352 Fulfilled Dreams
“You’ve never been out of town, so of course, you don’t know. Do you think those super-rich people would not have ice? They’ll definitely make an ice house to collect ice in winter and eat it in summer.” The man continued. “But it’s unfortunate that no one in our town has ice to sell in the summer. Maybe our town is too small. No matter how rich we are, it’s not enough when we are compared to other larger places.”
“When I earn big money, I’ll also dig an ice cellar. I’ll collect ice in the winter and store it there. When summer comes, I’ll make sure that I’ll have enough ice to last the whole season,” Xue Sifu joked.
“You got big dreams, kid.” The two men laughed.
When the two finished eating and left, Xue Yan lowered his voice and said to Xue Sifu, “Sifu, I once read in a book that mentioned something called a saltpeter. It said that the saltpeter accidentally fell into a bowl of water, and the water became a little cold. I think it’s because saltpeter absorbs heat and makes the water cool. If there’s enough saltpeter, is it very likely to freeze the water…”
“Xue Yan!” Xue Sifu immediately covered his precious little brother’s mouth and looked around. When he saw that no one was paying attention to them or hearing his precious little brother’s words, he pulled his precious little brother and little sister to the corner behind their stall, further away from the people at the neighboring stall.
Sifu’s huge reaction caused Jiang Yue and Xue Yan to look at each other in shock.
“Xue Yan… About what you said…” As soon as they came to the corner, Xue Sifu couldn’t help but look around. Seeing that they were quite far away, he asked in an especially low voice, unable to hold back his excitement, “About that saltpeter. Can it really freeze water?”
“It’s very likely if the book is true,” Xue Yan also whispered.
“Alright. Alright.” Xue Sifu rubbed his palms together. Although his voice was pitifully soft, it made him even more excited. “We’ll go buy some saltpeter later, but where can we find it? Is it expensive?”
“Saltpeter has a very high medicinal value. It’s sold in general clinics, but it’s quite expensive. The rarer an item is, the more expensive it is. Since it’s so expensive, it is sold in small quantities, which means we can’t buy much. If we want to buy more, we’ll probably have to ask Yuxuan’s father for help. He’s a doctor, and a famous one at that. He should be able to get more saltpeter. One more thing…”
“What is it?” Xue Sifu immediately asked.
“Although saltpeter can be used for medicine, it is pretty poisonous. Even if it is used to treat diseases, it can only be used in a very small amount. If it can really be used to make ice, we can’t directly put saltpeter in the water used to make the ice. If we put it in, then the ice can’t be eaten.”
“If we can really make ice here, how are we going to make edible ice?”
“You can fill a large basin with water, and then a small basin with water can be placed in the large basin. The saltpeter can be placed in the water in the larger basin. Not only will the water in the large basin freeze, but the water in the small basin will also freeze. Then we can just eat the ice in the small basin.”
“That’s a great idea! Alright, if saltpeter can really make ice, then we’ll do it this way!” Xue Sifu was very happy.
Xue Yan looked at Jiang Yue again and said, “Saltpeter can be reused. Yuxuan had a medical book that talked about saltpeter. It was written how to separate the saltpeter from the soil. You put the soil in a bucket, soak it in water, and then filter it. Then, boil or dry the filtered water to get saltpeter. If you can make ice, the saltpeter will be in the ice. You can boil or dry the ice, and you should be able to get more saltpeter.”
The latter part of the sentence was a little inaccurate. Jiang Yue had told him yesterday that saltpeter could be reused by the cooling crystallization method and the evaporation crystallization method.