Chapter 28 Twenty-eight Black-hearted Leaders

In the next few days, Olivia began to quietly monitor the snowfall every day.

It starts snowing in the evening every day, and it will be sunny for a while in the morning of the next day. If there is sunshine at noon, the snow will melt a little, and then it will start snowing again in the evening.

On the first day, every morning when we went out, there was only a palm-thick layer of snow.

Another day passed and it became two palms thick.

Early in the morning, Olivia was wearing a robe with a cape and standing in the yard where the snow had been cleared.

Lucy was directing some tenant farmers who were called in to do voluntary labor to work on the hillside.

They opened the silage bin far up the hillside and used forks to fork out the hay sealed in the huge wooden bin.

He also used the donkey he had just brought home to pull a cart to transport the grass, and pulled it to a nearby old cowshed one trip at a time, and then stacked it inside.

Judging by the appearance, a pile of hay weighs about three hundred pounds, and this cowshed can only hold ten piles of hay at most.

Lucy can roughly estimate how much green grass the livestock currently raising will need to eat to survive the entire winter. She says this is just enough to last for a month.

We moved all day yesterday and are almost done today.

In such cold weather, there is not much farming work to do. The tenant farmers usually stay at home making hemp and warming themselves by the fire. It feels embarrassing to call them out to work.

However, for the sake of the production of the manor, Olivia brainwashes herself every day. Now is not the time to be a corporate slave, she has to adapt to the identity of a black-hearted leader.

After observing the weather, Olivia decided to go to the chicken coop and ran through the kitchen.

In the kitchen, a warm aroma of food hits you in the face. This may be the warmest and most lively place in the entire manor.

The cook was wearing an apron and kneading dough next to the bread oven. The largest cast iron pot was placed on the fire pit, and some rye porridge was cooking in it to provide lunch for the voluntary labor tenants.

Adam was shaking a hammer and kneading the leather, while Ethan was removing the axle of the frame to repair it, looking busy.

They were the only ones in the kitchen.

Fanon has been very diligent these past two days. He paints in the hall during the day and teaches the servants in the manor to read the scriptures in the evening.

To date, he has completed 80% of the "primary literacy" task he was assigned. Now, he is still painting a mural in the hall.

As for the butler, he went to the town early this morning to buy leather.

Olivia looked at it from a macro perspective and thought that the drop in leather prices was the result of a chain reaction.

There was war in the neighboring country, and people in the north of our country were afraid that the war would spread to us this winter, so they drove out all the livestock that were fit for slaughter to be traded.

The surprise attack on the knights' manor under Baron Forrest was a well-known disaster.

Therefore, when there are many livestock transactions in winter, the price of leather will go down. When the rivers thaw in spring and everyone settles down to raise livestock, the price of leather will definitely go up again.

However, it was not just their family that saw this truth. Yesterday, when the butler went to town, he met the butler of the neighboring Baskin Manor.

The other party was also looking to purchase leather.

I don’t know whether the leather merchants are also hoarding goods, or whether the Baron’s Mansion intends to control market transactions.

Now, most of the leather merchants in the town refuse to agree when they hear that they want to purchase dozens of leather pieces at one time, and can only buy in small quantities.

So today the housekeeper went to the town to find Letilen, intending to try his luck and buy some more from him.

Olivia walked through the kitchen and into the backyard. She went to the chicken coop, unlatched the door, and went inside.

There was no light in the chicken coop. There were some wooden racks against the wall, and on the racks were several wooden boxes, which contained hay as nesting pads.

All the hens were curled up inside incubating eggs, and the roosters were pecking at bran on the ground. When they saw someone coming in, they came over with bared teeth and claws to drive her away.

Olivia kicked the rooster away and then began to check the hatching of the eggs.

The incubating eggs were marked with charcoal ash, and the newly laid eggs were taken to the kitchen early in the morning.

Of the fifty eggs, about ten have begun to hatch. On the first day, there were only cracks, but yesterday they began to be pecked into small round indentations.

Today, the pecked area has broken open, and the chick's feathers and beak can be vaguely seen through the hole.

Olivia heard from Lucy that under normal circumstances, it would be good if half of them could survive.

These eggs have a production buff rewarded by the system, and the survival rate should be 20% higher than normal.

Although the survival rate is high, the chicks are not guaranteed to survive after hatching. In such cold weather, it would be difficult for the chicks to survive in this wooden house relying on their own short down.

However, with the exception of chickens, most livestock can overwinter in the cabin.

She walked towards the place next door where the piglets were kept.

These piglets were secretly castrated on the second day after they were put into the pen. The reason Olivia gave to Lucy was that the two little boars loved to fight and bang their heads against the door and needed to be punished.

After all, castration is considered a punishment in Alta and is not accepted by the people. Only countries in the southern part of the continent castrate pigs. Most Alta people think it is cruel and contrary to the doctrines of truth, goodness and beauty.

But this is her manor. When she said she wanted to castrate the pigs, the servants who had the power of life and death over her naturally didn't dare to say anything.

As for Caesar and Fanon.

They didn't know about this, and neither Olivia nor Lucy said anything.

Olivia knew that Fanon, the charlatan, had his hands full, and as for Caesar, the rules of the game made it impossible for him to defy her will.

