Chapter 153: Rumors Spread Everywhere
The students of Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School relayed what they had heard in the canteen to the other people in the class after dinner that day.
Listening to the classmates’ retellings one after another, Sasha, who was always good-tempered in the class, had a somewhat unpleasant expression, while the slightly hot-tempered An Su Chun even couldn’t help wanting to directly confront the people of Class 1-8 of Nongda Affiliated High School for a good “talk”.
“So they just think we’re in the way! They don’t want us to contribute!” An Su Chun was so angry that her eyes widened, “What does ‘they don’t understand Xiang Chuan’s things’ mean? Since they could recreate ancient decorations and food based on the documents of information turbulence, there’s no reason we can’t do it. If it’s so difficult to operate, then why could Xiang Chuan, this young lady who has never even entered the kitchen, make those foods? And why could the Class Eight students, who have never actually seen ancient decorations, make table and chairs just from a few photos? They’re too dismissive!”
“Exactly.” A student nearby chimed in, “Their class has your junior high classmates Sasha and Su Chun. Even with old classmates there, they’re targeting us like this. If it were another class with no one they know, who knows how they’d be targeted.”
“Sigh… It’s all my fault.” Sasha sat on the chair sighing, gently rubbing her temples, “If it weren’t for my own selfish intentions in proactively applying, our class wouldn’t have ended up in this situation.”
Seeing Sasha like this, everyone in Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School hurriedly spoke up to defend her.
“This isn’t your fault, Sasha.”
“Yeah, we agreed to your proposal, Sasha, because their class had an information turbulence contactee. Who knew they’d be like this.”
“There’s an ancient language saying: know a person for who they are outwardly but not inwardly. Look at them—handsome guys are handsome, beautiful girls are beautiful—who would have thought they’d be like this inside. Don’t blame yourself too much, Sasha.”
……
After a bout of commotion, everyone in Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School fell silent again. Although they were very dissatisfied with what Class 1-8 of Nongda Affiliated High School had done, there wasn’t much time left now. Going to the leader to apply for a class switch at this point, even if they were willing, the other classes in their own school definitely wouldn’t be. If it went wrong, it would offend their own classmates and let the Nongda Affiliated High School students laugh at them—doing something that pains friends and pleases enemies wasn’t an option. They understood that principle.
“Sigh… How about you go talk to your junior high classmates again, Sasha?” one of the students proposed.
“Finding them won’t help,” An Su Chun frowned, “We’ve already talked to their Ancient Food Club about this several times before, but Sasha’s classmates have no intention of stepping in to resolve it, and those girls aren’t friendly to Sasha either.”
“Then how about you ask your junior high classmate on this side, Su Chun? She’s the club president, right? She seems pretty approachable.”
“But according to the rumors from Nongda Affiliated High School, although that club president leads the internal activities, the operations and external affairs seem to be managed by those club members…”
“…” Everyone in Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School pictured Xiang Chuan’s somewhat silly smiling face when receiving guests, and for a moment, they couldn’t refute, since the Xiang Chuan they saw in the A Bite of China Club small restaurant always looked not very smart.
“Or… maybe I can go beg Ainuo Classmate. Although Yating Classmate and Nancy Classmate target me, Ainuo Classmate was relatively easygoing in our junior high.” Sasha clenched her fists, “Ainuo Classmate may look unfriendly on the outside, but they are actually very enthusiastic.”
Everyone in Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School exchanged glances and tacitly agreed to Sasha’s proposal. This was the only breakthrough they could seek right now.
Just as Sasha breathed a sigh of relief, a classmate sitting in the corner hesitantly raised their hand: “I think… things probably won’t go that smoothly.”
Huh? Another sudden situation? Everyone in Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School’s faces darkened instantly.
The student opened the light screen and sent a document to the class group chat. The document listed the gossip about Class 1-8 of Nongda Affiliated High School that they had collected by going to various classes these days due to being too idle.
Sasha stared blankly at her light screen. Her eyes quickly found the message this classmate wanted her to know in the document opened on the light screen. This glance almost made her dizzy:
Ainuo Li from Class Eight Grade One was originally a member of the Information Technology Club. Later, he fell in love with A Bite of China Club President Xiang Chuan at first sight, and after his confession was rejected, he persistently continued pursuing Xiang Chuan, thus transferring to the A Bite of China Club. (Supplement: It’s said that Ouyang Yating from the A Bite of China Club and Nancy from the Engineering and Construction Club, who are in the same class as the two, are fanning the flames for them.)
Two days later, in the kitchen of the A Bite of China Club.
“Have you guys noticed that people from Caida Affiliated High School have been looking at us strangely lately?”
Xiang Chuan frowned as she asked the Class Eight classmates resting at the bar counter by the kitchen. Seeing their blank looks, Xiang Chuan grew even more depressed, but the egg beater in her hand didn’t stop. Lately, she had been staying up late almost every night frantically searching on Geegle for “recipes anyone can make” series, but clicking in, they either required soy sauce and oyster sauce or suddenly showed an oven or air fryer, nearly driving her crazy with worry. In desperation, she could only start with some low-cost street snacks, which often relied on flour and eggs. For this reason, over these days, the A Bite of China Club kitchen had cracked at least two hundred eggs for the on-site cooking team to practice.
