"Don't listen to those people's nonsense! Actually, most of the food in the university cafeteria is pretty good, especially at our school. There are twenty or thirty kinds of vegetarian and meat dishes for lunch and dinner alone. As long as you have money in your card, you can order whatever you want!"
"If you don't like rice, there are spicy hot pot, glutinous rice balls, and dumplings on the first floor of the cafeteria. You can also bring your own instant noodles and have the auntie cook them for you. You'll have to pay a little extra for adding eggs or sausages. It's super convenient!"
"On the second floor, there are also local specialties from all over the country, a halal canteen for ethnic minority students, individual hot pots, Huainan beef soup, Xi'an mutton stew, Lanzhou ramen, Shaxian snacks, as well as cafes, steakhouses, dessert shops, milk tea shops... whatever you want to eat, you can find it."
“No wonder everyone wants to go to university…” Jiang Yu couldn’t help but yearn for it. After a while, she asked Jiang Xiaoman, “Do you know how to make mala tang? I ate it once in the county town with Shan Yan before, and it was so delicious! I heard that you have to pay money to buy the secret recipe for mala tang. I wonder how much it costs.”
"Don't listen to their nonsense! Apart from those chain stores, every other mala tang restaurant has its own unique flavor. Besides, there are ready-made mala tang soup bases available online now. A few yuan for a packet is enough to make a big pot of soup base. Just buy some ingredients, and you can make mala tang at home." Jiang Xiaoman got excited as she spoke.
"I suddenly remembered that many students at school have never tried mala tang. I'll buy some mala tang base online and make them a meal to try!"
"Let me search, is this it?" Jiang Yu held his phone up to him. He occasionally browsed online stores, but receiving packages here was a bit troublesome. They had to send them to the courier collection point in town, and after receiving a call, he had to go down the mountain to pick them up. The store also charged a handling fee of three yuan per item. If you picked them up a few days later, you had to pay them a few more yuan. So Jiang Yu rarely bought things online, but he still knew how to search.
"Buy this one, this brand is pretty good, we used to buy it all the time in our dorm." Jiang Xiaoman picked one out for him, it had both clear broth and spicy oil, and the price wasn't too expensive, one bag was enough for the whole family.
However, after glancing at the prices, Jiang Xiaoman's eyes lit up. She then opened her phone, searched for the websites where she frequently sourced wholesale goods, compared the prices, and immediately burst out laughing—
"Brother Xiaoyu, why don't you just stop buying online? I'll organize a group purchase, buy more and share it with everyone. It'll be more than three yuan cheaper per bag than buying it individually."
"Then buy me a few more bags, I need ten! I'll transfer the money to you later..."
"Ahem~ Still playing on your phone so late? We're heading into the mountains before dawn tomorrow, hurry back and get some sleep!" Shan Yan suddenly appeared behind the two of them.
Jiang Xiaoman was startled, then belatedly realized that he had unconsciously started treating Jiang Yu as an ordinary friend of the same age again, forgetting that the other person had a lover...
Under the thoughtful gaze of the mountain rocks, Jiang Xiaoman forced a smile and ran off to wash up as if fleeing.
"Why are you scaring her? Xiaoman is still a child." Seeing him run away, Jiang Yu helplessly punched the man.
"A child? Do you want a child?" Shan Yan asked with a stern face.
"Forget it! I've had enough of raising you as my only child!" Jiang Yu pinched him twice angrily.
This man! He's practically a jealous monster!
Chapter 90
The next morning, a thick fog rolled in on the mountain, making it almost impossible to see one's hand in front of one's face.
However, Shan Yan and his friends were very happy.
To be precise, they had precisely predicted that there would be heavy fog in the next few days, which is why they went into the mountains to harvest honey.
The two biggest fears when rock climbing to harvest honey are falling off a cliff and being attacked by a swarm of bees.
In foggy weather, the bees' wings get wet with dew, making it difficult for them to fly, and their fighting ability is reduced by more than half compared to when it's sunny.
This is the perfect weather for them to harvest honey!
The only downside is that the mountain roads are very difficult to travel.
The group followed closely behind, carrying tung oil torches. After walking for a short while, Jiang Xiaoman felt that his clothes were completely soaked. The sweat inside, combined with the dew outside, was doubly damaging him. If Jiang Yu hadn't found him a pair of rain boots to change into, his shoes would probably be soaked by now.
