Their resting room was also in the gymnasium, just off the field.
It was somewhat similar to a backstage.
Students passed by the five other schools’ resting rooms when heading toward their own. The names of the schools were on signs hung on the doors:
Tsinghua University
Beijing University
Shuang University
Jiang University
Nan University
Tong University
Tan Mo glanced at all the signs. She realized that she had come into contact with all of these schools before.
All the principals except for the one from Shuang University had come to personally visit her at her graduation from Jixia Academy.
Principal Mu from Beijing University had won the contest of attracting Tan Mo to his school. It was a little embarrassing for the other principals, so they didn’t speak of it much.
So Professor Liu knew nothing about Tan Mo because of this. His team wouldn’t have been quite so complacent if he had known.
All the students were in the resting rooms.
The rooms contained one large sofa and two extra-large sofas. There were also a bunch of chairs. There was enough space for everyone to be able to sit. There was also a huge TV hanging from the ceiling.
This television will be streaming the competition in here for you lot,” said the teacher, Mr. Liao, who seemed to be in charge of them.
The students nodded in acknowledgement.
All six schools had now set up their internal sites for this live-streaming service.
“Everyone can take a short break now, and snacks will be served shortly. Here’s a lunch card for everyone. Just head to the canteen for dining services at mealtimes,” Mr. Liao explained.
“Sir, how much money is on this card exactly? I don’t want to run out of credits at some point,” asked Tan Mo as she waved her card.
Mr. Liao looked at her curiously. This young lady was different from the rest. No one else ever asked such questions. It was weird that her attention was on these sorts of matters.
Mr. Liao’s mouth twitched, and then he smiled. “These cards were made by the school especially so they could handle any overdrafts, so everyone can use them with no pressure of worrying whether you’re going to run out of money. Your school will be paying back the canteen at the very end all in one go.”
So the school wasn’t exactly worried about any limits on these limitless cards then.
The prices at the school’s canteen were already low in comparison to any restaurants outside, and actually none of these kids were probably going to overeat anyway.
With the tension of the competition, a lot of these kids didn’t have much appetite, so they wouldn’t need to overspend anyway.
No one would do anything too bold and presumptuous.
Tan Mo nodded seriously. “I see. I’ll be able to eat all I want with no pressure.”
Mr. Liao was speechless.
“Mr. Liao, which canteen would you recommend?” Tan Mo asked again.
They had a few canteens at Beijing University, so it would only make sense if there were also a number here at Tsinghua University.
All the canteens were run by different companies. Her favorite canteen at Beijing was run by a medley of different companies all on the same floor.
With each different company, there were different chefs. And with different chefs, the quality of food would differ too.
Even though Tan Mo wasn’t someone who was overly dramatic, she still had at least some minor expectations.
Mr. Liao once again remained silent. What was the deal with this young lady?
Are we here for the competition or the food?
She’d even started a discussion about their own canteen in Beijing…
“I’m not too sure about that,” said Mr. Liao. “I could ask a few of my students later on.”
“Don’t worry too much about it. I can find a few classmates and ask them instead.” Right after replying to Mr. Liao, Tan Mo started investigating the lunch card thoroughly.
Mr. Liao smiled to himself. Seeing Tan Mo in such a state over lunch, it was a smart guess to predict that Beijing University was not in a position to win. They had come all the way here, only to worry about the food?
If they were to continue on like this, next year’s ranking should be no problem for Tsinghua University: they would grab the title of champion again.
Mr. Liao was now brimming with sweet confidence. He thought it over for a while and then he ran into Professor Guo. “Professor, it seems as if all the schools have brought their professors also. I think the principal would like it if all you professors would join him for lunch.”
There would then be no need for him to head to lunch with his students. Professor Guo only smiled politely. He was not someone who liked to cause conflict of any sorts.
He would have to attend if Principal Shi had invited him.
However, he was indeed slightly worried about his students.
Seeing him looking kind of concerned, Mr. Liao smiled at him and said, “Don’t you worry. We’ll take good care of the kids. I guarantee you we’ll take them to the canteen and make sure they eat. And we’ll bring them back too, of course.”
Those from Beijing University were just watching from the sidelines as the events unfolded. They were being treated as children…
“All right then, I’m leaving them in your hands.” Professor Guo nodded his head and spoke to the students, “There’s more than enough time. If you all want to take a stroll around the garden, that’s okay. Just make sure to stick together as a group and come back on time.”
“Siyuan, Yuemu, you two are the seniors of the group. Make sure to look after the younger ones,” Professor Guo reminded them once again.
“Don’t worry, sir, we’ll make sure to take care of them.” They both replied simultaneously.
Professor Liu snickered. “They’re not kids anymore, Professor Guo. What’s there to worry about?”
Professor Guo answered him back silently. Not like you know that there’s a 15-year-old on my team.
“Now, now, today Wu Siyu from Shuang University, Yao Shang Jing from Nan University, Wang Lixia from Tong University, and others all have personally brought their teams here. And, of course, they’ve brought assistants. No one has seen each other for a year. We’ve got to catch up today,” said Professor Liu.
Upon hearing this, Professor Guo himself got actually slightly excited and proceeded to leave to have lunch with the other professors.
“Would everyone like to rest for a bit or would they like to take a stroll around?” asked Mr. Liao.
Most of the kids seemed to want to take a stroll around rather than rest, and they were all interested in finding the best canteen so they could go and grab lunch after.
Inevitably, quite a few people were chatting about the competition on their stroll.
“Are you going to watch the competition?”
“There’s nothing better to do, so I might as well.”
“”We have won for quite a few years now, and it seems that it will be the case also this year, so of course we’ll have to watch,” said someone who had come from Tsinghua University to support the team.
“I heard from the student council that some students from Beijing University also came to support their team too.”
“They don’t have as many tickets as we do though, so they definitely won’t have as many supporters as we do. It’s still to our advantage.”
“It seems like the students from Tsinghua University are really confident this year,” commented Ying Siyuan.
“Of course they are. We have let them win the competition for quite a few years now. Unfortunately, we have lost several years in a row.” Wang Yuemu sighed.
Right as they were discussing this, they suddenly heard a defiant voice from behind them. “How come all those from Tsinghua are acting like this? They only seem to see those from Beijing as their competitors. It’s as if they think that if they can beat Beijing they’ll automatically win the competition. They didn’t even take a single look at the other four universities.”
Tan Mo turned around as she heard this.
She saw a team similar to hers trudging up behind them.
It seemed like that must have been one of the other four teams.
“Well, as mad as we get about Tsinghua University grabbing the championship away from us, other schools are angry because they aren’t even deemed as worthy opponents,” whispered Xu Hongyu.
“Senior Ying, can we do rotations with each member during the competition?” asked Wu Jiazhen.
