A Storm of Thoughts

Lin Yi was even more puzzled, but suddenly he picked out something else in those strange noises. It sounded like...

"Lao Lin, we're surrounded..."

Lin Yi froze, his eyes instantly narrowing to slits.

He slowed down his eating and diverted some attention to the strange noises Wei Liang was making. Gradually, he became certain that the sounds really were saying-

"Golly woom beh gurr wah lah (Lao Lin, we're surrounded)..."

"What... the fuck?!" The instant he understood, Lin Yi couldn't help leaning back slightly, his expression turning into Old Man Looking at Phone on the Subway.jpg. There was one thought, and one thought only, in his mind-

Unorthodox Tricks!

More fucking Unorthodox Tricks!

And so, without knowing what possessed him, Lin Yi took a deep breath and dramatically increased the vigor with which he shoveled down his food. Mixing half a mouthful of air into each mouthful of rice, he, too, began making noises as he ate-

"Gurgle wah quack quack quack (Yeah, I've got a bad feeling about this)!"

Whether out of respect for Lin Yi's mastery of this useless encrypted communication trick or for some other reason...

Wei Liang very visibly froze when he heard Lin Yi say that.

Then an encrypted conversation began...

"Quack quack goo goo fucking goo goo quack... (These bastards aren't here with good intentions, Lao Lin. I feel like we're going to die here...)"

[-(To avoid suspicions of padding the word count, from here on, aside from a very few key lines, all the gibberish in their encrypted conversation will be omitted. The encrypted dialogue will appear in parentheses instead. Just imagine them trying to talk indistinctly while slurping soup and eating. Since it's "encrypted," imagine something a little more exaggerated than normal.)(I'm so conscientious, sob sob.)-]

Lin Yi hurried to reassure him. "(Liangzi, I know you're panicking, but don't panic just yet...)"

"(Sob, sob...)" Two clear streams of tears ran from the corners of Wei Liang's eyes. "(Lao Lin, how did you know I'm panicking like hell right now?)"

"(Lao Lin, Lao Lin, do you think those guys who weren't quite right in the classroom came to the Cafeteria to eat?)"

His mouth was like a chestnut-roasting machine, the rice mixing with air inside it to produce sounds that could fool someone into thinking chestnuts were being roasted.

"Huh?" Wei Liang's words sent a startled chill through Lin Yi. Without that reminder, he would have forgotten those guys could show up in the Cafeteria, too!

Those stiff figures standing like gravestones immediately surfaced in Lin Yi's mind, but he quickly shook his head-whether it was them or not, he couldn't think about it!

"(Stop thinking about them for now, Liangzi! Eat first! We still don't know who's sitting beside us!)"

Afraid Wei Liang would start letting his imagination run wild, too, he hurried to interrupt his thoughts.

"(Then what do we do now?)" Wei Liang asked. Lin Yi gritted his teeth and continued their encrypted conversation. "Quack quack. (Eat first.)"

But Wei Liang didn't catch what those sounds meant right away, so he repeated in confusion, "Quack quack?"

Lin Yi confirmed, "Quack (Yes)."

"Quack your fucking mother, woom teh dong ah wah!! (Quack your fucking mother! I didn't understand you!!)"

Wei Liang was losing it. A little angry expression popped onto his forehead as he continued furiously, "Woo goo goo ee goo doh you fucking jee lee goo ee guh quack?! (I said all that and you fucking give me one quack?!)"

Lin Yi froze.

So Liangzi didn't understand that one...

Fair enough. The shorter the sounds in this gibberish, the harder it is to tell what they mean...

So he said earnestly, "Quack-quack-(Eat-food-)"

"(Eat?)" Wei Liang paused, then couldn't help saying, "(Holy shit, seriously, Lao Lin?)"

"(How am I supposed to eat at a time like this? How oblivious would someone have to be to enjoy their food right now?)"

Lin Yi, who was thoroughly enjoying his food, paused mid-scoop.

"..."

The air suddenly froze.

"(Ahem! Well, uh, carry on, carry on... I wasn't taking a shot at you...)" Wei Liang hurriedly said, then shoveled down several mouthfuls to show his support.

Lin Yi solemnly ate a mouthful of rice, then continued speaking with air puffing through his mouth. "(Remember the Cafeteria Rules? While eating, 'do not respond to any attempts at communication from strangers around you'!)"

Wei Liang's eyes lit up as though he had caught a flash of inspiration. "(Holy shit, you mean... we ignore them, just like in the classroom?!)"

"(Remember when you hid under the desk? Focus your attention on eating. Eat first, and ignore them!)"

Smack! Wei Liang slapped his thigh. "(Lao Lin, I think I get it! But what about you?)"

"(I'll eat, too, but I need to go back over everything! Make sure my thinking checks out!)"

