VFGRC Chapter 45

Afternoon at Sanjiaokou.

“Fifteen in total.”

“Payment done.”

Yu Dong handed the packaged sugar-coated haws to the customer. He was about to sit back on his chair and take a rest when he heard the conversation between Yu Bai and his son.

Yu Dong raised an eyebrow, surprised.

Why did Yu Bai come here?

Yu Bai’s timing for setting up his snack stall at Sanjiaokou was not fixed, but usually not later than three o’clock.

Yu Dong had thought that it was already four o’clock, and Yu Bai hadn’t shown up at Sanjiaokou, so he assumed Yu Bai wouldn’t be coming today.

After all, no snack vendor would be happy to go out and do business after rumors of someone tampering with their snacks or the snacks being unhygienic had spread all over the internet!

But Yu Dong didn’t expect that Yu Bai was now out here with Xing Xing, setting up their stall!

Seeing how they were laughing and chatting along the way, they seemed completely unaffected by the rumors circulating online.

Yu Dong had a good relationship with Yu Bai, but he knew he wasn’t very perceptive. He couldn’t tell whether Yu Bai was genuinely happy or pretending to be.

If he accidentally said something wrong and touched a nerve, it wouldn’t be good.

As Yu Dong looked at Yu Bai and his son, he opened his mouth, but the words paused on his lips as he hesitated.

On the other side, Yu Bai and Xing Xing noticed Yu Dong, and Yu Bai waved at him, “Good afternoon.”

Yu Dong smiled, “Good afternoon.”

His smile seemed somewhat forced, and there was a hint of worry in his gaze.

Xing Xing stood beside them, looking at Yu Bai as he arranged the snack cart to prepare for business.

Yu Dong walked to Yu Bai’s side and helped him, “I thought you wouldn’t set up the stall today.”

Yu Bai replied, “I and Xing Xing overslept during our nap, so we came a bit late…”

While talking, Yu Bai noticed that Yu Dong had been staring at him as if there was something on his face.

Yu Bai was puzzled, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” Yu Dong said, “Xing Xing, do you want to have sugar-coated haws today?”

“No need!” Xing Xing waved his little hand, with his curved eyes and two adorable dimples on his cheeks, “Daddy made delicious snacks for me. Uncle, do you want to try a piece?”

Today, during his nap, Yu Bai accidentally overslept.

Seeing his well-behaved little one lying quietly on him, waiting for him to wake up and yawning, Yu Bai’s heart was touched.

His son waited so quietly, not disturbing his sleep. He was really too good!

He wanted to reward his sweet and obedient little one!

During his free time, Yu Bai would often make some small desserts.

Considering that Xing Xing was still a young child and couldn’t eat too many desserts and snacks, Yu Bai strictly controlled the amount of snacks for Xing Xing every day.

Recently, Xing Xing’s favorite small dessert was the sticky and chewy glutinous rice dumplings made by Yu Bai.

Normally, Yu Bai allowed Xing Xing to eat only two or three glutinous rice dumplings, but today, he exceptionally allowed Xing Xing to have five of them!

Among the glutinous rice dumplings, there were matcha-flavored, chocolate-flavored, plain, and strawberry-flavored ones.

Xing Xing, who loves strawberry sugar-coated haws, is an absolute strawberry enthusiast.

So, today when Yu Bai let Xing Xing choose the glutinous rice dumplings, Xing Xing immediately picked two strawberry-flavored ones and then chose one from the remaining three flavors.

Xing Xing opened the small box in his arms and handed it to Yu Dong.

A glutinous rice dumpling was about the size of Xing Xing’s palm – it was just the right size, with a soft and sticky outer layer of glutinous rice and a thin layer of powder sprinkled on top.

Xing Xing couldn’t bear to eat the glutinous rice dumpling while walking; he decided to enjoy it slowly when he and his dad set up the stall together.

Yu Dong also knew that Xing Xing was a strawberry enthusiast, so he deliberately avoided the strawberry-flavored glutinous rice dumpling and chose the plain one.

Xing Xing’s nervous expression immediately relaxed.

