Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 70

Cannot Go On Like This

“Nonsense, I sing so well.”

Sun Miao rode her little electric scooter all the way to Cuiting Yayuan, where Su Ruixi was already waiting at the entrance. She was holding a gift box in her hand, and Sun Miao knew at a glance that it was for her. The perfectly square gift box was wrapped in wrapping paper and tied with a satin ribbon bow.

Su Ruixi really was a woman with such a sense of ceremony¹.

Sun Miao looked at the size and guessed it was most likely a helmet… The helmet probably never imagined it would one day be wrapped so grandly.

She exchanged the Changfen with Su Ruixi for the gift box. Sun Miao put on a slightly exaggerated expression of surprise: “Wow, is this for me? What is it?”

“Open it and see.” Su Ruixi glanced discreetly at Sun Miao’s helmet, very satisfied. Her helmet was pitch-black and looked particularly heavy; it clearly wasn’t something Sun Miao would like. She was such a cute person, even the sign for her food cart was designed beautifully; she definitely wouldn’t like such a plain and unadorned helmet.

Sun Miao didn’t hesitate, unwrapping the gift box right in front of Su Ruixi. Opening the box, a helmet lay quietly inside. Sun Miao saw it was milk-white.

She lifted the helmet out of the box and held it in her hands, examining it. It was quite cute; she liked it.

The main body was milk-white, the front wind visor was brown and also had a sun-shading function. There were two round ears on top of the head, making it look like a little bear. On the very top sat a cute sunflower, which looked soft and fluffy.

And the connection point was even a spring; presumably, when riding the electric scooter, this flower would bobble along.

Sun Miao really liked cute things. The smile on her face couldn’t be contained. She immediately took off the heavy black thing on her head, tossed it into the storage space under the scooter seat, and put on the helmet Su Ruixi had given her.

While Sun Miao was putting on the helmet, Su Ruixi explained softly beside her: “It looks quite light, but the protection is all there, and it has passed many inspection certifications. It’s definitely a bit better than your previous helmet.”

Sun Miao nodded.

It made sense. Although the helmet provided by the vendor looked the part and felt quite substantial, it was likely a knockoff product from an unlicensed workshop²—just for show³. A genuinely good helmet cost several hundred to nearly a thousand yuan; the vendor wouldn’t possibly give one away as a loss-making deal⁴. At most, it was the kind sold online for thirty or forty yuan, probably even cheaper wholesale.

As a rich woman, Su Ruixi definitely wouldn’t give her cheap goods worth only a few dozen yuan; this one was probably quite valuable.

If this were before, Sun Miao might have felt undeserving and apprehensive, but now, she had stood up for Su Ruixi before, right? So receiving this helmet from Su Ruixi, she wasn’t exactly undeserving, was she?

“Thank you, Susu-jie, I like it a lot.”

However, Su Ruixi looked at her scooter seat, seeming to want to say something but hesitating. Only when Sun Miao showed a puzzled expression did she ask: “Are you still keeping this helmet?”

“…” Oh, so that was it.

Sun Miao explained, “If this one gets damaged or I accidentally lose it, I can still use this one.”

“Accidentally lose it?” Su Ruixi’s eyes widened slightly, clearly not satisfied with this answer. Sun Miao changed her wording: “I’m afraid this helmet is so good-looking, someone might steal it from me.”

Actually, public safety was quite good nowadays, and everyone had helmets, so there was no need to steal someone else’s. But Sun Miao’s helmet was so attractive, if some poorly raised bratty kid⁵ saw it, they might really take it. Hearing it might be stolen rather than lost, Su Ruixi finally nodded.

But she didn’t relent on letting her keep the original helmet.

“If it gets stolen, I’ll give you another one. Just don’t keep your original helmet.”

Sun Miao froze for a moment, her heart skipped a beat. When Su Ruixi said things like this, it really made it easy for Sun Miao to misunderstand that Su Ruixi actually liked her. She lifted her head, carefully studying Su Ruixi’s expression under the cover of the helmet.

But after looking and looking, Sun Miao sighed again… she couldn’t sense even the slightest possibility that Su Ruixi liked her; she was still that completely straight girl⁶. She smiled, still not agreeing to throw away the original helmet.

“Then I’ll take it back and give it to a neighbor. From now on, I’ll rely on Susu-jie to give me helmets.”

Only then was Su Ruixi satisfied. She let out an “Mm,” and added, “Okay.” Before carrying the food container inside, she also said: “I’ll come buy Changfen from you again tomorrow evening.”

“Okay.”

After the two parted ways, Sun Miao didn’t sing anymore on the way back. Instead, she kept sighing heavily. The noise was enough to annoy even the System.

【Host, what’s wrong with you?】

“Am I being a bit too… cheap? I can’t go on like this. If this continues, I’ll really throw myself into this. Susu-jie doesn’t seem to have any feelings for me at all… Although I know it’s impossible, I still can’t help but hold onto a little extravagant hope.”

“Under these circumstances, I can’t keep falling deeper like this. Otherwise, if it really goes from a crush to liking, then to love, I’ll become a clown!”

Just thinking about that scenario made Sun Miao shudder with fear. Before she transmigrated, she had been to a few les bars. She wasn’t expecting to find a partner, just wanted to find people she could relate to. It was during those visits to the les bars that she saw lesbians drowning their sorrows in alcohol⁷ because they had fallen for straight women.

