Chapter 95

Chapter 95

Jiang Yunsui explained the method for making ice with saltpeter in the simplest terms possible.

“Saltpeter. Toss it in water.”

Everyone stared at her. For a long while, there was nothing more.

“That’s it? You’re done?”

Jiang Yunsui nodded, looking just as bewildered. What else was there supposed to be?

“Chef Pang, you explain.”

Ji Yan’an simply switched to asking someone else.

Jiang Yunsui’s answer had been far too simple. As for Chef Pang, he was far too long-winded…

He started all the way from making sweet potato starch.

“Wait, wait a moment…”

Song Jin hissed softly. “How did sweet potato starch suddenly get involved?”

No, seriously, just how many things had this big one and little one managed to come up with in the kitchen?

Chef Pang chuckled. “It was Little Yunsui who told me sweet potatoes could be made into noodles. So I figured, if they really could be made into noodles, then that’d be one more way to eat sweet potatoes, wouldn’t it? I fiddled with it for a few days, and only yesterday did I realize that the ‘starch’ wasn’t made by grinding sweet potatoes directly into powder. You have to mash the sweet potatoes, wash them with water, then filter out the dregs…”

He went on and on, explaining how sweet potatoes were turned into starch noodles.

By the time he finished, his mouth was dry.

Jiang Yunsui poured him a cup of tea, then poured one for herself too.

Ji Yan’an stared at her.

Jiang Yunsui glanced at him. “Do you want tea too?”

“Here, you can drink first.”

Ji Yan’an said, “Drink your own!”

The reason no one had interrupted Chef Pang was because, after listening, they realized that these sweet potato starch noodles might actually be very useful.

Ji Yan’an asked, “Where are the noodles?”

Hadn’t he said he’d made a little already?

Chef Pang scratched his head, guilt written all over his round, chubby face.

“I just wanted to test whether the stuff tasted good first, so… heh heh…”

Everyone: “…”

Jiang Yunsui raised her small hand. “They taste good. Sweet potato starch noodles can even be made into hot-and-sour noodles.”

Ji Yan’an stared at the two of them. One big, one small, both plump and round.

One look and he knew they were gluttons!

And they were gluttons together, at that. They often secretly cooked extra meals for themselves over in the kitchen, and sometimes ate even better than him, their master.

Ji Yan’an knew about it, of course. He simply turned a blind eye and pretended not to.

Chef Pang hurriedly said, “A new batch of sweet potato starch noodles is already being made. This time, I had them make quite a lot. Once they’re ready, I’ll bring them to you right away, Young Master.”

Ji Yan’an nodded and said nothing more.

Only then did Chef Pang continue, talking about buying ingredients for sour plum drink, then saltpeter, and everything that happened afterward.

Song Jin rubbed his chin, his eyes fixed on Jiang Yunsui.

Jiang Yunsui felt her hair nearly stand on end under his stare. If she had a mushroom cap, it would have bristled straight up.

She shuffled behind Ji Yan’an, revealing only her fluffy little head, and glared back at him with her big eyes.

She looked like a big-eyed chubby fish, adorably silly and clueless.

“I’m very curious. How did you suddenly become smart?”

Jiang Yunsui’s big eyes instantly turned into dead-fish eyes as she looked at him.

What, had she been very stupid before?

Jiang Yunsui huffed and decided she did not want to talk to him.

Ji Yan’an said, “Since we know how to make ice now, Nanshu, send people to gather more saltpeter.”

Nanshu quickly nodded. Ice blocks! In the middle of summer, who wouldn’t want them?

Fan He was excited too. “In that case, won’t we be able to make more ice in summer? Aside from using it ourselves, we can also sell it. That will be another sizable income.”

Ji Yan’an had the same thought.

Right now, money was only going out and not coming in. He, too, was worried about finances.

He had so many people to support, not to mention dogs, horses, and many places that needed to be repaired or built. The silver he currently had on hand was nowhere near enough.

The Yaoguang Guard alone cost a great deal every month, let alone everything else.

Back in the capital, Ji Yan’an had never worried about money. When his Crown Prince Cousin died, he had left all the property under his name to Ji Yan’an.

That was why, when Ji Yan’an had first come to Mobei, he had still been quite wealthy.

