Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 229

Ah, You’re Here.

Hearing her, Hip-hop Mei on the other side of the line went, “Huh?” then leaned over to whisper to Yabi Mei, “But isn’t Susu-jie not supposed to eat that? She has stomach problems. Won’t eating it cause a flare-up?”

Yabi Mei shot her a look. At this point, only Hip-hop Mei would ask something like that.

Little Boss Sun was taking such good care of Su Ruixi. When they had crashed their place for dinner before, she was even drinking iced beer. It was obvious her stomach problems were mostly healed. With Sun Miao there taking meticulous care of her, why would Hip-hop Mei need to worry? Su Ruixi’s health was probably fine as long as she ate in moderation. Besides, Sun Miao definitely knew the situation better than they did.

“It’s not your place to worry, y’know.”

“That’s true, oh.”

In Lizi’s stream, many bullet comments expressed things like: 【Learned something new】 and 【So that’s how it is】.

Someone also asked: 【So pregnant women can’t eat tofu either? Isn’t tofu super nutritious?】

Lizi continued to answer, “Most tofu nowadays isn’t made this way. This is more of an ancient method, so you don’t need to worry too much, ‘kay?” As she spoke, her gaze fell upon her own empty bowl, and her expression made people seriously wonder: Is she planning to lick it again?

Lizi let out a sigh. “Sigh, what a shame. It’s limited to one bowl per person. That’s not nearly enough.”

【Not enough? For a big eater like Lizi, she could probably down half a bucket with room to spare.】

【Poor Lizi, go get something else to eat later.】

【Watching this is making my mouth water. I’m hungry. Searching for where to buy huaihua fen nearby.】

Lizi also remembered the handwritten rave review she saw yesterday and quickly interacted with her viewers. “But a lot of huaihua fen these days might not be handmade. They use food coloring and artificial sweeteners, so everyone, be careful and try to tell the difference, ‘kay?”

Many people in the bullet comments also chimed in with their own experiences:

【Don’t be fooled by how good Little Boss Sun’s looks. The huaihua fen where I live is nowhere near as tasty, and it gets more expensive every year.】

【A lot of places don’t make their own huaihua fen anymore. They just buy it online or get it from a supplier. It’s way more convenient than making it themselves.】

【Haha, last time I went to the old street for huaihua fen, it was 8 yuan a bowl, but it turned out to be a concoction of food coloring and saccharin. Seeing that Little Boss Sun only sells it for 15 a bowl, I just had to laugh. Out of anger.】

After she finished eating, Lizi didn’t stick around. She said goodbye to Sun Miao and left.

At this time, the old regulars were all piously lining up, but they had forgotten one thing. It was now September 2nd, which meant the student crowd was back for school. Lizi was an even bigger bombshell. As a local food blogger with a decent amount of fame, her audience included a great number of students.

Because Lizi often sought out cheap and delicious snack shops, she had a particularly large student following. And right now, many of them were watching her livestream.

At that very moment, in a certain women’s university over in the Education Park, a student, on her deathbed, sat up in shock¹ and instantly did a carp flip² on her top bunk. The motion was so violent that the bed frame let out a loud creak, startling her roommate into yelling, “Be careful! You’re going to make the bed collapse!”

She cursed back, “No way!” then immediately changed the subject. “Never mind that. The important thing is: I found Little Boss Sun’s stall!” She immediately sent the livestream link to their dorm group chat, and within minutes, it had been forwarded out of that group and into the one dedicated to finding Sun Miao.

And so, in an instant, a flood of people poured into Lizi’s stream, and their bullet comments were all the same: 【Asking for the location of that Miao Miao Mobile Diner just now?】

So many people were asking that Lizi was a bit stunned, but she quickly replied, “It’s in front of the Su Group building.”

The student crowd were all poor folks. Although they were grateful to Lizi for helping them find Miao Miao’s Mobile Food Bar, they could only send a few free virtual gifts. Lizi didn’t mind. After a wave of thanks for the gifts, she watched as the whole group took off.

Fortunately, she was quick-witted and caught the last of the stragglers with a friendly reminder. “But it’s a limited quantity this time, so it’s probably almost sold out. I’ve been telling my own fans not to go today, but to get there early tomorrow. So if you’re going to eat at Miao Miao’s Mobile Food Bar, it’s better to go early tomorrow, okay?”

“I’m going tomorrow too. I was so lucky today, I got first place~”

Lizi’s luck had nothing to do with it. She had planned it in advance. She’d previously done a series on experiencing the cafeterias of big tech companies³, and this time she had been invited to try this one on a Saturday, a day with fewer people and only a handful of employees working overtime. In the afternoon, she wandered around the campus and then went straight to the entrance to wait.

She arrived at the gate at just two in the afternoon, but she hadn’t been standing there long before she saw the hip-hop and yabi duo, two girls with incredibly distinct styles, walking over.

When she saw Lizi, Hip-hop Mei still held onto a sliver of hope. “Are you waiting for a ride?”

Lizi smiled. “Nope. I’m waiting for Little Boss Sun to set up her stall.”

The moment she got her answer, Hip-hop Mei’s sky quietly collapsed. She sank into a gloomy funk. Losing out to the old folks is one thing, but now I can’t even beat people my own age!

However, Hip-hop Mei didn’t know that this day could still be considered one of her brighter ones. Because starting from the next day—that is, the third day of Sun Miao’s stall, Sunday, September 3rd—her career of vying for a spot in line would become bleak and desolate.

