In her past life, Jiang Si had eaten plenty of raw wintersweet flowers, so she knew Shen Baoying’s wintersweet cakes would be delicious.

Jiang Si nodded. "I’ll help you pick some."

"Okay. Pick the buds that are just barely starting to open. Their petals are especially tender and fragrant."

When Niu Niu heard that, she quickly said, "I’ll help pick them too, Jiang Si! Let me help!"

Jiang Si smiled. "Okay, I’ll get you a small basket."

They collected nearly half a small basket of wintersweet flowers from the two trees.

Shen Baoying already had warm water ready. She took the wintersweet flowers, removed their stems and centers, and rinsed them in the water. After draining them, she stirred them into the prepared batter of egg and flour.

Inside the ice house, there was only a charcoal fire. To pan-fry the cakes, Shen Baoying had to control the heat carefully.

A dollop of batter was swirled around in the non-stick pan. As the edges of the batter curled and turned golden, Shen Baoying flicked her wrist and effortlessly flipped it over.

The splendidly golden-brown cake made Jiang Si and Niu Niu exclaim over Shen Baoying’s skill.

Shen Baoying gave a proud smile. "It just takes a little practice. It’s very simple."

Niu Niu was eager to try, so Shen Baoying handed her a small pan. Flipping it was the hardest part. Although Niu Niu was young, she was very clever. Her cake wasn’t as round or as evenly and beautifully colored as Shen Baoying’s, but it was already on par with Jiang Si’s.

While they were still hot, everyone tore off a piece of the wintersweet cake to taste. It was soft, sweet, and utterly delicious.

Jiang Si said, "Not bad. It’s really good."

Niu Niu loved it too and cleverly suggested, "We could pick some more wintersweet flowers, dry them, and store them. Then whenever we want to eat wintersweet cakes or drink wintersweet tea, we can just take them out."

Shen Baoying pinched her little cheek and praised her, "Niu Niu, you’re so smart."

Niu Niu shyly lowered her gaze. ’I want to grow up quickly,’ she thought. ’I want to become someone useful to everyone and repay them for taking care of me.’

The cakes paired with mutton soup—it was a match made in heaven.

The steaming mutton soup was bubbling in the hot pot. Jiang Si went to call the others for the meal. Qin Shen, Jiang Linhai, and the others had piles of snow on their heads, and she had no idea what they’d been doing.

Jiang Si walked over to brush the snow off Jiang Linhai, but he pushed her toward Qin Shen instead.

Jiang Si met Qin Shen’s eyes. She reached up to his shoulder and gently brushed off the snowflakes. "How did you get like this?"

Qin Shen said, "The concrete freezes too easily. Uncle Jiang said we need to build a small shed first, light a heater inside to maintain the concrete’s temperature, and then pour it directly into the ground."

Jiang Si looked at the lumber on the ground and realized what had happened. They must have been moving the wood. No wonder they were covered in snow.

"Aren’t you cold? Go back inside, eat, and warm up by the fire. If you stay out too long, you’ll lose body heat."

Qin Shen shook his head. "I’m not cold."

After brushing the snow off themselves, Jiang Linhai and Lu Zhifeng walked ahead, leaving the two of them alone.

Jiang Si hesitated for a moment, then took his hand. "Let’s go. We’re going back to eat."

"Okay."

Jiang Si and Qin Shen hadn’t even reached the ice house yet when they could see the door curtain being held open a crack from afar, with several heads bobbing in and out of view.

Jiang Si gave Qin Shen a helpless look. "Everyone seems very pleased with you."

Qin Shen suddenly stopped. "Are you not pleased?"

His dark eyes were full of aggression, carrying a pressure that demanded an answer.

A corner of Jiang Si’s mouth lifted. She stood on her tiptoes and, through her mask, kissed him on the lips. "What do you think?"

They both knew the answer. They looked at each other, smiled, and returned to the ice house hand in hand.

This only served to further excite the anxious onlookers inside the ice house.

