Chapter 159: Midterms And The Oven
Xiang Chuan felt that during student life, the most enjoyable part of all those so-called programs and celebrations was actually the preparation process, because by the day of the activity, everyone was just busy and had no time to enjoy the school anniversary.
After the news club reported the interviews with the Class 1-8 crowd in the morning, Nongda Affiliated High School’s own students were immediately drawn to Class 1-8’s unique clothing and the gender-reversed assignments, so the most idle third-year high school students all came to line up. The first batch of Agricultural University students who tasted the new food shared their gourmet impressions online right after leaving the store, and after being seen by student parents, they were frantically forwarded, thus attracting the parents who were browsing their own children’s exhibition projects. Unsuspecting general tourists saw everyone running over and, due to herd mentality, also came to line up.
If it weren’t for the school anniversary rule that each class’s business ends at 5 p.m., these people might have to queue until 11 or 12 at night.
Around three o’clock, some of Class 1-8’s ingredients were actually starting to run low. Class President Lu Daiqing decisively transferred the class funds to Xiang Chuan, buying some from the A Bite of China Club’s warehouse for emergency use. Even so, it was still barely keeping up with the customers’ money-is-no-object ordering style.
Xiang Chuan, who had been a corporate slave for half her life in her previous life, felt like she was dreaming back to her university days when she served plates in the school’s small commercial street to earn pocket money. Although this time she stayed in the back kitchen without needing to run tables, the debuff of past memories hit her so hard that she felt like she had no strength left.
In contrast, the Class 1-8 students were in a state of excitement. Because the modernization of the tertiary industry with AI and automation in modern society was already very advanced, the demand for manual labor was much lower than in the 21st century. Plus, with the government’s subsidy policies for students from difficult households, students didn’t need to work to make money before high school graduation unless they had special needs. And even if they did work, they would prioritize online part-time jobs that could be done from home.
For most students, going up to customers and asking what they wanted to eat was a very novel experience.
So until the 5 p.m. dismissal time, Xiang Chuan herself was so tired that she lay on the table not wanting to move, while the Class 1-8 students were still excitedly restoring the classroom to its original state together with the AI robots.
The butler and maid outfits of Nongda Affiliated High School Class 1-8 predictably became the most talked-about topic.
The news club specially used three reports to introduce this type of clothing. Drama Club President Chou Manman, at Xiang Chuan’s indication, became the spokesperson and gave some introduction to the origin and background of these clothes, and also added that in the 21st century, certain groups who liked to stay home and watch 2D entertainment images had made some blush-inducing modifications to these outfits…
Besides the butler and maid outfits, the new recipes that Xiang Chuan pushed to the forefront this time had extremely high topic value among the customers.
Fried egg pancakes with ketchup, caramel fruit pancakes, fruit chunk juice, mille-feuille cake…
Most of the simple recipes that Xiang Chuan racked her brains to gather this time were desserts, which won rave reviews from many girls and some boys who had been captured by the cakes and yam cakes at Yue Xiang Restaurant. Xiang Weiguo naturally also saw these meals in the school anniversary news videos.
So on the evening Xiang Chuan dragged her weary body back home, right after dinner without time to digest, she was dragged by Xiang Weiguo to the study room to sign an authorization agreement.
Xiang Chuan: This is not even letting people rest at home.
One week later.
The lingering buzz of the tumultuous school anniversary gradually faded, and Nongda Affiliated High School’s students had already turned their attention back to reviewing for the upcoming midterm exams.
Caida Affiliated High School’s students had left on a transport ship on the second day after the school anniversary ended, under the watchful eyes of Nongda Affiliated High School’s first- and second-year high school students. Xiang Chuan, standing in the front row of the queue, saw Class 1-3 where Sasha and An Su Chun and others were glance over here before boarding the transport ship. Xiang Chuan raised an eyebrow, saw them off onto the transport ship, and then put the matter behind her.
On the evening the school anniversary ended, led by Class President Lu Daiqing, the Nongda Affiliated High School Class 1-8 class cadres personally invited out the Caida Affiliated High School Class 1-3 students, talked about something unknown, and afterward until the Caida Affiliated High School students left, no more Caida Affiliated High School Class 1-3 students were seen coming to their class.
Later, out of curiosity, Xiang Chuan and others asked Nancy, who usually turned a deaf ear to class matters. Nancy mysteriously wagged her finger: “You have to keep some mystery to make the class cadres have more authority.”
…The reasoning is sound, but hearing it from this vice class president who usually doesn’t care feels somehow off.
Back to normal student life, the regulars at the A Bite of China Club Small Restaurant started seeing the A Bite of China Club President sitting in their club’s exclusive seat, holding her head in agony over math problems on the light screen.
