Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 236

Nearing Graduation

Father Su didn’t have the courage to finish watching that program online that day; Shen Yiqiu had pulled him over to watch it with her midway through, right when his own interview came on. After watching for a bit, he felt too embarrassed and just turned off the TV.

He originally thought the matter wouldn’t blow over, but when he went to work at the industrial park the next morning, he found that all the employees he passed were staring at him. He was puzzled for a moment, but the employees’ attitudes were all very good. When they saw him, they would even nod and smile in greeting: “Morning, President Su.”

Sitting down at his desk, he saw that even his assistant’s expression was odd. Father Su couldn’t take it anymore and asked directly, “What on earth is going on? Is there something on my face? Why is everyone looking at me so strangely?”

The assistant genuinely couldn’t hold it in. She shrugged her shoulders and laughed for a moment before pulling up her tablet to show Father Su. In that instant, Father Su’s toes felt an inkling to start digging into the floor¹. He had given countless interviews, but never had one made him feel so awkward from head to toe.

Especially since Shen Yiqiu had laughed at him last night, which had given him a complex about this interview video. The moment he saw it, he would fall into a state of stiff-bodied embarrassment. But none of that could compare to the awkwardness Father Su felt when he clicked open the comment section and saw the mockery from netizens who were armed with microscopes.

Every last one of them was a top-tier Leeuwenhoek², leaving no stone unturned in their observations and analyzing his body language to determine just how awkward he must have been. They even started making memes out of it in the comments:

【First time I’ve seen a situation where the boss of a publicly traded company could be held hostage to promote a street stall.】

【President Su, if you’ve been taken hostage, just blink. You don’t have to be so stiff.】

【LMAO, what’s going on? Is he that unwilling to say this stall is delicious? Can someone in the know tell us if this little stall’s food is actually good or not?】

【It should be good. I looked up a video of President Su from last year when he was invited to taste local cuisine abroad. If it’s not good, he really doesn’t give any face.】

【Local here. This stall is genuinely delicious. President Su was actually telling the truth, so why the awkward expression?】

【An internal source from the company quietly reveals: I seriously suspect President Su is an old aojiao³. He’s usually like that with our proposals. Even if they’re done very well, the most we’ll get is an ‘average’ in response, but you can tell from his subsequent actions that he’s actually satisfied. Facing an interview this time, he was probably unwilling to say ‘delicious,’ but he was also afraid the little stall would get bad reviews because of his comments, so he could only pinch his nose and accept it⁴.】

【Got it. So it’s really delicious. This time it’s President Su’s Seal of Approval. I’m getting ready to go line up now.】

When Father Su saw these comments, he was instantly furious. The moment he put down the video, felt his phone vibrate, and took it out, he felt like the sky was falling. In the group chat with his few good friends, they were all @ing him and had even sent a sticker made from a screenshot of his viral video.

The screenshot showed him holding the huaihua fen like a pillar, a look of awkwardness and reluctance on his face, just as he was opening his mouth to speak in all seriousness. And on top of the sticker were a few words: Delicious.jpg

His friends in the group kept asking him: Is it really that good? You couldn’t even bring yourself to say “average”?

Father Su typed a string of ellipses, then decided to just smash the cracked pot⁵: 【It’s delicious. Your family’s Xu Zi’an lines up for it every day. What, he didn’t bring any back for you?】 So-called friends were for hurting each other. Now, the elders of Hip-Hop Mei’s family weren’t happy either.

Having won back a city⁶, Father Su finally cracked a smile. He figured that since the whole country knew he liked to eat at that little stall anyway, he might as well go line up again in the afternoon. But when he got to the company entrance that afternoon, he discovered that the line was full of unfamiliar faces.

At that moment, Father Su’s heart skipped a beat, and he felt that something was terribly wrong. He didn’t even dare get out of the car, just parking inside the industrial park and sending his assistant to go line up first. An awful thought had already formed in his mind: that damned Sun Miao, wasn’t setting up her stall again today.

Sure enough, when five o’clock rolled around, Sun Miao still hadn’t shown up.

Father Su shook his head, called his assistant back, and then drove home. Perhaps because he was already in the mood to smash a cracked pot, after he got home, he simply decided to watch the entire program from the day before. He remembered that there were quite a few familiar faces in the line. With such a great opportunity to go viral, how could he “eat alone”⁷?

As he watched the program, his teeth itching with hatred⁸, he felt that something was more and more off. The host started off talking about beef pancakes, zongzi, and so on, all of which sounded a bit familiar. After thinking it over and over, Father Su finally figured something out.

This stall owner, Sun Miao, was, in all likelihood, his own daughter’s girlfriend.

In that instant, he was so angry he gritted his teeth: So that’s what this is all about!

He immediately called Su Ruixi. It rang twice before being answered. On the other end was Su Ruixi’s cool voice: “Hello? Dad, what’s up?”

“What do you mean, what’s up? That interview… no, that Sun Miao, is she your girlfriend?!”

