Whether it would all come to nothing was still unknown, but Sun Mengyun was already fuming. She was slamming things around inside her own shop.
“What a piece of work! We see each other every day, yet she has the nerve!”
“If she’s so capable, she should stick to her own business. How can she have the face to squeeze into someone else’s?”
“Shameless!”
Wu Daneng lit a cigarette, his face clouded with worry. “What should we do? Are we still going through with it?”
Sun Mengyun had just gone out to poke around, and only then did she realize that the Wen family’s business hadn’t improved for any other reason than that little girl, Wen Fan. Somehow, the girl had suddenly “seen the light,” and they were attracting people solely based on the taste of her cooking.
Sun Mengyun felt a mix of disbelief, but mostly anger and resentment. She was furious at Xia Yingzhi for being so underhanded and blamed her for not telling the truth when she had visited them earlier. She regretted even more that she had only cared about sitting in their shop instead of asking around more. If she had known the situation clearly, she wouldn’t have been so hasty.
Sun Mengyun held her breath and scrubbed the stove ferociously. After a long while, she tossed the rag aside and hissed through gritted teeth, “It’s already like this, what else can we do? We’ll just keep going.”
The Wen family making such a move was nothing more than saying they were impressive and skilled, and that they could steal her business with ease because of it.
“Even if we didn’t take the initiative to start the meal sets, this day would have come sooner or later.”
Sun Mengyun was stifled with rage. “Do you think if we honestly just sold rice noodles, they wouldn’t bully us? I saw her tonight; she was clearly prepared. No matter how capable she is, doesn’t she have to learn how to make rice noodles? She must have been planning to steal our business for a long time!”
The more Sun Mengyun thought about it, the more she felt this was the case. She wished she could go out right now and give the Wen family a piece of her mind. To think she had even hesitated for a few days—meanwhile, those people had been heartlessly plotting to ruin her!
Wu Daneng was stunned for a moment and frowned. “Is that really how it is?”
He seemed to feel that his wife’s words weren’t quite right, but he was clumsy with words and didn’t know how to advise her.
Sun Mengyun settled the matter decisively: “It’s definitely like that!”
She bit her lower lip, having already pinned the Wen family to the pillar of ill intent in her heart.
“Bullying us! Everyone is bullying us! Look at that Song Hui! Isn’t it just because her son works for the Wens? She was the first to start kissing their feet!”
“A bunch of bastards! Snobs!”
“I saw long ago that Xia Yingzhi was full of schemes. Her daughter made it? Ha! That’s just talk. Who knows if they added something to the food to make it taste that good!”
Sun Mengyun’s cursing became more and more irrational, lashing out at whatever came to mind. Wu Daneng knew that if he didn’t let her vent her anger now, the matter wouldn’t pass, so he stopped talking.
Sun Mengyun seemed to make up her mind. “She thinks she’s so capable? From now on, we’ll just pick up the scraps!”
If McDonald’s and KFC are popular, don’t those small, unbranded burger shops also thrive? Since the Wen family was the first to be unfaithful and unjust, she didn’t need to save face for them anymore.
Sun Mengyun leaned into Wu Daneng’s ear and whispered. Wu Daneng’s face changed drastically.
“How can we do that…”
“Shut up!” Sun Mengyun had her own logic. “That’s how my sister-in-law’s shop does it. Besides, it’s not illegal; it’s just changing a sign. If a customer takes the wrong path, whose fault is it? Who told them not to leave us a way to survive?”
Wu Daneng kept muttering “This won’t do,” but Sun Mengyun could no longer hear him.
“Tomorrow, I’m changing the flyers!”
Sun Mengyun’s behavior was witnessed by everyone on the street. Song Hui, in particular, went around visiting everyone, and soon the others knew the whole story. Some stood by and watched, eager for a good show. Others comforted Mother Wen.
“She’s a muddled fool; don’t lower yourself to her level.”
Anyone who had tasted the Wen family’s food would know that doing what she did was seeking their own dead end.
Mother Wen smiled bitterly. “Making snacks and making rice or noodle staples isn’t the same. The profit really isn’t that high.”
A meal set cost fifteen yuan; after expenses, they only made about half that in profit. This was also why Mother Wen refused to lower the price yesterday, no matter how Zhuangzhuang’s grandmother tried to influence the group chat.
Sun Mengyun’s rice noodles were different; the cost was much lower than theirs. Now, Sun only saw that business was good and rushed in; after delivery costs, what she earned from a ten-yuan meal would definitely not be as much as she made selling rice noodles before.
“That’s why I say she can’t see things clearly,” the bun shop lady shook her head. “In this current environment, without real skill, one should only hope to maintain the status quo. Yet she insists on making a fuss.”
