mtl008 Chapter 247 Winter Warmth
Chapter 247 Winter Warmth
Hache——
Xia Qingyue sneezed several times in succession.
Within a few breaths, the temperature dropped sharply, and the exposed skin was penetrated by the biting cold. The coldness quickly spread through the body, cooling the limbs and bones.
Han Zhibai pushed open the door of the main hall and led her in. When he walked to the dining table in the dark and lit the oil lamp, he shouted to the outside: "Heihei, Xiaobai, you guys come in too!"
The two little ones came in in response.
Only Xiao Hei was left alone outside, and it started crying out in fear.
The oil lamp was lit to dispel the darkness. Han Zhibai raised his hand and gently patted the snow on her head and clothes. His tone was unusually serious, "A big snowstorm is coming. It will be very cold. You should wear something thicker and light a fire to keep warm. I'll go and settle Xiao Hei."
Xia Qingyue looked worried. "I'll go get you some thick clothes to wear."
She ran back to her room and found a thick duck down coat with a high collar that he had made this year.
Han Zhibai put on duck down clothes, a cloak, and a bamboo hat and went out. He unloaded Xiao Hei's things onto the doorstep, and Xia Qingyue moved in.
After moving, he closed the door of the main room and took Xiao Hei to the backyard in the snow.
The cries of "Ugh, Ugh, Ugh" became weaker and weaker and soon disappeared. The only sound that could be heard was the wind wailing like a baby crying, which was eerie and terrifying.
She raised her hand to pat her painful face and called the two kids to the kitchen.
When I was standing outside just now, the biting cold wind blew on my face and it hurt like a knife.
She lit a fire and burned a whole piece of wood. After roasting for a while, her body was gradually wrapped in warmth. Thinking that Han Zhibai was still outside, she frequently looked towards the small side door of the kitchen and pricked up her ears to listen to the movement outside. Her heart was up and down and she couldn't calm down.
She did not sit there and wait for death. After her hands and feet were warmed up and the water on the stove was heated, she came to cook dinner. There were vegetables at home, so she found dried shrimps, dried mushrooms and cabbage, washed and cut them, kneaded the dough, and made a pot of hot noodle soup.
Almost as soon as she had finished, there was a knock at the little side door, and she dropped the fire tongs in her hand and ran to open it.
Han Zhibai flashed in. Even though the door was not open wide, he moved quickly and a lot of the snow outside still floated in and fell to the ground.
"Dinner is ready. We'll eat by the stove tonight. It'll be warm."
"Okay, wash your hands and eat first. After you finish eating, I will cook food for the poultry."
It was windy and snowy outside, but inside the house, there was warm firewood burning in the stove. They sat by the stove, eating dinner with bowls in their hands. After drinking the hot soup, their bodies began to feel hot.
The two little ones were so cold that they ate dinner by the stove. After eating, they did not rush back to their nest in the main room to sleep.
She was full after eating one bowl of food. She put the bowl and chopsticks on the stove and touched Heihei and Xiaobai, who were lying beside her with drooping eyelids. "We have to move their nests to the room at night and make the nests thicker. We also have to make thicker bedding on our beds."
This year it is colder than last year, she thinks it must be a cold wave.
Han Zhibai nodded. He finished a large bowl of noodle soup and scooped up half a bowl of noodle soup left in the pot. He worked hard on weekdays and consumed a lot of physical energy, so he ate a little more.
After dinner, Xia Qingyue came to clean up and wash the dishes. Han Zhibai went to his room. He came out to say hello to her and went to the poultry room to cook.
She cleaned up everything quickly, put a whole piece of firewood in the stove and let it burn. She held the oil lamp and walked through the utility room to the main room. The door was obviously closed, but a cold wind came out from nowhere, making a chill.
"It's so cold!" She ran to the room, the door was closed, leaving a crack, and she pushed it open.
The oil lamp on the bedside table in the room emitted soft light. There was a small stove on each side of the bed, with red-hot charcoal burning in the stove.
