The cold wind howled, and snowflakes drifted through the air...
This winter was especially cold. Even Yuhang Commandery in Jiangnan was nearly as cold as the north once the twelfth lunar month began. The weather was bitterly freezing, and even West Lake, which rarely froze over in previous years, had frozen solid. A thick layer of ice covered it, and icicles hung from the lakeside pavilions and withered tree trunks.
If it was this cold in Yuhang, Jiangnan, then one could easily imagine how much colder Yan Yun and the deserts and grasslands farther north must be. They had certainly been struck by a cold-weather disaster. There was no doubt about it!
Worse still, when the north was hit by a cold-weather disaster, the nomadic peoples of the grasslands, such as the Turks, would suffer enormous losses. Countless livestock—cattle and sheep alike—would surely freeze to death. That meant that come spring, whether to survive or recoup their losses, they would undoubtedly raid the Central Plains as planned, and on an even greater scale!
Such matters naturally kept Kou Zhong and the others, as the Grand Overseer of Jiangnan Circuit and his colleagues, up at night with worry. But there was nothing they could do about it.
Of course, it was their problem to worry about. There was one person who certainly wouldn't concern herself with any of it.
And sure enough—
Though the wind and snow were still fierce that day, and thick snow blanketed everything, leaving hardly anyone on the streets—even in the city—a certain troublesome little girl still bounced her way out of town in her cute blue-and-white winter dress. She headed for the shores of West Lake, where people rarely ventured and not even a single wild beast could be seen.
"..."
(??_?)
That's right!
The only