Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 31
by Little PandaOnly Jiejie Has
“Are there any non-spicy ones?”
“Yes.” Sun Miao took out the beef pancakes, asking Su Ruixi how many she wanted. Su Ruixi originally only planned to take one, but after thinking about it, she said, “Take two.” She would eat one, and if she wasn’t full, she would eat the second one. If she was full, she would return the extra one to her assistant.
It would save her assistant from looking at her like a thief all day long.
Sun Miao nodded, and while packing them, she casually said, “I made soup today. You can come and get it directly at noon. I’ll save you two pancakes…” She hesitated slightly as she said this, “Will you eat them?”
Previously, when Su Ruixi ate egg fried rice, she also ate it for three days and then stopped coming. Sun Miao didn’t know the reason, only guessing that Su Ruixi might have gotten tired of it. Beef pancakes were also relatively easy to get tired of. Eating them for a day or two was fine, but eating them every day and not getting tired of them would be strange.
Thinking this way, Sun Miao still underestimated her own cooking skills. With her skills, setting up a stall here was considered a reward for the working class. Let alone eating pancakes every day, even eating pancakes for every meal, no one would feel sick of them.
Delicious things, no one would mind having more. Moreover, although eating too much beef could be greasy, the cabbage and green onions inside the beef pancakes neutralized this perfectly. Not greasy, not greasy at all.
Su Ruixi also didn’t find them greasy, so she felt Sun Miao’s question was strange. Su Ruixi shook her head: “I’ll eat them. I’ll need them for dinner too.” After yesterday, she had realized one thing: if she didn’t rely on Sun Miao to save her extra pancakes, she most likely wouldn’t be able to buy any.
Her off-work hours were actually not as regular as ordinary workers. Even if workers needed to work overtime, they would still have about half an hour for lunch, enough time to buy and eat beef pancakes.
But Su Ruixi, as a CEO working for herself, if she got truly busy, there would be no end to it, and she would have no time to come down and buy pancakes. If she relied entirely on herself, then most likely… she really wouldn’t have dinner. Sun Miao proactively asked if she wanted some saved, and at this moment, she decisively chose: Yes!
Sun Miao handed her the beef pancakes. After Su Ruixi walked into the Jinsha Building [Golden Sands Building], Sun Miao declared the morning’s work done. Sun Miao’s daily routine seemed quite busy. Firstly, her working hours were very long. The system’s fixed 12 hours required her to be by the food cart. Besides that, after getting off work and returning home, she also needed to clean the food cart, and the next day, she had to get up very early to prepare.
However, she still had a lot of rest time, for example, from now until lunchtime was her break time; after the lunch rush and before the evening worker rush, she could also rest.
Those in the food business were all like this. Off-peak hours were everyone’s rest time.
Sun Miao’s way of resting was quite fixed: scrolling on her phone. The system was quite considerate, providing a charging outlet on the food cart. Otherwise, with her broken phone and the amount of time she spent on it, the phone would have run out of battery long ago.
She would read novels, browse videos, and play games. Doing these too much could also be tiring. Putting down her phone, she would think that she had wasted another chunk of time.
At this time, she would calm down and browse online cooking videos, studying their techniques. In reality, some of the cooking methods taught in the videos were incorrect. People who cooked a lot could see the flaws at a glance.
The most classic example was a video she saw teaching people how to make oil-braised eggplant [油焖茄子 | yóu mèn qiézi | eggplant braised in oil]: adding doubanjiang [豆瓣酱 | dòubànjiàng | fermented chili bean paste], light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and salt all together. Sun Miao frowned when she saw this, subconsciously feeling that doing it this way would definitely be too salty.
Indeed, the feedback in the comments section confirmed this. Many people said that after reducing the doubanjiang, or the light and dark soy sauces, or even the salt, the taste was actually better than putting everything in together.
If a cooking novice believed these words, it would be strange if the food they made turned out delicious.
【You could also try teaching cooking, like egg fried rice, malatang, beef pancakes. Didn’t you used to run a breakfast shop? You should know how to make a lot of snacks.】
“Where would I find the time? I’m at the stall for twelve hours every day. If I also film these kinds of food videos, wouldn’t I work myself to death?” Sun Miao rejected the system’s suggestion, muttering softly, “I should find a chance to change my phone too. This phone’s camera really isn’t good, and the memory is small. I’ll look around to see if there are any good deals on plans, and just switch to a new one…”
She browsed phones online again. New phones were all quite expensive, easily costing several thousand kuai [块 | kuài | unit of currency, informal equivalent to yuan]. She thought about her own meager savings and decided to hold off for now: “This phone isn’t completely unusable yet.”
【You’re so stingy it’s killing me.】
The system said the same thing as Xihamei [嘻哈妹 | Xīhā Mèi | likely a reference to a cooking show or personality known for frugality], but Sun Miao responded to this sentence: “No way, I can’t be stingy. I’m a tie-T [铁T | tiě T | slang term for a masculine lesbian].”
【……】
What kind of dirty joke are you telling the system?
Sun Miao also thought what she said was funny, letting out a chuckle. The morning passed leisurely. Sun Miao glanced at the time, seeing it was almost eleven o’clock. She stretched and started making the pancakes to sell at noon.
