Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 214

Her Little Notes

When Su Ruixi said, “Come here,” she was referring to her embrace. Sun Miao let out a soft “mhm,” turned off the bedside lamp, and hid herself in Su Ruixi’s arms.

“Miaomiao, you’ve worked hard. Go to sleep.”

Su Ruixi’s embrace was warm and soft. Sun Miao hadn’t been very sleepy, but hearing Su Ruixi yawn and listening to the steady rhythm of her heartbeat, her eyelids gradually grew heavy. They say yawns are contagious; Sun Miao let one out too, unconsciously snuggling deeper into Su Ruixi’s arms before closing her eyes.

The next morning, Sun Miao didn’t know when Su Ruixi had left. When she woke up, the space beside her in bed was already empty. She couldn’t help but stretch, and a glance at her phone showed it was already 10:30. Sun Miao hurriedly got up and found breakfast prepared by the auntie on the warming plate on the dining table downstairs. Next to it was a small note.

Judging by the tone, it was from Su Ruixi. It said that she had seen Sun Miao sleeping so soundly that she didn’t wake her, and that Sun Miao didn’t need to prepare lunch for her as she had a business dinner. Below that, she had added words telling her to rest well.

Just a few short sentences, but they filled Sun Miao’s heart with warmth.

Sun Miao remembered Su Ruixi had once said she kept all the notes Sun Miao left for her in a tin box. Sun Miao thought that since this was a note Su Ruixi had left for her, it too should be kept in a box. She first finished her breakfast, tidied up a bit, wiped her hands clean, and then wandered around until she found an exquisite tin box.

Sun Miao knew where Su Ruixi kept her tin box, and she planned to put hers right next to it.

Brimming with excitement, she tucked the note into her tin box and carried it to Su Ruixi’s treasured corner. It was actually in a cabinet just inside the side door of the garage; you could see it as soon as you opened the drawer.

Su Ruixi’s tin box was also very exquisite. Sun Miao secretly opened it for a peek, only to discover that Su Ruixi had done so much more than she had. She had merely placed the note in a box, but Su Ruixi had done so many things for her little notes.

Opening the tin box, what she saw wasn’t a messy pile of notes, but a neat, beautiful photo album. When she opened it, she saw that every page held one of the notes she had left for Su Ruixi. Not only that, but beneath each note, the specific date was recorded.

When this one was from, when that one was from—it was all written with perfect clarity.

Sun Miao didn’t leave a note for Su Ruixi every day, but every single one of hers had been carefully collected by Su Ruixi.

Perhaps this was related to Su Ruixi’s meticulous nature, but more importantly, it showed the depth of her care. Sun Miao felt a little ashamed; she couldn’t compare. After putting Su Ruixi’s tin box back in its place, Sun Miao took out an old, unused account book.

She clipped the note inside the notebook and, in a blank space, recorded the date she received this little note.

Sun Miao’s notebook looked a bit old, and many of its pages had already been used. But to Sun Miao, an account book was a very important thing. Even though she now had the spreadsheet Su Ruixi had made for her on her phone, the account book was just as important.

Every little bit of money she had recorded, stroke by stroke, was her hope for survival in a world where she had no roots. Now, she had tucked another hope inside it, treasuring it in the tin box she placed next to Su Ruixi’s.

“Hehe.” A silly smile appeared on Sun Miao’s lips. She patted the tin box before leaving with peace of mind to buy the food she needed for the day.

During dinner that evening, Sun Miao didn’t mention that Su Ruixi shouldn’t wait up for her, and Su Ruixi didn’t say anything about it either. But just before she left, Su Ruixi kissed Sun Miao’s lips and told her, “Be careful on the road. Drive slowly on your way back tonight. Safety is the top priority.”

“Mhm!”

Sun Miao waved, urging Su Ruixi to hurry upstairs to bed, before driving her food cart out onto the road.

Even after nine o’clock at night in late July, the weather was still sweltering. There was a bit of a breeze while driving, but the moment she stopped, she felt like she would start sweating if she stayed for too long. Fortunately, the place where she set up her stall was a small park with a lot of greenery, so the temperature was slightly lower than in other places.

But the pot of oil was scalding. Even though it was heated by an induction cooker, the waves of heat that rolled off it and onto Sun Miao’s face still made her sweat involuntarily.

The lemon tea vendor didn’t come today, so there was no one selling drinks. But thankfully, the customers were very clever, each bringing their own beverages. Without the grandpas and grandmas, the Hip-hop and Yabi duo reclaimed their number one spot.

Seeing Sun Miao’s sweat, Hip-hop Mei couldn’t help but say, “It’s really getting hotter and hotter lately. If it weren’t for your fried skewers, Little Boss Sun, I would definitely be in an air-conditioned room right now, refusing to take a single step outside.”

“Mhm.” Yabi Mei nodded, though it was unclear which of Hip-hop Mei’s statements she was agreeing with. She started her own topic: “There’s a theory that it’s so hot now because we were at the end of a Little Ice Age. Now the sun is becoming active again, so this is a return to normal. The past was actually abnormal.”

