Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 91

We’re in for a treat again

Sun Miao was very quick, and the hibiscus egg drop soup wasn’t troublesome either. Su Ruixi had just washed her hands at the sink and came in to help carry the plates when Sun Miao finished. Sun Miao didn’t spoil Su Ruixi either; last time she had insisted on washing the dishes because Su Ruixi wasn’t feeling well. Now that Su Ruixi was better, she couldn’t just do nothing at all.

So, the two of them together, in just one or two trips, brought all the dishes to the dining table outside. Sun Miao conveniently picked up the rice cooker by its handle and brought it out. She served rice for Su Ruixi and herself, and the two sat facing each other, then ate together.

This wasn’t the first time the two had eaten together, but it was the first time they ate like this after confirming their romantic relationship. Unlike Sun Miao’s small folding table where she couldn’t even stretch her legs straight, now both of them could stretch their legs out, holding their small bowls, picking up food and eating.

Initially, the atmosphere was a little awkward, but as they started eating, they gradually began to talk more. Most of the time, Sun Miao was talking, and Su Ruixi was listening.

She would talk about the surprised expression the driver had today when he found out she was moving in here, “You have no idea how strange his expression was. He even asked me, ‘Is street vending so profitable nowadays?’ I didn’t even know how to answer him,”

Sun Miao actually felt that it was hard to say whether she or the driver-shifu had a higher salary. Mainly, in this international metropolis, if one didn’t earn around ten thousand kuai a month, it was really hard to get by. People like him drove around every day, and when they encountered someone like Sun Miao who needed help moving things, they could earn an extra tip. They definitely earned a lot in a month.

But Su Ruixi said: “Then you definitely earn more.”

“Hard to say, hard to say.”

They also chatted about Zhou Ling’s mother; she even said she had gotten the latest information on where there was a wholesale vegetable market. As soon as Su Ruixi heard it would take twenty minutes by small electric scooter, she directly said: “Then you should drive my car. That way, the travel time will be much less.”

But Sun Miao shook her head and refused: “I’m not saying I feel like you’re humiliating me or anything, it’s just that I don’t know how to drive, I don’t have a driver’s license.”

Sun Miao spoke very clearly, mainly because Su Ruixi was a person who often got awkward, so she had to make things crystal clear. After hearing this, Su Ruixi asked: “Sun Miao, do you want to learn to drive?”

“No need for that either.”

The two chatted a bit more, and that topic was considered closed. After dinner, Su Ruixi proactively took on the task of washing the dishes. However, there wasn’t much to wash; she had a dishwasher at home, so she just needed to tidy up and put them in. It wasn’t like that previous insulated lunchbox that had some kind of coating or whatnot.

Only the rice cooker needed to be washed by hand.

Sun Miao could just slack off after eating. She thought for a moment and then replied decisively: “I’ll go upstairs to take a shower first.”

Su Ruixi nodded. Only after Sun Miao went upstairs did she feel a bit regretful. It was the first time Sun Miao had come to her home after they started dating; they should do something, right? After all, they were a young couple. But looking at Sun Miao’s tired appearance, Su Ruixi couldn’t bring herself to say anything. The other person had been out vending during the day, then definitely spent a while tidying up after moving in the afternoon, and then even cooked so many dishes for her.

To pester Sun Miao at this time for… holding hands, kissing, or things like that, would be too much!

Su Ruixi resolved: Tomorrow, I must make something happen tomorrow! Coincidentally, Sun Miao was also resting.

Before washing the dishes, Su Ruixi also opened a supermarket shopping app, selected some items, and had them delivered to her door, then she went to wash the dishes. The deliveries she ordered were all special express hourly deliveries, and the supermarket quickly sent the items over.

Su Ruixi found a cup in the kitchen, washed it, then poured milk into it. Then, holding it, she went upstairs and somewhat awkwardly knocked on Sun Miao’s door. When Sun Miao opened the door, Su Ruixi could see that she had indeed just finished her shower; her hair was half-dry, looking like she was in the middle of blow-drying it.

“You must be tired today, right? Drink some milk, and go to sleep in a bit.” Su Ruixi felt she was being very considerate and capable. Sun Miao paused for a moment before taking it and saying softly: “Thank you.”

Su Ruixi continued: “There’s a water purifier and a direct drinking machine downstairs. I’ve set the temperature inside to over 40 degrees, which is just right for drinking. If you want hot water, there’s also a hot water dispenser in the kitchen, you can go get it yourself…”

“I know all that.”

Only then did Su Ruixi say: “Then I won’t disturb you anymore. Rest well.”

When Su Ruixi left, she still felt a bit dizzy. The scene just now had truly made her unable to snap back to her senses for a moment.

Sun Miao was completely different from her usual self. She was wearing a very cute set of pajamas. They were light green overall, with a small bear on the chest, and the bear even had a bow tie around its neck, looking utterly adorable. Her hair, usually tied up, was now down, making her whole person seem softer.

If it had been before, the impact on Su Ruixi wouldn’t have been so great. But now, Su Ruixi had clearly seen her own heart and had even become a young couple with Sun Miao. So, seeing Sun Miao in this domestic state at this moment was a completely different feeling.

She dazedly thought: Sun Miao is really in my house, and wearing loungewear too.

Su Ruixi was already imagining the scene of saying good morning to Sun Miao tomorrow. Unfortunately, early the next morning, when Su Ruixi went to work, Sun Miao was still asleep, so there was no scene of them saying good morning to each other. By the time Sun Miao got up, Su Ruixi was no longer home. She casually made some noodles for herself to eat and then started cleaning again.

