Back to the 60s: The Struggle Career of a Charmed Wife

After feeding Xibao, Feng Qingxue stepped out of the bedroom and didn’t find Lu Jiang, "Tianjun, where’s your uncle?"

She was sure she had heard Lu Jiang entering the room and unwrapping candy while she was feeding Xibao.

"In the kitchen." Lu Tianjun, mouth filled with creamy candy, did not want to talk, yet, being unable to avoid Feng Qingxue’s question, spat out two words quickly, then hastened to dissolve the candy in his mouth.

Etiquette in the Lu Family was ingrained in his bones, thus he was uncomfortable speaking with food in his mouth.

Feng Qingxue knew his nature very well, chuckled and carried her plump son, who was contented after being fed and changed and was happily playing with the end of her braid. She asked her nephew to help her draw the curtain aside. Mother and son stepped into the kitchen amidst the clanking sound.

"Ajiang, what are you doing?"

"I left two half-buckets of water outside yesterday, and they have frozen into ice blocks today. I didn’t have the time to chip at it in the morning. Now, I’m making a hole in the ice block for the meat, so it won’t go bad for a few days." Lu Jiang showed his wife the bucket with a hole carved out.

The winters then were far colder than those decades later, and water turned to ice almost instantly during the frozen December.

There was half a bucket of solid ice with a large hole carved in the middle. He put two pounds of pork in it, and there was still room to spare. Lu Jiang casually washed the large intestine a couple of times and coiled it in, placing pork bones atop the ice chunk.

Covered with a bucket lid, wasn’t it a natural fridge?

Winter had this advantage; you could freeze dumplings, and many types of food would keep for many days without going bad.