Running a Food Stall to Support My Deceptive Omega - Chapter 27.2

The pedestrians were of all kinds: elderly couples leaning on each other and walking slowly with canes; middle-aged couples holding hands on the arched bridge, looking at the lotus flowers in the small river—blooming to their fullest yet beginning to bud again as the sky darkened; young friends walking side by side, chatting and laughing, their fingers occasionally brushing before quickly pulling away; and parents bringing their children, being pulled along by little hands, hearing pleas for this or that treat. What they all had in common were the smiles on their faces, leaving their laughter behind in the night market.

The stallholders on both sides of the street vied to call out their wares, with all sorts of pleasant and clever sales pitches emerging.

“Walk a bit, turn around, if you don’t buy, you can still look.”

“Delicious and cheap, everyone can afford it.”

“Knocked fish noodles, knocked fish noodles, fragrant knocked fish noodles.”

This last cry didn’t come from Mu Jinyu, but from the stallholder who had stolen her table and stools. Yesterday, his family had started selling knocked fish noodles, and business wasn’t very good. But today, his stall was full of people, with many others waiting in line—it was an absolute uproar. This was only because they sold theirs cheaper than Mu Jinyu.

Mu Jinyu sold a small bowl of knocked fish noodles for six wen; they sold theirs for four. Mu Jinyu sold a large bowl for ten wen; they sold theirs for eight. Such a “good deal” attracted many people. Even the girl who had visited Mu Jinyu’s stall twice before she finally got to eat the noodles was now sitting at their stall. However, she was only there to see whose noodles were actually better.

Because there were so many people, the girl waited a full fifteen minutes before she got her noodles. As soon as she smelled them, she felt something was wrong. The fishy smell was too strong; the scent alone was somewhat nauseating. But she endured the discomfort and took a bite. In her mouth, the noodles lacked the familiar smooth, soft springiness of knocked fish noodles; instead, they were stiff and hard, nothing like the real thing.

The girl didn’t eat another bite. She paid her copper coins and hurried over to Mu Jinyu’s stall. At this moment, Mu Jinyu’s business was also booming. She had set up two stalls: one continued to sell knocked fish noodles, while the other sold fish cakes. She was doing the work of two people, busy at one side then the other, moving so fast she was almost a blur. Both sides were packed with people. It was fortunate that fish cakes could be eaten while walking, otherwise, her area would have been completely blocked.

Seeing that Mu Jinyu was overwhelmed, the girl hesitated on the side for a long time, unable to find a moment to speak to her. She gritted her teeth and stepped directly beside Mu Jinyu. “Here, Boss Mu, let me help you!” As she spoke, she snatched the strainer and long chopsticks from Mu Jinyu’s hands, scooping the cooked noodles from the pot and into a bowl.

Startled by her actions, Mu Jinyu, whose forehead was beaded with sweat, cried out “Ah!” and looked at her in surprise.

“Oh, Boss Mu, hurry up and go sell the fish cakes,” the girl urged while she worked. Mu Jinyu was simply too busy to argue, so she went to the fish cake stall and began skewering them for the customers. With two people at the stalls, the pressure immediately dropped by half, and Mu Jinyu could finally catch her breath.

The girl had never sold noodles before, and her movements were awkward and not nearly as efficient as Mu Jinyu’s. But the noodles were prepared in advance; she only had to boil and scoop them. Mu Jinyu had even told her how long to boil them and how much to put in each bowl. So she picked it up quickly and didn’t make any mistakes.

While she helped, she said, “I went and tried the knocked fish noodles at the other stall. The fishy smell is strong, the noodles are stiff and hard, and the texture is not good at all.”

Hearing this, Mu Jinyu took a break to reply, “Don’t think making knocked fish noodles is easy. There are so many things to pay attention to.”

“They certainly won’t get it right on the first try.”

In knocked fish noodles, the ratio of fish to flour is a key issue. If there’s too much fish, the noodles won’t hold their shape; if there’s too much flour, the taste is wrong. Furthermore, the “flour” in knocked fish noodles isn’t regular wheat flour; using wheat flour would definitely make the texture stiff and hard. Also, the fish meat was something she had tested with several types of fish, trial and error, one by one. Since the other party didn’t know what kind of fish or flour she used, trying to make the noodles immediately was a joke!

The girl nodded. “True. This food is new, so you must have put a lot of thought into it. If it were that easy for others to learn, wouldn’t all your effort be in vain?”

“They are selling cheaper than you, but it doesn’t matter if it’s not delicious. I reckon people will only be willing to try it for a few more days.”

