Back to the 1970s: Building My Fortune Through Time Trading-Chapter 398: Establishing an Ice Factory

"Village chief, are you home?"

A man’s urgent voice came from outside the door, filled with anxiety.

Chen Guanghai glanced apologetically at Su Xiaoxiao: "Sister, you all eat first. There’s nothing good at home, don’t mind, okay? I’ll be out for a while and will be back soon."

With that said, he hurried off.

Out of curiosity, Su Xiaoxiao turned her head to look and saw a middle-aged man in patched clothes standing at the door. The man looked displeased, with many bruises on his face and body, as if he had just had a fight.

From not far away, she could clearly hear the two men talking.

She gradually understood the situation.

It turned out that due to limited resources, the nearby villages took turns going out to fish.

A few young people from these villages couldn’t bear their family’s hardships anymore and secretly took a boat out to fish, accidentally running into people from the neighboring village. The others saw them and rudely crashed into them with their boat.

Fortunately, everyone from the village was good at swimming, and there were no casualties.

After coming ashore, the few tried to reason with the neighboring villagers, but the conversation quickly turned into a physical altercation.

"Village chief, you’d better go check it out. If they keep fighting, someone might die."

Hearing this, Chen Guanghai couldn’t worry about anything else and hurriedly left with the man.

Wang Xiujuan, seeing her husband leave, was also worried and quickly said to Chen Lingling, "Er Ya, you take Comrade Su to eat first while I go check on your uncle and them."

She wouldn’t feel at ease without taking a look.

Once Wang Xiujuan left, only Chen Lingling and the three older children remained in the room.

The three children stared eagerly at the braised beef and beef chunks on the table, not the least bit concerned about anything else.

Su Xiaoxiao pushed the food towards them, "Eat, sister is treating you."

The youngest, Chen Laosan, reached out immediately, but Chen Laoda smacked his hand, causing his eyes to fill with tears instantly, "Waaa, big brother, why did you hit me?"

Chen Laoda said very seriously, "Mom said we can’t eat food from strangers."

This little boy was young but behaved like a little grown-up.

Su Xiaoxiao pushed the food forward again, "Don’t worry. I’ll tell your mom later. She won’t blame you. I’m your dad’s friend, which means I’m your friend, not a stranger."

Chen Lingling thought to herself that the relationships were genuinely quite confusing, with everyone being called sister or big brother at times.

She picked up some braised beef with chopsticks.

The beef was cut into thin slices, coated with a bit of broth, looking very enticing.

She put the beef in her mouth and sighed in satisfaction, "Delicious, it’s so good."

The three children looked longingly at her, and the room was filled only with the sound of gulping.

Chen Laosan couldn’t resist anymore, "Cousin already ate, so it must be okay to eat."

He didn’t wait for his older brother’s response and quickly grabbed a piece to put in his mouth, chewing it swiftly and attempting to swallow.

The next moment, his face suddenly changed, and it quickly turned red.

Realizing the child was choking, Su Xiaoxiao immediately reacted.

"Laosan, what’s wrong? Are you choking? Come, drink some water, drink more to swallow it down."

Laoda promptly tried to get water to Laosan.

Su Xiaoxiao hurriedly stopped him, "Don’t give him water yet. If he gets choked, it’ll be bad."

With that, she quickly stood up, embraced the child from behind, clenched her left hand into a fist, covered it with her other hand, and located the spot two fingers above the child’s belly button, striking it with force.

"Sister, what are you doing?"

Chen Lingling looked at her strange posture, a little surprised.

Su Xiaoxiao had no time for a detailed explanation, quickly saying, "Don’t worry, it’ll be fine soon."

She continued to apply force with her hands until a "poof" was heard, and a piece of beef was expelled from Laosan’s mouth. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The moment the beef came out, Chen Laosan burst into tears with a "waa."

Su Xiaoxiao thought he was scared and hurriedly comforted him, "It’s okay, it’s okay now."

Unexpectedly, before she finished speaking, Chen Laosan sobbed, "My beef... waaa... I didn’t even taste it yet..."

Saying this, he even tried to pick up the piece of beef he coughed out from the ground. Su Xiaoxiao quickly pulled him away.

How could he want something covered in saliva and dirt? It’s disgusting.

She hurriedly took out a few pieces of White Rabbit candy from her pocket, "Be good, the ground is full of germs, we can’t take it, sister will give you candy."

She always carried some candies with her, which came in handy now.

Seeing the White Rabbit candy, Chen Laosan stopped crying immediately.

Su Xiaoxiao finally let out a long breath; she had no idea how to stop a child from crying, fortunately, her own youngest siblings didn’t like to cry.

Turning her head and noticing Chen Laoda and Laoer’s expectant gaze, she also took out similar amounts and divided them among them.

The two children took them carefully. Laoer and Laosan immediately unwrapped the candy and put one piece into their mouths.

Chen Laoda looked at the candy in his hand, then at the door, eventually putting the candy away carefully in his pocket without eating any.

Soon, the Chen couple returned.

Chen Guanghai had bruises on his face, Wang Xiujuan’s hair was disheveled, with a few blood-red scratch marks on her hands and face, both looking like they had just been in a fight.

Chen Guanghai sat down at the dining table with a dark face, having lost his appetite.

He had anticipated that something like today would happen for some time.

Their survival depended on this patch of sea, taking turns to go out fishing from each village.

When it was their village’s turn to fish, times were a bit better.

When it wasn’t, those times were hard to endure.

With no food or income at home, they barely survived by making fishing nets, and when days got unbearable, some would secretly go fishing.

Continuing like this wasn’t a solution; they needed to find a way to increase the villagers’ incomes so they could eat even when not fishing.

Thinking about Su Xiaoxiao’s proposal earlier, he couldn’t help but speak, "Sister, about the ice-making factory you mentioned before, I’ve thought it over. When would be a convenient time to ask about the ice machines for us?"

Su Xiaoxiao thought for a moment; indeed, it wasn’t difficult for her, but the issue was the high cost of ice machines. Given Chenhe Village’s situation, it was likely they couldn’t afford to buy one.

Moreover, building an ice factory required more than just ice machines; they also needed to construct sealed warehouses for making ice blocks.

Seeing her remain silent, Chen Guanghai felt a bit embarrassed, "I’m sorry, I know this might be a bit difficult..."

Before he finished speaking, Su Xiaoxiao interjected, "I can help you get an ice machine, but it’s expensive. I suggest you find other income sources first and then consider building an ice factory."

Upon hearing this, the light in Chen Guanghai’s eyes dimmed significantly. "If I knew other ways to earn money, I wouldn’t be so worried. Look at us; the land yields nothing, fishing requires taking turns... sigh..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Su Xiaoxiao said, "I do have another money-making idea. Would you be willing to try it?"