Chapter 30 - 29: Threat

Chapter 30: Chapter 29: Threat

Thanks to the academy’s generous food subsidies, the students’ daily diet was already of a much higher standard than that of ordinary people. Even when starving, they rarely wolfed down their food without any table manners.

But today, scenes like this were cropping up all over the vast cafeteria.

Some held a golden, deep-fried stick, inhaling it like a storm along with their soy milk. The moment they finished, they immediately went to buy a few more to keep devouring;

Others picked up flat fried cakes, golden on the outside and snow-white within. Three bites and a piece was gone; a whole plate disappeared into their stomachs in the blink of an eye, leaving them licking the brown sugar syrup from the corners of their mouths, still craving more;

Still others held a fluffy, snow-white cake with a brown layer in the middle, cradling it in their hands. They savored it bite by careful bite, as if enjoying a high-end dessert, their faces alight with rapture.

The rice cakes, made using traditional methods, were fluffy and chewy. They had a springy bite and a denser texture. The aroma of rice, combined with the slight tang from fermentation and the subtle sweetness of starch melting on the tongue, created a much more complex flavor. This was far beyond the quality of anything sold at the street stalls outside.

Everyone was incredibly glad they’d decided to visit the new stall. And such a delicious treat cost less than ten original coins!

What a steal!

The students ate to their hearts’ content, and Ning He reached her sales goal for the day.

All of their prepared stock was sold out.

They didn’t even have enough fried dough sticks to meet demand.

They had used thirty jin of flour to make over four hundred fried dough sticks, and not a single one was left.

Total revenue was a little over 1,000 original coins. With a 20% gross margin, that meant a profit of around 200.

Connie was very satisfied.

At this profit rate, the monthly share for her and Ah Huai would be about the same as when they ran their noodle shop. Once the fermented rice dishes were on the menu, it would probably be even more.

Ning He wiped the sweat from her brow and sighed in relief.

She had made good on her boast. It felt like she had made amends, and she could finally hold her head high in front of Connie.

The students gradually finished their breakfast and headed to class, while the other stalls began their end-of-service cleaning.

The cleaning was left to Connie and Ah Huai, while Ning He continued with the next step for the fermented rice.

Just as she put the soaked rice into the steamer, a cool female voice suddenly came from outside the window:

"Isn’t that Ning He? Why is a dignified Third-level Chef running a Zero-level Stall?"

"Oh, right, I remember now. You got dumped by your boyfriend, didn’t you? I heard you even jumped into a river? Tsk, tsk. I never thought you’d dare to come back. I really have to admire your nerve! Then again, it’s not that surprising. You’ve always been this shameless!"

The three busy workers all stopped what they were doing. Ning He turned to see a young woman with blue hair. She quickly searched her past self’s memories for information about her.

Alisa. She, too, had once been a fervent admirer of Qiu Luo, but Ning He’s past self had beaten her to the punch, and she’d held a grudge ever since.

No wonder her words were laced with so much hostility from the get-go.

’So that’s it. Sparks really do fly when love rivals meet!’

Ning He put her hands on her hips and laughed out loud.

"It’s me! I just couldn’t bear to be away from everyone in the cafeteria, so I came back! Alisa, how have you been? Found a boyfriend yet? Is your mom nagging you to go on blind dates again? Ai, to be honest, with standards as high as yours, I’m really worried you’ll never get married. Who knows when the next Qiu Luo will come along? And even if he does, what if he ends up falling for me instead?"

"I think you’d be better off focusing on your career. But you’ve been studying under Uncle Qiao Na for so long, how come you still can’t pass the third-level exam? Why don’t you study with me instead? I won’t even charge you tuition. Just call me ’Teacher’ a couple of times for me to hear, how about it?"

PFFT—

Standing to the side, Connie couldn’t help but cover her mouth and let out a laugh.

