Yan Liqiang walked around Huanglong County alone. After just over an hour and asking two people, he arrived at Chaoyang Lane in the county and found the ice cream shop in the lane.
The name of this ice shop is Chaoyang Ice Shop, and it is located in the middle of the alley. When Yan Liqiang walked to the entrance of the alley, he saw the sign hanging outside the ice shop. When he saw the sign, Yan Liqiang walked over.
In his previous life, Yan Liqiang once thought that eating popsicles in summer was a privilege of modern people after the invention of refrigerators. It was not until he saw an auction of cultural relics on TV that one of the cultural relics was a box used by ancient people to store ice. After hearing the host's introduction, he realized that ancient Chinese people had been drinking cold drinks and eating popsicles in summer since the Tang Dynasty. He suddenly realized that he was uneducated.
When ancient people made ice, they did not use refrigerators, but saltpeter. When saltpeter dissolved in water, it will quickly absorb the heat in the water and turn the water into ice. The ancients used this property of saltpeter to make ice cubes - they filled two basins, one large and one small, with water, placed the small basin in the large basin, and then poured saltpeter into the large basin. When the large basin was frozen, the small basin would also be frozen.
It is the same in this world, except that only rich people can enjoy ice cubes in the summer, so ice shops can only be found in economically prosperous counties or big cities. Of course, there are also some wealthy people who have ice rooms in their homes to make ice, such as the Hong family in Liuhe Town. Yan Liqiang remembers that when he was a child, every year during the hottest days, Hong Tao, who was two years older than him, would come to the town school every afternoon with a popsicle with rock sugar. That kind of majesty was like a wealthy man driving a Rolls-Royce to the countryside, and he still remembers it vividly.
It was summer now, around 2pm. Cicadas were chirping in the old trees in the alley, the sun was blazing overhead, and the ground was steaming hot. A few kids were outside the ice shop, drooling and looking inside. A waiter in a blue uniform was standing at the door of the shop, shouting at the kids like a scarecrow chasing away sparrows in a rice field, "Go away, don't block the door. If you want ice cream, go and ask your dad for money..."
When the waiter pushed the kids away, Yan Liqiang walked into the ice cream shop.
Unlike outside, as soon as he entered the ice shop, Yan Liqiang felt that the temperature inside the shop was several degrees lower than outside. A cool breeze came over him, and he felt extremely comfortable.
There is a counter in the store, and behind the counter are several freezers with wooden exteriors and tin interiors.
A guy standing behind the counter looked at Yan Liqiang and thought that Yan Liqiang was not a kid who came here to eat and drink for free. He smiled and said, "Does this customer want to buy ice? We welcome all kinds of ice, pure ice, ice with rock sugar, and ice with bayberry juice. We have all kinds, and the price is reasonable. Which one does this customer want?"
When Yan Liqiang heard that there was ice with bayberry juice, he felt his mouth watering all of a sudden. Unfortunately, he knew that the ice sold in these ice shops was as small as a washbasin, and they were supplied to the needs of each household. Only wealthy families were willing to make popsicles like the one Hong Tao had eaten before. These small shops would not make ice as small as popsicles, because the cost was high and ordinary children could not afford it.
Yan Liqiang tried his best to show a pure smile on his face, and then he said to the guy, "Ahem, do you have saltpeter here?"
"What did you say?" The shop assistant looked surprised.
"I mean saltpeter, the saltpeter used to make ice. I want to buy some!"
"We only sell ice here, not saltpeter!" The smile on the guy's face gradually faded. If it weren't for the smile on Yan Liqiang's face, he would have kicked Yan Liqiang out long ago.
"I know. I'll just buy a little. I wonder if it will be helpful!"
The clerk shook his head firmly, "We don't sell saltpeter here, you should look somewhere else. Besides, the shopkeeper is not here, so I can't make the decision..."
"Then do you know where I can buy saltpeter?"
"I don't know either!"
As they were talking, a customer came in. The waiter immediately ignored Yan Liqiang and went to greet the new customer.
Looking at the clerk's face, Yan Liqiang knew that the deal would probably not go through. He touched his nose and walked out of the store.
…
For the next few hours, Yan Liqiang wandered around the county town of Huanglong County. He had never expected that it would be so difficult to buy some saltpeter.
He had been to three ice cream shops, but none of them was willing to sell him saltpeter. This almost drove Yan Liqiang crazy. Something like saltpeter had very narrow uses. In the entire county, apart from the ice cream shops, he didn't know where else he could find something like saltpeter.
Fortunately, Yan Liqiang had strong communication skills. Since saltpeter was not available in the store, he finally learned from an ice shop clerk that saltpeter was available in a fur purchasing business in Shiqiao Town, a major commercial town outside Huanglong County.
Yan Liqiang patted his head, then he remembered that in addition to making ice, saltpeter can also be used to tan leather. The business in Shiqiao Town not only bought leather, but also supplied some raw materials for tanning leather, such as lime and saltpeter.
…
When Yan Liqiang walked out of the business in Shiqiao Town, it was almost evening and the sun was about to set.
The saltpeter in the store is supplied to customers in large quantities. Those customers buy dozens or hundreds of kilograms at a time. Just now, when he went in and said he wanted to buy a pound of saltpeter, he was almost chased out by the clerks in the store. People thought he was going to make fun of them. Finally, Yan Liqiang took out some silver, and the clerk in the store sold him some with half belief and half doubt. However, the price, compared with saltpeter, is "sky-high". With two cents of silver, he only bought a pound in the end.