“By the way, does your family plan to make rice noodles?”
Mother Wen waved her hand repeatedly. “Not at all. We just make them for ourselves to eat. Adding another item would make us too busy.”
“Oh, I see.”
The bun shop lady’s evaluation of the Wen family rose another level, and her tone carried a hint of warmth. “A few days ago, my little girl said she came here to play and even came back with a full stomach. I haven’t thanked you yet. Don’t be a stranger from now on; if you haven’t eaten in the morning, just come to my place and grab some buns.”
“Oh, she’s just a child. That day Fanfan was testing dishes, and seeing her playing here, she gave her some to taste.”
“Hahaha, she told me. She said Sister Fanfan asked her what didn’t taste good after she finished eating, but the silly girl could only say it was delicious—each one better than the last.”
Mother Wen couldn’t help but laugh as well. There were seven or eight children on this street, and the girl from the bun shop was known for having a picky palate. When her daughter heard that the little girl was picky that day, she kept her there. In the end, the child just said “delicious” with every bite and didn’t give a single piece of feedback.
“It’s fine, let her come and play whenever she wants.”
The bun shop lady chatted with Mother Wen for a while and then took her leave tactfully when she saw customers arriving. Walking back, she thought to herself that Sun Mengyun was too stupid.
The Wen family’s shop was clearly about to take off, and it was only summer vacation! She couldn’t imagine how popular it would be when school started. If a street has a “viral” shop, would they still need to worry about future business? At a time like this, one shouldn’t be thinking about how to squeeze people out—where couldn’t they open a shop if they left? One should be thinking about how to make their own shop’s food taste better so they can catch the wind when the time comes.
“Should I change the flavors of the buns at home?” the bun shop lady calculated. Weren’t there things like crayfish buns or pickled fish buns on the internet now? She should try some fancy variations when she got back.
Sun Mengyun and her husband’s silence was noted by Mother Wen. She thought Sun Mengyun had given up on the idea and was preparing to pick up the rice noodle business again, but the next day, she was dumbfounded.
Sun Mengyun was directing several workers to change her sign. Originally, her sign was “Wu’s Rice Noodles,” but now it had been changed to “Wu’s Restaurant.” Changing the name wasn’t enough; the sign was wickedly designed to mimic the Wen family’s style. If one didn’t look closely, it was very easy to misread the first character, “Wu.”
Sun Mengyun was acting high and mighty. When she saw Mother Wen from a distance, she rolled her eyes.
“Left side, a bit higher on the left!”
“And this spot at the entrance, change this door too!”
…
After all the tossing and turning, not to mention the inside, the outside ended up looking seventy percent similar. It drew strange looks from the surrounding shops.
In her heart, Sun Mengyun already viewed these people as the Wen family’s helpers. She stopped pretending and spat on the ground. “What are you looking at? Haven’t you seen a renovation before?”
There were also those with hot tempers who wouldn’t indulge her, shooting back sarcastically, “Yeah, we’ve never seen anything like this!”
Sun Mengyun turned and entered the shop gloomily, urging her husband to speed up the cooking.
“Today is a grand opening; I want to see just how much better she is!”
The Wen family only sent out dozens of meals a day now, but she had over a hundred!
Wu Daneng was busy and drenched in sweat. Preparing over a hundred meals was easier said than done. He rushed and barely managed to finish them before noon.
Sun Mengyun urged him to deliver them. “Use our small tricycle.”
Delivery fees were too expensive, and over a hundred meals were no small number; calling a rider wasn’t cost-effective. Sun Mengyun planned to save on delivery costs herself. Fortunately, the library wasn’t far, and it only took about twenty minutes by tricycle.
After pushing the delivery, Sun Mengyun hurriedly made calls for someone to deliver frozen goods.
“The braising pot is ready. We’ll start braising this afternoon and set up a stall tonight too.”
Wu Daneng stopped questioning her. Since things had reached this point, there was no way back, so they would just keep going.
“Leave the frozen goods there; I’ll start on them as soon as I get back.”
“Fine. I’m going home to check on our son. Remember, don’t just leave after you finish delivering; hand out those business cards too.”
“Okay.”
…
Lin Miaomiao and Wu Na sat facing each other at a desk. After finishing her problems, Lin Miaomiao corrected them with a red pen, then silently recited the answers a few times before flipping back through her book. Her study attitude was extremely upright.
She had done well on today’s problems, and her mood was quite light. She glanced at Wu Na across from her, who was currently scrolling through her phone.
“Psst, psst! You should at least study for a bit!” How could she say she was coming to the library when she really just came every day to wait for food?
Wu Na looked pained and whispered in a breathy voice, “It’s my summer vacation! What do you want me to study?”
“Then read a book!”
