Chapter 45: Club Membership Audits Officially Begin
Xiang Chuan, who had rushed to the Club Activity Room in the afternoon to make preparations, still didn’t know that dozens of people had already gathered in front of the Club Activity Room door. She was directing the starfish servants she brought from the Dormitory to organize some table and chairs and cabinets customized from the University Engineering Department this morning.
Because Xiang Chuan paid so quickly, the University Engineering Department received nice expenses from the first work order of the new semester, in a great mood they contacted Xiang Chuan through the Student Council President, and after exchanging contact information, they learned that this big client who gave them a great start to the new semester was actually the Student Council President’s own sister, instantly feeling much closer.
【Xiang Chuan sister, if there’s anything else you want to make, you can contact our Engineering Department directly~ On account of the President, we can give you some discounts★】
This senior male student is so familiar right away! Are all modern people this socially bold?
Xiang Chuan mentally reviewed the people she had met after transmigrating: Uncle Lin Yu who visited home and moved in with his luggage the next day, Chou Manman who quickly got familiar with her, her classmate with whom she shared meat buns and steamed buns… Hmm, everyone seems very self-familiar. If someone with social phobia transmigrated here, they might be scared enough not to dare go out.
But since the other party spoke up, Xiang Chuan had some ideas. Although the interior decoration was now done, it was empty with nothing in it. She wanted the Engineering Department to help make some table and chairs. According to her “memory,” the modern era had no furniture markets like wholesale markets; all furniture was uniformly customized. So Xiang Chuan really needed the Engineering Department to help her make some furniture now. After asking her brother in advance, Xiang Chuan decisively ordered five sets of small table and chairs, but after opening the furniture style reference images sent by the Engineering Department senior male student, she fell into choice difficulty again:
Should she choose the modern table and chairs from the reference images that came with anti-gravity, magnetic levitation, or nanomachine deformable functions, or choose the somewhat “ancient-flavored” 21st Century petit bourgeois coffee shop style table and chairs?
Usually, when Xiang Chuan was caught in a dilemma, she would ultimately either give up or choose “I want them all.”
With the current financial conditions, she naturally chose “I want them all,” and conveniently ordered two sets of cabinets referencing her home’s cabinet style. But she didn’t expect the other party to be so efficient; she had just paid in the morning, and right after lunch break ended, they delivered the items. As soon as Xiang Chuan received the message, she hurriedly rushed back to the Dormitory and brought along the starfish servant who helped manage her Dormitory and the other starfish servant she brought from home today to watch over the “test questions” and greet registrants along with the cake, to the Club Activity Room to start organizing and placing the table and chairs and cabinets piled at the Club Activity Room door.
The timeline now reaches the present, so the companion classmates who opened the Club Activity Room saw this scene:
“Little Star No.1, move this table to the right side… um… still leave it in the left position.”
“Ah, Little Star No.2, this chair is modern style, don’t put it next to the ancient style table… wow!”
Xiang Chuan turned her head to check the arranged table and chairs, but was startled by the crowd entering from the big door.
“Good afternoon, Xiang Chuan. I’ve brought our class’s classmates to support. These are the newly made furniture?”
The Class President said, proudly pushing up his glasses. The onlookers’ gazes seemed to say: You’re such a show-off.
“Yes, customized from the University Department Engineering Department’s senior male students this morning. They were just delivered not long ago, so it’s still a bit messy.” Xiang Chuan said somewhat embarrassedly, stretching her neck to look behind the crowd, and saw some unfamiliar faces, probably students from other classes. She was troubled in her heart: People have come in, so how to set up the assessment venue now?
“Xiang Chuan? What’s wrong?” Liang Gong asked.
“Um… a little awkward.” Xiang Chuan lowered her voice and said, “I originally planned to use this place as the club entry assessment venue, but not only you guys, even people from other classes came. It seems not great to push them out now…”
“Just this matter? Isn’t that simple?” The female classmate who usually gathered around Ouyang Yating to chat raised her eyebrows. “Xiang Chuan, do you have the building control terminal interface for the Club Activity Room here?”
