Surrounded

Suddenly, the Blue Apron Chef seemed to sense something. He abruptly dropped the milk in his hand, then pulled a tomato out of nowhere and held it out to the student beside him who was swiping his card.

After swiping his card, that student also withdrew his Student ID at lightning speed, but failed to notice that the milk had been replaced with a tomato. He hastily grabbed it, put it on his tray, and walked off with the tray.

Throughout the entire process of buying his meal, the student had been incredibly cautious. Even so, when he picked up the milk, he still failed to notice the change in how it felt...

The Blue Apron Chef began to draw his gaze away from Lin Yi and Wei Liang.

He tilted his neck at an extremely slow pace, then slowly moved his stiff body, fixing his gaze entirely on that student's retreating figure.

He licked the tomato sauce from the corner of his mouth. Deep in his eye sockets, a faint gleam of gold seemed to flash past.

Then he took a step, slowly walking toward that student.

"Huh?"

As Lin Yi walked toward the tables, he suddenly noticed that the ominous, dangerous presence that had been hanging over him seemed to have dissipated somewhat.

He had no idea why, but after the double trouble of that student who had seemed off and the Green Apron Chef, he wasn't about to let his guard down in the slightest.

He led Wei Liang through the Student Dining Hall, weaving back and forth until he finally found a relatively well-lit table amid the sea of people and sat down.

After setting down his tray, Lin Yi didn't rush to eat. Instead, he carefully inspected every bit of food on it. Only after confirming that nothing containing any tomato had been mixed in did he lower his head and start eating.

Wei Liang watched Lin Yi.

From the moment Lin Yi finished examining his food to the moment he lowered his head and took his first bite, his face had stayed practically buried in his tray.

"Lao Lin...?"

Wei Liang vaguely sensed something. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard Lin Yi lower his voice and issue a stern warning in a deep tone. "Liangzi, listen to me. Keep your head down and eat first!"

"Huh? Oh... okay!" Seeing how grave Lin Yi looked, Wei Liang didn't question him at all. Though somewhat puzzled, he promptly did as he was told.

"Before you eat, check your food again for anything containing tomato!"

As Lin Yi spoke, he wolfed down his food, wishing he could finish everything in one go and flee the Cafeteria.

Hearing the word "tomato," Wei Liang immediately realized the gravity of the situation. He hurriedly poked through his food with his chopsticks, inspecting it carefully, but found nothing in the end.

"Lao Lin, there's no tomato in my food."

"Good. Start eating now. Never mind how good it smells, just hurry up and eat. We'll leave as soon as we're done!"

"Oh, okay... sure." Wei Liang wouldn't question anything Lin Yi said.

"And another thing..."

"Yeah, Lao Lin, go on..."

"Stop fucking... bouncing your leg."

"..." Wei Liang sounded aggrieved. "Uh... Lao Lin, you looked a little panicked, and I couldn't help it."

"Then bounce the other leg. There's tomato sauce on your right shoe."

"Okay, okay-wait, holy shit?! What did you say? Toma-to-"

Wei Liang's voice instantly shot up eight notches. As though he were in an ejector seat, he instinctively started launching himself out of his chair.

But Lin Yi had been ready. He reached over and pressed Wei Liang's head down, shoving his face into his tray and instantly stifling every sound.

"...sauce, glug glug...?!"

"Lao Lin, you, glug glug... no, wait... glug glug..."

With his head pinned down, Wei Liang flailed both hands frantically before finally managing to slap Lin Yi's hand away.

"I mean... cough! Cough, cough!! Lao Lin, you... are you fucking trying to drown me in my food?"

His face flushed from holding his breath, he spoke indignantly.

Lin Yi felt a little embarrassed too and hurriedly said, "Let me make excuses-no, let me explain. I was just afraid you'd overreact and draw unnecessary attention... so listen to me first, Liangzi. You've got tomato sauce on your foot."

Wei Liang instinctively reached for his right shoe.

"Don't take it off!" Lin Yi stopped him sharply. "According to the rules, taking your shoe off and throwing it away is fine, but... don't do it inside the Cafeteria!"

Article 11 of the Cafeteria Rules:

[After leaving the Cafeteria, remove your clothes immediately and check yourself for tomato sauce. If you find any, dispose of the clothes in the nearest trash can. (Make sure you put them in a trash can. Do not discard them on the ground!)]

