Chapter Text
Lin Shu had been out training with his father for the better part of the day, and now his brain was a soup of military strategy. Still, he walked with the Grand Marshal of the Chiyan Army reciting formations to himself until his whole body’s demeanor brightened at the sight of a familiar face.
"Jingyan!"
Lin Xie swatted at the back of his son's head. "It's 'Your Highness' in public!"
Lin Shu ducked, laughing. Lin Xie had no choice but to let his son run to the prince. Xiao Jingyan wanted nothing more than to sweep Lin Shu off his feet, but he was a little embarrassed in front of Lin Shu's father.
Lin Shu reigned himself in when he approached.
"Your Highness," he bowed.
Jingyan's mouth quirked up. "Young Marshal."
Lin Shu quickly pulled Prince Jing away. "So, what did the Emperor say?"
"Father Emperor wants me to lead an expedition to the Eastern Sea to keep open our food supplies."
Lin Shu's eyes widened. "The Eastern Sea? Woah!"
Beneath Jingyan's long sleeve, away from the prying eyes of others, their hands intertwined. Lin Shu mischievously shook their linked hands.
Jingyan could hardly wait until they were in his courtyard before peppering Lin Shu with kisses.
Lie Zhangying sighed and shook his head. "Your Highness, you can't keep doing this."
Prince Jing ignored him and led the Young Marshal into his personal chambers. In the depth of his rooms, they leaned close together. Lin Shu idly twirled Jingyan's long hair with a finger.
"Don't you have other things you need to do today?" Jingyan asked. "You left you dad just like that."
"Nah, this is far more important." Lin Shu laid his head on Jingyan's shoulder. "You're going to leave soon anyway."
Jingyan hugged him tighter from the side.
"I'm so jealous; I always wanted to go to the Eastern Sea." Lin Shu held up a hand with his fingers curled in a circle. "I heard there's pearls the size of quail eggs over there! You can't return until you find me one."
"No way! That's impossible!" Jingyan protested.
"I'm sure if anyone can, you can."
Jingyan laughed lightly. He took Lin Shu's outstretched in his and brought it back down.
"I will bring one back for you," Jingyan said as he kissed Lin Shu's fingers.
Lin Shu sighed happily and nuzzled Jingyan's shoulder. He stayed there, a familiar, comforting weight as the prince began preparations for his upcoming journey. After a while, Jingyan turned to look and found Lin Shu's eyes closed, lightly dozing. He smiled looking at his sleeping face. He didn't want to wake him just yet, but Lin Shu seemed to sense Jingyan's gaze. He sat up with a groan.
"Hm?"
"You didn't have to get up yet," Jingyan said, a soft tone of regret in his voice.
Lin Shu only hugged Jingyan tightly. He turned his head to the side to brush his lips just under Jingyan's collar, causing Jingyan to gasp in pleasant surprise.
"X-Xiao Shu—" Jingyan's coherence was cut off as he felt Lin Shu suck gently but firmly.
When he pulled away Jingyan stopped him and cupped his cheek.
"It's a promise," Lin Shu said to the bruise forming just under Jingyan's collar. "For you to come back with the pearl."
"Then so is this," Jingyan said. He leaned down and captured Lin Shu's lips with his own.
A week later Da Yu attacked. Lin Shu followed his father to the northern border.
"The situation's not looking good, Commander," the captain of the Chiyan Army reported to Lin Xie when they arrived.
"Commander," another lieutenant bowed. He inclined his head to Lin Shu. "Young Marshal."
Lin Xie nodded at them. "Send word to Nie Feng for reinforcements."
"Right away." The two men ran off.
Lin Xie marched into the commander tent.
"How many have we lost?"
"About ten thousand, Sir. The have us funneled in"
Lin Xie looked at the rolled out map on the table. He pushed forward two troop markers.
"We'll hold them off here until Nie Feng's reinforcements arrive."
But days went by in the camp and there was no sign of Nie Feng's reinforcement. Nor of even Nie Feng himself. The situation was getting desperate, the soldiers losing faith.
Lin Shu paced his tent. He hadn't fought yet, but he stood with his father above the battle directing troops. Lin Xie expressly forbade him from going in recklessly alone, and, although Lin Shu was anxious to help fight, a part of him understood his individual contributions on the battlefield were basically meaningless on this scale. He would be of better use strategizing.
Finally, after a month of desperate struggle, Da Yu was defeated. The severely weakened Chiyan Army limped back to the high cliffs of Meiling. Nie Feng's reinforcements had never come. No one knew what had happened to them.
Suddenly, there was a cry in the distance.
"Look!" someone called. "The Emperor has sent us reinforcements! The Marquis of Ning Xie Yu has arrived!"
Lin Shu looked to the crest of the hall south to see a man in cloaked armor on a black horse carrying the flag of Da Liang. And behind him: reinforcements as far as the eye could see.
