Chapter Twenty-Three: Setting Up a Street Stall

Lin Miaomiao began researching how to make some modern pastries. In the process, she discovered hotpot, barbecue, fried skewers... As for pastries, there were mung bean cakes, soybean cakes, and pea yellow cakes... These types of cakes didn't require a mixer. Lin Miaomiao summarized her findings in a notebook, filling page after page until she finally finished.

Looking at the silver left in her hand—just a hundred taels—the rest of the small change had already been spent. In that moment, Lin Miaomiao finally understood why, when she was young, her parents sometimes lived so frugally. She used to think her parents were simply stingy. Now, having taken in two wild children, with two kids, Li Yanhé, and An Qi to support, the expenses had soared all at once.

The daily costs were overwhelming, and her startup capital was meager. So Lin Miaomiao decided it was time to keep up with the trends, implement the party’s policies, and throw herself into the street stall economy wholeheartedly.

The next day, she had the village blacksmith custom-make a griddle for scallion pancakes and stuffed egg pancakes, heated from below by charcoal. Li Yanhé and An Qi helped her wheel it into town, and the two wild children, Lin Langluan and Lin Langze, insisted on coming along as well.

Thus, the five of them set off in grand fashion. Li Yanhé didn’t actually want Lin Miaomiao to set up a street stall, but he couldn’t sway her determination.

She began selling stuffed egg pancakes, scallion pancakes, and jianbing. Her stall quickly became lively, as she had pre-made the dough and just needed to heat it over the charcoal. Lin Miaomiao soon broke into a sweat from the effort. The profit margin was slim, as the pancakes were cheap, but her aim was to sell as many as possible.

A woman nearby began to haggle, “Young lady, if I buy more, can you give me a discount?” Li Yanhé’s brow furrowed unconsciously at the thought of working in such heat, especially when the food was already so cheap. Yet Lin Miaomiao kept smiling at everyone.

“Auntie, I’m barely breaking even as it is. But if you buy more, I’ll throw in an extra pancake for you. How about that?”

The woman grinned, “Little girl, you’re young but clever in business. Alright, I’ll take a few more, then.”

Watching Lin Miaomiao’s cheerful demeanor, Li Yanhé suddenly felt a pang of sympathy. He had never experienced this kind of life before.

But Lin Miaomiao didn’t feel the fatigue. On the contrary, she was full of energy, calling out to attract customers. Every pancake sold was another tael of silver.

Though she had been raised in comfort in the modern world, her family was far from wealthy—perhaps middle class at best. She’d once worked part-time jobs where she stood on her feet all day for just fifty yuan, exhausting and poorly paid. Yet even earning ten yuan back then had brought her joy.

Sweating profusely, she noticed that most of her customers were buying for their children. Families with more means would buy in bulk, and soon her stall was picked clean. All the dough she had prepared was sold out.

Back at the small courtyard she rented, Lin Miaomiao exchanged her copper coins for silver—fifty taels in total, which surprised even her.

She recalled seeing people selling snacks at street stalls when she wandered with classmates through the university district. Back then, she’d thought that if she couldn’t find work in the future, she could always try street vending. It seemed profitable, not too tiring, and just a few hours each day. But she never imagined she could earn so much.

Now Lin Miaomiao planned to buy a small shop to specialize in pastries, so she could run both a stall and a storefront. She and Li Yanhé went to Yigu County in Juxiang City to look for a suitable storefront.

But she hadn’t expected that all the stores there were being sold off cheaply. Over the years, the shopkeepers had earned some money and were now selling their shops at low prices, taking their families and leaving.

Juxiang City was on the frontier of Southern Barbarian incursions, and the city was often raided by these southern tribes and nomads. Though the county was safer than the outlying villages, who would risk their lives if they could leave?

Looking at the shops being sold off for a pittance, Lin Miaomiao felt a mix of emotions. In the end, it was always the common people who suffered in times of war. She couldn't help but sigh, “When a nation thrives, the people suffer; when a nation falls, the people suffer.” She felt this truth deeply now. She remembered volunteering in Africa with her senior classmates—she’d thought the poverty there was overwhelming, and doing what she could made her feel noble.

Li Yanhé, too, felt the impact of the Southern Barbarians’ incursion more directly than ever. Someone like him had never truly understood the hardships of ordinary people.

Perhaps he could fight on the battlefield for six years, but he never really knew what he was fighting for—only that he had to keep invaders at bay. In his youth, he believed he was safeguarding the Great Yong dynasty and its legacy. Yet now, for the first time, he realized he was really protecting the people of Great Yong. This realization shook him, but the buying of the shop still had to go on.

After purchasing the shop, Lin Miaomiao decided to give up on opening it there. She was practical—investment always depended on the environment. Here, any family with a bit of money would head for the capital instead.

So Lin Miaomiao and Li Yanhé bought flour and seasonings and returned home. The next day, she set up her stall in the same spot as before.

Again, there was a crowd, and she quickly sold out. This time, an old man approached her stall.

In a strong local accent, he said, “Give me a full set.”

Lin Miaomiao was puzzled. Her breakfast stall sold jianbing, stuffed egg pancakes, scallion pancakes—she wasn’t sure what the old man wanted.

She asked, “Sir, we have three kinds here: stuffed egg pancakes, scallion pancakes, and jianbing. Which would you like?”

The old man waved a large hand and said, “One of each.”

Lin Miaomiao was a bit surprised. Most customers bought little, and usually for their husbands or children, not themselves. She glanced down and saw only some scallion pancakes left; the rest were sold out. She apologized, “Sir, I’m afraid the others are sold out for today. I only have some scallion pancakes left—I’ll give you a discount.”

The old man agreed. As he took the pancakes and was about to leave, he turned and looked at Lin Miaomiao.

“You’re quite the businesswoman. If only you’d been born a man, your future would be limitless. What a pity, what a pity.”

With that, the old man left, leaving Lin Miaomiao baffled, staring after him in a daze.

Li Yanhé narrowed his eyes and glanced at An Qi, who immediately understood his meaning.

Lin Miaomiao and Li Yanhé saved their earnings—this time forty taels of silver, not quite as much as the day before, with some copper coins left over.

She took the two wild children and Li Yanhé back to their rented house. When they returned, the elderly couple who owned the place said nothing, not even asking how much they’d earned. At that moment, Lin Miaomiao felt that these two elders were truly good people. They didn’t pry out of curiosity or self-interest, nor did they make anyone uncomfortable.

Li Yanhé unloaded the cart, and Lin Miaomiao sat in the courtyard to teach the two wild children. She had done tutoring before, but these two boys, Lin Langluan and Lin Langze, were especially well-behaved. They sat quietly the whole time—sometimes Lin Miaomiao thought they were almost too obedient.

Perhaps, having grown up in the wild, they had never experienced being around so many people. In their eyes, wolves were their kin, and humans their enemies.

Now, having brought them out, Lin Miaomiao was teaching them to speak. At first, they were wary of Li Yanhé and An Qi, perhaps because Li Yanhé was always so cold and reticent, never smiling, so the boys regarded him as an enemy.

But now the wild boys could call her “sister” and say a few simple words. They no longer growled like wolves.

In truth, the children were not unintelligent—just shaped by their life with wolves and wild animals, retaining some beastly instincts. But they were not bad at heart.

Li Yanhé sat quietly nearby, watching Lin Miaomiao patiently teach the boys arithmetic, counting, and language. Gradually, he found himself drawn into this peaceful scene. For him, this tranquility was something he had never experienced in years of hardship.

Yet at the same time, he grew alert. Those people had gone silent—strangely so. They had been here for more than ten days now, and all was quiet.