat of his breath hitting him back on the face.

Yunli sighed in defeat and knew full-well that his overly-polite little brother doesn't take it easy when it comes to etiquette.

he was 16 years old and his brother was only 8 years old but that's how the teachings of the imperial bloodline. sometimes he would just wish that they were just some normal siblings.

Jian was his half-brother and siblings rivalry was something not unusual in the imperial family through out history. but Jian was his only brother and he loved him so much. the little boy was timid, he was the son of a concubine from a lowly family and his mother always weary and did her best not to offend the empress --Yunli's mother-- and that resulted in her son being so timid around Yunli.

"you may rise", Yunli said begrudgingly and stretched his hand to Jian.

Jian slowly rose to his feet and stretched his arm to Yunli. Jian was pressing the edge of his long sleeve under his clutched fingers.

Yunli gently gripped the middle of Jian's arm and pulled him towards him and let him sit on his knee.

Jian squirmed a little on him being sitting on Yunli's knee like a small kid despite truly being a small kid.

"You know that you don't have to press your forehead to the ground everytime that you see me", Yunli said to Jian with a smile.

crown prince or not, honestly Yunli didn't know why his little brother was walking on eggshells when he's around him, the boy was so shy and closed that actually it took Yunli a lot of time to just get the boy to drop some formalities and call him 'Yu-gege' (elder brother Yu).

when they play together, sometimes his little brother would forget the timidness to the fun and they would just be two brothers enjoying their time together without the weight of the expectations of the imperial bloodline.

most of the time Yunli can't figure out what his little brother's thinking and would just have to guess.