"(Okay, okay, okay. You're the man, Lao Lin!)"

So he stared at his food, trying his best to empty his mind and stop paying attention to the people around him.

But his eyes immediately brimmed with tears.

He realized that although he got it, he apparently didn't get much of it.

As Lin Yi would put it: seemingly enlightened.

Because using the same method he had used to stare at the desk leg to stare at his food...

Simply didn't work!

At least the desk leg was a leg, whatever else you might say about it. But this plate of food... was just a plate of food!

That clearly wasn't a solution, so he steeled himself and silently chanted:

Stockings, stockings, stockings...

Pretty feet, pretty feet, pretty feet...

Lick, lick...

He quickly got into the zone...

"Slurp, slurp, slurp..."

As he shoveled down his food, Lin Yi felt that Wei Liang seemed to have settled down.

Then intermittent waves of slurping began drifting over from his side.

Just from the sounds, Lin Yi could imagine Wei Liang eating with relish, and he settled his mind.

For some reason, though, listening to Wei Liang eat made a strange thought rise unbidden in his mind:

Liangzi's clearly concentrating on eating, so why does he seem so sleazy? Weird. Really weird...

Never mind Liangzi for now. Whatever he's doing, it's good as long as he's started focusing on his food...

Lin Yi controlled his breathing and slowly exhaled.

He hadn't actually wanted to keep eating with Wei Liang.

When something like this happened, the right thing to do was leave immediately.

But there were also rules to follow when leaving the Cafeteria-

First, after finishing their meals, they had to put their trays in the Plate Return Area.

If they hadn't finished eating, they would have to throw away the food, and the Cafeteria Rules stated: [Pour any unfinished food directly into the waste bin. Taking food away is prohibited. If an employee asks whether you need your food packed up or accuses you of wasting food, ignore them. Remember, no Cafeteria employees will appear in the Student Dining Hall area.]

So, to avoid the two unnecessary complications of triggering an employee asking whether they needed their food packed up or accusing them of wasting food, they had to clean their plates.

Furthermore, he had encountered the chef in a green apron, and Wei Liang had stepped on that chef's face, getting tomato sauce on his right shoe.

That meant that when they left, they might well trigger another rule: [When leaving, if you notice an employee in a green apron watching you, and he begins moving rapidly toward you, decide whether to head to the [Student Passage] or the Convenience Store based on your location.

Until you enter the [Student Passage] or reach the Convenience Store, do not stop, do not look back, and do not respond to his calls, even if you feel he is about to catch you.

After leaving the Cafeteria, immediately remove your clothes and check whether you have any tomato sauce on you. If you do, throw the clothes into the nearest trash can. (Make sure to put them inside the trash can. Do not discard them on the ground.)]

This was a complete, connected rule. At first, Lin Yi hadn't understood why they would get tomato sauce on themselves while simply eating in the Cafeteria, but judging by Wei Liang's experience, it often happened without their noticing.

And once they got tomato sauce on themselves, the chef in a green apron would hunt them down when they left.

But as long as they didn't meet the condition of "leaving," they were relatively safe.

Aside from that, the Cafeteria Rules specified that they should not communicate with any strangers. If they needed to communicate, they should only do so with a familiar companion and focus their attention on him.

But at this critical juncture, Wei Liang was already starting to panic and showing signs of letting his imagination run wild.

So Lin Yi couldn't be sure whether keeping Wei Liang engaged in encrypted conversation would be good or bad for him. He could only help divert his attention to eating first.

Besides, the Cafeteria's rules weren't inherently difficult to follow. As long as they obeyed them, eating a meal shouldn't be a problem.

Second, they had entered the Campus on the Blue Bus yesterday. Aside from eating a little before setting off, they hadn't eaten anything up to now.

And because Wei Liang was an old hand retracing familiar ground, and genuinely couldn't forget the Cafeteria's food, he had only brought a little to eat-and finished it on the bus out of boredom...

If they didn't finish this meal and encountered Abnormal Weather again at dinnertime like yesterday, they would basically have to wait until lunch again.

One meal in three days.

Seriously? Seriously? It's already Year X023, and people still have to go without food?

That would be a bit too miserable for a seasoned repeat customer like Wei Liang.

Aside from that, there was another statement written before the Cafeteria Rules:

[The correct procedure in the Cafeteria is to enter the First-Floor Cafeteria through the [Student Passage], line up for your meal, and, immediately after finishing, retrace your steps through the [Student Passage] to leave the Cafeteria.

As long as you follow this rule, you will safely meet your food needs during the Experience Period.]

So Lin Yi had used his own method to bring Wei Liang back into compliance with this rule first.

But this rule was too idealized. Lin Yi couldn't be certain whether circling back around to it like this would actually work.

