The next day, Chu Lian was heading to the center of the courtyard after getting up when she saw Li Xing and the other guards shovelling snow. In just a single night, the snow covering the ground had stacked up enough to reach their knees! The whole He Estate had practically been buried in snow.
Wenlan spotted Chu Lian coming out of her room and standing at the corridor just like that, so she quickly rushed into the room and took out her cloak. She helped Chu Lian into her cloak and stuffed a hand warmer into her hands.
“Third Young Madam, the wound on your leg has just healed. Please be careful not to get a chill, or Third Young Master will blame this servant.”
Chu Lian glared at Wenlan in response. “It snowed a lot last night.”
Wenlan also found it strange. She had grown up in the capital. Although it snowed in the capital every year as well, it had never snowed as much as it did here.
“That’s right, Third Young Madam. Last night, my sister and I came out to check the surroundings and the amount of snow falling was enough to block our vision completely. If we were to go out on such a snowy day, wouldn’t we get buried by the snow?”
Chu Lian turned to look in the direction of the border camp with worry filling her heart. She wondered how the border troops were doing now.
“Where’s Manager Qin?”
“In the outer court. He’s probably taking care of the carriage horses we brought with us. It snowed so much last night that the stables collapsed. Two of the horses froze to death.”
“Have someone bring him to me. I have some tasks for him.”
Wenlan quickly went to do as ordered. Chu Lian stood in front of her room door and watched as the estate’s guards shovelled snow. The heap of snow that they cleared was as tall as a small hill. It took the five men an hour before they managed to clear the snow that had piled up in Chu Lian’s small courtyard.
After twenty minutes or so, Manager Qin rushed over from the outer court.
The He Estate was quite large and there were five small courtyards within. They couldn’t clear all the snow in the estate so quickly, so Manager Qin had designated Chu Lian’s courtyard as the first to be cleared out.
They would only start on the outer court after Chu Lian’s courtyard had been completely cleared, so the paths in the outer court hadn’t been cleared yet!
As Chu Lian stood in the corridor, she watched as Manager Qin, who was wrapped up until he looked like a ball, waddled into her courtyard.
Manager Qin had seen Chu Lian standing at the door from afar. Before he entered the courtyard, he shouted while gasping for breath, “Third Young Madam, it’s cold outside! Please enter the room first, I’m walking rather slowly.”
Of course he was walking slowly! He had tied two wooden boards onto his feet!
Chu Lian didn’t speak and simply smiled at him. When her gaze landed on Manager Qin’s feet, she abruptly fell into a daze. Her almond-shaped eyes were obscured by haze as if she had suddenly sunk deeply into her own thoughts.
Manager Qin found it strange. He looked down at his own feet and the boots that he had tied wooden boards too. It didn’t seem like anything was wrong?
He struggled as he fought with the snow and finally entered the courtyard. When he finally reached the cobblestone path that had been cleared of snow, he let out a sigh of relief. He bent down and took off the wooden boards tied to his boots. He stomped his feet to clear the snow stuck to his boots before taking a brisk pace as he walked towards Chu Lian, freed of his burden.
Chu Lian’s gaze was still fixed on the wooden boards that Manager Qin had set down not too far away. Manager Qin followed her gaze and looked at the boards as well. Those were just two normal pieces of willow wood. There were still quite a few placed in the storehouses of the estate that had been left abandoned for years. There didn’t seem to be anything special about them.
However, since Chu Lian seemed to be interested in them, Manager Qin explained as he walked towards her.
“Third Young Madam, that was something that the old servants of the estate taught me. They said that it would be easier to walk with the wooden boards tied to your feet and you wouldn’t fall into the snow. I followed exactly as they said and it actually worked pretty well. I did have to use more strength while walking, but I didn’t have to worry about falling into a deep pile of snow and freezing my legs off.”
When Manager Qin turned back to look at his young mistress, he found that her almond-shaped eyes were lit up and sparkling.
In the next second, Chu Lian stamped her feet excitedly and said, “I was so stupid! Why didn’t I think of such a simple method?”
After blurting that out, she completely forgot about Manager Qin and rushed back into the room.
Manager Qin continued standing in the corridor with one hand stretched out and a dazed expression on his face. He didn’t know what had gotten into his mistress.
When Wenqing came out of the side room and saw that he was still standing in the same spot with a silly look on his face, she didn’t know what to do either.
“Manager Qin, come into the side hall and take a seat first. There’s hot water on the stove too. I’m going into the room to see what happened to Third Young Madam.”
Manager Qin waved his hand at Wenqing, “Please go, quickly!”
That excited expression on Third Young Madam’s face had been a little frightening. After he had been informed bright and early that morning that the stables had collapsed, he was now rather cautious and careful about protecting his mistress.
TL Note: Manager Qin’s expression was literally described as ‘Erkang’s dazed expression from My Fair Princess’, which made me lol. He’s calling out for his soon-to-be wife, Ziwei, in this shot.
Ziwei…!
My Fair Princess is an old TV drama about a long-lost princess called Ziwei trying to reconnect with her father, the Emperor. Of course, through some shenanigans, a young commoner girl, Xiaoyanzi, got caught up in the mess and she now has to pretend to be the long-lost princess herself or lose her head. The drama shows what it was like to live in the palace and lots of funny dramatic scenes!
I watched it as a little kid and absolutely loved it~ Xiaoyanzi was my favourite character! Erkang is one of the male leads in it too XD
If you’ve heard of Fan Bingbing, who acted as Blink in X-Men: Days of Future Past, she played a faithful servant in the drama and became famous because of this drama~ I really recommend watching My Fair Princess for a cool look into ancient Chinese customs and also for a really cute and funny female lead~