Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 143

A Matter of Urgency

Sun Miao pedaled her electric tricycle home. Just as she arrived, Su Ruixi came out to greet her, asking, “Did you get a package? Is it the stuff you said you were buying yesterday?”

“It couldn’t be that fast. I only placed the order this morning.”

Sun Miao put down the tricycle key and saw the package on the cabinet. Seeing its size and packaging, she understood. “It’s the Strawberry Bear pajamas I bought for you. I’ll take them for a wash first, and you can wear them once they’re dry.”

She had mentioned before that she wanted to buy a matching set for Su Ruixi.

Su Ruixi remembered and nodded. “I’ll go wash them.”

Her method of washing clothes was simply to toss them in the washing machine, and since that was fine for these pajamas, Sun Miao nodded. “Alright, you go do the laundry, and I’ll go make lunch.”

Their division of labor was clear. Sun Miao went to the kitchen and made lunch. After they finished eating in the afternoon, Sun Miao first went to the kitchen to prepare the tuhuangyou, placing it in a glass jar to slowly settle. Looking at the small jar, Su Ruixi couldn’t help but ask, “When can we eat this?”

In truth, the custom of eating tuhuangyou existed throughout the Jiangnan region. It was just that their city had too many imported goods, and over time, more and more local traditions had been lost, so people didn’t really make this anymore. Su Ruixi, having been born and raised here, had never eaten tuhuangyou.

The key to tuhuangyou was using only crab roe and milt, without a single shred of crab meat. Sun Miao had picked out the crab meat and put it in the fridge; for dinner, it would be delicious enough with just a dip of vinegar.

“You can eat it as soon as it’s made, but didn’t you just finish lunch? Let’s have it tonight. I’ll steam some tofu tonight and top it with the tuhuangyou. It’ll definitely be fragrant.” But she had also noticed a problem during the preparation. “The crabs at this time of year are still too lean; there isn’t much roe or milt. It’s better to make this in the autumn.”

“Then what do we eat in the summer?”

Summer hadn’t even arrived, yet she was already thinking about autumn. But Sun Miao made it sound so delicious that Su Ruixi couldn’t help but let her imagination run wild, though she still had to ask what they would eat in the summer.

Hearing this, Sun Miao also thought seriously for a moment, then began to answer, “There will probably be more cold-tossed dishes then. I can make you more sugar-tossed tomatoes, and also celtuce and cucumber. Oh, and blanching wood ear mushrooms and fried tofu puffs, tossing them together, and drizzling hot oil over them at the end is also delicious.”

Su Ruixi began to imagine it too, and she even made a suggestion: “When the weather gets hot, we can go out to play. We can go somewhere a bit cooler, go boating on a lotus pond, and pick one or two lotus seed pods to peel and eat.”

In the past, Su Ruixi would have likely buried her head in her work at the company, because going out for fun was truly uninteresting. But now with Sun Miao, she suddenly found herself wanting to travel and play everywhere together.

Sun Miao was someone who quite liked to travel; she just hadn’t had much opportunity before. She had no one to accompany her. While traveling alone wasn’t bad, she had spent too much time by herself; seeing so many beautiful sights all alone would inevitably make her feel a bit lonely.

Besides, she had no money, and traveling was the most expensive pastime. She hadn’t saved much to begin with and couldn’t just spend it all on herself.

But now things were different. She had someone she loved and a bit of savings. When the time came, they would do as Su Ruixi said and find a cool place to travel together. She also hoped the system might reward her with some unique summer delicacies, like oufen¹ or something similar.

After chatting about this, the tuhuangyou and crab meat went into the fridge, and Su Ruixi’s pajamas were ready. The two of them went upstairs to take an afternoon nap together.

Before the nap, however, Sun Miao had to do her bookkeeping first. She took out her little notebook, preparing to go to Su Ruixi’s room to sleep after she finished her records. But before she could say anything, Su Ruixi grabbed her by the hand and pulled her away, notebook and all.

In the end, Sun Miao could only lie prone at the foot of the bed to record her little accounts, while Su Ruixi, having changed into the matching pajamas, lay beside her. Her soft hair fell down, touching the account book, and Sun Miao had to reach out and brush Su Ruixi’s hair aside.

But with Su Ruixi by her side, Sun Miao’s entire state was much more relaxed. She maintained her prone position, but her feet couldn’t help but lift up, swaying back and forth. Su Ruixi noticed her movement, shifted to her side, and lifted her own feet as well.

As they moved, they inevitably bumped into Sun Miao’s feet, and in the end, their feet ended up hooking together.

“Tomorrow is the last day of the stall for this round, right?”

“Right.”

Su Ruixi peered at the account book Sun Miao was writing in. It was a chaotic affair, just a simple tally of daily earnings minus the cost of purchases, which gave her the daily profit.

Then she would add yesterday’s profit, and that was her simple account book.

And Sun Miao still had to use a calculator to slowly do the math.

“You don’t use an Excel spreadsheet? You can just drag the formula, and you don’t have to write it out yourself.”

Sun Miao paused for a moment after hearing that. “I just feel like the phone screen is too small; it’s not very clear to look at.”

“The mobile version is quite good now. Download one and try it.” Su Ruixi took Sun Miao’s phone and started operating it. She went ahead and entered the data for her, then input various formulas. It looked much better than Sun Miao’s messy little notebook.