It was a pointless phone call, because regardless of whether Sun Miao was Su Ruixi’s girlfriend, Father Su couldn’t interfere. Right now, he was acting somewhat out of impotent rage. But Su Ruixi’s reaction was very mild, as if Father Su were making a fuss over nothing: “Yeah, she is. You’re only just finding out?”

？

A question mark popped up over Father Su’s head. He lowered the phone and looked at it, thinking: I haven’t missed any part of the plot, have I? Why does Xixi’s tone make it sound like I should have known? Just as Father Su was about to say something, Su Ruixi on the other end said, “I’m hanging up. Don’t bother me at work over such a trivial matter.”

“Huh?”

When a daughter grows up, she’s really not yours to control.

Father Su watched as the call was disconnected, a look of helpless confusion appearing on his face.

When Shen Yiqiu got home, she saw Father Su sitting dejectedly on the sofa. Shen Yiqiu walked over, sat down beside him, and asked with rare, gentle tenderness, “What’s wrong? Why the long face.”

“Qiu…” Father Su opened his mouth and poured out everything that had happened that day, then said aggrievedly, “They kept me in the dark like this…” Who knew that Shen Yiqiu would just come right out and say, “You can’t blame them; they didn’t keep you in the dark. I think you’re slow for only finding out today.”

She even stuck a knife in him⁹: “I knew a long time ago.”

Shen Yiqiu stood up and clapped her hands. “If you’re done, then get up and let’s eat.”

Father Su was a bit dazed. He subconsciously felt that something wasn’t right. He should be very angry, after all. He’d been kept in the dark, had been the first to bow his head and eat at Sun Miao’s little stall, and had even given her a wave of free advertising without realizing it. He felt his feelings had been deceived, yet his wife and daughter were both acting as if the clouds were light and the wind was gentle¹⁰.

Seeing that Father Su still hadn’t snapped out of it, Shen Yiqiu couldn’t help but try to enlighten him: “Why are you angry?”

“Because Xixi’s girlfriend deceived me…”

“Did you ever ask her if she was Xixi’s girlfriend?”

Father Su opened his mouth: “Well, no.”

“Then how did she deceive you?”

“…” Father Su felt this was specious reasoning, but Shen Yiqiu was being particularly eloquent at that moment: “See, Xiao Sun didn’t deceive you. You just didn’t ask, so how can you call it deceiving your feelings? Besides, didn’t you go line up because you yourself thought her food was delicious?”

“But, I’m Xixi’s biological father! She just let me stand in line, and for so long, with no special treatment at all.”

“You only have that kind of thought because you’re used to getting special treatment from people.” Shen Yiqiu pierced right through him: “Xixi and I don’t get special treatment when we line up, and you expect to?”

After being lectured by Shen Yiqiu, Father Su realized with a sense of bewilderment: it seemed he really didn’t have much to be angry about.

After dinner, when they were in bed, Father Su tossed and turned, unable to sleep. But after Shen Yiqiu gave him a kick, he settled down.

All in all, the Father Su hurdle was cleared just like that, without so much as a splash. It was all smoothed over by a couple of mild words from Su Ruixi and a few direct remarks from Shen Yiqiu.

The next morning, on the 9th, a Saturday, Sun Miao received her training from the System in the system space as usual. This time, she was making hulatang¹¹ with youmotou¹². Hulatang could be called the most famous breakfast in Yu Province. Even outside of Yu Province, it had long since become a common sight on the breakfast tables of people all over the country.

But youmotou was less common.

Its preparation method was largely the same as youtiao‘s: flour, yeast, salt, and water were mixed and fermented, then deep-fried in hot oil until golden brown. Many locals in Yu Province were accustomed to tearing up the youmotou and putting it in their hulatang to eat.

For the people of Yu Province, youmotou with hulatang was the absolute most beautiful breakfast.

The System had given Sun Miao three months to study, but the teaching now was a far cry from how it had been at the beginning. In the very beginning, the System had practically wanted to teach Sun Miao hand-in-hand, even directly possessing her will to make her remember how every step was performed.

But some time ago, it had already dropped this teaching method, instead letting Sun Miao study on her own. Now, it was more like it would give her a themed assignment and a teacher’s demonstration, but the rest was all up to Sun Miao to figure out for herself.

The change in teaching model also made Sun Miao gradually realize: she was probably not far from graduating.

At this moment, inspiration suddenly struck her heart, and she couldn’t help but ask the System, “Are you leaving?”

This gradual, free-range style of education was cultivating her ability to think for herself; in many ways, it was fostering Sun Miao’s capacity for independence. Sun Miao wasn’t a person who would rely on others, but she had to admit that she did have feelings of reliance on the System.

The System’s answer was very direct: 【Yes, Host. The System has detected that the Host is about to graduate and will be able to completely rely on herself to make “food that everyone finds delicious.” The Host herself is also sufficiently independent and does not require the System’s assistance. After the Host successfully graduates, the System will detach and travel through the myriad worlds to find a new host, training them to create the same delicious food.】

The thought of the impending separation made even someone like Sun Miao feel a bit sad. But when she thought about how there would be others in the future who shared her aspirations, and about the System, which would continue to shine brightly somewhere out there, the sadness lessened.

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