She had moved in yesterday, and because time was tight, she didn’t have the chance to tidy up properly, only roughly categorizing things. Today, however, she had time to take everything out and put it away properly. But because of this, she didn’t have time to deliver lunch to Su Ruixi at noon.

She sent Su Ruixi a message. Su Ruixi didn’t have a single word of complaint; she was very clear about her own position—a shameless freeloader. If the cook didn’t want to cook today, then she wouldn’t get to eat, how simple was that?

Sun Miao still felt a bit guilty and told her: “I’ll definitely make you something delicious tonight.”

Sun Miao did cook that evening, but Su Ruixi didn’t come back. She was so busy her feet didn’t touch the ground. When Sun Miao went to deliver dinner to her, she wasn’t even at the company. Su Ruixi had instructed the company’s front desk xiaojiejie¹ in advance that Sun Miao could just deliver it upstairs directly.

The front desk xiaojiejie was very attentive to Sun Miao, even asking if she wanted to sit in the reception room for a while. Sun Miao asked when Su Ruixi might be back, and after getting a rough estimate, she decided not to wait. She sent Su Ruixi a message and went home.

Sun Miao also made a late-night snack for Su Ruixi that day. She waited until around ten o’clock but couldn’t hold on any longer and fell asleep first. When Su Ruixi returned, the room was pitch-black, but as soon as she turned on the light, she saw the late-night snack Sun Miao had left for her with a message.

It was—beef pancakes!

Su Ruixi’s heart suddenly softened. The fatigue from working overtime until this hour was also swept away. The beef pancakes were a bit cold, but she didn’t want to spend time reheating them. She got a cup of hot water and ate them with it.

She also remembered that when she was chatting with Sun Miao before, Sun Miao had mentioned a girl who particularly liked beef pancakes and had always wanted her to bring them back for sale. These beef pancakes had indeed made a comeback, but only for her. Thinking of this, Su Ruixi’s lips couldn’t help but curl upwards.

After finishing the beef pancakes, Su Ruixi put the plate in the kitchen sink, added some water, planning to wash it after waking up tomorrow. Turning around, she saw a sticky note on the refrigerator.

【I had milk before bed, you remember to drink some too ah~】

That little wavy line directly melted Su Ruixi’s heart. She opened the refrigerator, took out the milk, and poured herself a glass too. Although she hadn’t seen Sun Miao all day, her heart was full. Tomorrow was a day off; she really wanted to spend the whole day with Sun Miao.

Early the next morning, Sun Miao got up, washed up, sat on the edge of the bed, and said to the system: “Come on, I’m ready.”

Sun Miao was pulled into the system space by the system and began a new round of teaching.

This time, it taught two things—Suzhou-style Chicken Soup Bubble Mini Wontons and Huizhou Huangshan Crab Shell Yellow Baked Pancake.

Speaking of Suzhou-style Chicken Soup Bubble Mini Wontons, there was once a joke about it online. In an online video, an old auntie making wontons had a basin of meat next to her. With a flick of her chopsticks, she lightly picked up just a tiny bit of meat paste, smeared it on a wonton wrapper, and wrapped it up, finishing one.

Netizens were all sharply commenting: “This meat could last from the shop’s opening until its closing; that tiny smear has practically no meat at all.”

But in reality, this is a characteristic of “bubble” mini wontons. The filling for bubble mini wontons is meant to be minimal and evenly spread on the center of the wrapper. When wrapping, care must be taken that the inner cavity doesn’t have too much inside. Because it’s called “bubble,” the moment it’s cooked in hot water, the empty inner cavity can expand and float up, looking like little bubbles, hence the name.

Most importantly, what one actually eats in this bowl of bubble mini wontons is the soup; the mini wontons serve to provide seasoning and add some substance. Locally in Suzhou, a bowl of bubble mini wontons costs five kuai. Essentially, you’re just drinking soup; swallowing the wontons whole is a bit like drinking dough flake soup.

When eating bubble mini wontons, one usually pairs them with a dry staple food. It’s just that the system didn’t pair it with something local to Suzhou, but rather with Crab Shell Yellow brought over from neighboring Huizhou.

Actually, this snack, Crab Shell Yellow, is found throughout the Jiangzhehu² region. It’s also divided into savory and sweet flavors. The sweet ones usually contain things like red bean paste, white sugar, or jujube paste; the savory ones are more varied, but mostly have pork filling. The Huizhou Huangshan baked pancake is also a variation of Crab Shell Yellow; here, the system directly used the full name.

Its filling is fixed: preserved mustard greens with pork. It’s on the savory side, a bit different from the local way of eating here, but that’s actually the origin. It was only after it was promoted and entered this city that the sweet version became more popular locally.

When this Huangshan baked pancake is freshly baked, its exterior is golden yellow, the sesame seeds on top are fragrant, and it’s round and highly risen, looking like a crab shell, hence the name Crab Shell Yellow. A well-known person even wrote a vernacular poem for it—”Three Crab Shell Yellow, two bowls of mung bean congee, eaten into the belly, together enjoy immeasurable blessings.”

The words are coarse, but the reasoning is not; the main emphasis is on two words: delicious.

One bite, and it’s savory, fragrant, crispy, with flavor filling the mouth. If it feels dry while eating, then take a sip of soup…

Crab Shell Yellow paired with chicken soup bubble mini wontons—Sun Miao couldn’t even imagine how delicious it would be. Her thoughts turned: Susu-jie, we’re in for a treat again.

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