Chapter 33 Winter (Part 1) It's a big surprise for you...
The first snow fell on the eve of the Lunar New Year.
The people, who had been shivering in their sleep, opened their doors at dawn to find the ground covered in white snow.
"Huh? It's snowing!" Gao Shuqing shivered in the cold wind, then ran into the snow, leaving a trail of small footprints.
An elderly woman from next door, who was sweeping snow in her yard, stopped and looked over, reminding her, "Xinghua, slow down, be careful not to fall."
Gao Shuqing said with a smile, "I know, I'll be careful! Your Highness, is Sister Fangfang still sleeping?"
The old woman rolled her eyes helplessly, "She saw it was snowing when she got up, so she ran out to play."
Gao Shuqing blinked. "Did you go out to play?"
She ran into the house to tell her parents, put on her hat and gloves, and then happily ran out of the house.
Where will Fangfang and her friends go to play?
The little girl ran around in the snow for a while, then suddenly fell into the snow with a thud.
She got up, brushed the snow off herself, rubbed her calves and knees, and couldn't help but laugh at the human-shaped snowprint she had made. She reached out and pressed a handprint into the snow, then pressed another.
She hummed happily: "It's snowing, it's snowing, a group of little painters have come to the snow. The chicks paint bamboo leaves, the puppies paint plum blossoms, the ducklings paint maple leaves, and the ponies paint crescent moons..."[1]
Gao Shuqing recited the text as she walked along the wide avenue toward the suburbs.
Along the way, she saw adults clearing snow from the road, older brothers and sisters building snowmen with their children in the yard, and young men and women having a fun snowball fight.
I also saw several people from the administrative office rushing towards the south of the city.
"...Is anyone injured?"
"The whole family was injured to some extent and has been taken to the hospital for treatment."
"Fortunately, their house was a thatched hut. Although the roof collapsed, it wasn't a tiled roof. When it collapsed, it would have been mostly tiles or wood, so they weren't seriously injured..."
"If you dare say that to Old Cheng, you'll be criticized. His family lives in a wooden house with tiles; do you think the roof will collapse?"
"...That's not quite right. The collapsed houses in the north of the city were wooden houses. One family was seriously injured."
"His family was badly injured because their house was an old house!"
"I heard that several generations have lived in that house. They didn't have the money to rebuild it, so they've continued to live there..."
"We don't think about repairs when nothing unexpected happens. We don't even consider that the old house is one or two hundred years old. How can we just pick up tiles and repair the roof all the time!"
"Old Cheng and his team are still having a meeting. It is said that they are going to investigate and find out which houses in various counties are not suitable for living."
"Searching for houses?"
"Heavy snow can damage houses, just like heavy rain and hail."
"Yes, so now that we've discovered the problem, we need to correct it quickly to prevent it from happening again in the future."
“Our people did not freeze to death, nor did they starve to death; they were crushed to death by collapsed houses. We have no face to tell the goddess that.”
Gao Shuqing watched the group's figures disappear around the street corner.
She tilted her head. The snow had collapsed the house? And someone was injured?
So it seems that snow isn't all that great.
After searching for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Gao Shuqing finally found her sister Fangfang.
A group of boys and girls around ten years old held wide and long bamboo strips that they had carved themselves, placed them on the snow, and then stepped on them and slid down the snow slope that was four or five meters high.
The bamboo strips carried them from the top of the slope to the bottom.
Some children slid down smoothly, stood up happily, and cheered, "Yay!"
Some children slipped and fell on the hillside, rolling around several times until they were covered in snow, which turned their eyebrows and hair white. This prompted the other children to laugh loudly, calling them "little old men, little old men."
At the foot of the slope, Fangfang held a bamboo strip in each hand, smugly challenging a boy her age, "How about that? I skate faster than you! I won!"
The children watching cheered, "Sun Chao, you're no good! You actually lost to Qin Fang!"
"That's right, Sun Chao, you lost!"
"You used to talk big, but it turns out you're not that great."
"Tsk tsk tsk, Qin Fang actually won."
Fangfang retorted, "What do you mean 'surprisingly'? Isn't it perfectly normal for you to lose to me? I'm so talented in both literature and martial arts, I'm destined to be a great general!" She laughed triumphantly, "Oh dear, losing to the future General Qin Fang, that's enough for you to brag about for the rest of your life, Chaochao!"
Sun Chao was unconvinced. His face flushed red, and he didn't know how to refute it. Finally, he gritted his teeth and shouted, "How could you possibly be a general! What woman can be a general?"
Fangfang was stunned.
Sun Chao seemed to have found a trigger for Qin Fang's anger and continued his attack: "That's right, you're a woman, you can't be a great general, never..."
"Who says a woman can't be a general!" Gao Shuqing immediately ran over to defend her sister Fangfang. She stood between Sun Chao and Qin Fang, hands on her hips, glaring at Sun Chao, and said loudly, "Our Master Wang said that the Song family of Guangping has only one daughter in this generation, and this daughter is a female general. She leads the women's army to defend Guangping and is deeply loved by the people of Guangping!"
"If she can do it, then Sister Fangfang can too!"
"You brat, how dare you say that to my sister Fangfang's face! Be careful, or my sister Fangfang will be remembered in history. Your mockery of her today will be written into the 'Biography of Qin Fang,' put in textbooks, and ridiculed by future generations for thousands of years!"
