Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 46

Stall Non-Proliferation Pact

【I’m starting to get excited again, so where are you selling next week, and what? Can you come to my doorstep?】

【Can you bring back the egg fried rice? Hearing them talk about it all the time has made me crave it so bad, I want to try just how delicious the universe’s most invincible, best-tasting egg fried rice is.】

【I want malatang too, I absolutely love eating malatang, but I’ve never had Little Boss Sun’s malatang. I can’t imagine how delicious that must be, slurp.】

The customers who had just joined the group were baffled:

【What stuff? What egg fried rice, what malatang? How come I’ve never even heard of them?】

【Confirmed the look in your eyes¹, you’re a newbie. You have no idea, Little Boss Sun is super capricious; she sold egg fried rice behind the hospital back gate before, last time she sold malatang over by Cuiting Yayuan, and this week she switched to selling beef pancakes at Jinsha Building.】

They chatted enthusiastically, but in the end, they still asked Sun Miao: Where are you going next week, and what are you selling?

Sun Miao couldn’t answer because she didn’t know yet; she had to undergo System training before she could tell them. Sun Miao could only play dead in the group, leaving messages as read but not replying.

Finally getting a day off, she ate a bowl of noodles² in the morning, then went to buy a new phone. This phone cost her three thousand yuan³. Although the specs⁴ weren’t particularly high-end, it had a large battery capacity, could basically run most games on the market, had large storage, and the camera wasn’t bad either.

Sun Miao took a few photos and thought they looked pretty good.

After getting the phone, she downloaded many apps, logged into her accounts, and on WeChat, the notifications just went didi didi nonstop.

Sun Miao was a bit curious and opened it, only to find the customers in the group chat were all cursing someone out.

【Big Silly Chun⁵, what are you doing? Are you trying to ruin us?!】

【Help! How could such a huge idiot⁶ get in here!】

Sun Miao scrolled up for a long time before figuring out what was going on. She recognized the account name; it should be one of the two young girls who first came to her stall for beef pancakes on May 2nd. They looked like university students, and subsequent interactions confirmed this.

The two girls were named Manman⁷ and Xiao Xiao⁸.

Totally understandable; when she was in middle school, the girls in her class also liked to use nicknames, always using reduplicated characters to call people.

She herself had been called Miao Miao.

The one being called “Big Silly Chun” was Manman. It started because Xiao Xiao forwarded a Xiaohongshu⁹ post Manman had made to the group. The title was: 《OMG, You Absolutely Can’t Imagine Beef Pancakes This Delicious Exist!》 And the thumbnail below even showed the beef pancake she photographed.

Seriously though, judging by the thumbnail, the beef pancake looked glossy, smooth¹⁰, and delicious—anyway, much better looking than Sun Miao’s photos.

Sun Miao clicked in and was first taken aback by the number of likes. A full fifty thousand¹¹… Compared to viral hits online with hundreds of thousands or even millions of likes, it might seem trivial, but for Manman, this was an astronomical number of likes.

Sun Miao looked at the post and realized it wasn’t without reason that it blew up—Manman’s writing was a bit too enticing.

Someone in the group also reacted this way to Manman, saying she wrote really well. She immediately replied excitedly: Of course, I’m a Chinese Language and Literature major! My score in Chinese for the Gaokao was wicked high¹²!

Her article praised Sun Miao’s beef pancakes as if they were Peaches of Immortality¹³ from the heavens, claiming one bite could extend your life¹⁴. Sun Miao felt a bit embarrassed watching this, murmuring “It’s not that serious, not that serious,” while continuing to read.

Besides Manman’s text, the photos in this post also added a lot of points. She took many shots: the whole beef pancake lying in a white porcelain bowl, a cross-section photo after a bite, the beef pancake half-eaten with some crumbs artfully arranged beside it.

In short, the deliciousness practically burst through the screen and rushed towards you.

The comment section was also full of things like:

【It looks really delicious, I really want a bite.】

【Is it really as delicious as the poster¹⁵ says? I don’t believe it, unless you let me have a bite.】

【Waiting for an address, kinda urgent.】

Some who had eaten it also stepped up to share their experience¹⁶:

【Huh, the poster’s IP address¹⁷ is the same place as mine? Let me guess—is it the one at the entrance of JinX Building?】

【If it’s that one, I don’t think it’s exaggerated at all! I was lucky enough to see it when I went out the day before yesterday. Out of curiosity, I waited in line for ages, and after finally eating it, I felt it truly wasn’t a waste of my long wait!】

【I know which one it is! All I can say is, go buy it! You’ll regret missing it for the rest of your life!】

【Wuwuwu How come you all got to eat it? Every time I go, they say it’s sold out.】

【You guys aren’t talking about the one downstairs from our company, are you? That one is seriously delicious. Before the holiday, I bought one once after work in the evening. One is definitely not enough, two isn’t too many, and you can still stuff down a third.】

Because more and more people were showing up, the onlookers¹⁸ were moved, clamoring over there: 【So just give us the address already?!】

But unexpectedly, although everyone was saying how delicious it was, not a single person planned to actually reveal¹⁹ the address.

Because… nobody wanted Sun Miao’s queue to get even longer. The amount Sun Miao could make each day was fixed; too many people would lead to demand exceeding supply²⁰, lowering the probability of getting their hands on Sun Miao’s food.