After taking selfies for a while, Jiang Xiaoman consciously put her phone away, otherwise she would fall behind the group.
Shan Yan and his team needed to hurry up to the top of the cliff before the thick fog dissipated, secure the ropes, and slowly descend from the cliff to the precipice where the wild bees had built their nest. The entire process had to be carried out under the cover of the thick fog.
To prepare for this day, Shan Yan led his team on several trips in advance, meticulously calculating the optimal landing spot and identifying any protrusions on the cliff face that could provide leverage. During the descent, they also had to avoid sharp rocks to prevent the rope from being cut or anyone from being injured...
Therefore, they cannot afford to waste a single second on the road now.
Jiang Xiaoman used to think of himself as a pure-blooded mountain person, and walking on mountain paths was nothing special for him. However, compared with Shan Yan and other old-fashioned mountain people who actually make a living in the deep mountains and forests, not to mention Shan Yan, even Jiang Yu walks faster than him!
After finally reaching their destination with the help of everyone, Jiang Xiaoman looked up and saw the scene before her, her mouth involuntarily opening wide.
This is a cliff hidden in an old forest. On the almost vertical 90-degree cliff, about ten meters down from the top of the cliff, there is a natural break. Over the years, weathering has created a recessed cave. The depth of the cave is unknown. All you can see is that the edge of the cliff is densely covered with wild beehives!
"This is amazing! How did you find such a hidden place?" Jiang Xiaoman murmured.
To be honest, there was a stretch of road that was truly a primeval forest. With each step, you could almost hear the sticky sound of rotting leaves deep in the jungle. It was completely silent, and Jiang Xiaoman could even hear his own heartbeat. If he were alone, he would never have dared to walk into such an old forest.
"Otherwise, what do you think we'd be doing running into the forest all day long? Aren't we afraid of dying?" A young man named Ah Hu, who was traveling with us, said excitedly. "My dad and I found this when we went into the mountains to look for medicinal herbs. Brother Yan said that once this batch of rock honey is sold, he'll give me an extra 500 yuan!"
"We really need to reward them; it's so hard to find someone like that," Jiang Xiaoman sighed as she took out the gimbal and the phone used for filming.
Below the cliff, Shan Yan and a few of his underlings had already started changing their gear and preparing to climb the mountain. They were going to find another route to climb to the top of the cliff from a slightly gentler area, and then drive stakes and ropes down to descend to the precipice where the beehive was located. What followed would be a series of days of wits and courage against the wild bees.
That's right. On the way here, Jiang Xiaoman had already heard from Jiang Yu that they would be staying in the mountains for a few days until they had harvested all the rock honey.
It was only then that Jiang Xiaoman understood why they had brought so many people with them for honey gathering—
Shan Yan led several men with long, strong arms who were skilled at rock climbing to be in charge of the cliff work.
The other three people were responsible for holding a rope at the bottom of the rock face while continuously receiving plastic safety barrels filled with rock honey that were lowered down from above.
The other two are responsible for constantly chopping down wet firewood, bundling it into stacks, and transporting it up using ropes to ensure that the thick smoke from the burning wet firewood doesn't stop during the honey harvesting process, and to drive away wild bees for their honey-harvesting companions as much as possible.
One partner works with Jiang Yu, responsible for setting up outdoor tents, preparing daily meals, and ensuring campsite security, among other things.
Large wild beehives like these are very rare. Once the thick smoke rises, other honey gatherers nearby will know that there is rock honey here. So once the harvesting begins, the entire area must be harvested, otherwise someone else will find it and it will be theirs.
"Little Fish, you guys go ahead and get busy. What do you want for lunch? Leave the cooking to me." After Jiang Xiaoman finished shooting the footage she wanted, she realized she would be relying on a power bank to keep going for the next few days, so she quickly put her phone away and turned it off. She then went over to help Jiang Yu and the others.
"The humidity is high in the mountains, so we can't go without ginger soup and brown sugar water every day. This is a special pot for making soup. Go and make a pot of brown sugar ginger water. At noon, we'll gather some charcoal over the fire and toast these flatbreads. We brought pickled bamboo shoots, pickled chili peppers, and stir-fried cured meat. We'll just put them in the flatbreads then."
