Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 4

Will You Come Tomorrow?

Su Ruixi was unaware that she bore great responsibility for the long queues at her favorite food stall…

Su Ruixi was unaware that she bore great responsibility for the long queues at her favorite food stall.

If she hadn’t recommended it to the nurse, who then wouldn’t have recommended it to her colleagues, it wouldn’t have spread further, creating this scene where so many people came to buy.

The egg fried rice at 20 yuan per serving sounded expensive and seemed like no one would buy it, but as more people purchased it, a herd mentality developed. Plus, with customers sitting at the tables set up beside the stall eating their meals, the aroma was truly enticing.

Those dining customers became like living advertisements, drawing people in with the fragrant smell.

So many people changed their tune from “What? 20 yuan for egg fried rice? That’s a ripoff! I won’t buy it!” to “What? 20 yuan for egg fried rice? It smells so good, I must try it!”

Su Ruixi was originally at the end of the line, but soon several more people queued behind her. After waiting for a while, she became hesitant seeing how many people were still ahead. But having waited this long, giving up now felt like letting herself down.

Su Ruixi knew she had fallen into the sunk cost fallacy [沉沒陳本 | chén mò chén běn | meaning making irrational decisions]. According to her usual vigilance, she should have withdrawn immediately, but she knew just how delicious this egg fried rice was. So after some hesitation, she chose to stay in line.

Fortunately, Sun Miao didn’t disappoint her expectations. She cooked quickly, and in about twenty minutes, it was Su Ruixi’s turn. Even so, Su Ruixi still felt the queuing time was too long. Twenty minutes was something she would never have queued for in the past, wouldn’t even have considered it.

She wasn’t someone who placed great importance on food pleasures; even the most delicious food was just food, not worth wasting twenty precious minutes of her life queuing for.

Yet she really did end up waiting in line.

Strangely, the moment she saw the stall owner, all of Su Ruixi’s impatience and anger from waiting simply vanished into thin air.

The young owner’s face was beaming with a smile as she first cleaned the stove and wok until they were spotless, pouring the dirty water and waste into her prepared wastewater container and garbage bin. Upon seeing Su Ruixi, her smile became even more pleasant.

Su Ruixi noticed that the young owner had gently curved eyebrows, and her eyes were bright when looking at people. She wore the kind of transparent mask meant for cooking, and when she smiled, a slight hint of her fanged tooth would show.

Su Ruixi didn’t have fanged teeth, nor did anyone around her. She came from a good family and had dental correction done as a child, as did those around her. Such fanged teeth were clearly a sign of irregular dentition. But on the young owner, it appeared somewhat endearing.

It also made her smile even more radiant.

“Didn’t you just buy some earlier? Are you still hungry? I can give you extra. Next time you come, I’ll definitely give you more.”

“…” That wouldn’t be necessary; her appetite wasn’t that big.

Hearing the owner’s words, Su Ruixi shook her head, her mood improving. The owner clearly remembered her, even recalling that she had just bought a portion at noon. Su Ruixi was quite honest at this moment: “No need for extra, I’m buying this for dinner. Same as before, to go.”

After Su Ruixi finished speaking, the owner paused for a moment, instinctively reminding her: “Reheated food won’t taste as good…”

“It’s fine, just make it.”

With that, Su Ruixi left the owner no room for refusal, directly scanning the payment code and sending twenty yuan. Hearing the payment notification, Sun Miao had no choice but to start preparing her portion.

Just like before, Sun Miao served quickly—egg fried rice was already a quick dish that only took a few minutes. Moreover, Sun Miao was exceptionally skilled through practice, making her much faster than ordinary cooks. Despite the speed, the quality of her egg fried rice was guaranteed.

Sun Miao quickly prepared the egg fried rice, placed it in a disposable container, and packaged it before handing it to Su Ruixi. As Su Ruixi took it and prepared to leave, Sun Miao found herself inexplicably asking: “Will you come tomorrow?”

Su Ruixi’s footsteps paused for a moment before she answered: “I don’t know.”

She was actually planning to come tomorrow, but wasn’t sure if she’d eat the egg fried rice again. Even the most delicious food needs moderation—how could anyone eat the same thing every day?

After Su Ruixi left, Sun Miao wanted to watch her leave for a moment, but the next customer quickly filled in. Sun Miao smiled and asked them to wait a moment. After swiftly cleaning her wok, she started preparing the next portion of egg fried rice.

Today’s customers far exceeded her expectations. Sun Miao hadn’t prepared much rice to begin with, so by just two in the afternoon, she had sold out of egg fried rice. Although it wasn’t even mealtime anymore, there were still many people in line.

