Yesterday, Lou Mi and I ate a big piece of steak. It was a normal portion for ordinary people, but it was too greasy for Chi Lin, who had been eating light food for a long time.
Except for the time when she first came here, Chi Lin ate a lot of high-sugar, high-fat and even junk food driven by curiosity. After gradually understanding the food production process of this era, she restrained herself a lot and began to continue to cultivate her body and mind.
Yesterday, Lou Mi was eager to take her out to eat something delicious, and she didn’t want to spoil the fun. After the meal, she felt a little indigestion and her stomach was bloated all night.
I can't eat too much today.
When she heard that Wei Zhuoning was going to the student cafeteria for lunch at noon, she asked Wei Zhuoning if she could go with her.
As far as she knew, there was a famous figure in the student cafeteria of Nanhu No. 3 Middle School—the auntie who served food in area A of the cafeteria.
This auntie who serves food is in charge of the most important area A in the cafeteria, and almost all the main dishes come from area A.
The auntie was very skilled and was able to scoop up only one piece of meat with each spoon. If there were two pieces, they would definitely be two pieces of minced meat, and she never made a mistake.
There was a time when artificial intelligence was on the rise and replaced a large number of low-skilled human jobs. Someone in the school proposed to replace the cafeteria auntie with AI, but it was not approved in the end.
The reason is that school leaders feel that the lunch lady knows how to save school costs better than AI.
Everyone complains about the school cafeteria being a rip-off, but Wei Zhuoning likes it.
Because she didn't have much demand for meat dishes, as long as she could have enough to eat, and the school cafeteria was cheap enough.
How can you have a full meal with 10 yuan these days
Wei Zhuoning doesn’t have enough pocket money this month. Whenever this happens, the school cafeteria is the best refuge.
Chi Lin had never been to the school cafeteria before, and she heard that she could eat a lot of vegetarian dishes, which just suited her appetite.
When Wei Zhuoning heard that she was going, his expression was a little awkward.
"Are you really going?"
"Yes."
"I don't care if you get a stomachache."
Chi Lin smiled and said, "Of course it has nothing to do with you. It's my own decision."
The two of them agreed to go to the cafeteria together.
"My lovely classmates, where are you going?"
The elusive Lin Xiaoying appeared from nowhere.
Wei Zhuoning had been avoiding her the whole morning, just wanting to avoid her. Unexpectedly, she was like a ghost behind him, and he would find her behind him even if he turned around.
Wei Zhuoning didn't want Lin Xiaoying to follow her, and wanted to say "It's none of your business where we go", but she didn't expect Chi Lin to speak faster than her and reveal the secret:
"School cafeteria, do you want to go with me?"
There was no reason for Lin Xiaoying not to go: "Yes, of course. I haven't had dinner with my former desk mate and my current desk mate yet."
Wei Zhuoning silently turned around and tried to escape, but Lin Xiaoying was quick to grab her arm and almost carried her all the way to the cafeteria.
Although the school cafeteria has been complained about for many years, poor students love it, respect it and cannot live without it.
Nanhu No. 3 Middle School is a public school with a large gap between the rich and the poor.
There are rich second-generations who have no worries about food and clothing and spend money lavishly, and there are also poor students who come from nearby towns to study in the city.
Rich students form cliques and never play with kids from poor families.
Those who come from middle-class families, or those who want to disguise themselves as mid-class, always joke that whether a family is poor or not depends on whether they go to the cafeteria to eat, as if the cafeteria is the standard for identifying poor people.
Chi Lin naturally didn't know about this tradition and was completely focused.
Wei Zhuoning didn't care about other people's ridicule, because his family background was indeed poor and there was nothing to say.
Her mother was young and ignorant, and her love was wasted. She got pregnant before marriage, and her boyfriend ran away when she was about to give birth, leaving her without a single hair left.
Her mother gave birth to her alone, worked very hard, and raised her by herself without asking anyone for help, yet she still endured the cold words from relatives.
Wei Zhuoning's grandparents thought that she and her daughter were a disgrace, so they only came to see her when she gave birth and took a few thousand dollars from her. They never came again after that.
After all, they have two sons.
This is contempt engraved in the bones and prejudice running in the blood.
Even if technology develops to the point where we can send humans out of the solar system, some harshness will not change and will truly whip the soul.
Of course, some families have the possibility of reconciliation and returning to warmth as before no matter what happens, but Wei Zhuoning and her mother are not so lucky.
Wei Zhuoning had a poor academic performance since she was young, but her mother never beat or scolded her. She even joked that a child's IQ mostly resembles that of their mother.
"If I were smart, my mother and I wouldn't have such a miserable life. It's all my fault. It's my fault that you can't learn it."
Her mother tried to persuade her daughter, not wanting her to make the same mistake:
"Academic performance cannot define your entire life. I just hope that you try your best in everything and leave no regrets. The most important thing is that you grow up happily."
She always kept in mind what her mother said to her. She once studied very hard, but her results were not satisfactory, especially in science.
Later she discovered that she had a talent for writing novels, so she wrote a random story and posted it on the site. Unexpectedly, someone actually read it.