There are no plans to widely publicize this method of increasing meat production and suppressing pig odor in the future.

I can secretly get two of them in the manor, fatten them up and slaughter them next year without anyone knowing, and cook them into dishes to improve the diet.

Anyway, it's kept in a pen, and no one will come to look at the pig's butt once the door is closed.

As for the female one, it will be kept as a breeding boar. Next year, it will be released on the hillside to roam freely for two days and mate with other wild boars.

Olivia checked the activity and wounds of the two piglets, then left the pigpen and went back to warm herself by the fire.

It was evening and almost time for dinner, so she decided to try making the puff part of the cream puff.

This kind of dessert looks difficult to make. The only ingredients needed are butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and milk.

Olivia went into the kitchen and washed her hands thoroughly before sifting the flour and softening the butter.

She first prepared the puff pastry that makes the puffs frothy.

Pour butter, sugar, and flour into a wooden basin in a 1:1 ratio and knead them. Then press them into dough and freeze them on the windowsill for a while.

Next, prepare the batter for the pancake base. Pour half a bowl of milk into it, add softened butter, stir well, pour into the pot and heat until foaming, then add one tenth of a pound of flour and stir.

Finally, she took out a flat-bottomed cast iron pan, brushed a layer of oil on it, divided the thin batter into small lumps and spread them on the bottom of the pan, then covered each lump of batter with a piece of round puff pastry that had been pressed into shape.

Finally, cover the cast iron pan and place it in the bread oven to heat.

The bread kiln is connected to the fireplace in the kitchen and relies on the heat provided by the fireplace for baking. The curved kiln has a stable temperature.

About half an hour later, a sweet smell mixed with butter and sugar emerged from the bread oven.

Under the watchful eyes of Lucy and the cook, Olivia uncovered the kiln, took out the cast iron pot with a fork, and lifted the lid through a thick cloth.

Sure enough, the puff pastry rose up. Because the puff pastry has less moisture, after baking, a layer of patterns appeared on the surface and it was slightly browned.

The thin batter part at the bottom is soft after baking, and the middle is completely hollow, which can be stuffed with cream and various sauces.

Olivia pried up a few pieces and handed them to Lucy and the cook to try while they were still hot.

The two of them were flattered and took a light bite. Lucy immediately felt her mouth was greatly encouraged.

"Is this the dessert those noble ladies would eat? It's so delicious!"

Olivia fooled the cook and Lucy, saying that this was a dessert that the ladies loved to eat.

Neither Lucy nor the cook knew that nowadays ladies could not even enjoy such delicious food.

As for the cream, the current conditions require only hand-beating. Olivia didn't plan to try it today, so she stuffed some honey into the puffs as filling.

While the cook was cutting bread and roasting meat, several soldiers came in from outside the kitchen.

It was now evening, the wind and snow blurred the vision, the temperature was much colder than during the day, the weather was getting worse day by day, and they were returning earlier and earlier.

The miller's son, Tani Declan, walked in front. Perhaps due to his family background, he was the most extroverted among the infantrymen.

At this moment, he was wearing a brand new chain mail, carrying a new bow and quiver on his back, looking very proud. As soon as he entered the door, he handed a few snow rabbits in his hand to Adam next to him.

"Ma'am, the master took us to practice archery today. I hunted all these rabbits by myself."

The soldiers behind him also had some prey such as grouse and rabbits, but none of them caught as much as he did.

Olivia offered a few token words of encouragement, then added, "When you can hunt a deer, I'll give you a horse and let you serve as a cavalryman. How about that?"

Tani smiled happily when he heard this, nodded twice and went out to show off.

But in reality, deer are extremely sensitive to the scent of predators, and you have to attack from hundreds of meters away without being noticed. However, at such a long distance, the accuracy of the bow and arrow will be greatly reduced.

The difficulty is not comparable to that of rabbits and grouse, and it is enough for that silly boy Tani to practice for half a year.

George, who was standing next to him, heard Tani's bragging and laughed at him for being ignorant of the world and being so stupid.

"Who is it?"

Suddenly, Caesar lifted the kitchen door curtain, walked in, and asked in confusion.

He heard the bustling movement in the kitchen and thought of coming over to see what was going on.

Olivia beckoned him to the stove to try the freshly made puffs.

Caesar hadn't taken off his leather gloves yet, and he opened his mouth for her to feed him.

Seeing this, the servants in the kitchen were very tactful and dispersed to do their work.

Here, Caesar tasted it and couldn't help but be surprised. This was another food he had never seen before, crispy and soft, like magic.

Sometimes, he really suspected that Olivia was a witch who cast a spell or hypnotized him.

Olivia, who had no idea what he was imagining, put her hands on her hips and looked at him smugly: "How's it? It's delicious, right?"

Caesar met her gaze and nodded obediently, as if accepting his fate as he swallowed the entire dessert.

Olivia smiled mysteriously. She had learned a few tricks in her previous life, which would have been enough for her to become a big name in the food world in this life. It was a pity that there were too few ingredients.

She sighed inwardly and ran to instruct the cook to process the new prey obtained today.

Tomorrow, I have to pack up my gifts and prepare to go to Renault Manor to celebrate the festival.

…