Chapter 347: New Stall Owner

Chapter 347: Chapter 347: New Stall Owner

A faint, familiar aroma wafted out from within.

Lily Hart hurriedly squeezed through the crowd. She was thin and nimble, so she reached the center in no time.

The starch sausage machine wasn’t very big, with about twenty slots. Right now, every slot held a sausage.

The sausages were rolling on their own. Some sides were already fried to a golden brown. You could tell at a glance they were authentic starch sausages.

The kind without a single shred of meat!

Just like the countless customers around her, Lily Hart’s eyes were glued to the dozens of sausages, even though she had just eaten her fill.

She vaguely recalled someone scratching off a prize for a sausage griller before, but this was different.

This one could only cook starch sausages, whereas the other one could handle meat sausages, corn sausages, and the like.

The owner of the starch sausage machine was a little flustered. It was her first time winning such a grand prize, and she felt anxious.

She wanted to find Boss Hart to calm her nerves. Scanning the crowd, she spotted her right in the middle of it.

She abandoned her machine and hurried over, grabbing Lily Hart by the wrist.

"Boss Hart, you’re finally here," the machine’s owner said, her voice tinged with grievance.

Anyone who didn’t know better would think she had suffered some terrible injustice.

"Huh? What’s wrong? Am I late?" Lily Hart asked.

The machine’s owner shook her head. "No, no." She was just worried that someone would cause trouble once the sausages were ready.

She pulled Lily Hart over to the machine. The aroma was even stronger now, reawakening Lily’s cravings.

"The first one’s for you, okay, Boss Hart?" the machine’s owner seemed to notice and promised.

Hearing this, Lily Hart immediately nodded. "Okay, okay."

Just as she spoke, the machine let out a "DING." The batch of starch sausages was ready.

The surrounding customers began to stir restlessly, all wanting a piece of the pie—by paying for it, of course.

In the crowd, some swallowed hard, some had bloodshot eyes, and some clenched their fists.

For some reason, the machine’s owner felt a pang of anxiety. She felt the gazes of the people around her were strange.

It was as if they were about to rush up and snatch the sausages at any moment.

’Boss Hart is here, so they wouldn’t dare,’ she reassured herself. ’Besides, there’s the breakfast shop and the factory right here. Why would they need to rob me?’

Lily Hart took the starch sausage she was handed and took a bite. It was the same familiar taste, completely unchanged.

A pure starch sausage without a single shred of meat!

"You won’t be able to eat all these by yourself. You can set up a stall at the night market tonight and sell them," Lily Hart suggested.

The machine’s owner nodded repeatedly. She couldn’t ask for more!

She had wanted to bring it up herself but was afraid Boss Hart would disagree, so she had kept it to herself. At the night market, she would be under Boss Hart’s protection, one of her people.

Lily Hart, satisfied after eating a free starch sausage, smiled. "If you want, you can start selling them now."

"Okay, okay, I’ll sell them now," the machine’s owner hastily agreed.

If there was money to be made, you had to seize the opportunity. Wasting no time, the machine’s owner immediately started hawking her wares.

Seeing this, Lily Hart took a few steps to the side so she wouldn’t block other customers.

The customers, who had long been tantalized by the aroma, swarmed forward with a RUSH when they heard her energetic cries.

The machine’s owner got busy. For a moment, she didn’t notice that Lily Hart had returned to her RV. She was so happily swamped that she could barely keep up with collecting the money.

A few people in the crowd exchanged glances, a flicker of jealous hatred in their eyes, and began pushing their way forward.

They pushed so hard that the customers in front of them were forced to move forward involuntarily. Wave after wave of people surged ahead, and soon they were right in front of the starch sausage machine.

The machine’s owner sold out the current batch and started a new one. When she looked up, she realized the customers were far too close.

That familiar sense of unease washed over her. She instinctively picked up her machine and took two steps back, but there were customers behind her as well.

They showed no sign of backing away; instead, they kept pressing forward.

She scanned her surroundings but didn’t see Lily Hart. Her panic intensified as she realized with horror that she seemed to be surrounded.

Mustering her courage, she shouted, "Everyone, please don’t push! There’s enough for everyone to buy!"

But no one listened to her. They just kept shoving forward, for reasons no one could quite understand.

In a daze, she saw her machine get knocked over. The starch sausages in the slots tumbled to the ground, where the surging customers trampled them into the mud, one foot after another.

When she came to her senses, all that was left on the ground was a puddle of starch sausages, ground into the mud and stained beyond recognition.

Her eyes turned red as she roared, "What are you doing?! Stop stepping on them! Stop it!"

She rushed forward, pushing the people away. ’Push them all away! Don’t let them step on my sausages! I worked so hard to win this...’

She cupped the unrecognizable muck in her hands, a lump forming in her throat that made it almost impossible to breathe. The feeling was unbearable.

"Why are you pushing? Can’t you see how many people are in front?!"

"Yeah, seriously! You made her drop all her sausages, and I didn’t even get to buy one!"

"Who keeps pushing from behind? I can’t even stand steady!"

"Stop pushing! I said, stop pushing!"

The chattering voices of the customers buzzed in her ears. She muttered to herself, "Who... who did this?"

A few people in the crowd revealed triumphant smirks, exchanged a look, and quietly slipped away.

Grief and indignation welled up inside her.

’I’m just an ordinary person. I haven’t awakened a superpower. I’ve always been so careful in everything I do, just so no one could hold anything against me.’

’A moment ago, I felt so anxious, afraid something unexpected would happen.’

’And it did...’ Her heart turned to ash. ’How could someone as cowardly and unlucky as me ever be qualified to run a stall at the night market?’

"What’s going on here?" Lily Hart’s voice was filled with confusion as she squeezed through the crowd.

She saw the girl, who had been so bright, optimistic, and energetic just moments before, now kneeling on the ground, her hair in disarray.

She was holding a handful of mud, and beside her lay the overturned starch sausage machine.

Lily Hart’s heart ached as she walked over, knelt down, and put an arm around the girl’s shoulder, asking softly, "What happened?"

Hearing the familiar voice, the girl abruptly looked up and met Lily Hart’s concerned, worried gaze.

The grievances she had just swallowed down somehow surged up again, and tears burst forth like a breaking dam.

Seeing this, Lily Hart frantically tried to wipe the tears away with her hands while earnestly comforting her, "It’s okay. The machine fell over, so we’ll just pick it up. We can start over!"

The girl shook her head, her sobs choked and silent as tears fell, PATTER, PATTER.

Lily Hart had returned to the RV earlier, so she didn’t know what had happened.

It was only when Diana Sharp told her the customers outside were getting restless that she came down to check, discovering that they were all gathered around something.

Not knowing what was going on, she had to push her way through with great effort, finally seeing the scene from moments before.

While telling her system to investigate what had just occurred, she helped the girl up and then set the machine upright.

"Come on, let’s go to the RV and talk," Lily Hart said, supporting her.

Only then did she notice that the girl’s clothes were exceptionally thin, and her pants were torn with several large holes.

When she had lunged forward to push those people away, she had been in such a hurry that she had torn her clothes even more.

Now, she looked utterly wretched.

All around them, a mixture of appraising, malicious, and jealous gazes fell upon her without restraint.

She kept her head down, wishing she could bury it in Lily Hart’s shoulder.