Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 10

Selling Malatang!

However, moving isn’t something that can be done overnight. Most importantly, nowadays in most residential compounds…

However, moving isn’t something that can be done overnight. Most importantly, nowadays most residential compounds don’t allow gas cylinders inside. Even though the System guarantees its gas cylinder is the safest and won’t have any accidents, no one would believe it.

            

So Sun Miao couldn’t consider residential compounds anymore, and could only look at rural areas near the suburbs, the kind with self-built single-story houses, but it needed to be bigger and have a yard, which would be more convenient for her preparations.

Fortunately, Sun Miao’s original residence was in an urban village located near the suburbs, so she quickly found a house she liked, though the small courtyard at the entrance was shared with others, and the price had jumped directly from 600 to 1200.

This was acceptable to Sun Miao, and she quickly moved in.

            

She moved by herself, because Sun Miao didn’t have many things after transmigrating. She only had a few pieces of clothing, and most importantly, her high-tech food cart.

Sun Miao had some doubts whether she had physically transmigrated or just her soul had transmigrated, but learned that the System had created a new body for her in this world and given her a new identity, otherwise she would have been considered an illegal resident. Like before her transmigration, her new identity was that of an orphan without parents.

These two days, Sun Miao’s life was very fulfilling. On the third day, she rode her electric tricycle to set up her stall at the west gate of Cuiting Yayuan. She initially thought it was just an ordinary residential compound, but when she arrived at the entrance—wow, it was a villa district, even its west gate was better than others’ main gates.

            

The west gate was a side entrance, but the driveway had two separate lanes, with large decorative iron gates, much grander compared to other compounds’ barrier gates. Even the security guards’ post was more upscale than other compounds.

Although Sun Miao couldn’t afford to buy a house in a compound, she had rented in one before transmigrating and knew what ordinary compounds looked like. This compound was clearly a particularly high-end one.

Sun Miao began to hesitate, wondering if she could really sell her malatang here?

            

No wonder the System only asked her to sell ten portions, it was because there were really few people here. Sun Miao sat behind her food cart, and a security guard came to check on her, initially wanting her to leave and set up elsewhere, but since Sun Miao had complete documentation and pointed out this was an area where stalls were allowed, the compound security gave up.

The compound security guard looked at her stall, saw she was selling malatang, and said to her: “I think you’ve found the wrong place. The residents here all come and go in cars, no one gets out, let alone buy malatang. I estimate business definitely won’t be good.”

“It’s fine, I’ll just try it out. If sales aren’t good, I won’t come next week.”

            

She came at ten in the morning, right around mealtime. The security guard xiaoge [小哥 | xiǎo gē | young man/brother] also needed to buy lunch, so seeing her food cart, he came over to ask about prices: “How much is it?”

“Thirty per portion, two meat dishes and three vegetable dishes with rice noodles, self-select ingredients, available in fragrant spicy and non-spicy flavors.”

“How much?!” The security guard xiaoge’s eyes widened, Sun Miao repeated it again, and the security guard looked at her with an unusual expression: “I thought you came to sell here because you didn’t know this was a villa district, but you actually knew? This portion is quite expensive.”

            

Sun Miao thought for a moment: “It’s okay, malatang outside costs about the same now.”

But anyway, the 30-yuan price deterred the security guard xiaoge, and he chose to leave directly.

Sun Miao figured her potential customers just went -1, she sighed and sat behind her stall, starting to play with her phone. Around one in the afternoon, a hourly worker meimei got off work. She came out through the pedestrian gate, and as soon as she exited, she saw Sun Miao’s small stall.

            

After hesitating for a while, she walked over, stood in front of the stall looking around, then asked about the price. Sun Miao told her again, and the hourly worker meimei looked quite hesitant, because the price was indeed not cheap. But after much hesitation, she still ordered a portion.

Mainly because Sun Miao’s food cart was indeed clean and looked appetizing, so she didn’t mind spending the money and bought a portion directly.

This time Sun Miao’s large freezer was placed directly in front, and it was divided into shelves, with plates of dishes on top. The variety wasn’t particularly extensive, compared to some malatang stalls with freezers full of self-select ingredients, it didn’t even have half as many.

            

But the vegetables were picked by Sun Miao early in the morning at the market, and the meat dishes were also freshly bought and processed by herself. Although they were from two days ago, the System’s high-tech cabinet guaranteed freshness, and the taste was completely incomparable to the semi-finished products outside.

The hourly worker meimei looked for a while and decided on the vegetables she wanted, then after a moment called out to Sun Miao: “How do I get them? I’ve decided.”

Sun Miao picked up a plastic tray and a pair of tongs: “You tell me, I’ll help you get them.”

            

“Okay, two meat dishes and three vegetable dishes with rice noodles, right? I want these peeing beef balls, and what’s this, is it basa fish [巴沙魚 | bā shā yú | freshwater-dwelling catfish]?”

“Yes, it is.”

