378 Hide It Well
At first, he didn’t have these small wooden blocks and had to make them one by one, so the speed of making the pots was a little slow. Now, he had made a lot of these small wooden planks, all of which were made in the past few days. He only needed to shape them and measure the width of the pot. He estimated that he could make a set before dark.
These pots naturally didn’t need a lot of wood. He would continue to set and assemble them tomorrow, and he estimated that he could make three sets by tomorrow.
If it wasn’t enough, he would make more the following day.
Jiang Yue and Xue Yan helped to scrape the saltpeter off the big pot. When they were done, Xue Sifu chiseled the ice into pieces and poured it into the big pot in the courtyard to dry. Another big pot was filled up in a short time.
He was not in a hurry to use the pots, so he was not in a hurry to pour out the ice in the two small pots.
Finally, Liu Guixia, Li Hehua, and Yu Hongyan started to worry about how to preserve the ice.
“We don’t have an ice cellar at home. Even if we do, we’ll still have to bring it to town to sell. The weather isn’t that hot yet, so it might not melt all the way before you reach the town. When it gets hotter, the ice might turn into the water by the time you go to town.” Yu Hongyan said, becoming more worried.
Xue Sifu, on the other hand, was quite open-minded and laughed, “The tea in that herbal tea shop is not cooling at all. There are still many people who buy it. Even if I have a cart of iced water here, there are still people who would want to buy it.”
In other words, it didn’t have to be ice. Even if melted into water, it just had to be cold.
“That’s true, that’s true.” Liu Guixia immediately smiled, and her brows relaxed. “Ice water is also cold. Drinking it in the summer will definitely be colder than drinking well water. When the time comes, I’ll boil some green bean soup to relieve the summer heat and add ice to it. The green bean soup is also eaten cold, so it will definitely sell well.”
“Mother, I’m thinking about selling iced sour plum soup instead of green bean soup. When I was a waiter at the Changfu restaurant, I heard some guests say that people who have ice cellars like to drink this in summer. If I can make it and sell it at a suitable price, others will want to try it too, right?” Xue Sifu smiled.
“Yes, yes. You’re right.” Not only was Liu Guixia happy, but even Li Hehua and Yu Hongyan were just the same. They felt that they could earn money.
Xue Yan looked at Jiang Yue.
She had promised that she would hide the ice under the blanket and pretend to have fun.
This way, the family would know that the blanket could make the ice stay cool for a longer time.
Jiang Yue was silent for a moment as if she had prepared herself mentally for this task. Then, she stood on her tiptoes and made a gesture of holding one of the small bowls of ice on the table in the central room.
“Jiang Yue, what are you doing?” Li Hehua looked at her with a smile, her voice still very, very soft. She was familiar with this behavior.
“I’m going to hide the ice and not let it melt,” Jiang Yue replied.
“Aww…” Liu Guixia was immediately amused. “Silly child. There’s no ice cellar in this house. It’ll melt wherever you hide, but you really are sensible. Okay, okay, go hide it. Go on then.” Then, she looked at Li Hehua. “Hehua, go hide with her. She’s just a child. This small pot of ice is quite heavy. She can’t carry it alone.”
Liu Guixia’s attitude was obviously spoiling Jiang Yue. She gave Jiang Yue a pot of ice to play with.
“Of course.” Li Hehua immediately smiled and helped Jiang Yue pick up the small pot of ice that she had wanted to hold with her two small hands.
Jiang Yue was silent for a moment before she left with Li Hehua.
“Jiang Yue, hide it well. The better you hide it, maybe you can succeed.” Xue Sifu laughed from behind. Then, he smiled at Xue Yan, “Xue Yan, isn’t it rare for Jiang Yue to be childish?”