◎ Boss, Is This Your Daughter?? ◎
Sun Xuchuan’s eagle-spreading-its-wings pose made all the customers lining up in front of Ling Chuang’s stall burst into laughter. Ling Chuang couldn’t bear to look at him and sent him back to his own stall.
Business at Tian Miaomiao’s barbecue stall was also booming. Since they grilled their fresh, raw meat slowly, they couldn’t cook the skewers very quickly, so there was never a moment when the grill wasn’t loaded with them.
Tian Miaomiao was busy greeting customers, handling payments, and cleaning up. She didn’t have a moment to spare.
At first, Tian Doudou had thought Tian Miaomiao was deliberately exploiting him by making him responsible for grilling while she handled the customers. But now, hearing the customers constantly urging them to hurry up, he felt that this arrangement couldn’t have been more suitable.
His sister’s customer service skills were at the level of a five-star hotel!
Besides, compared to the difficult and demanding guests at the hotel, handling the customers here was practically effortless for her.
After seeing off a group of customers, Tian Miaomiao raised her head and noticed the hot and sour rice noodle stall opposite them.
The stall owner was a middle-aged woman who prepared the hot and sour rice noodles with quick, practiced movements. There was also a little girl who looked about seven or eight years old, helping her beside the stall.
The little girl had been there yesterday too. She was probably the owner’s daughter. Although she was still young, she already looked quite capable when helping out.
Seeing her reminded Tian Miaomiao of herself when she used to follow Father Tian to his stall as a child.
“Sis, what are you standing there daydreaming for? These twenty skewers are ready.”
Tian Doudou turned around and called out to her.
“Oh, coming.”
Tian Miaomiao snapped out of her thoughts and walked into the food truck.
“I was looking at that little girl across from us. She helps her mom at the stall every day. When I was about her age, I used to follow Dad to his stall every day and help him sell barbecue!”
Her words made Tian Doudou laugh.
“You call that helping Dad? Don’t think I don’t know. You just wanted to go along so you could eat barbecue!”
“…”
Uh, well, that was a small part of the reason too.
She pursed her lips, packed the freshly grilled skewers into a takeaway bag, and handed it to the customer.
After this wave of customers passed, Tian Miaomiao finally found some time to grill ten skewers of barbecue. She planned to take them over to Sun Xuchuan as thanks for the grilled squid he’d given them.
“I think that blond-haired guy is trying to pursue you, and you’re still bringing him barbecue.”
Tian Doudou clicked his tongue.
He didn’t like that guy surnamed Sun. One look at him was enough to tell that he had his sights set on his sister.
Tian Miaomiao, however, replied, “If that’s really what he’s thinking, then I have even more reason to bring him these skewers. I can’t just accept his squid for free.”
After thinking about it, Tian Doudou realized she had a point.
Tian Miaomiao deliberately chose a time when Sun Xuchuan had customers at his stall to go over. That way, he’d be busy grilling squid for them and wouldn’t have time to chat with her.
As she passed Ling Chuang’s food truck, she noticed that the little girl from the hot and sour rice noodle stall had actually come over to him.
The girl was holding a pen and an exercise book, seemingly asking Ling Chuang to explain her homework to her.
Tian Miaomiao looked at them in some surprise before walking up to Sun Xuchuan’s grilled squid stall.
“Boss Sun, my younger brother grilled some barbecue for you. Thanks for the squid earlier!”
Ling Chuang, who was explaining a problem to Liang Xingxing, heard her voice and raised his eyes to look in her direction.
Liang Xingxing, who was beside him, also raised her head.
Tian Miaomiao placed the barbecue directly on Sun Xuchuan’s stall.
Sun Xuchuan was busy grilling squid for a customer, and before he could say anything, Tian Miaomiao spoke again.
“Go ahead and get on with your work. I won’t disturb you.”
“…”
Alright.
After saying that, Tian Miaomiao turned around, only to find Ling Chuang and the little girl beside him both looking at her.
She paused for a moment, then smiled and greeted them.
“Hello, you two.”
Ling Chuang didn’t say anything, but Liang Xingxing looked at her with a bright smile.
“Hello to you too, Big Sister! Big Sister, you’re so pretty!”
Tian Miaomiao thought Liang Xingxing really had a good eye. Even through her plain clothes, the little girl could recognize her true beauty.
A smile spread across her lips as she looked at Liang Xingxing and said, “You’re very cute too!”
Liang Xingxing giggled a couple more times, but Ling Chuang reminded her from the side.
“Focus on the problem.”
“…”
The smile on Liang Xingxing’s face immediately disappeared, and she looked down at the exercise book in front of her with a worried expression.
Across from them, Tian Miaomiao raised her eyebrows slightly.
Teacher Ling was really strict.
She didn’t interrupt their lesson and returned directly to her barbecue stall.
After Liang Xingxing finished writing out the answer to the problem Ling Chuang had just explained, she raised her head and cautiously glanced at him.
