Transmigrated as a Peasant Baby Who is Pampered by All

Chapter 413: Chapter 260: Summer

Once again, coming back down from the mountain with Xiao Hei, Auntie had just made some shaved ice, topped with raisins, a bit of hawthorn cake, and small glutinous rice balls drizzled with red flower syrup. It looked amazing.

”You’re back? Come try this. It’s so hot out, why do you keep running around outside? Aren’t you worried about getting sunburned?”

Xiao Mi took a bowl of shaved ice, mixed the various toppings with a spoon, took a bite, and showed a face of pure enjoyment.

Of course, while eating, she didn’t forget to butter up: ”It’s so delicious, Mom! Your cooking skills have really improved!”

The shaved ice was homemade. After summer started, Uncle Liu brought back some saltpeter, along with a method for making ice with it.

Liu Ze’s mom was quite generous, even having people write down many recipes for ice desserts. As long as they weren’t shared outside, they could make whatever they wanted at home!

Of course, it was said that girls should eat less, so even though Xiao Mi and Xiao Xue craved it, they could only have one bowl each day.

There were rules to making ice, though. Ice made directly with saltpeter isn’t edible.

So they would use a large basin for making ice, placing a smaller one inside, pouring cool boiled water into it, and waiting for the cool water to freeze into ice water or shaved ice.

Once the ice made with saltpeter melted, the saltpeter could be reused by drying it out.

To facilitate this, Jiang Hu especially crafted a large, flat, and short frame, lined with oilcloth, to dry the melted ice water which would be gone in a day or two.

Leaving the scorching sunlight behind and eating the cool shaved ice—what an indulgence in life!

”Mom, the second sister and the others are coming back soon. What are we having for dinner?”

Auntie usually made the shaved ice in the afternoon so everyone could have some when they returned home. At night, they would put the ice cubes beside their beds to cool down, making sleep much more comfortable.

It was fortunate that Uncle Liu brought back quite a bit of saltpeter. However, by fall, all the saltpeter powder had to be returned to the authorities.

Saltpeter is strictly controlled; only a few can spend a fortune to rent it for the summer. Failing to return it by fall could result in charges as grave as treason.

”Tonight we’ll have cold noodles. We slaughtered a chicken this afternoon, and it’s already been stewed. We’ll have the chicken breast and leg meat in a cold salad, along with some mushroom chicken soup.”

”Wow, so much delicious food. Thank you, Mom!”

In the past few months, the eggs from the chickens and ducks rarely went to market, mostly kept for hatching. Now there were plenty of chickens, ducks, and geese, especially the chickens—over a hundred!

And there were plenty of pigs, too.

When building the pigsty, Jiang Hu took the chance to mention wanting to sell piglets, asking for introductions for a reward of two coins per piglet referred.

There were already over ten pigs in the sty, five of which were young sows.

Initially, they had promised all the piglets from the next litter to Zhang Yuan’s family—who were also Xiao Cao’s parents—but with suitable ones now available, they bought them early.

Because Xiao Mi and Xiao Cao were close, Zhang Yuan’s parents didn’t mind; their sow was only just pregnant and hadn’t farrowed yet.

Jiang Hu came back from the backyard and saw Xiao Mi eating shaved ice: ”Where’s your mom?”

”In the kitchen,” Xiao Mi pointed behind her.

Jiang Hu turned around and left.

Xiao Mi pursed her lips; she was used to it.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before she heard her dad’s voice from the kitchen.

”Didn’t I tell you not to mess with cold things these days since you’re feeling unwell? Let me do it. You go check if the kids are back.”

Xiao Mi sighed softly. ”Whether Big Brother and the others are back or not, Dad, wouldn’t you know best? You just came in from outside, didn’t you immediately notice if the cart was back?”

She was long accustomed to her parents’ interactions.

It must be noted that her dad had this progressive mentality of ’Don’t shortchange the kids or the adults,’ even when the family was dirt-poor.

Back when they rarely splurged on meat buns, her dad insisted on one for each, not allowing her mom to save them all for the kids.

Honestly, it wasn’t a bad approach. From past life news, it was clear that parents lowering themselves excessively didn’t help children’s growth.

So while in other families it was, ”Dad, where’s Mom?” in theirs it was, ”Kid, where’s your mom?”

Xiao Mi thought nothing strange about it; you just get used to it.

”Xiao Mi, once you’re done, take a bowl over to Grandpa Liu. He’s by the pond.”

”Oh, got it.”

Summer temperatures were high, causing the shaved ice to melt quickly. By the last bite, only ice water was left. She downed it in one shot, then picked up Grandpa Liu’s share to take over to him.