On September 3rd, the weather forecast had called for a fine, sunny day, clear for ten thousand li⁴. But at two-thirty in the afternoon, the sky turned overcast. A large bank of dark clouds drifted in from the west, casting the entire entrance of the Su Group in shadow.

The hip-hop and yabi duo arrived at Sun Miao’s designated spot at their usual time, but before they even got close, they saw a group of people already standing there. Hip-hop Mei couldn’t help but glance at Yabi Mei, her eyes wide with astonishment.

—I didn’t come to the wrong place, did I? Why are there so many people waiting here already?

Before her question could be answered, she took a closer look and saw that the young, supposedly vibrant faces were shrouded in a gloom that matched the weather. They stood silently in front of the Su Group entrance. An uninformed observer might have thought the university students were staging a counterattack on the Su Group. Their faces were all filled with a grim, murderous air.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just a murderous air; it was also thick with resentment. They looked like water ghosts⁵ just fished out of an old well, every single one of them planning to grab someone to take their place.

Even someone like Hip-hop Mei, who feared neither heaven nor earth⁶, couldn’t help but swallow hard at the sight. She suspected she hadn’t checked the huangli⁷ before leaving home and that today was an inauspicious day to go out. But soon, her devotion to Sun Miao’s snacks calmed her down, and she pulled Yabi Mei toward the stall location.

She addressed the group of resentful, yet very young-looking, suspected students. “Are you guys here to interview for internships at the Su Group?”

The suspected students shook their heads. “No, we’re waiting for Miao Miao’s Mobile Food Bar.”

—Oh, it’s confirmed. No longer suspected. They’re the student crowd.

Hip-hop Mei felt like her world had ended. After explaining that they, too, were waiting for Sun Miao, the hip-hop and yabi duo were relegated to the very end of the line. As they queued, Hip-hop Mei lamented that it was hopeless today. After sighing for a while, she took out her phone.

“This won’t do. I have to notify the group chat and tell them to get here earlier. Otherwise, there won’t even be a place to stand soon.”

Under Hip-hop Mei’s reign, the group chat instantly erupted in howls of despair:

【I knew this would happen once school started, but I didn’t think they’d find the place by the 3rd!】

【I’m reporting someone! It was that food blogger, Lizi! She’s pretty well-known around here, and most of her followers are students, which is why the student crowd got the intel so fast!】

【Waaah, I knew one day, no matter how early I got here, someone would be earlier. Wait for me, I’m already on my way, I’ll be there soon.】

【I’m not a big fan of sweet things, so I’ll sit this one out. I’ll watch you guys line up.】

The person who didn’t like sweets was immediately @’d: 【Then you’re truly missing out on the most delicious food in the world. The huaihua fen Little Boss Sun makes isn’t just sweet, but it’s also sweet, and in short: it’s delicious.】

【Enough! Person above, stop promoting⁸ it! One less person is one less competitor!】

Actually, there were many others, like this old regular, who weren’t particularly interested in sweets. But on the first day, many regulars were thinking that they hadn’t seen Little Boss Sun in a long time and just felt something was off. They figured even if it was a dessert, it was cheap, so they might as well have a bowl and try it.

Well, that one taste was a revelation. The ingredients were clearly very ordinary, and it was a dessert they didn’t even normally like, yet they found it incredibly delicious.

It turned out it wasn’t that they disliked desserts, but that they had never encountered the perfect dessert for them.

On the 2nd, the line was already very long, but unexpectedly, on the 3rd, there were mountains and seas of people⁹. There were students who hadn’t been seen in a while, having gone home for summer vacation; there were miserable, overworked wage slaves¹⁰ who finally had their one day off after working the past two days; there were old regulars who had been tamed by Sun Miao and converted into dessert lovers… and, waiting in the middle of the line, was Father Su.

The road ran east-west, with the Su Group’s industrial park on the north side. She set up her stall on the east side of the south gate. As Sun Miao drove from east to west, she saw a long line that stretched nearly all the way to the traffic light…

Sun Miao knew the line for her stall could be intimidating, but she never expected it to be this intimidating. She spotted Father Su in the crowd at a glance—it was impossible not to, as he bore some resemblance to Su Ruixi. Faced with Susu-jie’s own father, she could only let her gaze drift away and pretend she hadn’t seen him.

Even if she saw him, there was nothing she could do. Susu-jie herself had to wait in line, so she couldn’t just pull Father Su to the front, could she!

Riding her electric cart, Sun Miao squeezed the brakes as she neared the second lamppost. With the sound of tires screeching against the pavement, she came to a stop. Next, she had to push the cart up onto the sidewalk.

The system-customized food cart wasn’t difficult to push, and with Sun Miao’s physical fitness and strength being on point, it wasn’t hard at all. But under normal circumstances, she didn’t need to do it herself. Just like at this very moment, the students who had been waiting for so long couldn’t wait to rush over and help her hoist the cart onto the pavement.

“Haha… ah, you’re here.”

Sun Miao greeted them a bit awkwardly. The students’ resentment was so thick it was practically suffocating her.

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The author has something to say:

Student crowd, attack!

(Of course I want long reviews; every positive review is precious to a creator. I’m also quite the mensao¹¹, so just like Little Boss Sun, I’ll just secretly lurk¹² and feel secretly pleased.

But even without long reviews, I’m content if you all just occasionally come and check in¹³.

Thank you all for your support, jiu mi¹⁴~)

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