Wu Na: “I can’t get into it!” The only thing she could focus on right now was novels.
“Memorize English!”
“I passed the CET-4 and CET-6 ages ago!”
Lin Miaomiao was out of ideas.
Wu Na’s eyes suddenly lit up. “The food has started its journey!” With that, she stood up nimbly, just short of a running start.
Lin Miaomiao followed Wu Na out of the reading room and asked suspiciously, “How do you know the food has started its journey?”
Wu Na happily pulled out her phone. “Yang Tao told me!”
Lin Miaomiao vaguely remembered that this person was the delivery man. “You…”
Wu Na pulled Lin Miaomiao and ran. “Let’s go, let’s go! We have to get the first and second portions!”
Lin Miaomiao: … Forget it, what was there to say to a foodie?
Yang Tao arrived quickly on his electric scooter. Recently, because there were more meals, he and Qu Xiaoyu had each been equipped with two large boxes, one in front and one in back. However, Yang Tao was in no mood to show off today, nor did he shout out nicknames one by one.
He was in a terrible mood. He had originally thought he could scare the Sun couple last night, but who would have thought these two wouldn’t give up until they hit rock bottom? Now, instead of direct confrontation, they were sticking to them like skin fungus. They had openly started copying and misleading people.
That Wu Daneng—just now, instead of flyers, he started handing out business cards. Yang Tao picked one up and was so angry his lungs nearly burst. The business card was also a complete copy of the Wen family’s. He had never seen such shameless people. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about them.
Yang Tao came and went. Wu Na and Lin Miaomiao took their meals and went to find the “main force” as usual. On the fifth-floor balcony, Da Huang and several others had arrived.
Everyone opened their lunch boxes and was quite surprised. They saw that there was no rice in today’s lunch box; instead, there were two “Shao Bing” (clay oven rolls).
Da Huang was so happy he was practically bouncing. “I was tired of rice long ago!” If the dishes hadn’t been so delicious, he definitely wouldn’t have eaten rice for so many days in a row; he preferred steamed buns and noodles over rice.
The rolls weren’t large, each about the size of a person’s palm. Wen Fan had specifically sliced the rolls down the middle and stacked the halves together. Today’s dishes were Braised Pork and Stir-fried Cucumber with Egg, with the vegetable dish being a platter of various braised items.
The Braised Pork was cooked to a bright, tempting red. It trembled when picked up with chopsticks—three layers of fat and lean, with the lean meat also full of juice. The sauce was rich with a faint scent of red dates. With a little pressure from the chopsticks, the meat could be broken in the middle. The broken meat fibers were still stringy, and the stickiness was intoxicatingly fragrant.
The cucumber and eggs were fresh and crisp. The cucumber was sliced thinly, retaining its original refreshing taste, and it paired surprisingly well with the golden-yellow eggs. It was perfect for cutting through the richness of the Braised Pork.
Da Huang was the first to stuff the Braised Pork into the roll. He didn’t know how these rolls were made, but despite being small, they had a rich aroma of sesame and shortening with just a hint of Sichuan pepper salt—salty in just the right way. Paired with the Braised Pork, the “sweet and salty perpetual motion machine” in his body instantly activated. He put three pieces of pork inside and pressed down with both hands; the fatty meat naturally dissolved, binding the lean meat and the roll together.
One bite of roll, one bite of meat, followed by two bites of cucumber and egg to cleanse the palate. Da Huang carefully set the braised vegetables aside; unlike other dishes, they tasted great even when cold. He always got hungry in the afternoon; by keeping the braised vegetables and buying a steamed bun at the entrance later, a hot bun stuffed with braised veggies—how could that not count as afternoon tea?
While they were eating happily here, on the other side, someone was already frowning deeply. Not far from Da Huang and the others, a girl’s face fell the moment she opened her lunch box.
The sticky Yellow Braised Chicken smelled okay, but the sauce was thin and didn’t coat the chicken at all. There were no side ingredients like shiitake mushrooms or potatoes—just a few dry pieces of chicken. The stir-fried pork was mostly fat with very little lean meat, and there was a layer of oil at the bottom of the container. Only the green vegetables looked decent, but upon tasting them, she realized the leaves were old and tough.
The girl sighed and forced herself to eat. She knew this place’s food was cheap and the quality definitely wouldn’t be good, but what else could she do? Although her family supported her exam preparation, seeing her peers already entering the workplace while she still had to ask her parents for exam fees and living expenses made it inevitable that she would be frugal. A ten-yuan meal was the cheapest around.
The girl forced down the unpalatable food, comforting herself, “At least the rice is okay. As long as it hasn’t spoiled, it’s fine.”
Waaaah, when she finally “reaches the shore” (passes her exams) in the future, she will definitely order the Wen family’s food for all three meals!