“A few more days and everyone will know their noodles aren’t good, and no one will go there.”

Mu Jinyu’s hands didn’t stop. She told the customer the price, took the money, and then nodded, saying to the girl, “It takes a lot of energy to make knocked fish noodles; they won’t get any advantage.”

“Thank you for telling me specifically. It’s been a lot of trouble for you.”

“Did you come specifically to tell me this and help me?”

The girl let out an “Ah,” sounding a bit embarrassed. “Mainly, I wanted to gossip with you for a bit. I heard about them stealing your table and stools. It’s hard to imagine people like that.”

Mentioning this made Mu Jinyu’s mouth twitch, and she still felt a bit uneasy about it. “It’s nothing. I’ll find a way to get them to return my table and stools.”

The two chatted and worked, and time passed quickly. Before long, it was midnight. At this time, the carpenter from the shop walked up to Mu Jinyu’s stall. Seeing the girl behind the stall, her confusion was obvious. “Songmu, what are you doing here?”

Hearing someone call her, the girl—who was busy boiling and scooping noodles—looked up and saw her mother. She greeted her happily, saying she was helping Boss Mu. The carpenter looked at Mu Jinyu, then at her daughter. She hadn’t expected them to know each other. No wonder her daughter had been going to the night market even more frequently lately—it was indeed new food that was attracting her.

Her daughter was a well-known gourmand in Louxu County, usually busy running between stalls and eateries to eat. Now, for the sake of a bite, she had even started working for someone else! The carpenter didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Mu Jinyu looked up from her work. Seeing that the two were mother and daughter, and then looking at the remaining fish cakes in the steamer, she immediately said to the customers still in line:

“I am truly sorry, everyone, but I only have five portions of fish cake left for today. The rest of you don’t need to wait in line anymore!”

As soon as she said this, it immediately drew complaints from the people at the back of the line. Mu Jinyu apologized repeatedly, promising to make more fish cakes tomorrow and constantly reassuring the customers until she finally managed to persuade those at the back to leave. The five portions were sold, and although there were actually a few left in the steamer, she intended to save them for the carpenter and the girl, so she stopped selling.

Finally, all the customers were gone. Mu Jinyu, the girl, and the carpenter sat at the small table, and Mu Jinyu handed the remaining fish cakes to them. The carpenter took the food and introduced herself properly: “My surname is Shi; you can call me Carpenter Shi. This is my daughter, Shi Songmu. She usually likes to wander around various food stalls.” When her daughter was born, she happened to have several pieces of pine (Songmu) nearby, so she gave her that name.

The girl, Shi Songmu, massaged her arms while saying happily, “What a coincidence!” Then she reacted—so it was the furniture her family made that had been stolen. This was outrageous! The girl told her mother about it.

Carpenter Shi immediately said, “I recognize the things I make myself. I can go with you to that stall to identify them and testify for you.”

No sooner said than done. The three of them went to the stall in a huff to argue with the owner. To their surprise, the stallholder was clever and had already moved all the tables and stools back home. No matter how much Mu Jinyu and the others argued, and even though all the other stallholders in the night market were helping them denounce the theft, it was to no avail. The other party simply refused to return the furniture.

Mu Jinyu was so angry her hair was nearly standing on end. The matter ended once again with no resolution. She muttered, “Should I go to the authorities? I don’t believe they would dare not return my furniture if the officials came!”

“Sigh.” Shi Songmu sighed. “I don’t have much hope. Those officials won’t care about such small matters. If you want to get them to move, you’d probably have to spend some silver.”

A dispute over a few tables and stools was a minor conflict in the night market. Who sets up a stall without losing some miscellaneous items? These kinds of small frictions happened every day, and officials wouldn’t bother to intervene for such a trifle. Furthermore, it was Mu Jinyu herself who had left the furniture in the night market initially; even if the officials came, the other party could claim that Mu Jinyu had abandoned them. The argument was really hard to settle. Whoever gave the officials more silver would have them on their side. Was it worth spending a large amount of silver just to get a few stools back?

Mu Jinyu clutched her forehead in pain, also feeling that it would be very difficult to get justice in this matter. Spend a lot of silver just for the sake of pride? She really didn’t know what to choose.

After packing up all her things and moving them back to the courtyard, Rong Heng followed behind her as usual, waiting for her to make food. But Rong Heng’s mind wasn’t entirely on the food; she kept tilting her head and leaning into Mu Jinyu’s face to see her expression. Mu Jinyu looked beautiful when she smiled—bright and open. But why was she frowning now, with her mouth turned down? It didn’t look good.

