Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 121

The Bet

But with things having escalated to this point, calling the owner was out of the question; it would only make the two of them look incompetent. The Huaiyang cuisine chef, in particular, was feeling the pressure. The most important reason was that the owner had hired another Huaiyang cuisine chef, one who was more skilled than him.

If an incident occurred at this juncture, his position would be completely squeezed out by that person!

The newly hired chef was a woman younger than him, a fact that already made the head chef extremely uncomfortable. Now, to be challenged and humiliated like this, the veins on his forehead began to bulge.

Sun Miao didn’t understand why the chef was so united with the manager, but Su Ruixi, the businesswoman, and the clever Yabi Mei, saw a thing or two. It seemed this matter of skimming off the top wasn’t just the manager’s doing; the chef had a hand in it as well.

Otherwise, the quality of the dishes couldn’t possibly be this poor.

Apologizing now was impossible, and compensation was even less likely. They insisted that Sun Miao’s group had brought the Yangzhou Fried Rice from outside to frame them. Although Su Ruixi had the receipt, she couldn’t prove it hadn’t been swapped out in the interim. In reality, the receipt was enough to prove the Yangzhou Fried Rice was a product of Yuanfu Lou, but they simply refused to admit it. With no other evidence, they had truly reached a stalemate.

Although the atmosphere was tense, Su Ruixi knew that if she just backed down for now and contacted the owner of Yuanfu Lou later, she had ten thousand ways to deal with them. The common saying for this was: settling scores after the autumn harvest¹.

But perhaps everyone has the habit of being a peacock spreading its tail². They were right in front of Sun Miao, and having to go back before dealing with these people felt a bit humiliating. On a normal day, Su Ruixi certainly wouldn’t have cared. If she had to deal with them later, she would deal with them later. They would be the ones to suffer, and she could absolutely afford to wait a day or two.

But, this—was—in—front—of—Sun—Miao! No, she absolutely could not back down.

As the two sides were locked in a standoff, Sun Miao pointed something out. “This takeout Yangzhou Fried Rice is truly awful. Even if your apprentice made it, it’s still too poor. Also, did you make these other dishes? They have a whole host of flaws as well.”

For a chef, the one thing they can’t tolerate is someone saying their food tastes bad. Not to mention, this head chef’s position had just been threatened by a younger woman, and now he had to watch a girl who hadn’t even fully grown up spouting nonsense in front of him. He couldn’t help but retort.

“Little girl, what do you know? If you have no taste or appreciation, don’t say the food is bad.”

Sun Miao lowered her gaze and began to point out the errors in the dishes. “The Lion’s Head Meatballs isn’t firm enough. You didn’t use enough strength when pounding the meat, nor did you do it enough times, so it tastes a bit loose. The seasoning wasn’t done well or evenly, making the center a bit too salty.” She spoke eloquently, listing a whole series of problems, and the head chef’s expression turned ugly.

Good heavens, they came prepared! This further convinced the head chef that they were here to find fault. At the same time, he fell into a conspiracy theory—perhaps they were people hired by that new chef, deliberately sent to cause him trouble!

“Talk is cheap. Anyone can do that.”

Sun Miao fell silent, because the chef was right. Her knowledge of Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe was indeed half-baked. She could taste what was wrong, but that didn’t mean she could necessarily do it better than him. The knowledge she’d learned online wasn’t enough to immediately surpass the man opposite her.

Unless… she relied on the system.

She placed her bet on the system. She believed that her system doted on her.

【Who says the Host can’t do it?! Tell him you can!】

【Special Mission: The Host is facing a provocation from an unqualified chef. A special mission week will commence next week. Every day from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, set up a stall under the second streetlamp east of Yuanfu Lou’s main entrance. Sell a limited quantity of 20 portions of the famous Huaiyang dish, Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe, at 588 yuan per portion. Sales will cease once sold out.】

A smile bloomed on Sun Miao’s face. “I can, and I’ll definitely do it better than you.”

Hearing her words, the eyes of Su Ruixi and the Hip-hop Yabi duo immediately latched onto her. They had only one thought: I want to eat it.

In that moment, Su Ruixi suddenly felt that continuing this standoff with the chef was pointless. It would be better to go shopping with Sun Miao and, while they were at it, try to wheedle a taste of her Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe. She actually quite liked the flavor of the dish; it was light and suited her preferences.

However, many chefs couldn’t make it well. Especially since the main ingredient was pork, Su Ruixi always felt it had a gamy pork smell. So even though it was a dish that should have suited her palate, she had come to dislike it.

On top of that, with crab as an ingredient, the fishy smell also came through, making it even more unacceptable for Su Ruixi.

This time was no different. She had one small bite and didn’t touch her chopsticks again, clearly finding it unappetizing.

When the head chef heard Sun Miao’s declaration, it was as if he’d heard the world’s greatest joke. “You? Do it better than me? Little girl, aren’t you afraid of biting your tongue with such big talk?”

“If I really do make it better than you, you will apologize to us and provide compensation of ten times the value for a fake, paying us the five hundred and forty thousand.”

“And what if you don’t make it as well as I do?”

This time, before Sun Miao could speak, Su Ruixi cut in directly, “Then I will apologize to you and pay one million in compensation.”

Hip-hop Mei and Yabi Mei didn’t fall behind. “I’ll also pay one million in compensation.” Three one-million-yuan payments, that was three million.

