Cold Draught

“Why do I have to leave with Father?”

Zhuang Zhuang was unhappily lifted onto the horse by Jiang Danhe. He looked at Xiaoguo sadly, hoping that she could save him.

“You still want to rest? You must have forgotten your books.”

Jiang Danhe patted his head gently.

Zhuang Zhuang sighed. “Although… but…”

“Alright…” Xiaoguo walked over and touched his face. She said softly, “You’ve rested for so many days. Study hard when you get there, understand? Mother will pick you up in a few days.”

“Yes!”

Zhuang Zhuang nodded obediently and stopped whining.

Jiang Danhe looked at Xiaoguo and let out a silent sigh.

The mother only had to say one line, as compared to his long and windy coaxing. That was definitely preferential treatment.

“Let’s go.”

“When you get there, don’t forget to write to me.”

Seeing that he was getting ready to leave, Xiaoguo quickly reminded him and she blushed right after. She really felt a bit shy for being so direct.

“Of course!”

Jiang Danhe smiled happily at her. With that, he rode off.

Xiaoguo was becoming more and more dependent on him. This was really good news for him.

—-

Time flew by.

Ever since Jiang Danhe left, Xiaoguo went back to her usual routine. However, she must say that with the addition of Yu Ling and Xiao Zhu, her life had become much more interesting than before.

Her daily activities were cutting grass, making clothes, and chatting with Mrs Yang. On alternate days, she would travel to the county to check on the renovation progress and play with Ruyi and the others. Her days were well-planned and joyful.

Unknowingly, the autumn, which was barely noticeable, passed by in a blink of an eye. The temperature plummeted overnight and before one realized it, the bone-chilling wind had started blowing outside.

Xiaoguo was suddenly woken up by the cold.

She lay shivering in the cold blankets, tossing and turning all night, half-awake and half-asleep. Despite going to bed early, she still felt groggy and exhausted when she woke up.

Before opening her eyes, Xiaoguo’s ears perked up first. Amidst her yawing, she could vaguely hear talking voices coming from outside her room.

Xiaoguo slowly opened her eyes and sat up, carefully listening to the voices.

“The weather is too strange.”

“That’s right. It’s so cold that my nose and tears are running.”

“Last night I thought I had fallen into a cellar on the island.”

“There’s even a thin layer of ice in our water jar. This freaking weather is really scary.”

“Why don’t we put on more layers? I feel like I… Achoo…”

“I think so too. If I don’t wear another layer, I’ll catch a cold.”

Xiao Zhu and Yu Ling started sneezing at each other. What they said earlier had really come true.

At this moment, Xiaoguo had jumped out of bed and gotten dressed. The cold wind blowing through the cracks in the window was already enough to make one shiver, not to mention if one were to go outside. Just thinking about it made her feel cold.

“Sister Xiaoguo.”

“Yes, quickly go in and get dressed.”

Yu Ling was standing in front of Xiaoguo’s room door and immediately noticed her thin figure. She said, “Sister Xiaoguo, you should wear more clothes too. It’s way colder than it looks.”

At this moment, Xiao Zhu turned around and said, “It’s not an exaggeration to say that the intense cold outside is enough to make your bones ache.”

As she spoke, she shuddered to emphasize what she had just said.

Xiaoguo was amused by their playful demeanor. “You two go back to your room and put on some warm clothes. I’ll make breakfast. We need to prepare for the winter after that,” she said.

Xiao Zhu and Yu Ling looked at each other, not understanding what she meant. What was there to prepare for the winter?

However, they still listened to her and ran back into the house to put on their clothes. They couldn’t afford to get sick and cause trouble for Sister Xiaoguo.

Xiaoguo opened the door and was about to go out when she was blown back into the house by the cold wind.

No, she had to put on additional layers. It was simply too cold.

After returning to the house to put on her coat, she gathered her courage and opened the door. Enduring the cold wind in her face, she quickly ran to the kitchen.

Once she entered the kitchen, the temperature instantly warmed up.

