Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 84

Do you want to come to my house to cook?

She asked, “Is it okay if I park my electric scooter at the entrance?”

“It’s fine, no one usually comes to my place, and the road outside is very wide, so it won’t get in anyone’s way.”

What Su Ruixi¹ said made a lot of sense, so Sun Miao² nodded and followed her inside. Su Ruixi wanted to take the food container Sun Miao was carrying, but Sun Miao, thinking Su Ruixi was still unwell, didn’t give it to her and carried it herself.

After entering, they were in a particularly spacious and bright entryway³, directly facing a simply designed screen⁴. Just from the entryway, one could get a general idea of the decor of Su Ruixi’s home. Like her, it had a kind of cool, crisp feeling. The main color scheme was black, white, and gray, highlighting a certain lack of human warmth.

Sun Miao stood in the entryway and asked, “Do I need to change into slippers⁵?”

“En.” Su Ruixi handed a pair of slippers to Sun Miao. After Sun Miao took off her shoes and put on the slippers, she stepped up onto a raised level. She glanced at the screen again; this screen had quite a sense of design. It was composed of black and white metal lines running vertically from top to bottom, stretched taut, somewhat resembling the strings of a harp.

It was through these vertical lines that one could see the interior decoration.

Past the screen, to the left, was the living room with floor-to-ceiling windows. Further towards the windows, there was also a small tea nook. To the right was the dining room, and further in was a sliding door, which Sun Miao guessed led to the kitchen. Additionally, next to the dining room, there was a small bar counter.

Su Ruixi noticed Sun Miao’s gaze and casually explained, “I don’t drink alcohol. I usually just sit at that small bar counter and drink coffee or something.”

“Oh.”

The countertops of the bar and the dining room were made of marble slabs, looking very cold and hard, but it matched Su Ruixi’s personality well. There was also a level difference between the living room and the dining room; the dining room was two steps up. Sun Miao went up to the dining room and placed the food container on the table.

Su Ruixi asked Sun Miao to sit for a while and went to the wet bar by the small bar counter, taking out a bottle of mineral water. “I don’t have much to drink at home. Would you like coffee? I can make you some now.”

“No need, mineral water is fine for me. Don’t go to such trouble.”

Sun Miao took the mineral water from Su Ruixi. Su Ruixi told Sun Miao to sit for a bit, so she sat down on a high stool in front of the small bar counter. Truth be told, its height was quite similar to the stool she usually sat on behind her food cart. Su Ruixi also took a bottle of mineral water and sat opposite Sun Miao.

The two looked at each other for a moment, then both awkwardly averted their gazes.

Su Ruixi twisted open the cap of the mineral water bottle and, to cover her embarrassment, took several large gulps. Sun Miao lowered her head, listening to the sounds, and for a moment, didn’t know what to say. She was usually quite talkative; previously, when Su Ruixi ate at her food cart, she could talk a blue streak, her little mouth babbling non-stop.

But after these past three days, Sun Miao clearly didn’t know what to say anymore.

Su Ruixi also realized this. She took a deep breath and mentally psyched herself up. She had already communicated with her own mother and confirmed that she liked Sun Miao. At this moment, she should be braver. She was quite awkward and quite tsundere; if it were before, she would definitely have demurely waited for Sun Miao to confess first.

But after all this time, Su Ruixi had completely understood a principle: if you fall behind, you’ll take a beating⁶; one cannot afford not to strive and compete. Besides, Su Ruixi wasn’t the type of person who didn’t dare to strive and compete; otherwise, how could she have built up her business?

Strike when the time is right; this was Su Ruixi’s business principle.

So now, Su Ruixi also bravely advanced⁷. “Sun Miao, do you like me?” After saying this, Su Ruixi instantly felt like an idiot. Why did she suddenly think of asking such a question?

Sun Miao raised her head and looked at Su Ruixi. She knew Su Ruixi had heard from Hip-hop Mei that she was a lesbian⁸. Her own attitude had actually been quite clear. Su Ruixi was a smart person; coming over this morning might genuinely have been because she was unwell, her head muddled along with it, and she hadn’t processed things yet.

Now that she had eaten lunch, her stomach felt better, her mind was clear, and she probably wanted to set things straight with her.

Sun Miao took a deep breath. She knew that to stick one’s head out is one knife-blow, and to retract it is also one knife-blow⁹, so she might as well just admit it directly. “Yes, I have good feelings for you.” She didn’t make it too definitive, so that if Su Ruixi rejected her, she wouldn’t lose too much face.

But Su Ruixi’s heart was pounding. She had guessed Sun Miao liked her, but hearing Sun Miao admit it to her face was a completely different feeling from just guessing. Su Ruixi directly ignored the “have good feelings for you”; Sun Miao was saying she liked her. She knew it was her turn to make a move, but being awkward wasn’t something that could be changed overnight.

Su Ruixi knew she should confess directly, to say to Sun Miao: I like you too, can we be together?

But what actually came out was: “Then do you want to come to my house to cook?”

“???” Sun Miao was dumbfounded, and Su Ruixi was also dumbfounded: This mouth of mine, why can’t it ever say anything right!

