Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 169

Cutting in Line

This day went well for Su Ruixi and Sun Miao, but for Shen Yiqiu, that was not the case. Her mood was terrible, especially after eating dinner. Father Su came home relatively late. When Shen Yiqiu got home, she would first eat a few bites of fruit to fill her stomach a little. They only started eating dinner when Sun Miao and Su Ruixi were watching TV.

On the dining table was the Yangyu potato cake that Shen Yiqiu had specially requested. The golden-yellow Yangyu potato cake was placed on a porcelain-white plate, looking much better than it would in oil paper.

However, this one was a bit too yellow. The whole thing was a uniform golden-yellow. While it looked good, Shen Yiqiu felt that something was not quite right. Although the one made by the small stall owner was also golden-yellow, the outermost layer had some mottled, darker brown spots.

That was the color left behind after being pan-fried, but this one was so yellow that Shen Yiqiu could only think it was deep-fried, or perhaps even made in an oven or an air fryer. Only in this way could it be guaranteed that the heat was distributed completely evenly, resulting in a perfectly uniform color.

Just thinking about this made Shen Yiqiu lose her appetite a little.

Actually, deep-fried Yangyu potato cake wasn’t bad. Some places make potato cakes this way. For example, other places in Guizhou province, or Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, also have this method of preparation. But in Shen Yiqiu’s hometown, they were more commonly pan-fried.

This was mainly because their area was relatively poor, and people were reluctant to use too much oil.

It wasn’t that it tasted bad, but it wasn’t the flavor of her hometown, and Shen Yiqiu always felt something was missing.

The more she felt something was missing, the more she missed that hometown flavor she had just eaten in the morning.

However, since the chef had already made it, Shen Yiqiu would of course still take a few bites. If she judged it as not tasty without even taking a single bite, it would be too unfair to the chef.

Father Su also saw the Yangyu potato cake and was a bit curious, “Why the sudden thought to eat this?” The chef wouldn’t make this kind of local snack for no reason. Most of the time, he made various dishes, mainly local cuisine¹ and Huaiyang cuisine, supplemented with Cantonese dishes².

Their family had hired a chef specializing in these cuisines, so he wouldn’t cook dishes from the Yunguichuan³ region. The main reason was that the food there was spicy, and since the couple was getting older, it was good for them to eat lighter-flavored food.

So, just by looking at the Yangyu potato cake, Father Su knew that Shen Yiqiu had most likely ordered it herself, which is why he asked the question.

“It’s nothing, I just felt like eating it.”

“Our head chef isn’t very good at making these kinds of dishes, so you probably won’t like it. Why not eat something authentic?”

At the mention of this, Shen Yiqiu got angry. She glanced at Father Su, her brows furrowing, “I’d love to eat the authentic version. Wouldn’t it be great to have your mom make it? But she treats me and Xixi like enemies, so how could I possibly get to eat anything she makes?”

Father Su touched his nose. Having been rebuffed, he couldn’t say anything more. “Well, then… you eat this Yangyu potato cake first.”

Shen Yiqiu was definitely going to eat it. She picked one up with her chopsticks, but after a moment’s thought, she ate it directly with her hand. This wasn’t very hygienic, and it also didn’t fit her image as a broad wife⁴. But when eating Yangyu potato cake, holding it in your hand just felt more satisfying than eating it with chopsticks.

Shen Yiqiu also saw a small saucer of zhe’ergen chili sauce that the chef had also prepared. It must have been difficult for him to make this. He had prepared it properly and set it aside, but looking at this small saucer, Shen Yiqiu again felt a sense of dissatisfaction.

When eating zhe’ergen chili sauce, who would this tiny little saucer be enough for? Was she only going to eat one Yangyu potato cake?

Shen Yiqiu tore open the Yangyu potato cake, dipped it in the zhe’ergen sauce, and started eating. The more she ate, the more dissatisfied Shen Yiqiu felt.

This Yangyu potato cake was too oily; it was most likely deep-fried. Her hands were covered in a sticky layer of oil. It tasted completely crispy, and when she bit into it, it lacked that sandy, mealy texture of potato. It was a bit like eating french fries.

Moreover, in terms of seasoning, he had also shown off his skills a bit.

The stall owner today had actually used the most basic seasonings inside, just salt, white pepper, and the like. But this one had many things added, and even… parsley flakes⁵.

Normally, Shen Yiqiu actually found parsley flakes to be quite tasty, but right now, she felt it was like drawing a snake and adding feet to it.

When she tasted the zhe’ergen chili sauce, Shen Yiqiu found it even more difficult to eat. The taste of that chili sauce… couldn’t be called terrible, but it could only be said that compared to the one from noon, it was like heaven and earth.

Even if she didn’t compare it to the Yangyu potato cake from noon, it couldn’t even compare to the one her mother-in-law made. In the earlier years when their relationship was still okay, Shen Yiqiu had eaten the Yangyu potato cake her mother-in-law made. Perhaps time had beautified the memory, or perhaps her mother-in-law’s was genuinely good. All in all, Shen Yiqiu truly felt that her mother-in-law’s was quite decent.

However, her mother-in-law wouldn’t make it for Shen Yiqiu, and Shen Yiqiu didn’t care for it now anyway.

She forced herself to eat one Yangyu potato cake, drank a bowl of congee, ate some small side dishes, and then prepared to go upstairs. Her seed of injustice⁶ husband was still over there calling to her, “Qiu ah, why did you stop eating? You ate too little.”

