Running a Food Stall to Support My Deceptive Omega - Chapter 39.1

Mu Jinyu felt as though her neck could no longer withstand Rong Heng’s torment. She would wake up from a nap to find a mysterious ring of red marks, and wake up from another to find teeth indentations.

Was it because she had indulged Rong Heng and the Little Colorful Raccoon together for too long, that she had raised the other to act just like the little beast?

She gently pushed Rong Heng, who was sprawling in her arms, to the side. Covering her neck with her hand, her voice still carried the hoarseness of someone just awakened as she whispered, “Did I bully you again?”

Upon hearing this question, Rong Heng’s mood became even more delightful.

This person, Mu Jinyu, was truly… far too simple. She always trusted her so implicitly that she couldn’t even tell when things were done on purpose.

She didn’t follow the force of Mu Jinyu’s push to leave. Instead, she tilted her head slightly, letting her tresses fall onto Mu Jinyu’s arm, and pressed her lips against the fingertips that were braced against her shoulder.

Those fingertips were warm, possessing the softness of someone newly awakened.

She was accustomed to the “stick and carrot” approach; this gesture was originally intended only to soothe Mu Jinyu, preventing her from overthinking why she had been bitten.

However, the moment her lips touched, Mu Jinyu’s fingertips curled from the heat. Her body shuddered, and she swiftly retracted her hand, feeling that it was necessary to have a talk with Rong Heng.

She felt she was constantly making overstepping gestures, and it seemed Rong Heng was rejecting her.

Yet the manner of rejection was so “yielding while refusing”—leaving punitive marks on her body, only to kiss her as if as a reward.

This was not good.

She felt that perhaps because they spent so much time together and had such a good relationship, Rong Heng, though instinctively resisting after being bullied, did not resist thoroughly and still wished to remain close to her.

But the more it was like this, the more she could not allow herself to take advantage of Rong Heng, nor could she let Rong Heng rely on kisses to stay close to her.

Mu Jinyu sat up and helped Rong Heng up as well. Sitting face to face, she reached out to gather Rong Heng’s black hair that was scattered over her body, smoothing it out properly for her.

The only problem was that Rong Heng was unwilling to sleep in separate beds, which was a bit difficult to handle.

As she worked with her hands, Mu Jinyu spoke deliberately, “You can bite me or hit me, that’s fine, but don’t kiss me. It will make people misunderstand.”

“I will also… I will also go to the physician to get some sleeping medicine. If I take it before bed, I shouldn’t do anything excessive to you anymore.”

Rong Heng: …?

Seeing that Mu Jinyu was very seriously contemplating how to solve this problem, Rong Heng tried her best to soften her tone, putting on an expression of simple confusion as she asked:

“It’s fine, Jinyu-Qizhu. Can I not be closer to you?”

“No. Or you can tie me up, but I really don’t want to do anything inappropriate again, and I don’t want you to kiss me anymore,” Mu Jinyu said decisively.

In her mind, a good relationship could be manifested in many ways, but it certainly wasn’t this tangled, kissing business.

Rong Heng’s face maintained a slight smile, but her eyes lowered, and her expression turned much colder.

She snatched her hair back from Mu Jinyu’s hands. Her voice was very light, like a haunting ghost in the night, as she asked: “Are you sure you want it this way?”

Mu Jinyu nodded heavily!

Rong Heng smiled again, her face appearing sinister. She felt the person before her truly didn’t know what was good for them. With a cold snort, she no longer wanted to stay on the same bed as Mu Jinyu.

She got off the bed on her own and walked into the courtyard.

Mu Jinyu remained sitting on the bed, her fingers lightly touching the bite mark on her neck. After a while, she walked to the dressing table, took out wound medicine from the drawer, and facing the bronze mirror, carefully applied it to her neck.

Sometimes, she accidentally applied too much pressure, causing herself to wince in pain.

She couldn’t control her eyes as they drifted through the window toward Rong Heng in the courtyard.

Her expression carried a hint of grievance.

In the following period, Mu Jinyu’s rest time decreased abruptly. She only slept for four to six hours a day, waking up as soon as the sky grew bright to begin making Pressed Fish Noodles.

The ten catties of Pressed Fish Noodles for the Jade Pavilion had to be completed in the morning, as people from the pavilion would come to collect them at noon.

Having finally finished the morning’s work, she immediately began making the ten catties of Pressed Fish Noodles and fifteen catties of Fish Cakes intended for sale at the night market.

Adding it all up, a total of thirty-five catties of food was no small amount. She had to work from morning until nearly five in the afternoon to barely finish.

Furthermore, she didn’t even have time to make a proper meal for herself.

Every day upon opening her eyes, she first went out to buy enough buns, mantou, and cakes for the day.

Returning home, she would eat while working.

It would have been one thing if she were only pushing herself like this, but Rong Heng also had to accompany her in eating these things every day.

This made Rong Heng, who was already dissatisfied with her, look even more unpleasant. She even entertained the thought of no longer entangling herself with her and simply capturing her back.

But what would she do after capturing her?

Have Mu Jinyu be her cook? And then sleep in the same bed as the cook?

Forget it. she only found the current Mu Jinyu interesting; she didn’t necessarily have to tie the other person to her side.

Not being able to eat the food Mu Jinyu made wasn’t a big deal, she just had a faint sense of resentment brewing in her heart.

She thought about finding someone to help Mu Jinyu, but she couldn’t just tell Mu Jinyu out of nowhere that someone was willing to work for them for free, could she?