Sun Miao didn’t get it at first, but she was very good at decoding Su Ruixi’s awkward words. After thinking for a moment, she finally understood the implication: Su Ruixi meant… she liked her too?

But this conclusion was hard for Sun Miao to accept so quickly, because for Sun Miao, it was too incredible. Su Ruixi was a straight woman! A straight woman! If someone had suddenly told Sun Miao one day, “In the future, you will turn a straight woman gay¹⁰,” Sun Miao’s first reaction would absolutely not be pride or calm acceptance, but self-loathing: Are you even human, doing such a thing?!

So Sun Miao hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Susu-jie, do you mean… you like me?”

Su Ruixi’s face instantly turned red, the complete opposite of her pale appearance that morning. She was as red as a big apple; Su Ruixi’s face was burning up at this moment. Her face was so red it looked like it could almost drip blood, and her voice grew louder: “You say…” She subconsciously wanted to refute it, but in an instant, she remembered: she shouldn’t refute it.

So Su Ruixi pressed her lips together and hesitantly replied, “En… you’re right, I do like you.” As these words left her mouth, Su Ruixi felt as if a huge stone had been lifted from her, and her whole body relaxed.

However, Sun Miao’s reaction across from her made Su Ruixi a little annoyed.

Sun Miao was silent for a moment, then spoke, her voice tinged with uncertainty, but she still tried her best to persuade her: “Susu-jie, you might be mistaken, that’s not liking. You just like eating the food I make, and you feel bad when you can’t eat it. You don’t have to be like this. I’ll be good from now on; if you want, I’ll just cook for you.”

“The path of homosexuality isn’t easy to walk. You might just be momentarily unable to distinguish between the two, Susu-jie, you…”

Her meaning, over and over, was: you’re not a lesbian.

At this moment, Su Ruixi felt Sun Miao was being too noisy. She stood up directly and reached out towards Sun Miao. Sun Miao was stunned for a moment, watching Su Ruixi grab her collar. She was wearing a white T-shirt, the clothes loose. With Su Ruixi pulling like this, she had to stand up, otherwise, if pulled a little further, her neckline would be stretched open and expose her.

And just as she stood up, Su Ruixi leaned on the counter and moved towards her. The bar countertop wasn’t wide, much narrower than a table, so the distance between them was easily closed. Su Ruixi thus kissed Sun Miao on the lips.

Yes, she kissed her.

Sun Miao’s eyes widened; she was completely stunned, because this was—her first kiss! She never thought that one day, she would be forcefully kissed by another woman, a straight woman at that. But the next second, Sun Miao’s widened eyes softened, and even slowly closed.

Before closing her eyes, she saw Su Ruixi’s gently trembling eyelashes and knew this act was too out of line for her as well. However, their lips were just touching, they weren’t doing anything else.

For Su Ruixi, however, this was incredibly stimulating; she had never done anything so outrageous. The moment she got close to Sun Miao, Su Ruixi didn’t smell perfume, but the scent of laundry detergent mixed with a hint of cooking fumes¹¹. Sun Miao must have just finished making dinner for her at home and delivered it right away, without even changing her clothes, still carrying that lingering smell from cooking.

Having ridden her electric scooter all the way here, that smell had already been mostly dispersed by the wind, almost unnoticeable. Only by getting close to Sun Miao could one smell her scent. Su Ruixi wasn’t repulsed by this smell; on the contrary, she liked it very much. This smell had a down-to-earth, lived-in quality, adding a touch of human warmth to this cold home.

After a long while, she finally let go of Sun Miao. Su Ruixi’s lips were soft, and also, because she had just drunk water, they were moist and carried a hint of coolness. As Sun Miao was thinking this, she looked up and saw Su Ruixi raise her hand and gently touch her own lips.

Her index finger pressed against her lips, causing those overly moist lips to indent slightly. Her eyes were also watery; Sun Miao didn’t know if it was due to the discomfort from her stomach ache or from being moved after the kiss. She only knew—Su Ruixi really liked her.

“Do you believe me now?”

Sun Miao nodded like she was pounding garlic¹², but after hesitating for a moment, she said softly, “I don’t believe you.”

Su Ruixi was made to laugh by her anger, but quickly understood: Sun Miao wanted to kiss again. She pursed her lips and refused, “No way, you can’t fool me.”

But regardless, now that the two had spoken openly, the atmosphere became ambiguous and bubbled with pink froth¹³. Sun Miao “saw” the cotton doll pop out again, with little pink flowers scattering around it.

After a while, Su Ruixi asked again, “Sun Miao, do you want to come to my house to cook?”

Sun Miao considered for a moment, then refused, “No.”

“…” This feeling of rejection was quite familiar; it was the exact same tone as when she had refused to give Hip-hop Mei a discount before. Su Ruixi wanted to get angry, but Sun Miao placated her before she could: “Not for this period. Susu-jie, your place is too far from the Education Park. It takes you half an hour by car; if I drive my food cart, it’ll take over an hour.”

Su Ruixi fell silent. For the first time, she felt that the location she had chosen for this villa was a bit off.

She smoothed her hair again. In any case, Sun Miao hadn’t rejected her, which proved that she would move in after she finished selling her changfen.

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LP: LETSGOOOO!

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