A wave of relief washed over the Chiyan Army. Lin Shu watched the vigor increase on their tired faces. Friends began to clap each other on the back, for it was over now.
The tide of reinforcements ran over like a black sea. The Chiyan soldiers put down their weapons. Lin Shu broke into a smile. He would be able to go home soon.
Something was wrong.
Lin Shu's smile faltered as he noticed the sea of black wash through the Chiyan Army. Some fell to their knees. A cry of surprise came up before it was quickly cut off.
Lin Shu turned to his father. "Father, what's going on?"
Lin Xie's eyes narrowed. "Why would troops the Emperor sent wear all black and hide their faces?"
Suddenly, a scream tore through the air. The ground below became a roiling mass of chaos. Lin Xie grabbed his sword and raced down. Lin Shu followed close behind.
There was only one explanation. It was a trap.
The enemy was not from Da Yu. Or if they were, they were hiding their allegiance. But why?
Where was Nie Feng? Where was their reinforcements?
A wall of sound blasted Lin Shu's face when he reached the battle. He barely took two steps before there was a sword in his face. He slashed back at the assailant but there was another and another. He immediately lost track of his father and anyone he could possible know. The haze of battle heightened his senses into overdrive. Stab, stab, slash.
How had this happened?
Lin Shu was suddenly shoved back. Right into a fire.
Lin Shu cried out as flames licked his left arm and side. The acrid stench of charred flesh burned his nostrils. He tentatively touched his shoulder, trying to assess the damage but there was no time. He whipped his sword up to block an incoming attack. His left arm hung limply at his side, the skin sizzling and red.
With a cry, Lin Shu shoved his sword forward into his attacker's chest. the man fell to the ground.
Lin Shu gasped, stumbling slightly. The pain in his back and shoulder finally started overriding the adrenaline. He looked around for any familiar faces but only saw blood and fire. Screams filled the air around him. He stabbed at every black cloak around him, but it felt like the shadows were closing in, choking him.
He staggered blindly ahead until finally reaching a place he could breathe. He turned around, only to see another cloaked assailant stalking towards him.
Lin Shu's back was to the cliff. The battle had reached up here. There was no where to retreat.
He rolled his sword in his hand. His eyes roared with fury.
Come and get me.
The man charged. Lin Shu whacked his blade to the side with a downward slash. The attacker's momentum carried him forward, nearly over the edge of the cliff. The force of Lin Shu's strike knocked his sword down and exposed his back and shoulder. In a flash, Lin Shu wound his arm in the opening and slashed across the man's chest, but the effort left him winded. The man staggered and stabbed his sword wildly in Lin Shu's direction. Lin Shu deflected the strikes and kicked him into the snow. The man rolled around but the wound in his chest was bleeding profusely now. He clawed at the snow before falling still.
Gasping, Lin Shu sank to his knees. His sword stuck in the snow and he leaned on it for support. The burns on his back and left arm seared from his overexertion. He was getting reckless as the battle dragged on. His injuries were not light; aggravating them like this was surely making things worse. He really…needed to go back to a medical tent.
He gulped in a breath. But where? Everywhere he looked there was only chaos. He couldn't even pick out Da Liang in the fight anymore, much less anyone with medical skills.
But he couldn't stay here. His back was to a cliff. His back was covered, but there was no where to run.
Lin Shu pushed himself to his feet, vision blurring as the pain in his shoulder spiked. But just as he stood, he felt the snow shift beneath his feet, sliding out from under him. A crumbling sound echoed in his ears. He threw himself forward but it was too late.
The edge of the cliff caved-in under his feet. He scrambled, hands clawing at the snowy ground trying to find purchase as the rocks gave way, but there was nothing, nothing to grab onto.
A hand shot out and grabbed his arm. Lin Shu's descent stopped so abruptly he nearly collided with the cliff face. His shoulders screamed in protest; his right because the abrupt stop almost yanked it out of its socket, and his left because the raw skin harshly scraped against the rocky wall. A grunt came above him, and he slid a few feet further down.
Lin Shu looked up to see his father's haggard face. His eyes widened in shock and fear.
"Father—?"
"Xiao Shu—" The muscles in Lin Xie's arm flexed, but he didn't have the strength to raise him. He could only grip the side of the rock face in an effort to keep him from falling over. He looked at his son's face. Regret filled his eyes.
"Father, no, wait—!"
Lin Shu struggled to raise himself up but slipped further. Lin Xie knit his brows with the strain. Blood dripped down his arm onto his son's face.
"Xiao Shu."
Lin Xie felt his strength waning. His eyes wandered to the thick snow below before flicking back to his son.
"You must live."
"FATHER!!!"
Lin Shu's hand slipped from Lin Xie's limp one. He watched in horror as his father closed his eyes and his face receded. Blood trailed down the side of the cliff. He reached for him, screaming, but it was no use.
Lin Shu's body smashed into the ground below. Searing, whit hot pain screeched through his bones. Blood pooled in his mouth. He weakly threw his head to the side, choking. Viscous scarlet stained the snow.
