Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 234

Going Home is the Greatest

Afterward, Li Yue asked many more questions, and Sun Miao answered them one by one, including: Is your partner supportive of you running a stall? Have you ever encountered anything interesting? Have any customers left a particularly deep impression on you? What made you decide to switch to a new snack every seven days? Is the income considerable?

And so on—some questions were easy to answer, others not so much.

At the very end, Li Yue asked Sun Miao to say a few words to the audience. Sun Miao thought for a long time before finally replying, “It’s better if you don’t come line up at my stall. Really. I don’t make much each day, and many of my regulars can’t even get a spot. Even if you come to buy, you might leave empty-handed. Rather than spending time lining up here, you’d be better off finding other food that interests you more.”

For Sun Miao to say this, it was hard to avoid the suspicion of being a bit “Versailles,”¹ but she was speaking from the bottom of her heart.

There were just too, too many people.

Every day when she drove her food truck over, she would be frightened by the sight of the people, the following, the crowd² before she even got close. She even had to announce before starting every time roughly how many portions she had, telling the people at the back of the line not to bother waiting. And every time she was about to sell out, she would start giving advance warnings.

But it was useless.

Completely useless!

It was still packed with people every day when she arrived. Even when she said she was about to sell out, there were always those who wouldn’t give up and insisted on staying, determined to wait at the front. Then, when Sun Miao announced “Sold out,” they would stare at her with reproachful, mournful eyes, as if Sun Miao were some villain guilty of the ten unpardonable evils.³

This was the very definition of heart-weary.

Even a system-trained stall owner like Sun Miao, with her wealth of experience in dealing with all kinds of customers, couldn’t handle it.

The interview ended there. Li Yue prepared to leave, but before she did, she wore an expression of someone who wanted to say something but was hesitating. Sun Miao didn’t understand what she meant and just raised a hand to wave goodbye. Then she wiped down the tables and chairs one more time, loaded them onto the food truck, and pedaled her way home.

She had to hurry home to have dinner with Su Ruixi. Normally, she’d set up her stall at 5 PM and get home around 7:30 PM. Today, with the long interview, she would definitely be even later. The thought of Susu-jie at home, waiting for her until her eyes were about to see through⁴, made Sun Miao’s heart like an arrow returning home.⁵

Sure enough, when Sun Miao arrived home, Su Ruixi was already sitting at the dining table, having played on her phone for a while. Sun Miao had sent her a message in advance, so she knew Sun Miao would be late today and wasn’t anxious.

It was just that while waiting, time subjectively felt like it was stretching on. It always felt like she had been waiting for a long, long time, and the person she was waiting for still hadn’t returned. Su Ruixi’s expression looked a little unhappy. It wasn’t that she had any complaints about Sun Miao; she was purely annoyed with the person who had kept Sun Miao for the interview.

“She really doesn’t know how to pick a time, choosing the busiest moment to show up. After you sell out, you’d obviously be thinking about closing up and going home early. How could she delay someone from going home like that.”

To think that these words would one day come from Su Ruixi’s mouth. If this were a year ago, the people at her company would have had their jaws drop in shock. Su Ruixi was an out-and-out king of involution, an iron-blooded woman of the army⁶ who had once worked herself into the hospital with stomach problems.

Now, however, she genuinely felt: the sky is vast and the earth is wide, but going home is the greatest of all.

No one can disturb me when I get off work. No one!

Thanks to Sun Miao’s presence, the employees at Su Ruixi’s company also got to enjoy a life of clocking in and out on time. Of course, there was still occasional overtime. Sudden projects or willful clients from Party A⁷ were all reasons for the ox-horse workers⁸ to work overtime.

But the workers at Su Ruixi’s company were more than willing to work overtime. First of all, Su Ruixi paid well; the overtime wages were right there, so who wouldn’t be happy to work a little extra once in a while? Secondly, they usually didn’t have to. If it weren’t for a genuine emergency, Su Ruixi, the king of involution herself, would have all the work arranged perfectly, and the situation of “forcing people to work overtime when it’s not necessary” would never occur.

Based on these two points alone, the ox-horse workers were willing to risk their lives to accompany a gentleman,⁹ joining their boss for overtime.

Most importantly, Su Ruixi also gave them enough humane consideration.

For overtime, there was a cantie¹⁰ for dinner; taxi fares for the ride home were directly reimbursed.

With benefits like these, the entire staff of her company were ready to have the words “willing to die for one who knows me”¹¹ tattooed on their faces. In just half a year, Su Ruixi’s company had been promoted to the TOP1 spot on the worker forums for “local companies women most want to work for.”

Faced with Su Ruixi’s grumbling, Sun Miao couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s just once in a while, it’s no big deal. Besides, this is the first time I’ve been interviewed by a TV station. Susu-jie, I’m so excited.”

Su Ruixi took Sun Miao’s hand and led her to the dining table. She first poured her a glass of water to let her rest. Only then did she speak. “Wasn’t Miao Miao’s breakfast shop ever interviewed before?”

“That was just a tiny little breakfast shop in a small county. How could it possibly be qualified for an interview?”

Su Ruixi pouted. “That’s because that TV station in your small county had eyes but no pupils.”¹²

“Haha, only Susu-jie would think that.”

