Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 93

Going to buy ingredients

Not to mention Su Ruixi bought the expensive kind of instant noodles, so even that “cheap” advantage, the one that most easily fools the average person, was gone.

Su Ruixi was so chided by Sun Miao that she couldn’t lift her head, but Sun Miao stopped after a few sentences. She reached out and took Su Ruixi’s hand. Their hands together looked very mismatched. Sun Miao’s hands, from years of manual labor and not much care, were completely different from Su Ruixi’s.

Her palms were rough, her fingertips covered in calluses, and her skin was at least three shades darker than Su Ruixi’s. To say they matched would be a bit like deceiving oneself. But even if they didn’t match, with their hands together, their hearts felt tender and sweet.

“Don’t eat this anymore. I’ll make you something else.”

“What do you want to eat?”

At Sun Miao’s question, Su Ruixi’s face turned a little red. She answered, “As long as you make it, I want to eat it.” Su Ruixi was still a bit hesitant when saying sweet nothings, not very smooth, but if the listener was happy, then everything was good.

“Then I’ll make some rice noodles. The broth cubes I made before are all used up. We can have some clear soup rice noodles, and I’ll make a base seasoning for you, okay?”

How could Su Ruixi refuse? She nodded like a chicken pecking rice¹ and then followed Sun Miao like a charm, watching her busy herself in the kitchen. The rice noodles took much longer to cook than instant noodles, and Su Ruixi just stood by watching the whole time.

Sun Miao, afraid she’d be bored, started chatting with her.

Su Ruixi was surprised to find that when Sun Miao was cooking for her, she talked more than when she was at her stall.

To Su Ruixi’s question, Sun Miao was quite direct: “After all, I was running a stall and doing business then. If I talked from time to time, people might think it wasn’t very clean, even if I wore a food mask, it wouldn’t be good.”

In other words, Su Ruixi was one of her own, so there weren’t as many worries when cooking for her. Su Ruixi’s heart felt joyful again.

Su Ruixi asked again, “Sun Miao, what are you selling tomorrow?”

Sun Miao originally wanted to tell her directly, but seeing how curious she was—so much so that it was like a cotton doll had popped up with a big question mark over its head—Sun Miao decided to tease her, “I’m making it for you today, no rush. Want to go buy ingredients together later?”

“Okay!”

After breakfast, Sun Miao took Su Ruixi out. They didn’t take Su Ruixi’s car but got into her food cart, as they needed to buy quite a few things. She also planned to make the chicken broth into broth cubes, just like she did for the malatang before. Otherwise, spending so much time simmering broth every day—she just didn’t have the enthusiasm for it.

Her food cart could actually seat two people, though it was a bit of a squeeze. Sun Miao had Su Ruixi sit next to her and even put the helmet that came with the electric scooter on Su Ruixi’s head.

When driving, you know, safety is important.

This was probably Su Ruixi’s first time riding in such a vehicle. She seemed a little uneasy, her legs together, hands resting obediently on her knees, looking like a well-behaved child. Sun Miao also got on, sitting beside her. Su Ruixi pressed the remote, the garage door opened, and Sun Miao twisted the throttle, zooming out.

Her food cart drove out, passed through the Cuiting Yayuan villa complex, and when they reached the entrance, the security guard looked them over several times before opening the gate barrier, watching them drive away.

While on the road, Su Ruixi’s long hair fluttered a bit, and she had to reach up to smooth it down. She even said to Sun Miao, “Actually, riding this little cart is quite comfortable, the wind is strong.”

“You won’t find it so comfortable if you ride it a lot. After driving for a long time, or sitting for too long, your butt will hurt.”

“Does your butt usually hurt then?”

“I’m used to it, so it’s alright.”

With Su Ruixi sitting beside her, they chatted casually, and time indeed passed much faster. However, after riding for a good 20 minutes, Su Ruixi, experiencing this kind of vehicle for the first time, did feel her butt starting to ache from sitting so long.

Moreover, having her legs curled up was also very uncomfortable. At first, she sat obediently with her legs together and didn’t think much of it, but after a while, for a prolonged period, wasn’t it bound to be uncomfortable?

Getting off the cart, Su Ruixi instantly felt much more comfortable all over. But looking at Sun Miao, who was parking, she felt that Sun Miao really had it tough. She must be very uncomfortable driving this cart every day. Could there be a way to get Sun Miao to take a driving test and upgrade her food cart?

It was a good thing the system didn’t know about this, or it would have jumped up and exclaimed: What do you mean, looking down on its food cart?! Its food cart is a single-seater! Although it’s a bit cramped for two, it’s just right for Sun Miao alone!

Sun Miao led Su Ruixi towards the wholesale market. Wholesale markets are generally much the same; many people around were pulling their own flatbed carts, ready to go in and make purchases. Sun Miao, however, noticed that this particular wholesale market wasn’t bad. They even had supermarket-style shopping carts at the entrance, and they were quite large, capable of holding a lot.

However, these carts were definitely much dirtier than supermarket ones. Some even had bloody water on them, dripped from the previous customer’s purchases.

Sun Miao was used to it, but since she didn’t know what the last customer had bought, she still picked through them and found a relatively clean cart. Sun Miao pushed the cart over to Su Ruixi and had her walk with her.