After much thought, in order to keep up the act with Mu Jinyu and maintain the status quo without letting the other see any flaws, she could do nothing.

She could only try her best to help the other with more chores every day, so that Mu Jinyu wouldn’t be quite so exhausted.

As for Mu Jinyu herself, because the silver given by the Jade Pavilion was truly substantial, she wanted to work hard for ten to fifteen days. After earning enough money, she planned to rent a small shop.

With a shop, she could hire a few people to help her make noodles. She planned to start sending noodles to other noodle shops, and eventually, when she had the money to open a noodle workshop, she could turn the small shop into an eatery that sold food.

The more she thought about it, the more hopeful she became. Mu Jinyu didn’t find the days of making noodles all day long to be too arduous; in fact, she felt a secret joy.

She felt her future was bright.

Moreover, she discovered that during these few days where she was so tired she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, Rong Heng didn’t seem to say her hands were being dishonest anymore.

It seemed she really wasn’t tired enough before, being able to do messy things even while asleep. Now that she was tired to the point of fainting, it saved her the trouble of taking sleeping medicine.

Having solved another major concern in her heart, Mu Jinyu felt her character had returned to the right track, becoming an honest and kind person.

Her mood lightened considerably.

During this busy period, the stall next to hers also changed hands.

It went from the previous Vendor Zhang to a vendor named Li, and the goods sold changed from pastries to stewed mutton.

In a large pot at least half the size of a person, an entire mutton frame simmered away.

After stewing continuously for two to three hours, the mutton frame became soft and flavorful, submerged in snow-white soup, emitting a mouth-watering aroma.

Whenever a customer came to eat, the vendor would take an earthenware bowl, slice large pieces of tender mutton from the frame, arrange them neatly in the bowl, and then use a large ladle to pour the snow-white mutton soup over them.

With a handful of green onions and coriander thrown into the bowl, a delicious bowl of mutton soup was served!

Then, using a small ceramic dish filled with dip made from water peppers and a small piece of white fermented bean curd, one would stir it up. Using chopsticks to dip the large slices of mutton back and forth in the dip!

Popping a whole piece into the mouth, the fragrant and spicy flavor combined with the slightly stimulating yet smooth texture of the white fermented bean curd made the mutton exceptionally tender and rich in flavor. Even with sweat dripping from one’s forehead from the heat, one couldn’t help but slurp it down!

Late at night, customers wandering the night market were often invaded by the cold night wind; at such a time, a steaming bowl of mutton soup was nothing short of heavenly.

On the first day Vendor Li opened the stall, he ladled out mutton soup to distribute to the neighboring vendors as a gesture of goodwill.

Mu Jinyu and Rong Heng each received a bowl. Before they got too busy, the two of them sat knee-to-knee and head-to-head, enjoying it immensely.

Rong Heng did not eat at her usual lightning speed, as if she could sweep through all the food like a whirlwind.

She became much more elegant. Her chopsticks moved unhurriedly as she dipped the mutton once before taking several bites to finish a single piece, chewing slowly.

This caused Mu Jinyu to glance at her several times, saying casually, “You looked like you had a better appetite when you ate before.”

Now it didn’t look like she was enjoying a delicacy, but rather like she was just eating to stay alive.

Rong Heng, who was slowly eating the mutton, paused for a moment and gave a soft “Mm.”

She indeed wasn’t like before. In the past, she had to scramble to eat enough to be full, but after growing up, she had to force herself to break that habit.

Rong Heng only ate three or four slices of mutton before losing interest. She placed the chopsticks and bowl in the compartment of the small cart, intending to deal with them after finishing work.

Seeing this, Mu Jinyu spoke again, “Why has your appetite become so small? Are you feeling unwell lately?”

She thought that perhaps she had been too busy lately and hadn’t paid enough attention to Rong Heng. If Rong Heng were feeling unwell but was forcing herself not to say anything, it would be hard for her to know.

Rong Heng shook her head to indicate she was fine.

“Are you really not going to eat anymore?” Mu Jinyu confirmed once more.

But Rong Heng no longer wanted to pay her any mind, so she had to take Rong Heng’s bowl and continue eating the remaining mutton inside.

Rong Heng glanced at her, not finding anything amiss.

After finishing nearly two large bowls of mutton soup, Mu Jinyu used both hands to fan her face and pulled at her collar, feeling a surge of heat throughout her body.

As expected, this mutton soup was something that increased internal heat; she felt incredibly hot immediately after eating.

She rolled up her sleeves, and while cooling off, she began to get busy.

About five or six days passed, and Mu Jinyu’s savings reached twenty taels, which was a huge sum.

However, when she took the silver to the streets, intending to find a small shop to rent, she discovered that because Louxu County was adjacent to the capital city of Bianjing, everything in the county was outrageously expensive.

To rent a shop in a slightly prime location, not only did she need a three-month deposit and one month’s rent upfront, but the monthly rent would also cost three taels.

Calculating it, she would spend ten taels in the first month, leaving ten taels to figure out how to buy various things needed for the shop.

She was renting the shop to have a larger space and to hire two or three people to help make noodles together.

Since prime shops were expensive, she went to look at shops in more remote areas of Louxu County.

But those shops were too far from the night market, taking nearly half an hour for a round trip, and the security was poor, with thieves often frequenting the area.

With one careless moment, things in the shop could easily be stolen.

Just like that, Mu Jinyu spent several days searching Louxu County with twenty taels in her pocket, yet she couldn’t find a single suitable shop.

Later, the real estate agent gave her an idea, saying, “Dear customer, how about renting a larger courtyard? It can be used just the same.”