Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 283

I’m Still Here

Sun Miao hadn’t intended to cry. Although the sorrow of parting was swirling at the bottom of her heart and her eyes felt a bit sour, Sun Miao really hadn’t intended to cry.

She was a strong person. How could someone who grew up in an orphanage not be strong? Especially since she knew that even if she cried, no one would come to comfort her, and it would only cause trouble for the Director, so she cried even less.

But now Su Ruixi was comforting her. She pulled her over to sit on the living room sofa, held her in her arms, and comforted her softly, “It’s okay, I’m still here.”

Just that one sentence made Sun Miao burst into tears.

Her tears slid down silently. It wasn’t until they fell from her chin onto her legs that she was startled to realize she was already crying. She hurriedly pushed Su Ruixi away, then wiped her eyes with her hands, wanting to stop the surging tears. But her tears wouldn’t listen to her orders at all; they just kept falling.

Sun Miao felt a bit ashamed; she was always so easily vulnerable in front of Su Ruixi. Before, because she’d been in the System Space for too long, she also couldn’t help but want to cry. She needed Su Ruixi to hug and comfort her before she could stop.

Now the tears were falling, striving to be first and fearing to be last¹, and she couldn’t stop them no matter what.

Su Ruixi didn’t think it was shameful, however. Instead, she told her to stop wiping, reached out with both hands to cup Sun Miao’s face, and blew gently toward the bottom of her eyes. “Don’t rub anymore, or you’ll rub your eyes red in a moment. Let me see whose baby is crying… oh, it’s mine.”

She rarely said such romantic things. Su Ruixi felt these words were too greasy². She’d always been very careful not to become a greasy Domineering CEO³, so she wouldn’t easily say things like this. But right now Sun Miao was sad, so what was wrong with saying a little earthy love talk⁴ to tease her and make her happy?

In fact, Sun Miao was indeed amused by the earthy love talk Su Ruixi spoke. Her tears were clearly still flowing, but the corners of her mouth unconsciously hooked up.

“Susu-jie…”

Her voice was a bit spoiled. Su Ruixi was still a bit shy after finishing the earthy love talk, but hearing this tone, she couldn’t take it anymore. She pressed Sun Miao’s head into her embrace and reached out to pat Sun Miao’s back. “Don’t cry, don’t cry. Tomorrow we’ll still live the same way. Maybe the System has already found a new Host and is taking them out to live a life of flower skies and wine lands⁵.”

With this comfort, Sun Miao indeed felt much better, and those tears finally stopped flowing. She patted Su Ruixi’s hand and got up from Su Ruixi’s embrace.

Su Ruixi reached out and took a few tissues, wiping away the tears for Sun Miao. She took another clean one and pinched it over her nose. “Come on, blow your nose.”

“I’m such an adult…”

Sun Miao said this, but she still cooperated with Su Ruixi’s movements and blew her nose. These tissues all went into the trash can, which also signified that Sun Miao’s sadness had all been driven away.

It was only when dreams returned at midnight, and there was no longer a second voice in the bottom of her heart besides her own, that she would think:

So the System really has left.

For Sun Miao, this was actually a good thing. She had thought before that the System was like a ticking time bomb for her. Although the System had always behaved very well, what if the Main System remote-controlled it to explode? This was also her fault; she read too many online novels, so it was inevitable to have conspiracy theories when treating the System.

Now that the System was gone and completely unseen, she let go of the secret worry in her heart, and also felt that she was truly despicable for suspecting the System like that.

The next day was Wednesday, and Su Ruixi still had to work. But she really couldn’t rest easy about Sun Miao, so she proposed, “Miao Miao, do you want to go to the company with me? I happen to be relatively free today, and I have to go out to check on office buildings. If you have nothing to do, come with me.”

Sun Miao blinked her eyes and bounced directly up from the bed. “Okay, I want to go!”

Sun Miao whipped up a simple breakfast. After the two ate, Sun Miao excitedly followed Su Ruixi and sat in her car. She was in the passenger seat, obediently buckling her safety belt, waiting for Su Ruixi to let the car warm up before driving off. The weather had gradually turned cool. It had rained a bit two days ago—one autumn rain, one degree cooler—and the temperature quickly dropped straight to 20 degrees, completely different from the 30-degree weather before.

Especially early in the morning, it was a bit cold. Even the car was cold; it had to warm up for a while before it could go.

Su Ruixi even asked Sun Miao, “Are you cold? If it’s cold, I’ll turn on…”

Sun Miao shook her head like a rattle drum. What temperature was this? Turning on the AC already? Besides, it was only cold outdoors. Sitting in the car, they weren’t cold at all. It was just that Sun Miao’s short-sleeved white T-shirt had been changed for a long-sleeved one. When Su Ruixi saw her outfit, she was speechless for a moment.

Su Ruixi suspected that Sun Miao’s wardrobe was full of white tops.

However, Sun Miao felt this was very good. Clean, comfortable, and it wouldn’t fade and pollute other clothes. Most importantly—it was cheap. A single-colored pure cotton T-shirt was only 19.9 at its cheapest, with free shipping. Even if it was a bit more expensive, it was at most 39.9. As for clothes, it was fine to have one or two nice-looking ones to show off occasionally; for other times, it was better to wear what was comfortable for herself.

Sun Miao’s view on consumption was truly simple. It was a consumption view Su Ruixi didn’t understand, but she didn’t mind. As long as Sun Miao liked it, it was fine.