They chatted about their neighbors, and then Su Ruixi dropped the subject. She just set out the bowls and chopsticks and told Sun Miao to go wash her hands behind the counter to get ready for dinner.

As they sat down at the table, Sun Miao also mentioned the matter of Father Su being interviewed. After she finished, she said with some worry, “Susu-jie, the host later asked a lot of questions about my stall, and I told her everything about the beef pancakes and zongzi. If Uncle watches the interview, he’ll definitely know that I’m your girlfriend…”

Su Ruixi was taken aback for a moment, then said, “It’s fine. If he finds out, he finds out.”

Not only that, but Su Ruixi was grumbling to herself: although her dad had a certain level of ability, she always felt it was because Father Su had been standing on the winds of the era; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to fly so high. He usually seemed to have a lot of schemes up his sleeve, but sometimes his powers of observation were worse than her mom’s.

Shen Yiqiu had discovered the relationship between Sun Miao and Su Ruixi long ago, yet after all this time, Father Su was still kept in the dark. Of course, part of the reason was that Su Ruixi communicated less with her father, but for him not to have noticed after so long was enough to show that his observation skills were truly not up to par.

It was also possible that he had put all his observation skill points into his business acumen.

So what if he found out? Father Su had already had his face slapped so many times, and Shen Yiqiu had successfully “surrendered” to their side. What kind of waves could Father Su possibly stir up?

If Father Su knew what Su Ruixi was thinking, he would probably be sick with anger.

The production capability and speed of a television station were incomparable to that of an individual streamer like Lizi. Just as Sun Miao finished up at her stall for the day, the program was already airing on the local channel, and related clips had even appeared on online streaming platforms.

Because there had been a preview, basically all of Sun Miao’s regulars knew about it. Su Ruixi also pulled Sun Miao to sit in front of the TV early.

It was rare for people to watch live TV anymore, but at this moment, many people were waiting by their televisions just to see her. Sun Miao sat on the sofa, looked at Su Ruixi beside her, and belatedly started to feel a little shy. She was on TV. Not only would Su Ruixi see it, but all her regulars would too.

Her small fidgeting didn’t escape Su Ruixi. The latter turned her head and saw Sun Miao’s somewhat shy expression. Su Ruixi was amused and teased her, “Now you know how to be shy?”

“Susu-jie.”

She called out softly, then started whimpering and squirming, and before they knew it, the two of them were hugging in a ball. The commercials on the TV finally finished at that moment, and today’s opening sequence began.

This program wasn’t hosted by Li Yue alone; she was just an on-location reporter. The main studio host was someone else. The show usually aired two or three segments introducing delicious local food and only had one episode per week.

Sun Miao’s feature wasn’t scheduled first. After they finally finished watching the first segment, the second one wasn’t her either. There were also commercials in between, which made both Sun Miao and Su Ruixi feel a bit tired watching.

The places featured on a TV show were definitely either local specialties or currently very popular. But the first and second segments were both about small shops that had been run by locals for over a decade, with both the host and the interviewed shop owners speaking in the local dialect.

Su Ruixi, of course, had no trouble understanding, but for Sun Miao, it was incredibly difficult. The dialects of the Wu language¹³ region were pleasant to listen to, but to outsiders, they were like Arabian Nights.¹⁴ Fortunately, Su Ruixi was exceptionally attentive and provided real-time translation for Sun Miao.

After finally getting through the two segments and another commercial break, it was Sun Miao’s turn.

Sun Miao’s spirits lifted, and she went from a wilted flower to one in full bloom again. She even patted Su Ruixi’s hand. “Susu-jie, it’s my turn, it’s my turn.”

“Mm.”

Su Ruixi nodded and acknowledged her.

Li Yue’s figure appeared on the TV screen. She stood in front of a long queue and began her introduction to the camera: “Recently, among young people, a small stall appeared out of thin air across the sky¹⁵, capturing everyone’s attention. On Xiaohongshu¹⁶, posts about this little stall have repeatedly gone viral, topping our city’s trending searches. Countless people have asked, ‘Where is the beef pancake stall?’ or ‘Where is the changfen stall?’ Other posts have recommended it, calling it ‘the best zongzi here’ or ‘the best fried skewers.’”

“The owner is even more willful. Not only does she switch to a new snack every seven days, but she also takes a break for over a month during the plum rain season and the summer. So today, let’s take everyone to see just what kind of stall could attract so much attention.”

Hearing her words, Sun Miao retorted with some embarrassment, “I-I’m not that willful.”

Su Ruixi cast a look at Sun Miao that was hard to describe in one word. Even a Su Ruixi who had fallen into a state of love brain couldn’t refute host Li Yue’s statement. Because, at the very beginning, Su Ruixi herself had experienced Sun Miao’s willfulness.

She also spoke in a low voice, but it was a coquettish complaint. “You’re not willful? I went looking for you behind the hospital later, but I couldn’t find you at all. I had to ask someone else, only to find out you had stopped setting up your stall long ago. I thought I would never see you again. Who would have known you’d end up setting up your stall right at my doorstep.”

Hearing Su Ruixi’s words, Sun Miao’s eyes lit up. “Susu-jie, you went looking for me later?”

She hadn’t known that at all before. Su Ruixi had kept it from her so well.

“…No.” Su Ruixi turned her face away, refusing to admit it.

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