Jiang Yu sorted and packed all the food they brought, putting the amount each person would eat in a day into one bag. This would prevent the food from rotting or getting infested with insects if it wasn't eaten in time after opening the bag.
Jiang Xiaoman rummaged through the dry rations they had brought and sighed inwardly. He finally understood why this rock honey sold for over a hundred yuan per kilogram.
If it were him, risking his life to climb up a cliff, he would have to survive in the deep forest for several days, constantly on guard against wild beasts and snakes...
Let alone over 100 yuan per kilogram, he wouldn't sell it even for 500 yuan per kilogram!
For someone as small as him to be able to climb such a high cliff with his bare hands, that's already an honor for his family, isn't it?
That's enough for his dad to brag about for ten years!
It's a pity his equipment wasn't good enough. Otherwise, if he had a drone or one of those miniature cameras that can be clipped to his body, he might have been able to film Shan Yan and the others climbing the rocks by hand. That would have made the trip worthwhile.
At this moment, Jiang Xiaoman had no idea that the scene that would soon make him gain nearly a million followers overnight was about to appear before those millions of fans…
With Jiang Xiaoman joining them, the three people left behind at the bottom of the cliff had an easier time. Jiang Xiaoman took over the cooking and soup-making work, while Jiang Yu took a machete and followed along to chop wet firewood. They also dragged back a few logs as thick as their calves and set up two simple triangular tents on the now-empty campsite.
This tent isn't one of those military tents you buy online. It's just a frame made of a few pieces of wood laid out in a crisscross pattern, covered with a thick tarpaulin, and then another waterproof tarpaulin laid on the ground.
Jiang Yu was clearly someone who knew how to enjoy life. He even used the wet firewood he had cut to build a makeshift toilet that was taller than a person. You could just dig a hole in the ground to use the toilet, and after you were done, you didn't need to flush it with water. You could just shovel some soil over it.
The "toilet" area is quite spacious; if you want to take a shower, you can hide inside and just cover the latrine with a stone slab.
The trees in this forest are so tall that the sun can't even reach the bottom. Even in the middle of summer, it's very cold inside. Jiang Xiaoman finally understood how those people who got lost in the old forest during their hikes had died. They probably didn't starve to death, but rather froze to death from hypothermia...
Fortunately, he was in charge of cooking and was busy around the fire. When Jiang Yu came back from chopping firewood and squatted by the fire to warm himself, Jiang Xiaoman noticed that he was shivering from the cold, and his hair and eyebrows were covered with wet dew.
"Little Fish, have a bowl of ginger tea." Jiang Xiaoman served Jiang Yu a bowl of hot ginger tea.
Jiang Yu sat by the fire, holding ginger tea to keep herself alive. Seeing Jiang Xiaoman fiddling with a few stone slabs she had picked up, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "What are you doing with these?"
"Oh, I'm planning to make a roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) on a stone slab. I'm experimenting with it." Jiang Xiaoman carefully arranged the cleaned stone slab at an angle, blocked the bottom with another long stone slab, and then piled the burning firewood under the angle of the stone slab, thus forming a simple "frying pan".
Next, he split the flatbread that Jiang Yu and the others had brought in half, and stuffed it with cured meat, pickled bamboo shoots, and pickled chili peppers. He also took out the chili powder he had brought and sprinkled some inside. Then he spread a layer of soybean oil on the stone slab, placed the prepared flatbread on it, and it immediately made a sizzling sound.
The aroma of fried dough sticks filled the air, and Jiang Yu couldn't help but swallow hard, staring longingly at the dough sticks in Jiang Xiaoman's hand: "Is this the roujiamo they're talking about online?"
"It's a local specialty roujiamo, haha. But I used to work in the university cafeteria and learned how to make Xi'an roujiamo from the chef who specialized in it. But you need braised meat to make that. Next time you and Jiang Yan come to my house, I'll make you an authentic roujiamo!"
The stone slab doesn't conduct heat as well as an iron pot, so it takes longer to fry than a regular frying pan. It took Jiang Xiaoman almost ten minutes to fry one. She carefully picked it out, put it in a clean plastic bag, and handed it to Jiang Yu: "Brother Xiao Yu, can you taste it for me and see if it tastes good?"
