Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 33

All Packed Up

She smiled like a little sun, Sun Miao’s heart also felt warm. Really good, she’s a really good person, even having walked out this far, she still thinks of her family. No matter what delicious food she eats, she won’t forget to bring a portion back for her family. Before, when she was renting together with someone, that little girl was also like this, if she ate something delicious outside, she would also bring a little back for her.

Sun Miao didn’t have this kind of awareness, it was caused by her childhood experiences.

Inside the welfare institute [福利院 | fúlìyuàn | orphanage], there was no lack of food or clothing, it wasn’t like the dark-style orphanages that frequently appear in novels, just a very normal, ordinary welfare institute.

However, while having enough to eat and wear wasn’t a problem, wanting to eat some delicious snacks was impossible. Occasionally, someone would come to offer condolences and hand out snacks, the little children would all hide them well and eat them slowly. Only especially close children would share with each other.

After leaving the welfare institute, Sun Miao again had a solitary personality and even more so wouldn’t share delicious food with other people.

Only, she had met too many good people, and she also became warmer, becoming accustomed to sharing with others—the premise being, not spending too much money. Being able to share candy with Zhou Ling and Su Ruixi was already the limit of what she could do.

But her being able to do this much was already very good, because what she originally possessed wasn’t much. Being able to pull something out from her own pitifully small pockets to share with other people outside was itself a kind of virtue.

Sun Miao, her eyebrows and eyes curved, listened to the little girl in front of her incessantly talking. After a while, she finished baking the pancake, packed it up for the girl, and then watched her leave.

Not long after, another acquaintance came. Sun Miao focused her eyes and saw it was Hip-Hop Mei.

Like yesterday, she again wanted ten. Seeing that Sun Miao had prepared some in advance and had two remaining on the side, she also wanted those, and also wanted an extra layer of hot sauce.

Taking advantage of the time Sun Miao was making the pancakes, she immediately took one out and started to eat. This beef pancake was truly delicious. In her eyes, it was already not inferior to malatang. However, she still preferred to eat malatang, only malatang was satisfying.

This small beef pancake, seemingly not large in size, eating two would fill you up, eating two and a half would make you stuffed. Delicious it was delicious, just not as satisfying as malatang.

However, Sun Miao’s hot sauce was very spicy, and also had a bit of the feeling of malatang base, which compensated for this point very well.

She wasn’t one whose mouth could stay idle. While eating, she talked with Sun Miao, not caring whether Sun Miao responded to her. Hip-Hop Mei was a regular customer and knew very well that Sun Miao didn’t really pay attention to people when cooking. She just talked to herself: “I saw the Moments [朋友圈 | péngyouquān | social media feed, similar to Facebook’s newsfeed] you posted yesterday, I both liked and commented, but I didn’t see you respond.”

“But, Little Boss Sun, how did you and Su-jie add each other as friends? I saw she liked it. I’m also friends with Su-jie.” Saying this, she couldn’t help but click her tongue in wonder: “You don’t know how hard it is to add Su-jie as a friend. I bet she doesn’t even have a hundred people in her contacts list [通訊錄 | tōngxùnlù].”

There wasn’t anything strange about it. Sun Miao’s contacts list didn’t even have twenty people… Her group chats, on the other hand, had over thirty people, only, most customers, having joined the group chat, wouldn’t add her as a friend individually. It was also because the time Sun Miao had come to this world was too short, otherwise how could she only have this few people?

But Su Ruixi’s friends were indeed a bit too few. She was, after all, a big CEO doing business, having this few people in her contacts list…

Although Sun Miao didn’t answer, she had been listening.

Waiting until a pan of beef pancakes was finished, Hip-Hop Mei’s mouth also stopped. She opened her phone, scanned the QR code, her fingers tap tap tap pressing on the phone screen. The result suddenly paused, immediately following, Sun Miao heard the notification sound.

“Customer cancelled payment of 150 Yuan.”

“Ding, 120 Yuan received.”

Hip-Hop Mei took another bite of the beef pancake: “Hmph, who told you to be stingy yesterday, not even giving me a discount. I won’t give you extra today. This is you losing a lot for a small gain!”

Sun Miao’s reaction was quite calm. Whether or not to give extra was Hip-Hop Mei’s own choice. If she was happy to give more, Sun Miao would naturally be happy to accept; not giving extra was also normal, there was no reason to say she must give her more.

Sun Miao’s principle was: Cannot be given less, not even a cent less.

Therefore, facing Hip-Hop Mei’s teasing, Sun Miao’s face still carried a smile: “It’s alright, as long as it’s not less.”

Hip-Hop Mei almost choked, just waved her hand, and said goodbye to Sun Miao: “I’ll come again tomorrow… you’ll come here to set up your stall at 7 AM tomorrow morning, right?”

“Right.”

Hip-Hop Mei suddenly sighed: “Then you make more tomorrow. I made an appointment with someone a long time ago to go out and play on May 1st, and there will be a few days where I can’t eat beef pancakes. Tomorrow morning I’ll come buy two extra pans to bring and eat on the road.” She seemed very sad about not being able to buy pancakes during May 1st, and wasn’t in a hurry to leave.

“Little Boss, will you continue selling pancakes here after this?”

“I’ll sell for five more days.”

Hearing her say this, Hip-Hop Mei immediately became interested: “How do you mean? Where will you go after five days, and sell what? Sell malatang? I love eating malatang the most, especially peeing beef balls, I especially love eating those.”

Sun Miao answered: “After five days, I also don’t know where I’ll go to sell what, I haven’t thought about it yet. It probably won’t be malatang, and also won’t be beef pancakes.”

