Lunch Box

"Oh, did you order takeout, junior? That's a huge box, what kind of delicious food is in there?"

A senior from the lab asked casually as he walked by.

Li Xingya replied, "I don't know either, it's from Teacher Chen... uh, Chen..."

She was momentarily at a loss for words, not knowing how to express it.

She herself liked calling Chen Yusheng 'Teacher', but the master's and even doctoral seniors in the lab couldn't possibly call her 'Teacher' too, right?

It felt a bit unrealistic...

Hearing this, the senior laughed. "You mean Chen Yusheng? We all call her Master Sheng."

"Oh, oh, is that so?"

"After all, she's really amazing. The environment our group couldn't run before, she reconfigured the parameters, and it worked perfectly right away. To be honest, I feel like for the next few years, the PhDs in our group shouldn't count on Professor Luo to graduate; counting on Master Sheng is much more reliable."

Saying that, the senior's eyes returned to the large lunchbox. "Master Sheng ordered takeout for you? Not bad. Just stick with Master Sheng from now on. When you take the postgraduate entrance exam for Jiang University, Master Sheng will guarantee you pass the interview."

"I, I will try my best..."

So Chen Yusheng's status in the research group was actually this high?

Li Xingya felt like her eyes had been opened.

In fact, it was even higher than she imagined. Although Chen Yusheng had Su Bai's backing and was suspected of getting in through connections, she was a capable person with connections. Moreover, a portion of the donations from Su Bai's tech company to the lab had been converted into salary subsidies for the master's and doctoral students.

So what else was there to say? She was just awesome!

Sometimes, winning people over is really that simple.

Compared to Chen Yusheng herself, the senior was actually more curious about what was in the lunchbox.

After all, ordinary guys like them couldn't even get close to such an excellent girl, but if the takeout was good, they could follow suit and order it too.

When people study too much, they tend to enter a Zen-like state of apathy. Being tortured by papers, experiments, and classes every day, the only thing left in their minds is what to eat for lunch today.

Li Xingya, however, didn't eat in the lab. She was thin-skinned, and since the lab was undergoing equipment maintenance in the afternoon, she wouldn't be able to work anyway. So, she decided to take the food back to Normal University and eat in her dorm.

When eating, should she take some photos and praise it...? Li Xingya couldn't help but start pondering the ways of the world. Speaking of which, Chen Yusheng said that Su Bai personally killed a fish and cooked this, so she didn't know how it would taste.

In her stereotypical view, the culinary skills of these rich young masters were hard to judge.

Those international students were the most typical examples. Because foreign food was expensive and tasted terrible, they were forced to practice their cooking skills, which proved that they never had to worry about cooking when they were in their home country.

It's better to show some high emotional intelligence. No matter how it tastes, she had to praise it!

After all, Su Bai bringing her in to work for Chen Yusheng had truly changed Li Xingya's destiny. Pleasing the boss was only natural.

...

"Wow, Xingya, what kind of takeout did you order? It looks delicious!"

As soon as she entered the dorm, the group's ray of sunshine, Zhou Xiaoyan, started shouting.

Mainly, this large meal box was too conspicuous. Although it was wrapped in a delivery bag with an express logo, obscuring the exact appearance of the box, it was common knowledge that cheap takeout packaging was usually poor, while large-packaged takeout was often luxurious.

Of course, it was luxurious compared to the average consumption level of Normal University students.

Specifically, ordering a takeout meal over fifty yuan was not very common, and a three-digit takeout was considered extravagant.

After all, the consumption level in Jiangcheng was just so-so.

Usually, Zhou Xiaoyan focused on group-buying cheap meals. To be honest, Normal University's cafeteria was quite expensive. Damn contractors!

The school leaders also had their excuses: our school lacks prestige, and the state subsidies we receive are far worse than those of the neighboring Jiang University.

This couldn't be helped. Often, the consumption and tuition fees of prestigious universities were actually lower. Especially the tuition fees; those of third-tier colleges and vocational schools were the most outrageous, and they even had a trending tendency to rise year by year...

Fortunately, compared to the evil American empire across the ocean, it was really cheap.

"I don't know either, Teacher Chen gave it to me..."

"Ahhh, this teacher of yours is too nice! She teaches you to write code and orders takeout for you... Say, do you think she has a crush on you?"

"???"

Li Xingya was shocked by Zhou Xiaoyan's wild imagination.

Come on, sister! Chen Yusheng and Su Bai were very much in love. Especially when they discussed that kind of thing on the phone, the happy expression on her face made Li Xingya incredibly envious.

How could someone like that have an abnormal orientation... Forget it, all her classmates understood Zhou Xiaoyan's wild imagination.

Even the people from the acting department would come to ask Zhou Xiaoyan for her imaginative ideas when they lacked script inspiration.

An absolute eccentric genius.

"Haha, Xiaoyan, that's enough. The girls in the Jiang University goddess dorm all like men, and they even like the same man... Hey, I got a video from my high school classmate at Jiang University of Su Bai playing basketball. Do you guys want to watch it?"

"Eh? So the perfect male god also likes singing, dancing, and playing basketball?"

"..."

Come on, sister!

Miss Manicure, who was doing her nails, was almost amused so much by Zhou Xiaoyan that she dropped her nail polish.

Speaking of which, in the environment of Normal University, Miss Manicure relied on her family's wealth and broad knowledge to suppress many of the other girls and maintain her socialite style. However, her defenses would always be broken in front of Zhou Xiaoyan. It couldn't be helped; that's just how goofballs are—pure mechanics-based monsters that ignore base stats.

"Forget it, forget it, let's first see what Xingya is eating for lunch," Miss Manicure changed the subject.

She was indeed curious, and also harbored a hint of sour jealousy in her heart. Why? You're just a second-tier university student like us; just because you work hard, you get noticed by a lab at Jiang University?

The so-called best friend is someone who is afraid their friend will suffer, but also afraid their friend will drive a Range Rover.

Li Xingya came from a poor, shabby small town and had nothing. If she really managed to test into Jiang University's computer science department, then Miss Manicure would truly lose her mind.

What kind of top-tier genius was Chen Yusheng? How could she really take care of you that much? Ordering you some flashy internet-famous takeout was probably just to win your loyalty.

Miss Manicure couldn't help but think darkly to herself.

As a result, when Li Xingya opened the packaging, the highly elegant multi-layered wooden lunchbox appeared before everyone's eyes, instantly leaving them dumbfounded.

"My god, why does this look like an antique?" Zhou Xiaoyan blurted out, then quickly shook her head. "No, it's definitely not an antique, it just looks rather vintage... Wow, it's really beautiful. Could it be solid wood? This heavy box feels like it's worth a week of my food budget."

Now that you mention it, it really was...

Li Xingya was also somewhat shocked by the exquisiteness of the lunchbox. Speaking of which, was this the daily living standard of the Ascott landscape villas?

This couldn't help but remind Li Xingya of an ancient emperor's harem. Her face immediately flushed red again as she remembered the many strange thoughts that had flashed through her mind while tossing and turning last night.

A young girl's springtime yearnings were sometimes just strange like that.