As autumn turns to winter and the first month of the lunar calendar is approaching, the whole mansion is finally filled with a festive atmosphere because of the coming New Year.

Inside the Third Young Lady's room, the maidservant Zan'er was standing on tiptoe to paste window paper-cuts on the window. The snow on the frame was shaken and fell down. She quickly withdrew her hand and blew into her palm while saying, "It has been snowing for several days. It finally stopped for a while, but it is still so cold."

Xiao Zhixuan raised her eyes from the book and looked at Zan'er's fair little face, which was frozen red, and reflected under the bright red window paper, revealing a bright and lively look. Xiao Zhixuan smiled faintly, and looked up again, only to see the sun peeking out from the clouds in the cyan sky, shining on the snow-covered animal back with a warm glow. She closed the book gently and said to herself, "I don't know where my elder brother and sister-in-law are now."

Zan'er fanned the charcoal fire in the stove to make it more vigorous, turned her head and looked at her young lady, and suddenly felt that in just a few months, the third young lady seemed to have changed a lot. She could no longer hear her noisy voice in and out of the house, and she was no longer as playful and noisy as before, as if her temperament had suddenly become quiet. Even today when the marquis and his wife went out to play, she did not clamor to go with them, but just stayed in the house to read. She withdrew her gaze, facing the slowly burning fire, and thought silently in her heart: "The third young lady seems to have grown up."

At this moment, on the long streets of the capital, the trees were covered with chrysanthemums, the houses were wrapped in silver, and the original bluestone road seemed to be sprinkled with thick salt, and the original color could no longer be seen. There were few pedestrians on the street, only a few vendors wearing thick cotton clothes guarding the steaming stalls. At this time, a few dark horses stepped on the white snow, and suddenly a layer of white mist was raised in the air. In the carriage pulled by the horses, Yuan Xi was gently lowering the curtains on the window and holding the enamel hand warmer tightly in his hand.

Xiao Du saw her hunching her neck and burying her chin in the thick fur collar, looking very charming. He knew that she was always afraid of the cold, and it was not easy for her to go out with him on such a day, so he smiled and put down the teacup in his hand, pulled her hands over, put them into his collar, and said, "You will warm up faster this way."

Xiao Du had practiced martial arts since he was a child, and he had always been full of yang energy. In such weather, he only wore an inner garment and a light fur coat. Yuan Xi felt that his chest was hot, and she immediately warmed up by covering her palms with them. She simply turned over and clung to him like a koala to keep warm. Xiao Du raised the corners of his lips and reached out to hold her body tighter. Neither of them spoke again, but just snuggled together quietly accompanied by the sounds of horse hooves and falling snow. Occasionally, a few catkins floated in from the window, and they also melted into this quiet warmth.

The carriage continued to move forward, and finally when it reached a plum forest, it began to slow down and turned into a path with ease. Yuan Xi sat up straight, lifted the curtain and looked out the window. She saw the sparse shadows of winter plums, flying catkins all over the sky, and the snow like jade balls pressed on the red plums, which then drifted away in the air with the cold wind. She couldn't help but look at it in a daze. Xiao Du was afraid that she would freeze, so he quickly covered her with fox fur and said, "This plum forest is the most interesting only when it is snowing, so I always wanted to bring you to see it."

Yuan Xi leaned against the window sill and said foolishly, "I have only read about Meng Haoran's story of walking in the snow to look for plum blossoms in books before. Now that I have seen it with my own eyes, I understand that if I don't write a poem to sing about it, it would be a disservice to such a beautiful scene."

Xiao Du gently brushed away the snowflakes floating on her eyebrows and said with a smile: "We can't compose poems, but it's also interesting to boil a pot of wine to appreciate the snow and plum blossoms."

Finally, the carriage reached the other end of the path and stopped in front of a corner pavilion. The pavilion was in the middle of the plum forest, surrounded by thousands of plum trees, and covered with pear blossoms, as if it was blending into the white world.

Several maids and servants got off the other carriage and busily lit the charcoal stove, warmed a pot of Tusu wine on the stove, then swept the snow off the tables and benches in the pavilion, laid brocade mats on them, and took out the wine utensils they had brought. After everything was arranged properly, they got back on the carriage and drove back the same way.

Xiao Du held Yuan Xi's hand and stepped off the carriage, and then ordered the coachman to hurry up and wait outside the plum forest with the others. Then, he led Yuan Xi slowly into the pavilion.

At this time, the Tusu wine on the stove was already bubbling with steam. Xiao Du pushed Yuan Xi to sit on a stool, strode over and brought the wine pot to the table. Fearing that Yuan Xi would feel cold, he added some charcoal to the fire and said to Yuan Xi, "I deliberately let them all go, leaving only the two of us here, so how about letting your husband serve you today?"

Yuan Xi took the wine pot and filled the cup for him, smiling and saying, "I'm not disabled, why do I need you to serve me? Today, neither of us will serve the other, how about we just drink and appreciate the snow like old friends."

Xiao Du looked at her smiling face and felt that the plum blossoms behind her could not match the beauty in her eyes, so he picked up the wine cup and drank it all. Yuan Xi was not very strong, so he just sipped it. Xiao Du drank several cups in a row, and his eyes were a little blurry. He looked at the white in front of him, exhaled, and said: "The snow in the capital is not as majestic as the one on the frontier, which is unforgettable."

