The young man in the centre was beautiful.
Xianyu practically felt his heart stutter out of his chest at the sight.
It was no secret this particular prince was a fan of both handsome and beautiful individuals; men and women alike, though he certainly had a preference. What other reason would he have for flirting with men at teahouses? But this was possibly the first time Xianyu had witnessed someone pretty enough to elicit a true reaction from him.
Aside from his gege of course, but that was a whole different kind of reaction. Yes, gege was ethereal, other worldly, and not to be meddled with.
This man, however, was beautiful in a completely different way. Xianyu almost wanted to touch him and destroy that unbothered aura the man carried. He felt they were almost close enough for him to reach out and make contact.
"Have them executed."
The words startled Xianyu enough to send him scrambling back behind the pillar, back pressed against the painted material.
Aaaaahhh???
Have who executed?!
Too afraid to linger any longer, lest he become the next head on the chopping block, Xianyu scrambled to leave the area.
Quite fortunately, with his reputation, even if the group of courtiers glanced up and saw him, no one would attempt to punish him for his actions. Though, Xianyu did question the soundness of that excuse, after what he had just heard.
But he hadn't even heard anything really. He didn't even know who was being executed or for what reason! They couldn't possibly accuse him of doing anything suspicious.
He found Jiang waiting for him nearby, apparently not having wanted to follow his master into official grounds.
When the servant looked up, the first thing he saw was his master's face. Xianyu was quite exhilarated by his earlier experience, having already pushed the idea of execution to the back of his mind in the time it took for him to make his way here.
To him, there was no reason to dwell on it. The more he thought, the more stressed he would become.
Instead, he chose to focus on something he considered far more important: the young man.
A beauty so clear that it had, in his initial shock, made Xianyu compare it to his gege! That kind of beauty was impossible to come by, he thought. No one was comparable to his beloved elder brother, not even Xianyu himself. And Xianyu certainly thought himself extremely beautiful.
Of course, after real thought, he didn't think the young man from earlier had been as beautiful as gege at all. No, they weren't even in the same league. But still… He had certainly been attractive, and much more so than many other men. Which meant that a certain prince must absolutely learn his name!
Already Xianyu had made up his mind: he would ask anyone it took to find out that man's name. And he would certainly flirt with him at the first opportunity he got.
What really made him curious, though, was why he hadn't ever met this man before. He had met most of his father's most trusted ministers, in the form of Yuehua, but this particular face was absolutely new to him.
Yet, if the man was powerful enough to be ordering executions, then he wouldn't be someone unimportant or too newly promoted, right? How had Xianyu never met this man before? How had no one thought to tell him that there was such an attractive young person drifting about the palace corridors!?
Xianyu thought perhaps he was a powerful noble's son, and perhaps said nobleman did not wish his son to fall prey to the palace's promiscuous prince. But still, no way he could hide that well. And no nobleman's son could hold that much power, surely. Even if he was from a highly esteemed family, there was just no way! In this, Xianyu was confident he was right, even if he lacked knowledge in court.
As they made their way back, the young prince tried to broach the topic to Jiang. Unsuccessfully, mind you.
"Is there really no one that matches the description?" he whined, sulking at the lack of results from his investigation.
"There are plenty of people who match your description, Your Highness. Yourself included."
As it turned out, there were perhaps one too many men in the palace that had: delicate features, pale skin, average height, long hair, and a 'decent amount' of power.
"Jiaaang," Xianyu pressed his palms together, as though begging. "Help meeee."
The eunuch only sighed in response, "You'd have to give me a far better description of his position."
"He's like- Powerful," the prince shrugged helplessly. "He ordered someone's execution!"
A pause.
"Your Highness," Jiang started, "I am not privy to who can or cannot order executions. Is there anything else you know?"
After another short silence, Xianyu gave a huff, "No."
Unlike earlier, when he had been happy to move from topic to topic freely, the young prince was no longer as drifty. Now, he was fully focused on discovering who the mysterious beauty from earlier was. Though, he didn't even entirely know what he would do with the attained information. Flirt with the man was definitely on the list.
"What if I tell you what he looks like?"
"Can Your Highness tell me exactly what shape his eyes, nose, and lips were?" Jiang asked flatly. "What about his exact build, could you tell me that?"