Sun Miao felt somewhat embarrassed and called out to everyone: “The egg fried rice is sold out! Please come back next time! I’ll definitely prepare more tomorrow!”

Customers sighed in disappointment, including a nurse who had just come from the operating room. The young nurse had just heard from nurses in other departments about how delicious the egg fried rice was at the back door, and had hurriedly come after finishing surgery and cleaning up, only to hear the vendor announce they were sold out after waiting in line.

She wailed: “Ah? But I’m still hungry, how can you be so heartless!”

Sun Miao, being a lesbian, and a girl herself, naturally felt she should be gentler with those of the same gender. Seeing the young nurse’s pitiful state, she felt quite apologetic. Sun Miao spoke softly to comfort her: “I’m really sorry, I prepared too little rice today. I didn’t expect it to be so popular. Tomorrow—tomorrow I’ll definitely prepare more.”

“Okay, but you must come tomorrow!”

Sun Miao agreed, and the people in line, seeing that she had indeed sold out, could only go to other shops to buy food.

At this hour past regular meal time, those still hungry were mostly hospital staff or family members attending to patients. Many of them had relatives or friends undergoing surgery or hospitalized, and they could only come out to find something to eat after taking care of their sick loved ones. It was rare to see so many people queuing, and they had wanted to try it, but couldn’t get any.

Noticing this situation, Sun Miao could only resolve to prepare more tomorrow, planning to bring out the large electric rice cooker from her food cart and cook more rice.

The system required her to work until 8 PM, but she had nothing left to sell now. Fortunately, the system wasn’t unreasonable, and after discussing with it for a while, she started packing up to leave.

Sun Miao was a very responsible person, never leaving anything behind that she had brought. She even pushed her cart out and washed down her former spot with water, only leaving on her electric tricycle after ensuring no trash remained.

Even with garbage, she wouldn’t throw it in the nearby trash station. She had quite a lot of waste, and stuffing it all in the nearby garbage bins would be troublesome for the sanitation workers.

There was a waste station near her rental house, so wouldn’t it be better to dispose of it there on her way home rather than in the small garbage bins?

After returning home, she began calculating her earnings. At 20 yuan per serving of egg fried rice, she had sold thirty-five portions today, totaling 700 yuan. She breathed a sigh of relief—at this rate, paying the next rent wouldn’t be a problem.

If she earned more, she could even upgrade to better living conditions.

The rental wasn’t unlivable for her—before transmigrating, she had lived in her breakfast shop, which wasn’t much better. But people work for a better life, and if given the choice, of course she’d want a better place to live.

Moreover… she wanted to buy some skincare products. Standing in front of the stove all day would eventually make her skin rough! How could she find a girlfriend like that?

Without realizing it, Su Ruixi’s image appeared in Sun Miao’s mind again. She sighed and patted her head: stay away from straight girls, starting with myself.

But Su Ruixi was really beautiful and perfectly matched her aesthetic tastes. Sun Miao was still thinking about this while lying in bed. But no matter how she thought about it, that customer was someone out of her league—not only did her clothes look expensive, but her manner and upbringing were also refined.

Although she had a system, her system was just for running a street stall. How could she support such a precious girlfriend in this situation?

Sun Miao was optimistic and cheerful, but not delusionally confident. She had that much self-awareness.

After thinking it over, she decided: at this point, better get some sleep first and think about everything else tomorrow morning.

Early the next morning, she set out again on her electric tricycle. This time she had prepared a large pot of rice, surely enough to feed all those gourmands [饕餮 | tāo tiè | gluttons/foodies]. From early morning, people were coming and going in front of Sun Miao’s stall, but since her egg fried rice was expensive at 20 yuan, many who had tried it yesterday decided to buy something else today, so there weren’t as many actual customers as Sun Miao had imagined.

Fortunately, when it was nearly mealtime, the young nurse came by. This time she was buying for her entire department, ordering more than ten portions at once. After a while, nurses from other departments came too, buying several portions each time.

However, after the meal rush, there were hardly any customers. Even so, she had basically sold out of rice.

Fortunately, she was prepared today and had brought extra rice for refills. She smoothly went through the process of washing and cooking rice, sitting aside playing with her phone while it cooked. Her food cart was specially made by the system, with a battery of unknown capacity that hadn’t needed charging yet and could still power the electric rice cooker.

While playing with her phone, she thought: that customer didn’t come today, so it seems she wasn’t lying yesterday when she said she didn’t know.

What Sun Miao didn’t know was that Su Ruixi had wanted to come, but work was too busy, so busy she had no time to visit.

It wasn’t until her stomach started aching slightly at two in the afternoon that Su Ruixi finally stopped working.

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