Jiangzhou University School of Sports, on the track.
Liu Xiaohu and the others, who had been training intensively all day, lay on the ground, gasping for air like a bunch of live fish thrown ashore.
"Training is finally over for today."
Beside them, Du Hua, a sophomore specializing in hurdles, propped himself up with his hands on the ground, wiping the sweat continuously dripping from his forehead. He turned to look at Liu Xiaohu and the others, panting heavily as he asked,
"What are you guys planning to do later? Want to grab dinner together?"
"I’ve been worked to the brink of puking, how could I have any appetite for food?"
Another freshman triathlete, Yao Xuehui, looked a bit pale. He shook his head and said,
"You guys go ahead, I just want to go back, take a shower, and lie down to rest. If I hadn’t persevered through gritted teeth these past few days, I would have caved already."
"We expend so much energy, not replenishing with so food isn’t an option."
Liu Xiaohu wiped the sticky sweat off his body with a wet towel. He seed to think of sothing tasty, licked his dry lips, and said mysteriously in a low voice,
"We’ve been worked to the bone these past few days. We need to treat ourselves to sothing good, otherwise, there’s no motivation to train!"
"Sothing good to eat?"
Du Hua glanced at Liu Xiaohu several tis in surprise and said,
"I say, Xiaohu, you, you’re not still thinking of going to the Seventh Dining Hall to eat, are you? If you really go there, can you control your appetite?
If the coach finds out, you’d be in big trouble without even realizing it!"
"You’ve got guts!"
Yao Xuehui also gave Liu Xiaohu a thumbs-up, looking admiring, "You’re not afraid of the coach pushing you even harder just for food! Impressive!"
"I’m not a masochist. Who wants to train so hard every day?"
Liu Xiaohu chuckled and explained quietly,
"I dare to eat at the Seventh Dining Hall because I heard Senior Brother Jiang has specially prepared a fat-reducing nu for us. We just eat less rice and more vegetables, right?
The fat-reducing al is designed for weight loss anyway, and we have such a heavy exercise routine every day. That little bit of calorie intake will be burned off after running a couple of laps, there’s no way we’d gain weight."
"Fat-reducing nu..."
Yao Xuehui seed to recall the rumors from the school, and he said blankly,
"Isn’t it said that this fat-reducing nu was specifically made for the female students by Senior Brother Jiang?"
"Are you silly? This fat-reducing nu isn’t exclusively for girls. Do boys not need to lose weight?"
Du Hua glanced at him askance and said with a twisted mouth,
"We’re going to the Seventh Dining Hall for that dish. They can’t refuse to sell it to us, right? The dining hall hasn’t restricted it to females only."
"Xiaohui, are you going or not?"
Liu Xiaohu also smiled while looking at him, as if tempting him,
"If you don’t go, then I’ll head to the Seventh Dining Hall with Lao Hu, just don’t spill the beans to the coach later!"
"Then, then I’ll go too."
Yao Xuehui really didn’t have an appetite before, but when the Seventh Dining Hall was ntioned, he couldn’t help but envision dishes like braised pork with preserved vegetables and stead ribs with taro and black bean sauce, oily and delicious. His appetite instantly returned.
He swallowed a bit reflexively and reminded himself,
"We shouldn’t eat too much, just taste it. If we gain weight, the coach might flip out for real!"
"Don’t worry, we’ll eat just a little, control the amount."
"Exactly, a small amount is harmless, gaining weight doesn’t happen overnight..."
"..."
The three of them chatted away, quickly tidying up their things, and rushed to the Seventh Dining Hall.
It was already past five. Any later, and not to ntion the fat-reducing al, even the weight-gaining al might be gone!
An hour later, the three of them erged from the Seventh Dining Hall, their faces glowing, even walking more energetically, as if the earlier grueling training had never happened.
"The braised chicken with mushrooms was really tasty, fragrant and smooth, it felt like the mushrooms slid into my throat without much chewing."
"The chicken was also smooth and wasn’t dry, so tender and juicy, really delicious, just needed a bit more!"
"Heh, wasn’t the chopped pepper fish fillet tasty? And the new dish introduced a few days ago, the sour soup crispy at, wasn’t that tasty?"
"Uh, dishes made by Senior Brother Jiang, none of them aren’t delicious."
Listening to Liu Xiaohu and Du Hua chatter away with enthusiasm, Yao Xuehui couldn’t hold back either. He looked a bit worried and said weakly,
"But delicious as it may be, didn’t we agree to just eat a little before coming? Did we, did we eat a bit too much?"
Liu Xiaohu: "!!!"
Du Hua: "..."
The two suddenly seed like a muted stereo, silenced completely.
After a while, they recovered, exchanged glances, and gave Yao Xuehui a synchronised angry look.
Du Hua, with a bit of helplessness, waved his hand and said, "Don’t go back, let’s go to the field for extra practice!"
"To be able to occasionally taste Senior Brother Jiang’s cooking in the future, we have to give it our all!"