Su Ruixi was wearing a light-colored A-line skirt and clean, neat little leather shoes. Walking on the wholesale market floor, she had to be careful not to step on anything messy, and even found it a bit difficult to hold up her skirt. Sun Miao saw this but couldn’t help feeling amused.

She hadn’t originally planned to bring Su Ruixi here, but since they were already together, she didn’t mind showing Su Ruixi her more difficult or less glamorous side.

If Su Ruixi couldn’t accept it and left, it would only mean they weren’t suited for each other. Fortunately, Su Ruixi accepted it. She just couldn’t stand getting her skirt dirty from the strange puddles on the ground, but she didn’t leave Sun Miao’s side. Instead, she said with great interest to Sun Miao, “So, places like this exist.”

“Yeah, I usually buy your ingredients from various markets like this.”

Sun Miao first went to buy meat. Whether it was for mini bubble wontons or crab shell yellow, they both had meat fillings, so she directly bought 20 jin² of meat. She estimated this could make nearly three hundred crab shell yellow. The main reason was that each crab shell yellow wasn’t very large, and they also needed to add preserved mustard greens. If she were making meat buns, she’d probably have to buy even more meat.

Seeing Sun Miao buy so much meat, Su Ruixi became even more curious. Then she watched Sun Miao go to the vegetable section to buy various vegetables, and finally to the flour section for flour. After buying all these, Sun Miao led Su Ruixi out, but they didn’t go home.

Just now, inside, she had asked where live chickens were sold nearby. This market didn’t allow the sale of live chickens or ducks, but there was a place outside where many people had stalls, and they sold the live chickens she wanted.

This time, Sun Miao drove straight there, the cart pulling up right in front of the live chicken and duck stall. Su Ruixi hadn’t even gotten close, still about five meters away, when she instinctively covered her mouth and nose, unable to stop herself from asking Sun Miao, “What’s that smell?”

“The weather’s gotten hot. This is the smell of dead chickens and ducks.” Seeing Su Ruixi really couldn’t stand the smell, she simply drove a little further to an upwind spot, then jumped off the cart herself. “You don’t need to get out. I’ll go buy them and bring them over.”

Su Ruixi actually wanted to follow Sun Miao out, but she was quickly driven back by the smell—she really couldn’t stand it! The odor was too strong and stinky.

Actually, Sun Miao also found it unpleasant, but there was no helping it. Chickens, ducks, and geese were best bought fresh and live. If she bought frozen ones, the taste wouldn’t be very good at all.

Sun Miao looked at Su Ruixi’s expression and told her, “Susu-jie, don’t look this way, the smell is strong over here.”

Even though Sun Miao said that, Su Ruixi still looked towards her, her eyes unblinking. Sun Miao went over and started bargaining with the vendor. The vendor asked for fifteen kuai per jin. This price was a bit expensive for chicken, but the vendor said, “These are live chickens. Your price is for frozen chicken. If you think it’s expensive, you can go buy frozen ones.”

“Even for live chickens, fifteen kuai is too expensive.”

Her expression didn’t change, nor did she show any reaction to the vendor’s harsh words; she talked with him without a hint of timidity. She and the vendor haggled back and forth. Although she was only buying three chickens, her serious expression made it seem like she was negotiating a major business deal.

Su Ruixi watched, wanting to laugh, yet also feeling that Sun Miao, haggling like this at a street stall, had the air of a business person. She figured it was probably similar to how she negotiated with people at her company.

Whether in a skyscraper or at a street stall, when two people were negotiating business, there was actually no difference. When sharp words were needed, they were sharp; when a loud voice was needed, there was no cowardice. Sun Miao’s demeanor was the same as the elites Su Ruixi negotiated with.

It was only in terms of social status that there were vast differences.

Su Ruixi couldn’t help but think that if Sun Miao hadn’t set up a stall but had joined her company instead, she probably would have done very well too. It was just that her luck was a bit worse; she hadn’t gotten into a good school. Even so, relying on her own two hands, she had achieved something different.

Now, when Su Ruixi looked at Sun Miao, her eyes were truly full of stars.

After settling the price, Sun Miao picked out three chickens and had the vendor weigh them. The vendor announced the weight and price, but Sun Miao frowned. The vendor told her one chicken was fifteen jin, but Sun Miao looked it over and over; it didn’t look like such a fat old hen.

One, at most, would be nine or ten jin.

Sun Miao suspected the vendor was cheating on the scale. Roadside stalls sometimes did this. Sun Miao didn’t hesitate; she placed her own phone on the vendor’s electronic scale and just looked at him. The weight of a phone in grams is standard, and even with the phone case she bought later, it wouldn’t be off by much.

Her phone, weighing less than 200 grams, was somehow weighed by this vendor as 350 grams.

“Vendor, I think your electronic scale is broken. Why don’t you use a different one for me?”

The vendor’s expression turned sour. He said directly, “You’re also in business, you should know the score. At the price you negotiated, I can’t possibly sell them to you.”

“Whether you sell or not is based on the price you quoted. Now you’re trying to overcharge me this much on the weight. I’m not a sucker³.”

Sun Miao argued with the man for a long time. She wasn’t going to let go of these three old hens she had so carefully selected, so she ended up in a standoff with the vendor. The vendor’s ‘skill’ was clearly no match for Sun Miao’s. After another round of arguing, the final price was a bit higher than what they’d initially agreed on, but the weight was honest.

---

---