Chapter 26: Opening Ceremony With Steamed Buns
Ouyang Yating stared blankly at the bun in her hand; the insulated bun was not too hot to hold.
The soft and fluffy texture felt quite interesting to touch.
This was Ouyang Yating’s first impression of this white object she was seeing for the first time.
She looked up and found that this careless classmate who had even forgotten to read the school opening notice was already using her transport robot to stuff these things into everyone’s hands. In no time, everyone was holding two steamed buns and buns.
Xiang Chuan returned to her seat and looked at the buns remaining with less than one-third the capacity of a meal box, revealing a satisfied smile: finally solved.
“Um, classmate, these are…?”
A somewhat soft male voice sounded from her right side. Xiang Chuan turned her head and saw a bespectacled, refined boy holding a sugar triangle and a chicken bun, looking somewhat at a loss.
“These? These are new food made by our family recently. Everyone can eat them with confidence.”
Food?
Everyone stared at the buns and steamed buns in their hands, feeling incredulous.
This white and fluffy thing completely overturned the concept of “food” in their habitual thinking.
“Eating it won’t cause any problems, right?”
The question came from the brown-haired boy who had complained about her blocking the way at the classroom door earlier.
Xiang Chuan frowned, but considering modern people’s ignorance of traditional food, she didn’t get angry and patiently explained: “You can eat them with complete confidence. My father had all the buns and steamed buns specially tested for components. Not only are there no harmful substances, but they are also good for the body. These were made by our little chef busy all night.”
As she spoke, she opened the component analysis appraisal certificate that Xiang Weiguo had given her yesterday and displayed it on the terminal. Nearby, Ouyang Yating looked closely, confirmed it matched what she said, and nodded. At the same time, Ouyang Yating also noticed: the official seal used on the component analysis appraisal certificate was the Yue Xiang Group’s seal.
But… how to eat it?
The whole class looked blankly at the buns in their hands. In the end, Ouyang Yating took the first bite.
Since it was edible and not liquid, she should just bite into it like solid food.
The one Ouyang Yating bit into was a Chinese cabbage carrot bun. After insulation treatment, the Chinese cabbage soup juice was no longer as scalding hot as when freshly steamed, but it still startled the unprepared Ouyang Yating: the inside was actually hot too.
She chewed it once. The Chinese cabbage and carrot had some salt added when mixed into the filling, so there was a slight salty taste, but more prominently their own sweet fragrance. The bun skin and vegetables became sweeter the more she chewed. Almost subconsciously, after chewing five times, Ouyang Yating swallowed the contents in her mouth, which startled even herself: portable solid food usually required chewing for half a minute before swallowing.
One bite down immediately awakened her appetite, so she couldn’t help taking another bite.
Seeing this, the classmates around Ouyang Yating followed suit, trying to bite the bun, chew, and swallow.
“So fragrant.”
“This one is so sweet; is there sugar inside?”
“Mine is salty; it’s really good.”
“What’s this thing inside? It’s really chewy.”
Although everyone had eaten breakfast before leaving home, how could they resist such appetite-stimulating buns?
Even Ouyang Yating couldn’t help wanting to take big bites to stuff the bun and filling into her entire mouth. Fortunately, years of family education and self-cultivation stopped her in time, but her eating speed was getting faster and faster.
Several more classmates arrived one after another and, after sitting in the empty front seats, also received buns from Xiang Chuan. Looking at their classmates around them gnawing on buns, they thought: could this be the new class’s welcome ceremony?
When Homeroom Teacher Zhu Bingwen arrived in the classroom, everyone had finished off their first bun. At this time, the air was filled with the familiar bun smell from 21st century buses. Zhu Bingwen asked curiously: “What is this smell?”
However, there was no time to investigate further. The bespectacled, refined homeroom teacher casually activated the classroom’s ventilation system, clapped his hands, and had the students quiet down.
