Let's just drift through life together in this quick transmigration story.

The villagers arranged for 002 to live next to Xiong Bufan's residence. Every day, 002 would run wildly with Xiong Bufan on the mountain. In winter, they would hunt on the mountain, and in spring, they would pick flowers on the mountain, which the villagers would then make into rouge of various colors. In summer, Xiong Bufan would go down to the river to catch fish, and after catching them, he would sprinkle some salt on them and roast them on the riverbank. In autumn, they would search for wild fruits all over the mountain, and the cook would add some honey to make dried fruit.

The people in the mountain village seemed to react a bit slowly, but everyone reacted the same way, so it didn't seem strange. They lived happily together, and their daily routine consisted of Erqiu asking, "Have you eaten?"

Da Chun: "I ate it."

Erqiu: "What a coincidence, I ate it too."

What are you eating?

"I forgot. We'll find out what to eat when we go to the kitchen to find something else to eat."

"it is good."

At this point, Xiong Bufan would shout, "Get to work!"

Everyone scattered and ran off to work making rouge. However, a few bolder ones stopped and pointed at 002, who was standing in front of Xiong Bufan, and asked, "Why doesn't he have to work?" The others also slowly stopped to see Xiong Bufan's reaction. If 002 didn't work, then they wouldn't work either.

Xiong Bufan realized what was happening and said, "You go and do some work too."

002 shrugged and said, "I don't know how."

Xiong Bufan was not surprised by this answer at all. She knew that 002 was useless, but she did not expect him to say it so shamelessly. She patted 002's shoulder with pity and said, "It's okay. Everyone has their own strengths. You have to believe in yourself. You will definitely realize your value."

002 simply didn't want to make rouge. Seeing that this approach wouldn't work, she took out a piece of silver from her pocket and handed it to Xiong Bufan, "Can I not do the work?"

Xiong Bufan's eyes lit up when he saw the silver. He stuffed the silver into his pocket and said, "Okay." Then he said to the others, "Hurry up and get to work. Those who don't want to work, pay up."

The others ran off to work, while 002 accompanied Xiong Bufan as they ran around the mountain village.

After that, every time they had to work, 002 would slip some silver to Xiong Bufan to keep him by his side. The people in the stronghold would watch how much silver 002 would slip to Xiong Bufan every day. Sometimes it was a few copper coins, and 002 would get a slap and run around with Xiong Bufan with a bruised and swollen face. Sometimes it was a piece of silver, and if Xiong Bufan was in a good mood, he would carry 002 around and occasionally do some aerial acrobatics.

002 absolutely cannot allow Xiong Bufan to abandon him again, leaving them to depend on each other for survival in this world.

Xiong Bufan: Don't come any closer. You absolutely cannot replace Qian and depend on me for survival.

Kongkong silently rolled her eyes and thought to herself, "Bufan, you've really gone too far."

Qiao Yujie rarely comes to the mountain stronghold anymore. She usually sends people to pick up the rouge and pays the people in the stronghold. Xiong Bufan is responsible for escorting the finished rouge to Lincheng and the capital.

With powerful backers and a stable supply of goods, Qiao Yujie opened three more shops in Lincheng, bringing the total to five rouge shops. As the demand for rouge increased, Xiong Bufan had to go down the mountain to deliver goods almost every seven days. People who didn't originally need to make rouge started making it, and houses were built on the land to produce rouge.

002 led a group to purchase raw materials in the surrounding area to ensure a stable supply of rouge.

After Cui Haoyu built up his influence in the capital, Qiao Yujie expanded the scale of her cosmetics shop in the capital and even opened a new one. Everything was slowly getting better.

After Xiong Bufan became familiar with the route to Lincheng, she arranged for the bandits from the mountain stronghold to deliver goods to Lincheng, while she herself delivered goods to the capital. The bandits along the way to the capital were not very friendly to merchants. Every ten miles there would be a simple hut to collect tolls, so many merchants took detours. After all, with so many places collecting tolls, they wouldn't make much money by walking all the way to the capital.

002 followed Xiong Bufan to deliver goods. Adhering to the principle of "the less trouble, the better," after being asked for several dozen taels of silver, Xiong Bufan couldn't stand it anymore. He kicked over the hut that the bandits had built by the roadside to collect tolls, held a knife to the bandit's neck, and said in a vicious voice, "Robbery."

