7 winter night snow
◎Now that the snow has finally fallen, she is both happy and nervous.◎
After dinner, the sky was dark. Since there was nothing important to do, Chu Yufu sent the maids to rest early and went to sleep in bed.
She didn't know how long she had slept before she was woken by the cold. She opened the bed curtains in a daze and looked out. It turned out that the window beside the bed was not closed tightly and was blown open a crack, letting in the cold wind.
She got up and went to close the window, only to see the bright moonlight outside, silver casting shadows on the grey tiles. A faint white light was floating on the ground in the courtyard, and goose feathers were falling from the sky.
It’s snowing!
The damp cold wind blew in her face, making her shiver instantly. All sleepiness disappeared. Chu Yufu stared at the snow for a while, then closed the window tightly and lay back in the bed, wrapping herself in the quilt.
In the original book, the winter in the Great Yan Dynasty was not easy. Heavy snow fell one after another. Not only were stray cats and dogs killed, but even many people froze to death. Gradually, the entire Shangjing City was filled with coughs.
Not long after, cousin Lu also fell ill. Old Mrs. Chu was so worried about her granddaughter that she couldn't sleep all night. As a result, she fell ill before cousin Lu could do anything. At that time, the capital was in a shortage of medicinal materials due to heavy snow and the roads were blocked. It took two days to use the medicine, and since then, her health has been much worse than before.
This is the snow she has been waiting for!
The sachet is secondary. If she can improve her favorability and show up, that's good enough. Her real bet is on the future. What can win people's hearts better than helping someone in need?
But now that the snow has finally fallen, she is happy but also nervous.
As described in the book, the year when the story begins is very cold, and it will become colder and colder in the following years. This setting in the book may just be to highlight the hero's heroic figure in killing enemies in the snow and ice, and to pave the way for him to win military merits and be promoted.
However, such a significant drop in temperature brought about the freezing death of people and animals, reduced grain production, and decreased tax revenue. This was followed by famine, rising prices, inconvenient transportation, and obstructed trade. Many people became refugees and society was in turmoil.
In the second half of the story, a group of rebels took advantage of the chaos and colluded with the second prince who was trying to seize the throne, and rushed into the capital to burn, kill and loot. At that time, cousin Lu was already married. She brought her parents and cleverly dispatched the guards to guard the Zhao family tightly. She was unharmed in the turmoil and finally waited for Prince Zhao to return to the capital to quell the rebellion.
However, her grandmother had already passed away due to illness at that time. She no longer had any affection or concern for the Chu family, so naturally she would not protect them. The Chu family was severely damaged after the attack, and their financial situation has declined since then.
The snow and her grandmother's illness were indeed an opportunity for her to break off the engagement.
Of course, relying on grandmother to cancel the engagement is the most respectable way. If that doesn't work, pretending to be crazy or stupid is also feasible. If you don't want to get married, you can always not get married, but what happens after canceling the engagement?
She was still a girl from the Chu family. How would she survive after her family was destroyed? The background that was only briefly mentioned in the original book had now become a mountain, pressing down on her chest and making it difficult for her to breathe.
The snowdrops hit the window frame with a crackling sound. Chu Yufu turned over and stared at the dark bed curtain above her head in a daze.
She knew it would snow, but she didn't expect it to come so early. The problems she had originally planned to put aside temporarily now came flooding back to her mind in the quiet night, making her feel depressed and upset.
A bad marriage, complicated interpersonal relationships in the mansion, an epidemic that will sweep across the capital in winter... one thing after another is too much for the person to handle.
The stable life I used to lead, working from 8 am to 5 pm and scolding my boss for no reason, now seems as beautiful as a dream - at least I don’t have to worry about dying every day and I can live like a human being.
After a night, the Chu Mansion was covered in silver white. In the morning, Lan Zhu boiled some water in the side room and went to wake her mistress up, but she found the candles in the main room were still lit. She pushed open the door and saw the second young lady sitting in front of the mirror, dressing. She couldn't help but wonder, "Why are you up so early today?"
Chu Yufu turned her head, revealing two dark circles under her eyes, and said with a weak breath: "...I didn't sleep." She tossed and turned for a long time last night but couldn't think of a way out. How could she sleep with something on her mind?
It snowed heavily in the second half of the night, and the snow on the ground was half a finger thick. The servants had not yet finished clearing it, so she could only walk slowly. Fortunately, she left home early today, and when she arrived at Yunxi Hall, it was still early, and Chu Jinhe was the only one in the room.
She cheered herself up, stepped forward, and bowed as if she were her equal, then said obediently, "Greetings, sister."
Her elder sister boasted of her beauty and talent, and didn't like to pay attention to a brainless fool like her. However, according to the original owner's personality, she still took the initiative to talk to her. Her big eyes flickered as she glanced at the snow-white cloak held by the maid behind her, and said enviously, "Sister, this cloak is really beautiful."
The wool cape is pure white like snow, with a circle of rabbit fur of the same color inlaid on the collar, which is light and luxurious.
Chu Jinhe looked at her with envy, her lips curled slightly as she lifted her teacup to moisten her throat. "This is the finest wool we collected from Lingzhou this summer. Only three pieces were made in Zhijin Pavilion." She paused, then smiled reservedly again. "If you like it, I'll ask mother to buy you a similar piece when you get married, okay?"
Chu Yufu was unhappy because he kept talking about marriage, but she could only smile and thank him. She took the tea that the maid had just brought to the table and took a sip, thinking to herself: Why does this place Lingzhou sound so familiar?
Half a minute later, everyone arrived. Wu sat down slowly and asked about the situation in each courtyard as usual, whether the maids and servants were lazy, whether there was any shortage of expenses, and some polite words asking people to pay attention to the cold weather and slippery roads.
