Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 240

Regarding Bad Reviews

After dealing with the unreasonable customers, Sun Miao was physically and mentally exhausted—though, for her, it was a sweet burden. She was definitely happy, because the reason everyone was complaining was that they genuinely liked her snacks. They only pulled her aside to say these things because they truly felt it wasn’t enough.

If your food wasn’t good, who would care how much you made each day? They just wouldn’t show up to eat, anyway.

It was precisely because they liked it that they felt it was far from enough.

However, Sun Miao felt she was earning just about enough from her work, and it allowed her to balance her professional and personal life, which was already quite good. She couldn’t just lock herself in a little black room and do nothing but make food all day.

The most important thing for Sun Miao was her time with Su Ruixi. So, she cheerfully drove her food cart home.

By the time Sun Miao got home, Su Ruixi had already left for the office. Even though it was a Sunday, Su Ruixi had to work overtime and had gone to the company early in the morning. She went back for a cage-return sleep¹, sleeping lightly for a while before getting up to eat the lunch the auntie had prepared. In the afternoon, she would buy ingredients, do some prep work for the next day, and then make dinner.

While she was at home, a new round of comments surged through the group chat, mostly positive, especially from people from Yu Province.

The people from the Yu Province region are, in fact, incredibly hardworking and brave. They constitute the province with the highest number of migrant workers in the country, spread across every region. It was the same in the international metropolis where Sun Miao and Su Ruixi lived; many people from Yu Province worked and had even put down roots there.

There were quite a few people from Yu Province in Sun Miao’s group chat.

When faced with the cuisine of their hometown, people were never stingy with their words of praise.

【Wow, it’s seriously so good. I always thought the ones I had elsewhere weren’t authentic. Even if the soup was thick, there was nothing in it, and a lot of the time I felt like I was eating a pre-made mix. Sometimes when I had a really strong craving, I’d go to one of those chain restaurants. And the result? Good grief, it was even worse than the pre-made stuff.】

【And I could taste a hint of traditional medicine, but it wasn’t too strong. It feels like even people from other provinces could get used to this little bit of medicinal flavor. Little Boss Sun is so thoughtful! She even made some improvements while preserving the medicinal taste. Thumbs up, thumbs up!】

【What moved me the most was the accompanying youmoutou². Heaven knows, the only option around here is fried dough sticks; there’s no youmoutou at all. If you ask me, youmoutou is the best match for hulatang³! I’ve almost never had youmoutou outside of Yu Province! Wuwuwu, Little Boss Sun is just too amazing.】

【The chain restaurant’s hulatang is 15 yuan a bowl, but in terms of ingredients and deliciousness, I think it’s far inferior to what Little Boss Sun makes.】

Every sentence they wrote came from the bottom of their hearts. If you’ve never drifted far from home, it’s hard to understand the feeling of suddenly tasting the food of your hometown in a foreign land. Especially when it was this authentic.

When the first customer from Yu Province tasted the hulatang, he was in a bit of a daze. That one bowl of soup seemed to transport him back to his childhood, to the scene of circling his mother, waiting for a mouthful of hulatang. The soup Sun Miao made was actually different from his mother’s, but one sip was enough to make one reminisce.

Because human memory constantly beautifies the past, wonderful food becomes even more delicious in recollection. Even if you no longer remember the exact taste, you still feel it was exceptionally good, and that impression deepens with each recollection.

Eating something exceptionally delicious, even if it deviates slightly from one’s memory, can still awaken those old feelings simply because it’s good enough.

This kind of memory blurs the line between the two, and before you know it, you start to think: what Sun Miao makes is so authentic, so delicious!

As long as it was delicious enough, Sun Miao was the undisputed number one inheritor of hulatang. Of course, some dishes weren’t like this. They were purely unappetizing, like West Lake Vinegar Fish⁴. If you actually made it delicious, to the point where everyone praised it and gave it a thumbs up, it would instead be inauthentic.

Similarly, there was douzhi⁵.

One could only say that the reason these two items were still passed down was purely due to the sheer number of curious tourists.

When Sun Miao got home and pulled out her phone, she saw everyone’s positive comments. Although she didn’t reply, she was mensao⁶ enough to read every single one. When she came across a particularly thoughtful and long one, she would click “Quote” and post a reply.

Everyone in the group was used to Sun Miao’s mensao personality. Taking the opportunity of her popping up to speak, they would say: 【Yo, Little Boss Sun finally decided to say a few words. I was starting to think she was a robot, you know? We never see her talk except when she’s about to set up her stall.】

As for bad reviews, Sun Miao chose to skip them entirely.

The next morning, at the start of a new week, she woke up earlier than Su Ruixi. She stealthily stole a kiss from Su Ruixi before climbing out of bed to start work, heading out directly with the prepared hulatang. As Sun Miao had expected, there were a lot of people; what she hadn’t expected was just how many there were today. The Hip-hop Yabi duo hadn’t even managed to get first in line.

It was clearly a Monday. Whether you were a student or a worker, you were supposed to be diligent and hardworking, but the number of people in front of her was incomparable to yesterday, a rest day. Sun Miao was a little surprised. She also recognized the person at the front of the line: it was the student group leader.

