Disturbance in the Cafeteria
It was lunchtime at Lin Xian Central High. The broadcast in the cafeteria was currently playing an English cla.s.s, as it normally did.
Huang Qiao Yi sat at a table, eating as she asked Meng Ming across from her whether or not he had gotten used to China’s food yet.
Meng Ming said that he had. It had been a few days since school had started, and he had already eaten a few meals at the cafeteria. “So many people gathering in one area to eat is so lively, it feels pretty awesome!”
“But, where’s Lin Jing Xuan…? Why is he so slow.”
Their cla.s.smate, Lin Jing Xuan, finally got his food from the window, and sat together with them. Meng Ming moved over to give him s.p.a.ce and loudly said, “You’re way too slow. Does choosing a few dishes take that long?”
The three had originally planned on eating together, but Lin Jing Xuan had spent forever choosing his meal.
“…..” Lin Jing Xuan was currently chewing something in his mouth, and it sounded like a chant. He simply stared blankly ahead and didn’t reply.
Huang Qiao Yi wondered if he had even given thanks before the meal.
“Lin Jing Xuan!” Meng Ming shouted to break his thoughts.
“Wa…!” Lin Jing Xuan returned to his senses and said, “Cla.s.smate Meng Ming, don’t interrupt me from listening to the English.”
“English….?”
“Yes, the broadcast!” Lin Jing Xuan’s concentration had been broken, so he could no longer follow the broadcast. Thus, he gave up on it and said, “The broadcast uses English text. I want to listen closely and read along with it.”
“You’re too studious.” Huang Qiao Yi said.
Meng Ming nodded in agreement.
They were clearly eating right now, why must he listen to English─didn’t it spoil his appet.i.te?
It was said that there was an author that had a mother who played an English broadcast every day during breakfast when she was young. This caused her to feel like throwing up every time she even saw breakfast, even up until now.
“I need to use my time well. If I don’t study, I’ll fall behind!” Lin Jing Xuan waved his wooden chopsticks and pointed around the cafeteria, “Look!”
Following Lin Jing Xuan’s gestures, the two of them looked around at the tables.
All the students in the cafeteria were currently memorizing books as they ate. Some weren’t even eating their food as they crammed, while others were swallowing their food in single gulps in attempt to economize their time. Almost every student was using lunchtime to study!
“So amazing…” Meng Ming’s eyes were wide as he sighed.
“Carrying books on you everywhere is a must. Once one falls behind, it’s extremely hard to catch up!” Lin Jing Xuan said, then pulled out many small books from his bag and dumped them all on the table with a whoosh. “Look, this is all the vocabulary that I’ve needed to memorize recently.”
There were more booklets than food on the table.
Huang Qiao Yi felt that one had to properly eat during mealtimes. She said, “Thinking of other things while eating is bad for digestion.”
“You two stand out from the ma.s.ses, the both of you are more lax in your studies. We hardworking L-types will definitely find some other way to keep up with our nutrition!” Lin Jing Xuan said earnestly. This time, he pointed at the ordering window.
When they looked over, they saw a boy and a girl currently arguing.
─“Oi! I came first, so the last heap should be mine!”
─“This one has higher nutritional value, so it’s very precious! Just give it to me!”
Meng Ming felt that this was pretty ridiculous. Going hysterical for the sake of some meal was really unfathomable.
“Moreover, look at the side dishes on the tables.” Lin Jing Xuan pointed to other students’ dishes. “The meals are compatible with each other. They’ve all been meticulously planned out in order to allow more blood to travel to our brains and give us more nutrition! This is something that absolutely no student overlooks!”
“But….” Meng Ming looked around, and finally discovered a gla.s.ses-wearing girl not too far away, “What about her?”
She wasn’t even eating rice, and was currently chewing some bread.
“That, that….” Lin Jing Xian explained, “That’s a special case! Maybe her bread is some super nutritional bread?!”
……
Meng Ming and Huang Qiao Yi couldn’t hold back their laughter, “You’re too ridiculous, isn’t it just eating a meal….!”
As the two laughed, they suddenly heard a delicate, feminine cry from Meng Ming’s left.
The three turned around and saw that it was their cla.s.smate, Bai Jiu. She was currently standing next to Meng Ming with a plate in hand, in a state of shock.
