Please~
Her little electric scooter, puttering along, quickly arrived at Cuiting Yayuan. It was just past five-thirty, and Sun Miao spotted Su Ruixi before she even got off her scooter. Su Ruixi stood tall and graceful1 at the complex entrance, looking particularly eye-catching.
Sun Miao parked her scooter right in front of Su Ruixi. Once it was stable, Sun Miao greeted her: “Su-jie~!” She actually really wanted to call her “Susu-jie”, but their relationship hadn’t reached that level of intimacy, so Sun Miao didn’t say it out loud.
Su Ruixi’s eyes lit up, and she walked over quickly. This time, she wasn’t wearing high heels, but flats instead. They looked very soft, like indoor slippers. Her clothes also looked different from usual, more like loungewear, with a jacket worn over it.
Coming all this way to deliver food to Su Ruixi had its rewards; at the very least, she got to see a side of Su Ruixi different from usual.
Sun Miao took off her helmet and hung it on the scooter’s rearview mirror. Then she pressed the key fob. With a “click”, the scooter’s seat popped open. Sun Miao took out the item from under the seat and handed it to Su Ruixi.
Su Ruixi reached out and took it, her expression still a bit blank.
Sun Miao instinctively asked, “Is something wrong?”
“You… so, the storage compartment on this scooter… it’s here?” Su Ruixi asked.
Sun Miao replied, “Yeah.” Only then did she realize, “Ah… you, you mind this?” Although there was a layer separating them, it was still under the seat. Su Ruixi looked like someone quite particular about cleanliness2, so it would make sense if she minded.
Sun Miao scratched her head. “Sorry, I didn’t think about that.” She reached out towards Su Ruixi, who instinctively shrank back slightly.
Sun Miao was a bit surprised. “You’re still going to eat it?”
“Yes,” Su Ruixi said, almost through gritted teeth3. She glanced at Sun Miao and started to explain, “I don’t mind that much, I just didn’t expect it. I haven’t really seen anyone else ride an electric scooter before…”
If someone else had said this, it might have sounded pretentious to Sun Miao, but coming from Su Ruixi, it didn’t feel out of place at all. In her world, you really wouldn’t see such things. Even the auntie who came to her house would park her vehicle where Su Ruixi couldn’t see it. So, she genuinely didn’t know that the storage space on an electric scooter was under the seat.
Sun Miao was just too used to it; she’d stuff food directly under the seat. If she hung it on the handlebars, it would swing around in the wind, so putting it here was better.
“I’ll be more careful next time, I won’t put it there.”
Su Ruixi shook her head again. “It’s fine, it didn’t touch anything.” She was still a bit curious. “Do you usually put things you buy here?”
“Yeah.”
They chatted idly for a couple more sentences. At that moment, Su Ruixi wanted to invite Sun Miao into her home. But Sun Miao had only brought one portion of food. Su Ruixi didn’t know if Sun Miao had already eaten or if she needed to rush back to eat. After hesitating for a moment, she finally asked, “Would you like to come in and sit for a while?”
Sun Miao definitely wanted to, but thinking about her pitiful situation of being potentially led on by a straight girl, she felt she couldn’t continue like this. So, Sun Miao shook her head. “No, thanks, I just came to drop off the food.”
Seeing Sun Miao about to leave, Su Ruixi suddenly called out to her. With courage she didn’t know she possessed, she asked Sun Miao, “Could you… bring me a boxed meal often in the future?” As soon as the words left her mouth, Su Ruixi began explaining hastily4, “You don’t have to bring it every day, or even often, just… just bring it occasionally.”
Once a tsundere breaks through their own awkwardness and speaks up, they can become remarkably straightforward.
What Su Ruixi had been thinking about spilled out: “Your cooking is really delicious, I love it. And after eating your food, my stomach feels so much better; I haven’t had any stomach problems recently. I definitely won’t take it for free, just name your price!”
Feeling this wasn’t sincere enough, she looked up at Sun Miao, meeting her eyes. “Please! I know I shouldn’t ask…”
At that moment, Sun Miao’s mind went a little blank. The Su Ruixi-version cotton doll that had vanished into thin air popped up in her heart again, seemingly standing next to the real Su Ruixi, hands pressed together5 in a pleading expression, eyes glistening and watery, saying in an even more pitiful voice, “Please~”
My tragic life, being played by a straight girl…
Sun Miao’s internal warning hadn’t even finished when another voice popped up in her heart: So what if I’m being played? If it’s her playing me, I’m willing!
Shut up! You damn simp6!
Sun Miao fumed inwardly, embarrassed and angry7, but outwardly, she still said, “Alright, but probably not too often. Bringing it occasionally isn’t too much trouble.”
At this moment, her mouth also turned tsundere: “Really, just occasionally!”
But Su Ruixi was overjoyed because she had not only honestly voiced her thoughts but also secured Sun Miao’s promise to occasionally bring her food.
“That’s enough, thank you so much!”
She took out her phone. “Can I count today’s meal as fifty yuan8? I’ll transfer it to you.”
“That’s plenty, plenty.”
They didn’t exchange many more words before Sun Miao fled as if escaping something9. “S-See you tomorrow!”
