114: Chapter 53 Scrambled Eggs with Tomato (Extra 1000 words!)_2 114: Chapter 53 Scrambled Eggs with Tomato (Extra 1000 words!)_2 Lin Yi and Wei Liang lined up at the No.
3 meal service window as per the old routine.
The cafeteria was packed with more people at dinner than at lunch, all heads crowded together densely.
Lin Yi glanced at his watch.
17:33.
“Five-thirty…
I hope I can manage to finish eating before the sun sets and leave,” Lin Yi thought to himself.
He and Wei Liang slowly moved forward with the line, chatting sporadically.
Wei Liang was up to get his meal first, just like before, he pointed through the glass at the dishes inside using his finger, a method that effectively avoided disputes with the Cafeteria Auntie over mistaken dishes.
I won’t name the dishes, I’ll eat whatever you give me if you get it wrong.
This was Wei Liang’s textbook method for buying meals.
However, complications arose this time.
The Cafeteria Auntie showed a touch of confusion in her eyes while serving Wei Liang.
Then, her hand stopped shaking, and she swiftly scooped a spoonful of food from a compartment on the side and then asked Wei Liang:
“Student, I wasn’t paying attention, did you just point at this pepper steak?”
Lin Yi cast his gaze over from behind Wei Liang and saw that the Cafeteria Auntie’s spoon was heaped with…
Scrambled eggs with tomato.
Yet, he noticed that there were no scrambled eggs with tomato in the compartment at all, only pepper steak.
A trace of confusion appeared in Lin Yi’s eyes, and an idea sprung to his mind, had he seen it wrong?
Was it pepper steak, or…
scrambled eggs with tomato?
Just as this thought emerged in his mind, he sharply realized that it might not be the Cafeteria Auntie’s mistake, but rather a misperception of the dish!
Was it pepper steak or scrambled eggs with tomato?
Lin Yi didn’t want to ponder this question for now because whether it was pepper steak or scrambled eggs with tomato, it no longer mattered.
What was important was that when scrambled eggs with tomato appeared in the spoon, regardless of what the Cafeteria Auntie had actually served, it was a dish “containing tomato element”!
When Lin Yi realized this, Wei Liang had already frozen, staring at that full spoon of scrambled eggs with tomato.
But soon, Wei Liang’s face brightened with a smile, and he said cheerfully, “Ah yes, yes, yes…
this is the dish, Auntie, please give me a bit more of it.”
The Cafeteria Auntie thought for a moment, an intriguing light twinkling in her eyes, and she double-checked, “Student, are you sure this is what you wanted…
pepper steak?”
Wei Liang frowned and said, “Auntie, that’s right, hurry up, I’m starving!”
The Cafeteria Auntie squinted her eyes, then said, “Alright, alright, alright, eat more then, young man…”
She then dumped that spoonful of scrambled eggs with tomato onto the plate and scooped another spoonful of scrambled eggs with tomato from the pepper steak compartment, spreading it over the meal.
Wei Liang’s eyes twitched fiercely, his lips moved slightly, mouthing— “Oh my gosh…”
“Liangzi…” Lin Yi suddenly broke out in a cold sweat for Wei Liang, not knowing if Wei Liang had noticed, he wanted to speak up but didn’t know how to start.
At that moment, Wei Liang suddenly turned to him and said, “Old Lin, hurry up and get your meal!
I’ll wait for you at the card reader.”
“Ah?
Not…” Lin Yi was pondering what to do, but Wei Liang had already taken the tray filled with scrambled eggs with tomato from the Cafeteria Auntie and approached the card reader, where he swiped his card just like he did at noon.
Wei Liang stood to the side with his tray, silently watching Lin Yi, deep in thought.
“Student, what would you like to eat?” The Cafeteria Auntie had already grabbed a new plate, giving Lin Yi an inquiring look.
“Please give me some of this, this, this, and…
this,” Lin Yi pointed indiscriminately through the glass at the food compartments, but avoided the pepper steak.
The Cafeteria Auntie started serving the dishes.
Lin Yi squinted his eyes, observing every move she made.
This Cafeteria Auntie was a somewhat plump middle-aged woman, dressed in the standard white chef’s uniform of the cafeteria staff, wearing a blue apron.
Pinned at her chest was a white acrylic name badge, almost identical to the headteacher’s, featuring embossed thorn vine borders and the middle had embossed golden letters.
He quietly noted down the Cafeteria Auntie’s badge number:
“Chef-0391”
“391 number?” Lin Yi was taken aback, if the numbers were assigned one by one, was she actually the 391st Cafeteria Auntie?
It seemed there was quite a high turnover of cafeteria staff.
Just then, he noticed that the Cafeteria Auntie was almost done serving the dishes when a hint of confusion appeared in her eyes again.
She murmured to herself, “What was the last dish again…?”
Her gaze wandered over the food compartments, the hand holding the serving spoon trembling slightly, then she realized, “It must be this one!”
She reached for the pepper steak…
Lin Yi narrowed his eyes in an instant—he absolutely did not order pepper steak.
But the Cafeteria Auntie didn’t scoop up the pepper steak, instead, she scooped the dish next to it.
Pork strips in garlic sauce.
Lin Yi watched closely as the Cafeteria Auntie scooped up a spoonful of pork strips in garlic sauce, then tilted the spoon, and the pork strips in garlic sauce tumbled down from the spoon, revealing a hefty portion of scrambled eggs with tomato underneath.