Langya Potato1
A potato head2 facing potatoes simply can’t refuse, but before she stuck her fork in, Su Ruixi noticed something, so she stopped herself from digging in. She looked at the table, confirmed there was only one serving of Langya Potato, and couldn’t help asking Sun Miao, “Miaomiao, where’s yours?”
The smile on Sun Miao’s face had been quite sunny, but at this moment, it turned into a bitter one. She sighed and threw up her hands. “I really don’t want to eat anymore. In the System Space, I downed who knows how many servings in one go. If you ask me to eat potatoes now, I’d probably just throw up.”
Hearing this, Su Ruixi really felt her heart ache for Sun Miao. If only the System were still here, she thought, at least Sun Miao wouldn’t have to suffer like this. But it was useless to say anything now. She could only say playfully, “Well then, I’ll just eat it myself, okay?”
“Mhm, go ahead.”
This time, Su Ruixi attacked the Langya Potato without any hesitation. Sun Miao had timed it so she’d made them just a little while before she got back, so the Langya Potato was still warm.
The moment the fork pierced the potato, Su Ruixi just knew: this Langya Potato was going to be absolutely delicious! Listening to that crisp sound, she could tell it had been fried especially thoroughly. Before her eyes was a field of golden yellow, topped with chopped green onions and minced garlic—though not much garlic, because Su Ruixi didn’t like it. There were also some brown seasonings, which Sun Miao explained. “There’s soy sauce and vinegar. Give it a try, Susu-jiejie.”
Of course she was going to try it!
Su Ruixi lifted the fork, bringing the small piece to her face. The piece of potato wasn’t large, about the size of her pinky finger, but its wavy “wolf-tooth” edges were plump and kind of cute. That tempting fragrance instantly wafted before her—the unique, indulgent, and sinful aroma of deep-fried food that made Su Ruixi, who hadn’t eaten much all afternoon, unable to resist for a second longer. She opened her mouth and stuffed the potato right in.
The instant the steaming Langya Potato entered her mouth, her teeth touched its skin. They came down hard, and the potato snapped in two. A crispiness exploded inside her mouth; the outermost, golden-fried layer even sent a few specks of seasoning popping against her gums.
The inside of the Langya Potato was even hotter than the outside, and it actually scalded her a bit. Even so, Su Ruixi didn’t open her mouth to let it go, because after feeling the crispness of the skin, she could taste the soft interior. She put down her fork, her mouth going chew, chew, chew, while her eyes were still fixed on the potato’s broken surface.
It was just so beautiful. The golden-yellow outer skin was like green leaves wrapping a flower, encasing the white core in the very center. The inside was mealy, soft, and tender, but at the same time, it was utterly delicious.
Su Ruixi swallowed, sending the potato in her mouth down into her stomach, then popped the remaining half from the fork right in. After a few chews, a look of pure satisfaction appeared on her face—it was just so good, to the point where it made a person feel incomparably happy!
She knew perfectly well that this bowl of Langya Potato was high in calories, but she still willingly ate the entire serving. She didn’t even let the leftover bits of green onion go, picking them up one by one with her fork and delivering them to her mouth. Su Ruixi actually didn’t even like green onions that much, but after they’d been soaked in the seasonings, they were delicious, too.
For a taste like this, she felt it couldn’t be wasted.
Su Ruixi even wanted to pour the last dregs of the sauce over rice and mix it all up; she truly couldn’t bear to waste a single drop. But thankfully, she was someone who cared a lot about her image, and besides, she hadn’t touched a single bite of the other dishes Sun Miao had made. Those were more than enough to go with rice.
This potato head, Su Ruixi, was completely hard controlled3 by the Langya Potato. She ate until she was overjoyed, and before going to sleep that night, she was still tugging on Sun Miao, saying she wanted to eat Langya Potato again tomorrow. Hearing this, Sun Miao couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. She reached out and pinched Su Ruixi’s waist.
It wasn’t a very forceful pinch; it was more of a squeeze than a pinch. But Su Ruixi suddenly cried out with a sound like a small animal whimpering. The noise startled Sun Miao, who shot up with a jolt, unable to lie down any longer. She sat up, wanting to see if she’d actually hurt Su Ruixi.
Who would’ve thought that just as she sat up a little, Su Ruixi would throw her arms around her waist and tackle her back down. “No way, you’re not going to set up your stall until tomorrow afternoon, and Langya Potato is the kind of thing that has to be made fresh. You might come back even later than me. Hurry up and promise you’ll make me Langya Potato tomorrow as an apology for pinching me.”
At that, how could Sun Miao not understand? Su Ruixi wasn’t in pain at all; she was just using the pinch as an excuse to swindle a few more meals out of her. Sun Miao started laughing. Lying on the bed, she turned to her side and said, “Nope. Susu-jiejie, you’ll get fat if you eat potatoes every day. You said you wanted to lose weight before!”
Su Ruixi wouldn’t give up. She reached out, blew a puff of warm air onto her hand, and started tickling Sun Miao’s itchy-itchy meat4. To escape the tickling, Sun Miao could only squirm around on the bed. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she used her strength to pin Su Ruixi beneath her.
She was still stronger than Su Ruixi. Su Ruixi was helpless, and by the time she came to her senses, she found that Sun Miao had her pinned down so firmly she couldn’t move an inch. She was so annoyed. She simply opened her mouth and bit down on Sun Miao’s arm.
Unlike Sun Miao, Su Ruixi didn’t hold back her strength, especially when they were fooling around. Her teeth ground against Sun Miao’s arm, and she actually left a set of teeth marks. As they played, this grinding motion started to seem a little ambiguous. Sun Miao looked down at Su Ruixi, couldn’t hold back, and leaned down to give her a kiss.