Two months later, she received her first royalties in her life, more than 3,500 yuan, and was so happy that she couldn't sleep all night.
The next day, I took my mother to the mall and bought her a pair of shoes that she had liked for a long time but was reluctant to buy.
Wei Zhuoning writes diligently, both out of interest and to make money.
She hopes that after she makes money, her mother's life will be easier.
After all, her mother was only 20 years old when she gave birth to her. She went out to work while attending college to support her, and she gave up on taking the postgraduate entrance examination.
Having not had a good life for more than ten years, she hopes to change her family situation with her own abilities.
Wei Zhuoning knew that everyone laughed at people who went to the school cafeteria to eat as poor, but she was poor, so there was no need to hide it.
However, the two people who came with her today should not have been here at all.
Chi Lin, who wore a patched school uniform, was rumored to be from a poor family, but she went to school in a million-dollar luxury car.
And that day Wei Zhuoning accidentally saw a pendant falling out of Chi Lin's school uniform collar. It was a shining ring.
When Wei Zhuoning was writing novels, she particularly liked to write about this luxury brand of rings and recognized it at a glance.
The ring is one of a pair of couple rings and is very valuable.
The price of one ring is enough to eat in the school cafeteria for several years.
Chi Lin is a woman full of contradictions, and her family situation remains a mystery.
Lin Xiaoying, there is no misunderstanding, she is just a small rich woman.
Her parents are both entrepreneurs in express logistics. Both of their high-rise buildings in the city center are owned by the Lin family and can be considered landmarks in the city.
When she was in junior high school, she invited more than 20 close classmates to her home to celebrate her birthday. Wei Zhuoning and her friends almost got lost in the Lin family garden. After finally entering the house, her classmates exclaimed: "Lin Xiaowei, your living room is too big!"
Finally, Lin Xiaoying said, "This is my bedroom."
She is the biological daughter of RMB. She plays games in class all day long but her grades are as good as hell.
Wei Zhuoning felt a little pressured coming to the cafeteria with these two people.
Pushing open the door of the cafeteria, it was noisy and hot inside. As soon as Chi Lin entered the door, his ears were blurred by laughter and shouting. He could not hear what the people around him said, and the smell of food was overwhelming.
But she was not unaccustomed to this kind of place. When she was expelling the Hu bandits at the border before, she slept in the grass and there was not even such an environment.
Although she is a queen of a country, she has experienced and can endure hardships. She is not pretentious and instead thinks the school cafeteria is popular.
They finally got a seat. Lin Xiaoying asked Chi Lin to go get the food first while she and Wei Zhuoning waited here.
Wei Zhuoning was unwilling to stay: "Just you can take it all by yourself."
Lin Xiaoying: "How can I occupy a table for four people?"
Wei Zhuoning: "Just lie down and spread out."
Lin Xiaoying: “…”
It was a rare opportunity for Wei Zhuoning to gain the upper hand over her verbally, so she was in a good mood. She took Chi Lin's arm and went to get food with her.
Chi Lin didn't ask any questions, but was quietly observing the hidden emotions between the two.
Seeing that the two of them seemed to have no intention of being together but were actually in love, and were sticky and tangled, Chi Lin understood.
Lou Mi was right, the two of them really fell in love with each other over time.
Chi Lin ordered a plate of vegetarian dishes. Wei Zhuoning saw that she didn't have any meat dishes, and wondered if she had encountered any difficulties. Why didn't she eat any meat? Her school uniform pants were torn.
Wei Zhuoning gritted her teeth and ordered another chicken leg and put it on her plate:
"Eat more. You're so thin that you'll be blown away by the wind."
Chi Lin originally wanted to say that he just wanted to eat something light to cleanse his stomach, but he didn't want to let the other person down, so he could only thank him.
The two of them sat back in their seats. Lin Xiaoying was jealous of the chicken leg and asked Wei Zhuoning in a low voice:
"When will you be so nice to me?"
Wei Zhuoning ignored her. She sighed and went to buy food.
Chi Lin secretly watched their interactions, as if she was seeing how she and His Majesty interacted when they were young.
At the age of fifteen or sixteen, when love was just beginning, His Majesty often looked for opportunities to quarrel with her and find fault with her articles. It seemed that he was looking for trouble day and night, but in fact he was looking for an opportunity to get close to her and prolong his time alone.
At first, Chi Lin didn't understand. He just thought that the princess was really difficult to serve, so he had to bite the bullet and deal with her.
Now that time has passed and His Majesty has disappeared in the vast sea of people, Chi Lin has gradually realized things in others that he had never noticed before, which made him feel even more emotional.
Chi Lin was reminiscing about the past with His Majesty and did not notice when Xu Yifang and Jiao Minxuan walked up to her and fiddled with the food on her plate with chopsticks.
Xu Yifang fiddled with it savagely for a long time, making sounds of disgust as he did so.
Chi Lin and Wei Zhuoning both looked up at her. She sneered, threw her chopsticks into Chi Lin's plate, and said sharply:
"Oh, they are eating such plain food, without any meat at all. Tsk, tsk, tsk, so miserable. I feel sorry for them."
