Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 273

Cheers with Mooncakes¹

The jam was truly sweet——sugary, cool, and with a rich strawberry flavor. Just one bite made you feel sweetness from head to toe. But it wasn’t that cloying kind of sweet; it was a fresh, natural, and clear sweetness. After a few more bites, you tasted the skin and the cream, which diluted the sweetness of the jam just a bit.

After eating a whole bingpi mooncake², the mouth didn’t feel that greasy, overly sweet sensation. Instead, it felt refreshing, making one want to eat a few more.

This kind of sweet treat represents another pursuit beyond “not being too sweet”: it’s sweet, sweet enough to touch your heart, but not greasy or sickening. After finishing it, you feel like you could still eat more——this is a high-level realm of desserts.

Those who can achieve this realm are few among few³.

However, Su Ruixi still felt that this bingpi mooncake had room for improvement. After all, the person wrapping them wasn’t Sun Miao. There were still significant issues with controlling the amount of filling and the ratio between the cream, filling, and skin.

Then again, if the ones they assembled themselves were this tasty, she didn’t dare imagine how delicious they’d be if Sun Miao made them herself.

Su Ruixi wasn’t the only one with this thought. Amidst the rising and falling exclamations of praise nearby, there were also comments like: “If Little Boss Sun did this herself, she could probably make them taste even better, right?”

Su Ruixi unconsciously straightened her back——That’s for sure! How could what you guys make compare to my Miaomiao!

Of course, there were also those with thicker skin, like Hip-hop Mei. She couldn’t help but sigh with emotion: “I didn’t expect I had a talent for making food too. I wrapped this one myself, and it’s actually pretty delicious!”

Beside her, Yabi Mei couldn’t help asking: “How do you know you grabbed the one you made yourself?”

Hip-hop Mei looked triumphant: “I made a mark! Right on the surface, super obvious. One look and I know I made it. You guys can check——if there’s a crooked smiley face on the skin, that’s mine!”

“……”

They really got played by Hip-hop Mei; no one expected she’d think of such a differentiation method.

Everyone looked at the bingpi mooncakes in their hands and couldn’t help thinking: Even if they can’t compare to the ones Sun Miao made entirely by hand herself, these bingpi mooncakes are delicious enough to kill a whole bunch of mooncakes on the market instantly! Those famous brands’ bingpi mooncakes aren’t as tasty as the ones we made ourselves.

“Everyone! Cheers with mooncakes!”

Hip-hop Mei shouted boisterously. Everyone felt this was a bit embarrassing, so no one immediately chimed in. However, Sun Miao, the drunk one, immediately lifted her second mooncake. There was a bright smile on her face. If it weren’t for her blurry eyes and the full flush on her cheeks, no one would’ve realized Sun Miao was already drunk.

She held the mooncake high, no longer nestling in Su Ruixi’s embrace. Her voice was loud and sounded very excited: “Cheers with mooncakes!”

Since Sun Miao said so, everyone exchanged glances and raised the mooncakes in their hands one after another. Only Yabi Mei and Su Ruixi felt this action was a bit shameful and didn’t move at first: We’re all adults, why are we doing this stuff! But both of them had a pestering fellow beside them.

Hip-hop Mei unleashed a stream of gibberish at Yabi Mei, and Su Ruixi vaguely heard: “Do you even consider me a friend?! Do you always think I’m embarrassing! How can you be like this! Aren’t we the best, best, bestest besties in the world?!”

Before she could hear Yabi Mei’s answer, she saw Sun Miao clinging to her too: “Susu-jie, cheers… cheers with mooncakes!” Her coquettish whining was much clingier than when she was sober. Moreover, she was nuzzling over, messing up the square scarf Su Ruixi was wearing.

Su Ruixi had no way to deal with Sun Miao, so she could only say: “Okay, don’t move. Cheers with mooncakes it is.”