Hearing her words, both Sun Miao and Hip-hop Mei froze. Hip-hop Mei started wailing, “Huh? This hot is normal? It’s going to get even hotter? No way, this is already hot enough for me! I can’t stand it getting any hotter!”

Although Sun Miao didn’t speak, her eyes said it all.

Getting even hotter… please, no!

The two of them bought their food and left, but they came back just a short while later. Hip-hop Mei was holding a small bag, from which she pulled out a small handheld electric fan. She also brought a bottle of iced mineral water. “Little Boss Sun, for you.”

Sun Miao refused, but then she heard Hip-hop Mei say, “Su-jie asked me to give this to you. I just sent her a message to complain, and she told me to buy it and bring it over right away. She also said that if you don’t take it, she’ll bring it over herself later.”

Sun Miao paused for a moment, then accepted them. As she took them, her eyes curved into crescents. “Okay, I understand.”

She wanted to reply to Su Ruixi’s message, but there were too many customers. And rather than spending time messaging Su Ruixi, it was better to sell out quickly and get back to her side sooner.

There were even more people today than yesterday, and the weather was hotter too. But people have a bit of a masochistic streak. Even in such hot weather, everyone still had to squat or sit near Sun Miao, eating fried skewers while drinking iced beverages. Sweat streamed down their bodies, yet they felt incredibly refreshed.

It’s summer, after all. You’re supposed to sweat.

Some of the customers were people who hadn’t been able to get any yesterday and had come early. Among them were quite a few from Group 2 and from Lizi’s livestream. At first, they came with an attitude of being half-believing and half-doubting, holding a critical view of Sun Miao’s fried skewers. But the moment the skewers entered their mouths, they too were conquered.

How could this be? It was just a fried skewer, how could it be this delicious? Their eyes lit up just like the regular customers’, with “so” practically written in their left eyes and “good” in their right. In three downs and five divided by two¹, they finished the three skewers they had bought in their skepticism.

They looked at the long queue, and with a sense of unwillingness, they returned to the line. This time, however, they didn’t forget: first, go to a nearby convenience store to buy iced drinks.

While selling skewers today, Sun Miao also ran into an acquaintance. Not a regular customer, but the owner of the fried skewer stall who had set up next to her twice before. He had come with his wife and child, but he had been waiting in line by himself for a long time.

Seeing Sun Miao, he looked a little embarrassed. “Um, I just heard that Little Boss Sun was also selling fried skewers… I, I want to fetch some scriptures². I don’t mean to, uh, steal your techniques³, I just wanted to try them and compare, to see how I can improve.”

Hearing the owner say this, Sun Miao didn’t speak, just nodded. “How many servings?”

“Six, thank you.”

Actually, there were enough fried skewers ready for six servings, but Sun Miao first asked the person behind him, gave the already-fried skewers to other customers, and had the skewer stall owner stand a little to the side so he could get a better view of her hand movements.

At first, the stall owner didn’t understand what Sun Miao meant, only thinking, “She must have her reasons for doing this.” But now he understood: she was going to fry a batch right in front of him.

At that moment, the stall owner not only watched himself but also quickly called his wife over to watch with him.

The stall owner’s wife was probably also a dab hand at making fried skewers. Standing next to her husband, the couple watched with rapt attention. Sun Miao’s method of frying was particularly interesting. The skewers were submerged directly into the pot of oil, and she held a pair of long chopsticks, stirring them gently inside. Once they were cooked, she immediately took them out and placed them on a rack to the side to drain.

Many people who make fried skewers, in order to reduce oil loss, will set up a draining rack directly over the pot so the oil can drip back in. But Sun Miao didn’t skimp on this bit of oil. Instead, she prepared a separate basin with a rack on top to drain the skewers, catching the used oil below.

If the oil in the pot got low, she would add more.

In this situation, it was actually difficult to tell if the oil at the bottom of the pot was scalding hot. The stall owner was still a bit puzzled, but his wife quickly pointed it out: “It’s the chopsticks. The chopsticks are not only key to stirring the skewers for even heating, but they’re also how the boss tests the oil temperature.”

After she finished frying the batch in front of them, Sun Miao handed it to the couple. They went off to the side, discussing as they walked.

Their child followed them, jumping three chi high⁴, wanting to eat the skewers. After finding a place to sit, the two of them discussed while they ate.

Sun Miao believed that the fried skewers at the owner’s stall would definitely be more delicious from now on, and he would have more customers. Not because the owner came to observe her, but because both he and his wife were the type of people who would study things seriously. People like that can succeed in any business.

Seeing the couple, Sun Miao remembered something else: Shoot, I forgot to ask.

That middle-aged couple from yesterday—Sun Miao had a strong feeling they were Su Ruixi’s parents. But when she got home last night, because Su Ruixi was waiting for her, her heart was so full of Su Ruixi’s love that she didn’t think about anything else. She forgot to ask today as well, and now seeing the fried skewer couple reminded her of it.

I should still ask. Tomorrow, during dinner, I must ask

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