I Don't Want to Be a Charmboy【Quick Wear】

Chapter 368 His Highness the Crown Prince is Outstandingly Talented (6)

Beneath the vermilion palace walls, the branches were bent low with snow, and the glazed tiles were covered with a thick layer of white.

Two children, not quite grown up, were squatting in the snow, their breath billowing in the cold air.

"Film this spot more firmly!"

Lin Shen, wrapped in a white fox fur cloak, gave instructions. A round little bundle squatted there, its face red from the cold, but it couldn't hide the excitement in its eyes.

Lin Zhi, who was only three years older than him, already showed the tall and handsome features of a young man. At this moment, he was silently following instructions, pounding the base of the snowman to make it more solid. The hands that should have been holding a sword were now wearing half-wet sheepskin gloves, busy in the snow.

As the snowman began to take shape, Lin Shen suddenly tilted his head and pondered for a moment. His bright black eyes darted around, and he called out to summon the palace servants.

"Go and fetch my silver hair ornament and my scarlet cloak."

The items were delivered quickly.

Lin Shen tiptoed and carefully put a crown on the round snowman and tied on a cape.

The red stood out starkly against the white snow, like drops of blood falling onto rice paper.

He took two steps back, tilted his head to examine his work, and suddenly clapped his hands excitedly: "Isn't this a certain Xue?" The rounded shape and the bright red cape made him suddenly miss hot milk tea.

Lin Zhi frowned slightly, looking at the strange-looking snowman: "What is this? It's not imposing at all." In his mind, which was filled with military books and martial arts, a snowman should be a sword-wielding, armored warrior, not this round and chubby figure.

Lin Shen glanced at him and sighed inwardly: This eldest brother of the royal family really only has swords and spears in his head. He's just a rough and brutish warrior. How could he understand such fun?

Li Mao, the chief eunuch attending to him, was already all smiles, his face crinkled with wrinkles. "Our master is truly brilliant. He can even come up with something so cute and unique. He is truly..." His flattery flowed like a river that had been released, with words of praise never ceasing.

Lin Shen nodded, quite pleased: "A reward."

Li Mao laughed even harder, his eyes narrowing into slits, and he repeatedly kowtowed to express his gratitude.

Lin Zhi, standing to the side, felt a throbbing pain in his temples. He had been shoveling snow all day, his hands were frozen stiff, so why hadn't he received a reward?

"Fine," he thought to himself with a cold snort. He didn't care for such flattery.

Lin Shen keenly noticed the resentful gaze, coughed lightly, and stuffed the enamel-painted stoker in his hand into Lin Zhi's hand.

"Brother, you must be freezing today. Warm your hands."

Lin Zhi was taken aback; the sudden warmth in his palm made his fingertips tremble slightly.

The stove still carried the distinctive milky scent of a child, the aroma of the goat milk cream that Lin Shen used daily.

He couldn't help but smile slightly. Since the Crown Prince insisted on giving it to him, he would reluctantly accept it.

Lin Shen took the new hand warmer from the palace servant, gently stroking the warm wall of the brazier with his fingertips, and looked at Lin Zhi with a complicated expression.

According to the original story, this seemingly taciturn elder brother will become the biggest obstacle to his throne in the future.

In the predetermined course of fate, he will personally plunge his sword into Lin Zhi's throat, and Lin Zhi's relatives will be either killed or exiled, none will be spared.

“Abao—”

A deep call, accompanied by the crunching sound of footsteps on the snow, came from afar.

Lin Shen subconsciously replied, "Father!"

He had just turned his head when he was pulled into a warm embrace, and the rich scent of ambergris instantly filled his nostrils.

Emperor Qi gently rubbed Lin Shen's red, frostbitten face with his large, calloused hands: "Didn't I tell you to rest? Why did you run out? Look how cold your face is."

Lin Shen snuggled against his father's chest, his eyes curving into crescents: "I've been staying in the room for several days, I'm practically moldy. Besides, they can't stop me."

Emperor Qi laughed loudly and hugged his son even tighter: "My Abao has authority. These servants dare not stop you. He's really amazing."

Lin Shen blushed with pride at the compliment.

