The weather is getting colder every day. Wang Yan's family has already sent over a quilt, so she now has two quilts and two blankets.
These past two days, I haven't been willing to use up all the water from the hot water bottle when soaking my feet.
Fortunately, Aunt Wang bought her another hot water bottle. After returning home, she put one in her quilt and used the other specifically for soaking her feet.
There are three of them now, with two kettles of water. They can barely soak their water before quickly crawling into bed to rest.
Although Chunxi could use the charcoal fire in Granny Hua's room, it was still cold, so she took the set of bedding that was provided in the room with her.
Granny Hua has rarely been able to go home during her monthly leave this year, as snowfalls have been frequent and the roads have become cold and slippery.
I decided to just stay comfortably in the yard and avoid the cold.
The charcoal allotted to the third-class maids was far from enough; they had to carefully calculate the amount each day. The charcoal in the brazier always went out by midnight.
I could only sleep until morning thanks to the residual warmth of the blankets and the hot water bottle.
Chunyu's favorite places now are the small kitchen and Wang Yan's tea stove.
The need for flowerpots in the lady's room has been greatly reduced. Chunyu only needs to make two trips a day to carry a few pots.
The rest of the time she and Chunye would linger in the tea room drinking tea, eating snacks, and spicy strips.
A few days later, in the middle of the night, a heavy snow began to fall outside.
When I opened the window this morning, I was surprised to find that snow had fallen onto the windowsill. If it snowed any longer, the windows would be completely covered.
Today, apart from the nannies and older women like Granny Sun from each courtyard, all the maids and servants are going to help shovel snow.
Otherwise, the cleaning maids and old women alone simply couldn't finish the job.
Wang Yan naturally went along as well, leaving the work in the tea room to the gatekeeper.
They were just a bunch of kids; they got distracted while sweeping and started having a snowball fight.
The manager came over and scolded him, but it was no use; instead, he got his neck filled with snow.
Several cleaning women were laughing so hard they couldn't bend over, their bodies propped up on the brooms.
For a moment, the snowfield was filled with laughter and joy as a group of teenagers had a wonderful snowball fight.
Back in the back room that night, Chunye and the others put the four beds together and slept sideways so that the blankets could cover an extra area.
If Chunxi doesn't come back, the three of them will each have their own small quilt, and the quilts on top of each other will be stacked on top of each other's small quilts, so that they can be covered from head to toe.
If she comes back, there will be four beds. The quilts provided by the household are thin, so she has to use them herself.
The quilt from home was wide and thick; it was more than enough to cover all of them. There was even plenty of room left over on both sides and at the feet.
It means using four quilts, which sounds impressive, but actually they are used in a staggered manner. A person can use a maximum of three quilts, but it keeps you warm and you don't feel cold at all.
When the group stayed up at night, they would spread out all four quilts high, and then each person would drape a thin quilt over themselves.
Actually, the amount of cotton distributed by the household wasn't very thin, only three and a half catties. The family sent four catties.
One person wrapped himself in a blanket and went outside to break off icicles from under the eaves to eat; the long icicles formed into strips of ice.
Because they were short, they could only look for low eaves when they couldn't reach them. Or they could ask the gatekeepers who lived in the same courtyard to help them break some off.
Cut the icicles into several pieces and drizzle them with honey that I got from Aunt Sun.
They ate with great relish, clutching the hot water bottle, the charcoal brazier burning, and enjoying honey ice cubes.
It was quite a unique experience, and Wang Yan would sometimes tell them stories about ghosts and monsters.
The four little girls, huddled under the covers, listened intently, exclaiming in surprise repeatedly.
………………
Fortunately, this cold weather won't last forever.
After a month of perseverance, the weather began to warm up slowly, and it stopped snowing every few days like before.
As soon as you step outside, the snow pours right up to your ankles, and after just a few steps, your shoes get soaked from the accumulated snow.