“Does this damn math have to be learned?!” Xiang Chuan let out her third soul-shaking cry of the day.
“It’s you who wants to learn it.” Ainuo, sitting beside her, sent back the answer sheet Xiang Chuan had forwarded, with brows furrowed into a river shape, “I want to ask too, does this math have to be learned by you? I think your entrance examination shouldn’t be a worry anymore.”
This wasn’t Ainuo talking nonsense. After the butler and maid outfits and the ancient culture behind them were promoted by the media, they directly sparked widespread social discussion. Xiang Chuan dumped all the related information she collected on Geegle to the Cultural Affairs Bureau. The Cultural Affairs Bureau immediately got pumped and established a corresponding research group, starting to popularize the related knowledge to the public. Many merchants saw the business opportunity behind it and submitted applications to the Cultural Affairs Bureau for cultural usage rights of butler and maid outfits, intending to ride this wave to launch related products, such as AI butler robots or AI maid robots. Director Lin Minzhi had been extremely busy these days without touching the ground, and on Xiang Weiguo’s side, he was closely supervising the commercialization of the several new recipes he just got his hands on. This week’s dinners often only had the three siblings and Lin Ming and these juniors eating on time.
With ancient books originals in front, ancient culture clothing after, plus a steady stream of ancient food, if Xiang Chuan didn’t insist on going through the normal further education path, she could even skip grades directly to university with these. If the soy sauce brewing succeeds, university leaders might even waive all her required courses, letting her focus on ancient food.
In fact, now no matter how poorly Xiang Chuan scores in math or other subjects, Nongda Affiliated High School’s teachers turn a blind eye, because she’s just poor in grades, but her contributions in history and agriculture are huge! Moreover, this student is usually very sensible and obedient except for occasional foolishness, and the club-operated small restaurant even gives discounts to teachers… All these benefits have long shifted the teachers’ attention from “how bad can this kid’s math and physics get” to “what new ancient thing can this child come up with,” especially obvious after the school anniversary. Xiang Chuan, with years of corporate slave experience, naturally understands the teachers’ mindset.
The reason she’s still wearing a mask of pain over math problems now stems from three evenings ago.
“I want an oven.”
“No.”
After Xiang Weiguo came back from a meeting in the evening, Xiang Chuan immediately followed him into the study room and directly stated her request straightforwardly, only to be rejected outright by her own father again.
“I’ve told you so many times, devices of this internal heating type are not allowed for commercial or civilian use. Xiao Chuan, don’t make Dad embarrassed.” Xiang Weiguo played the emotional card.
“Then aren’t the steamers in our home kitchen and at Yue Xiang Restaurant also internal heating? Why are those okay?” Xiang Chuan frowned.
“The operating principle of steamers is to promote internal heating through external heating, essentially still external heating, not the same as the internal heat oven you mentioned.” Xiang Weiguo also furrowed his brows. “If you want to make things, isn’t the steamer enough? Why are you so obsessed with internal heating devices?”
“It’s precisely because the steamer can’t do it well that I need an oven.” Xiang Chuan’s brows were about to furrow into a river shape. “Steamer heating comes with moisture that has a huge impact on some ingredients. What I want to make is food that internally evaporates moisture. Dad, for the sake of me developing new food, apply to the government for usage limit.”
“Xiao Chuan, it’s not that simple.” Xiang Weiguo sighed. Actually, since the first time his daughter mentioned this to him, he had sounded out the leaders of the Agriculture Bureau and Industry Bureau. Upon hearing he wanted to apply for commercial and civilian usage rights for internal heating devices, they immediately feigned illness and slipped away. If it weren’t for Xiang Chuan later causing a sensation in the entire Agriculture Bureau with edible mushroom and freshwater fish recipes, the Agriculture Bureau director would probably have avoided him for a good while.
But seeing his daughter’s face full of entanglement and reluctance, Xiang Weiguo felt both troubled and heartbroken, but this matter, let alone him as a group boss, even if the Li Family stepped in, they probably couldn’t get the permissions. The government is extremely strict on this.
“How about this,” Xiang Weiguo sighed. Letting his daughter continue to mope wasn’t a solution. “If you can pass all subjects in the upcoming midterm exam, your dad will go to the Agriculture Bureau and Industry Bureau again to fight for it for you.”
Thus began Xiang Chuan’s review life still wearing a mask of pain over math problems.
It’s just wanting an oven, is there any need to control it so strictly! While making her brain work overtime calculating formulas, Xiang Chuan silently complained in her heart.
The wrong chapter has been replaced. Sorry for the poor reading experience for all readers.
