Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 7

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At the hospital entrance, where there are always surveillance cameras, hearing this, the ridiculous man became a bit nervous…

At the hospital entrance, how could there be no surveillance cameras? Hearing this, the ridiculous man became a bit nervous, but he still thought the mediation wouldn’t take long, and retrieving the video footage would definitely be slow. He thought it would be good to teach Sun Miao, this meddlesome person, a lesson using this time difference.

Neither side was willing to back down, so the police could only take both parties to the police station to discuss things slowly in the mediation room.

Before Sun Miao could react, Su Ruixi was already stunned. Her stomach was still very hungry… She had originally planned to eat egg fried rice, but now with Sun Miao being taken away, when would she be able to eat?

If she couldn’t eat, what should she do? Was she supposed to get an IV drip while being hungry? Or would she have to continue ordering takeout and eat those greasy things?

Suddenly, Su Ruixi was overwhelmed by her hunger, and the first thing she said was: “You can’t leave.”

As soon as these words came out, everyone looked at her. Fortunately, Su Ruixi was already used to being stared at, and she remained calm and composed, continuing: “If necessary, I’ll go too.”

“Huh?”

This exclamation came simultaneously from Sun Miao and the young nurse. Sun Miao was surprised that Su Ruixi wanted to go with her, while the nurse was surprised and said, “Miss Su, aren’t you going for your IV drip? You still have one day left, right? You’re already late today, and if you don’t go soon, the doctor will be worried.”

Hearing the nurse’s words, Sun Miao joined in the persuasion: “Your own matters are more important, I’ll be fine.”

She really was fine, it’s just that regarding her street vending, there was a System. Fortunately, the System was quite humane, not only did it not blame Sun Miao for not properly manning her stall to go to the police station, but it also joined her in righteous indignation, cursing at Xu Ding, that ridiculous man, in Sun Miao’s mind.

The System was quite noisy, still cursing the ridiculous man: 【I will curse him! As a System, when I curse him, he’s going to be miserable, he’ll have nothing but bad luck in the coming days!】

On one hand, Sun Miao thought that as a System, it should indeed have some capabilities, but then she remembered that after binding with the System, she could only afford to live in a rental apartment with a monthly rent of 600 yuan, so she figured it was probably just all talk.

Nevertheless, having something chattering away in her mind cursing the ridiculous man along with her was indeed stress-relieving.

Plus, she didn’t need to make up for lost work hours… Hmm, what a good System indeed!

Facing Sun Miao and the nurse’s persuasion, Su Ruixi remained unmoved, as she was a person of strong opinions. She had made up her mind that she must eat the egg fried rice. This matter had to be resolved quickly, and she would make the man who disturbed her meal pay the price.

Su Ruixi was not only opinionated but also particularly astute: “Nurse, please find the hospital security and help arrange to check the surveillance footage.” She then looked at Sun Miao and the police officer, continuing: “I think we should wait here until the footage is retrieved. Officer, I suggest you accompany the nurse to get the footage. After we have it, then we can all go to the police station.”

The police officer nodded: “What you say makes sense.”

With Su Ruixi’s strong presence, Xu Ding became increasingly nervous, he even thought about simply giving up on the money and running away, but Su Ruixi wouldn’t let him off so easily.

She glanced at Xu Ding, then turned to Sun Miao: “Do you need help? I have a good relationship with a lawyer who specializes in civil litigation. You won’t need to pay legal fees, the losing party will bear all costs.”

Sun Miao was surprised, as she hadn’t initially thought it would escalate to filing a lawsuit, but since the other person was saying this for her sake, she finally nodded: “Then… sorry to trouble you?” After saying this, she felt it wasn’t quite right and hurriedly added: “Thank you.”

Su Ruixi became a bit happier, nodding reservedly, then looked at Xu Ding: “Mr. Xu Ding, this is no longer about whether you want to accuse Sun Miao of hitting you or not, it’s about you spreading rumors, harassment, and extortion against her.”

In this situation, anyone would think it was making a mountain out of a molehill [小題大做 | xiǎo tí dà zuò | idiom meaning to make a big deal out of something minor]. It was originally a small matter, but now it was being escalated to court over 500 yuan. The police officer was also surprised and looked toward Sun Miao.

Sun Miao wasn’t one to disappoint people, she nodded: “Yes, I’m going to sue you too!”

This wasn’t making a mountain out of a molehill; instead, it made Sun Miao think: As expected of my crush, she’s such a good person and particularly righteous, super amazing!

She had no idea that Su Ruixi’s motivation for doing all this was—her stomach was very hungry, and she wanted to eat egg fried rice.

The mediation had failed between the two sides, so the police officer asked Xu Ding and Sun Miao to wait while he went with the nurse to find security and check the surveillance footage. As soon as they left, Xu Ding wanted to run, but police officers usually appear in pairs, with one following the nurse while the other remained on site.

With a police officer watching, he didn’t dare move.

At this moment, Su Ruixi looked at Sun Miao and made her request: “Sun Miao, I want an order of egg fried rice, to eat here.”

Sun Miao was stunned for a moment, but Su Ruixi made even more requests, thinking that since she had been a good person today by helping Sun Miao, asking for a bowl of egg drop soup shouldn’t be too much. So Su Ruixi continued: “And also an order of egg drop soup.”

