Getting Food in the Cafeteria

The red sun dipped behind the mountains, its afterglow stretching across the sky.

Sacred Orchid Academy, cafeteria.

Xian Wu wore a white coat and a white hat. He held a ladle in his right hand, while his left was tucked inside his sleeve, standing at the Meal C serving station.

While he was under Hu Yan Lan Ruo's enchantment, Vice Dean Ye Sheng had already sent someone to notify the cafeteria manager.

After causing such a huge mess and still not being expelled, Xian Wu made the manager suspect there was some kind of connection between him and Vice Dean Ye Sheng.

Perhaps Xian Wu was the vice dean's illegitimate son.

Xian Wu would have liked that, but Ye Sheng wasn't interested.

"Xiao Wu, why are you eating on the job? That's for the students," the old man serving food said in shock.

Xian Wu had torn off a drumstick from a roast chicken and was wolfing it down.

It was left over from the previous meal, but it still tasted great after being reheated.

With a sheepish grin, Xian Wu said, "Not so. I'm not eating, I'm sampling. And I'm a student too, so why shouldn't I eat?"

Sampling? One drumstick counted as sampling, and so did two? the old man thought to himself.

The middle-aged woman beside him tugged at his sleeve and whispered, "Li, just let Xiao Wu eat. Don't stick your nose into it. Vice Dean Ye Sheng arranged for him to work here. He's probably a relative, and we can't afford to offend him."

Most of the cafeteria staff were relatives of one tutor or another, so they were used to it.

After polishing off two delicious drumsticks, Xian Wu ate a few meatballs as well.

He picked up the bowl of clear soup and gulped it down in two swigs, then let out a satisfied burp.

Working in the cafeteria was great. He always got to eat first, and he could eat whatever he wanted. The chicken was especially good.

A little while later, the freshmen began trickling into the cafeteria. Among the group of middle-aged and elderly workers, Xian Wu stood out.

He used tongs to pick up flatbreads, a ladle to serve soup, and a spatula to scoop up dishes, busily doing his job.

"Could you hurry up? They've already served three portions over there, and you haven't even finished one. Is your left hand crippled?"

"Exactly! I've been waiting so long the flowers are about to wilt. Could you move it?"

"If you can't do the job, let someone else do it!"

The freshmen waiting in line grew impatient and started making a racket.

Xian Wu glared at the few students leading the commotion. "If you think I'm too slow, go eat Meal A. They're fast over there, and you even get one-on-one service!"

The freshmen had no answer. Their pockets were emptier than their stomachs; where would they get the spare money for Meal A?

"If you can't afford it, then shut up. If you're willing to wait, wait. If not, get lost." Xian Wu dropped the spatula and shouted, "Next!"

"Wait, you haven't served me any leftovers yet." The freshman waiting for food gazed longingly at the large basin of meat and vegetables and protested.

Xian Wu shrugged. "Can't be helped. The people behind you are rushing me, and my left hand isn't working properly. I can only skip the leftovers."

"But... but I never complained about you being slow." The freshman looked ready to cry.

"Is that so?" Xian Wu picked up a roasted chicken with one leg missing and put it on the student's tray.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" The freshman bounced up and down, holding the roast chicken.

"Next!" Xian Wu called, serving another flatbread and bowl of clear soup.

"I..." The freshman was just about to speak when Xian Wu cut him off.

"What do you mean, 'I'? You were the one making the most noise just now! Hurry up and move along. Don't hold up the students behind you."

"How can you do this? I'm going to report you!" The freshman clutched his tray, his face full of anger.

Xian Wu didn't care. "Report me all you want. I couldn't care less. Now you can... get lost."

So you dared to mess with the guy serving food? I'll put you in your place in no time.

After that, Xian Wu served leftovers to everyone except the few freshmen who had made a scene.

More and more students came to eat, and Xian Wu went from picking and choosing who got what to being so busy he could barely think straight.

"Huh? Xian Wu? What are you doing serving food in the cafeteria?"

Xian Wu had been mechanically serving food with his head down. When he suddenly heard someone call his name, he quickly looked up.

"You are..." Xian Wu thought the student he was serving looked familiar.

"I'm Wei Nan. We saw each other at noon today. You even stood up for us."

Xian Wu thought back. Wei Nan seemed to be friends with Zhang Ming and Zhu Jun Xiang.

"Oh, right. Hi." Xian Wu gave an awkward laugh and quickly served him two scoops of leftovers.

Everyone else got one scoop.

"Next!" Before Wei Nan could say anything else, Xian Wu shouted.

Dong, dong, dong!

The melodious chimes rang across the City of Brilliance. The senior students were dismissed for the day as well.

As the older students poured in like a tide, the cafeteria grew unbearably crowded.

"Damn it, we're out of leftovers again. Those brats sure can eat!" an older student serving food complained.

Brats? Xian Wu didn't like the sound of that.

"Watch your mouth. Believe it or not, I'll make sure you don't even get a leftover flatbread!" Xian Wu pointed his ladle at the student.

"You wouldn't dare!" the older student snapped angrily. "You can refuse to give me leftovers, but you can't refuse to give me flatbread. I paid for it!"

Xian Wu sneered. "Meal C is free. What did you pay for?"

"Are the three thousand Demon Spirit Coins we pay every semester not money? Are they shit?" the older student retorted.

Xian Wu sneered. "Those three thousand Demon Spirit Coins are tuition, aren't they? What does that have to do with the free Meal C?"

"Do you think there's such a thing as a free lunch?" The older student rolled his eyes. "Of course the cost comes out of our own pockets!"

"Are you two going to keep this up all day? Hurry up and serve the food, then get moving! I'm starving!" someone in the line behind them shouted.

Xian Wu quickly served the "know-it-all" in front of him a flatbread and soup, then sent him on his way.

As he served food, Xian Wu mulled things over.

Each semester at Sacred Orchid Academy lasted two months, and each student paid three thousand Demon Spirit Coins. That worked out to fifty Demon Spirit Coins per student per day.

There were nearly a thousand students across all the grades, so Sacred Orchid Academy took in fifty thousand Demon Spirit Coins a day.

Each flatbread was worth 0.2 Demon Spirit Coins, and a thousand or so students could eat about six hundred Demon Spirit Coins' worth in a day.

So where did the remaining forty-nine thousand or so Demon Spirit Coins go?

"Running a school really is a lucrative business," Xian Wu sighed.

His monthly salary of one hundred Demon Spirit Coins was, to the academy, no more than the tiniest tip of a hair on an ox.

It seemed that Sacred Orchid Academy's wealth was no less impressive than that of the great clans.

Night fell, and the city lights came on.

After the last student had left, the cafeteria began cleaning up.

Considering Xian Wu's "connection" to the vice dean, as well as his "crippled" left hand, the cafeteria manager didn't make him help clean up.

"How can I accept?" Xian Wu said as he headed out of the cafeteria.

The cafeteria manager thought to himself, He's getting a benefit and still pretending to be modest.

"It's fine. We don't need that many people to clean up. You can go." The manager waved him off with a smile.

When Xian Wu returned to the dorm in the dark, he found Zhu Jun Xiang waiting for him.

"Come on, let's go shower!" Zhu Jun Xiang said, holding a washbasin.

Zhang Ming reminded him, "Look at the time. Will there even be any hot water left? When I washed up, there was barely any."