Yuan Xi remembered what he had said before, poured him a glass, and said, "Tell me about your time at the border. How is the winter there different from that in the capital?" Xiao Du immediately perked up and told her many anecdotes from the march. Whenever the weather was freezing cold, the soldiers would go hunting in the woods together, and then roast the venison around the stove until it sizzled. They would drink and eat meat while singing marching songs. The deep singing shook off the snow on a tree. In the distance, flags were waving and the sun was setting over the long river.

Xiao Dulian drank a few mouthfuls, but still felt that it was not tasty enough. He sighed and said, "It would be most appropriate if we could hunt some venison and roast it, and pair it with strong liquor."

Yuan Xi was touched by the scenes he described, and her eyes showed longing. She said, "I really want to see what the border and desert you mentioned look like. It's a pity that as a woman, and a wife of a marquis, I must always respect etiquette and observe rules. I can't show my face in public, let alone the border, I'm afraid it's difficult for me to even step out of this capital."

Xiao Du held her hand and said with a smile, "That's not difficult. I'll let you wear my clothes someday, and then you can dress up as a man and travel around the mountains and rivers with me. I'll take you wherever you want to go."

Yuan Xi laughed and fell into his arms, scratched his face, and said, "I think you are drunk. How can I wear your clothes?"

Xiao Du seemed to have just figured this out, so he frowned and said, "Then don't disguise yourself as a man. Wherever my wife is going, no one dares to say anything bad about you."

Yuan Xi heard the heroic spirit in his words and knew that he was a little drunk, so she drank the wine in her glass, looked at him softly and said, "Then I will accompany you wherever you go in the future, so that you can have a companion."

Xiao Du put her hand to his lips and kissed it. He felt calm and satisfied. The alcohol was getting to his head and he suddenly became interested. He said, "It's really boring to just drink like this. Didn't you say you wanted to see the scene I described with your own eyes? How about I sing the first military song for you?"

Yuan Xi straightened up, looked at him in surprise, and then found it a little funny, and asked, "Can you still sing a song?"

Xiao Du felt a little embarrassed by her gaze, so he put his fist to his lips and coughed a few times, saying, "These are all tunes that I used to sing with them. I'll hum a few lines for you to listen to."

He looked at the wine utensils on the table and said with a smile: "The ancients sang while beating drums. I don't have any musical instruments, so I use the table as a drum, just to make you smile." After that, he tapped the edge of the table lightly with his jade chopsticks and sang: "Wielding Wu spears and wearing rhinoceros armor, the wheels of the chariots are in chaos and the short weapons are fighting. The flags cover the sun and the enemies are like clouds, the arrows fly and the soldiers compete for the first place..."

At first he was just humming softly, but as the sounds of his hands became more rapid, he seemed to recall the sound of war drums and the battlefield, and his voice became increasingly passionate: "I am marching forward in the enemy's formation, my left horse is killed and my right horse is wounded. I tie up four horses with two wheels and use jade to beat the drum." His voice was a little rough, but it seemed to contain the mountains and rivers of iron horses. As Yuan Xi listened, a battlefield that covered the sky and the sun appeared before his eyes, with flags fluttering and arrows flying. The warriors were clad in iron armor, fighting desperately to the last moment on the battlefield to defend the city behind them.

Xiao Du's voice suddenly stopped, and after a long time he spoke softly, but the tune had become desolate and sad: "The heavens are against us, and the gods are angry. They kill everyone and abandon the wilderness. We cannot go out or come back, and the plains are far away. Sincerity is brave and also martial, and it is strong and cannot be bullied. After the body dies, the spirit becomes spiritual, and the soul is determined to become a ghost hero." He was singing out of tune and almost crying. Yuan Xi knew that he was reminiscing about the past, and her eyes were filled with tears. She gently held his arm, stared at his sad eyes, and then followed his tune and sang along softly. She was not very good at singing, but she just responded softly to his words, as if she wanted to commemorate the dead souls with this tuneless song.

After the song, Xiao Du closed his eyes and poured the wine in his hand into the snow. Yuan Xi was afraid that he would fall into the past again, so she held his hand tightly and said no more. She just drank with him silently to help him relieve his depression.

But she was really not good at drinking, and after a few more cups she was a little drunk. Xiao Du looked down and saw that her face and neck were all red, and her eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of mist, which made people unable to help but indulge in it. So he gently took the wine cup from her hand, pulled her up and said, "Are you cold? Let's go to another place to drink, okay?"

Yuan Xi's mind was already a little dazed, and he carried her through the clusters of plum trees. Occasionally, a few clumps of snow fell from the branches and landed on Yuan Xi's neck, making her shiver with cold and she quickly retracted her neck.

Seeing that she was so afraid of the cold, Xiao Du simply picked her up and walked a short distance before putting her down. He put his hand close to her face and pointed forward, saying, "Look."

Yuan Xi opened her eyes wide and found a steaming hot pool in front of her. Mist spread in the pool, and outside the pool was white snow. A few plum blossoms fell into the pool, making her feel like she was in a fairyland.

Yuan Xi rubbed his eyes, somewhat unconvinced by what he saw. Xiao Du laughed and said, "This hot spring pool is the property of the Hou Mansion. There must be no outsiders entering. Let's go down to the pool and drink it, okay?"

Yuan Xi was still a little dazed, and turned around and asked blankly: "We? Together?"