But these past two days, she felt that the students from Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School outside the A Bite of China Club door and the other Caida Affiliated High School students coming in to eat were looking toward the kitchen strangely—not like the curiosity of the first visit or the expectation after several visits. Now, these Caida Affiliated High School customers and the Class 1-3 students who couldn’t get in were looking this way, or rather at her and the three from the A Bite of China Club, with a hint of contempt or scrutiny in their eyes.
In 21st century terms, it was a gossip-watching gaze.
Xiang Chuan herself had been a gossip veteran back then, often gossiping online, but she was very familiar with this gossip-watching feeling, making her sigh: Even well-informed modern people gossip?
If it weren’t that the one being gossiped about right now seemed to be one of their own, she wouldn’t mind providing some snacks and beverages to gossip with them.
This feeling of being stared at until her hair stood on end was very familiar—it was like those years as a corporate slave when her team leader sent her to the podium to explain PPT to company leaders, and the watching colleagues below had this exact gaze. Xiang Chuan, who aspired to be a eat-and-wait-for-death corporate slave, naturally didn’t want to be the one sticking her neck out, so she decisively refused the podium arrangement in the second quarter. After that, the team leader never asked her again, and even later business trip reports to partner companies excluded her, letting her stay in that position for three years until her own section chief finally remembered to give her a promotion and raise.
If not for the overly generous conditions of a first-tier city with full benefits and housing provided, anyone normal would have grabbed their bucket and run.
However, even after the promotion, Xiang Chuan remained enthusiastic about chatting and gossiping with colleagues, swearing to love gossiping for life and resolutely not become the subject of gossip.
When she made that vow, she hadn’t imagined she’d fall asleep before trying weekend snail noodles and wake up 30,000 years later. Now, she hadn’t even had time to vow in this life to focus on gossiping before becoming someone else’s gossip subject.
How could she tolerate this?!
Thinking this, Xiang Chuan sped up the stirring of the egg mixture a bit more.
“Are you turning these eggs into cream?” Ainuo twisted his somewhat sore neck and walked out.
Xiang Chuan felt the gossip-watchers’ gazes in the small restaurant grow even hotter.
Did this guy have more gossip? Xiang Chuan’s eyelids twitched. She felt that from the first time Ainuo walked into the A Bite of China Club until now, various gossips had been nonstop—fake confessions, overly enthusiastic junior high classmates, and such. Following this trend, would this guy later trigger some weird trope like spending a night with a female-oriented novel protagonist, her running off pregnant, and him chasing his wife to the funeral pyre?
Lost in wild thoughts, Xiang Chuan couldn’t help stepping back.
Ainuo saw Xiang Chuan’s strange expression and this retreating step, knowing their club president was again thinking some messy things in her head. His eyelids twitched, but having just stir-fried green vegetables and eggs in the kitchen wok for two hours, he had no energy to implement brain circuit correction measures on Xiang Chuan. He simply took the fruit milk handed over by Little Star Two and sat on the bar stool next to Xiang Chuan to rest.
Seeing Ainuo and Xiang Chuan sitting close, the gossip masses’ reactions seemed even bigger. The Caida Affiliated High School students in the small restaurant whispered among themselves, but more chose to open their light screens and type furiously on the light screen keyboards with hand speed that 21st century esports players would envy.
These actions naturally didn’t escape the eyes of the Class Eight Grade One crowd. Even Ainuo, who usually had touching emotional intelligence, now noticed something off with the Caida Affiliated High School students. Some bolder classmates directly went to the Caida Affiliated High School students’ seats to ask, startling the gossiping ones into hastily paying and leaving. After four or five did this, everyone in Class Eight, including Ainuo and Xiang Chuan, sensed something wrong.
Could it be… something happened about them that they themselves didn’t know?
The Caida Affiliated High School students hurriedly leaving the A Bite of China Club Building looked back at the A Bite of China Club door with lingering fear, whispering among themselves:
“Nongda Affiliated High School students are so bold, directly asking if we’re discussing them.”
“The A Bite of China Club president and that boy are watching right behind us, sitting so close—does that mean the rumor is true?”
“Sigh, that boy looks pretty good, and I heard he’s from nobility. How can he be so clueless?”
“There’s a difference between nobles too. Look at our school’s first-year Sasha—also nobility, but so upright and straightforward.”
“I heard first-year Sasha used to like that boy. What a pity.”
“I heard that boy also had feelings for Sasha, but they lost contact after starting high school…”
“I heard the A Bite of China Club president…”
“I heard…”
Rumors were beginning to brew, centered on Caida Affiliated High School.
Wrong chapter has been replaced. Very sorry for the poor reading experience caused to all readers.
