Chapter 304

The meal left everyone feeling extremely satisfied.

After the meal, Jiang Xuelian scrambled to wash the dishes.

In early winter, the sky darkened early; by the time Jiang Xuelian finished washing the dishes, it was already pitch black.

Yet she still didn't stop, using a broom to sweep the kitchen floor clean, and also wiped the cabinets and stove until they were spotless.

After finishing everything, she finally returned to her room to rest.

But as soon as she entered the room, she saw a set of thick, brand-new bedding already placed on the bed.

She reached out to touch it; the soft bedding felt exceptionally warm on this early winter night.

Jiang Xiaoxiao was in her room on the second floor, resting her forehead on her hand, looking through the window toward the kitchen, and couldn't help but yawn: "The kitchen light is out; Sister Xuelian has finally returned to her room to rest."

Jiang Wei was sitting at the table with a desk lamp on, flipping through the orders for the soap workshop from the last half-month. Hearing this, she didn't look up and said: "There's always a sense of unease when you first arrive; you'll get used to it slowly."

Jiang Xiaoxiao was wearing cotton pajamas, lying spread-eagled on the bed, feeling drowsy: "Mother, I remember when our family first started producing cement, didn't we buy a lot of stone charcoal? Is there any left now?"

"Why are you asking about that?" Jiang Wei finally looked up and glanced at her.

Jiang Xiaoxiao rested her chin on her hand and said: "I saw in those encyclopedias that this stone charcoal can be made into honeycomb coal, which can be used for cooking and also for heating in the winter."

In this era, coal is not a rare item; generally, only families that run kilns use it.

Normal people wouldn't even think of using coal for heating, nor would they dare to.

Incomplete combustion of coal can lead to poisoning and fainting, or even death in severe cases, so people in this era don't dare to use coal for heating; when it's cold in winter, they mostly use dry firewood.

Her mother had stockpiled quite a lot of coal when they were at the Xia family, and the cement they burned later wasn't much, so there should still be quite a bit left. When the time comes, they can make it into honeycomb coal, and they won't have to worry about this winter.

"Are you afraid that the family's firewood won't be enough?" Jiang Wei misunderstood her meaning, "At the soap workshop, there are still several large sheds of firewood stored, which is enough for us to use."

Jiang Xiaoxiao opened her mouth but didn't speak.

She wasn't afraid that her family's firewood wouldn't be enough, but was afraid for the people in the village...

She knew the original plot; a massive blizzard would descend in the coming months, and all mountain roads would be blocked by the blizzard. Not to mention going up the mountain to collect firewood, even leaving Yuhe Village would be difficult.

But this kind of thing couldn't be said openly.

She had to think of a way.

Maybe she could lie to her mother and say she had a dream that predicted the future...

Anyway, she had abilities, so manifesting any strange ability wouldn't be considered shocking.

Just as she was racking her brains to think, Jiang Wei suddenly took a crystal core out of her bosom and tossed it to Jiang Xiaoxiao on the bed.

"Here, for you."

Jiang Xiaoxiao saw the crystal core Jiang Wei tossed over, and her sleepiness instantly vanished.

This was actually a second-tier water-attribute crystal core!

"Th-where did this come from?!" Jiang Xiaoxiao said in shock.

Jiang Wei said: "I found it today when I was scaling the fish."

Looking at the crystal core flickering with a pale blue light in her palm, Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but swallow her saliva.

Good heavens, this luck is too good.

A water-attribute crystal core, and a second-tier one at that; if she absorbed it, her ability could improve by a large margin.

The fish in that vat were indeed worth raising; it wasn't in vain that she had painstakingly put ability water into the vat at the time.

"This one happens to match your ability attribute; find a time to absorb it as soon as possible." Jiang Wei said while putting away the scattered papers on the table, "Alright, I won't disturb you anymore. Rest early, and we'll talk about anything tomorrow."

After saying that, she turned off the desk lamp and left the room.

Jiang Xiaoxiao looked at the tightly closed door and then at the crystal core in her palm, rolling around on the bed happily.

Ever since she gave the last crystal core she had to Shen Que last time, she hadn't touched a crystal core for a long time.

Jiang Xiaoxiao played with it for a while; with this crystal core, her ability should be able to rise to the fourth tier, right?

Thinking of this, she didn't even care about sleeping anymore, excitedly sat up, and began to absorb the crystal core.

Time passed bit by bit; when the moon hung high in the sky, Jiang Xiaoxiao finally opened her eyes.

There was no great surprise in her eyes; instead, there was some disappointment.

She looked at the crystal core in her palm that had already turned into powder, and sighed helplessly.

The energy contained within this second-tier water-attribute crystal core was undoubtedly huge.

It was larger than all the crystal cores she had absorbed before.

But she didn't expect that the energy required for her ability to break through from the third tier to the fourth tier would be even more massive!

The energy brought to her by this second-tier water-attribute crystal core was actually just a drop in the bucket.

Jiang Xiaoxiao shook her head; it seems that the further one goes, the harder it is to improve one's ability...

She had to work harder!

Jiang Xiaoxiao didn't dwell too much on the disappointment; she turned off the light and lay on the bed to prepare for sleep.

When she gets up tomorrow, she will definitely take Jiang Xuelian to the backyard to catch more chickens and rabbits. After raising them for so long and feeding them well every day, she doesn't believe she won't be able to dig out a few more crystal cores.

A night without dreams.

Jiang Xiaoxiao, who had originally planned to get up early, slept until the sky was bright.

There was no help for it; winter mornings are just too hard to get up for.

It wasn't until Jiang Xuelian came to knock on the door to call her for breakfast that Jiang Xiaoxiao crawled out of the warm quilt.

As soon as she left the quilt, she shivered from the cold and almost crawled back in.

Hiss, why did the weather suddenly become so cold?

Jiang Xiaoxiao poked her head out to look outside the window; the sky was actually overcast, as if it were about to rain.

If it rains, how cold will the weather get?

She must quickly persuade her mother about making honeycomb coal.

Jiang Xiaoxiao didn't dare to dawdle anymore, hurriedly got out of bed to get dressed, and even put on a thick coat before going out.

When she arrived at the kitchen, she found that even Jiang Wei, who usually wore thin clothes, had put on a thick coat.

Jiang Xuelian was warming herself by the stove, saying in a low voice: "It must have rained a little last night; I noticed the ground was a bit wet when I got up this morning."

"Wear something thicker these next few days; make sure not to catch a cold." Jiang Wei instructed.

Jiang Xiaoxiao nodded repeatedly, and while finishing the millet porridge in her hand, she prepared to speak: "Mother, I had a dream last night, it was..."

"We'll talk about your dream later; come with me to the soap workshop first." Jiang Wei stuffed a peeled egg into her mouth.

"Alright..." Jiang Xiaoxiao bit into the hot egg, and could only swallow the matter of the upcoming massive blizzard back into her stomach.

After instructing Jiang Xuelian to stay and watch the house, Jiang Wei took Jiang Xiaoxiao to the soap workshop.

On the way there, Jiang Wei specifically used her spiritual power to probe Jiang Xiaoxiao's body and said: "What's wrong? You've been absent-minded since early this morning; did you encounter difficulties while practicing your ability last night?"