Chapter 259: Chapter 259

Goose feather-like snowflakes danced wildly in the wind, casting a grey veil over the entire sky, making it impossible to see clearly beyond ten meters.

"Ah Ning, look outside the window." Lan Xihe pulled Jun Ning to the window, opened it, and looked totally perplexed, "You call this good weather? Are you sure you don’t have a misunderstanding about what good weather is?"

"..." Jun Ning took a couple of glances outside, coughed twice, and said quite reasonably, "I just like weather with snow flying everywhere, why, is there a problem with that?"

Lan Xihe was taken aback for a moment, "Alright then, no problem."

"I want to go build a snowman." Jun Ning asked, "Would you like to go, Sister Xi He?"

Lan Xihe nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, yes..." She had loved doing this since she was a child.

"But let’s also call Ah Yu."

Jun Ning said as she headed to Jun Yu’s room to find him. This kid was always engrossed solely in studying, and very diligently at that.

His diligence only made her laziness more apparent.

Jun Ning: Wuwuwuwu...

"Ah Yu, Ah Yu... Do you want to build a snowman?" As Jun Ning entered Jun Yu’s room, she yelled out loud even without seeing Jun Yu.

"Call me brother..." Jun Yu corrected Jun Ning’s way of addressing him.

Jun Ning lazily called out, "Brother..." and then ran towards the source of the sound.

"Sigh..." Not knowing what he couldn’t figure out, Jun Yu sighed sadly, then put down his book and approached Jun Ning, "Come on, let’s go build a snowman together."

He was tired from studying and needed a good break.

Moreover, mother-fei had said that some problems just aren’t worth overthinking. Fresh chapters posted on 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩·𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢·𝔫𝔢𝔱

Why the Emperor suddenly changed his attitude, he couldn’t understand, so he decided not to think about it.

Jun Ning, Jun Yu, and Lan Xihe set about happily building a snowman.

The children were still young, and building a snowman took a lot of effort. Nanny Zhang, who was watching from the side, couldn’t help wanting to lend a hand, but they refused. They insisted on building a snowman themselves, no matter how much effort it took.

The kids spent several hours building snowmen, with their little hands and faces turning red from the cold. Yet, they didn’t mind at all, nor did they have any thoughts of giving up, lovingly building the snowman.

They truly exerted a lot of effort to barely manage to each build a snowman.

The snowman Jun Yu built was supposedly himself, short and chubby, looking quite comical. He claimed it was himself, but it truly bore no resemblance.

Lan Xihe’s snowman was Jun Ning, thin and short, also quite ugly with unrecognizable features. But the longevity lock hanging around the snowman’s neck marked its identity.

One could identify who it represented by the longevity lock.

Even more laughably, Lan Xihe’s snowman, when placed beside the one Jun Yu built, made it clear which was the brother and which was the sister at a glance.

Because one was tall, and the other was short. One was fat, the other was thin.

Jun Yu looked at the two snowmen and started discussing with Lan Xihe.

On Jun Ning’s side, although she had already built a very tall snowman, she continued building, but it was another one.

The snowman she had already built was the tallest among those made, with pearl earrings hanging from both its ears and a pink hat on its head, barely recognizable as a female snowman.

Roughly guessing, this snowman should be Qiong Hua.

As for the other snowman Jun Ning was building now, there was no need to think too much; it must be Emperor Yongning.

After all, snowman representations for Jun Ning, Jun Yu, and Qiong Hua were already made, leaving only Emperor Yongning missing among the family of four.

Jun Ning diligently continued, building it even larger than the previous one representing Qiong Hua. Midway, when Jun Yu and Lan Xihe offered to help, Jun Ning refused, insisting on building it herself.

Once completed, she carefully retrieved a hat that Emperor Yongning had left in Weiyang Hall and placed it on the snowman.

But, after Jun Yu asked, "Ah Ning, is this big snowman Father?" Jun Ning bit her lip, clenched her fist, took a few deep breaths, and then kicked down the snowman representing Emperor Yongning.

Using too much force, not only did she create a hole in the snowman, but she also fell into the shattered snowman herself.

She was covered in snow. More accurately, she was buried in thick snow.

Seeing this, Jun Yu and Lan Xihe hurriedly came forward to dig Jun Ning out from the thick layer of snow, helping her brush off the snow.

"Let’s go back!" Jun Ning left these words, sulkily returning to her chamber.

As night gradually fell, after finishing dinner and chatting with Qiong Hua for a while, Jun Ning and Lan Xihe returned to their chambers to sleep.

Jun Ning was aware of the presence of Hidden Guards next to the chambers. But for over half a year, she pretended not to know, and due to the stifling anger in her heart, she chose to ignore the presence of those Hidden Guards.

However, at this moment, filled with emotion from building the snowman, she was deeply troubled. Naturally, she couldn’t ignore them any longer.

She lay on the bed, using the faint moonlight outside to lock on to the positions of several Hidden Guards.

She stared blankly at the Hidden Guards this way, not knowing how long she had been watching, and unconsciously fell asleep.

That night, she dreamed again, dreaming of the bleak frontier where no grass grew under the harsh cold winds.

The Crown Prince and Uncle Qi had gone to resolve several skirmishes between the guards of Eastern Chu and Bei Xia at the border, having been there for over half a year already, with no clue when they would return.

A month later, just after the New Year, after experiencing a major frontier battle, the entire army of the Crown Prince and Qi Qin entered a period of recuperation.

But on this night, the camp of Eastern Chu was maliciously attacked.

The Crown Prince and Qi Qin, having just endured a devastating battle during the day and achieved a minor victory, were somewhat lax and less vigilant.

They halved the number of patrolling soldiers. The General Commander also misjudged the situation, advising everyone to rest well for the night to get ready for the upcoming battles, without additional training needed.

Though Da Xia suffered heavy losses as well, they were unwilling to accept defeat.

So they seized upon the Crown Prince and Qi Qin’s overconfidence in victory and their lowered guard, employing the despicable tactic of human torches to set fire to Eastern Chu’s provisions and camp.

Subsequently, Eastern Chu’s provisions were burnt, along with the horses... and unfortunately, some soldiers got caught in the blaze.

Fire, as a thing, is easy to start, but hard to put out.

The so-called human torch attack was precisely based on this point.

They cruelly tied flammable materials to people before igniting them...