Phew! Fortunately, Uncle didn’t choose his favorite strawberry-flavored glutinous rice dumpling!

As Yu Bai lit the stove, Xing Xing and Yu Dong stood on either side of Yu Bai, like guardians.

Xing Xing held up a pink strawberry-flavored glutinous rice dumpling and opened his mouth, biting into it with his tender teeth.

The outer layer of the glutinous rice dumpling was a soft and sticky glutinous rice skin, while the inside was filled with strawberry cream.

Fresh strawberries were cut in half by Yu Bai, coated with sweet and tangy homemade strawberry cream, and then wrapped in a layer of glutinous rice skin that could be “pulled.” The sweetness of the fruit, the sweetness of the glutinous rice, and the aroma of the cream blended together, creating a wonderful harmony in the mouth.

Xing Xing puffed his soft, dumpling-like cheeks and earnestly ate the small glutinous rice dumpling in his palm… It was an incredibly cute scene!

Halfway through eating the glutinous rice dumpling, Xing Xing stopped and raised his little head to look at Yu Dong.

Huh? Why didn’t Uncle eat the glutinous rice dumpling?

Xing Xing said, “This glutinous rice dumpling is super delicious, Uncle, eat it quickly!”

As he lifted his head, Xing Xing didn’t realize that a small dollop of pink strawberry cream had smeared on his fair cheek.

“Go ahead and eat!” Xing Xing’s cheek twitched as he felt the strawberry cream.

Yu Dong’s heart involuntarily twitched as well.

“Okay, I’ll eat it now.” Yu Dong smiled as he took a bite of the glutinous rice dumpling in his hand, his eyes brightening involuntarily.

The glutinous rice dumpling with cream filling was a type of snack with a slightly Western influence, and not many traditional Chinese people would make it.

But Yu Bai could make these glutinous rice dumplings deliciously sweet without being overwhelming, with the right level of softness, surpassing many well-known pastry shops in J City.

Yu Dong, who wasn’t particularly interested in such sweet and sticky foods, unknowingly finished the whole glutinous rice dumpling.

At this moment, Yu Bai’s voice rang out before Yu Dong could recover from the impact brought by the glutinous rice dumpling.

“Why is there strawberry cream on your face?” Yu Bai’s voice carried a hint of amusement.

‘There’s cream on my face?’ Xing Xing tilted his small head in confusion, sticking out his pink and tender little tongue, trying to lick the strawberry cream.

However, his tongue was too short, and he couldn’t reach it.

Yu Bai pointed to Xing Xing’s cheek, “Here.”

Xing Xing reached out with a finger and touched his own cheek.

Sure enough, there was a blob of pink strawberry cream on that finger!

Xing Xing said, “Huh, why is there cream on my face?”

“Your face didn’t grow any.” Yu Bai barely suppressed a smile, “It got on your face when you were eating the strawberry glutinous rice dumpling…”

“Got on my face?”

Xing Xing’s soft and tender voice repeated this sentence.

Suddenly, Xing Xing looked at Yu Dong as if he had remembered something.

He remembered it now! Uncle had been staring at him just now, as if he wanted to say something but didn’t, with a smile at the corner of his mouth…

Uncle must have also seen the strawberry cream on his cheek!

How naughty of Uncle! He didn’t tell him about the cream on his face, making his pretty face look not so pretty. Xing Xing felt a little angry!

Pouting, just as he was about to sulk, a bag of Snowflake Hawthorn was handed to him.

Snowflake Hawthorn was a new way of eating hawthorn balls invented by Yu Dong and his wife at home.

For the traditional “Tanghulu,” the boiled sugar is poured directly onto the hawthorn skewers.

On the other hand, for Snowflake Hawthorn, the hawthorn balls are directly put into the sugar and mixed together until they form a white sugar frost.

The bright red hawthorn matched with the white sugar frost looked like red lanterns covered with frost in winter, especially beautiful.

The Snowflake Hawthorn immediately caught Xingxing’s attention.

His round eyes sparkled.