Lately, the sun has been shining more often, and the snow is melting little by little. Although it's colder on days when the snow is melting than on days when it's snowing, the temperature is indeed getting higher every day.
The household has started eating vegetarian food again; isn't the young master about to get involved again?
Day after day, she ate mostly bland, oily food from the main kitchen, and Wang Yan felt her eyes were getting tired.
Fortunately, Sister Ying secretly made her a lot of preserved vegetable pancakes and Yunnan ham pancakes.
I would secretly wrap them in my clothes and bring them in, and every night my roommate and I would sneak a couple to eat to satisfy our cravings.
During the day, we would deliver two to each of Aunt Sun and Fuling.
Before the New Year, Fatty Wang brought Sister Ying home. When she arrived, her feet were still bound with a wooden board. He only told her to rest for another hundred days.
A group of people in the courtyard, especially Aunt Cui, all looked at Yingjie with great pity. Her foot had not healed for a long time, so how could she go back to work in the inner courtyard?
Xiang'er's mother, on the other hand, was so excited she wanted to jump up and down. Every time she went in and out, her eyes were full of schadenfreude as she looked at their house.
This made Aunt Wang want to slap this stupid woman twice several times.
In the Hou residence, amidst eager anticipation, March finally arrived, and the time for the imperial examination was here.
The young master and the third young master quickly left to take the final exam.
After passing the imperial examination, one is guaranteed to become a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations). After completing the palace examination, at the very least, one can be assigned a seventh-rank official position.
In March, the weather was still chilly. Lady Hou personally prepared fur coats, top-quality silver charcoal, and pastries and cakes that could be heated, meticulously taking care of her son's needs. The same was true for the Third Concubine's side.
The day after they left, Aunt Sun made a dish of glutinous rice meatballs.
Logically, they should continue eating vegetarian food, since the exams aren't over yet, but their masters have all left the courtyard.
Lady Hou was worried, so she went to stay on a street near the examination site.
The first and second-class maids and female guards were all taken away. Granny Hua didn't go back all day during the snowy season, and now she goes home for a while whenever she has free time.
There were only the women and a few gatekeepers in the courtyard. Chunlan also wanted to eat, so naturally she wouldn't tell anyone.
Mince the pork and add appropriate amounts of chopped green onions, minced ginger, and cooking wine.
First, stir. Then, for the second time, add pepper, salt, and two tablespoons of cornstarch, and stir again.
Add some rapeseed oil to the pre-soaked glutinous rice and mix well. Roll the meat filling, which has been shaped into meatballs, in the glutinous rice until it is fully coated with raw glutinous rice.
Steam it for half an hour, and it's ready to eat right away. Grandma Sun also cooked a pot of red bean and barley porridge. The beans were cooked until they were soft and sticky.
Served with fragrant glutinous rice meatballs, the group ate without even looking up, and Wang Yan and her friends couldn't compete with the gatekeeper for the meat.
Everyone ate with great gusto, in a lively and enthusiastic manner. Whoever grabbed the food got to eat it, and of course, everyone ended up with a full stomach.
After eating, they went back to their room for a nap. With their master not around, this group of them became quite lazy.
Two days before Lady Hou returned, a group of people began to clean the house thoroughly, sweep the roads, burn incense in the house, and change the bedding and curtains.
They resumed eating vegetarian meals, but Aunt Sun also made scallion pancakes for them. And after eating meat for several days in a row, they no longer craved it.
On the third night, the Lady of the Marquis and the Heir Apparent brought back the Third Young Master, who had fainted after leaving the gate of the final imperial examination.
The prince seemed to be in good spirits, eating well and not going back to his own courtyard.
I first went to the small tea room to get a bag of spicy strips and a bag of pork jerky. I ran into Aunt Sun making scallion pancakes and she brought out a plate of them before I left.
Seven more days passed before the third young master was finally able to walk. I heard he survived those days on nothing but porridge. Now he's better, but he still has no taste in his mouth and can't eat anything.
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