“Okay, see you tomorrow.”
Sun Miao left, and Su Ruixi cheered up. Carrying the plastic bag, she headed home. Once inside, she looked at the food container and took out the insulated lunch box she had previously snagged from her assistant. She decided: tomorrow, she would bring the lunch box and give it to Sun Miao!
Su Ruixi was happily preparing to eat when she received a call from Hip-hop Mei. She answered, hung up quickly, and happily started her dinner. Seriously, Sun Miao’s cooking really suited her taste, especially the yam and wood ear mushroom.
The wood ear mushrooms had been soaked, washed thoroughly clean, and blanched before stir-frying, which brought out their natural fragrance without any earthy smell. The yam was also handled perfectly; it wasn’t slimy but crisp and refreshing to eat.
Sun Miao’s skill in handling ingredients and bringing out their original flavors could be described as reaching the pinnacle of perfection10. At least, to Su Ruixi, it was top-tier; simply delicious. Su Ruixi ate with great satisfaction. Afterward, she patted her stomach, threw away the disposable container, and then went to wash the bowl.
It was no exaggeration to say that Su Ruixi had washed dishes fewer than 10 times in her entire life.
Her home had a dishwasher, but Su Ruixi only had one bowl—the insulated lunch box used for soup. Thinking about it, it seemed easier to just wash it by hand. She washed the bowl meticulously; being somewhat obsessive-compulsive, she scrubbed the bowl and chopsticks until they practically shone.
Su Ruixi started looking forward again, wondering when Sun Miao would bring her food next time, and what she would bring.
Could she have brought me food this time because she thought I didn’t have dinner? The thought made Su Ruixi find it a bit amusing. Sun Miao was really something; how could she possibly not have food? She employed an auntie, after all.
Although the auntie’s cooking didn’t quite suit her taste, she was the one Su Ruixi kept after interviewing over a dozen candidates, already the most acceptable one. She had also considered hiring a dedicated chef, but their cooking might not suit her taste either.
Chefs were skilled, and Su Ruixi could acknowledge their dishes as tasty. But eating them occasionally was fine; she wouldn’t want to eat them every day. If someone could cook according to her preferences, she would naturally be very happy. But Su Ruixi was notoriously difficult to please, incredibly picky about food, making it hard for anyone to cook dishes that suited her taste.
Su Ruixi never expected that one day, someone’s cooking would suit her so perfectly.
Thinking that Sun Miao brought her food because she thought she had none, Su Ruixi quickly deduced that, according to Sun Miao’s usual routine, she should finish this round of stall vending in another three days, with a two-day break in between.
If she takes a break, doesn’t that mean I won’t have a place to eat? In that case, would Sun Miao prepare a boxed meal for me too?
This thought made Su Ruixi happy again. She concluded that her gift-giving strategy was working; look, Sun Miao was already preparing delicious food for her. Then, after a while, I should buy Sun Miao something else. She thought of Sun Miao’s helmet. She had only caught a quick glimpse earlier, but felt it wasn’t quite suitable for her.
The helmet was just black, plain, with no decorations.
Being black, it even looked a bit ugly.
Of course, maybe Sun Miao herself preferred simple styles. But unconsciously, Su Ruixi thought of Sun Miao’s WeChat Moments background picture—that Shiba Inu sticker smiling so happily—and the logo on her food cart.
Thinking about it this way, ‘Optimistic Little Chai’11 probably likes cute things too, right? Su Ruixi tried not to smile, pressing her lips into a thin line, but the corners of her mouth still unconsciously turned up slightly.
Decided! Next time, I’ll get her a helmet, a cute one!
While someone here was eagerly waiting for Sun Miao to finish her stall run and reach those two rest days, someone else over there knew nothing, just waiting for the May Day holiday to end so they could rush back to the company to eat those delicious beef pancakes. The young woman who had previously bought two batches, saying something like “Only Guang-jiejie has them,” was already regretting it at home.
She should have queued earlier. If she had gone earlier, she could have snagged another batch, and then her pancakes wouldn’t have been eaten by her family, leaving her with none.
As she waited day after day, the last day of the May Day holiday finally arrived. Sun Miao also announced the successful conclusion of this round of vending. Starting from May 3rd, her customer flow had stabilized again—stabilized at being extremely high, selling out completely by five o’clock every day.
She had to set aside four pancakes for Su Ruixi in advance at noon, lest Su Ruixi come by in the evening and get nothing.
On the last day, just like before, Sun Miao told some regular customers that it was her last day to prevent them from making a wasted trip later. The clueless customers wailed, while the smart ones had already added Sun Miao as a friend and joined the group chat.
Even though Sun Miao said, “I don’t know where I’ll set up my stall next time or what I’ll sell,” it couldn’t stop these enthusiastic customers.
In the end, Sun Miao’s small group chat had exceeded one hundred members. And so, the next round of questions began:
——What are you selling next week?
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This never gets bored
I feel bad for that customer, though she was troublesome, she didn’t go too far and genuinely did like the food. If anything, she just wanted more. I wonder if she was able to get at least one more before the Mc changed spots and menu again? That or find the Mc to get some more food later.