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"Oh no, my rice is spilling!"

"Why do these leaves keep tearing?"

"Can someone help me? Why can't I tie this string tightly!"

At the event, most people were just fumbling amateurs. In their hands, the bamboo leaves either tore or refused to fold properly, and sticky rice was scattered all over the tables.

Li Ming, acting as the technical instructor, wished he could sprout eight arms right now. He dashed across the room, acting as a firefighter to put out everyone's little disasters.

"Hey! You put way too much rice in this one!"

"You need to tie the string around the middle!"

Compared to the chaotic mess around her, Chu Miaomiao's area was a peaceful sanctuary.

Her movements were standard and precise. The rolled bamboo leaves formed a perfect funnel, and the rice was filled just right so it wouldn't spill. The tied strings also held firm without suddenly coming undone.

Placing a perfectly angled zongzi steadily on the table, a small sense of pride swelled in Chu Miaomiao's heart. She looked up, instinctively wanting to share her joy with Lin Mo.

But when she glanced over, she froze.

On the plate in front of Lin Mo, two zongzi were already neatly stacked, and a third one was almost finished in his hands.

Each one looked as if it had been pressed out of a mold—uniform in size and tightly bound.

His craftsmanship was almost identical to the ones Li Ming had demonstrated on stage earlier.

Chu Miaomiao's small mouth parted slightly in awe as she leaned closer.

"Wow! You are so fast! Why are you so fast?!"

The young girl's expression was pure and innocent, her tone filled with genuine amazement. But hearing these words, Lin Mo's hands paused, and he almost lost his composure.

A boy nearby, who was currently wrestling with a bamboo leaf, heard this and burst out laughing. His hand twitched, and the zongzi he had just wrapped completely fell apart, spilling sticky rice all over his hands.

Lin Mo coughed lightly to cover up the fleeting, awkward expression on his face.

"Practice makes perfect, that's all."

Saying this, he ignored the surrounding gazes and picked up another bamboo leaf. His fingers flew nimbly, folding and rolling it twice, and the beautiful shape of a zongzi emerged.

His hands were steady and fast, the entire process flowing smoothly. In just the blink of an eye, he had already started tying the string.

As he spoke, Lin Mo continued wrapping. His hands were steady and fast, and in just the blink of an eye, he had already started tying the string.

Wrapping zongzi generally required either straw or cotton strings.

If ordinary dyed strings were used, they would lose their color during the long boiling process and release harmful substances.

Li Ming had just finished teaching a student how to tie the string when he turned his head and had his attention drawn to the neatly arranged zongzi on Lin Mo's table.

He paused his steps and walked straight over.

"Student, this..."

Li Ming picked up one of Lin Mo's wrapped zongzi and examined it over and over. The more he looked, the more astonished his eyes became.

This tying method, this tension, these perfect five corners—it was even better than the ones he wrapped himself!

"You have some great skills here," Li Ming couldn't help but say.

The commotion here naturally attracted Jiang Chengyue, who was looking for highlights to film.

She immediately signaled the cameraman with her eyes and walked over briskly with a microphone in hand.

"Excuse me, student, how are you able to wrap them so fast and so well? Do you have a secret?"

The camera focused on Lin Mo's face, but his hands did not stop moving, as if the action had become an instinct.

"I learned from my mom when I was little."

Lin Mo's voice was calm, as if he were talking about the most ordinary thing in the world.

"During the Dragon Boat Festival, my mom would always make zongzi. Whenever I was bored, I would make them with her. It's just practice makes perfect."

Jiang Chengyue's hand holding the microphone paused slightly.

She naturally knew that Lin Mo's parents had already passed away, so she didn't press the matter further. Instead, she turned the microphone toward Chu Miaomiao beside him.

"I see. And what about you, miss? I see you are quite skilled as well."

Suddenly becoming the focus of the camera and the crowd, Chu Miaomiao's cheeks instantly flushed red. She instinctively lowered her head, her hands nervously pinching a bamboo leaf.

"I... I taught myself. I wanted to make some zongzi for my mom to eat." Her voice was as soft as a mosquito's hum.

"This student is very filial too."

Seeing the young girl's embarrassment, Jiang Chengyue smiled and praised her before leading the cameraman to the other side, giving them back their space.

Of course, aside from Lin Mo and the others, there were quite a few people who could wrap fast and well.

"Don't worry, first place is definitely ours. My family runs a breakfast shop, and we sell extra zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival. I always have to help wrap them back then," said a teenage boy who considered himself a fast wrapper, his hands moving swiftly.

As the saying goes, the same kind of rice feeds a hundred different kinds of people.

Many students from rural towns and villages knew a thing or two about wrapping zongzi, and some were even much faster than Chu Miaomiao.

However, Lin Mo was simply too fast. Although one wouldn't necessarily want to call him a 'fast boy,' as things stood...

He was far ahead of the pack!

Jiang Chengyue set up a camera specifically to film Lin Mo.

She even noticed that the girl with the great figure named Chu Miaomiao was acting very intimately toward Lin Mo.

It was obvious that this girl was absolutely a major rival to her own niece!

Although Chu Miaomiao was also very steady, she would occasionally leak rice due to a torn bamboo leaf.

As she clumsily tried to tidy up the ingredients on the table, Lin Mo's voice sounded from beside her.

"Don't worry, I've got you covered."

"Mhm!" Even though Chu Miaomiao knew she might just be tagging along for the ride, she continued wrapping her zongzi with utmost seriousness.

With a two-hour time limit, many people started feeling tired after just over half an hour.

Li Ming clapped his hands. "Alright, everyone stop for a moment. Let's take a halftime break. Go to the restroom or get some water. We aren't assembly-line robots, after all."

Li Ming's words made many people breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, wrapping so many zongzi in one go really made them feel like beasts of burden on an assembly line.

Since it was a mandatory break, everyone stopped what they were doing.

Only then did many people notice the massive bucket of zongzi Lin Mo had made, and they couldn't help but click their tongues in shock.

"This is way too insane. Isn't that Lin Mo? He's not just a study god, he's a zongzi god too."

Lin Mo also took off his gloves and gently patted Chu Miaomiao's shoulder.

"Let's go to the convenience store and buy something to drink."

"Okay! What do you want to drink? It's my treat," the little rich girl cheered joyfully.

"Sure, I'll have a 'Saddam' milk tea."

In 2013, "Saddam" milk tea was considered an expensive and premium bottled milk tea among students.

It was still much cheaper than the milk teas of later years, which could easily cost twenty or thirty yuan.

The two of them walked shoulder to shoulder toward the convenience store.

The convenience store was located right across from the school cafeteria.

The food in the school cafeteria tasted terrible, but it was cheap. Two meat dishes and one vegetable dish only cost six yuan, and rice and soup were all-you-can-eat.

But Lin Mo didn't like eating there.

As for the school convenience store, the prices were the same as outside the school.

The variety wasn't that extensive either. Most of the items were drinks, bread, and some small-sized snacks.

As for things like instant noodles and potato chips, they were basically non-existent.