Terrible at Cooking? The System Makes My Random Street Stall a Smash Hit

Lin Le, 25, unemployed. Area of expertise: being unemployed.

He inherited the snack shop his grandmother left behind, only to discover a cruel fact: she had passed down the shop, but not her cooking skills.

He could burn instant noodles to the pot and turn fried eggs into charcoal. Three days after opening, his only customer was a mouse, which glared at him after eating, its eyes saying, “That’s it?”

Just as he was about to put up a “Shop for Sale” sign, a voice suddenly rang in his head:

Ding! The Random Street-Stall System has been activated!

Rules: Each week, you’ll get a random location and a random recipe. Sell enough servings, and the cooking skill becomes permanently yours.

Lin Le: “Wait, who are you? Shouldn’t we have a video interview first? I really can’t cook!”

The System ignored him and assigned his first mission: sell soup dumplings outside a park.

Lin Le looked at the mission, then at his stove, which he couldn’t even get lit, and fell silent for three seconds.

Then he wheeled out his grandmother’s beat-up tricycle and set off.

On the first day, the city inspectors chased him for three blocks.

On the second day, customers chased him for half a block.

On the third day, someone ran after him yelling, “Boss! I’ve been waiting in line for two hours! Where are you?!”

Pedaling away on his tricycle, Lin Le looked back and called out, “Can you all get your stories straight? Do you want me to run or not?”

Later, his stall became famous across the city. The customers set up a group chat to post his whereabouts in real time, giving themselves the codename “Pursuing Happy Snacks.”

Meanwhile, Lin Le was squatting in his shop, which was nearly overgrown with mushrooms, trying to negotiate with the mouse:

“How about we go into business together? I’ll run the stall, you taste-test, and if anything goes wrong, you take the blame.”

The mouse turned and walked away.