Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 111

Matchmaking¹

Before Sun Miao could speak, the cat owner continued, “I studied art before and even worked at a professional design company for a while. I don’t mean anything else, and I can’t think of any other way. I just saw that your board is quite plain. How about I help you draw something, do a little design on it?”

Doing so should make the cat owner feel a bit better, so Sun Miao nodded and agreed.

She kept fluorescent pens² and a board eraser in the small storage compartment of her cart because sometimes customers would indeed accidentally smudge what was written, and she’d have to rewrite it. This now came in handy for the cat owner. After Sun Miao handed them over, the cat owner returned to the small dining table, holding Niuniu.

She wrote and drew with the fluorescent pen and the small eraser. Niuniu was well-behaved at this moment, only meowing from time to time to remind them of her presence. The cat owner, holding the pen, would then casually stroke its head before continuing her work.

Sun Miao watched for a while, then stopped paying attention. She played on her phone for a bit, and by then, the cat owner had finished drawing. She held Niuniu in one arm and the board in the other, her hand holding Niuniu also clutching the fluorescent pen and eraser. When Sun Miao looked up, she heard her say, “Ta-da, I’m done drawing~”

Taking a closer look, Sun Miao truly felt that the person was indeed from a design background; the drawing was quite good-looking. She had drawn a plump, Q-style³ little cat, which also resembled a cat-mobile. Inside, “Miao Miao’s Mobile Food Bar” was written in decorative lettering.

Below were the prices for the bubble mini wontons and crab shell yellow, and even simple line drawings of the food followed. The mini wontons were in a small bowl, with two or three Q-style wontons floating as if taking a bath; the crab shell yellow were two stacked pastries with stick-figure arms extended, as if greeting everyone.

In the bottom left corner, there was also a Q-style Sun Miao, enthusiastically reaching out her hand as if welcoming customers.

It really was quite good-looking.

She hadn’t taken much time at all to make the board look worlds apart⁴ from before. Sun Miao gave her a thumbs-up: “It’s really beautiful, thank you.”

“Not at all, not at all. I should be the one thanking you, boss.”

They chatted idly for a couple of sentences, and then the cat owner waved goodbye. Sun Miao looked at her little board and thought of what the lemon tea boss had said yesterday. She had mentioned wanting an assistant, and here was an art student looking for a job. She wondered if the two could hit it off⁵.

However, the other person had only mentioned it casually, and the cat owner hadn’t asked her to find a job for her. It wouldn’t be quite right to rashly approach the lemon tea boss. Sun Miao could only wait and see. She was a firm believer in fate. She wondered if the lemon tea boss would come today and if she would see this board.

If she could see it and was interested, it would be best if Sun Miao then mentioned it.

Unfortunately, the lemon tea boss didn’t come at all that day. Thinking about how the lemon tea boss had talked about drawing manhua yesterday, she guessed she was probably at home, writing furiously. At five in the afternoon, after serving her last wave of customers, Sun Miao packed up her stall and went home to buy groceries.

On the fourth day of her stall, the lemon tea boss still hadn’t come. The cat owner, however, did. She seemed to quite admire the board she had drawn, even taking a few extra glances at it when ordering, clearly very pleased with her own work.

When she got home, Sun Miao told Su Ruixi about this. The two chatted while eating. After Su Ruixi heard her out, her first sentence was: “Not everyone is as fated as we are.” This sentence made Sun Miao fall silent for a moment.

Because—they weren’t really fated at all!

The system was smug in Sun Miao’s mind: 【Thanks to me. If it weren’t for me, you two might not have ended up together.】

That was indeed the truth. And it wasn’t “might not have,” it was “definitely” wouldn’t have. Without the system, she and Su Ruixi were from completely different worlds—not in terms of status or anything, but in terms of physical space, the two couldn’t possibly have been together. They were truly from two different worlds.

Sun Miao praised the system inwardly: “Yes, yes, yes, it’s all thanks to you. You’re truly amazing.”

Her system was really easy to please. Hearing Sun Miao praise it like that, its tail nearly curled up to the sky⁶.

Seeing Sun Miao quiet, Su Ruixi thought she had said something wrong, or that Sun Miao was embarrassed. So she simply asked, “Then do you need me to help her find a job? If you think her drawing is good, it must be genuinely good. I can give her a chance to apply for a position in our company’s design department.”

Su Ruixi’s company was full of “involution kings”. Sun Miao knew this just by looking at Su Ruixi; she used to be the type who would “involute herself to death.” Such intense work pressure and correspondingly high salaries also required employees to have high academic qualifications and extensive experience; otherwise, they couldn’t get in at all.

Besides, to put it bluntly, the cat owner was just a chance acquaintance⁷ for Sun Miao. It was enough for her to help out a little; why should she put Su Ruixi in a difficult position?

“No need. It’s not good to make people owe favors for no reason. Let’s just see how fate unfolds. Besides, it’s not certain that the lemon tea boss even needs an assistant; maybe she was just saying it at the time.”

Sun Miao said a lot, mainly to get Su Ruixi to drop the matter. Su Ruixi listened and just “oh”-ed. She had only offered because she saw Sun Miao seemed to want to help the person. Now that Sun Miao felt she didn’t need her to exert effort, she also gave up the idea.