“Everyone return to your seats and sit properly; the opening ceremony is about to begin.”
Holding the opening ceremony directly in the class? No need to go to the sports field or auditorium?
Xiang Chuan blinked her eyes and stared curiously at the blackboard: could it be a remote live stream for the opening speech?
Facts proved that 21st century common sense still limited her imagination.
The homeroom teacher activated the classroom’s teaching terminal, and after connecting to the campus network, Xiang Chuan was surprised to find the classroom scene instantly switched to a large auditorium, with herself sitting in an auditorium seat. Looking left and right, the circular tiered auditorium was filled with students.
It was actually holographic projection? Xiang Chuan looked around curiously left and right, marveling at the technology 30,000 years later. This holographic projection was completely indistinguishable from reality. If not for the lingering bun fragrance in the air, she would really think they had been teleported to the auditorium.
[Dear first year high school freshmen, welcome to Demeter University Affiliated High School. Over the next three years, you will spend the most wonderful campus time. Second year and third year high school students, congratulations on officially becoming seniors. We also hope that in the next year or two, you can find your further education goals in your respective club activities.]
In the center of the auditorium stood a middle-aged man (at least appearing so on the outside) whose body was obviously enlarged three times. This should be the principal, right? Xiang Chuan thought.
Xiang Chuan thought that leaders’ speeches 30,000 years later would at least not make people want to play chess with the Duke of Zhou. As a result, with her eyelids fighting, she discovered: no matter the era, leaders’ speeches are always long-winded and stinky, with a built-in hypnotic effect.
The other classmates in the class, who had just experienced a food culture impact, were obviously much more awake, because everyone’s minds were full of the buns they had just eaten.
And now, they were all still holding a steamed bun in their hands!
The students in the class exchanged glances with the class leaders and nodded.
So, while Xiang Chuan was resisting an invitation to play chess with the Duke of Zhou, everyone in the class began secretly enjoying their milk steamed buns.
During the principal’s speech, it was normal for students to talk quietly, because this holographic space blocked the students’ personal terminals, so they could only communicate with people nearby. The current principal of Demeter University Affiliated High School, in his fiftieth year of tenure, naturally understood the students’ desire to confide in those nearby, so he considerately blocked the sounds from each class around the podium: let the children talk if they want, as long as they talk softly he could pretend not to hear, and if too loud the homeroom teacher would intervene.
During his speech, he glanced at the class situation and was shocked to discover that Class Eight Grade One had no detected sound waves at all!
He naturally wouldn’t think his personal charm was great enough to make the most curious first year high school students silent on their first day of enrollment. Something unusual must indicate something strange!
So he quietly opened the monitoring page on the podium.
The result showed that everyone’s mouths in Class Eight Grade One were moving. No, more accurately, it wasn’t the mouths moving, but the lower jaws moving up and down. This movement frequency… need it be guessed? They were eating!
The principal was so shocked he stuttered for a moment, and with a shake of his hand, he accidentally group-sent the monitoring page.
At this moment, all classes in the school had fallen completely silent, because they saw that the screen on the class teaching terminal had switched to the screen of Class Eight Grade One, where everyone was holding a white thing in their hand, taking a bite from time to time, chewing, and swallowing.
Huh? So blatant?
Eating things right in front of everyone?
On the first day of school, Class Eight Grade One became the focus of the entire school due to the “collective sneaking snacks” triggered by the buns and steamed buns brought by Xiang Chuan.
Finally entering the campus part, thank goodness I didn’t drag out another 100,000-word prologue, saying not to get entangled in the setting when I’m the most entangled in the setting myself—why does it feel even more exhausting than those novels about transmigrating to ancient times or writing gourmet food in a fantasy setting?
Next is the chaotic time for gathering teammates. I originally intended to start with some internal class conflict, but thinking about it, I’m writing this novel to relax myself—the setting is already enough to make me entangled, so let’s have less worrisome content.