Emperor Qi's doting on the original owner was utterly boundless; no matter what he did, he would be praised to the skies, as if he wanted to elevate him to the status of a celestial being.

Lin Zhi, completely forgotten to the side, stood with his head down, snowflakes falling on his shoulders and accumulating a thin layer.

He thought he had long been used to playing a supporting role in front of the Crown Prince, but seeing the father and son interacting intimately like ordinary people, he couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.

The sourness, like aged plum wine, seemed to be either jealous of the Crown Prince's complete favor from the Emperor, or jealous of the Emperor's absolute dependence on the Crown Prince.

The father and son chatted and laughed for a while. Emperor Qi had had his fill of their sweet talk when he noticed a half-grown child standing behind him.

He frowned slightly: "What is the eldest prince doing here?"

Lin Zhi lowered his head respectfully, concealing the fleeting sarcasm in his eyes.

The Crown Prince is called "A Bao", "Bao'er", "Guai Guai" and "Xiao Bao", while he will always be the distant "Eldest Prince".

This differential treatment is far too obvious.

"Father, I came to see the Crown Prince and saw him building a snowman, so I played with him for a while."

Emperor Qi frowned even more: "Why didn't you try to persuade him? It's so cold outside."

Lin Zhi couldn't help but roar in his heart: He stopped the Crown Prince? Has he gone mad! Putting aside how his biased father would punish him, with the Crown Prince's troublesome nature, how could he possibly have a good life in the future? It's easy for him to say that when he's not in the situation.

Upon hearing this, Lin Zhi immediately bowed and saluted, his posture impeccably humble: "Father is right to reprimand me. It was my oversight that caused the Crown Prince to suffer from the cold."

His voice was steady, devoid of any emotion, as if he were already used to such accusations.

Lin Shen frowned inwardly as he watched this scene.

His father, the emperor, was incredibly kind to him, wanting to give him the best of everything in the world. But he treated the other princes, especially the eldest prince Lin Zhi, with the same harshness and indifference as he would a subject. Perhaps the other princes were the same way.

This excessive preferential treatment, on the surface, is paving the way for him, but in reality, it is making enemies for him and adding too many obstacles to his future path.

The more Lin Zhi endures now, the more violent his retaliation will likely be in the future.

Seeing that Emperor Qi's gaze had turned to Lin Zhi, as if he wanted to reprimand him a few more times, Lin Shen quickly reached out his chubby little hand, cupped Emperor Qi's face, and with some effort turned his head back, forcing the emperor's gaze back onto him.

"Father! Stop talking about my brother!" He pouted, with a childlike innocence, and pointed at the strangely dressed snowman. "Look! This is the snowman I made! Isn't it pretty?"

Emperor Qi initially just smiled indulgently, glancing casually at his son, intending to praise him as usual no matter what strange or unusual things his son came up with.

However, when his gaze truly focused on the snowman wearing a silver crown and a red cloak, he froze on the spot as if he had been frozen in place.

How could they be so similar?

The style of the silver crown, the way the red cape was tied, even the snowman's rounded shape and the somewhat comical yet inexplicable air about it... all overlapped with the image of that person in my memory.

In that instant, the ice and snow no longer seemed like cold decorations, but transformed into the same heavy snowfall from many years ago, and the person who also loved to fool around in the snow seemed to be standing right in front of him, laughing loudly at him.

The emperor's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly, and a storm raged in his heart.

He quickly composed himself, forcibly suppressing his surging emotions, and forced a slightly stiff smile back onto his lips. He nodded and said, "Hmm, quite... adorable."

His voice was a few decibels lower than usual, with a barely perceptible hoarseness, "Has Abao given it a name yet?"

Lin Shen was unaware of Qi Di's momentary loss of composure. He struggled to jump out of Qi Di's warm embrace, his small figure landing on the snow with a soft "crunch".

Just then, a palace attendant came running up, panting, carrying something—a short staff with an antique design and a gold gemstone inlaid at the top, which Lin Shen had just ordered to be retrieved.

Lin Shen took the scepter and, with effort and a solemn attitude, placed it beside the snowman, making the snowman's round arm seem to be holding the scepter.

He took a step back, raised his little face, and announced loudly with great pride.

"His name is—Snow King!"

"Peng—"