「Outside the Palace, Wanyue Nunnery」
The several snowfalls of the twelfth lunar month made the nunnery on the mountainside extremely cold. Before, one could still offer incense every day, chant the scriptures, and copy the sutras. Now, with the cold weather and no Ground Dragon heating in the nunnery, it was so cold that one could hardly sit still. Even if all the charcoal basins were lit, they were completely ineffective. Therefore, the Empress simply stopped leaving her room, just reclining on the bed and reading the scriptures.
That morning, the weather was gloomy, with cold wind howling outside the window. Because many charcoal basins had been lit the night before, they dared not shut the windows tightly, so the room was equally cold. The Empress really did not want to get out of bed, so she had Yu Lan bring water to the bedside to attend to her washing. But the steaming hot water had already turned tepid by the time it was carried from the front to the room.