Xiao Zhu and Yu Ling had woken up early to make porridge, therefore in addition to the burning stove, the entire kitchen was filled with hot steam rising from the porridge, which made the house much warmer than the temperature outside.

Soon, Xiao Zhu and Yu Ling arrived at the kitchen.

The two little girls didn’t have any winter clothes, so they had put on several layers of thin clothes, making them look like two round bundles. The many layers also made it difficult for them to bend over and crouch down. After being warmed up by the heat in the kitchen, they eventually broke out in sweat. That gave them no other choice but to take off the clothes that they had painstakingly put on.

“I made two sets of winter clothes for you some time ago and I didn’t have time to give them to you. You can put them on after eating.”

When Xiaoguo was done laughing at them, she brought the food to the table and told them about the winter clothes.

Xiao Zhu and Yu Ling nodded heavily and replied with joy, “Yes!!”

Then, they put aside the clothes that they had taken off and set up the dining table with Xiaoguo.

After breakfast, the three of them felt much warmer. Xiaoguo left Xiao Zhu and Yu Ling to clean the dining table, while she went into the house to look for the window and door curtains that had been stored away during the last spring.

Since the curtains had been washed before she put them away, a faint fragrance could still be detected when she unfolded them.

With the help of Xiao Zhu and Yu Ling, the curtains were quickly hung up, and it wasn’t clear whether it was a psychological effect or not, but the three of them felt that the temperature in the room had indeed risen quite a bit at this moment.

Of course, the animals had to wear winter clothes too. They were going to wear the same set from the previous year. Fortunately, Xiaoguo had made the clothes in a roomier fit, otherwise,the animals wouldn’t have been able to fit into them this year.

Xiao Zhu and Yu Ling had never seen anyone dress an animal before, so they were quite curious.

After they had seen enough, the two of them finally joined in and helped to dress the animals.

“Sister Xiaoguo, is it going to snow?”

Yu Ling asked curiously as she dressed the dog.

“I don’t think so. It’s indeed cold, but it won’t snow anytime soon.”

Xiaoguo didn’t expect the weather to be so cold today. It was only yesterday when she was wearing thin summer clothes. Today, she was suddenly donning thick clothes for the winter.

“The temperatures seemed rather abnormal this year.”

Xiao Zhu looked at the livestock shed thoughtfully. After a while, she asked, “Sister Xiaoguo, should we lay down some hay for them?”

“Yes, we should. We’ll do that later. I’ll go to the county first to drop off some winter clothes for Zhuang Zhuang. I don’t think he has any thick clothes there. The temperature is dropping too quickly.”

“Sister Xiaoguo, don’t worry. You can go ahead and deliver the clothes to Zhuang Zhuang. We’ll do the hay laying.”

Yu Ling laughed and patted her chest confidently.

Xiao Zhu nodded in agreement with Yu Ling’s suggestion.

The two of them could handle it!

Xiaoguo stopped what she was doing and looked at the two of them hesitantly. She turned to look at the hay that had been piled up high against the wall.

After a while, she nodded in agreement.

“Sure, but please be careful.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the two young girls laughed joyfully. They nodded repeatedly at her and promised to do a good job.

Xiaoguo smiled and nodded before continuing to dress the donkey.

However, her gaze looked rather worried. In fact, apart from delivering clothes to Zhuang Zhuang, there was another very important matter that she had to attend to.

Ever since Jiang Danhe left, she had not received other letters from him besides the one that he sent to inform of his safe arrival.

She didn’t want to make any wild guesses, but she couldn’t help but worry.

From the first day since she met Jiang Danhe, the two of them had never lost contact for so long. This time, the interval was so long that she was starting to get worried.

She had written to him a few times during this period, but so far, she had received no replies from him.

Even so, she was not worried about Jiang Danhe being disloyal to her. Instead, she was worried about his safety.

The courier station often had people coming from and going to the capital city, so she wanted to go and ask around this time to see if she could get any news about the capital city.