Chapter 87.2

Translated by Aviana

The cicadas outside chirped incessantly, adding to the annoyance.

Slouched indoors, Lin Qingwan was fanning herself continuously with a palm-leaf fan, her mind in turmoil.

This summer was exceptionally hot. She didn’t remember it being so hot last year at this time. They say pregnant women tend to have excessive heat in the body. She didn’t know if it was because of this reason, but she felt especially intolerant to the heat this year.

The family had already prepared for the heat by laying out mats early on. When the reed mats were not cool enough, she replaced them with bamboo mats which, when dampened with cool well water, provided a refreshing respite from the sweltering heat.

Lin Qingwan glanced outside, but she saw no sign of her husband returning . Unable to muster her spirits to ponder calmly, she decided to lie down on the mat and rest for a while.

Moments later she drifted into a slumber. After lying down for a while, she drifted off to sleep.

By the time Yang Tiezhu returned home, it was already late in the afternoon, and his face was weathered and red from the sweltering sun . So much so that his skin showed signs of peeling in a few places due to excessive exposure

Soon after returning, he rushed to take off his shirt and poured a bucket of well water over himself, relishing the coolness after a day spent under the scorching sun. As it was just him and his wife in the house, he didn’t feel hesitant in undressing himself.

The commotion outside woke Lin Qingwan from her slumber. As soon as she walked out, she saw her husband showering with bare shoulders. The sight of glistening water on his bronzed skin reddened Lin Qingwan’s cheeks. Despite her embarrassment, she gently chided him for using cold water , “ How many times have I told you, don’t use well water to shower? You’ve just come back from outside, and now you’re shocking your body with cold water. Be careful not to catch a chill “

Yang Tiezhu chuckled, “Well, I was feeling hot.”

As he turned around, his solid muscles and his eight pack abs….greeted her sight.

Another wave of red crept up her cheeks.

She blushed again. “Even if you’re hot, you should have used warm water to rinse yourself. You won’t feel hot in a while.”

There’s really no comparison to the previous life here. When it’s hot, there’s air conditioning and cold drinks. In the middle of summer, you can just close the door and hide in an air-conditioned room. The contrast was simply incomparable.

Lin Qingwan paused for a moment, lost in thought.

Air conditioning, refrigerators—

“Wanwan, is there any food at home? I haven’t eaten anything since morning, and I’m starving,” Yang Tiezhu‘s voice interrupted her thoughts, hastily wiping himself with a piece of cloth.

“There’s cold noodles made by my third sister-in-law in the kitchen. I didn’t have an appetite at noon, so I didn’t eat. I’ll go get it for you,” Lin Qingwan replied. Speaking about cold noodles, she was the one who had taught Yao-shi its recipe. It was a simple, refreshing and appetizing dish, perfect for the hot weather and for someone who was too busy to make time for cooking.

Yang Tiezhu waved his hand. “No need, I’ll do it myself. You stay there and have a rest.”

Lin Qingwan could only turn around and sit back inside.

In no time, Yang Tiezhu returned with two large bowls of cold noodles.

The noodles, cucumber shreds, and blanched vegetables had all been prepared in advance by Yao Shi. They just needed to add garlic juice, salt, vinegar, and a bit of sesame oil to create a delicious and refreshing summer meal.

Knowing that Lin Qingwan liked spicy food, Yang Tiezhu even added some chili oil to her bowl. After eating cold noodles frequently these days, even Yang Tiezhu had learned how to prepare them.

He placed the noodles and chopsticks in front of his wife and began eating his own bowl eagerly. He was famished, and the large bowl of noodles quickly disappeared.

He placed the bowls in front of her and began eating eagerly. Lin Qingwan, still lost in thought, held her chopsticks, pondering her interrupted musings.

If only they had a refrigerator or ice—

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a refrigerator or ice?” she murmured to herself, reminiscing about the luxury of ice in the past when the original owner was living in the capital, which had been forgotten by her.

Usually, wealthy households housed ice cellars to store ice specifically for summer use. It seemed that there were even people who made a living by selling ice…

Recalling this, Lin Qingwan wished she could slap herself. Why hadn’t she thought of storing ice earlier?

With how cold and chilling the winters in the Luoxian village is, they wouldn’t even have to dig ice from the river. Simply filling the containers with water and leaving them outdoors would have done the deed. All they did after that was storing all the ice in the ice cellars. Had she gotten this idea earlier, they wouldn’t have to scramble everywhere to search for them.

But regretting now was useless. She could only blame herself for not thinking things through at the time.

“Wanwan, why aren’t you eating?” Yang Tiezhu put down his bowl, looking puzzled. “Are you feeling unwell? Even in this hot weather, you still need to eat more, especially now that you are pregnant with a baby.”

Lin Qingwan smiled and replied, “I’m not hungry. I had some snacks at noon. Have you finished eating? After you’re done, go and look for Elder Brother Dacheng. I have something to discuss with him.”

Yang Tiezhu scratched his head, not thinking much of it. He took his bowl to the kitchen and then went to find Xia Dacheng.