Xianyu shook his head to each one, getting more and more disappointed with each word.
In the first place, he hadn't thought it would be easy to find the mystery man, but now he was starting to realise that he'd forgotten much of what he'd seen earlier. He could barely even remember if the man's robes had been light or dark in colour, much less the shape of his facial features.
What he remembered came in smaller pieces, like the way the light had shimmered off deep black hair; how the man had tilted his head so carefully toward the speaker when others spoke; or just how the sun had seemed to both spotlight and conceal the mystery beauty.
Xianyu was even starting to think he might not be able to point the man out from a group of other beauties.
"But he was so beautiful," he mumbled, already mourning the loss of it. At this rate, he doubted he would ever be able to see it again.
It hadn't even simply been his facial features that had made him stand out to Xianyu. What had caught the prince's eye had been the way he carried himself. There had been a kind of elegance in it, one that had caught Xianyu's keen eyes, even from so far away.
Had I not been so busy hiding, I would remember what he looked like, Xianyu huffed to himself. It's all that guy's fault! Had he not seemed so scary, I wouldn't have hid at all. Then I would have been able to take a proper look at him. Maybe I would have even asked his name, instead of having to launch an investigation myself.
Even by the time he returned to his residence, he had still yet to get over the tragedy of not having memorised the man's face properly.
He even tried asking the rest of his servants, hoping that at least one person could help him narrow the possibilities down. Nothing came of it.
Eventually, Jiang felt bad enough that he offered to try and name every possibility that sit the description. It was a long list. One that didn't help in the slightest.
The description pointed at any vaguely attractive young male in the palace! Had Jiang known who of the list was permitted to be walking on sacred grounds the way the young man had, the list would have been much shorter. Unfortunately, he did not know who was or wasn't permitted there.
And even worse yet, Xianyu knew very well that this list was incomplete, being only the people Jiang knew. Surely there would be hundreds of missing names from the possibilities.
"I don't even know what half these people look like," Xianyu mumbled, kicking his feet dramatically on his day bed. "How am I supposed to know whether or not they're the right person?
"Maybe I should write a letter to gege about it. Surely he'd know who was permitted to be there."
He'd mostly said it in jest, not wanting to bother his elder brother for something like this. But, the more he thought about it, the more tempted he was. It wasn't as though Jingrui would have to reply immediately, there was no pressure to. And it would make Xianyu's life so much easier…
"Jiang, help me write a letter," Xianyu said, face smushed against his arms. "Ask gege about mystery man."
"Of course," Jiang stood from where he had been sitting across from the prince. "However, I fear even Your Highness's elder brother will not be able to discover who you saw earlier, with how little you remember."
"Don't underestimate gege," Xianyu huffed, flapping his arms insistently. "Someone has to know!"
As he continued to roll around on the thin cushions of his daybed, servants moved around him, setting up the papers and ink on the desk. The prince paid them to mind as he kicked his feet into the air dramatically.
Usually, he preferred to write his own letters to Jingrui — mostly because his gege tended to scold him for being lazy and not practicing his calligraphy — but today he was far too lazy. And he feared he simply lacked the vocabulary to describe the man's beauty in its true awe inspiring glory. At the very least, if he made Jiang write it, he wouldn't have to worry about remembering the strokes to characters he only vaguely knew from reading.
Xianyu had unfortunately never paid much attention to lessons as a child. Had he not taken a liking to reading romantic novels and such, he feared he may never have been able to read at all. Which, he liked to pretend was his someone else's fault, not his. After all, the tutors should have taught him better! Gege should have taught him better!
"Your Highness," Jiang prompted, awaiting Xianyu to dictate the contents of the letter to him. Instead, the prince merely flopped over onto his stomach and pouted.
"I can't possibly describe that beauty well enough!" he whined. "Just tell him what you think is important. I've already told you everything there is to know."
"I might not remember everything you've told me."
"Whatever," Xianyu huffed. "If you don't remember, then it probably wasn't important anyways. It's not like I'll blame you."
With a small sigh, Jiang conceded and started penning the letter. He wasn't unused to his master's style of speech, and he'd written more than one letter for Xianyu in the past. It was almost too easy to make the letter sound like it had come out of the prince's mouth.