Travel to ancient times and become rich women with your bestie

Duan Minmin carefully used a kitchen knife to cut a circle along the edge of the bowl, poured out the ice and held it in her hand. Everyone looked at the small piece of ice excitedly, as pious as if they were looking at the God of Wealth.

The ice was passed around in the hands of several people and returned to the bowl. Duan Minmin asked Sanni to scoop some water, rinse it, and split it into several pieces. Everyone took a piece to eat. In the hot summer, it can't be kept for a long time, so let it eat it first.

As the ice cubes entered their mouths, a cool feeling slid from their throats to their stomachs, and several people couldn't help but shiver. Sizhu was so excited that she wanted to show it off, but was stopped by Zheng Yuan. This thing was a precious item. If Sizhu took it out so openly, it would be a miracle if no one would miss it. Now her family was still struggling to make ends meet, and she didn't want to teach others, so she just kept quiet and made a fortune to save herself the trouble.

Although Sizhu was reluctant, Zheng Yuan told him that if he told others, he would not be able to make money and would not be able to eat braised pork in the future. Hearing that he would not be able to eat braised pork, Sizhu had no choice but to obey.

Now that they had the ice, all they needed was ice jelly, so the two decided to give it a try.

Zheng Yuan took out the ice jelly seeds she bought yesterday. One pound of ice jelly seeds can produce thirty pounds of ice jelly, and thirty pounds of ice jelly can make at least one hundred bowls, so she only took out the amount that could make about twenty bowls and put it in the gauze she had reserved yesterday. She then tied the gauze tightly and put it in a basin to soak.

Soaking for about ten minutes will make it easier to produce glue. During this time, Zheng Yuan took out the lime he bought and estimated a little bit of it and put it in a bowl, dissolving it with water and preparing.

Seeing that it was almost done, Zheng Yuan poured out the water in the basin and scooped out almost half of the basin. He put the ice jelly seeds into the basin and began to rub them gently. After a few minutes, the water in the basin began to turn slightly yellow.

Seeing this, Duan Minmin was a little disgusted: "Yuanbao, are you rubbing the mud off your hands?"

"You idiot, this is normal. It will turn white in a while. Shut up and watch carefully." Zheng Yuan said unhappily.

"Oh oh." Duan Minmin looked at him, as if to say, "I know, I'll be obedient," and squatted aside obediently.

Sure enough, after rubbing for a while, the water began to turn white. Zheng Yuan stirred it for a while, and the water began to become viscous. He estimated that the slurry had come out, so he changed his technique and started kneading it. This step is to make bubbles in the ice jelly, which is also the key to making the hand-kneaded ice jelly delicious.

Seeing that there were already crystal bubbles of various sizes in the ice jelly, Zheng Yuan poured lime water into the ice jelly and began to stir it quickly. When he felt a lot of resistance, Zheng Yuan stopped.

Looking at the icy jelly that was shaking "duang~duang~", Duan Minmin reached out to grab some, "It's so beautiful. Is it ready? Can I eat it?"

Zheng Yuan slapped her hand away: "Theoretically it's ready, but if it's to taste good it needs to sit for two or three hours."

After that, she carried the basin into the kitchen, wiped the bottom of the basin, rinsed it with water, and put it in the water tank to cool it down. It would have been better to put it in the refrigerator, but without a refrigerator, she could only put it in water to cool it down. Fortunately, the spring water brought down from the mountain was relatively cool.

While the ice jelly was chilling, Zheng Yuan took out some brown sugar and boiled two bowls of brown sugar water and set them aside for use with the ice jelly later.

While she was boiling brown sugar, Duan Minmin and her two children had already dug a hole in the backyard. They placed two stones next to it and put the pot used to boil saltpeter yesterday on it, making a simple stove.

She poured the water she had just used to make ice back into the pot to boil. The saltpeter could be reused, and the water evaporated and crystallized, which could be collected and used again next time. The two of them were reluctant to waste the things they had collected from the toilet with so much difficulty.

Knowing that this thing can be reused, Zheng Yuan was so happy that he couldn't express it in words. This could save a lot of money.

It was still early to finish all this, so Zheng Yuan and Duan Minmin discussed getting saltpeter from the old dry toilet at Old Zhao's house. Judging from the results of the previous experiment, the amount of saltpeter needed was still quite large.