Yu Dong said, “It’s for you. If you can’t finish it, you can keep it for tomorrow.”

So, this big bag of hawthorn candies was all for him!

Xing Xing’s ink-black eyes twinkled with little stars, and his lips curved slightly upward. “Thank you, Uncle!”

Maybe Uncle really didn’t see the strawberry cream on his cheek?

After all, Uncle had been giving him sugar-coated haws to eat, and now he even gave him such a big bag of Snowflake Hawthorn… Uncle was a good person! How could he do something to deceive or trick a young cub?

Uncle was nothing like that naughty Uncle who always played tricks on him behind his dad’s back, making him stomp with anger.

In Xing Xing’s mind, a flash of Ji Rongyu’s face appeared, and he pressed down the slight upturn of his lips.

That naughty Uncle hadn’t come to his house for several days, and he didn’t even reply to any messages… Could it be that something really happened to that naughty Uncle’s health, and he couldn’t reply to messages?

Xing Xing didn’t realize.

When he thought of Ji Rongyu, his watery round eyes were tinged with a hint of worry.

—

After chatting with Yu Bai and others for a while, Yu Dong returned to his stall to continue selling sugar-coated haws.

Yu Bai stood in front of the iron griddle, while Xing Xing sat beside him, eating the glutinous rice balls.

Gradually, Yu Bai noticed that his business seemed to be slow today.

In the past, whenever Yu Bai appeared at Sanjiaokou, there would be at least two or three customers gathering around his stall. After he posted the message “Open for business today” on his social media, it wouldn’t take long before several regular customers came to buy his snacks. Soon, a long queue would form at his stall…

However, today, Yu Bai stood in front of the iron griddle for a good ten minutes, and not a single customer showed up at his stall.

As for other passersby, they didn’t even stop by his stall.

Yu Bai realized that this was not normal.

Over the last few days, he had been too busy taking care of Xing Xing and preparing the ingredients for his stall, and he hadn’t spent much time online. Therefore, he was unaware that there were many rumors about his stall spreading this morning, scaring away many of the netizens who wanted to come to J City to try his teppanyaki dishes.

The night before, due to the various internet celebrity companies showing their sincerity to Yu Bai, he unexpectedly made it to the trending topics and was given the nickname “Master of Iron Griddle.” However, the heat from that night had not even subsided when numerous rumors about him began to emerge like mushrooms after rain.

Some said that many customers who ate Yu Bai’s teppanyaki wanted to eat it again and again… They strongly suspected that Yu Bai had added something addictive to his teppanyaki sauce, causing the customers to become addicted.

Others said that since Yu Bai’s stall was outdoors, he never wore gloves while holding the spatula when making teppanyaki dishes, and the food hygiene was questionable.

Even more absurdly, besides spreading rumors about the food, some people started to question Yu Bai’s character.

There were a bunch of people claiming to be Yu Bai’s “college classmates” on the internet. They said that during college, Yu Bai was a loner and hardly stayed on campus. Then, a year after his college graduation, he suddenly had a child, but the child’s mother was nowhere to be found… So they suspected that Xing Xing’s background was not clean.

They also said that Yu Bai’s cooking skills were average during college, and they couldn’t understand why his cooking had improved so rapidly now… They suspected that Yu Bai took shortcuts to make the food taste better.

Various rumors spread all over the internet.

The previous night, Yu Bai was praised highly in videos by marketing accounts of those internet celebrity companies, but now, because of these online rumors, his business plummeted.

These rumors even affected some of the regular customers who had trusted Yu Bai.

People tend to follow the crowd.

These customers who had eaten Yu Bai’s snacks before started to doubt whether Yu Bai had really done something unscrupulous while making the snacks.

Yu Bai was unaware of the online turmoil.

It wasn’t until the first customer appeared at his stall and informed him about everything that Yu Bai unraveled the mystery behind “business being slow today” –

He was being deliberately targeted, smeared, and falsely accused online.

 

Author’s Note:

[At this moment]

Yu Bai: Sharpening the knife with a fierce look.

Xing Xing: Grinding teeth vigorously.