Sun Chao: "..."
He couldn't help but imagine, following Gao Shuqing's words, that in the future, when Qin Fang became a great general, the historian would write her biography, and then the vengeful Qin Fang would tell him about how he had mocked her when she was a child for not being able to become a great general, which the historian would record.
A century later, when people read his biography in textbooks, they satirized him, saying that Sun Chao was a snob.
A thousand years later, everyone who praises Qin Fang will want to kick Sun Chao while he's down.
The little boy felt increasingly guilty, and he suddenly cried out, "Qin Fang, you stingy person! You've kept this up for so many years! And even wrote it in your biography! That's too much!"
Fangfang: "?"
Gao Shuqing was furious, "You're the stingy one! Your whole family is stingy! My sister Fangfang is very generous, the most generous person besides the goddess!"
Fangfang blushed: There's no need to praise me like that. I can't compare to Boss Yun in terms of generosity. I'm at most third.
Achoo!
Yun Youning, who was looking through the ledgers, sneezed.
"Is Sister Yun catching a cold?" a colleague asked with concern.
Yun Youning waved her hand, "It's alright, let's continue looking at the accounts."
My colleague nodded. "According to the current statistics, one house collapsed in the south of the city, four houses collapsed in the north of the city, and two houses collapsed each in the east and west of the city."
Another colleague frowned. "We need to arrange for someone to repair their house as soon as possible. The New Year is coming soon, and we can't let them have nowhere to live."
"Will the money come from our account?"
As soon as the question was raised, everyone looked at Yun Youning.
Yun Youning smiled and said, "Yes, we'll pay for it."
Some people were puzzled, "Why should we pay this money? It's their own house..."
Yun Youning interrupted him with a smile, "First of all, the money didn't come from us, it came from the goddess. All the money in our account belongs to the goddess."
She looked around at everyone present, her gaze both gentle and sharp. "Secondly, I hope you all understand one thing: no one has appointed us to official positions. We are just a civilian organization, not officials. Don't think that you are superior to others."
Zhao Yong chimed in, “That’s right. Don’t forget that we were elected by the villagers to work, not that we are officials appointed by the imperial court.”
“The goddess is willing to bestow blessings upon the people and to build houses for families suffering from natural disasters free of charge. This is a blessing for us! After all, who can guarantee that they won’t face such a day?” He spread his hands.
The people present: "..."
Some people blushed with embarrassment.
Yun Youning said, "We're not just building houses for the families whose houses collapsed in Yunhe County. There are more than a dozen counties under the Goddess's rule, and we don't know how many houses have collapsed. We need to repair all the collapsed houses."
This is the blessing of the goddess.
Zhao Yong sighed, "Old Cheng and the others have already made the arrangements, and all the statistics will be compiled in the next few days."
Yun Youning nodded, then suddenly remembered something and asked Zhao Yong, "Speaking of which, it seems like they've been allocating supplies these past few days, right?"
Zhao Yong fell silent.
Yun Youning tapped the ledger with her right index finger and muttered softly to herself, "Clothes, honeycomb briquettes, horses, horseshoes... Does this look like war is brewing? Are some foolish guys coming to attack us again?"
Zhao Yong: "...Yeah, right?"
Yun Youning's eyes curved like crescent moons as she softly asked, "Brother Zhao, are you hiding something from me?"
Zhao Yong straightened his back immediately and said loudly, "No!"
Yun Youning's eyelashes trembled. Her face still held a gentle smile, but her voice sounded somewhat sad. "Brother Zhao, don't you consider me one of your own? Even though I work hard to make money, you still don't think I'm trustworthy, so..."
Zhao Yong: "..."
Yun Youning turned her head away. "Sigh... I knew it. I'm not a local, so it won't be so easy for you..." She hesitated, then stopped.
Zhao Yong snapped to attention, and with a tense expression, he replied, "You'll find out soon enough! And it will definitely be a huge surprise for you!"
Speaking of which, why do Yun Youning's words sound so familiar? I feel like I've heard them somewhere before.
A question mark appeared above Yun Youning's head: Is this a big surprise for me?
Could it be that all my enemies have been crushed to death by the heavy snow?
That won't do. I must go back and take revenge myself!
Mo Jingchun is in charge of the statistics work for the affected people.
Cheng Hui personally oversaw the disaster relief and reconstruction efforts.
This is their first winter, and the entire administrative office is working together to ensure that all the people under the goddess's jurisdiction can celebrate the New Year in peace.
Therefore, Yun Youning, who was busy working from dawn till dusk, did not notice the dispatch from the military camp.
Until the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, she stepped into the administrative hall while yawning, and heard the city guards say that they were about to attack Anling County, and that they must strengthen the defense of each county to prevent Anling County from sending troops to raid their home.
Yun Youning: "..."
She was taken aback: What?!
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The author has something to say: 1. [1] The elementary school textbook "The Little Painter in the Snow"
2. In my hometown dialect, girls are called "xx sister" and boys and girls are called "xx baby" (xx is a nickname).
3.
Mulan from Another World: Is this my first appearance?
How can there be capitalists in a feudal society? How can you be considered to have made your debut if your name hasn't even been mentioned?
Why can't there be capitalists in feudal society? In comparison, the author is actually quite kind to me.
Mulan from Another World: -_-||
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