At the foot of the bed, the black and white ones were sleeping in their thickly beddinged nest. Judging from their relaxed expressions, they were sleeping very soundly.
She walked to the bedside table on the outside and placed the oil lamp on it. With the light of the two lamps, the room became even brighter.
She put the duck down she brought back on the bed in the closet, preparing to put the 13-pound quilt she had originally used as a mattress underneath, and then cover it with a bed sheet, which was thick and warmer underneath.
She lifted the quilt and was about to fold it, when she caught a glimpse of a few hot water bottles on the bed under the quilt. She touched them a few times and found the bed was warm. Not wanting the heat to dissipate, she worked faster and finally took out two thick duck down quilts from the cupboard and covered herself with them tonight.
A thick duck down quilt weighs about eight or nine pounds, but it doesn't look bulky and is light, thin and soft.
After making the bed, she fetched two basins of water to wipe the things in the room. No one had lived there for two days, so there was some dust on the room.
After cleaning, she went to the kitchen, sat by the fire, and boiled some water, wanting to wait for Han Zhibai to come back and soak his feet together.
After a while, Han Zhibai came back. The first thing he did was to wash his hands with hot water. As he washed, he said, "Three rabbits and a chicken died. They didn't die of cold. I guess it's because we were away from home for the past two days and they ate cold food."
"Then we'll get it and eat it in the next two days. It's probably going to be cold for a while."
"Yes, it's cold and we stay at home during the winter and don't go out."
She nodded, her bright eyes smiling, "Yeah, luckily I'm back today, and I told my aunt and the others that I'll come down the mountain after the New Year.
That’s great, everything goes well. My second brother successfully made lipstick this morning. I hope everything goes well for him in the future.
We have bought rice and flour, so we don’t have to worry about not having food even if the mountains are blocked by snow. The only pity is that there is no sun, so we can’t make dried vermicelli. We can only wait until the weather gets better in the spring to make it.”
After chatting about family matters for a while, he washed up, carried two buckets of warm water into the room, poured it into a large wooden tub, and used it for foot soaking.
After soaking your feet, get into bed quickly while your body is still warm.
That night, they slept exceptionally well, covered with comfortable and warm duck down quilts.
It snowed heavily for ten days. The whole world was covered with snow. The snow was so deep that Xia Qingyue and Han Zhibai had to shovel snow three times a day, morning, noon and evening.
In the last few days of the month, she got her period, so she stopped going out to shovel snow and took good care of her health.
In a blink of an eye, several days have passed and it is already the end of January, and the next day will be New Year's Eve.
Xia Qingyue was full of energy as her period had just ended. She and Han Zhibai had planned in advance that each of them would cook a few New Year's Eve dishes, dumplings being a must, so he went to get the frozen meat early.
But there were only two of them and they couldn't eat much, so there were many types of food but small portions.
On New Year's Eve, the two slept until they woke up naturally. It was snowing outside, so they had breakfast and started shoveling snow.
Nowadays they have to spend a lot of time shoveling snow every day. It looks simple, but it consumes a lot of physical energy and makes people tired easily. They have to sit down and rest every time they finish shoveling snow.
At noon, they simply cooked some mutton and radish soup and some hot vegetables.
After shoveling snow in the afternoon, Xia Qingyue and Han Zhibai prepared dinner together. The staple food was dumplings with several kinds of fillings. Eight dishes were ordered. The cold dishes were sausages and bacon, and a braised meat platter. The rest were hot dishes, all of which were the dishes they wanted to eat.
After more than an hour of hard work, all the dishes were ready.
The two little ones had an equally sumptuous meal, with dumplings, meat and vegetables. They made excited noises as they ate.
Xia Qingyue and Han Zhibai sat around the dinner table and ate their first New Year's Eve dinner. They seemed to have telepathic connection and after only a few bites they couldn't help but look up at each other with happy smiles on their faces.