Moreover, Su Ruixi would secretly put some clothes that she thought were both beautiful and suitable for Sun Miao into Sun Miao’s wardrobe. For example, the windbreaker⁶ she had just taken off and put in the back seat. This windbreaker was a small brand; the price wasn’t worth mentioning for Su Ruixi, but it was good-looking, light, and thin. Mainly, it was windproof.

When Sun Miao went out setting up a stall, wearing this was also very suitable. Since she sat on a tricycle, the wind would definitely be whistling, and with this, it could block a lot of wind. Besides, this windbreaker was also waterproof. If it was just raining a little, she didn’t need to wear a raincoat. When she came home, she could just shake it out, wipe off the water stains with a dry towel, and wear it again the next day.

Su Ruixi really rarely considered such particularly practical clothes, but when choosing for Sun Miao, she thought of every aspect.

Originally, Sun Miao was still very excited about going to work with Su Ruixi, until the car drove onto the elevated highway and she suddenly fell into silence.

Because it was simply too congested. In this moment, Sun Miao finally knew why Su Ruixi left at 7 o’clock even though she started work at 9. With this level of traffic jam, if there was a scrape or something stopped on the roadside ahead, she might even be late.

Su Ruixi could even comfort Sun Miao, “Actually, it’s okay. It’s not considered too blocked today. Every Monday and Friday is when it’s a really super big traffic jam. Especially over at the highway exit; there are many people whose homes are in other cities and only drive on Mondays and Fridays, so it causes that section of the road to be particularly congested.”

Sun Miao knew it would be congested, but she didn’t expect it to be this congested. The front wasn’t moving at all. Su Ruixi’s foot stayed on the brake, only occasionally shifting a bit. The whole car was walking forward slowly like a snail. In this moment, no matter how many millions a luxury car cost, it couldn’t go any faster.

Sun Miao was silent for a moment, then sighed with emotion, “Susu-jie is really a good boss. The boss of my previous company never came to the company before ten o’clock, so he definitely wouldn’t hit traffic. Susu-jie is different; in order to commute with the employees, you’re willing to sit in traffic.”

“Haven’t you ever been in a traffic jam?”

Speaking of this, Su Ruixi was actually a bit curious.

Sun Miao shook her head. “I stayed in a small county town before. There weren’t that many cars. And the place I rented was only two stops away from the company. At first, I rode a bicycle. Later, I saved some money and bought a little electric donkey⁷, so I’ve actually never been in a traffic jam.”

“Oh…” Su Ruixi dragged out the tail of that “Oh,” making Sun Miao understand that at this time, she must perform.

She spoke quickly, “At that time, I rode the little electric donkey by myself. I never carried my roommate who I shared the rental with. Didn’t she have a boyfriend? Her family was stricter and didn’t let them cohabit, but her boyfriend rented a place nearby too. He came to pick her up every morning, so she didn’t need me to carry her at all.”

Hearing this, Su Ruixi was satisfied.

The traffic remained jammed for ages before they finally left the “congestion ahead” section. The speed picked up a little, but not long after, they turned onto surface roads. They drove for another five minutes or so before arriving downstairs at the company. Even entering the company’s underground garage required queuing. Fortunately, Su Ruixi had a parking spot, so she parked directly in her own space.

Sun Miao picked up the windbreaker and wore it. She followed behind Su Ruixi, step for step⁸, and got into the elevator with her. The first basement level was actually okay; there were only five or six people waiting there, and they could stand a bit dispersed. The moment they reached the first floor, the people outside squeezed in. Su Ruixi could only stick very close to Sun Miao.

The elevator stopped at almost every floor. When the people finally thinned out a bit, Su Ruixi looked at Sun Miao, and Sun Miao looked at Su Ruixi. The two suddenly laughed.

Sun Miao whispered, “Susu-jie, as the big boss, you still have to squeeze like this every day.”

“Can’t be helped.”

When they arrived inside the company, the receptionist had already arrived. She shouted with a smile on her face, “Good morning, President Su.” She also saw Sun Miao behind Su Ruixi and quickly said, “Good morning, Miss Sun.”

Sun Miao greeted her back, feeling somewhat flattered. She completely didn’t expect the receptionist to still remember her. Sun Miao didn’t know that all of this was the assistant’s credit.

In order to please the boss, the assistant had practically been holding the receptionist’s ear and teaching her face-to-face to make sure she remembered what Sun Miao looked like, and to absolutely not block her outside. In this moment, her painstaking efforts harvested a satisfied nod from Su Ruixi.

When the assistant came to work holding tasks to find Su Ruixi, she saw Sun Miao sitting on the sofa in Su Ruixi’s office playing on her phone. At first, she probably hadn’t been sitting properly, maybe leaning her body without any proper form. Hearing her come in, she hurriedly sat up straight.

Because of Sun Miao’s movement, Su Ruixi even looked up and glanced at the assistant. The assistant pretended not to see, greeted Sun Miao first, and then handed the tablet in her hand to Su Ruixi. It was still the previous matter—finding office buildings. Their company didn’t have many people and didn’t need a very tall office building. Even three or four floors would be enough. No matter how much they expanded later, five or six floors would be the absolute ceiling.

But nowadays, office buildings were all aiming for height, easily thirty-plus floors. That kind of office building was a bit too much for them; they simply couldn’t use that much.

So regarding the matter of finding an office building, it was exceptionally difficult. They had looked at a few before; they were either too remote or too dilapidated, and Su Ruixi wasn’t very satisfied. She didn’t take a fancy to the ones being shown to her now, either.

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The author has something to say:

The System is truly a good System.

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