While Jing Shu was busy drying vegetables over those few days, the ever-growing flood of eggs and milk inside the Cube Space gave Jing Shu a headache.
It had to be admitted, the Cube Space was a very tricky "raising" game. A single misstep threw things out of balance. Either this ran short, or that piled up.
The last batch of salted duck eggs was almost gone. Grandma Jing happened to start another batch. Crack one open for breakfast and you felt energized all day.
As for quail eggs, no matter how many there were, Jing Shu could braise them, seal them in vacuum pouches, and eat them slowly.
But chicken eggs were already stacked high in the villa. Jing Shu's family fried eggs, steamed eggs, boiled eggs, and rotated through every egg dish daily.
Because No. 1 laid twenty eggs a day, and a dozen more hens were laying, there was no way Jing Shu's household could finish them. Midway through, Jing Shu even sent one laying hen and some eggs to her eldest aunt's family.
Here Jing Shu had to give Xiao Dou proper praise. Xiao Dou ate all sorts of random things and still managed to lay so many eggs.
And then there was the dairy cow. Fed on mixed leaves, it produced dozens of kilograms of milk. Jing Shu had already made two batches of yogurt shaved ice and three batches of coconut milk.
Luckily, the problem did not plague Jing Shu for long before a perfect solution presented itself.
The foolish son of Wu City's richest man, Qian Duoduo, wailed for ice cream in the heat. Qian Duoduo traded petroleum with the government to redeem pre-apocalypse ice cream from a cold storage. The boy declared it tasted "mixed" and bad, then tossed it to the bodyguards.
The lucky bodyguard was Luo Hao from Jing Shu's community. Back then, Zhu Fan had pulled two others to go guard for Qian Duoduo because guards got two meals a day.
Later, one of them was kidnapped and tortured to death by the Zhetian gang. Zhu Fan lacked real skill and was dropped. Only Luo Hao remained.
"Tsk tsk, you cannot imagine a rich man's life. Five people in the family, and three hundred of us take care of their five."
"He took one bite of a cone and did not want it. Said it tasted mixed. I thought it was heavenly. I will never forget that flavor. It…"
"I heard his dad is scouring the world for more ice cream. The government flipped every cold storage these days and came up empty. Word is he plans to hire people to make ice cream himself."
As Luo Hao bragged in the group about the taste of ice cream, Jing Shu, the perpetual lurker, her eyes light up.
Jing Shu did not know much about Qian Duoduo, only that Qian Duoduo's older sister was the wife of a high leader in the capital and very well connected.
Qian Duoduo had made a fortune in petroleum in Wu City and owned many wells. After getting rich, Qian Duoduo laundered the operation, folding it into the state oil base. Private became state-owned, yet Qian Duoduo held a large stake.
After the apocalypse, Qian Duoduo used connections to secure extraction rights. While others were requisitioned, Qian Duoduo expanded again. When people could not afford to eat, Qian Duoduo was rich to overflowing. The name Qian Duoduo fit perfectly.
Jing Shu happened to be short on diesel. Once the RV arrived, considering the migration distance and back-and-forth calculations, at least ten tons would be needed.
"Decision made. I will make ice cream in every flavor."
In the past, Jing Shu always felt it was too much trouble. Now that it could be turned into real value, there was no such thing as trouble. Jing Shu would never admit the tub of Haagen-Dazs ice cream she had was already half eaten and that Jing Shu wanted to make more for herself. In a few years people would freeze to death and would never eat like this again.
The essence of making cream was to whisk sugar and egg whites like crazy with a mixer until foamy peaks formed, then add milk, sugar, and oil to complete step one.
Whipping cream and cream were nearly the same. The key word was whisk. Milk had to be heated and stirred repeatedly until thick. Then egg yolks, cream, whipping cream, and milk were all combined and stirred into an ice cream base.
Jing Shu made multiple flavors: strawberry, chocolate, matcha, and original. Finally, Jing Shu poured each flavor into the freezer, taking the pans out once an hour to stir. After five or six rounds, it was ready. When you wanted some, you scooped a spoonful and one scoop could last a long while.
After working for several days, Jing Shu used up all the milk in the house and almost all the eggs, and finally produced two cubic meters of ice cream.
Ice on the tongue, cool in my heart.
The flavors were rich and sweet, no worse than Haagen-Dazs. In this heat, one bite was absolute bliss. Jing Shu felt perfectly satisfied.
Jing Shu packed the ice cream into 1 liter sealing jars and snapped on high-end lids. Instantly the jars looked premium. "If I do not sell these at a hundredfold markup, I would be letting the Cube Space down."
Of course Jing Shu would not foolishly run up and say, hi I am here to sell ice cream. That would cheapen the product.
Better to make people come begging. Only then could the price be raised.
As the saying went, the flower sedan is lifted by people. With smart people, you did not need to say a word. They would carry you up. Jing Shu happened to have the perfect person in mind.
The next day, Jing Shu took a cooler, packed the ice cream into fist-sized glass jars, and brought a bag of strawberries for Niu Yanben. The little one had a birthday. It was a gift. The moment the child tasted ice cream, Niu Yanben's smile bloomed like spring.
On the third day, a Maybach appeared at the villa gate. Jing Shu, a country bumpkin by her own admission, did not recognize it. Looking it up online, Jing Shu sucked in a breath. The pre-apocalypse starting price was six million.
Minister Niu Mou did not disappoint. Minister Niu Mou stepped out of the car and said at once, "Do you have more of the ice cream you gave my son yesterday? It was amazing."
Jing Shu lifted the corners of her mouth and nodded modestly. "I just messed around and made some at home."
"Great. Bring more and come with me."
Minister Niu Mou and Jing Shu met eyes and shared a knowing look.
So Jing Shu tucked the 1 liter jars into a cooler and got in the car with Minister Niu Mou.
The car was a luxury model. The driver was spotless in a black suit, and the air conditioning was on. Compared with ordinary citizens, the gap was enormous. In the apocalypse, even the richest man's driver lived far better than common folk.
All the way there, Jing Shu and Minister Niu Mou barely spoke. A few glances were enough. Jing Shu spent more time examining the luxury interior. It was nothing like normal cars.
Jing Shu had expected to go straight to see how huge Qian Duoduo's Xishan Villa was, but the car drove into a research institute instead.
When Minister Niu Mou brought Jing Shu in, Jing Shu saw the true depth of Qian Duoduo's wealth for the first time. There were over thirty men at the gate alone, all fierce-looking, likely Qian Duoduo's personal bodyguards, a stark contrast with the five or six regular security guards nearby.
Inside, there were jumbled experimental setups and instruments everywhere. It really was a research institute.
Jing Shu saw, sitting in the center, a middle-aged man in a Tang jacket with a drooping figure-eight mustache, sweat beading on his brow. Four bodyguards stood behind him.
The mustached man frowned while listening to a man in a white lab coat, surrounded by several anxious-looking people.
"Mr. Qian, we are here. The ice cream is here too," Minister Niu Mou said with a cheerful smile.