CHAPTER 38: CHAPTER 38: HOT TOPIC ON THE CAMPUS FORUM

While Jiang Yu was busy rolling out dough skins and preparing to redeem a new dish recipe, a post quietly popped up in the "Campus Topics" section of the Jiangzhou University campus forum.

The poster’s username was "203," and the title of the post was boldly written: "The Dilemma of Freshmen: As Our Military Training Approaches, We Might Have to Say Goodbye to Delicious Soup Dumplings..."

In the post, "203" vividly described the joy and delight of eating the soup dumplings and hot and sour soup from the second canteen for the first time upon arriving at the school. Then they wrote:

"There’s a song with this lyric: Because of one person, I fell in love with a city.

And now I want to say, because of the soup dumplings and hot and sour soup, having just joined Jiangzhou University, I have deeply fallen in love with this school...

However, I overlooked something very important: freshmen have to undergo military training upon enrollment.

The hardship and fatigue of military training aren’t worth complaining about because there are many in this world going through tougher times than us. If we can’t even endure this bit of hardship, life will only get harder in the future.

What we’re trying to say is, once military training begins, we must strictly adhere to the schedule, and we won’t have time to line up early at the second canteen as we did before.

This means that during military training, as freshmen, we might really have to part with delicious soup dumplings..."

When the post first appeared, it was silent, but it quickly caught the attention of students browsing the forum.

Upperclassmen saw it and couldn’t help but laugh heartily, leaving gloating comments:

"Hahaha! Luckily, when we did military training last year, the second canteen didn’t have soup dumplings. Otherwise, we would’ve been as pitiful as you freshmen!"

"This post is eloquent and full of emotions, depicting the freshmen’s love for delicious soup dumplings vividly, and hopelessly capturing their despair at not being able to buy them because of military training, well done! Run ten more laps around the track at military training tomorrow as a reward!"

"Pfft! The comment above is so harsh! To be honest, with freshmen in military training now, we’re actually quite happy; after all, there’s one less crowd competing for food with us, haha!"

"..."

And when the freshmen saw the post, they felt a strong sense of resonance:

"Boohoo, the author writes so well, it feels like they captured my true thoughts!! I’m not afraid of military training, but living without soup dumplings is impossible!!!"

"Yes, the author really voiced the sentiments of many freshmen. After tasting the wonderful flavor of the soup dumplings, the other food in the canteen is almost inedible!"

"To be fair, the upperclassmen above are really mean! Gloating! When the day comes that you graduate, we’ll also bang drums and gongs to send you off to a place where you can’t have soup dumplings anymore!"

"As a member of the freshmen team, I, like the author, find military training inevitable, but being unable to eat soup dumplings is indeed very despairing. I wonder if the ’Jiang Family’ soup dumpling shop or the school can think of a way to make an exception..."

"Support the comment above!"

"I support it too!"

"Support! We’re not asking for everyone to get a chance to eat soup dumplings because that’s not realistic, with so many people. But can the ’Jiang Family’ soup dumpling shop open a special access or something, so that we have a chance to strive for buying soup dumplings, even if it’s just a sliver of hope?"

"..."

Because the post contained the keywords "soup dumpling" and "military training," it attracted a large group of students to "watch," and with more and more comments, the moderators quickly reacted and soon featured the post, making it a trending topic.

...

The first floor of the second canteen, at the "Jiang Family Soup Dumplings" shop.

Jiang Yu multitasked, skillfully wrapping soup dumplings while glancing at the System Mall with the corner of his eye, thinking to himself:

"Stir-fried dishes won’t do, selling only one stir-fried dish in the shop is too odd. Claypot rice, fried rice, those are the same.

Moreover, all these require cooking rice, and the shop is too small; making soup dumplings already takes up most of the space, there’s no room to maneuver.

As for noodles... let’s skip noodles, this is after all the South, not many people would want to have noodles three times a day, every day; at least I’m not used to that..."

After thinking for a while, he still couldn’t decide what dish to redeem, and just as he was feeling the headache, Hu Zhihai came in from outside. Glancing at the two people in the kitchen, he said in surprise,

"It’s already closing time, and you’re still wrapping dumplings? Are you not hungry yet?"

"Huh? It’s already half past one?"

Startled, Jiang Yu snapped back to reality, turned to look at Lu Shuwu sitting at the side, and quickly said,

"Brother Xiao Wu, let’s take a break and grab something to eat. Once you’re full, you better go back and rest for a bit. You seem really tired this morning."

"It’s okay, I can hold on."

Lu Shuwu blinked his slightly sore eyes, which had obvious bloodshot lines, and smiled, "I’m still waiting to eat your new dish!"

For delicious food, what does it matter if I didn’t sleep well all night?

"..."

Jiang Yu glanced at him speechless for a moment before saying, "Alright, wait for the evening, I’ll definitely let you have some."

"What? Lao Jiang, what did you say? A new dish?! What new dish, tell me quickly!"

Hu Zhihai suddenly became excited. Ever since tasting the delicious soup dumplings and hot and sour soup, he was firmly convinced that Jiang Yu’s culinary skills were unmatched, even by the chefs in hotels.

As long as Jiang Yu cooked it, even cold marinated shoe soles would be an ultimate delicacy!

Now hearing that Jiang Yu planned to introduce a new dish, his mouth was already salivating out of reflex.

Oh my! I’m craving it so much!

"Even if I tell you now, you still can’t eat it. Unless you just want to drool?"

Jiang Yu gave him a glance, then with a calm face, walked out, saying lightly,

"Let’s go, grab something to eat, fill up, rest a bit, and then get to work. What’s the point of thinking about everything else? Let’s first make sure that group of students is fed their dinner well."

"Hey! Lao Jiang, you mentioning those students reminded me of something!"

Seeing Jiang Yu heading forward, Hu Zhihai hurriedly chased after him, saying while walking,

"Just after closing up, I heard a few students outside saying someone posted something on the campus forum related to our shop. I was curious, so I opened it up to have a look, and you’ll never guess what happened?"

"Do you think I won’t guess?"

"Uh... okay then, the post was by a freshman. Apparently, freshmen will start their military training tomorrow. Once training starts, they’ll be quite busy with hardly any free time, which means they won’t have time to line up for soup dumplings."

Seeing Jiang Yu was unwilling to guess, Hu Zhihai explained,

"I glanced through the replies; many freshmen are talking about this and suggesting that the school and our shop find a way to offer a special channel to give them a chance to buy soup dumplings, even if only a small number can eat them, it’s better than nothing.

The post has already become a trending topic on the forum, with lots of people paying attention. The school will probably take notice, considering it’s the appeal of so many freshmen.

I just wanted to ask, what do you think about this?"