Cold.
So cold.
The burns on his body ached from the sudden contact. His vision was growing hazy.
Father….Father…!
His heart clenched with the weight of so much destruction. His friends, his family, good people who didn't understand what was happening. How had their cry for reinforcements turned into a massacre?
As his body grew numb and his gasping inhales grew weaker, Lin Shu's heart cried out for one person.
Jingyan…
Xiao Jingyan was away at the Eastern Sea, fishing for pearls. How would he find out what happened here? How would he react?
Tears trickled down Lin Shu's cold cheeks.
Jingyan….I'm sorry….I didn't get to say goodbye to you…
The tears clouded Lin Shu's vision. His fingers curled weakly in the snow.
I'm sorry, Father….i don't think I can….
His eyes fell closed.
A small snow beetle crawled up his limp finger.
A solidary figure emerged on the cliffs of Meiling. He was clad in white. Despite the snow, he stood out amidst the carnage below him.
Lin Chen slowly walked among the corpses. Snow crunched under his feet, stained by blood. The acrid stench of burning flesh filled the young doctor's nose and throat. He fought back a wave of nausea.
So much devastation.
His lifeless eyes turned towards the sun, blocked by black storm clouds. It seemed like an eye, looking down on this hell, watching this last person standing.
Lin Chen knelt down in the snow and held his fingers underneath the fallen soldier's nose.
Dead.
He half-rose to another body.
Dead.
Again.
Dead. Dead. Dead.
So many people. So much slaughter.
He was nearly to edge of the cliffs of Meiling. A body was there, his arm hanging limply over the edge of the cliff. Lin Chen approached. He checked the man for injuries but it was no use. He was already long dead. In this wilderness of haze and snow, who could survive injured and cold.
In his rummaging, the man's head turned to the side. Lin Chen's breath halted for a moment in his lungs.
Mei Shinan.
This man was his father's friend from the Jianghu. He was older, but Lin Chen still remembered seeing his father laugh with him over tea in Langya Hall.
Lin Chen looked around. Soldiers lay scattered, bloody and broken for as far as the eye could see. It seemed Mei Shinan was not a simple pugilist.
Lin Chen gently moved Mei Shinan's body away from the edge of the cliff and folded his hands over his breast.
"I'm sorry I cannot do much for you, my friend," he whispered. Mei Shinan's body started to burn. Lin Chen bowed his head.
He watched Mei Shinan's body burn until it was charcoal, then looked out over the edge of the cliff. The position of Mei Shinan's body indicated that he was holding someone from falling over the edge of the cliff. Sure enough, when Lin Chen looked down there was another body broken in the snow below.
Lin Chen didn't have much hope; no one showed any signs of surviving this massacre so far. But Mei Shinan wanted to save this person. Lin Chen wanted to go check for his friend.
It took a while, but Lin Chen eventually picked his way down the cliff. There were several bodies at the bottom, but only one that could've been the person Mei Shinan was holding onto. Lin Chen could tell because the half-face he saw buried in the snow looked like his father's.
His eyes where closed, his cheek frozen to the touch. When he fell, he surely broke several bones. But to Lin Chen's astonishment, when he held his fingers more out of respect than hope under his friend's son's nose, a faint breeze brushed over his knuckle.
He was alive.
Lin Chen scrambled to his feet in shock. He shouted for a stretcher. It took several minutes before a disciple of Langya Hall came over.
"Sir?"
"There's a survivor," Lin Chen choked. He waved his hands at them. "Hurry! Get him back to Langya Hall!"
Disciples gently lifted Lin Shu's body onto the stretcher. Lin Chen thought he heard the young man groan as he shifted.
Langya Hall was on lockdown. Nothing about the Chiyan Massacre was to go in or out of the place. If someone asked about it, their question and money was simply returned immediately. Langya Hall was neutral.
Lin Chen knew it was not so simple. Still he could not risk the Emperor's wrath.
Lin Shu's eyes opened a crack. A lead weight crushed his chest so he could hardly breath. His eyelids were so heavy. He sucked in a breath but pain lanced through every bone in his body
"Stay still," a voice said next to his ear. "You were severely injured. It's a miracle that you're still alive."
The doctor rummaged around Lin Shu, checking to make sure his bones were set properly.
"I knew your father, Mei Shinan," he said softly. "What is your name?"
Lin Shu weakly turned his head to the side. His voice when it finally came out was hoarse.
"Mei…Chang…su…"
Lin Chen held his wrist between his fingers. Lin Shu heard him suck in a breath.
"You…"
Lin Shu's consciousness was hazy but he forced his eyes open to look at the doctor.
Lin Chen's mouth was open with shock. It couldn't be. He pressed his fingers to Mei Changsu's wrist again, just to confirm, before he pulled away, his hands falling back into his lap.
"Changsu," he said in disbelief. "You are with child."