Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 278

Snag a Bite¹

Just like any other day, as soon as she finished speaking, the customers began to swarm Sun Miao. “Little Boss Sun, you really didn’t make enough! How much is this, twenty servings! Don’t you see how many of us there are? You used to make a hundred servings; how is this tiny amount supposed to feed anyone! Wuwuwu, without Little Boss Sun’s food, I’m going to lose it! I’m going to crawl around in the dark²!”

Sun Miao just smiled as if she hadn’t heard.

Are you kidding me? It took her forever to slice the meat for just twenty servings of Pagoda Meat³. Even with muscle memory, she couldn’t rush it. If she made a hundred servings, her hands would be wrecked! So, Sun Miao quietly kept her head down and tidied up her little food cart. Once she was done, she looked up with a smile. “I’ll be heading back then. For everyone who didn’t get any, just come earlier tomorrow!”

As the saying goes, you don’t hit a smiling person⁴. No matter how unwilling the customers who missed out were, they could only say goodbye to Sun Miao.

As for those who managed to buy some, nine out of ten of them went to Yuanfu Tower. No one planned on giving Yuan Xiangyi a single bite, but her words from yesterday had indeed reminded them that Pagoda Meat had to be eaten with rice, and not a single drop of the sauce should be wasted.

Still, they weren’t that shameless. Even though the rice was free, the restaurant was still providing the space. If they didn’t order a dish or two, they’d feel way too stingy. The Hip-hop Yabi Duo, who really knew how to enjoy themselves, even ordered a Stewed Shredded Tofu⁵, planning to have a hot soup after their meal.

They sat down in their private room, but they couldn’t even wait for the rice and their other dish to arrive before they started eating.

The two of them had eaten plenty of Pagoda Meat before, so they knew it was supposed to be one long, continuous strip. Eager to eat, Hip-hop Mei extended her chopsticks, picked up the Pagoda Meat, and unrolled it layer by layer. She even set a plate aside, waiting to display the entire thing.

When that long, unbroken strip of meat lay flat on the plate, even the Hip-hop Yabi Duo couldn’t help but exclaim, “Little Boss Sun’s knife skills are seriously amazing!”

Sun Miao’s greatest skill was making the creases completely unnoticeable. Most Pagoda Meat, while stacked beautifully, would reveal that the folded parts were slightly thicker than the rest once fully unrolled. This was unavoidable, as most chefs would choose to make the corners a bit thicker to prevent the long slice of meat from breaking.

It was a sacrifice made after weighing the pros and cons; if it broke in even one spot, the entire Pagoda Meat dish would be ruined.

To see one that could be laid out so perfectly, as if it had naturally grown into one long strip, was truly rare. Hip-hop Mei inspected it as if looking for flaws, paying special attention to the spots that had just been folded. But after staring for a long time, she couldn’t see anything besides a faint crease.

“It’s really so good,” she marveled again. While she was observing, Yabi Mei had also taken out her portion. She didn’t rush to use her chopsticks, instead observing the Pagoda Meat for a moment before using a spoon to scoop up some sauce from the bottom of the container and drizzle it over the top.

The sauce trickled down the edges of the pagoda, sliding down bit by bit. At that moment, the glistening sauce wasn’t like a thick, red-braised⁶ broth, but like raindrops falling on a real stone pagoda, slowly descending along its stone walls.

Pampered by the sauce, the Pagoda Meat looked even more tempting. It was as if life had been breathed back into the already cooled dish.

What an exquisite pagoda. Looking at it, it seemed more like a piece of art than a fine dish about to enter their mouths. At this point, Hip-hop Mei couldn’t hold back any longer. She picked up a piece with her chopsticks, easily breaking it off, and stuffed it into her mouth. And it was a pretty big piece, too.

Hip-hop Mei had deliberately taken a large piece, hoping to get her fill in one go. She opened her mouth wide and shoved the massive chunk inside, and instantly, her entire mouth was stuffed full of meat. Because it was so full, her mouth was sealed tight, making it difficult for her to even chew.

But with her mouth packed with meat, Hip-hop Mei felt nothing but pure bliss. She was a meat lover, and this huge mouthful, with its rich flavor and distinct red-braised taste, left her perfectly content.

She managed to work her jaw and chew a few times, and the meat was easily broken down and swallowed. The steamed pork belly felt much more tender and meltier than usual. While chewing, Hip-hop Mei even thought it felt a bit like ice cream or cream, just with a more noticeable texture.

After a few chews, she swallowed it down with a gulp. Hip-hop Mei didn’t forget to comment, “I don’t know how Little Boss Sun does it. When I picked up the whole strip, it felt pretty tough, but you can break it easily with chopsticks, and it’s so easy to chew. It even feels like it melts in your mouth⁷.”

“It’s incredible. I always knew Little Boss Sun loved to play with that kind of textural contrast, but I never expected it to be this extreme.”

The moment she had picked up the pork belly, Hip-hop Mei had been prepared for it to be tough and chewy, but she knew something was different the instant it entered her mouth. Hearing Hip-hop Mei’s description, Yabi Mei made her move. Her actions were much more elegant than Hip-hop Mei’s.

