"Oh, she was a noble lady a few days ago, and now she's been promoted to concubine. Not bad, not bad. When will she become the queen?"

"There's still a long way to go, work hard."

He Ruixue promised him, "Treat me as your boss, be concerned about my needs, don't wait for me to ask for things, take the initiative to learn, and improve your business capabilities in all aspects. It will be beneficial to you in the future.

Your performance these past few days has been good, but it’s not enough. Remember to go back and summarize… Hey, are you listening?”

She pinched Jiang Yanxu's nose and found that he was pretending to be asleep, but she was too lazy to expose him.

"It just so happens that you coaxed me yesterday and I coax you today. We take turns. It's fair."

After saying that, she moved up and rested her head under his shoulder.

Listening to his steady breathing, I gradually felt sleepy and soon fell asleep.

After staying in the cave for another day and night, He Ruixue felt that she could perfectly integrate into the monkey group in the mountains and live a happy life.

These days, when they were thirsty, they would go to the mountain spring to drink some water. When they were hungry, they would go down to pick some wild fruits and chestnuts, and dig some yam sticks, which they would cook to fill their stomachs.

When we returned to the Taoist temple, the fruit leather that had been drying in the sun for two days was completely cured.

Jiang Yanxu took a knife and cut it into rectangular pieces, then rolled it up and handed it to He Ruixue.

She tasted it and found it to be more chewy than hawthorn cake. Because it was dried, the sweetness inside was more obvious, but the sour taste of hawthorn still dominated.

She nodded repeatedly and said, "Not bad, not bad. It tastes better than what we sell in stores." After all, they were reluctant to spend too much on the ingredients.

"Let's pick some hawthorns and make more later. The kids at home will definitely love it."

Hawthorn cake should be eaten promptly, but fruit leather can be preserved for a long time if it is wrapped in oil paper and moisture-proof measures are taken. This is also a snack that they rarely eat.

Jiang Yanxu brought enough sugar, and when he made it the second time, he improved the recipe and added a pinch of salt.

Facing He Ruixue's puzzled look, he said, "I heard the chef say that if you want it to be sweet, add some salt. I didn't think of it last time, so it should taste better this time."

Facts proved that he was right. Although the amount of sugar used was about the same, the new hawthorn cake was much sweeter than before.

He Ruixue knew nothing about cooking and originally thought that the taste was strange because it was neither salty nor sweet.

When I put it in my mouth, I found that the saltiness had been almost diluted, and instead the sweetness was completely stimulated, hitting the tip of my tongue along with the sourness.

In addition, he had sieved it twice this time, so there was almost no residue and the taste was even finer. He Ruixue was very supportive, "You are striving for perfection and making continuous progress. Compared to you, I seem to know nothing."

Unexpectedly, Jiang Yanxu imitated her tone, "If you don't know how to do it, then learn it. That's what you said the day before yesterday. You should take the initiative to learn and constantly acquire new skills. Don't complain about the hard work. No one is born knowing how to do it."

Wow, no wonder he had been holding it in for two days, it turned out he was waiting for her here.

Both of them were holding a weapon called chicken soup, and kept forcing it into each other's mouths.

Jiang Yanxu was ultimately no match for her, a person from later generations who was well versed in PUA rhetoric. Unfortunately, he was defeated and had to focus on washing the pot, almost causing the bottom of the pot to burst.

He Ruixue helped him clean the stove and coaxed him back to normal with just a few words.

On the last day, Jiang Yanxu took He Ruixue in another direction, crossed three mountains and took her to soak in the hot springs.

There was a simple thatched shed next to the hot spring, which he had built earlier, but it was now half collapsed.

Perhaps because the hot spring is too small, the smell of sulfur is not strong.

After He Ruixue took the bath, she felt that the fatigue of the past few days was swept away. Her legs and feet, which were already sore from the long journey, felt like they had been massaged. The pain didn't completely disappear, but it was relieved by a lot.

However, it is not a good idea to take a hot spring bath on a hot day. The more He Ruixue bathed, the more difficult it became for her to breathe. She was being sunbathed on top and boiled on the bottom, just like a big crab trapped in a steamer.

She got up after soaking for less than ten minutes, changed her clothes, and called Jiang Yanxu, who had been performing his guard duty with his back to the hot spring, "I'm ready now. Do you want to go take a dip?"

"Okay, wait for me five minutes, I'll wash up and come back."

After taking cold showers for several days, it’s nice to take a hot shower.

After leaving the hot spring, they walked down. There happened to be a village at the foot of the mountain. The people were quite surprised to see them coming down from the mountain.

After all, even if young people these days have nothing to do, they rarely go to the mountains and stay for a few days like them.

For the sake of reputation, they claimed to be a couple who had just visited relatives in the mountains and ended up coming down from another road.

The villagers didn't find it strange. In the past, during wars, many people fled to the mountains for refuge, and rarely came down since then. Basically, three or five families lived together and took care of each other.

"Are you going back?"

"Yes, ma'am, if your village has a tractor or a bullock cart, we will pay for it."

"We don't have a tractor in this little place. Even if we could get one, we wouldn't know how to drive it. Our village accountant needs to go to the city to do some shopping, so we can give you a ride. It's a simple matter and it doesn't cost any money."

"Okay, thank you then."

He Ruixue looked around the village. It was far from the town, and the mountain roads along the way were difficult to walk on. It was poorer than her hometown, and there were more patches on the clothes.

But every family is very hardworking. Strings of mushrooms and dried pheasants and rabbits are hung under the eaves, and various herbs are dried in the yard.

"Auntie, did you pick those from the mountains?"

"Yes, we don't have much land in our village. It's not enough to just grow food. We have to live in the mountains."

"Are you sending these to the supply and marketing cooperative?"

"Yeah, where else can they send it? There's a lot of trouble out there, and the controls are strict. If you get caught, your money and belongings will be confiscated. Alas, there was a market there for a while in the early days, but the policies really change every day."

She coughed and changed the subject, "Life is not easy in the countryside right now. I'm just waiting for my husband to come back with a big shipment before winter.

I'll use the money from selling them to send my children to school next year. They're already seven or eight years old and can't even read. They're destined to suffer in the future."

He Ruixue saw many rare medicinal herbs that Jiang Yanxu had explained to her.

These mountain people are all familiar with the mountain trails. What seems like a dangerous cliff to her might be child's play for them, and they have climbed up and down them many times.

An idea struck her, and she said, "Auntie, why don't you sell it to me instead of the supply and marketing cooperative?"

The other party was a little surprised. "Sell it to you? Miss, are you in purchasing?"

"I could be the one."

The other party immediately understood that in a remote village, as long as they didn't say anything, who could care how they traded?

After Sun Laiyi's several "generous donations", He Ruixue was not short of money at all. In addition to the salary she received in the past few months, even if she paid back the money borrowed from her second sister a few days ago, she still had several hundred yuan in her hands.