The beef pancakes sold quickly—too quickly. It wasn’t like the malatang, sold slowly, one portion at a time, where emptying one pot meant the trouble of making the next. Sun Miao sold another ten batches at noon. Adding the morning and noon sales together, she had already sold eighteen batches, completely clearing out what she had prepared in the morning.
Sun Miao smiled and told a customer they were all sold out. At this moment, a customer suddenly said, “Are you sure?”
“…” Sun Miao looked closely. Wasn’t this the person from last night who discovered she had saved beef pancakes for Su Ruixi?
Sun Miao forced a smile: “They’re really gone. I’ll have to knead dough and make more this afternoon.”
The person stared at Sun Miao for a moment, their voice suddenly becoming affected: “Boss-jiejie, you haven’t saved any beef pancakes for another jiejie, have you? Are these beef pancakes only for that Jiejie, and not for the rest of us?”
Just from looking at you last night, I knew you weren’t someone easy to get along with! Now, I’m proven right!
Sun Miao never dreamed that one day she would be scheming against her own customers. The customer continued with their barbed words while also eyeing the plate Sun Miao used to hold the beef pancakes. Sun Miao could only avoid the topic, saying, “They’re really all gone. I even prepared extra today, and they still sold out.”
The customer, unable to discern anything, sighed: “It’s just my bad luck to come at the wrong time. Last night when it was my turn, they were gone, and now I come at noon today, and they’re gone again.” The young woman stared at Sun Miao: “Boss-jiejie, can’t you take pity on me and save two pancakes for me tonight? I only managed to get one yesterday morning, by sheer luck.”
“Since yesterday morning, I haven’t been able to eat your pancakes again. Last night, I even ordered takeout, but those beef pancakes compared to yours are like the light of a firefly daring to compete with the brilliance of the moon. I’ve been thinking about your beef pancakes day and night!”
She sounded so pitiful that Sun Miao was almost moved. But…
“No.”
She couldn’t start this precedent. Once she started saving pancakes for customers, many others would surely make the same request. Moreover, what if she saved them, and the person didn’t come? So, Sun Miao absolutely would not break this exception.
The young woman pretended to wipe her tears with her sleeve, acting pitiful: “Ah! You’re so stingy!” Her voice returned to normal and became much louder: “You won’t even save two pancakes for me! I’m never buying beef pancakes from you again!”
After saying this, she stormed off.
Sun Miao was still feeling a bit sentimental about losing a customer, but unexpectedly, the young woman took two steps and then turned back: “How many batches are you selling tonight?”
“I brought a lot today, I’ll have fifteen batches.”
“That’s not a lot…” the young woman muttered, finally leaving for good this time.
Sun Miao understood. Another difficult young lady.
Seeing everyone had left, Sun Miao sat down on her chair and took out her own insulated lunchbox from the drawer. To bring soup for Su Ruixi, Sun Miao had also bought two small, single-layered insulated lunchboxes specifically for holding soup.
Insulated lunchboxes these days were quite good, keeping food warm for a long time. Although they weren’t as powerful as the system’s black technology, they could still guarantee the food wouldn’t cool down for a while.
Sun Miao opened her own lunchbox, set up the small table on the food cart, and started eating lunch. She had just eaten for a bit when she saw Su Ruixi arrive. She came after the lunch rush.
The reason Su Ruixi could leisurely come at this time was entirely due to the confidence that Sun Miao had set aside a portion for her. Otherwise, coming at this time, she could have just turned around and come back an hour and a half later.
Seeing Su Ruixi arrive, Sun Miao wiped her mouth and took out the soup lunchboxes from the cabinet, then packed two pancakes.
“Su-jie, here you go.”
“Thank you.”
Su Ruixi scanned the QR code to pay. It was fifty yuan again. Sun Miao said it was too much; they had previously agreed that a serving of soup was only ten yuan.
“You brought it all the way here for me. Consider this a delivery fee.” She looked at the lunchboxes in her hand and asked, “How much were the lunchboxes?”
This time, Sun Miao answered honestly, “Fifty each.”
Su Ruixi scanned another one hundred yuan.
She hadn’t actually expected Sun Miao to buy fifty-yuan lunchboxes. This price was certainly a trifle for Su Ruixi, and she wouldn’t even buy such inexpensive insulated lunchboxes, but for Sun Miao, it was clearly quite expensive.
“I’ll return them to you after I finish eating and wash them.”
“It’s okay, I can wash them too.”
“It’s already troublesome enough for you to cook, how can I also trouble you to wash the dishes?”
Su Ruixi and Sun Miao chatted briefly and Su Ruixi was about to leave, but she glanced over and saw Sun Miao eating lunch. Su Ruixi stopped in her tracks and couldn’t help but ask, “What are you eating for lunch?”
“Huh?” Sun Miao didn’t react for a moment, then after confirming what Su Ruixi had asked, she replied, “Stir-fried beef, stir-fried cabbage, and I also fried an egg for myself.”
*Last time, there seemed to be stir-fried beef as well.*
“You seem to really like stir-fried beef.”
“Eh, it’s alright. It’s just that I’ve been making beef pancakes recently, so I happened to have some leftover beef scraps, so I stir-fried them.”
“Sounds good.”
After asking, Su Ruixi carried her lunch upstairs. After she left, Sun Miao continued eating her lunch. Only after finishing her fried egg did she suddenly realize: Could Su Ruixi have been craving my lunch?
0 Comments