The purer the silver, the softer it is.

Li Mingyue's kettle was naturally made of silver of the highest purity. Zhao Hao easily restored the deflated kettle body with his bare hands.

Zhao Hao found some ice to make fire, and there were still a lot of scraps left.

He thought that ice was cleaner than snow, so he filled the kettle with ice and threw it on the stone stove. Soon steam began to rise.

Zhao Hao took out some berries from his sleeve pocket like a magic trick and threw them in. He smiled at Li Mingyue and said, "No matter how difficult life is, you have to drink some tea."

Li Mingyue also smiled happily and said, "I often drink fruit tea at home."

"Don't expect too much." Zhao Hao smiled and gave her a shot of prevention. He picked the berries with confidence after seeing the traces of birds eating them, but they tasted sour and only slightly sweet, so they could only be used to make tea and could not be eaten directly.

The two of them waited for the water to boil. Zhao Hao poured a cup of water into her cup lid, and he used the kettle directly.

Li Mingyue held the cup lid, blew away the hot steam, took a sip, and praised: "It's sour and a little sweet. It tastes really good..."

"Well, people are particularly prone to being content at times like this." Zhao Hao also sipped the fruit tea and looked at the starry sky outside. His heart, which had been in a knot, finally regained its peace.

After drinking the tea, he felt his body completely warmed up, and then he noticed that Li Mingyue was frowning.

"Why, your feet still hurt?" Zhao Hao asked.

"Yeah." Li Mingyue nodded and said softly, "It was fine before, but after taking a break, it hurts even more."

"You need to apply ice, otherwise you will be in pain at night." Zhao Hao said, putting the remaining ice cubes into the leather lining he had cut earlier, and said to Li Mingyue: "Take off your boots."

Li Mingyue nodded and reached out to take off her boots, but she was wearing long boots and her feet were swollen, so it hurt a lot when she exerted force, and she couldn't take them off.

She had no choice but to look at Zhao Hao for help. Zhao Hao picked up a dagger and wanted to cut open her boots.

Li Mingyue shook her head to stop him, "What if I have to go down the mountain by myself tomorrow?"

"What should we do then?" Zhao Hao thought about it and put away the dagger.

"Help me take it off..." Li Mingyue said casually, but after she finished speaking, she suddenly felt her face burning for no reason.

The young county lady didn't know why, but she felt embarrassed to tell Zhao Hao things that she could say openly at other times.

Fortunately, I applied a thick layer of beeswax on my face to avoid making a fool of myself.

"Well, okay." Zhao Hao sighed helplessly, thinking to himself, how much money did I owe you in my previous life? Not only did I take the trouble to carry you up the mountain, but I also had to take off your stinky boots.

But I have already performed 72 bows, so this little shiver won’t make any difference.

He then held the heel of Li Mingyue's boots with one hand and the tip of her boots with the other. Li Mingyue cooperated by gritting her teeth and pulling her legs back, finally taking the boots off her feet.

When he took off her stockings, he saw that her ankle had swollen like a bun. Zhao Hao didn't care about being disgusted and quickly picked up the ice pack and gently placed it on Li Mingyue's swollen ankle.

"Hiss..." Li Mingyue gasped and tried to pull her legs back, but Zhao Hao held her down. After a while, she gasped for air and complained, "It hurts so much..."

"Bear with it, it won't hurt in a while." Zhao Hao comforted her, "Then you will feel very comfortable."

"Yeah." Li Mingyue nodded obediently. She was now very convinced by Zhao Hao.

~~

In order to divert Li Mingyue's attention, Zhao Hao started a conversation with her and said, "When the earthquake happened, I seemed to hear people say that there was another earthquake... Is it possible that earthquakes often occur in the capital?"

“I can’t say it happens often, but a scary one happens every one or two years, and there are more frequent slight shakings.” Li Mingyue replied.

"When did it start?" Zhao Hao's heart moved and he remembered something.

"It's been like this since I can remember." Li Mingyue thought for a moment and said, "I heard from my elders that it seemed to be after the Hua County earthquake that year."

Zhao Hao thought to himself, yes.

