Shuangling: Braving the Rapids

That afternoon, the results of the preliminary test were posted in the form of a list.

Yue Chuan won first place with a perfect score in math, while Li Baihui and another girl, Liu Qing, tied for second place. A Ying, who didn't study much during the summer vacation, came in last.

When it came time for the Liangshan heroes to rank themselves, Yue Chuan naturally took the "first seat," followed closely by Li Baihui, the class beauty. As expected, the two academic high-achievers became deskmates.

"Qin Yuechuan, come here, stretch out your hand and let me see if it really doesn't fade."

This was the first thing Li Baihui said to Yue Chuan. The girl had a sly smile on her face, and her shallow dimples were faintly visible on her cheeks. She was a true beauty in the class.

Yue Chuan was really honest. He spread his hands on the table, which made the girl cover her mouth and giggle. Just as the boy was at a loss, the girl's slender fingers gently brushed across his dark palm. In just an instant, the boy blushed and withdrew his hand as if he had been electrocuted.

"Wow! It's so dark! And it doesn't fade? That's amazing!" Li Baihui giggled, blinked, and continued, "Okay, I won't tease you anymore. Since we're deskmates, I'll ask you for help with math problems from now on, and we can discuss English problems together. We'll definitely improve faster as study partners, don't you think?"

Although Yue Chuan had never teamed up with a girl for studying before, he could only nod in agreement in the face of this poised and confident city girl. With two top students helping each other, his academic performance would surely not suffer.

In just a few weeks, Yue Chuan has adapted to the high-intensity life of "three points and one line". In addition to nine subjects, he also has to complete the learning tasks of the Olympiad math class.

Speaking of the math Olympiad class at Yanghe No.1 High School, it's not something anyone can just get into. Students not only need to have mathematical talent, but also need to win awards in provincial and municipal competitions. It's rare for someone like Yue Chuan to skip the auditing stage and become a formal student. I suppose Teacher Zhou must have done a lot of work.

As one of the heads of the Olympiad class, Zhou Wenyao showed a clear preference for Qin. He had long recognized Yue Chuan's potential and, after discovering the boy's unique approach to solving bonus problems, directly admitted him to the Olympiad class. In addition, he often gave Yue Chuan extra tutoring and even specially customized an Olympiad training program.

As a result, Yue Chuan's math scores naturally stood out from the crowd, making him a unique figure in his class and even the entire grade.

Of course, high school life is not always smooth sailing. Yue Chuan also encountered many problems. Right now, he urgently needs to solve the problem of "eating".

Perhaps due to overworking his brain, or perhaps because he is at the age of physical growth, Yue Chuan's appetite has increased significantly. However, his living expenses are so limited that he can hardly afford three meals a day. The quality of his meals has also plummeted from "Asian" to "African." If it weren't for his cousin's help, he would probably be a "native" who doesn't know where his next meal will come from.

That day, Yue Chuan and Qin Shoufeng were having lunch together at the South Campus cafeteria. Seeing his younger cousin eating steamed buns with porridge, Qin Shoufeng couldn't bear it any longer. He scratched his head and put a few slices of potato into Yue Chuan's enamel cup. "Chuan'er, don't just eat steamed buns, eat some vegetables."

"Brother, you eat, I'm not hungry..." Yue Chuan felt embarrassed that he was always taking advantage of his cousin.

"I know you too well! All you do is try to save money for the family!" Qin Shoufeng gritted his teeth and shoved the potato and vegetable dish at Yue Chuan. "Wait a minute, I'll go get some meat. Let's have a proper meal today!"

After saying that, Qin Shoufeng rushed to the meat dish window. When he returned, there was a small half bowl of braised pork slices in his stainless steel plate.

After some refusals, the two brothers picked up pieces of meat and stuffed them into their mouths, but unexpectedly, they both frowned and spat them out the next second.

"Pfft! This meat is spoiled? Why does it taste worse the more I chew it?" Qin Shoufeng stomped his feet in anger, picked up his plate, and was about to confront the butcher.