"You—"

Ning He had hit her two biggest sore spots with a single comeback. Alisa’s face flushed red with anger. Her mouth opened and closed, but she couldn’t think of anything to say in rebuttal. Finally, she glared, stomped her foot, and pointed a finger at Ning He, spitting out viciously:

"Don’t celebrate too early. It’s not even certain this stall can stay open. The day you have to pack your bags and leave, I’ll be sure to come and see you off! Hmph!"

’My, the girl talks a big game.’

Ning He watched Alisa’s furious back as she stormed away, shook her head, and got back to work.

"Who was that? She seems to have a big problem with you," Connie asked, somewhat curious.

Ning He was unconcerned. "It’s just a squabble between girls. Don’t worry about it."

"It won’t affect our business, will it?"

"It won’t come to that. Who has the power to sway that many students? Don’t worry."

Connie didn’t press the issue. Once she finished cleaning, she and Ah Huai helped pack the steamed rice into clean, dry stainless steel containers, sealed them, and placed them in a temperature-controlled box to ferment.

The rice fermentation would take one to two days, which meant the fermented rice dishes should be on the menu the day after tomorrow.

Everything was going according to plan.

The supplier’s sales quota for a Level 0 stall was a total of 100 jin of ingredients per day. At this rate, they could definitely meet it. As for the approval rating, judging by today’s popularity, satisfaction certainly wouldn’t be low.

They had a very good chance of taking first place in the comprehensive evaluation!

Ning He left the cafeteria with her head held high. Connie noticed she was still wearing her hat and mask, looking like she was trying to avoid being recognized, and found it odd.

"I wanted to ask you back there, why were you hiding in the back the whole time? Don’t tell me your reputation stinks not just in the cafeteria, but in the entire academy?"

Ning He’s heart dropped. She gave an awkward laugh, a bitterness she couldn’t explain.

Her past self had been completely love-addled and was extremely possessive of Qiu Luo. If any female student so much as glanced at him or said one extra word to him, her past self would hunt them down for a fight, threatening and shouting at them to stay away.

Even Qiu Luo’s male classmates would be bombarded with resentful glares if they took up too much of his free time.

In short, at the Mecha Academy, her past self was like a cockroach—public enemy number one!

Seeing her silence, Connie immediately guessed the truth. She managed to bite back a sarcastic remark and offered some stiff words of comfort.

"It’s... it’s fine, as long as it doesn’t affect the business. You’re not that... annoying now. Maybe in the future, everyone will realize they... misunderstood you."

Ning He nodded. "It definitely won’t be a problem. Who’s going to argue with delicious food?"

Ning He wasn’t just saying that to be optimistic. Her past self’s stall had never been affected by her reputation; business had always been pretty good. Now that Qiu Luo was gone, things couldn’t possibly get worse, right?

Ning He didn’t worry too much about it. She took a car back and had a wonderful, long nap.

Meanwhile, Alisa, stewing with anger, stayed in the cafeteria all the way until dinnertime.

A small group entering for dinner was particularly eye-catching. Their uniforms were a darker color, their epaulets bore a single short bar, and though they looked travel-worn, their spirits were high.

They were students from the graduating class, just rotated back from the fortress outside the city. Unlike the junior students still busy with training and studies, they were already junior privates capable of carrying out missions.

The group walked into the cafeteria under the admiring and envious gazes of those around them, and everyone voluntarily made way for them to pass.

Alisa’s eyes lit up, and she ran over.

"Cousin Ito!"

The black-haired young man in the lead heard her and stopped, turning to look at Alisa with a smile.

"What are you doing here? Didn’t you go home?"

"Cousin, I need your help with something."

Alisa pulled Ito’s arm and led him to a corner, where she told him about the incident with Ning He that morning.

"Cousin, everyone hates her. How can someone like that still be allowed in the cafeteria? Just seeing her makes me lose my appetite."

At the thought of that girl, Ito’s brow furrowed involuntarily. "She’s back again? Seriously? I thought we wouldn’t have to see her anymore after Qiu Luo left. I can’t believe she’s still haunting this place."

"You’re right. Nobody here wants her around. It would be better for her to go somewhere else." Ito said, patting Alisa’s shoulder. "Leave this to me."