From then on, that phrase became deeply ingrained in Sun Miao’s heart: Don’t fall in love with a straight woman, you’ll become unhappy!

【That’s why I told you to pursue her from the start.】

“If I pursued her, we probably wouldn’t even be able to be friends anymore.” Sun Miao knew this very well. She really didn’t want to see the expression on Su Ruixi’s face after finding out she was gay⁸. Whether it was disgust or the same reaction as Hip-hop Mei and the others, Sun Miao didn’t want to see it.

Disgust, needless to say, would be like a death sentence for her world. If it was a calm reaction like Hip-hop Mei’s, she didn’t want that either. That would mean Su Ruixi understood she was a lesbian, and that’s all. Neither sad nor happy—that would be the greatest hurt.

Sun Miao didn’t know what kind of reaction she wanted to see from Su Ruixi. “Surprise”… that definitely wouldn’t happen. If she really showed that expression, it would be OOC⁹.

【I don’t know what you’re hesitating over.】

“Sigh, maybe it’s because I’m holding onto that tiny bit of luck and hope that I’m so afraid.” Sun Miao analyzed herself quite clearly. She thought about it again and again, and finally decided: she couldn’t go on like this anymore. She had to maintain boundaries, truly just be friends with Susu-jie.

Otherwise, the person clutching a wine glass and weeping bitterly in a les bar might very well become her!

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The next day, Sun Miao prepared her ingredients early in the morning and set off with her electric tricycle. She wore the helmet Su Ruixi had given her, the little flower on top swaying left and right as the food cart moved.

She drove all the way to the location and found the streetlight the System had mentioned. Then she discovered—there were really so many stalls around here!

Management wasn’t as strict here, and because it was near the Education Park, the foot traffic was particularly high. However, city management officers¹⁰ also came by to patrol frequently, so the vendors were always coming and going. Sun Miao saw an empty spot right under the streetlight where she could fit, pushed her food cart over, and squeezed it in.

The two stalls next to her sold fried skewers¹¹ and Smashed Lemon Tea¹².

It was only mid-June now. Although it was gradually getting hotter, it wasn’t that hot yet, so it felt a bit strange for the Smashed Lemon Tea stall to be setting up so early in the morning. But it was their business if they wanted to set up a stall, none of Sun Miao’s concern.

Sun Miao’s stall was quite distinctive; once the steamer drawers were set up, everyone knew what was being sold. But the girl selling lemon tea next door was a bit curious: “Hey, you’re selling Changfen, why don’t you put up a sign for yourself and write the prices? A lot of the students around here are quite shy, they don’t like asking for prices proactively.”

“Ah… is that so? I’ll get one later, thanks.” Sun Miao thanked the person. Looking over, she saw that the small lemon tea stall indeed had a sign set up.

The sign looked like a fluorescent board, similar to a blackboard, but written on with special fluorescent markers. It was morning now, so the fluorescent effect wasn’t visible; it looked more like it was written with a water-based pen. The writing on the sign was also very direct. At the top were the four characters for “Smashed Lemon Tea,” clearly written with care, even in a decorative font.

Below was the specific price list, nothing much to say, just selling lemon tea. Three cup sizes: small, medium, large. Small cup 8 yuan, medium 10 yuan, large 15 yuan—all normal prices.

Sun Miao looked at the fried skewer stall on the other side; he hadn’t written anything at all.

After looking at the signs, she started tidying up her own food cart, planning to buy a sign online later when she had a break. The Smashed Lemon Tea stall next door had no customers, so the owner chatted with Sun Miao: “You’re only just arriving at this hour? That fried skewer guy came out super early. His business isn’t great in the morning either, just sells some juanbing¹³ with leafy greens, but he comes early. Look a bit further ahead, the location is better over there. Things like xiaolongbao, small wontons, steamed dumplings [zhengjiao], they’re all over there.”

Following the direction the lemon tea boss pointed, there were indeed more stalls, and they looked more like breakfast vendors.

“The city management officers start work at nine, then we’ll have to run. You came so late, you won’t be able to sell much.”

“It’s fine, it’s my first day here, just scouting the location.”

Sun Miao also saw two other Changfen stalls over there. Their food carts looked much more professional than hers, clearly set up specifically for selling Changfen. Compared to them, Sun Miao seemed particularly unprofessional.

As expected of the entrance to the Education Park, the competition really was intense.

As Sun Miao was thinking this, she saw some people walking over. It was the Hip-hop Yabi duo again. Today, Hip-hop Mei was even wearing sunglasses, and Yabi Mei was dressed in all black gothic clothes today, her eye makeup especially heavy, with dark eyeshadow making her eye sockets particularly prominent.

“You two are…”

Sun Miao was stunned. Hip-hop Mei grinned, taking off her big red sunglasses, revealing two large dark circles under her eyes: “To be the first to eat Little Boss Sun’s Changfen, we stayed up all night singing karaoke nearby. We slept for a bit in between and were just woken up by the alarm.”

Yabi Mei nodded: “Good thing I had the foresight to wear clothes and makeup that could hide the all-nighter. She couldn’t, so she put on sunglasses.”

Sun Miao couldn’t help but widen her eyes after hearing this: This… wasn’t necessary, really wasn’t necessary! There was no need to go this far!

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