Wei Liang's hand, just about to touch his right foot, froze in midair at those words.

At this critical moment, his mind raced, and naturally, he remembered that rule too.

He nodded. "I... get it. So we eat first, then leave right away?"

"Right!" Lin Yi said gravely. "The Cafeteria Rules definitely aren't wrong. Remember the one written right at the beginning? From now on, we ignore everything else and run as soon as we're done eating!"

"I underestimated the Cafeteria's potential dangers earlier, and I was a little careless too. Things are different now. We have to leave the Cafeteria as soon as possible!"

"Then why don't we just stop eating?" Wei Liang almost blurted out instinctively, but his reason held those words back.

Precisely because he had been here once before, he understood the Cafeteria's true value all the better.

He couldn't say something as self-destructive as [not eating the Cafeteria's food].

"The Cafeteria's food... seems different from what we normally eat outside. Besides tasting great, it's really filling," Wei Liang reminded him aloud, suppressing his fear as something occurred to him.

"Also, Lao Lin, don't eat too fast. Just eat at your normal pace."

Lin Yi nodded, still shoveling big mouthfuls of food into his mouth, but he soon realized what Wei Liang meant.

"Huh... this food?"

He suddenly froze. His brows slowly furrowed, and a grave look surfaced in his eyes.

He slowed down, beginning to chew the food in his mouth slowly before swallowing it.

Throughout the process, he carefully felt the changes as the food traveled from his mouth into his stomach. Then, to his amazement, he discovered that as the food went down, warmth arose in his stomach and spread through his body like a gentle stream...

"This...?!"

Lin Yi was stunned. With one mouthful down, his whole body felt warm, like he'd drunk alcohol in the depths of winter.

"This is food?"

What kind of food made eating feel like sitting in a sauna?!

This food... wasn't just food!

Just then, Wei Liang spoke again. "Heh-heh, you noticed? Completely different, right?"

Lin Yi said nothing, still immersed in the shock the food had brought him.

Wei Liang said, "S City University was built deep in the mountains and forests. There's Abnormal Weather every few days, and the yin energy and dampness are both really heavy. Even if you only stay a day or two, your body feels awful. You're either all sticky or unbearably dry. Either way, it's really uncomfortable."

"But as long as you come eat at the Cafeteria, that feeling goes away..."

Lin Yi listened carefully. He hadn't yet experienced the discomfort Wei Liang described, probably because he hadn't been at the university long enough.

Still, while eating just now, he really had felt as though dampness were steadily being steamed out of his body...

"So I suspect..." Wei Liang said with the utmost seriousness, "the food here might contain some sildenafil elixir."

"Huh? What elixir?"

"Sildenafil!"

"What the hell is that?"

Wei Liang put down his chopsticks and stared at Lin Yi, mouth agape. "Seriously, Lao Lin? You're a seasoned perv, and you don't even know that? It's Viagra!"

"..." Lin Yi was sweating buckets. "How the fuck would I know about that?"

Wei Liang immediately gave him a scornful look. "Ewww~~~ Looks like you're still on the first level of perviness. You've only fantasized about shapely legs in stockings, right? Never touched any, have you? Heh-heh-heh..."

Lin Yi glared at him. "Keep laughing like that, and I'll dump this rice on your face. Try me."

"Hehehe, you're getting worked up! Fine, fine, damn you. I showed you Hentai Manga, and now you want to serve rice on my face?"

"..." Lin Yi fell silent. In the end, treating Wei Liang to rice on his face was only a joke. He opened his mouth wide and shoveled in a few more mouthfuls before saying thickly, "You talk like you've touched any."

Wei Liang said smugly, "Hah. I've touched stock-ings!"

When he brought that up, it was as though he'd hit on some particular kink. His face lit up with delight, brimming with self-satisfaction.

At the end, he added, "...without legs in them."

"Tch~~~" Lin Yi scoffed and went back to eating with his head down. "Pot calling the kettle black! Just eat your food! When you're done, we're getting the hell out of here!"

Wei Liang chuckled twice, stopped arguing, and lowered his head to eat.

