In the freezing Pond

Jin Hua stood proudly on the pond. It truly was thick, he didn't feel it crack under both him and the baby on his side, who completely stopped moving, probably cause he's scared. What a wimp! It's just a bit of ice. The maids kept yelling at him to come back. As if! Walking around the ice is cool. It was slippery and he slipped a few times walking to this spot, but so what. Jin Hua laughs as some of the maids attempt to step foot on the pond but quickly step back. He rolls his eyes. It's not even that hard. 

Jin Hua stumbles, chuckling to himself. He looks at his weak younger brother who's sitting down and not moving. He should scare him a little. He bets it would be funny to see him cry and beg for the Empress to come and save him. Without a second thought, Jin Hua reaches his shoulder, he heard a no but ignored it and pushed the boy farther away from land. He stared at the small, scrunched-up and horrified face as he tried to scramble to a futile stop, spinning as he moved away. Jin Hua laughs louder. 

"First Prince! Come back here!" Jin Hua fliched, ah, that was his older maid. She has it out for him, he swears. He grumbles. 

"Fine." He pouts. He starts walking back.

CRACK!

Jin Hua stops, slowly he looks down at his feet. There's a giant crack right where he just stepped, and soon water starts leaking out. 

Oh no..

_______

Yao Ling curses as he scrambles to a stop. When he finally stops, he's on his knees and hands, he breathes a sigh of relief. Until he hears another crack. This one is much louder and deeper than the before. Like a thunder strike through his body he's muscles quickly tense, and he's breathing stops. He quickly looks up towards the First Prince. 

The First Prince steps back, and another loud, ominous crack resounded. He shrieks and hunches on himself.

"AH! Momo, save me!" He yelps at another creak, " Ah! Water's rushing up the cracks! Hurry up!"

Yao Ling curses, which means the ice is already about to break even more. He stares at his hands, small leaks of water surface to the top. Dammit. He's got to think fast or he's going to be pulled down. He looks around, there are maids of both gold and blue uniforms near the first prince, trying to convince him to slowly walk towards them. 

CRACK!

Dammit. He's too far from the shore to slowly make he's way there. The water leaks more and more. He shakes his hands from the cold water already soaking his sleeves and pants. He ignores the cries of the First Prince and tries to shuffle his way to the other side, where he hopes the ice is thicker. 

CREEK! CRACK!

He's about to make a run for the other side, he knows he can make it. 

"If I fall in this pond, I'm gonna tell my mother! And all of you are going to be in trouble if you don't help me right now!" Jin Hua yells. 

Yao Ling stops.

If Jin Hua falls, if he gets injured in the palace of the Empress, the Empress would get in serious trouble. He shouldn't care, but... What if Empress Xuefang gets punished by the Emperor for this? He already said he did it before. He glances at the First Prince, and all he sees is the Empress being accused of endangering the favored son of the Emperor. 

CRACK!

He sees Empress Xuefang arguing with the Emperor, who is accused of killing a royal heir out of jealousy—no one on his side to say otherwise. All of them, agreeing and watching the Empress. Gleefully watching his downfall, the Empress looked back and sees nothing but resentment.

....

Yao Ling quickly turns around, scrambling on the cracking ice, running towards Jin Hua. He slips, causing his knee to hit the ice hard, cracking the ice below and slightly sinking into ice-cold waters. He gasps and clenches his teeth. The cold temperature seeps into his bones like a thousand needles, and the swelling on his legs aches and burns when the water reaches it. 

CraCK!Crack!

Yet he continues until he collides and grabs Jin Hua's sleeve to run with him, more cracking noises and breaking ice as he runs. Frustratingly, Yao Ling can feel his stamina already reaching its limit and his speed slowing down. He thinks of the Empress's face if this goes wrong, and grabs tightly to the sleeve and the chest of the older boy and pushes him forward, giving the final push needed for the maids to grab him at the shore. 

Just when Yao Ling reaches the edge of the pond, he's feet sink into the water below the knee while his top half falls on the ground. 

"Ah!"

Someone grabs him and pulls him up. He gathers himself, trying to warm up. There's a flurry of motion and ordering for warm clothes and warm foods into the room.

Yao Ling sighs. What a mess. He really should've hit that brat. 

___

When Yao Ling gets cleaned and put into another set of warm clothes, he's put down on a chair, a soft duvet around him, and some warm milk. He sips quietly, unlike Jin Hua, who loudly wailing and yelling at everyone about their incompetence, even at Jin Zhou. 

Yao Ling closes his eyes, his legs still sting and ache, the maids didn't bother even looking at whether he had any injuries and just gave him fresh new clothes. He sighs. 

Now that he realizes where the maids are from the Jade palace, he's only seen the maids of the Sapphire palace, Pearl Palace, and Amber palace. No green female robes. 

He opens his eyes to the smell of freshly cooked dessert and sees a plate of warm, tiny cakes in front of him, a maid, wearing the color of the Empress's palace, kneels to his level. Her face is average, with downslanted eyes and a thin mouth. Her expression betrays no emotion as she motions to the plate.

"You must be hungry, Fourth Prince. Here, have this to warm you up." She says.

Yao Ling tiredly blinks and grabs one of the little cakes; the cake's warmth seeps into his stiff fingers. The heat was nice. He grabs it with two hands and splits it into halves to eat it slowly. The bean paste in the middle looks delicious. The maid leaves, probably to give the cakes to the other princes. 

He grabs a half and puts it in his mouth.

It's a bit sour, but it's warm at least.