At first, Sun Miao tried to find some excuses, saying the little notebook was more convenient, until a single sentence from Su Ruixi left her unable to argue.

“Buying notebooks and pens costs money.”

“…”

Alright, Su Ruixi was right.

Sun Miao was ultimately defeated by the two-yuan notebook and pen. Su Ruixi revealed an “I knew it” expression. Su Ruixi was actually aware that Sun Miao had her wrapped around her finger, but she didn’t mind. In a romantic relationship, there was no such thing as the east wind prevailing over the west wind²; it was enough for the two of them to be accommodating of each other.

Besides, was Sun Miao even hard to handle? Her personality was plain to see. As long as you didn’t do things she disliked, she was forever a little sun that illuminated others—well, a stingy version of a little sun.

However, Su Ruixi was an exceptionally competitive and combative person in the business world; she just didn’t bring that side of her home.

Tomorrow was the last day of the stall, and that recurring question was being asked again. In fact, people in the group chat had been talking about this for days. Because the 588-yuan-per-serving Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe were too expensive for many people to afford, everyone still missed the usual snacks that cost 20 or 30 yuan per serving.

Before, they thought Sun Miao’s food was a little bit pricey, but seeing the 20 servings of 588-yuan Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe sell out in seconds, everyone knew: Sun Miao setting up a stall was truly an act of charity.

For the wealthy customers, those Lion’s Head Meatballs with Crab Roe weren’t that easy to buy either. Zhou Ling’s mother went again later with her friends, but could only gaze at the ocean and sigh³ at the long queue. Especially with the Gaokao approaching, Zhou Ling’s mother saw she couldn’t get in line and stopped going, focusing solely on taking care of Zhou Ling at home.

Sometimes when Sun Miao saw Zhou Ling’s mother in the residential complex, she thought her expression was even more nervous than Zhou Ling’s.

But thankfully, the Gaokao was in a few days. Once it was over, Zhou Ling could also come to her little stall to eat.

“Sun Miao, what are you selling next week?”

“…” Sun Miao froze for a moment. Her foot, hooked around Su Ruixi’s, brushed against it. Su Ruixi found it ticklish and dodged to the side. As a result, Sun Miao took the opportunity to roll over once and nestle into Su Ruixi’s arms.

“Actually, I haven’t decided yet.”

She thought about her earlier decision to slowly explain things to Su Ruixi, so she suddenly spoke up, “Susu-jie, do you read novels?”

“No time.”

Sun Miao was stuck again. But thinking about it, it made sense. How would Su Ruixi have so much time to read novels or watch TV shows? She was an involution king⁴. Although, since getting to know Sun Miao, her “involution king” tendencies showed a trend of significant decline.

Because Su Ruixi didn’t really consume this kind of media, Sun Miao was momentarily at a loss as to how to explain. If she just came out and said she had a system, without any foreshadowing, Su Ruixi would most likely think she had slept herself silly. So she could only shake her head. “Never mind.”

Sun Miao put away her account book, pulled Su Ruixi close, and they took a nap.

When they woke up in the evening, they ate tuhuangyou mixed with rice. Sun Miao made a few other dishes, but in Su Ruixi’s eyes, none of them were as delicious as that spoonful of tuhuangyou. The thought that it would be even more delicious in autumn when the big crabs were full of roe, as Sun Miao had said, made Su Ruixi look forward to it even more.

The next morning, Su Ruixi got up, ate breakfast, and prepared for work. Sun Miao stuffed the glass jar of tuhuangyou into Su Ruixi’s lunch bag. She had specially bought that jar from the wet market; it was about the size of a chili sauce jar but looked more exquisite.

Her Susu-jie was a rich woman; how could she be so cheap as to use an old chili sauce jar?

Sun Miao was still a little worried, so she wrote a note on a piece of paper and taped it on securely. On it were four large characters: Su Ruixi’s.

Sun Miao didn’t know Su Ruixi’s exact position, but she knew she must be a high-level executive, a manager of a particularly high rank. Sticking this note on it was guaranteed to be effective. She also reminded Su Ruixi, “This needs to be put in the fridge, remember. Although it has lard in it, which has some preservative effect, it will last longer in the fridge. But even so, you have to finish it within a month. If you really can’t finish it, share it with that assistant miss from last time.”

…

The inexperienced Su Ruixi⁵ nodded, and then felt a little bewildered. “I won’t mistake it for something else. This note… does it have to be on there?” She still had her image as a boss to maintain. If someone saw this jar of tuhuangyou with her name on it…

She couldn’t speak for others, but her assistant would almost certainly be laughing at her inwardly for acting like a primary school student!

Sun Miao sighed and began to explain, “Susu-jie, you don’t understand. There are really some people with very poor character! No matter how high their education is, there are people with poor character everywhere! The canned Sprite I used to put in the company pantry fridge was secretly taken by someone else!”

“Your position is high. If you put your name on it and place it in the fridge, no one will dare to take it. Otherwise, even if they don’t take yours, there might be some particularly bad people who, without your permission, will secretly take some from your jar!”

“!”

Hearing this, Su Ruixi was extremely shocked. She nodded solemnly. “I will definitely be careful!”

After speaking, she picked up her lunch bag and, under Sun Miao’s watchful gaze, left for work. While waiting at a red light, she glanced at her lunch bag and suddenly felt that getting a separate mini-fridge for her office was a matter of urgency!

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