Besides, what truly worried him was whether the people crowding around them would disperse when they finished eating and left the Cafeteria...

What if these people had set their sights on them?!

The thought that, besides the chef in a green apron, these people also posed a threat instantly sent Lin Yi's sense of danger soaring. He was also puzzled for a moment.

Why did it feel like he had stacked a whole pile of debuffs on himself just by eating a meal?

So he still needed to take his thinking one step further from there, eliminating as many unstable factors as possible so he and Wei Liang could escape their current predicament smoothly.

He took a deep breath, his gaze gradually firming as though he had made some sort of decision:

When my thinking went off course earlier, Liangzi pulled me back several times. Leave this one to me...

Lin Yi, oh, Lin Yi... You've been thinking this whole way. You've pretty much figured out the boundaries of this part of the rules. It's all on you now!

Whatever you do, don't let your thinking cross the line again!

He slowly shoveled down his food, pricking up his ears to listen to his surroundings.

His heartbeat began to slow.

His mind began to calm.

His thoughts began to clear.

Although both the Cafeteria and the Teaching Building mention the key word "ignore," there are still some differences in the details.

This might have something to do with the Cafeteria's opening hours...

The Cafeteria opens from 5:40 to 8:00 in the morning, 10:40 to 13:20 at midday, and 16:00 to 20 in the evening. In terms of timing, all of those overlap with the period when the building receives light.

And since entering the Cafeteria during Abnormal Weather is prohibited, we can normally assume the weather is clear whenever we enter.

That's precisely why the dangers posed by the Cafeteria's environment can be simply summarized as [do not enter areas without light] and [stay away from the Cafeteria's dark places].

Because [unlike classrooms, the Cafeteria has no Safe Zones when the lights are out], viewed another way, the Student Dining Hall area on a clear day, with the lights on, is a Safe Zone.

That's precisely why neither the chef in a green apron nor the chef in a blue apron who left the food counter did anything bad to me.

Did the chef in a green apron fail to notice me?

Lin Yi doubted that. The answer could be found in the chef in a green apron asking him whether he wanted Tomato Meat Sauce Pasta during the foggy weather.

Unlike the classmates who weren't quite right, the Green Apron Chef could "see" people.

But Lin Yi hadn't "responded" to his "attempt at communication." The same went for the chef in a blue apron who had left the food counter.

Precisely because he hadn't responded, he hadn't entered into some mechanism of theirs.

I don't know whether the Cafeteria chefs have a killing mechanism, but I'll assume they do. And one of the conditions for triggering it should be "responding"-at least during the safe hours!

And the safe hours...

Leaving aside the Green Apron Chef's pursuit when they left, his preliminary judgment was that two conditions defined the safe hours: first, clear weather; second, lighting.

There was currently no problem with the first condition, but the second...

After the lesson in the Teaching Building, Lin Yi didn't dare vouch for the Cafeteria's incandescent lights.

The Cafeteria Rules were right to say "clean your plate and leave the Cafeteria as quickly as possible," but... Lin Yi kept feeling that something was still wrong.

Perhaps... following the rules was itself an extremely difficult thing to do?

The whole process, from telling Wei Liang to keep his head down and eat to "checking" his own reasoning, seemed like a lengthy brainstorming session, but in reality, it had only taken a few large mouthfuls of food.

He kept his head down and shoveled in his food, finally finishing what remained in under a minute.

But the instant he fulfilled the clean-plate initiative, his eyes inadvertently caught a horrifying sight in the gleaming alloy tray.

The shiny alloy tray reflected its surroundings like a mirror, and in that reflection, Lin Yi discovered... that right then, people were packed all around him and Wei Liang.

Not one of them was eating. Every single one had their gaze trained on the two of them in perfect unison.

What the fucking...

He had been fine before noticing, but the instant he did, Lin Yi's scalp crawled. The obsession, bloodlust, madness, greed, yearning... and countless other vicious, vile emotions in those innumerable gazes weighed on him like massive boulders, pressing down until he could barely breathe.

"Liangzi, are you fucking... done eating?!" Lin Yi gritted his teeth and asked in something close to a low growl.

"Just finished, right on the dot!" Wei Liang answered from across the table.

Lin Yi took a deep breath and steadied himself for a moment, then said, "On three, come with me!"

"Okay!"

"Three..."

"Two..."

"Wait, wait, wait... Lao Lin, Lao Lin!" As the countdown reached two, Wei Liang's trembling scream, filled with terror and panic, came from across the table.

"Fuck!!! Holy shit! Holy shit! Lao Lin!! Lao Lin!!"

"Some... something's licking my shoe!!!"

Thanks to readers "Full Moon and Clear Radiance" and "Reader20230411180533658" for the tips!!

This chapter is 4,500 characters, okay? Don't say I updated late. I was just trying to write a little more...