But over these past few months, watching money pour out had made him deeply understand one thing: that money was nowhere near enough!
If things went on like this, they would burn through everything they had sooner or later.

As for properties like the estate farms and shops, those were nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

Ji Yan’an had been worrying over that very problem when, all of a sudden, a method for making ice in summer landed in his lap.

Jiang Yunsui really was his little lucky star.

Of course, since he had taken the formula, he naturally had to reward her for it.

Ji Yan’an had already made up his mind. If the ice truly sold, Jiang Yunsui would receive twenty percent of the profits.

He told Jiang Yunsui this openly.

Jiang Yunsui listened in a daze. Only after he explained it carefully did she nod.

“I don’t want twenty percent. Ten percent is enough.”

She held up one little finger, her eyes curving as she smiled.

She was already adorable to begin with, and when she smiled, she was as bright as a little sun.

Ji Yan’an thought she was being silly. “Who pushes money away like that?”

Jiang Yunsui said, “I’ll use the other ten percent to pay tuition. I want to learn how to paint!”

Her eyes sparkled.

Although she had no interest in learning characters or reading books, she now wanted to learn painting a little.

“Why do you suddenly want to learn painting?”

Jiang Yunsui muttered in her soft, childish voice, “I want to paint pretty patterns on my umbrella, and make pretty paper kites myself…”

Mostly, it was all for the sake of playing.

Now and then, curious new ideas would pop into her head, and she would want to draw them out. But if she asked someone else, their mind was not the same as hers, so what they drew was different from what she imagined.

If she knew how to paint herself, then she could draw whatever she wanted.

In her Inherited Memories, that peach blossom tree demon had loved painting very much, and there was some knowledge about painting in there too.

Ji Yan’an said, “You don’t need to use that ten percent. I’ll teach you.”

He was not so shameless as to take advantage of a child.

Jiang Yunsui shook her head. “Then give the money to people who need it. Do lots and lots of good deeds. You’ll earn merit, you know.”

Merit was very useful. It was precisely because she had so much merit that the Heavenly Dao had allowed her to meet her little friends from her previous life in a dream, and had even turned a blind eye when they gave her a cheat.

Ji Yan’an thought for a moment, then nodded.

“All right.”

The Ji Mansion was very efficient. Ji Yan’an was worried that buying saltpeter on a large scale would cause trouble if word got out, so he simply had people ask around for the location of a saltpeter mine.

Then he had someone buy it.

Saltpeter did not have many uses at present, so it was not expensive.

Ji Yan’an easily acquired a saltpeter mine in a suitable location.

After that, he specially cleared out a place for making ice, and the steady stream of ice blocks produced later were all sent into the ice cellar.

Of course, all of that came later.

At this moment, Jiang Yunsui had not forgotten her bowl-shaped popsicle.

She went to the kitchen and took out the sour plum-flavored popsicle that had frozen solid, then wandered around everywhere, holding the little stick and lick, lick, licking away.

She even strolled over to Ji Yan’an and the others.

Everyone was bustling about, busy with the iron mine, porcelain, Liaoyang County, figuring out how to make money, and how to win over and absorb people from the other military camps.

Which made the sight of Jiang Yunsui leisurely licking her popsicle as she drifted in front of them all the more irritating.

“Hey, kid. Let me have a taste of that.”

Song Jin spoke to Jiang Yunsui while writing.

His voice sounded weak and listless.

At that moment, his collar had loosened slightly, and he looked somewhat disheveled. The exhaustion on his face was visible to the naked eye.

But every time he remembered that all this was for the sake of rebellion, he felt tired yet full of drive.

Still, he truly coveted Ji Yan’an’s popsicle.

Jiang Yunsui shook her head. “I already licked it.”

“That’s fine. I don’t mind.”

Seeing that he was so hot he was practically melting into his chair, Jiang Yunsui hesitated, then held it up and passed it over.

The innocent Little Mushroom had not yet realized the gravity of the situation.

Then Song Jin, harboring wicked intentions, took a huge bite out of her popsicle.

Jiang Yunsui stared blankly at the popsicle with a great big chunk missing.

Then, with a loud wail, she burst into tears.