It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

Jiang Yan sat in the outer room, hugging the small stove and staring blankly. What she had just said to Fu Nulang was not a bit exaggerated.

When the Chang family's maid broke in that morning, she and Yile Chunying were taken to the laundry room before they had time to put on their thick coats.

The leading maid specifically instructed the steward in front of them that the three of them could only wash the heaviest clothes and bedding in the open air. If they delayed, they would be whipped with a horsewhip.

Her hands had been soaked in the freezing water for less than a quarter of an hour, and now they were burning with the fire, causing an itch that was difficult to relieve.

After a long time, just when Jiang Yan thought that Miss Fu had fallen asleep, a voice came from the inner room again, "What should I do..."

Is this a dream talk? Jiang Yan walked to the door and asked softly, "Girl?"

After waiting for a few moments, there was no response. He must have been sleeping restlessly.

Jiang Yan carefully lowered the special oil lamp shade halfway, then turned the blocked side towards the partition door, and the inner room immediately became darker.

Lying on the couch, in the stillness of the night, Jiang Yan couldn't help but ponder the question raised by Fu Nulang. If Fu Nulang had few options, then those who were firmly bound to her had no way out, their lives and fortunes depended on her.

……

On the second day of her detention, no water was brought to the guest house. Fu Nulang's clear mountain spring water supply was more than half gone, and her ordinary well water supply was almost empty.

In order to avoid the situation where everyone had to bow their heads in embarrassment due to lack of water, Jiang Yan and Chunying searched the yard for a long time before dragging out an old wooden table from the warehouse and placing it in front of the corridor.

After shaking the wooden table to confirm that it was stable, Jiang Yan placed a bench on it, and then quickly stood on it with the help of Yile and Chunying.

Fu Weixin vaguely saw the movement in the yard through the thick window paper in the house. When he went out to look, he saw Jiang Yan sweeping snow into a wooden bucket in his other hand with something unknown in his hand.

The wooden barrel was very small, and even though Jiang Yan took great effort to compact the snow, it was full in just a few strokes, and the snow on the corridor was only five or six tiles less.

While handing the wooden barrel to Chunying and waiting for her to pour the snow in the barrel into the empty large barrel beside her, Jiang Yan complained to them that the size of the wooden barrel was too unreasonable. The small one was too small to hold much things, and the large one was too big to be carried with one hand.

Huang Ma, who was sitting nearby watching them, sneered, "These barrels are only for your enjoyment, don't you think the masters will use them for work?"

"Enjoy it?" Jiang Yan lifted the barrel, which had returned to his hands, and examined it closely against the sunlight. "There are no carvings. Could it be that the wood used is particularly valuable?"

"Valuable items wouldn't be placed in the guest house. These are tools for the girls to use to tend the flowers and plants." Fu Weixin approached and asked doubtfully, "What's the point of collecting these?"

Jiang Yan dared to stand on the bench but didn't dare to move freely. When Fu Nulang came over to salute, she only raised her upper body, while her lower body was stiff and motionless. Fortunately, Fu Nulang didn't care about these small details at the moment.

"My lady, we are planning to melt the snow into water for use." Yile's voice had a slight nasal tone.

"We are short of water?" Fu Weixin was a little bit unbelievable. She had expected that everyone just lacked food, but she didn't expect that they even lacked water.

Yile acquiesced, but seeing Miss Fu's devastated expression, he thought for a moment and then said in relief, "It's mainly because the spring water you drink every day is less than enough for a day. The other water slaves have found a way to last a few more days."

The solution is to use snow water? Fu Weixin looked towards the wooden barrel with difficulty. After a while, the snow in the barrel showed no sign of melting.

"Is there enough charcoal fire in the yard?" Fu Weixin was depressed for a while, then cheered up and thought about the sustainability of this method.

"Keep it warm while you're roasting. The charcoal fire should last for two days."

"Ah——" Fu Weixin felt a little disappointed. Is the charcoal fire only enough for two days?