Finally, everyone raised their mooncakes and shouted: “Cheers with mooncakes!” Even though Su Ruixi was reluctant, she still whispered the words “Cheers with mooncakes.”

Someone had brought a speaker. After fiddling with it for a long time over there, they finally picked up the microphone, stood up, and howled for a while. Not wanting to be outdone, Hip-hop Mei went over with her phone, ready to connect it to play backing tracks and sing a few songs.

She didn’t forget to take Yabi Mei away with her to sing together.

Since Hip-hop Mei was so hip-hop, the songs she sang were mostly hip-hop too, with rapper verses one after another. Yabi Mei was completely different from her; the songs she sang were all Japanese-style, and mostly carried a bit of a decadent vibe.

Sun Miao listened for a while, then dragged Su Ruixi over too. Even though Su Ruixi said to her, “Don’t, how many songs do you even know!”, she couldn’t stop Sun Miao. She picked a song, and when the intro started playing, Su Ruixi fell somewhat silent.

It was that song she really liked. Previously, on the way back from the old residence⁴, Sun Miao was still singing along in the car. Unexpectedly, after such a short time, she could already sing it with just the backing track.

Sun Miao was indeed drunk; she sang in a daze, and some words weren’t clear. But it didn’t matter; Su Ruixi knew what she was singing, and that was enough. As she listened, her eyes curved into a smile, and she raised her hand to beat the rhythm for Sun Miao.

Once the song ended, Sun Miao quieted down. Pulled along by Su Ruixi, she returned to her seat.

That night, everyone messed around for a long time, and there were indeed quite a few people who got drunk. Fortunately, when they decided to drink, the person who brought the alcohol had already prepared things helpful for sobering up, such as vitamin tablets and orange juice.

Moreover, the Hip-hop and Yabi duo had brought freshly squeezed orange juice. Drinking a little would be even more helpful for sobering up.

Everyone got their sleeping gear ready for the night. With Yabi Mei’s help, Su Ruixi took Sun Miao and Hip-hop Mei back to their respective rented camper vans. Yes, the self-proclaimed Nightclub Queen who “never gets drunk after a thousand cups”, Xu Zi’an⁵, eventually got drunk too. Yabi Mei was quite thin and didn’t have much strength; if Su Ruixi hadn’t helped, who knows how she would’ve hauled Hip-hop Mei back into the camper.

Hip-hop Mei wasn’t like Sun Miao, who was obedient and well-behaved when she drank too much. Just a moment ago, Su Ruixi saw Hip-hop Mei hugging a chair and howling over there: “Little Boss Sun! When are you bringing back the malatang⁶! You have no idea, I simply can’t face a world without malatang!”

When Su Ruixi and Yabi Mei went to drag her, Hip-hop Mei was still saying: “Tonight, Miss Xu is booking the whole place! I’m paying!”

Su Ruixi never saved face for Hip-hop Mei. They grew up together since childhood, so what face did Su Ruixi need to save? She reached out directly and gave her a heavy slap on the back. Hip-hop Mei shuddered and stood up straight, finally vaguely recognizing that it was Su Ruixi.

She immediately became guilty: “Ah… Su-jie, d-don’t tell my sister! I’m not drunk, I’m really not drunk! Boo hoo hoo, my sister’s going to cut off my allowance. I’m already this old, and she wants to cut off my allowance!”

“You deserve it.”

Fortunately, Hip-hop Mei sobered up a little at this point and was thrown back into the camper by the joint efforts of Su Ruixi and Yabi Mei.

Sun Miao landed on the bed in a daze. The quilts on top were provided by the rental company. Seeing these, Su Ruixi subconsciously remembered the scene of Sun Miao spreading a disposable bed sheet for her. She remembered Sun Miao still had some in her bag, so she propped Sun Miao up and had her sit to the side first.

Sun Miao was obedient and would even use her own strength to follow along. When Su Ruixi propped her up, she just got right up. She sat there obediently and well-behaved, her eyes staring straight at Su Ruixi.

