Mo Yan returned ho and imdiately wrote a letter to Xiao Ruiyuan, informing him that her best friend was pregnant and that she was about to beco a godmother. In her words, an unconcealed joy shone through for her friend, who had a gentle and considerate husband, and soon they would welco a new life, causing her, an outsider, to feel happy too.
The letter was just so trivial family matters, plain and no different from usual. But to Xiao Ruiyuan, the words took on a different taste.
The next day, after lunch, while Mo Yan sprawled in a rattan chair, fanning herself and eating waterlon pulled up from the well, she asked Lixiu when the start of autumn was as the bells under the eaves in the courtyard started to ring. When Liyan ran to open the gate, a procession of bulky items wrapped in old quilts was carried in, one after the other.
These lumpy objects, about two feet in length, width, and height and quite heavy, required the strength of two n to bring inside. Once Mo Yan found out that these "big things" had been specially transported from the Hou Mansion by Xiao Ruiyuan, she was so surprised that she couldn’t close her mouth.
She belatedly realized that soone had been provoked by her letter from the day before, and by sending over so many ice blocks today, was he not bluntly telling her that there was no need to envy anyone—she too had a considerate fiancé?
These ice blocks had been stored since last winter and were kept in the ice cellar of the Hou Mansion. The Hou Mansion only housed Xiao Xiong, who had been stripped of his marquis title, and couldn’t possibly use so many ice blocks. The General Mansion, inhabited entirely by burly n, paid no heed to the scorching heat.
Therefore, at Xiao Eleven’s reminder, Xiao Ruiyuan finally rembered that the Hou Mansion had these excellent items for warding off sumr’s heat and ordered most of them moved to the Mo Family residence.
The Mo Family had a cellar, but it was filled with lots of valuable items. Luckily, the cellar was spacious enough; with a bit of rearranging and shifting, the two hundred blocks of ice fit perfectly.
The temperature in the cellar wasn’t low, and if a single block of ice were to be placed inside, it would all lt into water before long. Now, with so many ice blocks stacked together, the heat was "rcilessly" chased away. If one wanted to stay inside for a while, they would need to put on a cotton-padded jacket.
With the ice blocks, life for the family beca much more comfortable. Each of these ice blocks was twice as big as those from the Shen family, and three were enough for one day. At night, everyone just laid their bamboo mats on the floor and opened all doors and windows. With Six Beasts as their guard, there was no need to worry about thieves breaking in.
"Sister, brother-in-law is really thoughtful, considering even this. With so many ice blocks, we’ll have enough until the weather cools down!" Xin Er sat tightly next to the ice basin, enjoying the cool breeze emanating from it, "Ice blocks are selling for such a high price now, we might as well dig a big ice cellar and store so ice every winter. Even if our family doesn’t use them all, we can still sell them. A thousand blocks are worth over two hundred taels of silver."
"Your brother-in-law isn’t here, and no matter how many nice things you say, he can’t hear them," Mo Yan said, teasing her sister, who appeared quite "hopeless," "Besides, it’s only because the climate is abnormal this year and so wealthy families are short on ice that there’s a high demand for it, allowing those selling ice to make a fortune. It wasn’t like this in previous years."
No one is a fool—ice has no cost, aside from perhaps spending so silver to build the ice cellar. Who wouldn’t want to do such a business? But hot weather like this year’s is very rare, and the ice business is not as lucrative as imagined.
Moreover, not everyone has the space to construct such a large ice cellar, hence those in the ice business tend to be well-off families. Selling ice is often just incidental, otherwise the inco from it wouldn’t even be enough to support the family for a year.
Upon hearing this, Xin Er said disappointedly, "I was thinking that selling ice could make a fortune and open the embroidery room sooner. Alas, silver is not that easy to earn after all."
Seeing her exaggerated expression, everyone laughed together. Liyan pointed at the half-embroidered bird and flower design in Xin Er’s hand, encouraging her, "Your embroidery skills have been improving, and now a large screen can sell for twenty taels of silver. In a couple of years, it’ll definitely go for fifty taels apiece, and by then you won’t have to worry about not making money."
Xin Er looked at her embroidery and wailed, "I’ve been working on this for four months now, and I still have to embroider for another two months before it’s done. That is to say, a large screen takes six months to finish. Even if it sells for fifty taels, I’d only earn just over eight taels of silver after a month of hard work. Right now, it’s worth twenty taels, which ans I only earn a little over three taels a month. Who knows how many years it’ll take to earn fifty taels of silver!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)