When Huang Qiao Yi asked her what happened, Bai Jin finally noticed that her cla.s.smates were sitting at the table next to her. She was a bit too embarra.s.sed to answer, leading the three of them to stare at her in confusion. They hadn’t realized that Bai Jiu would actually be extremely afraid of having so many people’s eyes on her.
This made Bai Jiu even more embarra.s.sed. She didn’t speak, as she was embarra.s.sed that saying it would make her lose face. The atmosphere instantly became awkward.
Finally, she concentrated her attention with great effort and gathered her courage to say, “I, just now when I was walking back from ordering food, the vermicelli in my plate disappeared…”
“Disappeared?!” Meng Ming’s brows furrowed.
Actually, he had felt something strange just now. After hearing Bai Jiu’s words, he realized what it was.
The distinctive feeling just now was─a murderous aura.
“Did it fall off en route?” Huang Qiao Yi asked curiously.
But when they looked back, the floor was still sparkling clean. There wasn’t even single a grain of rice.
No! It definitely wasn’t dropped… Meng Ming thought: That feeling just now…right, the vermicelli was definitely stolen!
Bai Jiu had an extremely crestfallen expression; it looked like she really enjoyed eating vermicelli. Meng Ming glanced at the vermicelli in his own plate, and a brilliant idea suddenly popped up in his mind. He raised his chopsticks in his left hand. Alright, Zhuge Style Cheating Technique─Secret Exchange!
“Cla.s.smate Bai Jiu?” Meng Ming said. “Look closer. Are you sure you didn’t just overlook the vermicelli?”
“No, no way…” Bai Jiu didn’t believe that she could possibly overlook such a thing. But when she glanced back at her plate, “Ha? How…!”
The plate’s vermicelli had returned.
“As expected, you overlooked it!”
Huang Qiao Yi smiled as she invited Bai Jiu to sit with them to eat. At that moment, another wave of murderous aura flooded towards the vermicelli.
It’s coming….! Meng Ming calmly sensed the location of the murderous aura.
His left hand quickly reached his wooden chopsticks out to clamp down on that murderous aura as firmly as possible!
With a bang, his chopsticks caught another pair from behind him.
As expected, the student behind Meng Ming was trying to steal the food of anyone that pa.s.sed by!
“You fell for it.” Meng Ming’s chopsticks firmly held on as he whispered without even turning around: “My vermicelli wasn’t given away for her to eat, but to use it as bait to lure you in.”
“Hmph.” The food thief behind Meng Ming also didn’t turn around and replied, “Your hands are quite fast. But can you defeat me?”
The food thief retracted his right hand, as well as his chopsticks, and prepared to steal food from the next person pa.s.sing by!
Screech, Bang, Bang. A few soft sounds rang out as Meng Ming used his chopsticks to block all of the thief’s attempts to steal. The two of them were extremely fast, their hands invisible. In a mere moment, the two had exchanged blows many times without the other students knowing!
“Don’t you find it shameful to be stealing other people’s food.” [Meng Ming]
“Hmph, food is extremely important to a student. What is face? If there isn’t enough to eat, the brain can’t keep up.” [Food thief]
“Aren’t you afraid of affecting other students’ brains?”
“None of your business!”
The two quickly resumed their chopstick war as they fought with their hands beneath the table.
“Brother Meng Ming? Why aren’t you eating?” Huang Qiao Yi realized that Meng Ming was acting abnormally.
“Ah, I, I’m eating!” Meng Ming said.
Huang Qiao Yi saw that the food in front of Meng Ming hadn’t even been touched. Meng Ming smoothly said, “Um, the food, the food is too hot. I’ll eat it in a bit.”
During that moment they spoke, Meng Ming was careless!
Shua, the food thief managed to steal a piece of meat from another student pa.s.sing by.
“b.a.s.t.a.r.d, I didn’t have time to react!” [Meng Ming]
“Ha, you’re still lacking if you want to fight over food with me.” [Food thief]
As expected, this student was a habitual criminal accustomed to stealing food!
Meng Ming thought that if he was using his right hand, he definitely wouldn’t lose. In addition, he had just returned to China, so he wasn’t 100% familiar with chopsticks yet.
What do I do…chopsticks are straight, so I can’t firmly hold onto his. If it continues on like this, I can’t possibly stop him, Meng Ming a.n.a.lyzed. Then, let’s see what happens if I destroy his chopsticks!
Meng Ming raised his chopsticks and fiercely swiped them across the table: Zhuge Style Cheating Technique─
The ends of Meng Ming’s chopsticks instantly began to burn.
