Vying to Feed Her
Amid everyone’s eager anticipation, the Dapanji1 made its dazzling entrance. No matter who it was, at that moment, everyone’s attention was completely captivated by the Dapanji. Sun Miao had made a total of four portions of Dapanji, cooking it in two batches using two woks. By now, the Dapanji had already cooled, so Sun Miao reheated it before bringing it out.
Sun Miao even added an explanation: “The Dapanji is reheated, so it’s definitely not as good as when it was first made. Please bear with it, everyone.”
“Hey, what are you talking about, Boss Sun? We’re all here to freeload. You don’t need to tell us to bear with it; we’re lucky to even get a bite.”
“This was made by Boss Sun! I believe that even if it’s reheated and not as good as when it was fresh, it’ll still instant-kill2 a crowd of Dapanjis. It’s bound to be incredibly delicious!”
“Exactly! And Boss Sun was so thoughtful, she even made a non-spicy version. I know Dapanji is pretty spicy, so I thought I wouldn’t be able to eat it. But in the end, Boss Sun was thinking of everyone and made a non-spicy version!”
“…” Faced with everyone’s praise, especially that last sentence, Sun Miao truly felt a bit undeserving. The main reason she made the non-spicy Dapanji, while she was indeed thinking of people like Zhou Ling who couldn’t eat spicy food, was fundamentally because Su Ruixi couldn’t eat spicy food either.
At this point, everyone grabbed a disposable bowl and started scooping food from the large platters. Su Ruixi got a drink, sidled up to Sun Miao, and raised her hand to feed her a little. She also asked, “Miaomiao, are you eating any Dapanji? I’ll go get some for you.”
Sun Miao shook her head. “I don’t need any. If you want some, Susu-jie, please have a few more pieces.”
“Okay.” Su Ruixi was genuinely craving it. But before she left Sun Miao to start on the Dapanji, Sun Miao pulled her back and fed her a skewer of freshly grilled Treasure in the Palm3. It was impossible to buy fresh Treasure in the Palm to skewer herself, so she could only find frozen, semi-prepared ones.
Su Ruixi took a bite. Even to her, this skewer of Treasure in the Palm couldn’t be considered bad. On the contrary, after passing through Sun Miao’s hands, it was as if she had turned something rotten into something magical4; it had become very delicious. However, Su Ruixi had a very discerning palate and immediately noticed, “This Treasure in the Palm isn’t fresh. It doesn’t taste as good as the other things Miaomiao makes.”
Sun Miao nodded. “You usually can’t buy fresh Treasure in the Palm. Just make do, Susu-jie. How about the seasoning? Is it okay?”
“Mhm.” Su Ruixi nodded. “The seasoning and the heat control are both very good. It’s delicious.”
Only after that did she head over to the Dapanji. Su Ruixi’s eyes were already fixed on it. The regulars could really eat; the Dapanji had only been out for a short while, and two platters were already about to be wiped out. Su Ruixi was fixated on the non-spicy Dapanji that Sun Miao had made. How could she possibly sit still?
Seeing Su Ruixi leave, Sun Miao looked at Jiang Ping. “Chef Jiang, why don’t you go get something to eat, too? I can handle things here by myself.”
Jiang Ping nodded and said to Sun Miao, “Don’t call me Chef. When you say it, I always feel a bit unworthy. I’m a few years older than you; if you don’t mind, just call me Jiang-jie, okay?”
How could she say no to that? Sun Miao immediately followed the good advice as naturally as water flows downstream5, calling out, “Jiang-jie.” Only then was Jiang Ping satisfied, a smile appearing on her face. “Then I’ll go grab a few bites and be right back.”
Finally, there was no one next to Sun Miao, and it became a bit quieter. But it wasn’t quiet for long. Because after everyone noticed that no one was next to Sun Miao, one after another, as if they had discovered a new continent, they all came over toward her, bowls in hand.
The most proactive were the Hip-Hop Yabi Duo. They had just exchanged a few words with Su Ruixi over there, and upon seeing Jiang Ping leave as well, they immediately scooped up a few pieces from the Dapanji and headed toward Sun Miao. Even with Su Ruixi’s voice behind them saying, “She said she’s not eating,” they pretended not to hear.
Besides the Dapanji, they also had a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice that the two of them had made that afternoon.
After getting close to Sun Miao, the Yabi Mei just stood to the side, watching quietly, but the Hip-Hop Mei spoke up directly: “Boss Sun, don’t just cook, you should eat a few bites too. It’s so late, the sun has already set. Don’t starve yourself.” She offered the Dapanji to Sun Miao and even proactively tried to just go ahead and feed her a few bites like Su Ruixi had done.
But Sun Miao leaned her body back, and the Hip-Hop Mei’s hand was grabbed by the Yabi Mei. “Does she need you to feed her? Just put it on the small table next to her.” She even demonstrated, placing the disposable cup in her hand directly down. The cup was a bright orangey-yellow; you could tell it was orange juice at a glance.
Only then did the Hip-Hop Mei have a sudden realization. “Oh, oh.”
Right. With their Su-jie being such a vinegar spirit6, if she had really fed her, Su Ruixi might have assassinated the Hip-Hop Mei later. To protect her own little life, the Hip-Hop Mei could only put the food down, but she was still reluctant. After chatting for a few more sentences, she was pulled aside by the Yabi Mei.
A moment after those two left, Zhou Ling’s group of three also came over. They weren’t each carrying something, though; only Zhou Ling was holding a disposable bowl. You could see inside it were several slices of fatty beef, two leaves of napa cabbage, plus some enoki mushrooms, tofu, shiitake mushrooms, and shirataki knots—a very standard domestic version of sukiyaki7.