“I can’t eat anymore!”

That night, Father Su was not able to sleep in the master bedroom.

The next morning, Shen Yiqiu rarely arrived early near the research institute, but by the time she got to the small stall, many people were already lining up there. Shen Yiqiu had no choice but to line up at the end. Holding her phone, she scrolled through it intermittently while watching the line in front of her.

There were really a lot of people, and today’s customers had shed yesterday’s “shyness.” They were buying four or five Yangyu potato cake at a time. Shen Yiqiu even heard someone in front of her discussing buying ten to eat slowly.

Her brows furrowed unconsciously. She hadn’t gotten to eat delicious Yangyu potato cake last night, and this morning, despite arriving early, she was stuck in line. Furthermore, the people in front were buying so many that Shen Yiqiu was a little worried if it would even be her turn.

But at this very moment, someone just had to come and touch Shen Yiqiu’s moldy head⁷.

She had finally made it near the front of the line, with only two people ahead of her, when someone suddenly cut in right in front of her. While cutting in line, he even bumped into her. Shen Yiqiu immediately took a deep breath and said directly, “Why are you cutting in line?”

The man who had cut in line turned his head. Not only did he not apologize or leave the line, but he said with righteous indignation, “I know the person in front of me.”

Hearing the voice, the young man in front turned his head, his face full of surprise, “Huh? Do we know each other?”

The man who cut in line looked to be about thirty-five or thirty-six years old, in the prime of his life. He was stout and well-fed, and with his big belly blocking the way, he looked like he wouldn’t be easy to talk to. So after asking this question, the young man, lacking confidence, shrank his neck back.

The line-cutter reached out and patted the young man’s back, making him stumble. “How could you not know me? I know everyone who works in this research institute. Take a good look at me, don’t we see each other every day? Think carefully, I’m the one who contracts for the food service in the institute.”

Now that he said that, the young man had a bit of an impression.

But an impression was just an impression; he didn’t want someone to use him as an excuse to cut in line. But with his small frame, there was no way he could win against a sturdy man like this who could swing a wok⁸, so he could only turn his head away and pretend nothing had happened.

This made Shen Yiqiu furious. She frowned and was about to say something more, but the young boss hadn’t finished selling the current batch in the pan. The young man, wanting to leave this place of conflict quickly, grabbed his plastic bag and ran off. Just like that, the sturdy man in front was now first in line.

But he wasn’t in a hurry to buy anything. Instead, he sized up Sun Miao’s small stall with a disdainful look in his eyes.

Shen Yiqiu still wanted to argue with the man, but she saw the young boss poke her head out directly. Ignoring the sturdy man who had cut in line, she instead looked past him toward Shen Yiqiu, “Customer, what would you like to buy?”

“…Ah, I’ll have five Yangyu potato cake, all with zhe’ergen chili sauce. Please add extra zhe’ergen.”

Shen Yiqiu subconsciously blurted out the order she had been thinking about for a long time. Sun Miao nodded and began to pack them for Shen Yiqiu.

The sturdy man frowned. He was large, and his voice was loud too. “What are you doing? Can’t you see I’m in front? Why are you selling to her first?”

“I saw you.” Sun Miao looked at him, not flustered at all, and just said calmly and coolly, “I saw you, that’s why I’m serving her first. She came first, you cut in line. I don’t want to sell to people who cut in line. Is there a problem?”

Sun Miao’s reaction was very calm, and her hands didn’t stop moving as she packed the order for Shen Yiqiu.

Actually, when it came to things like lining up, Sun Miao had seen it all too often, whether it was before she transmigrated or in the system space. Before transmigrating, whether she was running her own shop or buying breakfast before she had one, Sun Miao had encountered people who cut in line.

She really disliked being cut in front of, but people’s quality of character is not all on the same level; there are always highs and lows. Some people with low character just love to cut in line.

There was a breakfast shop downstairs from her company whose baozi⁹ sold very well. Every time Sun Miao went to buy them before work, there would be a lot of people crowded around. Sometimes they would form a line, and other times it was chaotic, with a group of people squeezed in front of the breakfast shop, shouting their orders at the owner.

Sun Miao’s voice wasn’t small, nor was she a shy person, but she wouldn’t shout at the top of her lungs. Because everyone was in a hurry, it was only right to purchase according to the order of arrival. She would just wait for the person in front of her to buy and leave, and then she would step forward and tell the owner what she wanted.

At times like these, it was inevitable that someone would cut in, shouting from the side what they wanted.

The owner heard them and actually intended to sell to those line-cutters first. Sun Miao said directly, “I was here first.” The owner glanced at her, but the movements of his hands didn’t stop. He just said, “Okay, okay, I’ll get it for you right away. Let me just finish this one first.”

Hearing this, Sun Miao lost all desire to wait any longer and simply turned and left.

Customers cutting in line is the customers’ lack of character, but the owner’s actions were tantamount to enabling the line-cutters. This, in turn, hurt the well-behaved people who were waiting. She stood there waiting, not because she had nothing to do, not because she could afford to wait, but simply because others had arrived earlier than her.

So, according to reason, since she arrived earlier than others, she should be served first.

But some owners just didn’t seem to understand this principle.

After encountering this situation about twice, from then on, she would rather go to the neighboring shop that wasn’t as tasty than go to this baozi shop. Even on the occasions when everyone was lining up properly, she still wouldn’t go.

Later, that baozi shop’s business became not so good, because people like Sun Miao were not in the minority.

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