Seeing this, Yue Chuan hurriedly followed. The two brothers had clearly explained the situation, but the cafeteria worker not only refused to refund their money, but also accused them of causing trouble.

Qin Shoufeng was not one to swallow his anger. He took his cousin to complain to the teacher in charge of the cafeteria. Although they got justice, they were left with a belly full of resentment.

"The teacher is really good at trying to smooth things over. If we hadn't taken the rotten meat to him, the cafeteria definitely wouldn't have refunded our money!" Qin Shoufeng complained indignantly.

"Brother, we've refunded the money. Let's stop arguing. We can always eat at a different window next time," Yue Chuan quickly tried to smooth things over.

"Next time? There won't be a next time!" Qin Shoufeng became increasingly angry as he spoke. "I've heard from others that our South Campus cafeteria has been contracted out to a private owner. If you want to eat something good, you have to go to the old cafeteria in the North Campus. The food there is cheap and delicious!"

"But...but, to go to the North Campus, you need an exit permit or a day student pass, and we're boarding students, so we can't get those, right?"

The day student pass is a document provided by the school to students in the urban area. For example, Li Baihui, a student from Yuechuan, has a day student pass. The pass has a photo and name on it. When the gatekeeper checks the pass, one person has one pass, so there is absolutely no possibility of getting away with it.

"If things get really bad, I'll have my sister get us a marriage certificate. If all else fails, we'll do what the older students do and sneak out for dinner!"

Not all students are as law-abiding as the bookworm Yue Chuan. At least Qin Shoufeng wasn't like that. He had figured out many tricks of the trade long ago. If the school hadn't been so strict with freshmen, he probably would have gotten his day student pass long ago.

Seeing that his cousin was angry, Yue Chuan didn't try to persuade him any further. He wasn't a rich young master; he was lucky to have anything to eat. How could he dare to be picky about the food? That would be asking for trouble.

The South Campus cafeteria has only been open for a short time, and coupled with profit-driven commerce and lax management, the quality of food has plummeted. Recently, there have been several incidents of selling leftover food, drawing widespread complaints from students. Although many have reported the problems to the university, the school's efforts to regulate the cafeteria have been clearly insufficient.

In the past two days, several senior students with athletic talents had a conflict with the security guards at the gate over a meal issue. The reason was simple: the students went to the North Campus cafeteria under the pretext of training, but the security captain refused to let them pass. Neither side would back down, and the incident caused trouble.

Yanghe No.1 High School implements closed management. The school immediately gave the sports student involved a demerit. After that, for a period of time, no student in the South Campus dared to rush the gate post again.

The strict policies have ironically created an opportunity for street vendors. During this period, many mobile vendors have set up stalls outside the school walls to sell food, using methods such as "carrying bamboo poles and delivering fast food" to steal a lot of business from the school cafeteria.

But the cafeteria owner is not someone to be trifled with.

First, through various maneuvers, the school issued a notice prohibiting vendors from delivering meals privately. Then, they bribed the security guards at the gate to openly drive away the vendors. These two tactics, one overt and one covert, shattered the small vendors' dreams of getting rich.

The students, of course, couldn't stand the cafeteria owner's thuggish behavior, which sparked a small-scale "meal strike." They were all passionate young people with their own ideas—since the cafeteria owner behaved so badly, they shouldn't blame the students for not supporting him.

Some students preferred to eat dry rations rather than go to the cafeteria, and some even published articles in the school newspaper denouncing the despicable behavior of the South Campus cafeteria owner. Among these students with excellent writing skills, a liberal arts student who wrote under the pen name "Mark Xiaoxiaosheng" stood out. He used a humorous and witty writing style to satirize the cafeteria owner as Hades, the god of the underworld, and the security captain and his two henchmen as Cerberus, the three-headed dog of hell. In no time, the joke about "the master and the three dogs" spread like wildfire among the students.

This is the renowned Yanghe No. 1 High School! How could there be such chaos? It's truly perplexing.