"Hey, ladies, it's already half past ten! Let's go line up at the dining hall!"

"Huh? Why do we need to go there so early today? Did Senior Brother Jiang come up with a new dish again?"

"New dish, my foot! You only care about eating, don't even know what's going on around!"

"What is it?"

"Haven't you noticed that recently, a lot of unfamiliar faces have been coming to the Seventh Dining Hall?"

"Well, isn't that normal? We have so many students here, lots of whom we haven't met."

"You need to learn to observe! Didn't you see all those cars parked on the street outside the dining hall? There was even a minibus before!"

"I saw it too. You mean these people are outsiders?"

"What else? They must have come over after watching live-streaming videos. I'm worried that more and more will come, making it harder for us to even buy a meal."

"Oh man, if that's true, what are we students supposed to do? This is our Seventh Dining Hall!"

"There's nothing we can do for now, so we have to go line up early to grab some food first."

"Then hurry up! You know if we go late, all the dishes will be snatched up, and yet you're still standing here talking endlessly?"

"…"

Oh, come on! If you hadn't been asking all sorts of things, would I have said so much to you?!

…

Just past ten-thirty, there were already clusters of students queuing up at the dining hall's serving window. Most of these were students without morning classes, accustomed to the flavors of the Seventh Dining Hall's dishes and naturally unwilling to eat the tasteless and forgettable meals at other halls.

A group lined up, chatting casually about school matters. Suddenly, three business cars stopped by the road outside the dining hall.

Everyone froze and turned to look through the floor-to-ceiling glass wall, watching as the car doors opened and about twenty men and women poured out.

From their attire alone, it was obvious they weren't students. After getting out, they gathered together and walked straight toward the Seventh Dining Hall.

Previously, outsiders never visited the Seventh Dining Hall so early. They mostly arrived when the dining hall was in operation, when there were plenty of students dining, and even if ten or twenty showed up, no one paid much attention.

After all, who would focus on a few strangers when there are delicious dishes on the plates?

But this time was different, with hardly any students in line yet. So many outsiders suddenly coming definitely caught the students' attention.

"Are these outsiders here to eat at the Seventh Dining Hall too?"

"It's almost noon, why else would they be at the dining hall? I've noticed many outsiders coming over these few days!"

"Ugh! How can this be? This is our student dining hall, and they're here to compete for food with us!"

"It's all because those live-streaming influencers attracted them. If it weren't for the live streams, who would know how good our Seventh Dining Hall is?"

"Saying all this is useless. Everyone outside already knows. Now we can only hope someone takes charge of this."

"The dining hall can't manage this. We can't just stop people from coming in; this has to be decided by the school's administration."

"Then we're doomed. If too many people come, we still have classes. Don't let it happen that we won't get to eat at all."

"…"

The students in line were indignant, yet helpless.

Who knows where these strangers came from, but once inside the dining hall, they looked around curiously and voiced praises:

"This dining hall is really nice, with its modern decor, completely unlike the old-fashioned style of other dining halls. The floor-to-ceiling glass walls in the front and back make this small dining hall feel much more spacious, and the lighting is excellent!"

"Watching the live stream initially, I didn't quite believe this was a school dining hall, thought it might be the executive dining hall of some internet company. Look at this location, surrounded by lush trees with winding paths, just like a paradise."

"The Seventh Dining Hall backing all this is definitely not lacking; I'm starting to believe the food must be delicious here!"

"Of course it's delicious. We came so early, thinking there wouldn't be many people in the dining hall, but there are already students queued up."

"…"

As they were talking, their gazes involuntarily shifted to the students lining up.

A young woman, curious, walked to the end of the line and smiled at a tall male student in front of her, softly asking:

"Hello, why have you come so early to line up?"

"Because I'm hungry."

The tall male student glanced at her lightly and uttered a few words.

The students queued up were quite fired up; this is our school dining hall, why are you outsiders coming over to stir up things?

And judging by the situation, the number of visitors will probably only increase in the future.

The Seventh Dining Hall isn't that big, we barely have enough of Senior Brother Jiang's dishes for ourselves, damn it, if you guys snatch them all up, will we students go hungry?

If someone drove you to go hungry, could you still be polite to them?

