Running a Food Stall to Support My Deceptive Omega - Chapter 26.1

The person in her arms was too light, feeling like a weightless piece of paper; there was no sense of reality at all.

Mu Jinyu didn’t even dare to hold her too tightly, fearing she might break her.

She stood frozen in place, the temperature rising on her left cheek even making her feel a slight sting.

She suddenly remembered during the day, how Rong Heng had also lunged into her arms like this, smiling brightly and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

Back then, she hadn’t felt that such an action was too intimate or inappropriate between them.

Mu Jinyu couldn’t help but take a step back, but Rong Heng, still in her arms, didn’t notice the movement. Her body simply tilted slightly toward her following the motion.

This caused the two of them to hug even more tightly, leaving no gap between them.

Both of Mu Jinyu’s cheeks flushed red, scorching like steamed apples that would drip honey if bitten.

As expected, she shouldn’t have thought about the events of the day. Now, both her cheeks were burning intensely.

She helped Rong Heng stand up straight, picked up the things dropped on the ground, and quickly distanced herself, running toward the stove.

With her back to Rong Heng, she busied herself organizing the bowls and pots she had brought back.

She wanted to quickly forget what had just happened.

Rong Heng had no idea what Mu Jinyu’s reaction meant. She just followed Mu Jinyu to the stove like a little tail, peeking her head around to look at her expression.

And she waited and waited, wanting Mu Jinyu to finish being busy and make her something to eat.

But Mu Jinyu kept working. There were clearly only about ten bowls, yet she stacked and re-stacked them over and over.

After watching for a long time, Rong Heng finally determined that Mu Jinyu was doing useless work.

She leaned her body toward her, her head almost touching Mu Jinyu’s shoulder, and reminded her: “Hungry.”

Mu Jinyu didn’t react.

Rong Heng tugged on her sleeve and said again: “Hungry.”

Upon being touched, Mu Jinyu jumped away with a huge reaction, her round eyes wide, unsure of when Rong Heng had gotten beside her.

The two of them stared at each other for a long while—one confused, the other panicked. Mu Jinyu’s gaze flickered for a second as she stuttered, “Wh-what?”

Rong Heng wrinkled her nose and glared at her. “Hungry!”

“Oh, oh.” Mu Jinyu finally realized. At this time, she should be preparing food for Rong Heng.

She didn’t know where all the food Rong Heng ate went, as she never seemed to get fat.

She cautiously returned to the stove, not daring to get too close to Rong Heng. As she spoke, she began to move. “I’ll stir-fry a plate of shredded meat for you to eat with the ‘knocked-fish’ noodles.”

She had specifically saved some knocked-fish noodles. She boiled them in the pot, fished them out, and set them aside.

Next, she shredded some lettuce and stir-fried it with the pork. She used very little salt and oil, but since the pork had been marinated, the fragrance wasn’t diminished at all.

Once the meat was done, she layered it over the noodles as a topping.

Rong Heng carried the noodles and walked briskly to the stone table. Her chopsticks mixed the bowl’s contents together, allowing the two aromas to blend perfectly.

The scent made Rong Heng’s stomach growl, and she devoted her entire being to eating.

Seeing her eat with such relish, Mu Jinyu lit an oil lamp and placed it on the stone table so Rong Heng wouldn’t have to eat in the dark.

Afterward, she boiled more water to wash up.

Once both of them were completely finished and ready to go to bed.

Mu Jinyu headed toward the side room, while Rong Heng headed toward the main room.

Just as she was about to enter the main room, Rong Heng looked back, pulled her foot out, ran to Mu Jinyu, and followed closely behind her.

“What are you following me for? Aren’t you going to sleep?” Mu Jinyu stopped in front of the side room door, neither entering nor letting Rong Heng in.

A question mark popped up in Rong Heng’s head. She thought it was strange—why wasn’t Mu Jinyu sleeping with her?

She said: “Sleep together.”

The confusion on Mu Jinyu’s face grew even stronger.

Didn’t she drive her away last night? Why did she want to sleep together again tonight? Did Rong Heng no longer need her?

“Stupid.” Rong Heng curled her lip, thinking Mu Jinyu had simply forgotten they were supposed to sleep together. She reached out, grabbed Mu Jinyu’s wrist, and pulled her toward the main room.

She pressed her down to sit on the bed, then pushed her over.

Mu Jinyu: “…”

Falling onto the bed and looking at Rong Heng pressing down on top of her, Mu Jinyu didn’t dare speak.

What was she doing? She felt like their current posture was a bit bizarre.

Rong Heng’s arms were propped beside her head, one leg on the floor and one knee on the bed.

She was so close that Mu Jinyu could feel the slight cool aura emanating from her.

Mu Jinyu wanted to run, but she was pinned to the bed by Rong Heng with nowhere to escape.

