351 Ice?
“Alright,” Jiang Yue agreed.
Xue Yan cut another piece of liangpi and put it in a large bowl.
Jiang Yue mixed it again.
This time, it was delivered by Xue Yan. Xue Yan was taller than Jiang Yue, so he easily placed it on the table in front of the customer.
“Xue Yan, Jiang Yue, I’m back. Hurry, hurry, drink it to relieve the summer heat.” Xue Sifu ran back with two bowls of herbal tea. He gave one to Jiang Yue and the other to Xue Yan.
“It’s too much, I can’t drink that much.” Jiang Yue said.
Xue Yan couldn’t drink that much either. Hence, Xue Sifu took another bowl and poured half a bowl from Jiang Yue and Xue Yan into his own bowl.
After that, Jiang Yue and Xue Yan drank their fill slowly.
Xue Sifu was much more domineering as he raised his head and finished it in one breath.
Just then, someone came to the stall to eat rice noodles. Xue Sifu hurriedly washed his hands in the basin of water at the side before going to make the cold rice noodles.
It was almost noon. All the liangpi had been sold, but only about 40 bowls of rice noodles were sold today. Including the bowls of liangpi, there were only about 70 bowls in total, which was nearly 30 bowls less than yesterday.
It must be because it was hotter than yesterday.
There were two people eating cold rice noodles at the stall. The two of them came together and were talking to Jiang Yue and the others while eating.
One of them laughed and said, “Your stall isn’t placed at the right spot. It’s too hot here. In two days, it’ll be even hotter. I probably won’t come here either. I haven’t even eaten and I’m already sweating.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. You can come here to eat again when the weather turns cold again.” Xue Sifu smiled.
“Of course.” The man was a forthright person. “This is the first time I’ve seen something called liangpi. It’s not available in other stalls in town. It’s really interesting.”
The other one laughed and said, “Yeah, I really like this new dish. I think it’s better than noodles. You said that liangpi is also made of flour. I really couldn’t tell. It would be great if your stall was placed somewhere cooler, if it was then it’d come here every day just to eat it.”
The other man continued, “It’s so hot here. I think you should wait until it’s cooler to set up your stall. We don’t want you and the kids to get a heatstroke. They’re so young, and children can’t stand the heat.”
“Yes, you’re right.” Xue Sifu laughed.
The man sighed. “If I didn’t have to work to support the family, I wouldn’t even want to work on such a hot day. I feel like I’m going to faint from the heat here.”
“Me too,” Another person said, “I almost wanted to drench myself in water in the morning. Even though the water isn’t as cool in the summer. However, the well water was cold. Drinking it felt really refreshing.”
“Speaking of ice-cold,” the man put down his chopsticks, “If only I had a lot of money. I heard that rich people will eat ice in the summer. Think about it, it’s ice. Even a casual bite will definitely cool the body.”
Finally, someone mentioned ice.
Jiang Yue glanced at Xue Yan, obviously wanting to say that this was a good opportunity to tell Sifu about making ice with saltpeter after the two left.
Xue Yan looked back at her and gave her a slight nod.
“Isn’t that so!” Another person immediately agreed. “Are you sure it’s a thing? I heard that the rich don’t necessarily have ice to eat. Only the nobles can eat ice on hot days because they have an ice cellar. In the winter, they will extract ice and store it in the ice cellar, then eat it in the summer. In any case, I’ve never heard of any rich family having ice to eat.”