Seeing how good she was being, Su Ruixi felt reassured enough to take the disposable four-piece bedding set out of the bag.

She’d never done this kind of housework. Even back at school, the family maid came regularly to change them for her. Plus, she hadn’t lived in the dorms that much, so she never had the opportunity to be independent. This time, it was likely the first time in her life she was changing a four-piece set by herself.

Su Ruixi encountered a difficult problem; she didn’t know what to do.

Asking others for help at this time would be a bit embarrassing. So, Su Ruixi turned on her phone and searched for a tutorial right there. After learning it, she started putting it on with full confidence, but ended up sweating profusely before finally getting it done.

——No, seriously, is putting on a duvet cover supposed to be this hard?

Thankfully, she finally got it on. Sun Miao even sat on the side clapping her hands, saying: “Susu-jie is so amazing~”

Su Ruixi glanced at Sun Miao and scooped her onto the bed. She and Sun Miao collapsed directly onto the bed. Su Ruixi leaned close to Sun Miao, sniffed, and wrinkled her nose in disgust, saying: “You smell like booze all over, Miaomiao is too bad.”

But then, thinking about how she was covered in sweat herself, she immediately laughed: “Let’s neither of us disdain the other, we both stink.”

Sun Miao, reeking of alcohol, still tried to squeeze into Su Ruixi’s embrace. Su Ruixi pushed Sun Miao but couldn’t move her. She came close like a koala, clinging tightly to Su Ruixi’s body. Su Ruixi hugged her for a while but ultimately couldn’t hold back.

She went to the bathroom. She didn’t take a shower, but fetched some water, dampened the towel they brought, wiped herself down, and finally turned back to wipe Sun Miao’s body. People who’ve been drinking shouldn’t take showers; if they fell in the bathroom, that’d be a disaster.

Even having someone help wash them wouldn’t work. Being drunk already messes with the body, and changing the body surface temperature like that makes it very easy to catch a cold. Just making do for tonight and wiping the body down would suffice.

It was a pity Su Ruixi had never served anyone in her life, yet now she was acting small and bowing low⁷ for Sun Miao.

However, she found it as sweet as syrup⁸. How many times had Sun Miao bathed her? So what if she wiped Sun Miao’s body? Sun Miao——this was what she deserved to enjoy.

After wiping her down and changing her clothes, they lay back down. As soon as they touched the bed, Sun Miao wrapped herself around her again, hugging Su Ruixi fully in her arms. With two people so close together, wanting to kiss was inevitable. But as soon as Sun Miao opened her mouth, there was a smell of alcohol.

Su Ruixi raised her hand and covered Sun Miao’s lips. Sun Miao looked aggrieved, just wanting a kiss.

The final result was Sun Miao smearing Su Ruixi’s face with saliva. The only thing Su Ruixi rejoiced over was: she didn’t kiss her on the mouth.

The two tangled for quite a while before stopping, both panting. Sun Miao pouted, calling Su Ruixi bad, while Su Ruixi chuckled and ignored her. It was just that the desert night was very cold, so the two could only burrow into one duvet, relying on each other’s heat to sleep comfortably.

When she was groggy with sleepiness, Su Ruixi heard Sun Miao’s soft voice: “Susu-jie, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival.”

In this moment, Su Ruixi opened her eyes. She thought Sun Miao was awake since she spoke so clearly. But when she opened her eyes to look——whelp, Sun Miao’s eyes were glazed over; she didn’t look sober at all. But even drunk, she hadn’t forgotten this.

Su Ruixi twitched the corner of her mouth: “Mm… Happy Mid-Autu…”

Just as her voice fell, Sun Miao threw off the quilt: “That’s right, have to send a text message to Uncle and Auntie too!”

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The author has something to say:

Su Ruixi: Alright then, the atmosphere is completely gone.

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