Just as the thief behind him was about to attack another student, Meng Ming caught him with his flaming chopsticks. The two pairs of chopsticks were firmly deadlocked.
“Hmph, you’re still trying to fight me?!” [Food thief]
“This time is different.” Meng Ming hinted for him to look at the chopsticks.
The food thief looked down, and discovered that his chopsticks had started to burn!
“What?! How, how did the chopsticks catch on fire?” He hurriedly retracted his.
Meng Ming waved his blazing chopsticks and said, “If you continue to steal food, I’ll continue to stop you. Eventually, your chopsticks will be burned to ashes.”
Seeing such a powerful move, the food thief’s right hand began to shake. However, he didn’t panic entirely, and immediately thought of a plan to counter!
He stuck his chopsticks into his soup, stirring them around, and dipping them many times!
He then continued to steal food.
Meng Ming still used the flaming chopsticks to stop him, but the thief’s chopsticks had been dipped in water, and could no longer catch fire!
How is that possible?! Meng Meng thought. Even if you dipped the chopsticks in soup, there should still be some oil in it!
“Hmph, I’m sorry to say this,” the food thief said snidely. “But there is absolutely no oil in any of the school’s food!”
“That’s a thing?!” Meng Ming had miscalculated.
“That’s why, I’m sure you understand why I’m stealing food.”
Meng Ming hurriedly retracted his chopsticks. If he continued on like this, his own chopsticks would burn to ashes. He could only extinguish the flames and start thinking of a new method!
As he stared at his own food, he suddenly discovered something!
That’s it! He picked up his chopsticks and began to secretly stir them in his food.
Seeing the food thief try to steal from another student, Meng Ming once again used his own chopsticks to intercept!
Bang, the two pairs crossed over again.
“How persistent! Why are you still blocking me?!” The food thief was getting impatient.
“This is the last time.” Meng Ming said, indicating for the thief to look at their chopsticks again.
The food thief looked, and was overwhelmed with shock!
The two chopsticks were firmly tied together with hair!
Meng Ming said, “Thanks to you, I was reminded of the distinguishing features of this school’s cafeteria food. I discovered this hair in my food just now; it’s really st.u.r.dy isn’t it?”
“How despicable!” The food thief wanted to retract his chopsticks, but the hair was firmly tied around them, and he couldn’t pull his chopsticks free for his life.
“Just let go.” Meng Ming said.
“Based on the way you tied them together, if I let go…these shoddy chopsticks will break apart!” The food thief refused to let go.
“Then you won’t eat anymore?”
“Give me a break, you’re in the same situation.” He knew that Meng Ming also couldn’t release his chopsticks; if he did, his chopsticks would break just as well.
The two were deadlocked, back to back. Neither of them were willing to let go.
“Oi, hurry up and let go, I’m hungry!”
“You let go first! I also want to eat!”
Time pa.s.sed, minute after minute, second after second. The two of them still refused to let go. They stared at the food on their plates, but they couldn’t eat it.
“Brother Meng Ming?” Huang Qiao Yi and the rest had already finished eating. When she saw that Meng Ming’s food was still strangely untouched, she asked, “Is the food today not to your liking?”
“Cla.s.smate Meng Ming…?” Bai Jiu also found it odd.
Lin Jing Xuan also said, “Zhuge Meng Ming, you chose the food yourself. Don’t be picky.”
“I, I, the food is still too hot…!” Meng Ming’s left hand was still tied to the right hand of the person behind him.
Huang Qiao Yi said, “But we’re already done eating. We’re about to leave.”
“Little Qiao, you guys leave first. Don’t worry about me.” Meng Ming said with a bitter smile.
The three of them still felt that it was extremely strange.
However, after Meng Ming requested it once more, they picked up their dishes and talked as they walked away, leaving the cafeteria. Before they left, they still threw looks at Meng Ming.
The number of people in the cafeteria decreased further and further. The atmosphere also became colder and lonelier. Most of the students had left, but the two of them were still deadlocked!
“You, how long do you plan on fooling around!” [Meng Ming]
“That’s my question! Hurry up and let go, otherwise the cleaning staff will take away our food!” [Food thief]
Finally, the entire cafeteria had cleared out. The cleaning staff walked over and said, “Did you two finish eating?” She then took their plates and began walking towards the garbage can.
At that moment, the two people finally let go at the same time, and hurriedly chased after her.
“Hey, hurry up and give back our food!!”