The Sky Really Fell
Faced with the system’s question, Sun Miao answered with great sincerity: “Yes, I was worried about you.”
The system was also a little bit aojiao (tsundere), and hearing Sun Miao say this, it actually became a little bashful: 【There’s really no need. As a human, the Host can’t affect me.】 After saying this, it felt a bit annoyed with itself. Shouldn’t have been so blunt. Will the Host be sad?
But Sun Miao already had this kind of proud-and-shy reaction pinched firmly in her hand1. She breathed a sigh of relief: “It’s good as long as you won’t be affected.” She was riding her electric scooter, and on the way back, she encountered a red light and chose to stop.
There were very few cars at night, and many people riding electric scooters would choose to run the red light at this time to save time. But this choice was very dangerous. Because vehicles travel very fast at night, and with lower visibility, observation is inadequate, making accidents more likely than during the day.
Sun Miao also really wanted to rush back to see Su Ruixi, but Sun Miao still cherished her own little life2; even though she couldn’t see a single car, she still obediently waited for the traffic light.
It was because of this that she was able to relax and reveal a huge smile. A smile that, at this very moment, only the system could see.
“Because the system is also a very important friend of mine.”
The positions of Sun Miao’s lover and family had already been occupied by Su Ruixi. She couldn’t give these two positions to the system. But to her, the system was also a very important existence.
Sun Miao admitted that when she first came into contact with the system, she was sincerely frightened and sincerely terrified. Emotions of joy, suspicion, and fear churned in her heart. She was afraid that the system she had encountered was the kind that often appeared in novels, one that killed without batting an eye. The kind that would give the Host an electric shock at the drop of a hat, and as the Host, she would have to constantly battle wits and battle courage with the system.
She didn’t think she was a particularly smart person, nor could she investigate what existed behind the system and then work hard to remove it from her body, her mind, or even the depths of her soul.
Fortunately, her system wasn’t that kind of existence. It was completely different from the systems in novels. Her system basically never punished her, and even if there was a punishment, it was just washing some dishes. Although the dishwashing time was a bit long, she wouldn’t feel tired or hungry in the system space. Besides, she was already used to her days in the system space, so Sun Miao truly felt it was fine.
Most importantly, she had known the system for almost half a year, and so far, she had only been punished once.
To her, such a system was, in fact, both teacher and friend.
Sun Miao didn’t have many friends either. She felt that the system could occupy a spot.
But as for family, the system hadn’t reached that level yet. Sun Miao’s relationship with the system was complicated. She was grateful to the system, but she also had to be on guard against it. Because for Sun Miao, the system was always a ticking time bomb. It could take her across worlds and possessed something as magical as the system space. What if one day the system changed, or suddenly told her she had completed all her tasks and was going to take her back to her original world?
She wasn’t afraid of returning to a state of poverty, nor did she fear facing her small breakfast stall. But she was afraid of leaving Su Ruixi, afraid of returning to being alone, and then having the system laugh at her, saying it was all just a joke it played on her, a beautiful dream it let her have.
Sun Miao felt that she could not leave Su Ruixi.
Because this gratitude and vigilance existed at the same time, she couldn’t treat it as family.
It wasn’t a pure teacher either, although almost all of Sun Miao’s current culinary skills were learned from the system. But the system didn’t have the dignity of a teacher; instead, it was a little proud-and-shy thing that Sun Miao often had to coax.
Friend, was undoubtedly the best positioning for the system.
But the system never knew that this was what Sun Miao thought. Hearing Sun Miao’s words, the system became even more bashful. It didn’t know how to respond; it had not learned how to handle such a scene. So, like all proud-and-shy types, the system chose to escape at the first opportunity.
【Th-then I’ll disconnect first. I’ll reconnect if I need to issue a temporary mission.】
Sun Miao knew the system had run away because it was shy. She couldn’t help but let out a laugh. The red light in front of her had also started its countdown.
She said softly, “Okay, see you next time.”
【See you next time.】
The system disconnected, and the second voice in Sun Miao’s mind was gone. For a moment, Sun Miao felt a little empty. Because this time was different from when the system went into the little black room3 before; the time was too long. But on second thought, this separation was for the sake of the next reunion, and Sun Miao’s heart became much happier.
The red light turned green. Sun Miao rode her electric scooter, facing the evening breeze, and returned to the Cuiting Yayuan Residential Community. Just as she arrived at the entrance, Su Ruixi darted out from the security office. She had a very obvious smile on her face; clearly, she was very happy that today was Sun Miao’s last day running the stall.
After Su Ruixi sat down in the spot next to her, Sun Miao greeted the security guard and entered the community. On this short stretch of road, Sun Miao whispered to Su Ruixi, “Susu-jie, I plan to rest for a while. It’s been too hot these past few days. If it were daytime, I’d definitely be tanned into black charcoal.”
Su Ruixi nodded her head forcefully, strongly agreeing with Sun Miao’s words: “You really should rest. The days are scorching hot, and the sun is vicious. It doesn’t cool down much at night either. It’s better to rest.” She then asked, “Miaomiao, how long will you rest for?”
“Until the end of August, probably. It shouldn’t be so hot by the end of August.”