After finishing the steaming mutton soup and cakes, everyone felt a renewed sense of energy.

Jiang Linhai led the men to continue building the greenhouse, while Jiang Si planned to take Niu Niu to the seashore to go ice fishing and see what kind of fish were still alive in these waters.

The first step of ice fishing was to break through the ice. The temperature had risen a bit these past few days, and the sea ice was noticeably thinner.

Still, it was over a meter thick and could easily support their weight.

Jiang Si took out an electric drill and, without much effort, broke open a hole in the ice about a meter long.

Usually, only the large fish could survive such a sudden, drastic change in the weather.

Jiang Si took out a large anchor hook and took the opportunity to teach Niu Niu.

These were all survival skills that would be very useful for her when she had to survive on her own in the future.

In her past life, when she had no fishhooks, she had tried every possible method to catch fish, even being forced to jump into the water to grab them with her bare hands.

In this life, she had an electric drill, a fishing rod, and all sorts of other tools and bait. She was filled with a sense of blissful contentment.

After waiting patiently for a while, the fishing rod suddenly jerked. The immense pulling force nearly yanked Jiang Si right into the sea.

Fortunately, Jiang Si was experienced and quickly steadied herself.

This fish was truly massive; it pulled the line taut in an instant.

After struggling with it for a good while, Jiang Si finally hauled the fish up amid Niu Niu’s cheers.

The fish she’d caught was a large grouper, weighing around seven or eight pounds.

Grouper was highly nutritious. Its flesh was tender and white, and it contained astaxanthin, which could slow aging, enhance memory, and delay mental decline. Its texture was somewhat similar to chicken. In the Sun Country, they liked to prepare it as sashimi, where the translucent flesh was exceptionally fresh and delicious.

Domestically, it was more often steamed or braised in soy sauce, but no matter how it was prepared, it was always extremely popular.

It was rare to catch such a large wild grouper domestically. This one fish alone was enough to make a whole pot of stew for everyone tonight.

Jiang Si was in a good mood and prepared to catch a few more.

At the same time, she found a small fishing rod for Niu Niu to let her get a feel for it.

The moment the line hit the water, it was as if they had poked a grouper nest; they started biting one after another. Niu Niu was breathless with exhaustion but had developed a keen interest in fishing. Even when Jiang Si was ready to pack up, Niu Niu still wanted to cast the line a few more times.

Jiang Si couldn’t help but laugh. At such a young age, Niu Niu already had the makings of a fishing addict.

’It’s good for her to have a hobby,’ Jiang Si thought. ’She’s a kid, after all. She should be having fun.’

Jiang Si stayed with her and kept fishing. She helped with the big fish, while Niu Niu pulled in the small ones herself.

With just one rod, they caught so many fish that the fish box couldn’t hold them all, and they had to use a net bag.

When Jiang Si and Niu Niu dragged the net bag and fish box back to the ice house, Shen Baoying was stunned. "So many fish!"

Jiang Si smiled. "And that was just some casual fishing. They’re already dead. Let’s gut and clean them. I’ll take the innards to feed the moose."

Shen Baoying gave them a thumbs-up. "Amazing. I’ll go get your grandma to come back and help us clean them."

"Okay."

Everyone gathered around the stove in the ice house, gutting, scraping, and descaling the fish in one smooth motion. The fishy smell was quite strong, but thankfully, the quick-witted Niu Niu went outside, cut a few wintersweet branches, and placed them in the ice house, instantly freshening the air.

Shen Baoying sighed in admiration. "These two wintersweet trees are real treasures."

Zhang Qingfang smiled. "In this frozen wasteland, what isn’t a treasure?" Seeing Jiang Si packing up the innards, she asked, puzzled, "Aren’t moose supposed to be herbivores? Can they eat these organs?"

Jiang Si said, "I looked it up in an animal encyclopedia. Besides plants, they sometimes go into the water to catch fish for themselves. They can eat this. It’ll also provide the mother moose with high-quality protein and ensure she has a plentiful milk supply."