The oil lamp that was originally on the stone table had been moved to the dressing table. A tiny flame like a grain of rice burned on the wick, casting a thin layer of dim yellow over the dark room.

Everything was hazy, dim, and indistinct.

After Mu Jinyu’s eyes met Rong Heng’s bright black ones, she instinctively looked away, her gaze falling on the red moles under Rong Heng’s eyes.

Those two red moles were like two scattered drops of cinnabar—small, yet extremely eye-catching.

Rong Heng’s head slowly lowered. The two cinnabar drops swayed before Mu Jinyu’s eyes, making her feel a bit dizzy. Her fingers gripped the quilt beneath her, and her head tilted back.

But behind her was the bed; there was nowhere to hide.

Her brow furrowed slightly. When Rong Heng’s head was about to touch hers, she suddenly raised her hand and covered Rong Heng’s mouth!

“Hmm?” Rong Heng let out a confused sound, not understanding why Mu Jinyu was stopping her.

Looking at the pure expression of the person before her, Mu Jinyu took a deep breath. Covering the woman’s mouth and pushing against her shoulder, she sat up abruptly. She sat Rong Heng down properly beside her, intending to have a talk.

She couldn’t let Rong Heng do whatever she wanted to her right now, nor could she let herself do whatever she wanted to Rong Heng.

Otherwise, when Rong Heng regained her memory, she would probably kill her.

Inside the room, the flame flickered even more joyfully despite the lack of wind. Half of Mu Jinyu’s face was in the light, the other half in shadow.

She said to Rong Heng: “You and I cannot do this. You cannot kiss me.”

Rong Heng tilted her head, clearly not understanding why Mu Jinyu was speaking so seriously.

She asked: “Can you kiss me?”

“I can’t kiss you either.”

Rong Heng was confused. She tried hard to remember, feeling that Mu Jinyu was wrong.

“You can kiss the little civet cat?”

“…” Now it was Mu Jinyu’s turn to be confused. “What?”

Rong Heng silently said “Stupid” in her heart.

She then got off the bed and scooped up the little calico civet cat that was jumping around the room.

She gave the cat’s head a flurry of kisses, even making loud smacking sounds.

She was extremely enthusiastic.

After kissing it, she looked at Mu Jinyu. Seeing Mu Jinyu’s expression go blank, she held the cat higher and buried her head in its belly, rubbing frantically!

“Meow!!! Meow meow—”

The little cat didn’t use its claws; it just used its four paws to push against Rong Heng’s face, trying desperately to push her away while letting out a piercing, throat-tearing howl.

It was as if it were being terribly abused.

This scene… was a bit… familiar!

Mu Jinyu immediately covered her face, her heart utterly collapsing!

That was the action she did to the little cat! It turned out Rong Heng had not only seen it but learned it!

She wasn’t a pervert; she was just “huffing” the cat!

Why did Rong Heng learn everything indiscriminately?

Why did she even learn this!?

Beside her, after finishing with the cat, Rong Heng casually placed it on the bed.

The cat immediately stopped crying and struggling, sat obediently in place, and began licking its fur.

“You can kiss the cat, the cat can kiss you. I can kiss the cat, the cat can kiss me.”

“I can kiss you. You can kiss me.”

After speaking, Rong Heng nodded satisfactorily, feeling that she had spoken quite well and much more logically than Mu Jinyu!

Mu Jinyu: “…”

It was over. Completely over.

She really wanted to grab the thigh of the cold and detached head of the Rong family, the Regent of the Great Rong Kingdom, and the heroine of this book—Rong Heng!

And tell her that she didn’t mean to teach her wrong, it was Rong Heng who was learning things on her own!

Mu Jinyu didn’t dare look at Rong Heng anymore. She continued to cover her face and insisted: “Right, we can both kiss the cat, and the cat can kiss us. But you can’t kiss me, and I can’t kiss you!”

Her voice was a bit loud, earning her a response from Rong Heng: “Are you… angry?”

Her tone seemed almost indulgent, causing Mu Jinyu to lower her hands in a breakdown and whisper: “No!”

“Go to sleep!”

With that, Mu Jinyu was the first to flip over and lie on the bed, facing the wall, sleeping on the innermost side.

Rong Heng tilted her head to look at her back. After watching for a while, she didn’t take her words to heart at all.

Anyway, she was wrong.

Rong Heng lay down as well. Just as she closed her eyes to sleep, she felt something was off.

She sat up and changed directions.

Lying on the same side as Mu Jinyu, she felt it was perfect.

The oil in the lamp bowl slowly decreased. The flame grew dimmer and dimmer until it vanished completely.

The room went entirely dark, leaving only three steady, even breaths.

In her dream, Mu Jinyu saw her own neck under Rong Heng’s sword.

