Lian Erye in the Red Mansion

The fourth prince was given a good scolding by Princess Zhaoyang.

Although she knew that her elder sister was right, and that his previous suggestion was indeed a desperate measure made out of helplessness.

He knew it wouldn't work.

However, he couldn't help but retort, "Mission? Sister, all you know is mission, what about your own happiness?"

Princess Zhaoyang narrowed her eyes, a rare look of panic appearing on her face.

She fell silent.

After a long pause, he said, "As a member of the royal family, when have I ever had the right to talk about happiness?"

Okay, you can go now.

I know you've grown up. I have no other wishes, except that after I leave, you should learn to think things through, consider things carefully before acting, and protect yourself.

Also, take good care of the Empress Dowager.

Princess Zhaoyang, who is usually quick-witted and eloquent, was rendered speechless by a single question posed by the Fourth Prince.

She, who once thought herself clear-headed, was also lost when experiencing the most important change in her life.

What is happiness?

Is the royal grandmother happy?

As the most honored woman in the world, receiving the Emperor's favor, she should have been the happiest woman in the world.

But she might not think so.

It is said that when she married her grandfather, he was already sixty years old.

Because she had no children, she could only tolerate her grandmother, the Dowager Consort, time and again.

Could this be considered happiness?

Then there's the Dowager Empress, who gave birth to the Emperor.

However, since her birth, she had never seen her grandfather treat her well, not even with a smile.

The two people were practically strangers.

Could this be considered happiness? And then there's the Emperor, who, despite having overcome numerous obstacles among his uncles and aunts to ascend the throne.

However, he was suppressed by his grandfather in the past. Although he is now in power, he is still hunched over documents every day. In order to get rid of the pressure from his grandfather, he dares not slack off for a moment.

Can this be considered happiness?

Ultimately, everyone carries their own mission and helplessness; there is only relative happiness, not absolute bliss.

"My elder sister?"

"You should go back now."

The fourth prince felt some regret.

I came here to cheer up my elder sister, but instead she seems to be making her even more unhappy.

Having no good solutions in mind, he could only sigh and leave dejectedly.

……

That evening, at the Muni Monastery.

Miaoyu received a response from Jia Lian.

Under the dim light, Miaoyu was almost mesmerized by the beautiful woman's portrait scroll unfolded on the table.

Although, by the standards of judging artistic skill, such a realistic ink painting would hardly receive her high praise.

However, this one is an exception.

As someone who looks at herself in the mirror multiple times a day, she recognized the woman in the painting as herself at first glance.

Besides the beautiful woman, the only other elements in the painting are a pavilion depicted with a few strokes in the background, and an ancient zither inside the pavilion.

That was when I first saw Jia Lian, and I was slightly annoyed.

Miaoyu was deeply shaken.

The painting she gave Jia Lian served two purposes: first, to tell him that she had gone to see him off; and second, to express her worries.

As a Buddhist disciple, yet clinging to the patronage of a government official's son, such behavior is inherently intolerable to the world.

Now Jia Lian is leading his army on an expedition, with thousands of chariots and tens of thousands of cavalry. How majestic and awe-inspiring!

Unfortunately, even though she knew he was right in front of her, she couldn't find him because he seemed so small.

Jia Lian replied to her immediately.

Your gentle image has always been in my heart, so don't worry, wait for me to come back.

This is the meaning that Miaoyu immediately deduced from Jia Lian's words.

"If love between two people is meant to last, why should they be together every day and night?"

As she murmured Jia Lian's inscription, Miaoyu suddenly felt much more at ease.

With such a kindred spirit, I am no longer afraid of any difficulties or obstacles ahead.

……

Several days later, they left the capital.

In such hot weather, even if ice were stored in the best ice container and ridden all the way from the capital, it would have melted long ago.

Therefore, the Fourth Prince could no longer rely on this method to obtain ice from the capital to make chilled fruit and chilled plum juice for Princess Zhaoyang to cool off in the summer.

I originally thought I could find ice in the counties and prefectures along the way.

But he overestimated the power of the local gentry.

Few wealthy families could afford to use ice cellars for ice storage, and even those who did would keep it secret and not publicize it.

His guards nearly ran themselves ragged trying to find a new source of ice.

The fourth prince was feeling irritable and restless due to the bad luck and the hot weather, and he found fault with everyone he saw.

"Jia Lian, let's go, let's have a fight."

There's really no point in bullying servants.

In the entire group, besides him and his elder sister, the most prestigious figures were naturally the Oirat prince and Jia Lian.

The Oirat prince naturally ignored him, so he turned his attention to Jia Lian instead.

Although he was embarrassed to break his promise and cause trouble for Jia Lian again after losing the last drinking contest with him, he also did not keep his promise to acknowledge Jia Lian as his elder brother.

As he drew closer to Yanmen Pass and the day he would part with his elder sister drew nearer, he became increasingly agitated and couldn't help but think about how Jia Lian had "abandoned" his sister.