“Xiao Sun-jiejie8, this is the sukiyaki Mom and Auntie made. We cooked it over the bonfire later, and it feels even more delicious than when cooked on the cassette stove9. It has a faint, smoky flavor from the wood. You should try it.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Because the Hip-Hop Yabi Duo had set a precedent, Zhou Ling also saw the disposable bowl and cup on the small table, so she also placed the small disposable bowl in her hand down next to the other two. After delivering the food, Zhou Ling was perfectly content and left, arm in arm with her own mom, along with her mom’s close friend.
After them came the Lemon Tea Boss and the Cat Owner.
What they brought was very direct: lemon tea made by the Lemon Tea Boss. They weren’t in a hurry to leave and chatted with Sun Miao for a while. The Lemon Tea Boss even helped out with the grilling for a bit.
They weren’t talking about anything else, but about the food-themed comic they were currently drawing. As the Lemon Tea Boss spoke, her assistant, the Cat Owner, performed an assistant’s proper duty: she found the corresponding comic panel on her phone and held it up in front of Sun Miao.
This time, they were talking about the scene where the two main characters confess their feelings. In the Lemon Tea Boss’s vision, it was actually the somewhat tsundere young lady who doesn’t eat the smoke and fire of the human world10 who confessed first. The Cat Owner held up the phone, which was displaying the exact image the Lemon Tea Boss was talking about.
It was a large, landscape-oriented two-page spread that the Lemon Tea Boss had posted separately. Moreover, the platform she posted it on was Weibo11, and that site always compresses landscape images, so they don’t have as high a resolution as portrait images. To prevent the absolutely gorgeous large image, which the two of them had pulled two all-nighters to create, from being compressed, the Lemon Tea Boss had directly posted the landscape image in a portrait orientation.
At this moment, the Cat Owner held the phone horizontally so that Sun Miao could see the whole thing.
On the phone screen, the two main characters stood to the left and right, positioned not too far and not too close. In the background, there was a blue sky with white clouds up high, and down below were a few school buildings partially obscured by lush green trees. One of the main characters, facing the viewer from the side, had a hand placed over her chest, as if using this gesture to affirm her resolve. The other had a surprised expression and stood ramrod straight.
In the foreground were scattered, blurry, vibrant green leaves. The entire image appeared exceptionally clean and beautiful.
And in the very center of this image was a sentence without a speech bubble: “Yeah, I do like you!”
After seeing it, Sun Miao couldn’t help but wow in her heart. It’s truly such a clean, pure-love, innocent, and beautiful friendship between university girls. And that line of confession brought out the girl’s tsundere nature to the fullest.
Because the Lemon Tea Boss had used Sun Miao and Su Ruixi as the models for her drawings, upon closer inspection, you could feel a trace of them in the characters. The Lemon Tea Boss thanked her again: “I have so many followers now. Although it’s standard for those who draw baihe12 to be at the bottom of the CP13 food chain, I’ve really gained a lot of followers because of this CP. My income has even gone up a notch. Thank you so much~”
The Cat Owner also said with a grin, “It’s also thanks to Boss Sun and Miss Su being so sweet. My salary went up too.”
In that case, Sun Miao felt it wouldn’t be too much to ask for a version of the image without a watermark, so she just asked directly. Of course, the Lemon Tea Boss didn’t mind. She sent the image to Sun Miao. It was a full 50MB, a truly ultra-high-definition picture.
While they were over here chatting about how loving Sun Miao and Su Ruixi’s CP was, Su Ruixi was watching from a distance, a bit unhappy. Too many people were coming to see Sun Miao; she couldn’t even find the right moment to go over. Most importantly, Su Ruixi also knew that Sun Miao was actually very fond of her regulars and enjoyed chatting with them.
Su Ruixi was the type of person to be considerate of her lover, so she wouldn’t disturb this time Sun Miao had with her regulars. It was just that seeing Sun Miao chatting so happily with the Lemon Tea Boss and the Cat Owner, she couldn’t help but wonder: What on earth are they talking about? They even took out a phone to look at.
When the two of them finally left, just as Su Ruixi was about to go over, she saw someone else go over to feed Sun Miao. Not only did they go over to feed her, but they also had to chat for a bit. By the time everyone had gone over for a round of chatting, the previously rather empty table next to Sun Miao was already completely covered with disposable bowls.
Only after everyone was done chatting did Su Ruixi gracefully walk over. When she saw the pile of things on the table, especially the Dapanji, she couldn’t hold back at all: “Who brought this? Isn’t this the Dapanji you made? To think they’d pull a ‘borrowing flowers to offer to the Buddha’14—and with your own flowers, no less.”
After saying a few words, she changed the subject and asked, “What were that Lemon Tea Boss and her assistant talking to you about just now? I saw them take out a phone…” Su Ruixi’s hostility toward the Lemon Tea Boss was rather strong, perhaps related to her initial assumption that the Lemon Tea Boss and Sun Miao had a very close relationship.
Sun Miao could tell her Susu-jie was getting jealous. Smiling, she took out her phone to show her the chat with the Lemon Tea Boss.
Su Ruixi wasn’t the type of person who would check her partner’s phone. Seeing Sun Miao’s action, she said, “Looking at your phone isn’t really a good thing to do,” but her hands were very honest and took the phone. As soon as she took it, she saw the picture the Lemon Tea Boss had sent. After she tapped it open, she blushed furiously.
Needless to say, the resemblance15 of these two characters was so obvious; you could tell at a glance that it was her and Sun Miao.
She zoomed in and looked at it for a good while before handing it back to Sun Miao. She still had to add, “How could she draw it like that? Why am I the one confessing first?”
The author has something to say:
Su Ruixi: Does she need them to feed her?! Just running over to feed my girlfriend!
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