Ling Chuang looked at the answer she’d written and nodded slightly.
“Mm, you got it right.”
Liang Xingxing immediately breathed a sigh of relief and was once again in the mood to ask Ling Chuang about other things.
“Brother Ling Chuang, is that big sister from earlier new here? Her barbecue truck is so pretty! It’s pink!”
Ling Chuang raised his eyes to look at her and said, “You haven’t even finished your homework, yet you still have time to concern yourself with other people.”
Liang Xingxing blinked her eyes without saying anything.
Ling Chuang turned a page in her exercise book and looked at a problem she’d left blank.
“I explained a similar problem to you before. Now that the wording has changed, you don’t know how to solve it again?”
“…”
Liang Xingxing fell silent.
The way Brother Ling Chuang spoke was really too much like their homeroom teacher.
But even though he was strict, she still liked coming over to ask him to explain problems to her.
Because he was handsome.
Another customer arrived at Ling Chuang’s fried rice truck. He told Liang Xingxing to think about the problem some more on her own, then got up to make fried rice.
The customer who came to buy fried rice was a young woman. When she saw Liang Xingxing in front of Ling Chuang’s truck, her eyes widened in surprise.
“Boss, is this your daughter??”
Liang Xingxing, who was thinking about the problem, heard her question and raised her head to answer.
“Big Sister, I’m from the hot and sour rice noodle stall across the street. I’m not Brother Ling Chuang’s daughter. You still have a chance!”
However, Liang Xingxing thought the pretty big sister at the barbecue stall next door had a better chance.
Ling Chuang looked at her speechlessly.
Were these the kinds of things children filled their heads with nowadays?
The female customer opposite him, on the other hand, became embarrassed by Liang Xingxing’s words. Her face even turned a little red.
Before Ling Chuang closed his stall, Liang Xingxing finally finished all the homework problems she hadn’t known how to solve. She took her exercise book and pen and returned to her mother.
Tian Miaomiao didn’t close her stall until almost midnight that day.
Before leaving, she deliberately glanced across the street. The hot and sour rice noodle stall was still open for business, but the little girl was no longer there.
On the way home, Tian Miaomiao and Tian Doudou took the opportunity to calculate their earnings for the day.
They’d earned more than eight hundred yuan more than yesterday, almost doubling their revenue.
“Business will definitely be even better when the weekend comes.”
Tian Miaomiao was suddenly filled with hope for the future.
“Maybe we really can expand our business and make it bigger and stronger!”
Tian Doudou was already so exhausted that he didn’t feel like talking.
Although he’d known that running a stall would be tiring, he hadn’t expected it to be even more exhausting than working in the inn’s kitchen.
“Other people work this hard because they need to support their families and pay for their children’s education. But you’re not married and don’t have any children. Why are you working yourself so hard?”
Tian Miaomiao replied, “Can’t I earn money for myself?! I’m saving up for my retirement!”
Tian Doudou let out a scoff.
“Cooking fumes can cause cancer, and staying up late can lead to sudden death. Whether you’ll even live to old age is another question.”
Tian Miaomiao: “…”
Bah! Tian Doudou and his jinxing mouth!
Over the next few days, Tian Miaomiao didn’t close her stall until after midnight every night.
On the weekend, she even stayed open until after one in the morning, and there were still people coming to eat barbecue.
After seven days of running her stall, Tian Miaomiao changed her previous opinion.
Perhaps what Tian Doudou had said was actually a profound truth. If she kept going like this, whether she’d live to old age really would become a question. 🙂
“How about this? On weekdays, we’ll close at eleven. On weekends, we’ll stay open a little later, until midnight?”
Tian Miaomiao sat at the table and discussed it with Tian Doudou.
Tian Doudou nodded vigorously.
“Then can we take today off?”
Tian Miaomiao immediately shook her head.
“No. We’ve only just opened, and our reputation hasn’t been firmly established yet. We can’t take any days off. Let’s talk about it again after some time.”
Tian Doudou: “…”
She had a little conscience, but not much.
When would he finally get to see a rainy day?
Having failed to secure a day off today, their pink food truck still arrived at North Gate Night Market right on time at six that evening.
As night gradually fell, the night market grew increasingly crowded.
Tian Miaomiao had just finished taking an order from a couple of customers when she saw a message from a former colleague at the hotel.
She quickly pulled off her face mask and said to Tian Doudou, “Our boss has been cornered inside the hotel! If I go over now, I might be able to get my unpaid wages! You’ll have to manage on your own for a while!”
“Wait, how am I supposed to manage?!”
Before Tian Doudou could even finish speaking, Tian Miaomiao had already rushed off.
Ling Chuang, who was nearby, noticed Tian Miaomiao hurrying away and called out to her.
“Tian Miaomiao, what happened?”
Tian Miaomiao turned back to look at him and replied, “I’m going to demand my unpaid wages from my boss!”