Chapter 26: First Meal in the Dining Hall (1 of 2)
As expected, the owner of the voice was the guy he met on the transport, Allen. Allen was originally coming down from the side passage to receive someone else, and did not expect to see Cillin choosing his food.
“What a coincidence, Allen.” Cillin raised the tray in his hand and greeted Allen.
Seeing the empty tray Cillin’s holding, Allen said hurriedly, “Cillin, it looks like you haven’t make your pick and that’s perfect. Come, come with me upstairs, I’ll treat you. I was going to call you a long time ago but I don’t have your number. It’s lucky that I ran into you here.” while speaking, Allen dragged Cillin by the elbow and began pulling him upstairs, as if he was afraid that Cillin would turn him down.
Ever since he saw Cillin and Kang Man discussing on the transport, and those complex equations on the writing board, Allen had admired this peer of his greatly. Allen always treated those people with genuine ability and skill warmly. ‘To bully the old but not the young’, for the future belongs to the young, and you never know what they may achieve in the future. That was the belief his father had taught him.
“Easy, I came with my housemates. I can’t just leave them without saying a word, can I?” Cillin put down his tray and said.
“Ah? Housemates? What kind of accommodation are you staying in, Cillin?” Allen had always thought that Cillin would pick a single villa with his background, but apparently he was wrong.
“I’ve only registered today, so the quad villa is the only choice left.”
“Oh, I understand. I registered three days earlier myself to grab a single villa, but it was still too late, so I could only pick a double villa.” Allen made a regretful look, “The reason I’m treating today is to get acquainted with my housemate and a few other people around our accommodation. I’ve also met a few more people after coming here as well. Oh right, hehe, I managed to invite Pride as well. Kang Man seems a bit busy, so he can’t join us.”
Allen had spent a painstaking amount of effort to invite Pride along; he couldn’t even remember how many praises he had to say in order to convince him. At the same time, Allen felt another twinge of regret. He was going to invite this term’s Twin Star of Seven Lights for a group photo, but he didn’t think that Kang Man would turn down his invitation with a lack of time as his excuse.
“Cillin, why don’t you contact your three housemates to come along? I’ll treat everyone. The more the livelier, so let’s all go together! Plus us new students of this term should get together and communicate a little. By the way, we also have a few pretty babes coming over today, so you better don’t miss out, hehe.”
The quartet had exchanged numbers back at Lung’s flying car before, so Cillin immediately flipped out their numbers and called all three of them at once. He explained to them about Allen’s treat, and – other than Lung, who had accepted the invitation without much hesitation – both Ci Jincheng and Knight agreed with some reluctance.
Ci Jincheng and Knight had only accepted mainly to give Cillin face*. Otherwise, with Ci Jincheng’s temperament, he would have never liked that kind of messy atmosphere, whereas Knight just couldn’t be arsed to communicate with those brainless showoffs. They would be lucky if he didn’t greet them with a fist.
(*T/N: although this concept is rather common now, for Chinese ‘face’ means something like honor, respect, pride and so on. Here, it means that only accepted Allen’s invitation out of respect to Cillin.)
While Cillin was talking with the trio on phone, Allen ran to the main entrance and looked around for a bit, seemingly waiting for someone. Not long after, he then led three beautiful girls over. He said something to the girls that caused them to giggle like a schoolgirl with shining bright eyes. It added a kind of charm that caused a few surrounding students holding their trays to stare fixedly at them. They didn’t even realize that the food on their trays were stolen by someone else.
“My three beautiful ladies, allow me to make an introduction. This is my friend, Cillin. Cillin, they are…”
“Allen, didn’t you say that everyone has been waiting for a long time?” Before Allen could begin, one of the girls immediately interrupted.
“Yeah, yeah. Come on, take us up already Allen.” Another girl flicked her hair and gave Allen a sidelong glance.
It was true that Cillin had good looks and qualities, but it wasn’t like people like him were rare in Seven Lights. This was why they weren’t really too interested in Cillin. Plus, wouldn’t the heavyweights be reserving a room for lunch upstairs?
Seeing Allen’s hesitation, Cillin smiled and said, “It’s not a problem, Allen. You bring them up first.”
“Then… okay, you wait here until your housemates joins you. The place is at second floor’s ‘Freedom Hall’. I’ll come and receive you later after I send them upstairs.”