Taking yesterday's tools and instructing Sanni and Sizhu to guard the house, the two went to Duan Minmin's house.

Another "yue" sound was heard, and the two men returned home with red eyes, carrying a bucket of saltpeter and mud mixture.

Seeing them like this, Sanni knew that they were going to look for the saltpeter to make ice again, but she didn't understand why they were always tearful every time.

Sanni participated in the whole process of making saltpeter yesterday, so she consciously picked up yesterday's bucket and started stirring it, while Sizhu was assigned to make the fire.

The four people began to work in an orderly manner.

By the time the sun reached its highest point in the sky, all the saltpeter in the barrel had been purified, weighing an estimated two kilograms.

Zheng Yuan gave Duan Minmin a thumbs up and said, "As expected of you, the purity of this saltpeter is really high."

"Go away! What does it have to do with me? I didn't go to the toilet twice." Duan Minmin pretended to strangle her.

Zheng Yuan hurriedly stopped her: "Stop it! Stop it! It's noon now and it's too hot. Hurry up and make some ice. I'll go see if the ice jelly is ready. Let's give it to the children."

When Duan Minmin thought about ice jelly, her mouth started watering, and she hurriedly took the two children to make ice. Ever since they saw Duan Minmin making ice, the two children's admiration for her was like a torrent of water, and they followed her eagerly when she was called.

After a while, Duan Minmin came into the kitchen carrying a piece of ice: "Hey, Yuanbao, is the ice jelly ready to eat?"

Zheng Yuan had already made four bowls of ice jelly and divided the rest into two portions.

The ice was ready now. He picked up a kitchen knife and carefully cracked a few pieces of ice into a bowl. He then poured the boiled brown sugar juice on it and handed it to the three people.

The three of them picked up their bowls and couldn't wait to put them in their mouths. The mellow brown sugar, the chewy ice jelly and the ice made it so delicious. It would be even better if there were dried fruits or nuts, but now there is no such condition, so I can only put some brown sugar.

Soon the ice jelly was eaten, and the summer heat all dissipated. Although they felt that they were not satisfied, but thinking that they would sell it tomorrow, Sanni and Sizhu also put down their bowls obediently.

After eating, Zheng Yuan crushed the ice in a basin and added two portions of ice jelly to save the trouble of getting it out on the ground. He gave one portion to Duan Minmin, and handed a bowl of brown sugar and two empty bowls to Sizhu, saying, "Sizhu, can you and Auntie go and give the ice jelly to Sister Taoer and the others?"

"Yeah!" After receiving the compliments for delivering water, Sizhu naturally agreed.

Zheng Yuan picked up another bowl with a little more ice jelly and asked Sanni to bring another bowl of brown sugar and three empty bowls. Then they went out to deliver the ice jelly to the children working in the fields.

Before leaving the house, Sanni carried a backpack to find some pig grass on the ridge. Seeing the sensible Sanni, Zheng Yuan touched her head lovingly and took the backpack.

When they arrived at the field, several children were sitting on the edge of the field resting. When they saw them, they just thought they were bringing water.

Xu Hui Niang took it and looked at it. It was actually a large bowl of ice jelly. As soon as she took it in her hands, she felt a coolness spread from her hands to her whole body. Upon closer inspection, she found that it was full of broken ice chips.

Hui Niang was surprised and asked, "Mom, you really made ice?"

"Shh!" Zheng Yuan motioned for her to speak more quietly.

She also knew that this was her family's secret way to make money, so she quickly covered her mouth.

When Dashu and Erhe heard what she said, they came over. When they saw that there was really ice, they couldn't hide the shock in their eyes.

Mother and Aunt Duan are really amazing! We can actually eat ice in the hot summer. In the past, I only heard that rich families used ice to cool off in the summer, but I didn’t expect that I could use it at home.

Zheng Yuan scooped some ice jelly and poured brown sugar juice on it, asked them to sit down quickly, and handed them the bowls.

The three of them couldn't wait to take the bowls and started slurping them up. It was such a hot day and after working so hard for a while, eating ice cream made them feel refreshed all over and every pore seemed to open up.

Seeing them enjoying the food, Zheng Yuan was also happy. There was nothing happier than having everyone recognize the food he cooked.