Chapter 138

At noon, the dire event of not allowing people to eat if they did not train well did not occur. However, after training all morning, many people simply had no appetite.

Little Seven felt slightly tired too. She did not expect that just turning left and right, stepping in place and other small movements could be so tiring. But looking at the accumulated money, the amount of exercise was very large.

She was also hungrier.

Those who had not undergone social hardship, when tired, would not want to eat. Little Seven was the opposite. When tired, she felt especially hungry.

This time it was her taking the initiative to squeeze into the canteen with her four roommates.

Gu Yunshu originally did not want to eat. She was listless, probably never having been this tired before.

Chen Mier also did not want to eat, only wanting to buy some fruit drinks.

Wei Cheng's neck was sunburnt and felt hot and painful. She did not pay attention in the morning and did not apply enough sunscreen on her neck. And she was exceptionally tall for a girl, without even having the chance to hide under someone else's shadow to block the sun.

But she had also done farm work before, so she was still hungry.

Lunch was still self-service as usual. Little Seven took three staple foods: a bowl of rice, a rice cake and a plate of noodles; two vegetable dishes, one meat dish, and also a bowl of soup.

Whereas the dragged-to-the-canteen Gu Yunshu took a bottle of fruit juice, an egg drop soup, and a small cake.

Chen Mier kept saying she did not want to eat, but still took a bunch of pastries and all kinds of random food when taking her meal.

Wei Cheng also took rice and dishes, but not as much as Little Seven, as she was more concerned about price and took affordable and cost-efficient food.

When the meals of the four were placed on the table, the contrast was still striking.

Gu Yunshu ate very little, like a bird's stomach.

Chen Mier, on the other hand, ate very wastefully. She would finish what she liked, and take one bite of what she did not like. But she was very generous, first giving everyone a share of what she did not touch.

Wei Cheng took her food rather awkwardly. Little Seven had come to understand Chen Mier’s character. She was probably from a family-owned business in a small town. There were likely many people in her family. Anyway, she liked to buy a lot when shopping, and then share it out. That was probably what it was like at home, with cousins and such often being together, so she was used to it.

Little Seven accepted it frankly too. When she ate something particularly delicious, she would give Chen Mier a share, which made Chen Mier very happy. She did not put on airs.

Seeing Little Seven do this, Wei Cheng learned to do the same. But she always felt that what she gave out was not as good as what Chen Mier gave her, so she felt quite pressured.

As for Gu Yunshu, she ate very elegantly, slowly, taking a long time to finish a little bit of food.

She declined everything Chen Mier offered her, as not finishing would be wasteful.

Little Seven did not waste anything at all, eating everything clean.

Although the school canteen’s food still could not compare to her own cooking, she had no conditions to cook in school. And cooking took time, whereas the canteen food was still much better than the casual meals she previously bought at small shops outside.

Little Seven now had rather keen senses of smell and taste. She could still taste out at least whether the food was fresh or not, the seasoning, the quality of the ingredients, and felt the school canteen was quite conscientious.

After the meal, the group went to the fruit stand at the canteen entrance.

There were only female students at the fruit stand, which was set up very long, so it was not crowded.

Upon arrival, Chen Mier saw the pineapple honey on the tree and papaya on the roadside, which made her mouth water as she really wanted to eat them. She was from another province and those fruits did not grow there.

Those fruits did not grow in Little Seven’s hometown either, which was on a plateau with different terrain.

But having eaten her fill, she was not so greedy. Yet it seemed inappropriate not to buy anything when everyone else was buying.

The one who actually struggled the most was Wei Cheng. She had a fixed allowance for living expenses, and felt that if she spent like this, she would have no money left by the end of the month.

Little Seven could empathize with how she felt, as she was in the same plight before.

But these were issues that others could not help with, because the poorer you were, the more pride you actually had.

If you had already lost even that bit of pride, who knew what was still left.

Papayas were extremely cheap in Alliance City, priced at just 1.2 yuan per catty after the fruit-selling auntie peeled them and scooped out the seeds. They were very big ones.

Everyone took one, but Gu Yunshu was unconstraint when it came to money. She also bought some mangoes, buddha's hand fruits, grapes. She said the grapes were Xiangyin from Japan, costing over 100 yuan per catty. Her eyes did not even blink as she bought a lot. She had no appetite for meals but bought a huge amount of fruit.

In the end, it was still her deskmate Wei Cheng who helped carry a large portion.

When the few returned to their dorm and lay on their beds, none of them wanted to get up.

Little Seven also had that feeling, with the bones in her waist going clickety-clack as she lay down.

Gu Yunshu went to shower first thing.

The rest were not so obsessed with cleanliness, since they still had military training in the afternoon and would need to shower again at night. Little Seven lay for a while, stretched her waist, then still got up to practice calligraphy.

Sleeping right after a meal was not good either.

Over on Chen Mier's side, she was already fast asleep and snoring softly, while Wei Cheng seemed to have fallen asleep too.

Little Seven practiced calligraphy with her earphones on for half an hour, then climbed onto her bunk too. But she did not fall asleep immediately, instead opening up a Japanese dictionary.

She felt her Japanese vocabulary was too lacking and should memorize more words.

The afternoon military training started at 2:30pm.

It was already past 1pm now. Little Seven planned to sleep for half an hour, then recite Japanese vocabulary.

She felt the morning military training was a slight waste of time. She had always liked to exercise while studying at the same time, as she felt it improved learning efficiency and made exercising less dull, without compromising on either.

Therefore, she planned to memorize at least 30 Japanese words before going for military training. When practicing military posture during training, she could repeatedly recite these words.

Practicing military posture and reciting vocabulary were both relatively mechanical tasks, without conflict between the two.

Plus, being able to remember 30 words per day would amount to 300 words in 10 days. Little strokes fell great oaks. It was very remarkable.

At the beginning, there would also be some vocabulary she had learned before, making it easier.

Memorizing 30 words the first day was not difficult. The hard part was consolidating them the second day, and then memorizing another new 30 words, which meant having to memorize 60 words the second day.

Therefore, the homework for each day could not be delayed, or it would affect the subsequent days.

Little Seven earnestly memorized 30 words, then went to sleep.

She set her alarm for half an hour, then woke up, washed her face, and still applied moisturizer and sunscreen.

The Alliance City sun was indeed intense. The locals here in Luoxi Town were all dark and skinny, probably due to the sea breeze and blazing sun.

Little Seven then continued reciting those 30 Japanese words.

By now, the others had gradually woken up.

Wei Cheng might have gotten up too early and been too tired in the morning, sleeping like a log. Shaken awake, she saw Su Xiaoqi already washed and dressed, studying—she felt extremely ashamed. Some people were truly more outstanding, better-looking, and from good backgrounds, yet even harder-working.

The inferiority in her heart lessened somewhat, but guilty conscience increased instead, feeling she could not muddle along and must strive harder.

After Little Seven finished reciting the words, she stood up to change into military training attire when the mechanical sound she had not heard in a long time suddenly rang out in her mind, "Host's diligent studying brings progress and positive energy to new classmates around, unlocking system level up. System upgraded to Level 9 Progressive System. Host will obtain 0.8 yuan for every step taken, capped at 30,000 steps per day."

Little Seven froze for a moment, not needing to count on her fingers to know that would be 24,000 yuan a day. Feeling somewhat doubtful, she glanced around at her several dorm mates, wondering which new classmate it was who gave such an impressive boost.