Maybe it was because the engagement was useful, Mrs. Wu was very gentle to Chu Yufu today. However, she was thinking about Lingzhou that her elder sister had just mentioned, and she was absent-minded. She was a little distracted when Mrs. Wu asked her twice, which made Mrs. Wu almost lose her smile. She kept cursing the second girl in her heart for being stupid and annoying.
On the way back to the courtyard, Chu Yufu was lost in thought: "Lanzhu, do you know Lingzhou?"
Lan Zhu nodded and carefully supported her, thinking she was still thinking about the young lady's cloak. She replied, "I know. My home is in Pingzhou, next to Lingzhou. The Turkic people in the north are good at raising cattle and sheep, and the people of Lingzhou often do business with them."
To the north, the Turks!
Chu Yufu paused and suddenly opened her eyes wide. How could she have forgotten this!
The sudden drop in temperature not only affected Dayan, but also caused heavy losses to the Turks in the north. After the spring, they continued to invade Lingzhou and its surrounding areas, looting and killing people. At the same time, the remnants of the previous dynasty in the south took the opportunity to rebel, causing internal and external troubles.
However, these two unrests did not become a major event and were suppressed within two months. The male protagonist led his troops south to suppress them and was later awarded the title of General Zhennan. Another general named Pei Yue, who commanded troops with great skill in the Battle of Lingzhou, was awarded the title of General Zhenbei.
The key lies in this General Zhenbei!
In ancient times, life was difficult for women. From a young age, they learned needlework and rituals in preparation for marriage, spending their lives bearing children and serving others. They were considered inferior to men. But General Pei was different. While stationed in the northern border, he cherished the people and valued education. He even established a special school for women, declaring that if women could achieve success, he would employ them.
Unfortunately, not long after he said this, he was accidentally injured during a battle with the Turks. Due to heavy snow, the army's supply lines were interrupted, and there was a lack of medical care and medicine, so he died young.
After his death, the male protagonist took over the task and defeated the Turks based on the foundation he had laid before. He was eventually honored as the Duke of Jingguo, and his cousin was also granted an imperial decree.
If she could rely on her excellent medical skills to join General Zhenbei's army, wouldn't that be a way out? She didn't know whether General Pei's words about being willing to employ women were true or not, but in the current situation, it seemed that there were not many options. After all, things couldn't get any worse than they were now. If she could save General Pei's life, she would not only have wealth and glory in the future, but she would also have enough food and clothing. It was better than being trapped in this backyard and dying!
Thinking of this, Chu Yufu's eyes lit up, and she felt the air in her nose became much fresher.
However, this goal was a bit far-fetched and difficult to achieve. How could it be implemented specifically? The best scenario would be to first build a reputation for medical skills among the common people and the families of officials, and then find an opportunity to contact the Pei family and offer them a book on military medicine that I had compiled...
"Miss, do you want to go find your cousin?" Lan Zhu asked when she saw that she suddenly stopped moving, her watery almond eyes gleaming with spirit, staring blankly in the direction of Ci Shou Hall.
Chu Yufu's train of thought was interrupted. She came to her senses and shook her head: "Let's go back." There was no need to rush to repair the relationship with her cousin. They would always meet each other when living under the same roof. If she rushed over now and tried to make conversation out of nothing, it would seem that she had ulterior motives.
Back in the courtyard, she spread out the rice paper and asked Lanzhu to help her grind the ink. While her mind was still clear, she wrote down the ideas she had sorted out last night.
First of all, to ensure your own health and get through this epidemic safely, you need to make simple masks to reduce the spread of droplets, buy mugwort, atractylodes, calamus, etc., fumigate the room for disinfection, and buy some sulfur and lime to sprinkle in the yard to drive away rats, insects and other vectors of disease, and stock up some preventive and therapeutic medicinal materials in advance.
Secondly, regarding the medicinal herbs that my grandmother needed at that time, she remembered that there were salvia miltiorrhiza, forsythia suspensa and saposhnikovia divaricata, all of which had to be prepared, and she also needed to buy some other medicinal herbs that might be used just in case.
After finishing all this, she asked the maids to find clean cotton material and cut out masks under the pretext of practicing embroidery. She did not avoid the new arrival Yun Sui while doing it. After all, it was not uncommon for a little girl to be sewing some small things when she was stuck at home.
The next day when she was free, she vaguely remembered that there were many medical books among Aunt Wan's belongings, so she took them out and read them slowly.
Aunt Wan's father was a doctor who had practiced medicine for many years. After his death, he left behind many prescriptions and manuscripts. Some of the manuscripts recorded very interesting contents. For example, a child's hands and feet turned yellow, and his parents were extremely worried. Later, after repeated verification, it turned out that the child had consumed too much citrus and could be cured by fasting.
Sometimes she would spend the whole night reading it, not only reading it as a story, but also classifying and organizing the prescriptions, carefully thinking about how she would prescribe if she encountered these diseases, and whether her diagnostic and treatment ideas would match her grandfather's.
For ten days in a row, except for the time when her grandmother said that her sachets were well made and sent someone to ask her to chat, she hardly left the courtyard. Every day, she did needlework and read books and studied medicine. Her life was extremely regular. Lanzhu saw her leisurely look and couldn't help asking her what she was thinking several times, but she was comforted every time with a "Don't worry".
It was not until late September that the Li family sent a detailed prescription. Chu Yufu then handed her the list of medicines she had already compiled, asking her to go buy them and talk to the owner of the fragrant drink stall next to Yuzhen Temple.
【Author’s words】
Chu Yufu: I want to work. [puts on makeup]
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