Setting Up Stalls – Chapter 94

Let’s eat one and try it first

Su Ruixi saw everything, a strange glint flashing in her eyes. Actually, Su Ruixi didn’t know why Sun Miao would continue buying from someone like this. If she had encountered such a deceitful and shifty¹ business partner, she would have definitely kicked them to the curb immediately.

Su Ruixi’s life had been too smooth, so she hadn’t really encountered such situations much.

Next, Sun Miao’s actions startled both Su Ruixi and the vendor. The vendor asked if she needed help slaughtering the chickens. Sun Miao asked if there was hot water; a live chicken seller would definitely have hot water. So, Sun Miao said, “Then I’ll do it myself.”

She could have actually put the live chickens in the car and taken them all the way back, but she wanted the vendor to tone it down a bit, and she also didn’t want the three old hens to fuss in the back and annoy Su Ruixi.

So she returned to the car and said to Su Ruixi, “We’ll leave soon, wait for me a bit.”

“Okay.”

After Su Ruixi agreed, Sun Miao pulled out her usual kitchen knife from her car. Holding the knife with a firm grip, an aura of someone who had slaughtered countless chickens and ducks instantly emanated from her. As she walked towards the vendor, he almost thought she was going to slaughter him like a chicken.

The vendor gulped, stepped aside, and even proactively handed her a basin and a thermos of hot water. Then, he saw Sun Miao raise the knife and bring it down, killing the chicken cleanly with one stroke. Although everyone kills chickens this way, Sun Miao’s movements were too swift, too calm! It was as if what she held in her hand wasn’t a living thing at all.

Those eyes, which seemed to regard life as nothing, made even the vendor shudder with fear.

Is she actually an assassin from some underground organization?! How can she be so clean and efficient?!

It wasn’t just the vendor; Su Ruixi, watching from the side, also found it a bit scary. But then she thought, This is Sun Miao, my girlfriend, what’s there to be afraid of? Besides, there are three chickens. In the next moment, Su Ruixi could only think of the shredded chicken Sun Miao made.

Delicious.

Sun Miao was very fast. It didn’t even take her fifteen minutes in total for all three chickens. Soon, they were all cleaned and ready. She asked the vendor for two large, thickened plastic bags, put the three chickens inside, and then stuffed them into the freezer prepared by the system.

Sun Miao returned to the car, but she seemed much more constrained than before. Even sitting in her seat, she held herself back a bit. Su Ruixi didn’t understand why at first. She leaned towards Sun Miao, only to be gently pushed back by Sun Miao’s fingertips.

“I smell strongly, move away a bit, don’t let me stink you up.”

Only then did Su Ruixi realize why Sun Miao was sitting like that. She smiled. Sun Miao did have a bit of a smell, similar to the chicken and duck stall from earlier, but Su Ruixi didn’t mind. Not only did she not mind, she even snuggled closer.

“It’s okay, I’ll just take a shower when we get back.”

Sun Miao pursed her lips, but her eyes were full of amusement. She whispered, “We’ll have chicken soup for lunch today.” Su Ruixi’s eyes visibly brightened. “Okay, I love chicken soup.”

Halfway through the drive, Sun Miao suddenly thought of something: Wait a minute, this isn’t our first date, is it?! She was startled by this thought and felt a bit flustered. Because if she thought about it carefully, this really was their first date.

But she had messed it up. Not only did she bring Su Ruixi directly to a wholesale vegetable market, but she also let her watch her embarrassing display of chicken slaughtering, and even made Su Ruixi endure the bad smell for so long.

Sun Miao felt flustered. When they stopped at a red light, she heard Su Ruixi call out to her, “Sun Miao.”

“What’s wrong…” Sun Miao’s heart skipped a beat, but Su Ruixi’s voice was calm. “The drive back feels much faster than the drive there.” Sun Miao paused for a moment, then replied, “Mm, it really does feel that way.”

This is quite normal. When setting out, the journey feels long and time-consuming, but when returning home, it feels much faster.

But as she thought about it, Sun Miao suddenly had a realization—Su Ruixi was saying that they were returning to their home.

Once she thought of this, Sun Miao felt happy. Su Ruixi didn’t think there was anything wrong with their first date; instead, she seemed quite pleased. As long as two people are together, isn’t any place romantic? Besides, wasn’t it Sun Miao’s vibrant vitality and down-to-earth aura that attracted Su Ruixi?

Now, that vitality and down-to-earth aura were right before her eyes. What reason did she have to dislike it?

After returning home, Sun Miao told Su Ruixi to go take a shower while she herself got busy. The chicken was put in a pot to simmer slowly, while she started making two types of dough-based dishes. Both doughs needed to proof². While the two large dough balls were resting, Sun Miao began preparing the fillings.

When Su Ruixi came downstairs after her shower, Sun Miao had just finished preparing the fillings. However, the aroma of chicken soup was already faintly wafting through the air. Su Ruixi wrinkled her nose, sniffed the scent, and asked Sun Miao, “How long will this take to cook?”

“We definitely won’t be able to eat it for lunch, but we’ll surely have it for dinner.”

Su Ruixi felt a moment of disappointment, but her attention was then drawn to the two different fillings in front of Sun Miao. One was in a large basin, while the other basin was much smaller. Su Ruixi asked, “Are you planning to wrap something with these?”

Although Su Ruixi was someone who couldn’t tell wheat from chaff³, she had seen her own mother fussing with such things and roughly knew what Sun Miao was doing. However, she wasn’t sure what Sun Miao planned to make with these fillings, so she asked out of curiosity.

