Running a Food Stall to Support My Deceptive Omega - Chapter 30.2

She continued to the man in front of her, “Please don’t block the other customers. Because of this delay, everyone has to wait even longer.”

At those words, the other customers suddenly realized. Yes, they were waiting because Mu Jinyu’s fish cakes were delicious, and they were willing to endure the time. But now, this argument was making those about to get their food wait even longer.

The person standing behind the man shoved him and said rudely, “If you want to argue, go somewhere else! Don’t get in the way of my food!” He would have been eating a fragrant fish cake fifteen minutes ago if not for this man! His legs were starting to ache from standing!

“Yeah, move aside! Let us buy first!”

Some people behind the man had actually seen him pull his hand back to let the fish cake fall. But because they were frustrated from the wait, they hadn’t spoken up when the man was arguing. Now that they realized the argument was making their wait even longer, they couldn’t take it. They started pushing forward while condemning the man.

The man was suddenly shoved to the side, his face a mask of disbelief. How did these people turn on him so quickly? He wanted to say more.

But Rong Heng, standing behind Mu Jinyu, swept her gaze over him. A copper coin flew from her hand!

Pah!

It struck him heavily right on the mouth!

A red, circular mark from the coin immediately appeared on his philtrum. The pain was so sharp he clutched his mouth, hopping and yelping “Ouch, ouch!” on the spot. Unfortunately, no one paid him any attention.

Mu Jinyu said to the crowd, “It’s not that we want to waste your time. I know you’ve come to my stall to support us because you like our fish cakes. We will work faster to make sure everyone gets their food sooner!”

These words served to soothe the customers’ anxiety. Those at the front handed over their money, saying, “One order of fish cakes!”

“Coming right up!” Mu Jinyu answered as she pulled Rong Heng out from behind her. She gripped Rong Heng’s hand tightly and whispered, “It’s okay, don’t take what happened to heart. It’s no big deal.”

With that, she handed the fish cake stall back to Rong Heng and returned to the fish noodles, tirelessly serving customers. The customers on the noodle side had also been waiting a long time. But they were regulars and knew that for food this good, a long wait was inevitable. They weren’t in a hurry. Besides, those stalls with no waiting time didn’t taste good, so they wouldn’t go there anyway. Those waiting for noodles watched the excitement, and as soon as a seat opened up, they rushed to grab it. Sitting and waiting was better than standing.

Back at the noodle stall, Mu Jinyu asked several customers if they wanted large or small bowls. She boiled a pot of noodles, and within moments, the cooked noodles were scooped into bowls and served. People slurped them down; as soon as one group finished, another took their place in a never-ending stream.

After the incident, Mu Jinyu was no longer distracted. She wore a bright smile and called out loudly to the next customers. She chatted with every person who came for noodles, her good nature making everyone smile. It felt like the noodles tasted even better!

Rong Heng, too, returned to the right track, quickly skewering fish cakes for the remaining customers. Her eyes drifted toward the energetic Mu Jinyu. She seemed affected by Mu Jinyu’s sparkling eyes, the smile on her lips, and her clear voice. A faint, subtle curve appeared on her own lips. However, she still didn’t speak much, silently going about her work.

At another stall not far from Mu Jinyu’s, which also sold fish noodles, the owner looked miserable. He had been terribly unlucky today; he woke up to find all the tables and stools in his courtyard gone. It was truly bizarre—there were quite a few of them, how could they vanish overnight?

He immediately thought his house had been robbed and slapped his thigh, vowing to report it to the authorities so the constables could catch those detestable thieves. But his father kicked him hard and scolded, “Have you forgotten where those tables and stools came from?!”

The stall owner shivered, remembering they had “borrowed” those items from Mu Jinyu. He didn’t consider it stealing; Mu Jinyu had left them at the night market, so clearly, she didn’t want them anymore. He just took them—how was that stealing? But he knew he didn’t have a leg to stand on legally. After all, Mu Jinyu had asked for them back several times, and he had stubbornly refused. There was no defending that.

“Then what do we do, Dad?” The stall owner ran his hands through his hair in distress.

“What else? Look around first to see if you can find them. If not, go make some new ones.” His father hit him on the head with his pipe, frustrated by his incompetence.

“But… making tables and stools costs a lot of copper coins.” The stall owner was unwilling. He had only started selling fish noodles because he saw Mu Jinyu doing so well. He didn’t realize how hard it was until he tried it himself. Every day, he had to start working as soon as he opened his eyes, or he wouldn’t even make a few pounds of noodles by nightfall. And even with a full day’s labor, his noodles never tasted as good as hers. Many customers took one bite and left with a grimace. Only a few laborers and poor workers would come to his stall at night because his noodles were cheap.

He had planned to sell them cheaply at first to steal Mu Jinyu’s business before slowly raising the price. But his noodles were so bad that no one else would eat them except for those laborers—how could he dare raise the price? If he did, they’d all vanish in an instant.

The stall owner scratched his hair again. He had just woken up, so his hair looked like a bird’s nest. His unwashed face was wrinkled like a wilted cabbage leaf. He looked completely disheveled. He was already barely making a profit; spending more money on tables and stools felt like a losing deal. He refused to go, despite his father hitting him several times.

In the end, the two decided to just bring all their home’s low stools and benches to the stall for customers to use. Buying tables was no longer an option.

After breakfast, they began making the fish noodles. The stall owner moved toward the stove at a snail’s pace. His father was even slower, sitting at the table to take a few puffs of his pipe. Once he was satisfied, he tapped the ash out, tucked the pipe into his belt, and went to help at the stove.

Despite a whole day’s work, they didn’t produce many noodles. Toward the end, they became sloppy just to meet their quota. The fish meat and flour were lumped together without even being properly pounded. When they first opened the stall, business was decent because it was cheap and fish noodles were trending. This attracted many people to try.