Liu Xiaohu also let out a long sigh and said through clenched teeth,
"For every al we eat, we have to sweat just as much!"
"..."
Yao Xuehui was tearful, unable to cry or laugh.
I’ve been practicing so hard during the day that I almost threw up, and now extra practice?
If I had known it would be like this, why did I foolishly co to eat this al?
Alas! This is the consequence of my own actions, and I have to endure it with tears!
...
Just as the students of Jiang University were making a fuss about gaining weight from the canteen’s als, the Jiangzhou University 2018 welco party quietly arrived.
During these days, the school was decorated with red banners and colorful strears, every student wore a smile of joy. Of course, the happiest ones were the freshn, as they were the main characters of this event.
These matters had nothing to do with Jiang Yu and Seventh Dining Hall, he was still doing what he always did, staying in the kitchen with Lu Shuwu and others, preparing three als a day for the students.
As the weather gradually turned cooler, so dishes were no longer suitable to be served, such as the cold dishes provided at breakfast, which all needed to be replaced with new items.
With the weather being so chilly, nobody wanted to eat icy cold dishes; they might even cause stomach discomfort.
On this particular day, breakfast had just ended, and Jiang Yu finally had so free ti after a busy morning. He planned to brew a cup of tea and sit down to rest for a bit.
He generally didn’t drink much tea, even the can of tea leaves was only there because Liu Shurong had given it to him when he made "Longjing Shrimp."
If he hadn’t heard that this Longjing tea was a top-quality tea, with a market price of at least a thousand per tael, and that this small can was worth two to three thousand yuan, he might have just thrown it in a corner and let it mold.
With the principle of Seventh Dining Hall’s "zero waste," when Jiang Yu had spare ti, he would brew a cup of tea using the tea leaves, and surprisingly, he started to really appreciate the taste.
He had just settled down with his tea when Yan Tongtong skipped over to him, breathlessly saying,
"Senior Brother, soone wants to see you!"
"Who is it?"
Jiang Yu couldn’t help but frown. These days, the online celebrity Hua Xiaoling would co by Seventh Dining Hall every few days, leading to many off-campus people seeing her livestream and coming over in admiration.
These people just ca to eat, but so of them, thinking too highly of themselves, would co over after their al wanting to chat with Jiang Yu.
Claiming to have sothing urgent, but in reality, it was nothing more than praising the Seventh Dining Hall’s delicious food and then pretentiously suggesting so "improvents."
Did Jiang Yu need these people’s "suggestions"?
It was simply seeking attention; he was already very fed up.
"It seems to be a teacher from the school."
Yan Tongtong thought for a mont, uncertainly saying, "One of them seems to be Teacher Xiong who ca here before."
"Is Teacher Xiong here?"
Jiang Yu realized he had mistaken, quickly stood up from his seat, and took quick steps outside.
Seeing this, Yan Tongtong hurriedly ran after him.
As they arrived at the dining hall lobby, Jiang Yu imdiately spotted Xiong Bingsheng standing in front of a window, accompanied by a middle-aged man in his forties wearing glasses.
"Boss Xiao Jiang, sorry for bothering you again."
Seeing Jiang Yu, Xiong Bingsheng imdiately broke into a smile, joking as he approached,
"Your Seventh Dining Hall is quite popular among students. On the campus forum, topics related to Seventh Dining Hall pop up every few days."
The topic "Students getting fat from Seventh Dining Hall" was so hot, as a deputy director of the student affairs office, Xiong Bingsheng was well aware of it.
"Teacher Xiong, this can’t be blad on ."
Jiang Yu was very familiar with Xiong Bingsheng and spoke casually saying,
"I’m just running a canteen; I can’t make the food worse and worse, can I? If I really did that, wouldn’t it be tarnishing our school’s reputation?"
"Haha, you indeed can’t be blad; they just can’t control themselves."
Xiong Bingsheng laughed heartily, glancing at the middle-aged man beside him, and said,
"Secretary Qiu, this is our school’s entrepreneurial star Jiang Yu."
Then he introduced Jiang Yu,
"Xiao Jiang, this is Secretary Qiu Juncheng from our school’s Communist Youth League Committee. The school is about to host a welco party, and Secretary Qiu has sothing he wants to ask you for help with."
Although Jiang Yu was a bit puzzled about how he could help with the school’s welco party, this wasn’t the ti to think about that. He quickly nodded to Qiu Juncheng and smiled:
"Oh, it’s Secretary Qiu, nice to et you!"
After a brief exchange, Qiu Juncheng didn’t beat around the bush and candidly said:
"Xiao Jiang, here’s the situation: on the day of the welco party, the school has invited a well-known alumna back to perform. When discussing the reception arrangents, this alumna requested to have lunch at Seventh Dining Hall on the day of the party because she saw many videos online saying that the food at our school’s Seventh Dining Hall is very delicious, and she wants to try it.
Originally, we planned to arrange lunch for them at a big hotel in the city, but since this alumna made the request, we couldn’t refuse it.
Therefore, I ca over today to discuss with you how we can best accommodate this alumna."
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