“Hm? On the right wall.”
Xiang Chuan led her to the wall and opened the terminal screen hidden in the pillar.
“First put your hand on it. Eh, you haven’t done rights authentication yet. Face the lens straight… yes, like that… good. Now put the terminal on this protruding platform, then set your own password and authentication encryption.” Saying this, she turned around. “Call me after setting it.”
Following the system prompts to set the encryption authentication, Xiang Chuan now felt like a grandmother in the 21st Century who entered a bank but didn’t know how to operate the self-service banking terminal… Although for modern people, she was indeed an “old person,” that was correct.
Finally, with this female classmate’s help, Xiang Chuan operated the terminal to erect a light wall in the center of the Club Activity Room. She was startled when she saw the light wall descend, followed by her mind going blank: My table and chairs!!
But looking closely, the table and chairs weren’t messed up at all. The light wall passed through the table and chairs, solidly filling the gaps along their outlines, dividing the Club Activity Room in two.
“This… what is this?”
Xiang Chuan was dumbfounded, and some classmates also stared in astonishment.
“Nano isolation light screen equipped in mid-to-large activity spaces. Generally, indoor spaces like school Club Activity Rooms that often need to divide space come with this function, besides some large activity venues… like the Twelfth Fleet’s indoor theater and such. This wall can only be freely passed by the object with building control terminal usage rights and its authorized entrants; for others, it’s a solid wall.”
The female classmate explained, waved her hand at Xiang Chuan, and returned to the class’s large group.
Xiang Chuan stared at this wall that appeared out of nowhere for a good while before coming back to her senses. She patted her face to regain her spirits, treating this interlude as today’s “Tianyuan 200th Century” new hairstyle, and returned to club work.
She clapped her hands to draw everyone’s attention. Looking at the small long line of nearly forty or fifty people, Xiang Chuan didn’t know whether to cry or laugh, but she had to keep a smile on her face: “Thank you all for coming to our Ancient Food Club. Sorry for keeping everyone waiting. Please line up in order; those who get authorization can enter inside the wall for the club entry assessment!”
Saying this, the two small starfish servants each carried two trays through the wall to the crowd. The things on the trays made everyone’s eyes light up: What is this?
Each tray had a piece of triangular cake, and the cake plates also came with the tableware that Xiang Chuan asked Xiang Weiguo to prepare yesterday. However, the number of registrants was nearly twice the twenty or thirty people Xiang Chuan had expected, so there weren’t enough forks and they had to temporarily use chopsticks instead.
—Anyway, Huaxia people more or less have eaten cake with chopsticks! So using chopsticks is definitely fine! And modern people haven’t seen cake matching tableware anyway, so just treat it as chopsticks being able to eat cake!
Xiang Chuan thought self-abandonedly.
The only fortunate thing was that the quantity of cake prepared was enough; it just changed from two pieces per person originally to one piece per person.
The two small starfish brought the trays to the crowd lined up as per Xiang Chuan’s instructions. Everyone nervously and curiously picked up a plate of cake; some held it observing up, down, left, and right; some brought it under their nose to smell; some poked the cream or cake base with chopsticks or forks, but no one dared to eat.
Ouyang Yating, at the front of the line, finished observing first. She picked up a small piece of cake with chopsticks and put it in her mouth. What she first felt was the unprecedented softness and sweetness, as if it instantly melted her somewhat tense afternoon nerves. She subconsciously bit gently with her teeth, but tasted a flavor somewhat similar to the one in her memory, startling her. She stared at the cake again and again.
Others also started eating the cake sooner or later. Liang Gong, standing at the very front, was about to fork a small piece of cake when a small starfish suddenly came before him:
【Beep—Authorization complete, please enter inside the wall for club entry audit test】
Liang Gong: …I haven’t even eaten it yet! Why do I have to go in already!
Lately busy to the point of adding several more layers of dark circles… Good thing lately it’s just busy and not busy + writer’s block, otherwise it would really take my life.