He felt that picking a fight with Jia Lian was the best way to both keep his promise and vent his anger on Jia Lian.

Although he knew he couldn't beat Jia Lian in a fight, he also knew that Jia Lian was clever and would never kill him. He figured he could use underhanded tactics and succeed.

Jia Lian sat in front of the desk and, seeing the Fourth Prince's hostile demeanor, knew he had no good intentions.

How could we possibly go along with his wishes?

"What has Your Highness done to offend me that you've come to vent your anger on me?"

"Tch, who dares to put up with my attitude? I just wanted to spar with you."

Having his thoughts read at a glance, the Fourth Prince seemed slightly uncomfortable and shifted his hips while sitting on the stool.

Jia Lian smiled. "I heard that the Fourth Prince sent people out to search for ice these past two days, but they couldn't find any, so he's quite angry. Is that true?"

It would have been better if they hadn't brought it up, because it only made the fourth prince more indignant.

For several days in a row, the ice that he had worked so hard to get always ended up going to Jia Lian!

He couldn't understand why his elder sister, who didn't hate Jia Lian, was still so kind to him.

"No, it's just a trivial matter, why would I be angry?"

"Hurry up, you're not afraid I'll resort to dirty tricks, so you're too scared to fight me, are you?"

Jia Lian ignored the Fourth Prince's words again and laughed, "If I said I had a way to get the ice for the Fourth Prince, I wonder if that would calm him down?"

"I already said I didn't... Wait a minute, you said you could find ice? Where?"

The fourth prince suddenly stood up, walked up to Jia Lian, and questioned him.

Jia Lian did not answer, but summoned Zhao'er and asked, "Is everything ready?"

"Second Master, everything is prepared as you instructed."

Jia Lian nodded and said to the Fourth Prince, "Your Highness, please."

The fourth prince frowned, thinking to himself, "I'd like to see what tricks you're up to."

Behind the large tent, there was an open space.

Jia Lian's personal guards had already surrounded the area.

In the middle of the area, there was a huge, newly made wooden barrel, and next to it were piles of burlap sacks containing things of unknown purpose.

The fourth prince glanced at them and asked Jia Lian, "These are the ice blocks you mentioned?"

The fourth prince knew how precious ice was at this time of year, so how could he possibly use a burlap sack to hold it?

Jia Lian shook his head: "This is for making ice."

"Making ice? Ice can be made? How?"

"Your Highness, please wait a moment, and you will find out."

As he spoke, Jia Lian instructed the guards to fetch clean river water.

……

Hearing that Jia Lian and the Fourth Prince were going to make ice on the spot, many people came to watch the spectacle.

This included the third prince of the Oirat Mongols.

"General Jia, what are you doing?"

The fourth prince felt very uncomfortable when he heard the third prince of the Oirat speaking broken Chinese.

So she pretended not to hear him and asked Jia Lian, "Is everything ready? What do we do now?"

Jia Lian nodded to the third prince of the Oirat Mongols, then instructed Zhao'er and the others to pour the river water into the large wooden bucket, while he filled the iron bucket with water from the accompanying waterwheel.

He placed the iron tube inside the wooden barrel, closed the lid, and then instructed Zhao'er, Zhang Yong, and others to pour the saltpeter from the sack into the barrel and stir it.

Saltpeter is used to make ice.

This is a method that almost every reader who has ever used the internet knows.

Jia Lian had tried it that summer when he first came into this world.

Then he understood why, despite the fact that ancient books clearly recorded it, people at the time did not use this method to make ice at all.

"So this is how you make ice?"

The fourth prince expressed his doubts.

He ran to the wooden barrel and examined it repeatedly.

"Increase the dosage."

Following Jia Lian's instructions, the guards cut open bags of saltpeter and poured them into large wooden barrels.

“Eh…”

The fourth prince suddenly felt a chill coming towards him, and he was stunned.

She reached out to touch it, but then withdrew her hand and turned to ask Jia Lian, "May I touch it?"

He was afraid it was poisonous because it didn't smell very good.

Seeing Jia Lian nod, he felt relieved and reached his hand into the water.

Then he was surprised to find that the river water, which should have been warm, had become extremely cold in just a short time, and even felt chillingly cold.

This……

The fourth prince found it an eye-opening experience.

Upon seeing this, the Oirat prince also stepped forward to investigate, and then showed a similar expression of surprise.

Jia Lian did not look down on them for their limited knowledge.

Although it's a method that's been around for a long time, it's so impractical that nobody uses it anymore.

If it's useless, it naturally won't be passed down.

Unless one is a person with a wide range of knowledge, it is really difficult for others to know this.

---Aside---

The ice-making method was learned from the internet, and its authenticity remains to be verified.

In short, the most reliable way to use ice in the summer in ancient times was to dig deep ice cellars for storage.

Other methods generally have some problems.