After Being Taken by the Eldest Young Lady - Chapter 8

“Xiao Fang, it’s time to get off work. Let’s go.”

Fang Yize looked up, nodded to the teacher who was speaking to her, and replied, “I need to head to the classroom to check on things first. You go ahead.”

“Alright then. Remember to turn off the lights before you leave.”

“Okay.”

When Fang Yize reached the sixth floor, the students in her class were still unaware that classes were being suspended due to the heavy rain. As soon as she stepped onto the podium and delivered the notice, the classroom instantly erupted into a frenzy.

It was hard to tell what they were so excited about; even if classes were canceled, they could only stay in their dorms. In this kind of weather, it was impossible for the security guards to let them out of the school gates.

“Teacher, I want to go out and buy roasted meat rice. Can you ask the security guards to make an exception?” Chen Xinyi said, and several girls nearby nodded in quick succession.

Fang Yize refused heartlessly: “No. The wind is going to pick up in a while; it’s not safe. You are not allowed to go!”

“Teacher Fang, except for that last time we went to the buffet, I haven’t been out of school for almost a month. I really want to eat that roasted meat rice from Liu Street.”

“Me too!”

Several students stood up in agreement. Everyone was tired of the cafeteria food and wanted to change their flavor once in a while.

However, the rain outside looked heavy enough to wash these kids away. How could Fang Yize feel at ease letting them go out to buy food?

So, after hesitating for a long while, she finally said, “Tell you what, make a list of what you want to eat, and I’ll go buy it for you.”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

“The rain is very heavy now. You are not allowed to run around, especially those of you without umbrellas!”

There were dormitory supervisors upstairs who wouldn’t allow food with strong odors to be brought into the dorms, so they could only eat in the classroom.

While not everyone was messy or forgot to take out the trash, there were always a few “unavoidable” students who would pile leftovers in the dorm, making several rooms smell foul.

Therefore, a monopoly was created, and a rule was established that food could not be brought up to the dorms—unless some students used clever tricks to find ways to smuggle it in.

Fortunately, Fang Yize’s umbrella was large enough that, except for the hem of her trousers, not a single spot on her was wet.

After getting into the car, she carefully reviewed the list. It was almost exclusively Xu’s Roasted Meat Rice, with a few orders for fatty intestine noodles and river snail rice noodles (luosifen)—all things with quite strong flavors.

Luckily, these places were all located on the same street, Liu Street, making it convenient to shop. She was actually quite curious about how delicious this roasted meat rice could be to make this group of students so obsessed.

When Fang Yize arrived, she parked on the right side of the road and stepped out with her umbrella. Xu’s Roasted Meat Rice was a fairly large storefront, but due to the extreme weather, there was almost no one in the shop—though it might also have been because it wasn’t peak mealtime yet.

The only people craving roasted meat rice and fatty intestine noodles so early in the morning were probably this group of ravenous students.

Fang Yize went to the ordering area and read out the list: “Boss, I need one, two, three, four, five, six… thirty-one servings of the classic roasted meat rice. Eleven should be medium spicy, twenty non-spicy. Of the eleven medium spicy ones, three need double roasted meat.”

“Uh…” The server didn’t quite catch everything, so Fang Yize simply wrote it down for her.

The server’s eyes widened as she looked at it. She shouted toward the kitchen, “Big order!” and then passed the list Fang Yize had written to the back.

“Miss, our roasted meat is all grilled to order. Since you’re ordering so much, you might have to wait a while.”

Fang Yize lifted her hand to check her watch. It was 7:20 AM—still early. She believed that for the sake of eating roasted meat rice, these students would definitely be willing to wait.

“Alright, you guys start making those. I’ll go to the neighboring shops to buy some things and come back for these later.”

After saying that, Fang Yize took her umbrella and went looking for the fatty intestine noodles. There were many fatty intestine noodle shops on this street, and the list didn’t specify which one. She looked around and spotted a permanent roadside stall with the words “Fatty Intestine Stir-fried Noodles” written on it.

The permanent stalls were arranged in a long row, enclosed by brown wooden boards like little wooden huts. These vendors didn’t have to worry about city management (chengguan) and could set up shop openly.

Though she was loath to admit it, the taste of many roadside stalls was indeed much better than that of formal restaurants.

So, she walked over there.

“Boss, ten servings of regular fatty intestine stir-fried noodles, no spice.”

“Ten servings? Can a young lady like you eat all that?”

Fang Yize smiled and replied, “I’m helping others get food.”

“Ten servings, right. Got it!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Fang Yize saw the boss look toward her upper left, nodding and smiling at a newcomer: “Do you want double portions today?”

Jiang Xule shook her head and replied, “If I eat double portions every day, how will I afford to live? Remember to add extra chili.”

“Got it! But you’ll have to wait a bit longer today. This customer just ordered ten servings!” The boss finished with two satisfied laughs, his eyes gleaming as he looked at Fang Yize.

Jiang Xule raised her umbrella slightly and looked toward the customer the boss mentioned, only to meet Fang Yize’s gaze, which had already been fixed on her.

Why did it feel like every time she saw Fang Yize, she had that same pleasantly surprised expression? As soon as this thought entered Jiang Xule’s mind, she quickly brushed it away.

It must be an illusion.

“Jiang Xule, what a coincidence,” Fang Yize said, secretly raising her hand to smooth down her bangs, which had become a bit frizzy from the wind.