However, there might indeed be some fate between them. On the fifth day Sun Miao set up her stall, the lemon tea boss came over at noon. She first excitedly chatted with Sun Miao about her manhua: “The draft line art for my first chapter is out, and I’m currently coloring and adding details. If I had an assistant, I could hand over the inking work to her and save myself a lot of effort.”

Her speed was actually quite fast, purely driven by her passion and her heart for shipping CPs, which was why she drew so quickly. It was also mainly because color manhuas weren’t as labor-intensive as illustrations. If every panel were like an illustration, she wouldn’t be able to finish even if she drew herself to death.

The lemon tea boss had just said a few words when she lowered her head and saw the board on Sun Miao’s stall. “Boss, this board of yours is drawn quite nicely, and the Q-style is very cute and expressive, huh? Did you hire someone to draw it for you? It’s just that you only set up for seven days each time, and then you have to change it. Spending a few hundred yuan on this is a bit of a loss. Next time you want one, I’ll draw it for you!”

She, on the contrary, seemed a bit eager. How could she not have thought of such a good thing as drawing a picture for the CP she shipped for everyone to see? If it were her, the bottom left corner definitely wouldn’t just have Sun Miao alone; she would definitely put her girlfriend up there too, with the two of them interacting.

—There really is quite a bit of fate here.

Sun Miao said inwardly. And listening to the lemon tea boss’s tone, she really did seem to want to find an assistant. So Sun Miao didn’t answer her question but started another topic: “You mentioned wanting to find an assistant last time. Do you want one that badly?”

“Yeah, but good assistants are hard to find. And many people only work as assistants as a transition. Once they’ve accumulated enough experience and fame, they’ll jump ship to draw on their own, and then I’ll have to find a new one all over again.” When it came to work matters, the lemon tea boss became much more serious. “Besides, I’m just an obscure⁸ individual illustrator. The pay I offer isn’t much, and I don’t have much of a reputation, so no one would apply to be my assistant.”

“Have you looked?”

“I actually did post a recruitment ad. Five thousand a month, and the work isn’t too much. If it’s a girl, I can provide food and lodging, but it would be staying in my guest room and eating whatever I cook for myself, just casual meals.”

The conditions offered by the lemon tea boss were indeed average. In this city, one could earn five or six thousand yuan a month doing almost anything, and since the lemon tea boss was an individual, she definitely wouldn’t provide the five social insurances and one housing fund⁹. However, with food and lodging included, the offer appeared somewhat better.

Renting an apartment in this city was truly expensive; Sun Miao had experienced this long ago.

It was clear that the person genuinely intended to hire an assistant. Sun Miao then casually asked, “So, what do you think of the drawing on this board? And would you accept an assistant who brings a cat?”

As the saying goes, laymen watch the excitement, experts see the skill. As a freelance illustrator who was already self-sufficient and could afford to hire an assistant, the lemon tea boss could be said to have fiery eyes and golden pupils

¹⁰

: “The brushstrokes are very neat. Fluorescent pens aren’t easy to draw with, but she drew very decisively, and she has her own clever ideas, making it lively and cute. You can tell her foundational skills are quite good just by looking at the lines.”

“The cat doesn’t matter, as long as it doesn’t pee everywhere or scratch things.”

Sun Miao had been too specific. The lemon tea boss couldn’t help but ask, “Changfen boss, is the person who drew this someone you know?”

Sun Miao shook her head. “No, just a customer who has been eating here these past few days. An art student, looking for a job. If you think it’s okay, I’ll talk to her later and see what the situation is, then pass your contact information to her, alright?”

“Sure, but I’ll need to interview her too. If she’s not qualified, I definitely won’t take her.”

“Mm, that’s understandable.”

Their conversation ended. The lemon tea boss ate her mini wontons and crab shell yellow and left. Sun Miao then waited for the cat owner to arrive. She had been coming these past few days, but it was evident she was short of money; yesterday, she had even only bought half a portion of soup for Niuniu, having already eaten herself.

It was clear that the cat owner’s financial situation was getting worse. But she really loved her cat; no matter how tight things were, she didn’t forget to buy that half-portion of soup for her cat.

She arrived quite late today. Sun Miao was about to pack up her stall when she finally rode up on her bicycle, arriving unhurriedly late. However, it was clear she was in a very bad mood, with hardly any smile on her face. Only when she saw the board she herself had drawn on Sun Miao’s little stall did a faint smile appear. “Boss, I’ll have half a bowl of chicken soup.”

“Okay.”

After the person sat down, Sun Miao didn’t rush to leave. She brought over two bowls of chicken soup, both half portions, and sat down opposite the cat owner. “You should have some too. I see you’re sweating quite a bit. What happened?”

The cat owner was stunned for a moment. She looked up at Sun Miao, and after a long while, she sighed. “It’s just… I still haven’t found a job, and the landlord wants to raise the rent again. I feel like I’m going to have nowhere to go.” Once the floodgates of conversation opened, it was hard to close them, especially in front of Sun Miao. Perhaps because of the overly warm feeling Sun Miao gave off, the cat owner found it easy to voice things she couldn’t say to others.

“Maybe I’m really not suited for this big city.”

---

---