Sitting down on a chair with a small smile on his face was the emperor's brother 8th prince Xie Yun. He had long given up the palace life and moved into the north state. He now sat with a fresh bowl of peach next to him gazing upon the beautiful peach blossoms which are in full bloom at this time of the year. He quietly called for little ying who rushed to him quickly with the paper and ink he had requested. He gazed at the breathtaking view once again and began to write

Dear Yang,

It's spring once again in the north state our house is once again filled with the smell of peach blossoms ...the ones we planted together that day ...do you still remember it? My memories are blurred these days but I remember that day very clearly.

We had just moved into the household that day ...you always knew exactly what I loved. In fact there has never been another who knew me better than you. This year spring came early and so the weather is unusually beautiful than normal. At times like this, I wish you'd be here with me so we can spend the day together. I'd make you peach blossom cakes that you loved. Oh how I Wanna hear you play the flute again.

I wonder how are you these days have you been well? Do you eat well? Rest well? You have always overworked yourself please remember to save time for yourself my love just as I promised you, I have been taking care of myself but whatever happens beyond that is not under my capabilities. Older brother requested an audience with Me a few days back. He wanted to check how I've been and today he sent the imperial physician to check on me and send lots of medicine and herbs even though I told him I am well. Gege has always been like that, hasn't he? He never changed, always so protective sister-in-law is with a child now. I wonder if it's a little prince or princess. I should visit her more ...what do you think ya'er ? That's all for now I will write to you very soon I'll go back inside now and drink some peach blossom tea.

with that, he put his signature and ended the letter.

Little Ying who was waiting behind him watched as the prince stood up and began to walk but soon stumbled and almost fell, that is before ying caught him.

"your highness are you alright?!" She panicked and called for the other servants who rushed to assist their prince but Xie Yun only gently brushed them away saying he can handle himself and that he isn't some sickly old man.

Even so little ying carefully walked behind very close to him because regardless of what his Highness thought his health was very poor the prince has always had weak health, and these few years it has only worsened ...she could only hope for better days to come. when it comes to his highness ying is always worried she feels that she has a life of debt to repay them both of them had rescued her from a group of human traffickers at the age of 5 and raised her ever since showing nothing but kindness and compassion.

But after being with them for so long she realized that life isn't fair. In fact it never has been you can do nothing but good all your life and yet suffer the most. old men always say you will get good in the afterlife I can only hope it's true,

Moreover, I had promised the general I would take care of his highness while he is away, and for the sake of that promise, I am willing to do few things even if his highness disagrees with it.

As he entered the room Xie Yun didn't forget to ask Ying to send the letter right away and that, he would be brewing some peach blossom tea now.

Little Ying simply smiled and said yes.

Now in his room alone, he let out a small sign the incense burning in the room made him sick the smell of medicine had always made him feel sick but what to do for he was born with this weak body even at the palace he was almost never allowed to go out a lot and would always be in his room it's not like he was so weak he couldn't walk it's just that his brother and father were so overprotective over him they wouldn't let him go out of their sight.

Xie Yun got up to open the windows so that the smell would lighten up a bit and he stood there for a while looking at the view

He'll never get tired of watching it.

Peach blossoms had always been special to him but they meant even more to him after that day when he met Yang ...they first met under the peach blossom trees. Just as Yun was going back down a memory lane there was a knock on the door

" Your highness, his majesty the emperor has sent a letter to his Highness"

Xie Yun let out a sigh yet again at how formal the little girl was despite Yang and him literally raising her as their own the stubborn girl still insists on being their maid.

He called her inside and Ying entered holding a golden letter with a smiling face drawn on it so much for being the mighty emperor.

Xie Yun opened the Letter and could only sigh yet again but this time of embarrassment if anyone saw the Letter, they'd think it was written by a child. Who would look at this and think this was written by the mighty Emperor who sits on the dragon throne?

He quickly finished reading the childish Letter it was nothing important just his brother crying saying how much he misses him and how he won't visit him much despite him visiting this brother of his not that long ago.