Jiao Minxuan sighed: "Alas, without Liu Huixin's support, this guy can't even afford meat."
Chi Lin calmly took the chopsticks away and ignored it.
Xu Yifang took out a plastic bag from her schoolbag. Inside the plastic bag was a fried pork chop. As she untied the plastic bag, she said:
"This is what I had left over from this morning. Even though it's soft, it still smells good. If you don't believe me, try smelling it."
Xu Yifang held the fried pork chop in front of Chi Lin's eyes, dropping all the batter crumbs on the table:
"Not only is it delicious, but it's also very expensive. A piece of pork chop must cost at least 20 yuan. You don't usually have the chance to eat this kind of high-end food, but I really ate too much and was too greasy to eat anymore. It's just a good deal for you. Don't thank me. Saving food is a virtue. Giving alms to anyone is not alms."
Wei Zhuoning: "Are you sick?"
Xu Yifang seemed to be frightened by her. His fingers loosened and the pork chop fell with a "pop" onto the greasy floor of the cafeteria which was covered with footprints.
"What's wrong with you? It's such a waste." Jiao Minxuan picked up the pork chop and said to Chi Lin with a smile,
"It seems that this pork chop was born for you. Even though it fell on the ground, it's still a piece of meat. You can still eat it after wiping off the dust. I'm sure you won't mind that your school uniform is patched. Here, I'll give it to you."
As he spoke, Jiao Minxuan's hand loosened, and the pork chop fell heavily into Chi Lin's plate, smashing the soup on the table.
People around were looking at them and whispering.
Wei Zhuoning was furious and said angrily:
"Are you deliberately looking for trouble to disgust me? Do you have nothing better to do? You are a bunch of idiots."
Xu Yifang turned around and glared, then grabbed Wei Zhuoning's plate and threw it out with force. The plate fell to the ground, and all the food was spilled, almost affecting other students who were passing by.
Amid the screams, the onlookers keenly noticed that the atmosphere here was not right. Could a fight be about to break out
"It seems to be from Class 6 of Senior 2."
"Isn't that person Chi Lin?"
"Chi Lin? The one who danced Bai Lu Wei Yi?"
"Wow, this is exciting, are we going to fight?"
"She should have brought a sword!"
Xu Yifang and Jiao Minxuan exchanged glances.
Now that I understand what’s going on, I can leave.
When they quickened their pace to leave, Xu Yifang's wrist was suddenly grabbed.
She looked back and saw that the person who pulled her was Chi Lin.
"I said, if you provoke me again, I won't be polite."
Chi Lin's terrifying look appeared again. Xu Yifang's wrist was almost broken by her pinch, and she couldn't break free no matter how hard she struggled.
Chi Lin's hands were like a pair of pliers.
"You... let go! You're hurting me!" Xu Yifang was so anxious that her face turned red and she struggled frantically.
Jiao Minxuan also pushed Chi Lin from the side: "Let her go! Why are you holding her?! Someone come! Someone is beating someone up!"
Everyone saw what happened here, but no one came to help. They all just watched.
How could Chi Lin let go? He held her tighter and tighter and twisted his hand. Amid Xu Yifang's screams, Chi Lin twisted her arms behind her back and pressed down with one hand, pressing her directly onto the dining table.
Xu Yifang was caught off guard, with his entire face pressed against the plate, tightly against the pork chop.
Chi Lin: "Don't you want to not waste food? Eat it."
Xu Yifang felt as if a huge rock was pressing on his back, unable to straighten his back, and shouted:
"Let me go! Chi Lin, you bitch, let me go!"
Wei Zhuoning, who was originally prepared to fight to the death with these two pretentious sisters, was dumbfounded for a moment.
The reversal came so quickly that her mood was like a roller coaster.
Why is it like watching a movie? Don't slap me in the face too fast or too exciting.
"Wow! That's awesome!"
"She is indeed a female hero, she can completely crush us without using a sword!"
More and more people gathered around, Jiao Minxuan didn't care about anything else, grabbed the schoolbag and smashed it on Chi Lin's head:
"Let go! Or I'll call the teacher! I'll call the police!"
Without even turning his head, Chi Lin reached out with his free hand and accurately grabbed Jiao Minxuan's collar, pulling her forward and pinning her to the table together with Xu Yifang.
One was facing down and the other was facing up, like two turtles trying desperately to get up but unable to.
"That's enough! Which class are you from? Don't fight in the cafeteria!"
A high school teacher came over to stop Chi Lin, but Chi Lin refused to let go and said to Xu Yifang and Jiao Minxuan:
"Apologize."
They were so scared that their faces turned pale and they could only say "I'm sorry" in a trembling voice.
Chi Lin added: "Apologize to Wei Zhuoning."
The two looked at Wei Zhuoning and said sorry.
Wei Zhuoning almost said "It's okay" but quickly swallowed it back.
Chi Lin let go, and they both immediately slid off the table, panting and frustrated, but helpless.
They went to their grandmother's house and the whole school was watching. Their fragile self-esteem couldn't stand it, so they ran away crying.