The culprit was the great earthquake in Guanzhong in December of the 34th year of Jiajing.

The epicenter of the earthquake was in Hua County, Shaanxi Province, but it affected nearly 100 counties, killing more than 500,000 people, and even the capital city felt the tremors.

And from then on, the entire north entered a period of high earthquake incidence, and it was not until the fourth year of Longqing that the aftershocks gradually subsided.

But who could have predicted such an aftershock that came so suddenly?

Thinking that there would be another earthquake in Beijing next spring, Zhao Hao, who always put safety first, immediately made up his mind to return to Jiangnan as soon as his father finished the exam, no matter what the result was.

Wait until the fourth year of Longqing before coming back...

Seeing that he didn't say anything for a while, Li Mingyue had to take the initiative to ask: "Seeing that you are so surprised, you should not be from the north."

Although the Ming Dynasty moved its capital 160 to 170 years ago, the imperial court and the upper class still used Nanjing's Jianghuai Mandarin. Therefore, it was not easy to distinguish whether someone was from Nanjing or Beijing based on their accent.

"I'm from Huizhou and grew up in Nanjing," Zhao Hao replied.

"Nanjing, it's super fun..." Li Mingyue perked up when she heard that, but then she lowered her head shyly and said, "I heard from my elders that Nanjing was known as a beautiful place in ancient times. Its clothing, cultural relics, and literary talent are the best in the country. I have always longed for it, but I can't go there."

In such a hurry, he actually memorized the article fluently, which he could not memorize at all. If the lecturer of the Princess's Mansion heard it, he would be so angry that he would die.

"There will be opportunities in the future." Zhao Hao smiled and said, "As far as living is concerned, it is indeed much better than Beijing."

"Tell me about it quickly..." Li Mingyue hurriedly shook his arm, then took her hand back and said politely, "I'm all ears."

Zhao Hao asked with concern: "Are you having a fever? Why do you feel abnormal?"

Li Mingyue's heart tightened for some reason when she heard this. She said with a pitiful look, "I don't have a fever, but it hurts so much that I'm throbbing, so please tell me quickly."

"Okay." Zhao Hao felt that her description was very apt, so he did not doubt it and told Li Mingyue vividly about the customs of Jinling. He had read many miscellaneous books and actually lived in Jinling for a year, so his description was naturally vivid, which made people yearn for it.

At least what Zhao Hao said made me feel a little homesick. I couldn't help but secretly complain that this young master really didn't consider himself an outsider.

But Li Mingyue didn't feel anything.

She was not a lady who had never left the house and had never seen the world. She went to Nanjing almost once a year, so she almost let the cat out of the bag.

But she still listened with great interest. When Zhao Hao finished speaking, she sighed, "When it's the coldest in Nanjing, you don't even need to wear mink. It's much warmer than Beijing."

"The further south you go, the hotter it gets," said Zhao Hao, who likes to teach others. "When we got to Lingnan, people still wear thin clothes. When we got to Hainan... that is, places like Qiongzhou and Danzhou, it's even hotter than our summer, and the men are all shirtless."

"What about further south?" Li Mingyue was really interested now and asked, "I heard that there is Luzon further south of Tianya Haijiao... Well, I also heard it from my eldest brother."

"Your elder brother knows a lot." Zhao Hao couldn't help but praise him. "It gets hotter the further south you go. At the hottest equator, even people get tanned."

"Kunlun slave?" Li Mingyue asked curiously.

"Darker than Kunlun slaves..." Zhao Hao laughed.

"What is that 'equator'? Is it the end of the world?" Li Mingyue asked curiously.

"No." Zhao Hao shook his head and said, "If you insist, the equator can only be regarded as the center line of the world..."

Li Mingyue then asked, what is south of the center line?

Zhao Hao told her about the Koala Continent where kangaroos and ostriches run all over the ground, and the Antarctic covered with ice and snow...

He was just throwing out a bag and waiting for her to pick up the conversation, but suddenly he felt his shoulder sink. It turned out that Li Mingyue had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

ps. Ninth update, 4200 votes plus more, please give me monthly votes and recommendation votes~~~