Xie Yun was the 8th prince which means he had 7 brothers before him ...he also had a sister but despite all that he had always been the closest to his first brother the Emperor that is because they share the same mother.

Almost all my other siblings are dead either they got exiled or killed in between the power struggle and Xie liying she was married to a western king and we rarely met after that and as for me I was never interested in the throne and even if I was Yang would be there for me not to mention my brother who constantly reminds me about how he would he give up everything for my safety.

Sometimes I worry for him but sister-in-law knows how to keep him in the line so that's one less thing for me to get worried about.

After he was out of his thoughts, he quickly announced to ying that they would be going out and ying was excited that his Highness is finally traveling and finally somewhere other than the palace that's right they were not going to meet up in the palace the Emperor will be sneaking out to meet his brother and have fun with him.

As weird and silly as it sounds that's what they were going to do ...it takes about 2 days for Xie Yun and ying to reach the capital and so Yun quickly wrote a letter for his brother and asked ying to send it quickly which she did.

Just as she exited the room Xie Yun quickly laid down as he was sweating too much to the point, he was almost dizzy he had been trying to hide it from little ying for he didn't want her to be worried about him even more than she is already

He decided that a cold bath would be enough and after the bath, he decided to rest for a while.

To his surprise when he woke up ying was asleep on the floor near him certainly passed out crying he could tell just by looking at her face.

He quickly got up and carried the tiny girl and laid her on his bed and got out only to see all the servants crying happily at how he finally woke up and it turns out he had slept almost all day and it is the next day Yun almost got another headache thinking about how him trying not to worry them resulted in them worrying so much more.

Even so, He smiled at them and told them that he's alright just a bit tired and asked them to prepare his bath, and instructed them not to wake little ying.

And after a while, he decided that he will start to write his Letter to his husband now

And so, he sat near the pond and began to write to him about all that happened today

Dear Yang,

I don't have much to tell you today but I still wanted to write to you nevertheless

My childish brother has asked for me to meet him yet again. he's older than all of us and he always acts like a child ... remember when he almost fought you over me? Haha.

I will be visiting him in the capital soon I'm planning on leaving today and you know me

Carriage rides tire me out since it's so boring to travel alone especially without you.

Anyways enough about me how is it like in the military camp? I heard this year's winter was harsher than usual please have you been taking care of yourself?

You don't write to me as you used to now but that's okay if you are fine.

Take care my dear I will get ready to go out now ... I'll write to you on my way.

He put down his signature and rolled the letter and tied it close with a red string and gave it to the maid instructing her to hand it over to ying once she wakes up.

And soon she woke up and ying decided that she will not bother his Highness and decided to pack up for the trip and Xie Yun appreciated it since he didn't really know what to tell her yet and he was certain she knew as the physician had visited countless times yesterday.

Just then little ying came over to let him know that the carriage was ready to leave he gently smiled at her ...her eyes teared up and she for the first time in so long hugged him and through her chocked tears she said

"let me know if there's anything ever wrong, please your highness I promised I would take care of you "

And his heart broke at how the child cried and he had no other way other than to promise the child and he quickly changed his expression and told her that he would buy her all the Tanghulu there is in the world once we reach the capital. The poor ying could only smile and nod at his poor efforts to cheer her up.

And they decided to set out on their 2-day journey all the way to the capital

Even though Ying had worried about his Highnesses health so far everything was going fine and so she let her guard down for a while and decided to rest for a while. It's not that she wanted to but the prince won't stop nagging her to take rest so much that she finally gave in and right before taking a small nap she turned back to observe at the prince through the window he seems to be sleeping which is nothing out of the usual as he never really enjoyed carriage rides so instead, he slept all the through at times to avoid boredom.

She really couldn't wrap her head around why it's so boring when you are surrounded by nature but then again, the prince is always way happier with the General so it's understandable in a way.

Xie Yun gently opened his eyes to the sound of the wild he had a very sweet dream, one of the pasts it was them ...both of them standing on the same place they first met

Xiao Yang was the first and only son of prime minister Xiao and being from a scholar family he was expected to take over his father's post one day but the little boy grew up to be more interested in warfare and weapons than scrolls and literature though he marveled at both he chose to go into war instead of the palace.

