Cultivation Manual, Claim It Upon Registration! (Part 2)

The cafeteria was not far from the dormitory area, right beside the sports field. The layout made it convenient for students to head to the field after eating when school let out, or sprint straight into the cafeteria with their backpacks when school began, fighting for every second.

Breakfast started early. When Shi Tiexin arrived, it was not yet 6:50, but the entrance was already bustling with traffic. Several groups had apparently already finished eating and left. The pace here was completely different from Tumubao. He had no idea who was working so diligently, but the string in Shi Tiexin's heart tightened even further as he hurried inside.

He lifted aside a thick, semi-transparent plastic curtain he had never seen before, and the smell of food rushed at him. The warm aroma was not exactly pleasant, but it was far better than the stink of old shoes in Taigu Building. Besides, Shi Tiexin was starving. At the scent, he smacked his lips and nearly drooled.

The cafeteria was packed with long tables, with rows of serving windows lined up opposite them. Not every window was open, perhaps because breakfast was relatively simple. Looking closely, the windows were clearly divided into two sections, with signs marking them as the Regular Class area and the Key Class area.

The breakfast in the Regular Class area was indeed not as good as the Key Class breakfast. The long tables there were also more crowded and shoddier.

The other consciousness merged with the scene, and Shi Tiexin suddenly knew that this cafeteria had a second floor. Conditions upstairs were much better than on the first floor. There were no longer long tables, but square and round ones. The seats were no longer fixed hard plastic stools, but wooden chairs—each covered with cotton tablecloths and fitted with cotton chair covers.

Rumor had it there were even private rooms.

The key was that you could order dishes!

That was practically VIP treatment!

But not just anyone could enter the second floor. Only Elite Class students and school teachers could eat there. It was useless for anyone else to go, because Fengming First High School meal cards were linked to student information. If you did not belong to that area, you simply could not swipe your card.

Such blatant differential treatment truly lived up to the saying, "Knowledge changes fate." Learn well, and you would be better than others in every way. Learn poorly, and even the best parents could not get you upstairs for a meal!

At least, that was how it worked in theory...

So what was he waiting for? Grab his meal card, eat, then go study!

These days, speaking was not easy, so he had even rehearsed what he wanted to say in his heart, ready to blurt it out the moment he opened his mouth—

Auntie!

I'm so hungry!

I want ten huge steamed buns!

I'm about to go on a killing spree. I'll swipe my card for you right now!

I'll swipe—I'll swipe... where the hell is my meal card?!

Shi Tiexin patted himself down from top to bottom, but there was no sign of his meal card. Then a thought flashed through his mind. Right, the card was in his backpack.

Where was his backpack?

It was still in the Class 7, First Year classroom!

Damn it...

No, he could not take it anymore. His limbs were going weak. He had to get something into himself first. Shi Tiexin looked around and suddenly found something free—soup! Several huge soup barrels sat in a corner of the cafeteria. No card was needed; anyone who wanted some could serve themselves.

Shi Tiexin strode over, reaching them in a few steps. White rice soup.

He stirred it with a large ladle. Too much water, too little rice.

No, to be precise, an ocean of water and barely a grain of rice!

But he could not worry about that now. Two bowls of soup would at least steady him. Shi Tiexin ladled out two bowls, then turned around, intending to take a few sips while walking to quench his thirst.

He took his first step, raised the bowl in his left hand to his mouth, tipped his head back—gulp, gulp, gulp. Gone.

He took his second step, raised the bowl in his right hand to his mouth, lifted his head—gulp, gulp, gulp. Gone again.

Shi Tiexin froze. He had only taken two steps, yet both hands were already empty. It felt so light and empty that it was strangely disappointing. He smacked his lips. This stuff, like dishwater from rinsing a wok, truly had no flavor at all. Still, two bowls of hot soup in his stomach made him feel much better.

Then he would have two more bowls!

So Shi Tiexin practically spun around in place, taking two steps back to the barrels. One bowl in the left hand, one in the right; he brought them to his mouth, his Adam's apple bobbing as they vanished again. No, soup without food left his stomach feeling empty and lonely. He still needed something to go in and keep it company.

Shi Tiexin monopolized the soup barrel, ignoring the other students glaring at him from behind. He shoved the big iron ladle down hard, scraping every inch of the barrel's bottom with a screeching rasp before finally dredging up half a bowl of swollen white rice. He poured in another half bowl of soup. Without using Chopsticks, he opened his mouth and swallowed, sending the bland grains straight into the storehouse.

Buuurp—

He let out a long burp, and it felt particularly different. An ordinary burp ended with food; this one ended with water, along with a hint of stomach acid. He patted his belly. It was nearly ready to slosh like a water balloon. But circumstances were limited, so this was all he could do. Time to get his meal card first.

He rushed out of the cafeteria, crossed the sports field, and headed straight for the teaching building. The Key Class and Elite Class classrooms were in the same building—the Red-Hat Building that proclaimed "Knowledge changes fate"—only on different floors.

The Elite Classes were on the higher floors, while the Key Classes were below. Every morning, the fourth-floor stairwell was an important turning point. Those who continued upward from the fourth floor often received gazes full of envy and awe from those who stopped there. No one needed to say anything; everyone naturally knew they were the top students of the Elite Classes heading to the fifth floor.

Class 7, First Year was on the third floor, and Shi Tiexin found it easily.

When he entered the classroom, almost everyone had arrived. The vast majority were studying at their seats, brimming with a fiery enthusiasm. They were so single-minded that they did not even notice Shi Tiexin enter.

But not everyone was like that.

"Oh! Isn't this Scholar Stone?" A male student suddenly spoke loudly, making the entire class raise their heads and look over. The boy stood up, shouting with a deliberately friendly expression, "You okay, Scholar Stone? I heard your dorm room got completely cleared out. Don't tell me you were really ordered to drop out!"

The classroom fell silent, and every boy and girl looked this way.

Shi Tiexin glanced at the boy. This was the guy who had been spreading nonsense in the hallway yesterday. What was this fellow's name again? Thinking carefully... he could not remember... Apparently, the other consciousness had never paid attention to him. Mm, he was merely some "unknown person."

Though he seemed to be one of the best students in Class 7, First Year.

Shi Tiexin ignored him. He went to his seat, tidied up briefly, and stuffed all his books into his backpack.

Seeing this, someone muttered, "This... he's not really being expelled, is he? He didn't even do anything."

"Heh heh, he isn't being expelled. I heard homeroom teacher Teacher Jia pleaded for him, and in the end he was spared the punishment of a major demerit." It was still that unknown person. From a mile away, he insisted on Warm Heartedly answering a classmate's question from across the diagonal, his voice loud and his words crisp enough for everyone to hear clearly. "But Scholar Stone here was ordered to leave our Class 7 and transferred to Class 28!"