Transmigrating with a Five Million Dollar Retirement Life

Chapter 118 Ice Making Successfully

After sitting with the elders for a while, Song Jiaojiao, who had been spreading rumors, went home and left the rest to the village chief.

When I got home, I went to the sweet potato shop to find Sister Sun. "Sister Sun, we're temporarily stopping the sweet potato flour production. We won't be making sweet potato flour anymore. I have other uses for the sweet potatoes. Could you also help me buy some wheat? It's one coin per pound more expensive than in town. Buy it first. When I have some free time in the county, I'll come back and teach you how to make new dishes. In the meantime, just focus on making mung bean flour. We can add some more people."

"Okay, Jiaojiao, don't worry," Sister-in-law Sun said with a smile.

With everything arranged, Song Jiaojiao could finally go to the county with peace of mind.

The next day.

Song Jiaojiao, along with Mu Qing, Mu Xue, Xu Fang, Bai Shuqin, and two newly purchased servants, went to the county early in the morning.

Today, Meng An drove the carriage, which was perfect for teaching Wang Feng so that if any problems arose in the county in the future, there would be someone to relay messages.

Just as noon approached, Song Jiaojiao and the others arrived in the county. When they got to the shop, the two craftsmen had just finished their work. Considering there were quite a few people, Song Jiaojiao asked Tan the carpenter to make two more bunk beds. She moved the bed from the room where Li Yuan and his wife originally lived to the largest room. The original large bed wasn't very big, only 1.5 meters wide. With the two beds pushed together, it was exactly three meters. The three of them wouldn't feel cramped at night. Meng An and Wang Feng were assigned to the room in the backyard, while Xu Fang, Bai Shuqin, and Wang Yu were assigned to the room in the front.

The bunk beds are all 1.2 meters wide. Today, Tan the carpenter can only make one at most, so Song Jiaojiao had someone move the ones from the backyard rooms to the front first. It's still because we didn't plan ahead. Also, there are too few rooms. The yard is big, but we haven't built many rooms. It seems we still have to work hard to earn money, otherwise even if we buy a house, we won't have a place to live.

After putting everything away, Song Jiaojiao went to the blacksmith shop to pick up the mold she had ordered last time, as well as a manual egg beater and a centrifuge.

After getting the things, Song Jiaojiao asked Meng An to take Xu Fang to the cowshed to buy two buckets of milk, and then she and Mu Qing began to study how to make ice with saltpeter.

The weather wasn't too hot in the evening; the temperature in the well water was about ten degrees lower than the outside temperature, probably only around ten degrees.

Song Jiaojiao took the two iron buckets to the cellar. This time, the cellar was better prepared. A rain shelter was built above the cellar entrance, and gravel was laid on the ground below. The shelves were also built according to the blueprints given by Song Jiaojiao. As soon as you enter the cellar, you can clearly feel the temperature drop. The light in the cellar is not very good. Song Jiaojiao made places to put oil lamps on the walls on both sides, and also asked Wang Feng to move a large vat down there and fill it with well water to make it easier for them to do experiments.

This time, Song Jiaojiao made four iron buckets of different sizes. First, she poured half a bucket of water into the largest iron bucket, then put saltpeter in it. Saltpeter can absorb heat when heated. Then she put the smaller iron buckets into the iron buckets with saltpeter in them, covered the buckets with cotton cloth, and then put the lids on.

"Muqing, follow this method. We'll check back in a quarter of an hour. Saltpeter can be reused. Just boil the water containing saltpeter until it dries up, and the crystals inside will be saltpeter. Of course, there will be some loss each time, so you'll need to buy some from the pharmacy. We can only use this method for now this year. At the end of the year, we can collect some ice in winter and put it in the cellar. We can take it out and use it when the weather gets warmer." Song Jiaojiao explained carefully to Muqing.

Mu Qing listened very attentively, afraid that she might have missed something.

"Mother, are we making ice to make drinks?"

"Yes, it's mainly about making drinks. Wouldn't it be refreshing and thirst-quenching to have a cool, sour, and refreshing drink on a hot summer day?" Song Jiaojiao thought about how wonderful it would be to have a delicious iced drink in the summer.

Although the summers in this dynasty were not as unbearably hot as in the previous era, the temperature was still around 30 degrees Celsius. Especially under the blazing sun, it was always uncomfortable. In addition, people in ancient times generally wore long-sleeved dresses when they were out, and only men could wear short clothes, which made it a little easier for them.

Half an hour later, Song Jiaojiao took Mu Qing to the cellar to check. When they opened the lid, they could clearly see ice crystals in the water at the top. There were still some saltpeter stones in the bucket below that hadn't completely melted. It seemed that the water was already saturated and wouldn't absorb any more heat. Song Jiaojiao poured the water from the small bucket into two smaller buckets, added more saltpeter stones to the slightly larger bucket, put the smaller bucket into the larger one, covered it with gauze again, and closed the lid. She then waited for another 15 minutes.

Song Jiaojiao brought out the bucket containing saltpeter, and also took out the small stove and a tall iron pot that she had bought last time.

Pour the water from the bucket into an iron pot, heat it over a fire, and slowly evaporate the water until it evaporates completely and crystals appear in the pot.

"Sister, you absolutely must not use this pot for boiling saltpeter water to cook rice or anything like that, because saltpeter is slightly toxic," Song Jiaojiao warned again.

"I'll teach you these things first. You need to observe the servants we bought yourself, and then hand them over to people you trust. Ultimately, I don't want you to be trapped in this small shop. Not everything needs to be done personally. When we open more shops, you can't possibly take care of every single one. When it's time to let go, you have to let go. Don't make yourself so tired." Although Song Jiaojiao handed the beverage shop over to Mu Qing, she didn't want her to be trapped here for the rest of her life, repeating the same life over and over again.

"Mom, I know, I will study hard." Mu Qing knew that her family was different now than before, and even her mother was completely different. She didn't know her mother's past identity, but judging from the things her mother took out, none of them were things she had never seen before. Mu Qing thought that her mother's past identity must have been extraordinary, so she had to work even harder and not hold her mother back.

By this time it was completely dark. Xu Fang had brought the milk back. Song Jiaojiao led Mu Qing to the cellar again, where they saw that most of the water in the bucket had turned to ice, with only a small amount remaining.

It worked! Song Jiaojiao never expected to succeed on her first try.

"Look, we succeeded! With ice, our drinks will only taste better." Song Jiaojiao held the ice cubes in the bucket, completely ignoring the numbness in her hands from the cold.

"Mom, put it down quickly, your hands are all red from the cold." Mu Qing said anxiously, and quickly took the ice from Song Jiaojiao's hand and wrapped her hands with her own.

Song Jiaojiao looked at the anxious Mu Qing and said, "Mom is fine. Come on, Mom will take you to make another delicious dish. You may not be able to remember all these things at once. You can write them down on paper when you have free time. But it's best to memorize them so that you won't worry about the recipe being stolen. Even if it is stolen, don't panic. Imitation can never beat a new recipe. Only innovation can defeat everything."

"Instead of wasting time worrying about imitators, you should use your brain to come up with some new recipes," Song Jiaojiao said with a smile.