After Sun Miao answered, she noticed the hourly worker meimei was a bit hesitant, so she explained: “I bought and processed it myself this morning, don’t worry, it’s not frozen zombie meat.” Hearing Sun Miao say this, the hourly worker meimei still wasn’t very relaxed, as long as Sun Miao was just a small stall, such words didn’t carry much credibility.

            

But she really liked eating basa fish, so she ordered a portion.

For vegetables, she chose some regular ones: a portion of spinach, enoki mushrooms, and shredded bean curd. Sun Miao took each portion in turn and began asking about her taste preferences, if there was anything she didn’t want added.

The hourly worker meimei could eat spicy food, she chose the fragrant spicy option, medium spicy, and wanted lots of chopped cilantro. Sun Miao agreed to everything in sequence, set up a table and chair for her, and asked her to sit for a while. But the hourly worker meimei waved her hand: “I’ll watch you make it, and I’ll carry it over to eat when it’s done. I’ll eat here, no need to pack it.”

            

Sun Miao thought she didn’t look like someone who wanted takeaway anyway, as she was carrying a very large bag that looked heavy, probably full of her work tools. In this situation, it would be difficult to carry a portion of malatang with soup while walking.

“Alright, it’ll be ready soon, please wait a moment.”

The hourly worker meimei stood beside her, and Sun Miao wasn’t nervous at all, because she was really too familiar with all this. This malatang recipe took her six months of advanced study to perfect. Six months, that’s half a year, her hands never stopped, continuously making malatang.

            

If she got nervous just because someone was watching her and didn’t know what to do, she might as well not open shop and just find an electric wire to hang herself.

Because each ingredient needed different blanching times, Sun Miao had many small funnels, all provided by the System. Her pot was also specially made, not the particularly deep kind typical for malatang, but more like a hot pot.

Sun Miao threw the ingredients into the funnels to blanch them, while her hands kept moving, taking out disposable cylindrical boxes and sprinkling seasonings inside. Because she was selling malatang this time, her disposable food boxes had changed from the original flat style to this current style, buying more expensive ones that looked more sturdy than before.

            

After adding the seasonings, Sun Miao opened one of the two large containers that had been kept warm on the side. As soon as she opened the container, the hourly worker meimei smelled a fragrant spicy aroma. At that moment, her mouth began to water automatically.

Fragrant, it was too fragrant, even more aromatic than many hot pot restaurants. Strangely, before Sun Miao opened the lid, she hadn’t smelled anything at all.

Sun Miao took out a large iron ladle, first scooped some soup into the disposable food box, while pouring she held the box and kept rotating it, and once the soup was poured, it merged completely with the seasonings. Then, she covered the pot lid and put the large iron ladle back in its original place.

            

Sun Miao watched the ingredients in the pot, scooping them out one by one into the disposable food box, then opened the large container again and poured it into the box. Finally, she sprinkled green onions and cilantro on top, and added a spoonful of special spicy sauce.

After finishing all this, Sun Miao looked at the meimei across from her: “Shall I put it on the table beside you?”

“Yes!”

            

Sun Miao finally sold her first portion of malatang, watching meimei eating with great satisfaction, she became happy too.

The next day, the hourly worker meimei came as promised, this time choosing different ingredients, and continued eating. She ate with such obvious enjoyment, especially as that fragrant spicy aroma wafted out, even passing compound residents could smell it.

Some who liked spicy food and didn’t mind street stalls stopped their cars, came over to buy a portion, and then gradually more were attracted, even sharing about it in the residents’ group chat. Soon after, Sun Miao’s stall became busy again.

            

While Sun Miao was enthusiastically making malatang, Su Ruixi wasn’t very happy. Since that day they parted, she hadn’t seen Sun Miao again. She remembered her parents’ teachings that everything should be done in moderation, even if a food was delicious, eating it for three consecutive days was already Su Ruixi’s limit.

Moreover, she no longer needed IV drips, so she couldn’t sneak out during work or ask her secretary to buy it, right? So Su Ruixi chose to suppress her appetite and focus on work.

However, being such a picky eater, after eating such delicious fried rice, it became difficult to look at other food the same way. Su Ruixi ate without tasting her food for four days, and finally gave up the struggle.

            

She even thought to herself: I haven’t eaten fried rice for four days, so eating it now wouldn’t count as too frequent. Su Ruixi contentedly drove straight to the hospital after getting off work on the fourth evening.

Su Ruixi wouldn’t admit that she had deliberately left work early just to eat a bowl of fried rice as a midnight snack and buy another portion for lunch tomorrow. Otherwise, with Su Ruixi’s personality, she would definitely still be battling away at the company at eight o’clock.

However, when she arrived at the hospital’s south gate, she only saw a few lonely street lamps, without a single stall in sight.

            

Su Ruixi’s footsteps halted, and for the first time she thought: Is there something wrong with how I got out of the car? Otherwise where is Miao Miao’s Mobile Food Bar? Where is that big electric tricycle?

---

---