Ming Shuiyun's second class that morning was Zhu Yan's "Radiant Stone Alchemy Studies." As soon as the bell rang, the class ran overtime again, just as expected.
It wasn't that Zhu Yan liked taking up his students' break time. If he lectured for one minute after class, multiplied by the entire class, that would add up to dozens of minutes—in other words, an extra lesson. After teaching for decades, Zhu Yan had long since learned to control his lesson content precisely, ensuring that he finished exactly one chapter every class. His teaching ability was on a completely different level from that red-haired teacher whose lessons were never finished, yet who ran off the instant the bell rang.
The problem was that "Radiant Stone Alchemy Studies" was simply too obscure and difficult. Yet the Imperial Academy always had a few students who loved getting to the bottom of things. Almost every time before class ended, Zhu Yan would ask, "Does anyone have any other questions?" Someone would always ask a question that made Zhu Yan think, That's an excellent question. Then he would naturally lecture for several more minutes.
Those few minutes usually didn't matter, but the second class of the morning was different. The best dishes at Pig Food Cafeteria and Dog Food Cafeteria were usually cleared out by the students within the first ten minutes. Getting out of class a few minutes late was practically equivalent to missing lunch—and even then, they would have to wait in a long line.
The most frustrating part was that Zhu Yan really was only late by a few minutes. That left the students torn: if they ran over, the food might already be gone; if they didn't, they definitely wouldn't get any.
Ming Shuiyun had once belonged to the "leisurely lunch" faction