“There’s still some vegetables left, would vegetable egg drop soup be okay?”

“That’s fine.”

Sun Miao cautiously asked the police officer: “Can I conduct business now?”

The police officer waved his hand: “As long as you don’t go far.”

Getting an affirmative response, Sun Miao led Su Ruixi back to her food cart. She wiped down the table and chairs again, and only after Su Ruixi sat down did she start making the egg fried rice. Su Ruixi condescended [纡尊降貴 | yū zūn jiàng guì | idiom meaning a noble person humbling themselves] to sit on the folding stool and started making phone calls.

They weren’t far apart, but the sound of the spatula hitting the wok while making egg fried rice slightly covered Su Ruixi’s voice. Sun Miao didn’t intend to listen anyway, as eavesdropping on someone’s phone call would be unethical.

However, by the time Sun Miao finished cooking the egg fried rice, Su Ruixi was still on the phone. Sun Miao put the egg fried rice in a disposable container, hesitated a bit, and only when Su Ruixi saw her and beckoned did Sun Miao bring the food over.

Inevitably, she heard some fragments of Su Ruixi’s phone conversation.

“Yes,” “lawsuit,” “my friend.”

Just hearing these few keywords was enough; she was talking about helping file the lawsuit against Xu Ding. Sun Miao felt happy hearing this, thinking that she was considered a friend.

But then thinking about it again, she felt somewhat worthless.

She silently recited the first rule of lesbian guidelines: Don’t fall for straight girls!

After delivering the egg fried rice, Sun Miao returned to make the egg drop soup. Her egg drop soup hadn’t been trained by the System, so it couldn’t reach the same level of perfection as the egg fried rice. The System, as a golden finger, really had a special way of teaching cooking, and that egg fried rice was so good that even Sun Miao herself felt there couldn’t be any better egg fried rice in the world.

Although the egg drop soup wasn’t as good as the egg fried rice, as the saying goes, “Master one, master all”. Even though she hadn’t learned how to make egg drop soup specifically, she could understand the basics. Especially when it came to beating eggs, she was extremely skilled.

Adding to that, she had mastered the heat control [火候 | huǒ hòu | cooking temperature and timing] and seasonings by heart, so even though it wasn’t as delicious as her egg fried rice, it still far surpassed [秒殺 | miǎo shā | literally “to kill in seconds,” meaning to vastly outperform] many professional chefs.

Beat the eggs, add the chopped vegetables, no need for too many seasonings. Salt for taste, MSG for umami, and a tiny bit of sugar to enhance the overall flavor profile. Thus, a bowl of egg drop soup was complete. Though it sounds simple, it’s actually extremely difficult.

The skill of making egg flowers [蛋花 | dàn huā | the characteristic whispy egg patterns in egg drop soup] isn’t something everyone can master. Sun Miao’s egg flowers were very thin and light, floating on the soup like clouds. Layers of golden yellow and pale white interweaved like meandering cloud layers, complemented by specks of emerald green, making anyone who saw it develop an appetite.

Taking another sip, it was fresh yet not bland, and even appetite-stimulating.

Su Ruixi truly felt that with Sun Miao’s skills, she could become an executive chef anywhere. What she didn’t know was that Sun Miao only had this level of skill with egg fried rice… and other egg and rice-based dishes.

If the difficulty level went up any higher, she would immediately show her true colors.

The moment the vegetable egg drop soup entered her stomach, Su Ruixi felt her whole being come alive. Her stomach, which had been slightly aching, felt better. This was just egg drop soup, not some miracle cure, and these feelings were purely psychological.

But even achieving such a psychological effect was remarkable.

She had developed stomach problems due to being picky about food and having irregular eating habits, and now the food in her stomach was indeed improving her condition to some degree. After finishing a bowl of egg drop soup, given her usual portion size, this should have been enough for Su Ruixi.

Because Sun Miao had used the same size disposable container as the egg fried rice, it was really a very large bowl of soup. Su Ruixi hadn’t expected that she could drink so much.

But just like the night before yesterday, Su Ruixi felt this had only opened up her appetite, and she eagerly started eating the egg fried rice beside her. In the April weather, the temperature was just right, and the freshly cooked egg fried rice was still steaming. She hadn’t looked carefully before, but now under the sunlight, the egg fried rice looked particularly appealing.

The golden egg liquid wrapped around the rice grains looked like tiny yellow flowers. Because the table and chair were rather low, Su Ruixi had to put her bag on her lap, then lift the disposable container, bringing her mouth close to it while using chopsticks to scoop up the rice.

If Su Ruixi’s parents saw these movements, they would surely tell her to be more ladylike.

But since she was already eating at a street stall, why bother with such formalities?

Su Ruixi ate very quickly, and before the police officer and nurse had returned, she had already finished both the bowl of soup and the egg fried rice. She truly left nothing behind, not even a single grain of rice or a sip of soup.

Su Ruixi was full, and she patted her stomach, feeling somewhat absent-minded.

Because she only needed three days of IV treatment, tomorrow, she wouldn’t need to come to the hospital anymore.

Not coming to the hospital meant she wouldn’t be able to eat such delicious egg fried rice… but as her parents taught her, everything should be done in moderation. She had already eaten egg fried rice for three consecutive days, so… perhaps it was time to let it go.

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