Minister Dong glanced at the betrothal gift list and suddenly felt like winter had arrived, inexplicably feeling a chill.
With the next snowfall, everyone in the Capital City suddenly felt like winter had arrived.
The snow scene at Tai'a Temple was breathtakingly beautiful.
The temple roofs were colorful, and the thousand-year-old monastery had a solemn historical weight.
Covered in snow, it became even more sacred.
As if it truly possessed Buddha nature.
No skiing, no diving, no water floating, no rock climbing, no...
Princess Huiyun looked at the little munchkin in front of her. They had agreed to stay behind to comfort and accompany her, but now she felt nothing but worry and frustration.
A few days ago, she still thought the little one was quite fun despite being mischievous, and sometimes even quite agreeable.
Now she felt her scalp tingling.
She wished she could turn back time.
"Want to make tea?"
"Boring."
"Burn some incense?"
"Don't want to."
"Then let's build a snowman, we must!" Princess Huiyun said loudly.
"Okay."
Princess Huiyun almost lost her breath.
She dragged the little one to the courtyard, where servants had already prepared the snow.
Mianmian was about to grab the snow with her bare hands when Princess Huiyun caught her hand and put gloves on her.
They were quite special - Princess Huiyun's water-floating gloves, slippery and black.
They kept out the cold when worn.
Princess Huiyun thought she had only played with this at three years old, and never after that.
She never imagined that decades later, she would be here building snowmen to entertain someone.
Mianmian loved snow and loved building snowmen.
Apart from not liking to recite long classical texts, she was quite excellent in her studies and physical education classes.
She was very serious about building snowmen.
Princess Huiyun wanted to interact and play with her newly found great-granddaughter, while reminiscing about her childhood.
She kept helping.
When the little one directed her, she spared no effort.
"Grandma, help me make sticks, yes, curved sticks, make them with snow, press them firmly."
At first, Princess Huiyun was quite happy.
The little one was close to her, without any barriers.
Commanding a princess to work didn't seem to pressure her at all.
But as she enthusiastically participated and helped, seeing the sticks being pieced together one by one, it looked like... a skeleton frame?
Then she saw the little one sitting to the side, very seriously carving ice with a knife.
Watching her hand grip a knife, first shaping the ice into a roughly round shape, then carving out two holes, then carving out a row of teeth?
Watching a large chunk of ice quickly turn into a translucent skull in her hands?
Finally placing it on the skeleton frame.
So, her dear great-granddaughter had built a skeleton snowman?
A human corpse?
The kind with skin and flesh removed?
Pure bones?
Princess Huiyun was shaken.
Not only shaken, but also very nervous. Looking at this pure white skeleton, she nervously fidgeted with her hands.
"What is this? Where did you see this?" Princess Huiyun asked as gently as possible.
At the same time, she had a thousand apologies she wanted to say in her heart.
Her imagination was running wild, making it hard to breathe.
What terrible scene would make a seven or eight-year-old girl build a skeleton when making a snowman?
How would a normal person even see such a thing?
How did she know that skeletons were hollow inside? And had curves?
And leg bones? Joint by joint.
To be honest, this snowman was stunningly beautiful.
Especially the skull carved from ice, like it was carved from a huge transparent jade stone, very beautiful.
It even felt like a smiling skeleton. Although it had no skin or flesh, the bones seemed to be smiling.
Heaven knows what a pure ancient person would feel seeing such a snowman.
Even Princess Huiyun, with her unusually large heart that occasionally acted up, a mental patient who often sought extreme sports to stimulate hormone secretion and find motivation to live on, found it a bit hard to take.
She looked at the snowman, then at her great-granddaughter.
Princess Huiyun wanted to hug her granddaughter and turn away.
Seeing her seriously making toe bones, she felt like crying.
The hidden guards who had been protecting them nearby, at first just thought that their mistress seemed quite good today, actually not engaging in extreme sports, but starting to build a snowman instead.
After recognizing her relative, the activities she played became much simpler.
On a snowy day, one old and one young - no, Princess Huiyun truly didn't look old - a not-old goddess and a not-young little girl building a snowman together, this scene was quite beautiful.
But when they saw the final result, the guards in the trees almost fell off.
What on earth was this?
How could such white snow be used to build something so terrifying?
Humans naturally feel fear towards bodies of their own kind and similar things.
Like bird-faced humans, fish-faced humans...
It's set in human genetic sequences to fear things with similar genes even more.
Throw a monster at us and we can all work together to kill it, maybe even try to barbecue it.
But throw a monster with a human face at us, and we can't do that, there would be a psychological barrier.
The princess looked at this snow-white, crystal-clear skeleton, watching her granddaughter adding toe bones, and couldn't help but ask: "Mianmian, where have you seen these things?"
Jiang Mianmian answered promptly: "In a dream."
Princess Huiyun carefully continued to ask: "What kind of dream?"
Mianmian sighed.
Seeing this little one speak halfway and sigh like an old man, Princess Huiyun inexplicably felt her hands itch.
Mianmian said: "Wait, Grandma, let me finish these toe bones, then I'll tell you slowly, the dream was long."
Princess Huiyun looked up at the sky, still wanting to pick up this little one, knead her, roll her into a ball, and kick her out.
After finishing the snowman.
Perfect.
Mianmian looked at her own work, it was so beautiful, if she had a phone, she would definitely post it on social media.
She turned to look at Princess Grandma, who seemed to be grinding her teeth, such a strange little action.
Princess Grandma should still have her real teeth at this age, right? If she asked her... Mianmian silently thought, better not ask, feeling like she might get beaten if she did.
Princess Huiyun looked at the little one's expression, not knowing what she was thinking, inexplicably feeling like it's better not to ask, probably would not be able to resist hitting her if she did, feeling like she was thinking about some dangerous things.
After building the snowman, they went back inside. The princess felt the little one's hands, indeed they were ice-cold and red. She first let her soak them in warm water before handing her a hot water bottle.
Because when people are too cold, suddenly touching something very hot can cause burns without them realizing.
It needs to be gradual.
As the princess did these things, she suddenly realized that she could also be so attentive in taking care of someone.
After playing in the snow, they went inside to change into warm, soft clothes, sat on tatami-like mats with floor heating, drank tea and ate snacks. Mianmian began to tell Princess Grandma about that dream.
"This was actually a dream my brother had. Brother told Father, and I overheard it, then I dreamed about it too. But this dream is very scary, Grandma, are you ready to hear it?"
Mianmian sat up straight, looking seriously at Princess Huiyun in front of her.
As an ancient princess who loved those suicidal extreme sports like rock climbing, bungee jumping, and diving, the princess must have some mental issues to some extent.
To put it bluntly, it's mental illness; to put it nicely, it's princess syndrome.
Alas, she really is a princess, really has an illness.
Illnesses need medicine.
Some medicines are taken orally, some through the ears, some through the heart.
