Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 264

Pop-Up Mission: Dapanji

The sauce was thick and rich, the chicken savory, tender, and smooth, and the potatoes were sweet and fluffy. For Su Ruixi, a dish like this was a perfect ten. But what satisfied her most was that it genuinely wasn’t spicy.

Su Ruixi knew, of course, that Sun Miao hadn’t gone all out. The reason was sitting right here: the oil bottle burden¹ who couldn’t eat chili peppers. If she were to tell someone she’d eaten a non-spicy Xinjiang² dapanji³, they’d surely lose their minds. The more short-tempered ones might even be pinching their renzhong⁴.

The thought made Su Ruixi a little smug.

See? When you truly love someone, you’re willing to make them a non-spicy dapanji and just add chili sauce to your own bowl.

Truthfully, Su Ruixi was willing to eat spicy food with Sun Miao, but she knew Sun Miao wouldn’t be happy about it. She didn’t want to see Su Ruixi with tears streaming down her face from the heat, and she certainly didn’t want to see her clutching her stomach in pain. So, she would rather eat this not-so-authentic dapanji.

After a few bites of chicken, Su Ruixi spotted the noodles layered underneath. She reached out with her chopsticks and, with a gentle tug, a whole kudai mian⁵ slid out from under the chicken and potatoes. To her surprise, it was one continuous, long strand. Sun Miao said, “Susu-jie, just break it with your chopsticks. It’s soaked up the sauce, so it’ll snap easily.”

“Okay.”

Just as Sun Miao had said, Su Ruixi applied the slightest pressure and the kudai mian broke cleanly in two. She found another spot, snapped it again, and then lifted the middle section.

Though it was easy to break, the noodle didn’t fall apart as she lifted it.

Su Ruixi took a bite and felt utterly satisfied.

She and Sun Miao finished one long kudai mian, plus a large bowl of rice each. Afterward, clutching their full stomachs, they let out a few burps, as unconcerned with their image as the backpackers from that morning.

In the afternoon, the two went for a walk before returning to the hotel. The crowds during the Guoqing⁶ holiday were immense. The number of people in the village was noticeably higher than the day before, to the point where even the local roads were on the verge of a traffic jam. Not wanting a repeat of yesterday’s gridlock, they decided to just lounge around in their hotel room.

Su Ruixi was still paying the tour guide’s full salary, so the guide was perfectly happy and had not a single complaint.

Sun Miao was a little envious. Ah, to get paid without having to work… that’s the life!

But when she woke up the next morning, Sun Miao had some rather unpleasant news for Su Ruixi. “Susu-jie, I think… I have to set up a stall for a while tonight.”

“???”

Question marks popped up over Su Ruixi’s head. She instantly knew that stupid system was behind this and said to Sun Miao, “Get that system of yours out here! You said it was reasonable? Assigning a pop-up mission while someone’s on vacation—IS THAT SOMETHING A HUMAN WOULD DO?!”

The system, however, refused to show itself. It hunkered down in Sun Miao’s mind and stayed silent, pretending not to have heard Su Ruixi at all.

Sun Miao had no choice but to soothe her. Once Su Ruixi had calmed down a bit, she asked, “What are you selling at the stall?”

“Xinjiang Shawan Dapanji.”

Su Ruixi was even more stunned. “What?”

Sun Miao sighed and explained, “It told me this morning that the dapanji I made yesterday was a blasphemy against the dish. It said the people of Xinjiang would never forgive me and that I have to set up a stall and sell the authentic version to atone for my sins.”

Sun Miao’s retelling was a bit restrained. Early that morning, the system had been going off in her head like a little firecracker: 【HOW COULD YOU MAKE A NON-SPICY XINJIANG DAPANJI?! I LET IT SLIDE ON NORMAL DAYS, BUT THIS WAS YOUR FIRST TIME MAKING IT! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A CULINARY EXPLORATION, A DISH MADE WITH PASSION! HOW COULD YOU COMPROMISE FOR SU RUIXI AND MAKE IT NON-SPICY?! HOW CAN I EVER LEAVE YOU ON YOUR OWN LIKE THIS?!】

【NO! YOU MUST APOLOGIZE TO THE PEOPLE OF XINJIANG! YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE AUTHENTIC VERSION!】

Frankly, Sun Miao felt that the system’s plan to sell dapanji in Xinjiang for 588 yuan a plate was its own form of blasphemy. But if she said that out loud, the system would definitely throw another fit. It couldn’t be helped. The system was a total aojiao⁷.

Hearing Sun Miao’s explanation, Su Ruixi couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt. After all, it was because of her that Sun Miao was being forced to run a stall. But who was Su Ruixi? Her guilt lasted only a moment before she started protesting again. “But it can’t just do that! You made it non-spicy because I can’t eat it, AND WE MADE IT PRIVATELY. WHY IS IT MEDDLING IN THAT?!”

“I bet it’s just a Single System⁸, jealous that our love is more steadfast than gold⁹!”

【…BLACKLIST HER! BLACKLIST HER RIGHT NOW! NEVER LET HER BUY ANYTHING FROM THE STALL AGAIN!】

At that moment, Sun Miao’s head was two sizes bigger¹⁰. She suddenly had a sliver of regret: I never should have told Susu-jie about the system. She never imagined that one day, her lover and her friend could be having a shouting match across the void.