Yan Liqiang walked out of the store, touched the saltpeter in his arms and let out a long breath. This time he only bought a little to try whether he could make gunpowder. If he could, he would naturally find a way to get saltpeter in the future.
He looked up at the sky. It was already late. If he returned to the Artisan Camp too late, it would make Qian Su worry.
Thinking of this, Yan Liqiang walked towards the square in the town center not far away.
Shiqiao Town is a large commercial town with many merchants traveling back and forth. The square in the center of the town is surrounded by shops and restaurants. There are also many people setting up stalls on the edge of the square, selling herbs, sundries and the like. Horse carriages can also be rented at the square.
Yan Liqiang had just walked to the edge of the square and was about to call a carriage when he saw four rhinoceros horses rushing towards the square mountain from a distance like the wind. The four riders on the rhinoceros horses jumped off the horses, and one of them picked up a gong from the saddle and started to beat it quickly.
In his previous life, when he was browsing online forums, if he wanted his words to be read and spread by others, he would pin his post to the top or ask a big V to forward it. But in this world, there is no Internet and no forums. He heard that there are newspapers in some big cities, but Yan Liqiang has never seen one. Apart from the government posting various notices, for ordinary people, if they want to speak out in public and attract attention, the fastest way is to beat a gong in a crowded place.
Sure enough, in the blink of an eye, a large group of people around the square gathered around the four riders riding rhinoceros horses.
Because it was a matter of conversation nearby, Yan Liqiang wanted to watch the fun and squeeze into the crowd to see what these two people were up to.
Among the four riders, one was older and the other three were very young. Judging from the clothes worn by the older one, he seemed to be the steward of a wealthy family, while the three younger riders seemed to be guards or servants.
At this time, both the older steward and the three younger servants were sweating profusely and looked anxious. The three younger servants were better off, but the older steward was panting and his face was pale.
"Isn't that person the steward of the Lu family? What is he doing?"
A small vendor who was setting up a stall next to Yan Liqiang looked at the manager and spoke curiously to the person next to him, who happened to be heard by Yan Liqiang.
Yan Liqiang seemed to have heard of the Lu family before he came to Huanglong County. There was a large family with a history of hundreds of years in Huanglong County, and that family was the Lu family. However, Yan Liqiang didn't know whether the Lu family that people around him were talking about was the Lu family he had heard of. After all, there was more than one large family with the surname Lu in Huanglong County.
Seeing that hundreds of people had gathered around in an instant and had formed a circle, the manager took a few breaths, calmed himself down, raised his hand, and the servant who was beating the gong suddenly stopped.
Manager Lu first clasped his fists in front of the people around him, looked around, and then spoke loudly, "Dear villagers, dear friends, I am the manager of Lujia Manor in Lianhua Mountain, my name is Lu Wenbin, some of you may know me, I came here today to ask for an urgent matter, I wonder if any of you villagers and friends have a secret method to save a drowning person, a child in Lianhua Mountain Manor drowned today, I came here to ask for help!"
Manager Lu looked at the crowd with hopeful eyes, but the crowd fell silent. Everyone was puzzled. Yan Liqiang was also puzzled. Someone from the Lu family was drowning, and they actually came here to seek help. This was too strange.
"Manager Lu, there's a child drowning in Lujia Village. We should go find a doctor right away. The Lu family is so wealthy, there's no shortage of doctors out there. Why are you here?" Someone in the crowd immediately asked loudly, expressing the doubts in everyone's mind.
Manager Lu was silent for a few seconds, then spoke in a hoarse voice, "We have already found a doctor. The best doctors in Huanglong County and Pingxi City are already in Lujia Village, but the child has been drowning for three or four hours, and the doctors are helpless. There is no way, so I came to ask for help from all my friends in the village to see if you have any secret methods or secret recipes that I can try. If you can save the child, the Lu family will definitely reward you handsomely. Even if you can't save the child, the Lu family will not blame me..."
When the people around heard this, they immediately understood. The Lu family had invited the best doctors in Huanglong County and the county town, but they failed to save the child. Manager Lu said that three or four hours had passed, which meant that the drowning child had been silent for three or four hours. There are twelve hours in a day, and three or four hours is more than half a day. The child was dead and could not die any more. The best doctor the Lu family could invite could not do anything, so who else could do something
After all, this art of resurrection is just a legend. How could a child who was drowned be saved after such a long time? The Lu family probably wanted to save the child as a last resort. There was no hope and they could not find any other way, so they asked the steward to come outside to try this with a slight chance of survival.
After hearing this, the people around simply shook their heads and dispersed. The Lu family's generous reward was naturally tempting, but without the ability to bring the dead back to life, it would be a waste of time to go. If you don't have the ability, you might get into trouble if you just mess around.
The people who left were talking in low voices, wondering which child of the Lu family had drowned and made the Lu family so nervous.
As the people around him dispersed, the Lu family steward's eyes showed dejection and despair, and he lowered his head helplessly...
At this moment, Yan Liqiang hesitated for a moment, then walked directly to the Lu family's steward and said calmly, "Steward Lu, maybe I can give it a try..."
Hearing Yan Liqiang's voice, Manager Lu raised his head immediately. When he saw that the person standing in front of him was just a 14 or 15-year-old boy in ordinary clothes, the surprised expression on his face froze...
…
ps; It's Monday, please recommend my new book and collect it! Ahem... Ahem... By the way, sometimes when Tiger is writing, once he gets into it, he feels like he's still in Black Iron, and Zhang Tie accidentally comes out, causing typos. Tiger will try to strengthen the inspection in the future. If there are any mistakes or omissions, please forgive me!
(End of this chapter)