Jiang Xule gave a slight nod and ignored her.

Seeing that she had reverted to her “ice queen” persona, Fang Yize stood there awkwardly, fidgeting on her toes and occasionally glancing at the person beside her.

Because the umbrella was so large, the movement of lifting it was quite noticeable; it was hard for her “peeking” not to be discovered.

“Miss, are you getting food for your roommates? But it’s school hours now—you aren’t skipping class, are you?”

This bearded uncle selling fatty intestine noodles seemed unable to stop talking, always looking for someone to chat with. While smelling the aroma of seasonings wafting from the wooden hut, Fang Yize replied, “It’s for my students.”

“Students? You’re a teacher?!” The bearded uncle looked very surprised and asked again, “Which school do you teach at? You’re so young.”

“No. 1 Middle School.”

“That’s quite close. Hey, you can leave me your phone number. Next time you want to order stir-fried noodles, just call me directly, and I’ll have the shop boy deliver them to the school for you!”

Fang Yize gave a polite laugh and asked, “Is there a delivery fee?”

“Not expensive, just ten yuan.”

“For that much, I might as well come out and buy it myself.”

“Can you carry this much by yourself? I just saw you coming out of that roasted meat shop. How many did you order there?”

Fang Yize answered honestly, “About thirty servings. You actually reminded me—I still have to buy river snail rice noodles. I’ll be back in a bit.”

After saying that, Fang Yize turned to find a luosifen shop.

Jiang Xule watched Fang Yize’s retreating back with curiosity. This was the first time she had seen a teacher willing to go out and buy off-campus food for students.

Back when she was attending that “primeval forest” school, if there had been such a good teacher, she wouldn’t have reached the point of wanting to throw up from eating cafeteria food.

…It’s purely because she’s a good teacher, not because she’s a good person, Jiang Xule thought to herself.

When Fang Yize returned carrying the five servings of luosifen, she was surprised to find Jiang Xule still standing under her umbrella in front of the wooden hut. She assumed the fatty intestine noodles weren’t ready yet.

However, she heard the bearded uncle say, “Young lady, your stir-fried noodles are ready. That’ll be one hundred yuan.”

Fang Yize scanned the code with her phone to pay the hundred yuan. The bearded uncle then said, “Seriously, we have a boy in the shop. You pay an extra five yuan, and we’ll deliver those thirty servings of roasted meat rice to the school along with our noodles.”

“Fifteen yuan?”

“Right! After all, that roasted meat rice isn’t from our shop.”

One of her hands was already at its limit carrying three servings of luosifen, and the hand holding the umbrella was carrying two; she clearly couldn’t carry any more. Hearing this, she nodded, thinking it would be fine to hire a delivery person.

“I drove here. Is ten yuan okay?”

“We aren’t riding in your car, are we?”

Just then, before Fang Yize could speak, Jiang Xule took the lead and said, “I’ll ride in your car. I’ll help you carry them. I only want ten yuan.”

Fang Yize was shocked. She hadn’t expected Jiang Xule to want to earn even this small amount of money.

The bearded uncle spoke up again, “Hey, Little Xu, that’s not very fair of you. How can you steal someone’s business right to their face?”

“She didn’t agree to your business, so how am I being unfair?”

“Deal!” Fang Yize raised her eyebrows, her peach-blossom eyes sparkling as she looked at Jiang Xule. She smiled with her mouth open, looking a bit silly.

Jiang Xule raised a single eyebrow, picked up the eleven servings of fatty intestine stir-fried noodles, and followed Fang Yize toward the roasted meat shop.

After waiting another half hour inside, they were finally able to move everything to the trunk.

There was a plastic crate in Fang Yize’s trunk. She placed the soup-less roasted meat rice at the very bottom, then placed the fatty intestine stir-fried noodles on top of the rice, and finally the luosifen.

The large crate fit everything perfectly, and the lid could even be closed.

It was similar to the crates used for delivering boxed lunches. Fang Yize had previously bought it to hold ribbons and decorations for a classroom during the school anniversary gala, and she had forgotten to take it out of the car afterward. It turned out to be exactly what she needed.

“I remember No. 1 Middle School has a cafeteria. Why come out to buy food?”

While driving, Fang Yize replied, “The boarding students find it hard to get out. Their homes are far away, and they don’t even go back on weekends. Since classes are suspended today, I came out to get them some food.”

“Maybe it’s a lingering effect from when we were in high school. Back then, teachers weren’t willing to bring food in. I understand that feeling of desperation. So, now that I’m a teacher, I definitely won’t let my students go hungry.”

Mentioning their high school days, Jiang Xule remembered what Fang Yize had said earlier when warning her, so she said tentatively, “I remember… you and Sun Lin seemed to use some method to smuggle a bunch of food into the school. Among it was something strictly forbidden by the school… 8-plus-1 (beer).”

Fang Yize didn’t even have to think about it; that event had left a deep impression on her. It was the first time in her life she had played the role of a “thief”—she likely wouldn’t forget it even when she was eighty.

“Yeah, that was me. Back then, I told you not to tell the teacher. I didn’t expect that you really wouldn’t say anything. I originally wanted to say thank you, but you ran off too fast; you disappeared in the blink of an eye.”

As Fang Yize spoke, she let out a spontaneous laugh.

Jiang Xule was puzzled: “What do you mean?”