When Shen Taotao came stomping in over the shattered ice shards, Xie Yunjing was applying medicinal powder to the claw marks on his shoulder blade.
His robes were half-shed, revealing gruesome wounds where torn flesh had darkened to a deep crimson.
Shen Taotao had long grown accustomed to the sight of his muscular physique.
Xie Yunjing was equally unfazed by her barging in and staring unabashedly.
“Wooden House Blueprint for you,” she announced, slapping the document onto the table. “Here it is, but you can’t have it for free.”
Xie Yunjing didn’t even lift his eyelids. “What do you want in exchange this time?”
“Ten jin of rice, five jin of wheat flour, one jar each of oil and salt.” Shen Taotao counted on her frost-reddened fingers, her eyes gleaming intensely. “Twenty fresh cabbages, pork… I want the entire rib section!”
The medicine bottle thudded heavily on the table.
“Shen Taotao,” Xie Yunjing said with a cold, mocking smile, “even the Di Rong Royal Tent’s ransom demands have more shame than your requests.”
“Plus the Heated Brick Bed Blueprint!” she suddenly produced a warm sheepskin scroll from her bosom, unfolding it with a rustle over the wooden house plans.
The inked flue lines coiled like earth dragons across the densely annotated diagram: “Construct Heated Brick Bed—bluestone as bones, yellow mud as flesh. Light the firebox, smoke ascends through seven apertures directly connecting to wall veins. Warm in winter, cool in summer. If we build this kang on your freezing bed…”
“Zhang Xun!” Xie Yunjing abruptly cut her off.
Zhang Xun cheerfully poked his head through the tent flap, only to find Xie Yunjing pointing toward the snowdrifts outside. “Dig clay, quarry stones. I want this ‘heated brick bed’ fully constructed by day’s end.”
While the guards swung ice picks at stone blocks, Shen Taotao was slamming grass-mixed black mud onto the ground. Between throws, she instructed Shen Dashan to memorize the steps and quickly build a heated brick bed for Second Sister-in-law’s room first.
“Splat!”
Yellow mud splattered across the stone surface, smearing Xie Yi’s face.
The guard, still recovering from a broken leg, leaned on his crutch in the blizzard and actually chuckled while wiping his face. “Good splash! Let me get more of the mistress’s blessings!”
The mud clump nearly slipped from Shen Taotao’s hand. “What nonsense! Who’s the mistress?”
Zhang Xun approached grinning, carrying a stone slab. “It’s inevitable! We’ve all noticed how our lord feels about you.”
The surrounding guards immediately erupted in laughter, numbers one through nineteen shouting even louder: “The mistress is teaching us Kangling!”
Shen Taotao’s ears burned crimson. She shot a glare toward the room where Xie Yunjing sat motionless as a bell, holding a military scroll between his fingertips without even lifting an eyelid.
Pretending! Acting deaf and mute!
In retaliation, she slammed a lump of freezing mud against the window with a crash.
The wooden bed inside was soon dismantled.
A bluestone foundation received thick layers of yellow mud, while serpentine flues snaked along the icy walls. The mud seams were embedded with grass fragments Shen Taotao had specially mixed in.
“Light the fire!”
Pine branches wrapped in oilcloth were stuffed into the firebox. Flames leaped up, greedily licking the bluestones.
“Sizzle… sizzle…”
Strange sounds emerged from between the stones.
The wet mud blocking the chimney swelled from the heat, fine cracks spreading like spiderwebs as wisps of pungent smoke playfully escaped the fissures.
Zhang Xun crouched by the firepit, eyes nearly bulging into the flames.
Suddenly—
“It’s… it’s warm!” Xie Yi’s crutch tip thumped against the bluestone edge. He jerked his scorched hand back, then tremblingly touched it again. “The kang’s heating up inside!”
The guards swarmed the walls like madmen, their chapped hands desperately pressing against the mud-covered flue walls.
“Mother of heavens! It’s hot!”
“Warmth! The heat’s crawling along the walls!”
Roaring cheers nearly blew the roof off.
The iron-tower-like men laughed and leaped about, their scabbards clanging noisily like a clumsy giant battle formation dancing.
“Not yet!” Shen Taotao kicked Zhang Xun who was jumping the highest. “Sleeping on this with damp mud wrapped around and moisture not fully dried will give you chronic cold back.” She poked at the swollen wet mud around the flue opening. “Three more days of firing, then this heated bed will be ready for sleeping.”
Xie Yunjing, who had been keeping his eyes lowered, finally looked up: “Oh?”
Putting down his military book, he approached the heated brick bed, his boots crushing the splattered mud spots. “Where shall I… sleep tonight?”
The air suddenly grew still.
Zhang Xun slapped the back of his head hard: “My place is so crowded even farts have to queue up! How could someone of your noble status… farewell!”
Before the words faded, he had already bolted out of the room.
The guards scattered as if electrocuted. Xie Yi hopped away swiftly on one foot: “Our room has thunderous snoring that might disturb you… we take our leave!”
In the blink of an eye, everyone had fled, leaving only the crackling of pine wood in the firebox.
Xie Yunjing’s gaze slowly returned to Shen Taotao’s face.
When the wooden door creaked open, a warm current carrying the scent of pine resin rushed out.
Shen Dashan was bent over adding firewood to the hearth, sparks jumping onto the patches on his lower back.
He Shi sat cross-legged on the straw mat twisting hemp thread, making a cushion for her soon-to-be-born grandchild.
Shen Xiaochuan cheerfully blew breath onto the red-hot stone slab of the heated bed, testing how long it would take to dry his shoes.
“Thump!”
The worn shoe in Shen Xiaochuan’s hand fell into the hearth, sending sparks flying everywhere. Shen Dashan’s bent posture froze mid-air. He Shi’s hemp thread ball rolled across the mat, tangling around the black boots that had just stepped inside.
The entire family stood frozen like snowmen, staring wide-eyed at the person behind Shen Taotao – his shoulder wrapped in glaring white hemp cloth stained with blood like red plum blossoms on snow, his chilling aura dimming even the hearth’s warmth.
Shen Taotao pushed Xie Yunjing forward, her voice clear and loud: “He’ll be staying with us… until his heated bed is properly dried.”
“Clatter!” He Shi’s sewing basket overturned completely.
Father Shen trembled as he reached for firewood, taking a deep breath only to be choked by smoke from the firebox in a fit of coughing.
On the heated bed’s edge, Second Sister-in-law Shen instinctively tightened her grip on the thin quilt covering her abdomen. The heavy blood aura of this fierce warrior mixed with the bitter cold from outside made her newly budding life tremble instinctively.
Yet Xie Yunjing’s gaze bypassed the room full of astonishment, settling on the coarse clay bowl warming by the heated bed.
The rim bore two clear tiger-tooth marks, half a bowl of clear water steaming gently.
This bowl that the Shen family’s young girl had bitten seemed more pleasing to the eye than the jade cups from the imperial kilns.