“…Just why is this?”

Hip-Hop Mei looked up to the sky and sighed. She truly didn’t understand why Sun Miao kept changing locations and also the types of food she sold. Sun Miao just smiled and answered her: “Personality, you know.”

Hip-Hop Mei gave Sun Miao a thumbs up: “Good, I like this answer. Later, whatever you sell, remember to give me a heads up. I’ll definitely come patronize you.”

“Okay, thank you.”

After Hip-Hop Mei left, Sun Miao again enjoyed a period of leisure. However, she couldn’t be leisurely after this, because it was 4:30, soon the 5 PM getting-off-work army would arrive, Sun Miao began non-stop making beef pancakes.

Baking pancakes for Sun Miao truly wasn’t difficult, it just took some effort. Waiting until pan after pan of pancakes came out and were placed to the side, the 5 PM getting-off-work army also arrived. Compared to yesterday, today’s workers had even less patience to wait. The majority were asking how long they needed to wait, and if it exceeded their allotted time, they directly chose to run off.

Every one of them was anxious to get home, where would they have time to wait for Sun Miao to slowly and methodically make beef pancakes?

Those whose homes were local, or who didn’t plan to go back, had the time to slowly wait here. Sun Miao’s beef pancakes still sold quite a lot, directly emptying six pans. Adding on those beef pancakes sold in twos and threes in the afternoon, she had already sold eight pans this afternoon.

Today, she had already sold twenty-six pans. One pan was one hundred [yuan], she had already earned two thousand six hundred yuan.

Fortunately, she had prepared a lot of ingredients today, otherwise it wouldn’t have been enough for these customers to eat.

Tomorrow, it would be alright to reduce a bit, after all, everyone was going back to celebrate the holiday, where would there be customer traffic? Sun Miao calculated in her heart, but the movements of her hands didn’t stop. Around 5:50, she then started to bake the beef pancakes for the 6 PM getting-off-work army.

This time, the fastest one to leave was that customer who had caught her secretly saving beef pancakes for Su Ruixi.

“Am I relatively early today?”

“Right, how many do you want?”

The young lady, with a flourish of her hand, said boldly: “Two pans, pack them up directly.”

With this, Sun Miao’s stock was practically cleared out. The people queuing behind her, hearing this, started to howl: “What are you doing? Leave some way for those behind to live! How big is your stomach that you want twenty?”

This young lady was definitely not someone easy to get along with and immediately retorted: “Isn’t it fine as long as I buy them and don’t waste them? Besides, there’s a five-day holiday, four a day is just right for me.”

Sun Miao couldn’t help herself: “What do you mean? You eat my beef pancakes for every meal?”

“No, it’s just that there’s still tonight’s meal, and I haven’t eaten breakfast yet either. If I ration them a bit, I can still go out to eat two meals of hot pot, barbecue, or something.”

The people behind complained incessantly, but the young lady was particularly insistent. Sun Miao had no other way, she first baked the third pan of pancakes, then packed them up for the young lady. Twenty beef pancakes, each the size of a palm, twenty placed together, it required four plastic bags.

The young lady held them in her hands, heavy, but her face was smiling very happily: “Jiejie’s beef pancakes, I’ve missed you so much~”

—She likes beef pancakes this much?

The young lady, with some effort, carried the beef pancakes away. The second customer and Sun Miao stared wide-eyed at each other, only able to wait for the next pan to quickly come out.

Sun Miao, while baking the pancakes, still secretly saved two for Su Ruixi. This time, she really was like a thief. Originally, having baked two pans in advance, there was a surplus, but they were all taken away by the young lady. Every pan after this was made under the customers’ watchful eyes, wanting to save two was truly not easy.

Fortunately, Sun Miao’s hands and eyes were quick, otherwise, even these two wouldn’t have been saved.

At 6:50, Sun Miao announced her beef pancakes were sold out. The customers sighed, still, in twos and threes, they dispersed, preparing to go home for tomorrow’s May 1st holiday.

Sun Miao also estimated, making beef pancakes herself, the limit in one day was baking about thirty-five pans. Just baking one pan required ten minutes, thirty-five pans could take her six hours, adding on the time for mixing the dough and letting it rest, that would be seven hours.

Setting up a stall for twelve hours a day, seven of those hours were spent constantly busy.

Sun Miao lamented for a bit, then sat and rested for a while. As soon as 7 PM arrived, Su Ruixi came. Different from usual, Su Ruixi was also carrying a bag. That bag was quite good-looking and also suited Su Ruixi very well, Sun Miao saw it at a glance.

Waiting until the person walked up to her, took the bag down, and using one hand to support it while opening the bag to show Sun Miao, Sun Miao then realized it was actually a bento bag.

Su Ruixi directly gave the bag to Sun Miao: “There are three lunchboxes inside, one is yours, and the other two are for rotation. You bring two for me every day, the next day I’ll give you the washed ones back, so you also save the trouble of washing them. The two new ones have also been washed and can be used directly.”

“Okay.”

Sun Miao took out the soup container and two beef pancakes from her own cupboard, received that bento bag, and prepared to take out the lunchboxes inside to put the things in her hand in. But then she heard Su Ruixi say: “No need to take them out, you get me a plastic bag, I’ll take the soup first. You hold onto this bento bag for now, it also saves time, aren’t you getting ready to go back?”

Su Ruixi saying this made sense. Sun Miao nodded and replied: “Right, I’m getting ready to pack up the food cart and go back.”

Su Ruixi scanned the QR code, directly scanned fifty yuan, and said towards Sun Miao: “En, then hurry home, see you tomorrow.”

After saying this, she ran off without looking back.

---

---