As dusk fell, Su He cautiously entered the room and reported to Lin Mingyan that Fourth Master had gone to the Princess Consort’s main courtyard.
Lin Mingyan visibly relaxed and told Du Juan to have the evening meal served.
When the meal arrived, she didn’t even glance at it before telling Du Juan and the other two to divide it among themselves.
She had been too indulgent these past ten days, eating until her belly was round every day.
Although her nighttime activities had been intense—twice even forced to continue until the rooster crowed, leaving her as exhausted as if her tendons had been stretched—overeating was still overeating, and she dared not eat any more.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Du Juan and the other two were somewhat uneasy, thinking she was so despondent she couldn’t even eat.
Seeing their furtive glances, Lin Mingyan guessed they had misunderstood and decided to get up and move around to prove she was perfectly happy.
But after just a few steps, she felt too hot to continue.
Turning her head, she saw that the ice in the basin had completely melted into water.
Following her gaze, Du Juan immediately said, “The new ice might have been delivered late. I’ll go urge them to bring it.”
But Gege’s stipend didn’t include any ice at all—where could she go to urge them?
Lin Mingyan raised her hand to stop her. “Don’t bother. We need to save our silver.”
For the past few days, ice had been delivered from noon onward, making Linfeng Residence as cool as if it weren’t summer.
But that was only because Fourth Master came every day—the ice sent from the storeroom was part of his stipend.
Now that he wasn’t coming, if they wanted ice, they would have to spend silver to buy it.
“Gege, it’s just a bit of ice…” Du Juan hesitated.
She felt that with the current favor, asking for some ice wouldn’t be refused by those petty people.
Lin Mingyan waved her hand. “It’s unnecessary.”
Turning around, she instructed, “Su He, bring the saltpeter I asked you to get last time.”
If there was no ice to use, she would just make some herself.
Su He immediately went to the small storeroom and brought the saltpeter. The three of them stared wide-eyed, unsure what their mistress intended to do.
Lin Mingyan then told Du Juan and Ling Lan to prepare a clean basin and half a basin of cooled boiled water.
Finally, she took a clean small white porcelain jar filled with water and slowly added saltpeter to it, stirring as she went.
Under the astonished gazes of Du Juan and the other two, the basin of water in their mistress’s hands actually turned into a basin of ice!
Σ(°△°|||)︴
What kind of outrageous event was this?!
Not only were Du Juan and the other two dumbfounded, even Lin Mingyan herself found it somewhat miraculous.
Although she knew the principle behind it, she had been mentally prepared for possible failure.
Who would have thought she would succeed on the first try?!
What kind of unremarkable chemistry prodigy was she?!
“Alright, now we have ice,” Lin Mingyan placed the small jar on the table, eyeing the basin of clean ice with delight. “And we can even eat it!”
She had asked—the ice used in the rooms was dug from rivers in winter and stored in icehouses.
That ice wasn’t clean and was best not put in one’s mouth.
But the ice she had just made was frozen from cooled boiled water, so eating it came with no concerns.
Hearing her cheerful tone and looking at the ice emitting cold air before her, Du Juan trembled with excitement and hurried to close the door.
“Gege, maybe I should just spend money to buy it. If someone saw this…” Du Juan shuddered.
Du Juan, Ling Lan, and Su He wore expressions of terror: Mistress, please retract your divine powers?!
Enjoying the coolness, Lin Mingyan didn’t quite understand. “If someone saw it? What would happen?”
Although making ice might seem miraculous to people of the Qing Dynasty, it wasn’t some kind of sorcery—would she be burned at the stake if someone saw it?
“This… this…” Could such sorcery really be made public?
No wonder.
No wonder Fourth Master had been staying at Linfeng Residence every day since she arrived.
So that was it… she was…
A fox spirit?
Or some kind of immortal?!
Du Juan and the other two had already prepared themselves to be buried with their mistress, but humans are selfish by nature. They thought that as long as their mistress hadn’t been discovered, they could live one more day at a time.
Lin Mingyan felt uneasy under their stares and finally explained, “No, this is something I discovered by accident before.”
“Saltpeter is a medicinal ingredient. If you stir it in water, it will form ice. It’s very simple.”
“If you don’t believe me, try it yourselves.”
Su He scratched his head. “It was indeed bought from the pharmacy, and it wasn’t too expensive…”
He tried it first and produced a basin of ice.
Then came the second and third basins.
“Alright, now that you know,” Lin Mingyan didn’t forget to remind them to keep it secret, “if others find out, the price of saltpeter will rise, and we won’t be able to afford it anymore!”
In fact, ancient people had long known about saltpeter ice-making, but in ancient times, knowledge was only held by the upper echelons of society.
Even if the nobility knew about it, they wouldn’t go to such lengths to make it themselves, because spending money was the simplest way.
No one would willingly suffer hardship for no reason.
But for Lin Mingyan and her people, it was different—they were poor.
“Yes, Gege!” The three of them were so happy they could have jumped for joy.
With saltpeter, this summer would be so comfortable!
Lin Mingyan ate chilled watermelon and drank caramel milk tea with ice cubes.
Apart from the lack of phones and the internet, this life was hundreds, even thousands of times better than in the modern era.
Today, she couldn’t resist spending money at the kitchen to have the master chef make her some fried chicken.
Fried chicken paired with iced milk tea, while listening to gossip—what a life!
But as she listened, she began to feel something was off. “What did you say? Fourth Master hasn’t entered the rear courtyard for over half a month?”
No way, no way?
Life had been so good lately that she had become a bit complacent and had completely forgotten about her boss.
“Yes, the Princess Consort, Concubine Song, and Concubine Li have all sent soup and water to the study twice already…” Du Juan said anxiously.
She had heard this today while waiting for the fried chicken at the kitchen, listening to the idle chatter of the young eunuchs there.
They thought Lin Gege was coming up with these novel delicacies to send to the study.
They had painstakingly prepared seven or eight portions, and in the end, they didn’t even take her money, just urged her to send them back quickly.
Lin Mingyan was at a loss. She had few servants here, and they were all inexperienced newcomers, so information was scarce.
But even now, with this news from the kitchen, she found herself in a dilemma.
Oh, the Princess Consort and the other two mistresses had already shown their loyalty twice, and Fourth Master hadn’t paid them any attention.
If she went and Fourth Master ignored her, that would be fine. But what if he didn’t?
Wouldn’t she be envied to death?!
But if she didn’t go, what would Fourth Master think?
“Everyone else cares about me, but you, Lin Shi, dare to show no concern at all?”
Lin Mingyan wasn’t speaking ill of Fourth Master behind his back—she genuinely believed that, based on the historical Yong Zheng’s temperament, he would indeed think this way!
Anyone who earned such thoughts from him, aside from the cold palace, where else could they end up?
Oh, wait, there wasn’t even a cold palace now—it would be Lengyuan.
Or even a mass grave!
Lin Mingyan was reluctant to give up the good days of fried chicken paired with milk tea, so she immediately stood up: “Tell me… what have they all sent?”
Fried chicken and milk tea were absolutely out of the question. Fourth Master was not a three-year-old child and did not need junk food for comfort.
Better to find out what the others in the same line of work had sent.
Du Juan had already inquired. The most commonly sent item was white fungus and lotus seed soup.
To reduce internal heat.
Lin Mingyan made the decision on the spot: “Then we’ll send that too! Add some ice cubes!”
Even better for reducing heat.