And this was certainly unusual and thus caught the attention of many including the great general Ying Shang who is the current empress's father and naturally took him as a disciple and this was where Xie Yun's and Xiao yang's fates intertwined.

general Ying was very fond of the little prince Yun and so would often visit him and on one such day he naturally brought his disciple along with him to the palace

And this just so also happened to be the day the prince had decided to sneak out to go watch the peach blossoms.

the general had asked the now 14-year-old yang to wait near the peach blossom garden while he visited the young prince and he was more than happy as he has always had a love for peach blossoms as his mother loved them as well, he nor his sister ever got to meet their mother who had died at childbirth but has heard many stories about how wonderful of a woman she was from their father who never took another wife after his beloved passed away which was yet again very unusual in their time.

he had raised both of them all on his own and his father used to use peach blossoms to describe their mother and due to his stories growing up he had a great amount of love for peach blossoms.

people say peach blossoms are very delicate and are only for the weak but that is far from the truth, they are delicate that is true but they still single handily survive the harshness of the winter when almost all the other hide. while on his way to the garden, he heard soft cries from somewhere deep into the garden intrigued yang quickly decide to locate the cause, and there he found a very delicate little boy not that younger than himself perhaps around 11 or 12 sitting on top of a not that high branch both his hands filled with ripe peaches.

Yang almost wanted to laugh it seems the boy is in a dilemma if he has to get down the has to let go of the peaches but he doesn't seem to want to let go of them ever judging by the way he is holding on to them for his dear life not being able to hold it any longer he let out a laugh and this was only when the little boy noticed another presence his face flushed with embarrassment making him appear even cuter than he already looked.

They both looked up and their eyes found each other and the sunlight seeping through the branches of the trees almost made it seem like both of their eyes glowed for a second.

and at that moment the prince knew that with this strange boy around he had nothing to fear or worry about and yang suddenly felt the need to protect this little boy from the world.

he quickly moved closer to the prince who just kept staring at him the whole time and told him to throw him the peaches one by one. When he heard that the prince was quickly brought back to his senses, he was hesitant and first but he trusted the boy in front of him and so he threw them one by one and watched and the other boy catch them all with an incredible speed he felt so excited watching him and then, at last, he looked at the prince and asked him to jump ..all the emotions left his face as he stared dead faced at the other boy.

He simply smiled and asked, " don't you trust me? " to which the other simply nodded and then closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was in the hands of the other who was looking at him with nothing but adoration.

The prince quickly regained his composter and ran towards the peaches that were piled up neatly and then picked two up and turned to the strange boy and offered one to him with a cute smile while the other just chuckled while he accepted them.

he opened his mouth to say something but only a sign came as he heard his master's voice who seems to be looking for him?

Yun shook his head while laughing as he remembered how uncle Shang scolded yang for no reason and his silly faces while calling him ' your highness' and how he would visit him more often from then sometimes even sneaking away from uncle Shang only to be caught by him at the end and the times when they couldn't sneak out so yang would buy everything from the outside and gave them to him while telling him stories.

He suddenly felt like writing a letter to his husband and so he peaked at the sleeping little ying with a gentle smile and took out his paper and ink

Dear Yang,

I am now on my way to meet Imperial brother, and the ride there is as boring as always but I have been getting more than enough sleep so that's good right? and I know what you're thinking yes, I've been taking care of myself I am well and I know you are too.

these days I've been spending way too much time going back to the past like when we planted peach blossoms together and to when we first met and all it does is make me miss you more than I already do now. This is my third day writing to you I have four left till the wait is over but time passes slower than ever these years but our time together ran out way too fast... I wonder why but that's okay at least we will meet again soon.

I should wake our Ying up soon she hasn't eaten anything all day take care love I'll write to you soon.

as always, he took a red thread and tied the roll close, and kept it in the box so that he can give it to ying later