Her pagoda was still intact. Her chopsticks lifted a small corner, pulling a section away before snapping it off. Strangely, even though Yabi Mei had pulled out a piece and created a gap, the pagoda didn’t collapse toward that side.

It might have been because the piece Yabi Mei pulled out was too small, or it could have been because the pagoda itself was very sturdy.

Yabi Mei observed it for a moment before understanding. “It’s the sauce. The sauce is acting as an adhesive, holding the rest of the meat tightly together.” It wasn’t the spoonful she had just poured, but the fact that the Pagoda Meat was already saturated in sauce, causing the layers to cling together so that it could stand tall and not fall⁸ even with a small corner removed.

If Yabi Mei had continued to pull at it, the pagoda would have eventually toppled.

Yabi Mei didn’t rush to eat. She used her chopsticks again to poke out a bit of the filling from that small corner. The feeling was just like a real pagoda being dug into with a hoe, its inner sand and soil spilling out.

The sight was fascinating to Hip-hop Mei, who was watching from the side. It was a shame she had already destroyed her own pagoda, or she could have witnessed this interesting scene herself.

The two didn’t speak again after that, both quietly savoring their Pagoda Meat. After about three minutes, a waiter from Yuanfu Tower brought them their white rice, saying the Stewed Shredded Tofu would be out in a little while.

At that moment, both of them were at the peak of their enjoyment; who had the time to care about the Stewed Shredded Tofu? But the waiter stood there as if he wouldn’t leave without a response, forcing Hip-hop Mei to tear herself away from her meal and look up. Her mouth was stuffed full of Pagoda Meat, and a bit of red-braised sauce dotted the corner of her lips.

She just nodded at the waiter, mumbled an indistinct “En en⁹” twice, and waved him away. After the waiter left, they each took their own bowl of rice, placed the Pagoda Meat and its filling on top, and continued to eat.

A red-braised meat dish like Pagoda Meat paired with rice is truly a match made in heaven. Hip-hop Mei usually had a good appetite, and while Yabi Mei’s was a bit smaller, they both quickly polished off¹⁰ their rice, leaving only a tiny bit left in their disposable containers.

Even then, Hip-hop Mei wasn’t satisfied. She called the waiter over again for another bowl of rice. After ordering, she looked at Yabi Mei. “Do you want one?”

Yabi Mei glanced at her, her expression clearly saying: What do you think? Do I even need to say it?

Hip-hop Mei understood. “Make that two more bowls.”

When the second round of rice arrived, the Stewed Shredded Tofu came with it. But this pricey dish from Yuanfu Tower was now left untouched. The two just kept their heads down, devouring the Pagoda Meat.

Yabi Mei ate half a bowl of rice with the dish before she finally couldn’t eat anymore. It might have seemed like she only had a bowl and a half of rice, but Yabi Mei had also eaten an entire plate of Pagoda Meat! For her, that was already a huge amount. After all, the portion of Pagoda Meat Sun Miao prepared wasn’t small; it was more than enough for two people, and with some rice, it was a guaranteed full meal.

But for Hip-hop Mei, there was no such thing as too much.

She had finished all the Pagoda Meat, but there was still about half a bowl of rice left. She licked her lips, flipped the rice bowl upside down, and dumped the remaining rice into the disposable container. It was soaked in the leftover red-braised sauce, staining it a reddish-brown.

She scarfed down the rest of the rice right out of the container. Only after not a single grain of rice was left and every last drop of sauce had been licked clean did Hip-hop Mei lean back in her chair, perfectly content, open her mouth, and let out a loud: “Ge.¹¹“

Anyone who saw her would know: she’d eaten her fill and loved every second of it.

What a hearty and satisfying¹² session of chowing down¹³.

Yabi Mei watched her for a moment, then suggested, “Let’s just buy one serving tomorrow. This is really too filling. We can’t eat like this every day.”

Hip-hop Mei smacked her lips¹⁴, thought for a moment, and replied, “No way, we still have to buy two. There are two of us; buying one is such a waste. One for lunch, one for dinner. Perfect.”

Yabi Mei considered it, then nodded. “Fine.”

They weren’t the only ones who had eaten their fill. It was the same story in the other private rooms at Yuanfu Tower. However, some customers weren’t as lucky as the Hip-hop Yabi Duo, who could each enjoy their own portion. After buying the Pagoda Meat, everyone really just wanted to devour the whole thing with a bowl of rice, but unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned¹⁵.

People, after all, have friends and relatives in this world, especially friends. Many of the customers in the group chat knew each other. Giving up their spot in line was out of the question, but just as they picked up their Pagoda Meat and were about to leave, they were ambushed by friends and family.

For example—Zhou Ling’s mother’s good friend.

That was her nickname at Sun Miao’s stall, and she was just as her nickname implied: a good friend of Zhou Ling’s mother. In this situation, Zhou Ling’s mother directly linked arms with her, beaming with smiles as she said, “O-yo¹⁶, you actually managed to get in line! I got here at nine, an hour early, but there were so many people I didn’t even get a chance. You’re the one with the foresight, coming so early. You can let me snag a bite, right?”

The smile on her friend’s face stiffened a little. She had come this early specifically to buy Pagoda Meat because she genuinely wanted to eat it, and more importantly, she wanted to eat it all by herself!

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