It had to be said that the Cafeteria Rules were absolutely right-

[While queuing to purchase food and while eating, do not respond to any attempts at conversation from strangers around you. If you have a companion, focus your attention on talking to them and ignore all abnormalities around you.]

Once he started bantering with Wei Liang, he gradually stopped noticing the eeriness of his surroundings. Combined with the hot food warming his stomach, he felt much more comfortable all over.

The experience was like enjoying a thoroughly satisfying health pack after a tense, thrilling exchange in lane.

Lin Yi remembered... the last time Wei Liang had come for the trial stay, he'd brought plenty of changes of clothes and some emergency compressed biscuits, yet he'd still nearly died.

In Wei Liang's own words, there wasn't really anything wrong with bringing your own food, but eating it simply didn't have the same effect as the Cafeteria's meals.

Moreover, part of the reason he'd spent his final few days dizzy and nearly died at the university was that the weather had kept him from going to the Cafeteria. He'd chosen to shuttle only between the Dormitory and the Teaching Building, living on compressed biscuits.

A sudden flash of inspiration struck Lin Yi!

Just as Young Master Tian said, if the seven-day trial stay is a survival game, then one of the Cafeteria's functions is to provide the "players" with health packs!

And these aren't ordinary health packs, either. They're powerful health packs with a built-in cleansing effect!

Three meals a day means three chances to restore health!

As people spent more time on Campus, its environment or some other factors would cause an irresistible, irreversible discomfort in their bodies, and eating at the Cafeteria... could provide an effective cleansing?

Perhaps they didn't need to eat all three meals a day at the Cafeteria, since he hadn't eaten dinner yesterday or breakfast today.

Of course, there might be some discrepancy here. After all, although this was his second day at S City University, counting from the time he'd entered, he had only been here for about twelve hours at most.

So it's possible we don't need to come for all three meals, but there definitely is a time limit!

Lin Yi had a feeling that if his guess was on the right track, that limit might be around three days, because Wei Liang had said he'd gone two days without eating at the Cafeteria last time.

I'll ask Liangzi about that after we leave the Cafeteria.

Once his thoughts reached this point, Lin Yi stopped delving any deeper. After all, thinking further might involve other factors and rules.

He had already experienced just how dangerous it was to overthink without direct sunlight.

So he simply made a decision. After we eat, we'll go back to the classroom first, and I'll write all these ideas in my little notebook!

While the two of them ate with their heads down, Lin Yi suddenly sensed someone passing on his right, then stopping stock-still beside him.

Lin Yi frowned warily, but because of the Cafeteria Rules, he had no intention of even looking.

With a clang like a gong, a tray was set down beside him.

Lin Yi's wary frown: +1...

But because of the Cafeteria Rules, he still had no intention of even looking.

With a slow "scrape...," he felt someone pull out the chair beside him.

Then someone sat down.

Lin Yi's wary frown: +1...

But because of the Cafeteria Rules, he still intended to-

Ahem. He silently gripped the edges of his chair and gently shifted it sideways a little, putting a little more distance between himself and the person who had just sat down.

But just then, he suddenly noticed a patch of shadow on the table to his left.

Apparently, someone had been standing on his left for who knew how long. Then an identical tray was placed on the table in exactly the same way.

Two trays, two people, seemingly sandwiching him between them.

When things are out of the ordinary, something's up... Lin Yi warily rubbed his brows, sore from frowning so much, inwardly crying that this was bad.

He silently moved his chair back into its original position and buried himself in eating.

But he'd barely taken two bites when his ears caught another set of footsteps. Several more people seemed to have come over to their table, then sat down in perfect unison...

The Student Dining Hall had matching blue tables and blue plastic chairs, but they came in six-seat and eight-seat versions. Lin Yi and Wei Liang were at an eight-seat table.

And now all eight seats were occupied.

Moreover, even more people seemed to be gathering around them.

As Lin Yi ate while listening to the sounds around him, he suddenly heard Wei Liang, sitting opposite him, make a "glug-gabble" sound, as though he were chewing some food and swallowing it whole.

Seeing no response from Lin Yi, Wei Liang grew a little louder. "Glick-mmph-glug-gabble..."

As he made those sounds, he kicked Lin Yi's foot with his left foot.

Thanks to reader "20181031023154231" for the tip!!