Hearing this sum, even the head chef was stunned. Sun Miao was also taken aback. Although she was very confident in herself, this amount of money… made her legs feel weak! Sun Miao desperately wanted to say something, but the chef asked, “Then what are the criteria for judging?”

Without even thinking, Sun Miao said, “Starting the day after tomorrow, I plan to set up a stall at the entrance and sell 20 portions of Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe every day. I will also collect customer reviews. If more than sixty percent of the people think mine tastes better than Yuanfu Lou’s, then I win.”

“You want to set up a stall at the entrance of Yuanfu Lou?! And sell Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe?!” The chef looked as if he’d heard something hilarious, laughing so hard he could barely stand up straight. “Hahaha, in that case, I don’t need any reviews. As long as you can sell all 20 portions of your Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe every day, I’ll count it as your win!”

He glanced at the three women beside Sun Miao and added, “The three of them and anyone you hire don’t count. If I discover any such situation, you lose.”

“Deal.”

When the Hip-hop Yabi duo heard the chef’s conditions, their faces instantly darkened. And when they heard Sun Miao agree, their immediate thought was: Deal? What deal? Huh? The two of us don’t even get to eat the Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe, how can this be called a deal?

Su Ruixi wasn’t worried in the slightest, and they weren’t worried about whether Su Ruixi would get to eat or not. What a joke, the two of them were already living together. Anyone could be left out, but it was impossible for Su Ruixi to be left out!

“No, I get that you don’t want us to inflate the numbers, but why can’t we buy some to eat? I just want to eat it!”

Hip-hop Mei immediately disagreed, but the chef wouldn’t listen. “There are three of you. That would instantly turn 20 into 17, greatly reducing the difficulty. That’s definitely not allowed.”

After some haggling, they finally settled on the terms proposed by the chef. The chef didn’t believe for a second that Sun Miao could sell them. As soon as he was out, he said to the manager, “Discount the Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe and promote my name. I’ll make them personally, only 188 yuan a portion. I’d like to see who will buy her Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe then!”

Sun Miao was unaware of what the chef and manager were doing behind her back, but she was a little excited right now. Because she felt like a scene from a novel was happening to her, giving her a “this lady is a Feng Aotian³” kind of chuunibyou*⁴ *feeling.*

However, not long after they left, Su Ruixi shattered one of Sun Miao’s illusions. “Sun Miao, you need to be prepared for something. Even if you win this, you probably won’t get that compensation money.”

“Huh?”

Sun Miao and Hip-hop Mei were both dumbfounded. Yabi Mei looked at Hip-hop Mei, her expression clearly saying: What’s wrong, little sis, how come you’re being dense too?

Su Ruixi explained, “A bet like the one just now involves a rather large sum of money. If it were actually fulfilled, it would be a bit… well, the amount involved is too large. You could go to jail.”

Sun Miao felt that she was absolutely right, but at the same time, she thought about all the overbearing CEOs in the novels she’d read who would casually bet a car or a watch with someone. Thinking about it that way, it did seem easy to end up in jail. Novels have led me astray!

She was a little dejected. “Then doesn’t that mean we can’t make that manager and chef…”

“There will still be compensation. Their boss definitely can’t escape it. The ‘ten times compensation for a fake’ clause means they’ll be at a disadvantage no matter where we take the complaint. And don’t worry, I’ll use other methods to make them spit the money out.”

Su Ruixi offered a smile, reassuring Sun Miao. She was telling the truth, and after Sun Miao had spoken up for her, Su Ruixi found she wasn’t as angry anymore. Plus, with the prospect of eating exceptionally delicious Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe soon, any lingering anger was redirected by the allure of the dish.

Only the Hip-hop Yabi duo was heartbroken: We all came together, so why can’t we eat any?

Sun Miao also remembered that the two of them had come today purely to help her and Su Ruixi. After thinking for a moment, she first discussed it with Su Ruixi. After getting Su Ruixi’s approval, she finally spoke up. “Could you two come to Susu-jie’s place tomorrow to help me taste-test the Lion’s Head Meatballs and give some feedback?”

Since she would be borrowing Su Ruixi’s home, Sun Miao made sure to discuss it with her beforehand. But Su Ruixi whispered to her, “This is your home too. You can use it however you want.”

When she asked the duo, the answer was, of course, “Yes, yes, yes, we absolutely can.”

The two sides agreed to meet at the house tomorrow evening, then went their separate ways. Su Ruixi drove the car, taking Sun Miao to the mall. She didn’t want this small incident to ruin their mood for shopping. It was only at this moment that Sun Miao realized that amidst all the chaos, Su Ruixi had managed to settle the bill.

She hadn’t wanted to waste any more time there, otherwise she would never have paid that money.

Sun Miao, however, felt a little hesitant. She was always using Su Ruixi’s money, which wasn’t right. She was living in Su Ruixi’s house, and Su Ruixi would even buy ingredients for cooking from time to time. Now, even when they ate out, she hadn’t paid. Right now, Sun Miao’s conscience was deeply troubled.

Later in the mall, I definitely have to buy a gift for Su Ruixi!

Sun Miao made a silent resolution. Thinking about it carefully, Su Ruixi had already given her many things, like candy, a helmet, and so on, while she herself hadn’t spent a single dime!

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