Sun Miao pushed her cart into place, and the group leader immediately rushed up. The Hip-hop girl behind her pulled her back, saying, “Don’t be in such a hurry, she has to heat the oil first. Little Boss Sun won’t start selling until the oil is hot enough, unless you only want hulatang and no youmoutou.”

That was the limited-edition youmoutou—who wouldn’t want it? Of course the group leader wanted it, but that didn’t stop her from excitedly wanting to show off in front of Sun Miao first: “Didn’t expect this, did you? We found you so fast! We looked for so long yesterday, Sunday, and couldn’t find a trace of you. But it’s okay, we found out the time and address in the end!”

Faced with the group leader’s triumphant expression, Sun Miao only asked the most fundamental question: “It’s Monday, don’t you have an early-eight⁷, no class?”

This question might have been a bit effective against some less-than-honest students, but for a top student like the group leader who could apply her studies to practice, it was a trivial matter. “I’m already a third-year. I’ll be doing my internship next semester, how could I have an early-eight? Third-years have very few classes. I don’t have any this morning!”

She had a point, and she seemed to become even prouder. Following the group leader’s words, a few other students in the line chimed in with agreement: “That’s right, that’s right! We don’t have class!”

Alright, so none of them had class.

Sun Miao hadn’t expected this group of students to find her so early; their speed was record-worthy. In the past, this group of students often wouldn’t find her until the third-to-last day.

Sometimes, they’d even find her on the very last day.

After the oil heated up, the group leader began the ordering process. Needless to say, no one could refuse youmoutou. The group leader directly ordered four and left. When it was Zhou Ling’s mom’s friend’s turn, she stood in front of Sun Miao and looked at the youmoutou with a conflicted expression.

It was clear that Zhou Ling’s mom’s friend was someone who cared a great deal about her figure. She rarely ate deep-fried foods. The time she had yangyu potato cakes was a coincidence, and she had barely come by since; she also ate the fried skewers, but she really resisted her cravings and only came twice in total.

She was going to have the hulatang, but she was still hesitating over the youmoutou. After thinking for a moment, she finally ordered four. After all, this was youmoutou made by Sun Miao, and it looked very crisp and not greasy. Even if the calories from fried food were high, she could just work out more later and eat less fried food for a while.

Sun Miao fried the youmoutou quickly. It was done in no time. As she handed them to Zhou Ling’s mom’s friend, the woman said, “Oh, my, Little Boss Sun, I’m only ordering this because I truly love the things you make. I never eat fried food from outside, the calories are too high. I’ll have to work out for a long time to burn it all off.”

As she said this, she gracefully walked to the side. Her words didn’t at all affect her actions, as she held the hulatang in one hand and directly grabbed a youmoutou with the other to stuff in her mouth. She gave Sun Miao a wave and slipped away. Her car was still parked on the roadside; although her driver was there, it would still get a ticket if it got a ticket.

After a little while, it was Lizi’s turn. Lizi was holding camera equipment and gave Sun Miao a big smile when she saw her. She and Sun Miao were both the “little sun” type, but Lizi’s usual smiles were all identical, a habit formed from a long time of live streaming, knowing how to smile in the way her audience liked best.

Thankfully, her camera wasn’t pointed at Sun Miao’s face, otherwise the audience would have discovered that Sun Miao’s current smile was very similar to the old Lizi’s.

Setting aside these digressions, Lizi zoomed her lens in from a distance to film Sun Miao frying youmoutou while saying, “Little Boss Sun, I want six orders of hulatang and four youmoutou.”

—It’s here! The big-stomach king⁸ of her stall has appeared!

Sun Miao lamented inwardly but just nodded and continued frying. Lizi’s mouth didn’t stop moving. Luckily, Lizi was far away and there was a half-transparent barrier on the front of the food cart, otherwise Sun Miao would have been afraid her spit would fly over from talking so much.

“I didn’t come yesterday, thinking there would be fewer people since it’s Monday. But when I got here, I was afraid I wouldn’t even get a spot in line.”

A customer behind her greeted Lizi, “Lizi, are you live streaming today?”

“Nope, I’m shooting footage to edit into a video later. At this time on a Monday, people are either still in bed or on their way to work or class. There isn’t much of an audience,” Lizi explained, but her eyes remained fixed on Sun Miao, waiting for her order to be ready.

Because she had ordered a larger quantity, Sun Miao packed it into two separate bags. Fortunately, the bags Sun Miao bought were sturdy and could hold even this many orders securely. Lizi carried both with one hand. Seeing that the folding table nearby was already occupied, she didn’t rush and waited quietly for a moment.

The people eating saw the streamer waiting nearby and couldn’t help but speed up. Plus, hulatang was a soupy dish and quick to eat. In less than five minutes, Lizi successfully got a seat.

Actually, having Lizi eat nearby was a kind of enjoyment for the other customers.

Lizi first took out one order of hulatang. She opened the lid, took out her chopsticks and spoon, made all her preparations, and then began to speak in a leisurely tone…

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