Nowadays, nobody’s a little fool; everyone has their own little calculations²¹. So, no one exposed Sun Miao’s specific stall location. This was also why nobody had promoted it on online platforms before—precisely out of that fear.

Otherwise, given how delicious Sun Miao’s food was, it would have blown up big time online long ago. It wouldn’t have taken until the third week of selling beef pancakes for someone to promote it online. And after promoting it, they still got chewed out in the group.

【Aaaah, I knew this day would come! When this group hit a hundred members, I should have guessed it.】

【It’s normal for people to want to promote it; when you eat something delicious, you just want to share it with others.】

【Whatever you do, don’t expose the address, especially next week’s stall location! Enter the village quietly, no firing shots²²!】

【Roger.】

【Roger.】

Below were rows and rows of “Roger.” It seemed everyone had reached a consensus on the “Sun Miao Stall Non-Proliferation Pact.”

Manman seemed to realize this too and simply stopped surfacing²³ in the group. Instead, Xiao Xiao, who was with her, was particularly lively: 【Aiya, it’s fine, they won’t find it. If you guys keep talking about Manman, I’m gonna get angry and start cursing people out. I’m not bragging, but online, I’m also an invincible keyboard warrior²⁴ who has defeated all under heaven. Who dares challenge me?】

Everyone was just talking; they didn’t really intend to curse anyone out. Someone stepped in to smooth things over²⁵, and the matter passed just like that. However, a sense of crisis remained firmly buried in everyone’s hearts, terrified that Sun Miao would be discovered by more people. Each one was like a greedy dragon guarding its treasure, seeing everyone else as a little thief trying to steal their gold coins.

While buying the phone, Sun Miao also bought groceries for herself on the way back. While grocery shopping, she inevitably thought of Su Ruixi, and also remembered what she had promised Su Ruixi before. Inevitably, she bought a bit more food.

Looking at the groceries at home, Sun Miao called Su Ruixi. The other party naturally agreed. After hanging up, Sun Miao’s gaze fell on the insulated lunch container Su Ruixi had left with her. This was the container Su Ruixi had given her after finishing her meal on May 3rd, saying that if it wasn’t too much trouble for Sun Miao, she could just use this to pack her food.

Switching from disposable containers to an insulated one certainly wasn’t troublesome for Sun Miao, but she couldn’t help thinking Su Ruixi’s action of giving her the container seemed a bit too quick, almost premeditated.

Sun Miao shook the thought out of her head and started making today’s lunch.

After finishing, she diligently²⁶ delivered it to Su Ruixi. Looking at Su Ruixi’s face, Sun Miao felt Su Ruixi seemed happy. At this moment, Sun Miao threw cold water²⁷ on her: “There won’t be any tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, I’ll be setting up the stall again. See if you want to have a runner²⁸ pick it up or…”

“I’ll go myself.”

Su Ruixi stated decisively²⁹. After experiencing those two times with the egg fried rice and malatang, Su Ruixi had deeply learned a lesson: “When you encounter something you like, you must grab hold tightly, otherwise you’ll have nothing to eat.”

Relying on fate? The two of them indeed had fate, but it couldn’t be this fated, right? It had already happened three times; surely she couldn’t run into her a fourth time? Besides, having already met three times, always nearby, didn’t that prove how much fate connected them?

Especially the recent few boxed meals, which convinced Su Ruixi: This was fate delivered to her by heaven. If she didn’t seize it properly, she’d be an idiot³⁰.

Su Ruixi was not only not foolish, but quite clever. So, after being tsundere once or twice and going hungry, she learned her lesson. No matter how tsundere or awkward she was, food had to be eaten.

One could only say, even tsundere tendencies can be tamed by delicious food.

Hearing Su Ruixi speak so decisively, Sun Miao paused for a second, then nodded: “Okay.”

The two completed the lunch container exchange. Sun Miao gave Su Ruixi two insulated containers for soup and one insulated set holding the main dish and rice; Su Ruixi handed the previous day’s two soup containers back to Sun Miao. Taking the containers, Sun Miao added another reminder: “Remember to eat on time tomorrow too, even without my soup and food.”

Su Ruixi originally intended to agree, but at that moment, she suddenly had a different idea and teased Sun Miao a little: “I’ll try my best.”

“?”

Sun Miao was shocked. She glanced at Su Ruixi: “What do you mean, ‘try your best’?!”

Su Ruixi blinked. She realized Sun Miao genuinely cared about her. Seeing Sun Miao getting a bit anxious, she explained softly: “Work is quite busy, I can’t guarantee I can always eat on time. I will eat on time as much as possible.”

Sun Miao pouted: “Fine.”

Just then, someone happened to come by. The two acting sneaky³¹ immediately separated, said goodbye to each other, and only then did Sun Miao head up from the underground parking garage.

Yes, the two of them were like secret agents, making contact in the underground parking garage below Su Ruixi’s company. Su Ruixi was afraid of her employees seeing her carrying the lunch containers; Sun Miao was afraid of being spotted by regular customers who would block her way and insist on eating beef pancakes.

Sun Miao breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t been discovered. Carefully and cautiously, she crossed the road outside Jinsha Building, reached the little electric scooter³² she had borrowed, and set off for home. On the way, she was still thinking: The little e-scooter really is better, because… driving a food truck is too big a target, easily discovered!

Su Ruixi didn’t encounter anyone on her way either, until she returned to her office and met her assistant’s gaze.

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