She hugged Rong Heng’s leg, looking up with teary eyes, pleading for mercy.

But Rong Heng wouldn’t listen to her explanation at all, only saying sternly: “Excuses!”

The next second, the world spun.

What fell was not the sword blade, but Rong Heng’s somewhat cool kiss.

The kisses fell densely on her eyelids, the corners of her eyes, and her eyelashes, kissing away the falling tears and reddening her skin.

Then, following the trail of tears, they moved to the tip of her nose and her cheeks.

Her face was cupped, and she was kissed all over like a precious treasure.

Finally.

Rong Heng’s kiss reached the corner of her lips.

Mu Jinyu wanted to struggle, wanted to push Rong Heng away.

They couldn’t do this recklessly; they were just two people bound by pheromones and marking.

Closer and closer, just as Rong Heng’s kiss was about to land on her lips.

Mu Jinyu woke up with a start, her breathing shallow and her heart racing.

Her crystal-clear eyes were trembling.

The whole room was silent. Rong Heng, who had been in her dream, was sleeping soundly beside her.

Her body was facing her, her head resting on Mu Jinyu’s arm.

Mu Jinyu stilled her somewhat frantic breathing and looked very, very gently at the person beside her. A sense of peace slowly spread.

She lay on the bed for a long time, her mind recalling the events of yesterday.

When she remembered someone stealing her table and stools and copying her noodle-making, she still couldn’t help but feel angry.

But as soon as she thought of that, she remembered Rong Heng kissing her yesterday, and the kiss in her dream just now.

Her anger immediately transformed into a bit of excitement.

She didn’t even realize there was a smile playing on the corners of her mouth.

She didn’t know what she was happy about.

After a while, Rong Heng’s eyelashes flickered, as if she were about to wake up.

Mu Jinyu quickly looked away and closed her eyes.

She opened them again after a few breaths, pretending to have just woken up. As a result, she accidentally locked eyes with Rong Heng, who was staring straight at her.

So the first thing Rong Heng looked at upon waking was also her?

Mu Jinyu’s heart skipped a beat. It was hard to describe the feeling.

…

…

It was a quiet morning.

Neither of them spoke. They got ready and walked into the courtyard.

Mu Jinyu stretched her limbs, and Rong Heng followed behind, mimicking her movements and stretching as well.

Mu Jinyu washed up, and Rong Heng washed up.

Mu Jinyu went to the stove, and Rong Heng went to the stove.

Inseparable.

However, Mu Jinyu had to go out to buy some things.

She was going to make a new kind of food today—Fish Cake!

Last night, when she was moving her table and stools at the night market, she met someone.

It was the owner of the stall across from hers, a Kunze.

The person stayed far away from her and called out to her. Looking around to make sure no one was paying attention, she whispered: “That Boss Zhang and the owner of the stall that stole your table and stools are relatives; both are surnamed Zhang.”

After saying that, she looked around a few more times, grabbed her things, and hurried away.

She had a good relationship with Mu Jinyu’s mothers and recognized the table and stools as hers.

However, no one else was speaking up for Mu Jinyu, so it wasn’t convenient for her to help openly.

This was all she could do.

Hearing this news, Mu Jinyu had an expression of “No wonder.”

No wonder Boss Zhang was helping the other party; they were on the same side!

At the time, on her way home, Mu Jinyu kept thinking about how to teach those two a lesson.

The more she thought, the angrier she got. But when she got home and saw Rong Heng, she was caught off guard by the kiss and forgot everything.

Thinking about this, Mu Jinyu’s eyes darted around, and she immediately lowered her head to carefully select fish at the stall.

Fish cake is a food shaped like a pastry, but it tastes like fish, and the preparation is quite different.

It uses grass carp, which is large, firm-fleshed, and rich in collagen.

She picked the smallest grass carp in the stall, which still weighed three pounds, feeling heavy in her hand.

She had the fishmonger slaughter and debone it for her, then she grabbed a piece of pork fat and walked quickly toward home.

Back home, Rong Heng followed her to the stove again, watching her movements.

Mu Jinyu put the grass carp meat in a large wooden basin and drew bucket after bucket of water to rinse it.

While rinsing, she had to add salt to the water to clean it better and remove the fishy smell.

This step took a long time, continuing until the water became clear and no longer cloudy.

Once the fish meat was clean, Mu Jinyu first boiled water in a pot, throwing in several large scallions, a piece of ginger the size of a palm, and a pinch of Sichuan peppercorns.

After waiting for the water to extract the flavors of these ingredients, she used a slotted spoon to clear them out and placed the pork fat into the pot.

She boiled it over low heat for a few breaths just to remove the raw smell.

She didn’t boil it too long; otherwise, the oil in the pork would be rendered out.

That wouldn’t do.

Then she took the pork fat out and set it aside to drain.