This time, Sun Miao didn’t tease Su Ruixi further but answered her honestly, “It’s for bubble mini wontons. The chicken soup isn’t ready, but a clear broth with some seasoning will also work.”

Su Ruixi immediately became very interested. This city was close to Gusu⁴, and in its early development, many people had come from Gusu. Therefore, even their tastes were similar, with a preference for sweeter flavors. How could Su Ruixi not know about or have eaten Gusu’s famous bubble mini wontons?

Her anticipation immediately shot up. “Sun Miao’s bubble mini wontons will definitely be delicious!”

Sun Miao also smiled. “Not necessarily.”

“We’ll know when we eat them later.”

Su Ruixi moved a little closer to Sun Miao again. When the “ao” (pride/arrogance) is removed from “aojiao”⁵, isn’t only “jiao” (coquettishness/delicacy) left? She was mostly acting cute and spoiled towards Sun Miao now. But Sun Miao still didn’t want Su Ruixi to get too close. “Don’t, you just showered. I smell too weird.”

Seeing that Sun Miao really didn’t want her to get close, Su Ruixi said, “Alright then.” She obediently stood to the side, watching Sun Miao cook. Sun Miao was rolling out dough wrappers on the central kitchen island, and Su Ruixi leaned against something, watching. Feeling a bit bored in between, she even went to pour Sun Miao a glass of water.

Sun Miao wasn’t shy either and would ask Su Ruixi to do small, manageable tasks, like bringing her a bowl of water or handing her something from the table.

Su Ruixi was happy to do it. She liked being with Sun Miao and enjoyed watching Sun Miao earnestly cook for her. However, Su Ruixi noticed that the filling in the large basin seemed to have chili peppers in it. She hesitated for a moment, then said, “Sun Miao, there are chili peppers in that basin.”

“I know. I’ve set aside a bowl for you without chili. I won’t put chili in yours.”

Su Ruixi cheered up upon hearing Sun Miao say that.

Sun Miao knew that Huizhou Huangshan baked cakes⁶ contained chili. People from Huizhou also eat spicy food, though not as intensely as those from Yun-Gui-Chuan⁷; it’s more for enhancing flavor.

Not much chili was added; someone like Sun Miao, who enjoys spicy food, would even find it not spicy at all. But Su Ruixi couldn’t handle spicy food, and she also had stomach problems, so she definitely couldn’t eat it. Since Su Ruixi had mentioned the large basin of filling, Sun Miao asked her to help put it in the refrigerator first, to be wrapped in the afternoon when she had time.

She also asked Su Ruixi to bring down the large serving platter from her food cart, similar to the one used for the beef pancakes before. This time, unlike the beef pancakes, she couldn’t bring the filling and wrap them on the go when there were no customers in the afternoon, because these baked cakes had to be made in advance and brought over.

There was no need to worry about preservation. Huangshan baked cakes originally became popular in the Jiang-Zhe-Hu⁸ area because they were easy to preserve, which is why they accompanied Huizhou merchants on their travels far and wide.

Sun Miao first started making crab shell yellow. Su Ruixi watched, a bit surprised as it didn’t look like bubble mini wontons, but she didn’t ask this time because it looked like beef pancakes. When Sun Miao put them in the oven, Su Ruixi was even more certain: they were just beef pancakes with a different filling.

She first wrapped some crab shell yellow for Su Ruixi and put them in to bake. Then, she started making the bubble mini wontons herself. Before long, the mini wontons were wrapped and then added to the pot bit by bit. They were simply boiled in plain water, then scooped out and placed into a large bowl where seasonings had already been prepared. A bowl of bubble mini wontons was ready.

The soup base was also simple: a little lard, a bit of soy sauce, a pinch of white sugar, plus laver⁹, small dried shrimp, and chopped scallions, and that was it. This was also the soup base for Suzhou-style noodle soup; it was a bit rich for mini wontons, but still suitable.

She didn’t use much soy sauce and only a little lard, so it wasn’t greasy.

Then, adding the noodle water from cooking the mini wontons, the aroma instantly intensified. Before long, the crab shell yellow were also ready. Sun Miao opened the oven and, using thick oven mitts, took out the large platter from inside. Twenty crab shell yellow sat obediently on it, looking very cute.

Su Ruixi smelled the fragrance and peeked over Sun Miao’s shoulder. She then understood that Sun Miao was making crab shell yellow.

They also had them locally, but most local crab shell yellow were sweet. Savory meat-filled ones were really not common.

Sun Miao used stainless steel tongs to transfer the crab shell yellow one by one onto a large plate. Su Ruixi was getting impatient. “Can I eat one and try it first?”

“Go ahead, just be careful, it’s hot.”

Having gotten Sun Miao’s permission, Su Ruixi nodded, wrapped one in a piece of greaseproof paper, and picked it up.

Just as Sun Miao had said, it was indeed very hot. Although it had cooled for a moment and there was a layer of greaseproof paper, the heat still passed through the paper to her fingertips. Su Ruixi had to toss it back and forth between her hands just to be able to hold it.

Watching her, Sun Miao couldn’t help but laugh. She watched Su Ruixi blow on the crab shell yellow several times before preparing to take a bite. Sun Miao reminded her again at the right moment, “The filling inside is also hot, be very careful when you eat it.”

“Okay.”

Su Ruixi agreed, then opened her mouth and took a small bite of the crab shell yellow.

Before she even tasted it, Su Ruixi first heard a “kacha” sound. The crab shell yellow was extremely crispy; with just a light bite, the pastry crust crumbled in her mouth.

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