Su Ruixi, however, didn’t quite agree. It wasn’t that she thought Sun Miao was resting for too long, but rather that she thought the rest was too short: “It’s still hot at the end of August. You’re not from around here, so you probably don’t know. After the dog days4 are over, there’s still the autumn tiger5 for another ten days or so. The way I see it, it would be best to just rest until after the National Day holiday6 is over.”
Hearing what Su Ruixi said, the corners of Sun Miao’s mouth couldn’t help but curve up: “How could I rest for that long? Resting for this amount of time is already enough.”
She then thought: If my regular customers found out Su Ruixi was giving me this kind of idea, they would definitely talk about Susu-jie behind her back. That won’t do. My Susu-jie is so good, no one is allowed to say anything bad about her.
Sun Miao rejected Su Ruixi’s proposal, but Su Ruixi was still persistent: “Really, it’s too hot. You should take a good rest.”
“But I am resting.”
Su Ruixi was usually a woman of few words, but at this moment she became quite talkative. To get Su Ruixi to be quiet, Sun Miao stopped the scooter on the road, then leaned over and gave Su Ruixi a kiss. The sudden kiss made Su Ruixi freeze for a moment, but very quickly she turned from the guest into the host7, pressing Sun Miao down and kissing her several more times.
“I surrender! Susu-jie, I surrender!” Sun Miao shouted, but her voice was soft, as if she were a thief.
Su Ruixi licked her lips, still somewhat unsatisfied. However, her voice was also soft as she whispered, “I’ll let you rest for two days first.”
Their ghostly and sneaky8 appearance was actually because the residential community was too quiet, and they were a little worried about waking the neighbors. The two of them returned home together and had an honest night’s sleep. When she woke up, the first thing Sun Miao did was post the news that she was taking a break into the group chat, and then quickly muted the group chat.
This day was a Monday, a workday. Sun Miao’s customers could be roughly divided into three categories: the working folk, the wealthy and idle, and the student crowd. The latter two categories hadn’t even opened their eyes at this point and didn’t know what had happened. Meanwhile, the working folk had just arrived at their workstations, either already working hard to make money and support their families, or sleepily munching on breakfast while preparing to tackle the day’s work.
At this very moment, they received an @everyone message. Seeing it was from Sun Miao’s familiar group, they all clicked it open, only to receive news that made them feel like “the sky has collapsed.”
Especially Tong Yuwei, her eyes widened as she stared at the message in front of her, unable to stop herself from murmuring, “How could this be? I’ve only had the fried skewers twice, how could this be? Taking a break for over a month?! Huh? No, not something like this! When will the beef pancakes make their encore?!”
There were quite a few working folk just like her. At this moment, they couldn’t be bothered to eat breakfast or work. They grabbed their phones and rushed to the bathroom, then began their journey of touching fish9:
【Where’s Sun Miao?! Show yourself! What’s the meaning of this, taking a break for over a month?! Do you even have us customers in your eyes?!】
【Little Boss Sun, how old are you? You’re not even thirty! This is the age to dare to dream and dare to strive! If you don’t come out and run your stall, how will you support yourself?!】
【Do you know how expensive the housing prices are here?! How long do you have to save up for a down payment? Why aren’t you running your stall, huh? To take a step back ten thousand paces10, even if you don’t buy a house, is your rent paid?!】
They attempted to persuade her with benefits, but after careful thought, with Little Boss Sun’s ridiculously profitable stall, it seemed unlikely she’d have to drink the northwest wind11 just because she didn’t work for a month. They began to rage furiously, @-ing Sun Miao nonstop. But Sun Miao had muted the group very quickly, giving them no chance to “directly face the faults of this lonely one12.”
Not only that, she snuggled into her pillow, sent a message to Su Ruixi, and then started to have a returning-to-the-cage sleep13.
Sun Miao didn’t wake up until after ten o’clock. At this time, Hip-hop Mei also groggily climbed out of bed. She got up, went downstairs to eat the brunch prepared by the live-in auntie, dazedly did her skincare routine, and after finishing all that, returned to her room and picked up her phone, preparing to call Yabi Mei to play games. However, as soon as she opened her phone, she saw a message from Yabi Mei: Check the group.
She hadn’t even processed which group it was when she saw the @everyone notification in her pinned group chat. Hip-hop Mei clicked into it and was stunned by the group chat that was already at 99+ messages and still refreshing nonstop. After a simple scroll, Hip-hop Mei gulped hard. When she pressed the @ message and jumped directly to Sun Miao’s post, she read the message back and forth several times.
They were all Chinese characters, and she recognized every single one, but when combined, she just didn’t understand.
After her .exe resumed responding, she let out a bloodcurdling scream: “Ah!”
How could this be?! How could this possibly be?! Didn’t Little Boss Sun just end her vacation?! The plum rain season wasn’t that long ago! She came back and sold Spanish mackerel dumplings and the fried skewer trio, so how is she on vacation again?! No, not something like this! The matter of not being able to eat Little Boss Sun’s food, really, no! Don’t be so cruel to us!
At this very moment, Yabi Mei sent her another message: Freeloading Plan, activate!
The author has something to say:
Sun Miao & Su Ruixi: Hehe
The Customers: Not hehe
(Why do I have to go to work tomorrow! I also want to be like Little Boss Sun and just take a long vacation!)
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