Jiang Yu gratefully accepted the knock-off roujiamo (Chinese hamburger), blew on it to cool it down, and took a big bite. It was so delicious that she almost cried.
The pancakes fried in soybean oil on a stone slab are not as dry as those baked over a fire. The outer layer of the pancake is crispy and delicious. The pickled chili and pickled bamboo shoots inside release moisture when heated, mixing with the cured meat. The broth from the fatty meat melts and soaks into the pancake, making it soft, tender, and fragrant. One bite and your mouth is filled with aroma!
"Is it tasty?"
"Delicious! This is the best roujiamo I've ever eaten in my life!" Jiang Yu devoured a roujiamo in a few bites. When she came to her senses, she saw her little apprentice, who had gone out to chop wood, squatting expectantly opposite Jiang Xiaoman.
Jiang Xiaoman: "..."
One stone slab was too inefficient, so Jiang Xiaoman directed Jiang Yu and his apprentice to go down to the rock wall and pick up a few more stone slabs for him. After years of weathering, the rock wall had a lot of broken stones at the bottom. Suitable stone slabs could be picked out from there, wiped clean with a damp cloth, and then used to fry roujiamo (Chinese hamburger).
So when Shan Yan and the others returned to eat after deciding on the drop point, they saw a row of stone slabs laid out on the ground of the campsite!
Shan Yan: "..."
His apprentice and "wife" have both been corrupted by Jiang Xiaoman, that little rascal!
Just now, in order to film this video of grilling roujiamo (Chinese meat sandwiches) in the deep mountains and forests, Jiang Xiaoman happened to take out her phone to film, and thus, she happened to capture the scene of Shan Yan and the other men after they came down the cliff, having taken a shower and with their upper bodies bare.
Later, when the video reached this point, the comments section was filled with screams of "Ahhhhh!" No wonder, the scene was just too eye-catching!
You know, as professional honey gatherers in the deep mountains, Shan Yan and his friends train on cliffs year after year. Those well-defined eight-pack abs! Those firm and shiny pectoral muscles! Those smooth and natural waist and abdominal lines! Those perfectly proportioned broad shoulders and narrow waist! And those long and strong arms... it's simply a feast for the eyes!
Jiang Xiaoman was also stunned: "Don't you wear clothes when you rock climb?"
He was shivering from the cold at the foot of the mountain, okay?
Is it really because he's so young and already weak?
That doesn't make sense. Shan Yan is several years older than him. The wind is so strong on that cliff. How come he's not afraid of the cold?
"Cough~ We were all sweaty from climbing the mountain, so Brother Yan told us to take a shower and change into dry clothes when we got back," the apprentice following behind kindly explained.
"What are you doing?" Shan Yan immediately felt a headache coming on when he saw the row of stone slabs on the ground.
How come Jiang Xiaoman always comes up with so many strange and wonderful things?
Jiang Yu can't stop talking about Jiang Xiaoman now. If he invites them to play together for a few more days, will his wife even care about him anymore?
"Oh, Xiaoman is teaching me how to make roujiamo (Chinese hamburger), and I saved the best one for you!" Jiang Yu proudly presented a half-burnt roujiamo to his mouth, "Try it while it's hot! Just spit out the burnt part at the bottom."
He didn't understand what was wrong. Jiang Xiaoman had said that this kind of stone slab was not easy to burn, but several of his attempts had burned. Only this one, which was half burnt, was rescued by Jiang Xiaoman. At least the other half was still presentable, and it looked quite delicious, with a golden color.
Chapter 91
Jiang Yu and his group brought very simple food, consisting of flatbread, pickled vegetables, and cured meat. However, Jiang Xiaoman brought quite a lot of other things.
I have no idea how much stuff he could fit in his backpack. I saw him grab a small bag here and pull out a small packet of seasoning there. In no time, there was a pile of stuff at his feet.
"Xiaoman, what are you doing? What are these?" Jiang Yu asked, coming closer with interest.
"Oh, this is a hot and sour soup base that someone gave me. I thought it would be cold when we went into the mountains, so I brought some with me. It's very convenient to make. I also brought some chili powder that I made myself. The hot and sour soup is fragrant and spicy. Drinking a bowl of it in winter will make you sweat all over! It's just a pity that we can't find eggs here," Jiang Xiaoman said regretfully.