In the crisp autumn air, the ancient city, bathed in sunshine, is not hot; in fact, it is quite cool.

Ye Zhao has just hired a few new employees in the past two days, and the old employees at both Siji and Lvye have become much more relaxed.

In addition, with the arrival of Jiang's employees in the past two days, the renovation of Shangyang Ancient City has been officially put on the agenda. Tourists in the city have almost disappeared for a while, and all that has come is the construction team. Everyone has become idle for a while, which has also given a few new employees time to get familiar with the business.

Yang Juan was explaining the job to the new employees at the counter, while Ye Zhao was leaning back in a rocking chair, idly flipping through a book. Just as she was getting a little bored, Sister Li came over.

"Zhaozhao!"

Hearing the sound, Ye Zhao looked up and saw Sister Li, so she quickly sat up: "Sister Li!"

Sister Li was standing at the door, and she waved to her, saying, "I'm planning to go to the mountains this afternoon, do you want to come along?"

"Okay! I'll go with you. When do we leave?"

"I'll be waiting for you at three o'clock in the afternoon on the north side of the city."

"Okay."

Ye Zhao agreed without hesitation. It just so happened that she was a little bored today and hadn't been to the mountains for a long time. She was sure to have a good harvest this season.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Ye Zhao entrusted Yuanbao to Yang Juan and Xiao Lin, took a small basket, and followed Sister Li to the mountains north of the ancient city.

There is only one towering mountain to the north of the ancient city, and the rest are just small hills. Ye Zhao had come here several times with Sister Li before. In the spring, they picked mushrooms and dug wild vegetables. In the summer, they dug up some green plants. Even in the winter, there are many good things in the mountains.

The two chatted as they made their way into the mountains, each carrying a sickle in hand, ready to cut through any thorns or brambles they encountered along the way.

The changing seasons are more noticeable in the mountains. Even when Ye Zhao was still at the foot of the mountain, she could see that many of the leaves on the trees had turned yellow. As she walked further in, she could feel the desolation of autumn even more.

The path was covered with withered yellow leaves, rustling as they walked. The two chatted as they made their way up the mountain.

Sister Li pointed to a certain direction on the mountain and said to Ye Zhao, "There are two persimmon trees over there. I wanted to pick some when I came a couple of days ago, but I couldn't carry them then."

Ye Zhao looked in the direction she was pointing with a look of surprise: "Really? Perfect, I'll pick some to make persimmon cakes. Yuanbao loves them."

Sister Li smiled and led the way: "Yes, my two kids love to eat them too. There's another patch of chestnuts a little further up, but I don't know if anyone has picked them yet."

Ye Zhao glanced at the sky and smiled, "Shall we go take a look? The weather's nice today, so we don't have to worry about going too far."

"Alright, let's go up and take a look. There are plenty of wild foods in the mountains in autumn, all of them are naturally grown."

The two chatted as they walked uphill, and before they knew it, they had reached the depths of the mountains, where there was indeed a small patch of chestnut trees.

The plump, round chestnuts had already burst open and rolled onto the ground. They didn't even need to be shelled. Ye Zhao put her small basket aside and, together with Sister Li, focused on picking up the chestnuts.

As the two were picking them up, they discovered two more hickory trees not far away, with many hickory nuts lying on the ground beneath them.

The two became increasingly excited as they picked up the items, completely unaware that a thick, dark cloud was gradually approaching from the horizon.

The light in the forest was already dim, and the two of them didn't even notice the dark clouds approaching until Ye Zhao felt the sky getting darker and darker. But it was only a little past five in the afternoon, and it was usually still bright at this time.

"Sister Li! The sky looks a bit off, is it going to rain?" Ye Zhao looked up at the sky, which was mostly obscured by trees.

Sister Li looked up and said, "Let's pick up a little more and then we'll leave. It'll probably rain for a while longer. It was sunny when we came up here!"

Ye Zhao squatted down beside him to pick up the pieces and said, "What if it rains heavily? Should we go back first?"

Seeing her insistence, Sister Li looked up at the sky again before saying, "Alright then, let's go back first and come back another day when we have time."

"Okay!"

Then the two of them carried their small baskets on their backs and walked down the mountain along the path they had come from.

As darkness fell and the forest grew darker, Ye Zhao, though she had been here several times before, couldn't help but feel a little scared as the light grew dimmer.

Especially now, with a storm brewing and strong winds blowing, the wind is howling through the forest, and the bamboo grove below is crackling and popping like the tiles on the roof of an old building, a very eerie sound.

The two walked hurriedly, but the dim light made their progress somewhat slow.

Ye Zhao followed behind Sister Li down the mountain. Just then, Yang Juan called her, saying that it was going to rain heavily and that she should go back quickly. The signal was bad in the mountains, so Ye Zhao could only hear intermittently, but her pace quickened unconsciously.

She was wearing a tracksuit and hiking boots today, which made walking relatively easy, but it was a bit of a hassle for Sister Li.

Sister Li walked ahead, not too slow. As she walked, she frowned and said, "I didn't expect it to rain today. I forgot to change into comfortable shoes before I went out. These shoes are so tiring to walk in."

It wasn't just her feet that were tired; judging from her posture, Ye Zhao figured her feet were probably blistered. She quickly said, "Don't rush, we've already walked so far. Slow down, it's just a little rain, it'll be fine..."

But she still had her doubts about the rain. The two of them had only walked halfway when it started to rain. At first, it was just a light drizzle, and they were able to keep walking. But two minutes later, the drizzle turned into a downpour, and in just a few minutes, they were both soaked to the bone.

Ye Zhao wanted to see if there was anywhere to take shelter from the rain, but the vegetation around was not as lush as on the mountain, so there was no way to find shelter. The two of them had no choice but to walk down the mountain in the pouring rain.

The heavy rain washed over the mountain path, making it muddy and slippery, requiring extreme caution to walk on.

Ye Zhao was soaked to the bone, and the heavy rain made it hard for her to open her eyes. She took careful steps, but unexpectedly, Sister Li in front of her slipped and fell backward, taking Ye Zhao down with her on the mountain path. On the slippery slope, the two of them tumbled down one after the other.

At the same time, Jiang Che led Mu Xu and the others into the green field in a hurry. They walked very fast, but they inevitably got a little wet.

Yang Juan hurriedly asked someone to bring them dry towels. Jiang Che glanced around and asked, "Where are Ye Zhao and Aze?"

Yang Juan looked anxiously at the heavy rain and said, "Aze is still sleeping upstairs, and Sister Zhaozhao went to Beishan and hasn't come back yet. I wonder where she is right now."

Jiang Che glanced at the sky and frowned, "Didn't you send someone to pick you up?"

Yang Juan hurriedly replied, "Xiao Lin just left, and I couldn't get a signal when I called Sister Zhao Zhao..."

Jiang Che's expression darkened as he watched the heavy rain. Inside the house, several people were wiping clothes and drying their hair, coming and going.

As Yang Juan watched the rain intensify instead of letting up, she grew increasingly anxious, especially since she couldn't get through to Ye Zhao on the phone.

Just then, her phone rang.

"Hello? Did you answer?" Her tone was filled with anxiety, and Jiang Che turned to look at her upon hearing this.

"What? They haven't come down the mountain yet?"