Chapter 43: The Brand-new Club Activities Building
It was time to visit the clubs, and the Class President kept her word, leading the large troop straight to the location Xiang Chuan had marked on the campus map, marching forcefully and drawing side glances from the senior students of the sports clubs exercising on the sports field and the other classes visiting: what was that commotion?
The two people involved were half-pushed and half-pulled to keep up with the large troop; they were still a bit nervous now.
Chou Manman’s nervousness was about going to see the club activity room belonging to her new club.
Xiang Chuan’s was the excitement of soon witnessing a building that was even more miraculous than the shortest construction time record in 21st Century history.
The journey from the teaching building to the dormitory area, which felt quite long during lunch break, was now completed in less than a third of the time, when a girl beside her suddenly said: “Here it is, here it is! It’s right ahead!”
Xiang Chuan looked toward the end of the dormitory area road, and sure enough, there was a building that hadn’t been there yesterday, shaped from afar like a badminton court or sports field in a 21st Century big city residential area or something. Only after getting closer did she realize—this thing was pretty big.
Since the outer wall coating hadn’t been done yet, the exterior was still metallic silver-gray, which surprised Xiang Chuan a bit. She had originally thought this building’s gray walls would be like the layered alloy outer walls in 21st Century science fiction novels, but it turned out to be a single clean metal wall.
She curiously touched it; there was no icy coolness as imagined, but rather a feeling like touching frosted acrylic board, so she subconsciously thought this building material wasn’t hard and slapped it hard.
As a result, the wall didn’t budge at all, and she returned to her classmates’ side, covering her sore hand with a depressed look.
“Hahaha, who smacks synthetic building material right off the bat like that?”
The boys laughed nonstop, and the girls couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I haven’t studied architecture, how was I supposed to know if this material is hard enough… By the way, what is synthetic building material?”
As she spoke, she looked toward the boy leading the laughter, and everyone else looked at him curiously too. Xiang Chuan breathed a sigh of relief: luckily, she wasn’t the only illiterate in the group.
“Ahem.” Suddenly the center of attention, the boy was a bit nervous too, cleared his throat pretentiously, then patted the metal wall and explained: “Synthetic building material is the product of the fleet’s engineers extracting meteorites and planetary stone collected by escort ships, then using matter transformation technology to fuse them. School, government facilities, and hospitals all use first-class material, which is said to withstand direct meteorite impacts without a scratch.”
What kind of black technology is this, Xiang Chuan complained inwardly, and asked: “Doesn’t the residential area use first-class material?”
“Xiang Chuan, that’s a great question.” The outgoing boy gave a thumbs-up (Xiang Chuan: this gesture has been preserved?), “First-class material has excellent impact, heat, and cold resistance, but due to its high density, it requires high-energy lasers to cut and is hard to process repeatedly, so it’s not suitable for residential buildings that need frequent renovations. Your club activity room is the same—once built, it’s basically set, so I suggest if you have any decoration needs, bring them up quickly with the Student Union or the Principal Teacher.”
“You know quite a bit.”
The brown-haired boy praised unusually.
“Nah, just parroting what I learned from my brother right now. He’s studying architecture at university.”
The outgoing boy was a bit shy upon receiving the straightforward compliment.
Needs… Xiang Chuan thought it over; besides needing an exhaust facility, this large space—which was a writing club activity room in name but a school-exclusive kitchen in function—didn’t need any decoration adjustments for now. Rather, it was Chou Manman who had them.
“Stage… changing room… backstage… curtain…”
Chou Manman, already nervously neurotic, took the cost list Xiang Chuan had copied for her and reviewed it again, mumbling it three times to confirm before sighing in relief.
Just looking at the outer wall wasn’t enough; the crowd pushed into the Ancient Gourmet Club activity room, which didn’t have doors and windows installed yet, and immediately let out waves of exclamations.
Two hundred square meters wasn’t just talk; even the large clubs in the club building were only just over a hundred square meters, and with various equipment, cabinets piled up and many members, they looked more crowded than their actual size, but this activity room was huge—big enough to use as a small lecture hall!
“Xiang Chuan, are you planning to form a club? Or are you sure you’re not planning to open a shop in school?”
A classmate complained.
“Of course not… um… hard to say?”
Xiang Chuan tilted her head and thought; if she ended up making too much of the stuff she tested, maybe she really could sell some to classmates to subsidize expenses? Though she didn’t lack money now anyway.
“Xiang Chuan, Xiang Chuan, when are you recruiting?”
Suddenly a classmate asked.
“Hm? Uh… looking at this, it can’t be used right now, so tomorrow?”
Xiang Chuan looked around, thinking that no matter what, she should at least put out a few tables to make it look the part.
“Then I want to sign up first!”
“Me too, me too!”
“Xiang Chuan, save spots for us few!”
Classmates who hadn’t decided on clubs suddenly started signing up enthusiastically, nearly scaring Xiang Chuan: what was this sudden change?
Seeing everyone’s eager expressions, Xiang Chuan calmed down instead and quickly guessed their thoughts: getting to eat 21st Century gourmet food nearby, openly skipping club classes, pure curiosity, or maybe their majors were top-notch so they wanted to try out this new club of hers during high school.
Xiang Chuan really couldn’t refute these ideas of theirs; after all, from her perspective as an “ancient person,” choosing club activities out of interest was natural anyway, and according to the homeroom teacher’s explanation yesterday, you could transfer clubs if unsatisfied.
But managing so many people at once would be too much trouble! Lazy Xiang Chuan had only this thought right now.
“Stop stop stop, I’m happy everyone’s so enthusiastic, but this is a new club after all, and I can’t take care of everyone if so many come at once… How about this: tomorrow I’ll do entry testing, and if you pass the test, you can join my club unconditionally.”
Xiang Chuan had a flash of inspiration and thought of a way.
Hearing there would be entry testing, everyone calmed down.
“Testing… is it testing knowledge of ancient food?”
A classmate asked uneasily; this was the concern of most people, since only Xiang Chuan knew ancient food knowledge, and the test could screen everyone out directly.
“No no no, how could I test you on that stuff… But no spoilers, I’ll tell you tomorrow—it’s very simple, no written questions.”
With an idea in mind, Xiang Chuan’s mood improved instantly, but thinking of modern people’s scant food knowledge, she started worrying that if no one passed tomorrow, whether she should bribe a few classmates to join and save face…
Today at the coming-of-age ceremony, I can’t help but sigh at how time flies; the students have all grown up.
