Chapter 15: A Stalled Startup
The popular stalls here were naturally designed based on Gong Youyuan’s preferences.
Since she often wrote late into the night and didn’t want to wake her mother for food, her usual late-night orders were…
Tripe noodles, barbecue, roasted pig brain, and so on.
Her food delivery app history was filled with such items.
As for candied haws…
She rarely went out and only had childhood memories of buying candied haws from street vendors.
Although there were candied hawthorn delivery options, they were often overly fancy, filled with glutinous rice, red bean paste, mung bean paste, and even durian.
She wasn’t interested and simply added candied hawthorn chains to her novel to express her longing.
However… she didn’t seem to have given the shop a name.
Qiyou Candied Haws… was it an AI-generated name, like an AI-generated continuation?
But in any case…
Yan Chuyue bit into a candied hawthorn. The sweet, sugary coating and the tangy fruit inside…
Perfect!
It was exactly the taste she remembered.
However, as she happily munched on her candied fruit, she completely forgot about the main course. The girl opposite her, however, was staring at the bowl of pig brain…
Lost in thought.
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it…”
Before she could finish, Yan Chuyue interrupted, “You clearly don’t like it.”
She said confidently, “I know that look. My brother, ahem, a friend of mine used to get nauseous at the sight of this. He wouldn’t even let me put it in the hotpot.”
Well…
Gong Yiling felt a bit awkward.
It seemed everyone who disliked pig brain had similar reactions.
Before they parted ways, she had strictly forbidden her sister from putting pig brain in the spicy hotpot.
In the end, Gong Youyuan could only reluctantly put it in the clear soup, then drench it in chili oil before eating it.
When asked if she enjoyed eating pig brains as much as pigs did, her sister replied,
“Dummy brother’s brain is worse than pig brain.”
Ah…
That was a long time ago.
Gong Yiling chuckled awkwardly. “I lack… the worldly desire for pig brain.”
“Just try it.” Yan Chuyue picked up a small piece with her chopsticks and held it to Gong Yiling’s lips. “It’s like tofu with a meaty flavor. It’s delicious.”
Miss Gong shook her head. “No.”
“Just a little.”
“No.”
“Just one bite.”
“No, no!”
Yan Chuyue stood up and brought the pig brain closer, while Miss Gong stubbornly leaned back.
Just as she reached the limit of the chair’s tilt, a figure in ragged clothes suddenly appeared, snatched the pig brain and chopsticks from Yan Chuyue’s hand, and swallowed it whole.
“Munch, munch, munch.”
The figure chewed, making a strange crunching sound. “Cooked brains are alright.”
Yan Chuyue: “???”
Gong Yiling: “???”
What was going on?
Suddenly appearing and snatching their food, then saying such a strange thing.
Did she/he/it usually eat raw brains?
“Ah.”
The strange cloaked figure noticed their gazes and asked, “Have you two seen a bad guy?”
“Bad guy?”
“Uh… how do I describe it…” The figure gestured wildly. “This young lady’s house, so big, so big, so big, suddenly exploded! And then the person ran away! I don’t even know who did it!”
Exploded a house?
Gong Yiling frowned.
Who would randomly blow up someone’s house? That was just asking for trouble.
Yan Chuyue, looking at the broken chopsticks, said with a wry smile, “Without any specific characteristics, we can’t help you.”
“Characteristics… it was someone from a powerful sect on the Hundred Paths Mountain, I think. It was called…”
The cloaked figure struggled to remember.
Finally, she/he/it scratched their head and said with a sigh, “Forget it, you humans have such strange names. How would I remember?”
“The brains are alright, but not spicy enough. I’m leaving.”
The figure came and went quickly. Besides a few strands of silver hair peeking out from under the hood, they didn’t notice anything else about their appearance.
Yan Chuyue: “Who was that?”
Gong Yiling: “I have no idea.”
Yan Chuyue: “Snatching someone’s food like that is so rude.”
Gong Yiling: “She didn’t even seem human. Did you hear what she said? ‘You humans’.”
Could it be… a half-demon or a demonic beast in human form?
But her question was strange. Why would a sect from the Hundred Paths Mountain randomly blow up her house…?
“Forget it.” Yan Chuyue tossed aside the broken chopsticks and picked up another pair, poking at the bowl of pig brain.
The interruption seemed to have made her forget about feeding Gong Yiling, and she happily finished the dish herself.
Seeing the empty bowl, Gong Yiling sighed in relief, grabbed some barbecue from Yan Chuyue’s side, and ate it with her mediocre beef soup.
They continued exploring the night market, trying various snacks even Yan Chuyue had never seen before.
Finally, when they were almost too full to walk, they sat down at a riverside pavilion, usually deserted except during festivals.
“This is much better than the leftovers at the Yan Estate.”
Yan Chuyue leaned back on her hands, swinging her legs. Her lips, although not painted, were a vibrant red from the spicy food.
“When are you planning to leave the Yan Estate?” Gong Yiling asked casually. “After your father’s death, that’s no longer your home.”
Yan Chuyue stuck out her tongue. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“Haven’t decided?”
“The world is so big,” Yan Chuyue smiled. “Where should I go after leaving the Yan Estate?”
She wasn’t the decisive Yan Chuyue from her novel, just a reclusive writer.
If she had Yan Chuyue’s courage, she wouldn’t have been a coward for so long, unable to confront her father and tell him—”You were wrong!”
“Don’t want to go to the Hundred Paths Mountain?” Gong Yiling tried to recall what Yan Chuyue was supposed to be doing at this point—she should be struggling against her adoptive family, ambushed by the Second Elder, then rescued by Jiang Chenmo.
Well.
None of that would probably happen.
Thanks to Gong Yiling…
Yan Chuyue hadn’t even met Jiang Chenmo yet, even suspecting he had been killed during his intrusion into the Blood Orchid Palace.
If the male lead died midway… what would happen next…?
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