Shortly after, Xia Dacheng arrived with Yang Tiezhu, both of them sweating profusely. Xia Dacheng had just returned from delivering goods and hadn’t had time to wipe the sweat off before being summoned by his younger cousin. He had also been exposed to the sun a lot recently. Previously, he had a wheat complexion, but these days he is almost as dark as Yang Tiezhu.

“Wanwan, you wanted to see me?”

Given the inconvenience due to her big belly and their familiarity, Lin Qingwan didn’t rise to greet him.

“Dacheng, please sit,” she gestured.

As Xia Dacheng settled in, he poured himself a glass of water, downed it in a single gulp, and inquired , “What’s the matter?”

After a brief contemplation, Lin Qingwan began slowly, “Dacheng, do you know if there’s any ice available for purchase around here?”

A wry smile crept onto Xia Dacheng’s face. The notion of using ice to preserve food had crossed his mind, but the cost of ice was simply out of reach for their modest business.

When he was in the county, he knew that in Yangcheng, wealthy families stored ice for summer use, and there were also people selling ice in the city during the summer. However, firstly, the price was too high. Even if they could afford it to preserve the cured meat, it wouldn’t be cost-effective. They wouldn’t make money, and at best, they wouldn’t lose any. Secondly, as far as he knew, there was no one selling ice in Huaihe County. At most, some wealthy families froze ice during the winter and stored it for their own use in the summer.

As far as he knew, some of the uses for ice to preserve food freshness were limited to large cities, particularly for those selling seafood. Seafood loses its freshness if it’s out of water for too long, so ice is necessary for preservation. However, once seafood is transported inland, the price becomes extremely high. Their cured meat, on the other hand, is only 60 wen per catty, and its volume is not as small as seafood.

Despite his younger sister-in-law’s shrewd business acumen, she was still bound by traditional practices, their ideas, though commendable, somewhat naive due to her limited exposure.

However, Xia Dacheng didn’t mock Lin Qingwan’s idea. Instead, he explained the difficulties and concerns involved in procuring ice.

Yang Tiezhu, who had thought that this was a good idea, deflated after hearing Xia Dacheng’s explanation.

Lin Qingwan understood the reasoning behind it. She knew that there were few items that required ice for preservation here. Items that could be preserved with ice were mostly tributes or seafood. She had also seen seafood preserved with ice.

In the capital, due to its inland location, seafood was extremely rare. Many wealthy families could enjoy it, but obviously, the Lin family was not of that level. Once, the main branch of the Lin family, her father’s uncle, had sent them a basket of seafood, chilled with ice, causing a commotion in their kitchen. The seafood was said to be very fresh, chilled with ice underneath.

Unlike in her modern life, where everything was well-equipped, Lin Qingwan could imagine that people here didn’t understand the concept of sealing and insulation, thus wasting a lot of ice.

Lin Qingwan wasn’t discouraged by Xia Dacheng’s explanation. She then asked, “Elder Brother Dacheng, have you ever heard of saltpeter?”

Yes, Lin Qingwan thought of the method of making ice with saltpeter.

Thanks to various time-travel novels, she remembered this ‘recipe’ often used by the time-traveling female protagonists to get rich. Not only did she know what it was made of, but she also knew how to make it.

Now she just hoped that the time-travel novels weren’t deceiving her, and that saltpeter could be easily found and wasn’t expensive.

“Saltpeter?” Xia Dacheng pondered for a moment before shaking his head.

Yang Tiezhu also thought about it, but he hadn’t heard of such a thing either.

Lin Qingwan took a deep breath, feeling somewhat helpless, but she didn’t give up on her idea.

“Dacheng, could you and Tiezhu help me look for it? If we can find saltpeter, our problem with preserving the cured meat will be mostly solved.”

Xia Dacheng was delighted but still a little skeptical. “Really? Will finding saltpeter solve the problem of preserving Laweixian?”

Lin Qingwan nodded, but she didn’t make any absolute statements. “If we can find this, I’m more than half sure.”

Xia Dacheng stood up. “Alright, Tiezhu and I will look for it separately. But you have to give us some clues. Where can we buy or find this thing?”

He was now desperate, as the Laweizian had reached a point where they couldn’t continue making it. They could only try anything, even if it seemed like a long shot.

Lin Qingwan pondered for a moment. “This thing is used for medicine or alchemy. You could try asking at a medical hall. Oh, right, this thing also has other names…” She struggled to remember, “saltpeter, potassium nitrate, niter. You can ask around for these names. Xia Dacheng was somewhat surprised to hear about alchemy.

Yang Tiezhu didn’t understand what alchemy was, but Xia Dacheng was well-informed. He had heard that the current emperor was obsessed with alchemy, and only those extremely wealthy families in the capital would know about alchemy, or even what materials were used for alchemy. However, thinking about the background of this cousin-in-law, he understood. He had heard she used to be a maid in a wealthy family and was only sold here after making a mistake. She probably heard about these things while working there.

After confirming the names of saltpeter with Lin Qingwan, Xia Dacheng and Yang Tiezhu went to search separately.

Left alone in the room, Lin Qingwan sighed deeply.

Whether they could find it or not, it was all up to fate. She hoped that everything would go smoothly with the heavens’ blessings.

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