"Be-because I'm hungry?"

The young woman, hearing this answer, was puzzled with a head full of questions. She instinctively asked again,

"Then why don't you go to other cafeterias? You don't have to queue at the others, and you can get food anytime without waiting, right?"

The tall guy turned his head this time to seriously examine her. This lady has a bit of a brain freeze, can't she tell I don't want to talk to her?

Pausing for a moment, he didn't directly answer her question but slowly asked back:

"Miss, I noticed your car plates are from out of town. Did you all come from far away? What are you doing at the Seventh Dining Hall?"

The young woman answered, "Yes, we drove for half a day just to eat at the Seventh Dining Hall."

"Then why did you travel so far and go through such trouble? Why not eat at home?"

The tall guy tugged at the corner of his mouth and continued to ask,

"Even if home isn't an option, there are restaurants nearby. This way, you don't need to drive for half a day or queue and fight for food. You can eat your fill. Isn't that better?"

"..."

The young woman suddenly felt a little dizzy.

She had a slight suspicion that this guy didn't quite welcome them to eat at the Seventh Dining Hall...

Tall guy: No need to doubt, you can be certain.

...

An hour later, the queue in front of the serving window at the Seventh Dining Hall stretched nearly a hundred meters outside. From afar, it looked quite spectacular.

The cafeteria had already started serving, but the long line, like a slow-moving worm, only edged forward little by little.

Liu Xiaohu and the others, who showed up late and were positioned towards the back of the line, appeared a bit annoyed. Every now and then, they craned their necks out from the queue, peeking ahead, and muttered in dissatisfaction:

"Damn, why are there more and more people these days? We just came a little late, and now the line's almost reaching the sports field. Even when we were late before, it was never like this!"

Recently, the grueling training had ended. Although the bellies were still there, and the added weight hadn't dropped, both Liu Xiaohu, Du Hua, and Yao Xuehui surprisingly returned to their peak performance levels.

Even the coach found it somewhat unbelievable, at one point even considering that if they could shed those bellies and drop weight, their performance might improve even more.

Considering everyone's tolerance for exercise, he thought about it for a long time and eventually decided against continuing the intense training.

With training back to normal, Liu Xiaohu and the others finally had the chance to sneak over to the Seventh Dining Hall for a feast. Of course, every time they indulged their appetites, they had to endure an extra round of workout pain.

Otherwise, consuming too many calories, once turned into fat, would be disastrous.

They definitely didn't want to endure the pain of grueling training again.

"See all those cars parked over there? They're all from out of town."

Du Hua pointed to a nearby piece of land cluttered with over a dozen vehicles of various colors, even a beige minibus among them. He continued,

"Those outsiders, either influenced by a viral live stream or promoted by Liu Xining and Xie Siqi, came all the way just to taste the dishes at the Seventh Dining Hall."

"Whoa! That car's plate is from Beijing!"

Yao Xuehui exclaimed before he could finish, pointing at a white SUV with a shocked expression,

"Damn it, is there no food in Beijing? They drove all the way from so far north to Jiangzhou for a meal. I truly admire this old trickster!"

"What are you thinking? Who told you that just because a car plate is from Beijing, the owner must be in Beijing?"

Hearing Yao Xuehui, Liu Xiaohu couldn't help but feel a belly full of complaints to vent. He patted his shoulder and said earnestly,

"Little brother, where the plate is from doesn't matter; what matters is where the car is, got it? This SUV might be stationed in Jiangzhou for years!"

After speaking, he quickly brought the topic back, looking disgruntled,

"Now with so many outsiders coming into the cafeteria to compete with us students for food, we end up having nothing to eat. Doesn't the school plan to do something about this?"

"The school, do something?"

Du Hua chuckled wryly, somewhat speechless, and said,

"The other day, our school's official account on Douyin even posted a video welcoming students and parents to the campus for visits and inspections!"

"..."

Liu Xiaohu was dumbfounded, and after a moment, he finally said,

"Looks like we have to learn from the freshmen and sophomores!"

"???"

"!!!"

Both Du Hua and Yao Xuehui glanced at each other, finding each other's faces equally confused.

They had no idea what Liu Xiaohu meant.

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