The two of them messed around for a while longer, and in the end, it all concluded with Sun Miao having to compensate her with three servings of Langya Potato.
Sun Miao looked at the teeth marks on her arm, her voice tinged with a small complaint. “Susu-jiejie, it’s a good thing the weather’s getting a little cold now and I have to wear long sleeves. Otherwise, if I went out to the stall in short sleeves, people would suspect I’m raising some kind of bad, biting dog at home.”
Su Ruixi huffed. “So what if they see it? Besides, you have to deep-fry things at your stall. It’s so hot, you’ll probably roll up your sleeves anyway. When that happens, people will see it regardless.” After speaking, she even lifted her chin, looking a little smug. “If anyone sees it, just tell them the truth: that I bit you. I’d like to see who dares to have an opinion.”
“…”
Sun Miao could see that Su Ruixi was practically dying for everyone to see the teeth marks on her arm, to let everyone know about her sovereignty. She let out a low chuckle.
After they were done fooling around, it was getting late. They lay in bed, chatted for a bit, said goodnight to each other, and prepared to sleep. Don’t be fooled by how proper their positions were before falling asleep—lying flat on their backs, hands clutching the blankets up to their armpits. Once they were asleep, it wouldn’t be long before they turned into two koalas, clinging tightly to each other.
The next morning, Sun Miao got up, took out the small wontons she’d wrapped some time ago from the fridge, grabbed a chicken bouillon cube, and made Su Ruixi a bowl of small wontons in chicken soup. After Su Ruixi finished eating, Sun Miao saw her out the door, then crept back into the room to sleep some more.
When it was time, she got up again and started getting busy, preparing the things she needed for her afternoon stall. She cut the potatoes into long, wavy strips, soaked them in water to remove the starch, then put them in a basket to drain. She picked out a portion and pre-fried twenty servings.
Just as she finished packing up the twenty servings of Langya Potato, the doorbell rang. Sun Miao carried the insulated container holding the food to the door. Outside was the running legs5 she’d called for. After confirming the pickup code, the courier took the Langya Potato away.
Su Ruixi had said she wanted to eat Langya Potato, but Sun Miao wasn’t sure if she’d be back late tonight, so she’d called a courier in advance to deliver it directly to Su Ruixi’s company for her to eat as an afternoon snack. It’s just that Sun Miao’s personality was unavoidably a bit like an old mother’s6; she was always worried about whether Su Ruixi would be ostracized by her employees at the company because of her personality.
She’d never been a boss. Although her regular customers all called her “Little Boss Sun,” she’d never managed anyone. She was just a bare-pole commander7 by herself, so naturally, she couldn’t put herself in the role of a boss. She could only look at it from the perspective that everyone was equal, and from that angle, she felt:
My Susu-jiejie is really the type to get easily ostracized!
You could figure it out just by thinking about it. With Susu-jiejie’s arrogant personality and her inability to make small talk, it’s easy for people to start chirping8 about her behind her back. To her face, she’d probably be isolated—like, no one would even want to go to the bathroom with her! It might even be that no one was willing to eat lunch with Susu-jiejie!
The status of “boss” was already a huge disadvantage; what employee likes to get close to their boss? Add Su Ruixi’s personality on top of that, and most people would probably keep their distance from her.
You couldn’t say Sun Miao’s thinking was wrong. Although her reasoning was a complete mess, her conclusion was correct. The employees at Su Ruixi’s company really didn’t get close to her. It couldn’t be helped; it was just the natural order of things. Employees and bosses are in two different camps from the start.
Furthermore, Su Ruixi really wasn’t the type to mingle with her employees, so she appeared distant from them. For things like lunch, she always ate in her own office, where she even had a small fridge and a microwave set up.
Of course, all of this was because Su Ruixi didn’t like eating lunch with other people, unless that person was Sun Miao. Before she met Sun Miao, Su Ruixi’s assistant would still show some humanitarian care, ordering lunch for her and eating with her.
But now, even if Su Ruixi brought it up herself, the assistant wouldn’t eat with her.
Because Su Ruixi ate in a way that was just too damn appetizing. The assistant wasn’t even someone with a particularly strong desire for good food; like Sun Miao, she could eat just about anything. But she could definitely tell the difference between good and bad food. The feeling of eating lunch with Su Ruixi was as if Su Ruixi was eating mountain delicacies and sea flavors9, while she herself was eating dog shit.
The contrast was too stark. The assistant really wasn’t willing to eat with Su Ruixi anymore.
Most importantly, Su Ruixi was now very guarded around her assistant. After all, the food Sun Miao made was so delicious that, in Su Ruixi’s eyes, no one could resist it. If she ate with someone else, she was afraid they might ask, “Director Su, could you let me have a taste?”
When it came to lunch, Su Ruixi was truly isolating the entire company. She even stipulated that during the lunch hour, no one was to disturb any colleague under the pretext of work (enclosing arcs10, Su Ruixi included).
The deeply moved employees had no idea that this rule, which seemed to benefit the entire company, was actually for the sake of Su Ruixi’s own selfish desires.
The author has something to say:
Sun Miao, a woman who would worry about her own wife being ostracized by others for being the boss.
✨ Unlock Early Access to Chapters! ✨
Choose your perfect membership at bamboopandatl.net:
📚 Full Access ($4.99)
• Advanced chapters of ALL ongoing novels
• Access to complete finished novels
• Ad-free reading experience
📖 Single Novel Access ($1.49)
• Advanced chapters of ONE specific novel
• Ad-free reading for chosen novel
PayPal is the only current payment option!