"We called out our dishes first; there aren’t even those dishes available in the cafeteria, let alone the others?" The one who spoke was the seemingly older of the two senior students, wearing a pair of scholarly black-framed glasses. As soon as she spoke, Zhang Yiyi was at a loss for words. She seldom called out dishes by name during meals, not to mention anything else—she didn’t even know what the "scallop fish" dish was called.
Despite what’s said, when people get really hungry, they can do anything. Plus, Zhang Yiyi was an athlete; whether it was height or vocal power, she was not going to lose to them.
"You must have failed your elementary Chinese, right? There are only three dishes at this counter: this one, that one, and the other one makes three exactly. It’s like calling someone ’you’ or ’her.’" Zhang Yiyi wasn’t someone who would agree with everything.
"What are you talking about? You’re just a freshman. I’m telling you, I’m robbing your dishes. Keep shouting, and you won’t have good days ahead," the tall female student standing behind the bespectacled girl said, looking about the same height as Zhang Yiyi.
As she was about to step forward and take action, she was stopped by the bespectacled girl: "Xiao Ke, let it go. If word gets out, people will say we in the student council bully freshmen." She didn’t even glance at Zhang Yiyi, only smiling as she said to the master chef, "Master Yu, could you please help us serve the dishes? Xiao Ke and I just finished compiling the feedback forms for the new semester. That’s why we’re late."
The master chef heard them; feedback forms also meant cafeteria feedback forms. The student council played a pivotal role in Sacred Heart Middle School, representing the opinions of over four thousand students from both the high school and middle school divisions.
The master chef thought, if there were many complaints targeting the cafeteria, it would affect the year-end bonuses. With money on the line, he was fearless against any challenge. With one swoop of the serving spoon, not to mention the meat, even the meat juices were scraped clean from the shiny stainless steel serving trays.
"Excuse me, freshman." The bespectacled girl amusingly glanced at Zhang Yiyi’s frustrated face. At that moment, Xiao Xian happened to be carrying his tray and walked over, freezing upon encountering the bespectacled girl.
"It’s you," Xiao Xian recognized the bespectacled girl by her glasses, dull and rigid, a pair that screamed bookworm.
The vice president of the student council and also the vice-captain of the basketball team, Xiao Ke, proudly carried her food and soup, curious about the odd expression on Zeng Xuerou’s face after seeing Xiao Xian. "Do you know each other?"
"Do not know him, just some unreasonable country bumpkin," Zeng Xuerou said lightly after seeing the student ID hanging around Xiao Xian’s neck.
With her rice still steaming hot right after the lunchtime rush, the cafeteria aunts hadn’t had time to clean up the tables. Zeng Xuerou and Wang Ke went around in search of a clean table but couldn’t find one and ended up sitting by a table near the dishwashing area.
This generation of students, all being only children, pampered by grandparents and adored by parents, had very poor self-care skills. To cultivate practical skills, Sacred Heart Cafeteria not only provided tables but also a row of taps and sinks; students were expected to avoid leftover food and clean their used dishes and utensils themselves before handing them over for centralized sterilization.
"I’m not eating anymore. I’ve never had to eat with so much resentment," Zhang Yiyi pouted, disgusted by the two bowls of tomato egg soup that Xiao Xian had lined up to get for her. The braised pork was gone, and all that was left of the scallop fish were pieces of tail; without meat, how was she supposed to have her meal.
"It’s already purchased, just make do and eat it. I see there are a few lion’s head meatballs left over there. They’re sort of meaty, I’ll go get them." Xiao Xian saw the quarrel earlier, seniors bullying freshmen—shameless.
Whether it was deliberate or not, Zeng Xuerou and Wang Ke ate particularly slowly, chatting and laughing as they ate. Xiao Xian and her group had finished eating, but the other two still had more than half of their meal left.
"Just looking at them annoys me. They claim to be from the student council, yet they’re so exclusive," Zhang Yiyi’s stomach was full, but her mouth wasn’t, and she needed to retort a few times to be happy.
Xiao Xian didn’t retort, instead, she held two bowls of leftover soup and with a "swoosh," poured it all into the leftover food bin.
The leftover soup, as if it had eyes, carried a mix of residues and splashed precisely onto Zeng Xuerou’s meal. The observant Zhang Yiyi also noticed that the girl named Wang Ke ended up with fish stains on her face.