She wanted to appease them both, but at this moment, she had to take a firm stance, so Sun Miao first replied to the system, “But she doesn’t buy things from my stall anymore.”

【…】

The system was speechless because Sun Miao was right. A long time ago, around when they first got together, Su Ruixi had stopped buying food from her stall. For one, there was always a line. Su Ruixi knew perfectly well that even as Sun Miao’s girlfriend, she wouldn’t get a free pass to skip the queue.

This was one of Sun Miao’s principles, and Su Ruixi had tested it: you really did have to wait in line.

She was not a fan of queuing to begin with and saw no reason to waste her time on it if she didn’t have to.

More importantly, even without waiting in line, Su Ruixi could eat any snack Sun Miao was selling—and more. The variety and selection at home were far greater. Some of the dishes Sun Miao developed on her own were even more delicious than what she sold at the stall.

So why would Su Ruixi go to the trouble of waiting in line just to prove she had a special relationship with Sun Miao?

As a result, she almost never queued up at Sun Miao’s stall.

The threat of being blacklisted, while devastating to others, was completely harmless to Su Ruixi. Go ahead and blacklist me. All it means is I can’t buy from the stall. If it really had guts, it would try to blacklist her from Sun Miao’s heart.

Of course, if the system dared to suggest that, the one getting blacklisted—would be the system itself.

The mere thought of that possibility made the system feel like it was about to explode. Yet it was powerless against Su Ruixi and had to watch its host coo over this detestable woman! INFURIATING! UTTERLY INFURIATING!

It didn’t want to watch anymore, so it muted its own senses.

Just before it went dark, it heard the host’s girlfriend complaining, “This is all its fault, making you work on vacation.” That gave the system a jolt of satisfaction. Hmph, keep talking. The host still has to listen to me! Get to work!

Regardless, the stall was happening. Fortunately, since it was a pop-up mission, the system set a small quota. Sun Miao only needed to sell ten orders, and only for tonight. That afternoon, Sun Miao headed out by herself to the market to buy the chickens.

The market here wasn’t as strictly regulated, so live chickens were easy to find, which was convenient for her.

Unlike chicken for soup, dapanji is essentially a type of spicy stir-fried chicken, so free-range roosters were the best choice. Sun Miao found ten chickens of a suitable number of jin¹¹, asked the owner to borrow a knife, and prepared to slaughter them herself.

The owner was a Xinjiang local whose Mandarin had the distinct flavor of roasted lamb skewers, making him a bit hard for Sun Miao to understand. Luckily, the guide they had hired spoke the local minority language and was able to translate for them. When the owner heard Sun Miao planned to do the killing herself, he shook his head repeatedly. Though Sun Miao couldn’t understand his words, his gestures clearly conveyed his disbelief that she could handle it.

It took some persuasion from the guide before Sun Miao finally earned the right to kill her own chickens.

Su Ruixi hadn’t followed her in; she kept her distance. She could barely navigate the wet markets back home, let alone this one. She stood outside with her hands in her pockets, playing the part of a cool big sister. Once everything was settled, Sun Miao sent the guide over to keep her company.

Although the guide had brokered the deal, she was still a little worried. “Miss Sun, are you… are you sure you’ll be okay?”

It wasn’t that the guide looked down on Sun Miao. It was that both she and Su Ruixi were clearly well-off—otherwise, they wouldn’t have hired her at a premium during the Guoqing holiday or booked the presidential suite at the best hotel in the area. People that wealthy… the guide could believe they might know how to cook a few simple dishes, but slaughtering a chicken? That was a bit niche, wasn’t it?

And she was going to do ten of them!

By this point, Sun Miao already had the slaughtering knife in hand. It was different from the knives she usually used—the blade was narrower, the blood groove wider, and the body was curved. It looked like it was used for butchering other livestock as well.

Hearing the guide’s question, Sun Miao gave the knife a little flourish. “It’s fine, don’t worry.”

Seeing how expertly she held the chicken by its wings, the guide began to believe her. She walked slowly toward Su Ruixi, glancing back every few steps. If Sun Miao called for her, she would dash right back. But by the time she reached Su Ruixi’s side, she hadn’t heard a peep from Sun Miao.

By this time, with a swift rise and fall of her hand, Sun Miao had cleanly and efficiently given the chicken in her hand a rebirth combo meal¹². Her hand speed was too fast, too swift; with only a flash of silver light, the chicken was sent cleanly to the west before it could even let out a single gawk.

Sun Miao had processed countless live chickens and ducks in the system’s space. By now, she was a qualified, cold-blooded killer.

Her clean, efficient actions stood in stark contrast to her expressionless face, sending a chill down the necks of both the owner and the distant guide. Hiss—that technique is a little too practiced.

After the blade fell, she drained the blood and plunged the chicken into hot water for plucking. The entire process was a single, fluid motion, executed with unbelievable speed. The owner’s expression shifted to one of genuine admiration, especially when he saw Sun Miao’s hands churning through the scalding water, stripping the feathers clean.

Those were ruthless iron hands¹³, he thought. His hot water was boiling, yet this delicate and cheerful-looking young woman seemed to feel nothing at all as she plucked the chicken.

In just over half an hour, Sun Miao had processed all ten chickens and had even splashed the ground with water to clean up. Toting the plastic bags, she walked back toward Su Ruixi.

Su Ruixi took a few steps forward to meet her, then stopped short as her eyes fell on the market floor.

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