When they heard that Cillin had housemates, and more than one no less, the three girls lost all interest in Cillin right away. Those who lived in quad accommodations weren’t deserving of their attention.
Cillin didn’t care at all about the girls’ thoughts. If it wasn’t for Knight’s words today, they might not have gone out of their way to choose their own meals personally and would have had a robot send it to them after ordering. He felt like laughing the moment he thought of Ci Jincheng and Lung’s expressions when they listened to Knight’s words.
Knight had shared some past experiences along the way to the dining hall. He used to make orders and have robots serve him his meals back at middle school, but by coincidence he saw a few pranksters spilling dandruffs into a fitted tray. However, the robots would only scan for dish names and whether there were life forms or poison etc in the dishes when they carried over…
Since then, Knight had ordered and carried his food in person, and it was obvious that Ci Jincheng and Lung usually relied on the robots to bring them their dishes. At the time both Ci JIncheng and Lung had immediately felt a surge of nausea. When they arrived at the dining hall and saw with their own eyes that there were plenty of people who carried their own dishes, the duo grew even more determined on the inside. It definitely looked like many people had had a similar experience. Therefore they pondered to carry their own dishes personally as much as possible, or else especially acquire a waiter robot and set up a few more scanning programs in it. Scans for dandruffs was a must.
Allen wasn’t gone for long before Ci Jincheng and the rest showed up. It appeared that their experience of lifting their own dishes weren’t all that eventful.
“Cillin, where’s your friend?” Lung looked around but saw no one.
“He led three pretty girls upstairs.” Cillin pointed up.
“Oh~~ pretty girls, huh! That being said, how is your relationship with that friend of yours, Cillin?”
Cillin briefly explained what happened on the transport.
“Then you guys aren’t all that familiar with each other after all. But why is that kid acting so warmly? Allen Chev, you say? Chev… Oh, I remember now, it’s the family that founded ‘Tomorrow’s Star’ and ‘Prospect’. They’re okay; both these electronic magazines have over sixty contribution points.” Lung was obviously knew more about this, but judging from his tone, the Chev family was just ‘okay’ in his eyes.
Both Ci Jincheng and Knight also knew about ‘Tomorrow’s Star’. This was because they had both appeared before on that magazine.
“So, all three of you have appeared on that electronic magazine?” Cillin said.
Money and background alone could not win someone a spot in an electronic magazine with over sixty contribution points. What’s truly important was genuine ability and skill. Kang Man, who had an ordinary background, was such an example. He had relied completely on his own abilities, skills and talents to acquire the same ‘Twin Stars’ title as Pride.
When he heard Cillin’s words, Knight snorted and said, “You can appear on those magazines as well if you want to. Don’t think that you can avoid other people’s attentions just by hiding yourself. You and I are going to practice tomorrow.”
“That is true. You’re the Hoverboy who can chase after two flying cars and not be dumped in the dust with just a common hoverboard. We have high expectations for you!” Lung winked.
It was clear from Ci Jincheng’s calm expression that he knew that Cillin was the ‘Hoverboy’ as well.
“You all know about this.” Cillin scratched his head.
“Hmph, that’s not all I know. Not anyone can fuck over two flying cars with a shit hoverboard, so you and I have better get in some practice before school officially starts. It’s not easy to find a good opponent in Seven Lights, you know.” the moment the matter was brought up Knight grew eager again as the fighting will in his eyes rose instantly.
“Alright, we’ll find a place and get some practice tomorrow.” Of course Cillin wasn’t going to turn down a chance to practice.
“Huh? Could there be a continuation to the story of Hoverboy? Tell us quickly, Knight!” Lung immediately closed in.
While they ascended the floor, Knight summarized the whole incident with one simple and clear sentence. Then, Lung’s eyes brightened as he put on a surprised look.
“Cillin, why don’t you come and endorse our hoverboards! We’ll pay you generously!”
The Andrea Family did have a factory that produces hoverboards, and their brand was rather famous as well. Even their prices started at ten thousand.
Cillin smiled and did not answer. After giving out the name ‘Freedom Hall’, a small hoverbot then led the quartet towards the place.
They barely walked a few steps before they saw Allen coming from around the corner.
“Ah, Cillin, I was just ready to go down and receive you…” Allen’s voice abruptly cut short as his eyes widened and his jaws dropped to the floor. The reason for that was the trio beside Cillin.