Rong Heng reached out with her two index fingers, pressing them against the corners of Mu Jinyu’s mouth and gently pushing them up. She manually created a smile on Mu Jinyu’s face.

Immersed in her emotions, Mu Jinyu snapped back to reality. Looking at Rong Heng, she wanted to give her a genuine smile to stop her from worrying. But her mouth twitched, and she couldn’t bring herself to smile. Since coming to this world, she had worked very hard to live her life. Whatever happened, she could usually resolve it and not let it get to her. Honestly, the theft of the tables and stools didn’t cause her much loss or impact. But the feeling of something being hers, yet being unable to take it back and having no place to seek justice, made her feel terrible. She tried to comfort herself, telling herself it was a small matter and not to care, but she couldn’t feel happy.

At home, Rong Heng had forgotten to light the oil lamp again, and the courtyard was pitch black, making it feel a bit oppressive. Mu Jinyu’s posture wasn’t as straight as usual; she leaned on the stove for a moment before going behind it and sitting on a small stool. She intended to rest for a while before making food for Rong Heng.

Rong Heng quickly ran off, brought another small stool, and sat beside her. Her nose wrinkled as she tried to think of a way to make Mu Jinyu happy. After some thought, she wrapped her arms around Mu Jinyu’s neck and—mwah!—gave her a kiss on her right cheek! The sound was loud, but it didn’t get much reaction from Mu Jinyu. Mu Jinyu was still staring blankly at something, not even realizing she had been kissed.

Seeing this, Rong Heng moved to the other side and—mwah!—kissed her on the left cheek! Still no reaction. The person who usually looked at her in a panic now seemed to have lost her soul! Rong Heng didn’t believe it. In the past, after Mu Jinyu kissed the little cat, she was always very happy, with a smile she couldn’t hide. Why was it not working when she did it?

Rong Heng thought for a moment and suddenly realized: Mu Jinyu was happy after she kissed the little cat. So if she let Mu Jinyu kiss her, wouldn’t Mu Jinyu be happy? She tilted her head, closed one eye, and pressed her cheek toward Mu Jinyu’s lips. Mu Jinyu’s lips were red, looking full and well-shaped—they would probably be very soft.

Rong Heng pressed firmly against them!

Pop

A muffled sound was made.

What?!

Having mysteriously kissed Rong Heng, Mu Jinyu finally came to her senses. Her amber eyes moved to Rong Heng’s face, her fingers touching her own lips. Unbelievable! What just happened!

There was still a slight cool sensation on her lips. Rong Heng’s face was sharp—normally she was recognized as having a beautiful, melon-seed-shaped face. But only after kissing her did Mu Jinyu realize there was no meat on her cheeks; they were too thin and small. Before embarrassment and surprise set in, the thought that she must raise Rong Heng to be healthy and plump flashed through Mu Jinyu’s mind.

Then, panic set in, and her body jerked upward! She wanted to stand up and create distance between herself and Rong Heng, but she was tripped by the small stool she had been sitting on. She fell backward, landing on the ground.

The persimmon tree in the courtyard rustled, every leaf shaking as if laughing at her foolishness. The moon, which had been covered by dark clouds, gradually emerged, its yellow light spilling onto the ground like gold. It made Mu Jinyu’s face turn red. She covered her mouth, looking at Rong Heng, then looking down, then looking again. Her eyes trembled, her honey-like eyes watery and beautiful.

Rong Heng thought she might still be doing it wrong, otherwise, why hadn’t Mu Jinyu smiled immediately? Should she have pressed her lips against Mu Jinyu’s? After all, isn’t that how Mu Jinyu kissed the little cat?

Rong Heng grabbed Mu Jinyu’s sleeve and leaned over her. Her long hair fell, piling up on Mu Jinyu’s chest. Her sharp, porcelain-white face was lowered, her pure dark eyes watching as her slightly pale lips were pressed red. Rong Heng’s eyes flickered like autumn water. She slowly moved her lips toward her.

Mu Jinyu’s eyes widened. The force with which the other girl held her sleeve wasn’t great, but her hands somehow wouldn’t move. She couldn’t stop it. Finally, just as Rong Heng was about to make contact, Mu Jinyu tilted her head, letting the kiss fall on her cheek.

Mwah!

The sound was loud, making Mu Jinyu’s heart race, making it hard for her to catch her breath.

Mu Jinyu: I’m happy when I kiss the little cat, so you should have brought the cat over! Why are you offering yourself instead?!

Rong Heng: To kiss me is your honor!