Merchants who went to the capital to do business were generally wealthy, and many of them paid money to avoid making enemies with the bandits, so the bandits rarely showed up anymore.

The bandits were quick to kneel and even faster to hand over their money. That small bag of silver could compensate Xiong Bufan for all the silver he had handed over along the way, and even more than Qiao Yujie had earned from that cartload of goods.

After seeing Xiong Bufan receive the silver, the bandits made a quick escape. As long as they were alive, they could always make a comeback. Once their boss came down, even the most arrogant merchant would have to obediently hand over the money.

Last time Xiong Bufan went from the capital to Lincheng, he only encountered a band of bandits from Da Cai Zhai. How could he encounter so many bandits on the way from Lincheng to the capital? This was very unusual. Xiong Bufan sensed a conspiracy, and it seemed to smell like meat soup as well.

Kongkong hesitated, wanting to tell Xiong Bufan that they had taken a side road last time, which was why they only encountered one bandit group. There were always just as many bandits on the main road, but they had missed them last time. Also, last time, there was an official's wife in the group, and servants were clearing the way ahead, so they didn't see any bandits charging them.

The people of Da Cai Zhai were starving after walking for so long. They took out some dried meat and a pot, dismantled some of the thatch from the house that Xiong Bufan had kicked down, and started cooking meat soup by the roadside.

They started serving the broth, and Xiong Bufan quickly grabbed his small wooden bucket and ran over, saying, "Save some for me, I want some too."

002 held the bowl and drank the meat soup, putting most of the meat into Xiong Bufan's small wooden bucket. Recalling the scene just now, the way the bandits ran away didn't look like ordinary mountain bandits, but more like soldiers in disguise.

I didn’t expect things to be so chaotic outside the capital. There are private soldiers disguised as bandits collecting tolls outside the city. However, it seems that none of this has anything to do with me. 002 chuckled to himself and continued to drink his soup.

The rest of the road was relatively peaceful, and we didn't encounter any toll booths or other bandits.

002 wrote down what he had seen and heard along the way and gave it to Qiao Yujie, telling her that if she were to travel as a merchant next time, she should not take the official road, but rather the side roads, because there were many bandits on the official roads.

After delivering the goods, Xiong Bufan, as requested by Qiao Yujie, inspected the two shops again, reviewed all the account books, and after finding no problems, quietly slipped into the Prince Xian's residence. He placed the letter Qiao Yujie had written to Cui Haoyu on the table before returning to his previous residence. This trip was really tiring, but what can you expect from Xiong Bufan, a dedicated person?

Fearing that the people from Da Cai Zhai might cause trouble in the capital, 002 took them to the vegetable market after delivering the goods to buy some vegetables for dinner. Xiong Bufan gave them money for buying vegetables and cooking, so they could have something nice to eat that night, and roast chicken could be arranged.

When Cui Haoyu returned, he noticed signs of someone entering the room. Without making a sound, he reached for his knife. Even though he had disguised himself like this, why wouldn't those people let him go?

The furnishings in the room remained unchanged, except for a set of gold-inlaid jade purple clay teapots that were missing from the table, but a letter had been added. Cui Haoyu walked over and picked up the envelope. The envelope had the character "牛" (niu, meaning ox) written on it. Cui Haoyu lowered his guard and guessed that the visitor was Xiong Bufan. He picked up the letter and read it carefully. The handwriting was the simple handwriting that Qiao Yujie was used to.

Qiao Yujie recounted the recent progress of the shop, the things she had encountered, and how much she missed Cui Haoyu. She also told Cui Haoyu that she would soon return to Beijing to develop other businesses and asked him to wait for her return.

Cui Haoyu picked up a piece of paper, wrote a reply to Qiao Yujie, marveling at her excellence and expressing that he would wait for her to return. After letting the ink on the paper dry, Cui Haoyu put the letter in an envelope, thought for a moment, and then added a silver ingot. He sent someone to deliver it to the shop, intending to have Xiong Bufan take it back when he returned. The silver ingot was Xiong Bufan's errand fee.

Upon seeing Xiong Bufan return, 002 quickly said, "Bufan, please wait a moment, I'll have the meal ready soon." The longer he knew Xiong Bufan, the more he felt that Xiong Bufan was a very capable person. He knew everything, could even read and write, and was basically an all-rounder.

Xiong Bufan responded and sat down to the side. Having finally returned to the capital, Xiong Bufan planned to stay there for a few more days to buy some delicious food and fun things before leaving.