But once they tasted it and found it horribly unpalatable, they never returned. After a few days, only a handful of people remained. These were usually people who hadn’t tried Mu Jinyu’s noodles and thought this was what “authentic” fish noodles tasted like—only to be bitterly disappointed.

The two shouted themselves hoarse all night, their voices carrying across the street to Mu Jinyu’s ears. Unfortunately, the shouting only worked for the first few days. Now, when people heard them, they detoured to avoid the stall, fearing the heavy fishy smell. Passersby couldn’t understand—normally, cooking fish had a smell, but it wasn’t this overpowering. How did they manage to make it smell more fishy than the fish itself?

Some fish lovers didn’t mind the smell and wanted to try. But as soon as they approached and saw only mismatched stools with no tables, they realized how inconvenient it would be to eat noodles. Those people waved their hands and left.

The owner and his father shouted for most of the night, but not a single customer came. Frustrated, they peeked toward Mu Jinyu’s direction. The two stalls were quite far apart, but since the night market street was straight, they could see her shadow if they looked hard enough. They saw a long line snaking in front of Mu Jinyu’s stall, taking up half the road and nearly blocking it.

“Oh boy,” the owner slapped his thigh, green with envy. Should he ask his cousin for another plan? His cousin’s stall was right next to Mu Jinyu’s, so he surely knew what to do. He couldn’t let the stall he spent so much silver on just collapse, could he?

Meanwhile, Mu Jinyu was focused on selling her food, completely unaware of their thoughts. She and Rong Heng were busy all night. Only after selling out, did they finally get a chance to breathe. She brought two stools over to the pushcart and sat down with Rong Heng. She massaged her waist and back, feeling her whole body go stiff.

Rong Heng was in much better shape; this level of fatigue was nothing to her. She even had the energy to listen to the conversations around her while they were selling. She heard the constables were searching everywhere for an assassin. Hearing they were looking for the assassin who tried to kill the one in the high seat, she understood what was happening. Everyone wanted her dead.

But she was curious: why did everyone want her dead, yet Mu Jinyu did not? Not only did Mu Jinyu bring her home, but she also applied medicine and didn’t mistreat her in terms of food or clothing. She even hid her when the constables came to search. At first, she thought Mu Jinyu was just someone who fell for her looks. But given her behavior during her amnesia, if Mu Jinyu were truly lustful, she would have taken advantage of her long ago instead of constantly rejecting her.

Does Mu Jinyu know who she is?

She thought she likely did. She didn’t remember telling Mu Jinyu her name while she had amnesia, yet Mu Jinyu could call her by name accurately—that meant she knew her. Knowing her wasn’t strange. Given her bloody reputation in the Great Rong Nation, it was hard not to know her.

However, a person who knew who she was and yet was willing to save and protect her… she didn’t believe there was no ulterior motive. Was this another trap?

Rong Heng’s gaze shifted to Mu Jinyu, watching her twist her waist and stretch. Her fingers tapped rhythmically on the surface of the pushcart.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Each sound was heavy, like someone’s head being chopped off.

Mu Jinyu felt Rong Heng’s gaze on her and, for some reason, shivered. But when she met Rong Heng’s eyes, she still offered a smile and asked with concern, “Can you hold on? We’ll rest for a bit, then we can pack up and go home.”

“You worked really hard tonight. Without you, I don’t know how I would have managed alone.” She was truly grateful for Rong Heng’s presence. Without her, she’d be too exhausted from selling fish noodles to do anything else, let alone make big money or good food.

Originally, she had taken Rong Heng in just so that Rong Heng wouldn’t kill her once she regained her memory. Being good to her was a form of appeasement. But as she spent more time with the amnesiac Rong Heng, she began to feel that Rong Heng was actually quite a good person. She believed that losing her memory wouldn’t change her fundamental nature—unless Rong Heng had always been like this. It wouldn’t be bad at all to live with Rong Heng like this forever.

Meeting Mu Jinyu’s gaze, Rong Heng saw the smile on her face grow sweeter and her golden eyes soften, filled with a gaze so tender it could drown a person. She was the first to look away, finding it repulsive. Mu Jinyu had better not have any ulterior motives, or she wouldn’t hesitate to tear her to pieces. Rong Heng’s hand on the pushcart tightened, the bones on the back of her hand protruding.

After resting enough, Mu Jinyu stood up and began packing. Since Rong Heng had been busy all night, she didn’t want her to do more work, so she started with the fish cake cart. In the last steamer, she had intentionally left some fish cakes for Rong Heng to eat as a late-night snack. However, next to those fish cakes was a single skewer.

“Hmm?” Mu Jinyu picked it up and looked at it. She thought it was strange but didn’t dwell on it, assuming Rong Heng had just skewered an extra one. Once both carts were packed, they made several trips to bring everything home.

Mu Jinyu heated up the reserved fish cakes and noodles and served them to Rong Heng, her eyes bright with expectation as she waited for her to eat. These were Rong Heng’s favorites—surely she wouldn’t find these unpalatable too?

Looking at the steaming food and Mu Jinyu’s expectant eyes, Rong Heng picked up her chopsticks, removed the skewered fish cake slices, and put them in her mouth. Her expression remained neutral. No special reaction.

Seeing that Rong Heng didn’t show the usual enjoyment, happiness, or praise, the light in Mu Jinyu’s eyes went out. She slumped onto the stool, starting to doubt if her cooking skills had declined. Or had she been too overconfident and missed a step? Or was Rong Heng just tired of these things?

As she spiraled into self-doubt and reflection, Rong Heng finally swallowed after chewing dozens of times. She wiped her mouth with a small white handkerchief.

In a very slow tone, she said: “Passable.”