Zhao Hao did not refuse. At this time, what was the difference between men and women? Surviving was the most important thing.

Besides, this woman's face looks like a ghost and she's dressed like a bear. There's no need to avoid suspicion.

So he and the woman huddled together in the fox fur cloak, waiting for the sweat to subside, and said, "Now that we have shelter, we must find a way to make a fire, so that we will not be afraid even if we spend the night in the mountains tonight."

"Yes." The woman nodded. She was naturally the unlucky Lanling County Lord Li Mingyue.

Although Li Mingyue is usually strong, she is still a little girl. Naturally, she feels dependent on Zhao Hao, who saves and helps her like an older brother.

"Do you have a light on you?" Zhao Hao searched his whole body, but couldn't find any tool that could start a fire. This was not surprising, because Mr. Zhao was usually clean-handed, and all those sundries like cow gall and horse treasures were on Gao Wu. "Oh, in northern dialect it's called a candle."

Li Mingyue shook her head. Zhao Hao didn't even carry any belongings with him, so she, a county lady, would definitely not carry anything.

"Okay, I'll think of a way..." Zhao Hao got up and walked around for a while, then came back with a piece of ice.

This is what he found under the snow. When the snow melts under the sun, it will seep into the snow surface and freeze into ice, which is also an important cause of avalanches.

"Aren't you going to make a fire?" Li Mingyue asked in confusion, "What are you going to do with the ice?"

"The Huainanzi Wanbi Shu says: 'Cut the ice into a round shape, hold it towards the sun, and use moxa to support its shadow, then fire will be born.'" Zhao Hao didn't have time to waste time talking to her, so he quoted a sentence.

This was a book he read in order to teach his apprentices, and talking about it now seemed quite academic.

Sure enough, Li Mingyue listened to him quoting from classics. Although she didn't understand, she felt it was impressive, so she said no more.

Zhao Hao used a branch to draw the shape of a convex lens on the ground, and after explaining it briefly, he asked Li Mingyue to follow suit and grind the ice into the largest mirror possible, and then went to look for firewood.

When he came back with firewood, he saw that Li Mingyue had already made a magnifying glass the size of a pancake and was polishing the surface with a piece of horsehide.

The horsehide was naturally taken from the skis.

Seeing Zhao Hao coming back, Li Mingyue held up the ice lens like a treasure and said, "Take a look and see if it's like this."

Zhao Hao was quite surprised and gave a thumbs up, saying, "I didn't expect you to be so good at it."

"How difficult is this?" Li Mingyue said as she sharpened the knife more vigorously: "I'm an expert at sharpening knives."

"You should be a young lady, right? How can you do that kind of rough work?" Zhao Hao glanced at Li Mingyue curiously. Without looking at her face, just by looking at her luxurious fire fox fur cloak and the pair of exquisite calfskin boots with cloud pattern embroidery on her feet, he knew that she must have an extraordinary background.

If Li Mingyue were to follow her usual temper, she would definitely sneer and ask, "What's wrong with the young lady? Can't the young lady sharpen her knife?"

But today, for some unknown reason, she lowered her head and whispered, "I was just bragging. I don't know how to sharpen knives. I've only seen my brother do it..."

After saying that, Li Mingyue shyly rubbed the lens with all her strength. Zhao Hao quickly snatched it from her and said, "That's enough. Too much is as bad as too little."

Then he broke the firewood he had picked up into small pieces and piled them up, then laid straw on top. Finally, he tore up his cotton jacket and pulled out the cotton wool to use as kindling.

He habitually wanted to explain that the flash point of cotton wool was below 28 degrees, making it flammable.

But thinking that his two disciples were not around, he had to shut up.

After completing the preparations, Zhao Hao raised the mirror, pointed it at the sun in the sky, and adjusted the focus on the cotton wool.

The sun was already setting at this time, and to be honest, Zhao Hao had no idea whether he could light a fire.

But if people can use this method to start a fire in Antarctica, then there's no reason why the sunlight here should be weaker than in Antarctica, right?

The two held their breath and waited for the moment to witness the miracle. Li Mingyue was still staring at the light spot ignorantly, and only looked away when she was dazzled by it.

Suddenly, a wisp of green smoke rose from the cotton ball...

Zhao Hao thought to himself, this guy is really a hot-tempered guy who gets mad at any time. He didn't dare to neglect it, and quickly handed the lens to Li Mingyue, asking her to keep the focus on the lens. He stretched his neck and blew gently, while carefully holding up the ball of cotton wool.

Finally, the smoke became thicker and thicker, and the flames started to rise!

Li Mingyue dared not breathe, and saw Zhao Hao holding the precious flame and lighting the thatch, and finally the thatch ignited the thin branches, and the fire was completely burning. She cheered and said:

“You’re awesome!”

Zhao Hao coughed twice and thought to himself that if he had not lived in Caijia Lane, he would not be able to light these damp firewood even if he had a magnifying glass.

As the saying goes, suffering is the best teacher, but the prerequisite is that you have to overcome it first.

However, there is also a benefit to having damp firewood. It will produce thick smoke, making it easier for people to find them.

~~

In the wild, fire is warmth, hope, and a sense of security.

Although there were still aftershocks afterwards, Zhao Hao and Li Mingyue were not so panicked anymore.

"We need to be prepared to spend the night." Zhao Hao looked at the simple shelter formed by the snow wall and stone wall, and said with some regret: "If only I had a knife, I could cut some bushes and branches to add a roof to it, which would make it much more comfortable at night."

Li Mingyue hesitated for a moment, then bent down and pulled out a gleaming dagger from his boots...

"How do you have this?" Zhao Hao was shocked.

"This is what my brother insisted I bring..." Li Mingyue lowered her head and said in a mosquito-like voice, "He said if I meet a bad guy, I can... commit suicide."

She wanted to say self-defense, but for some reason her mouth didn't obey her and she said something else.

"Hey, your brother is really a fool. What is more important than life?" Zhao Hao shook his head and sighed. He took the dagger and looked at it. He saw that the dagger was like a pool of autumn water, and there were two words "Lanling" engraved on it.

Even an outsider like him could see that this was a rare and precious sword.

If it were someone else, they would probably ask, how can such a precious weapon be used to cut down trees?

But Zhao Hao said happily: "Great, it will be much easier to chop wood now."

He asked Li Mingyue to look after the campfire, and then he ran over and chopped randomly, and got a large bunch of forsythia and barberry branches.

The two of them worked together to tilt the branches between the snow wall and the stone wall, then covered them with thick dead leaves, and finally covered them with snow.

A small hut with a roof and walls was built.

Now most of the heat from the fire was retained, and the shack soon became warm.

Zhao Hao took off the mink hat on his head again, turned out the leather lining inside, and saw that the stitching was very fine. It was indeed a high-end product from Dashilan.

The next moment, he inserted the dagger into the hat and carefully cut off the leather lining.

Seeing Zhao Hao trying to build a stove with stones, Li Mingyue's eyes lit up and she suddenly said, "I know what you are going to do. I heard that Mongolians use leather pots to boil water!"

"Smart." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile and was about to show off.

But Li Mingyue said: "But there is no need, I have this..."

As she spoke, she pulled out a crushed silver kettle from her cloak and said, "This was for warming soup, but the soup has been spilled."

Zhao Hao rolled his eyes at her, thinking to himself, if you hadn't told me earlier, I would have wasted my Hailong hat...

ps. The eighth update, 4100 votes plus more, please vote for the monthly recommendation~~~