Chapter 27 — The Unattainable Goddesses

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The No. 1 Middle School cafeteria was enormous — three whole floors. The ground floor was the general dining hall, much like a fast-food restaurant, ringed all around by small stalls selling every kind of dish, with rows of tables and chairs filling the center.

The second floor was given over to private rooms, suited to the wealthier students who could order dishes a la carte; though students whose families were not so well off would also come up here for a birthday dinner or the like. The food on the second floor was plainly a cut above the ground floor — they had their own specially hired chefs.

The third floor was reserved for faculty and staff. The food was much the same as the student cafeteria below, though the setting was a good deal more refined; naturally, students were not permitted to dine up there.

Wei Zhao followed Kang Xiaofeng into the cafeteria, and Kang Xiaofeng pointed toward an office on the right. "That's where you get your meal card," he said.

"Oh, I'll go get one now." Wei Zhao nodded. Gu Pengzhan and Qing Bo had not given him a school meal card or library card or anything of the sort, but clearly such things could be arranged at any time on campus, so long as one showed a student ID.

"What, you think I can't afford it?" Kang Xiaofeng looked a little put out at Wei Zhao's move to get a card. "First day we've met, and you're on my turf — naturally it's my treat."

Seeing him put it that way, Wei Zhao abandoned the notion of getting a card right away. "All right then, we'll do it after we eat."

"Good — I'll go with you when we're done." Kang Xiaofeng agreed cheerfully, leading Wei Zhao through the cafeteria's various little windows.

The dishes on offer at the various stalls were genuinely plentiful — vegetarian and meat dishes alike, several kinds of staples, and things like steamed buns, dumplings, and stuffed pancakes. Wei Zhao asked for alfalfa with tomato and some rice; Kang Xiaofeng ordered a plate of fish-fragrant shredded pork and a couple of steamed buns. Altogether it came to eleven yuan — neither much nor little, squarely in the middle range of spending.

Wei Zhao and Kang Xiaofeng found seats and set the two dishes down together, so the two of them could swap bites back and forth.

Once seated, Wei Zhao swiftly scanned the whole cafeteria. Shen Yushu and Gu Mengyao were not there — clearly they had likely gone up to the private rooms on the second floor.

"What are you looking at? Checking out the beauties?" Kang Xiaofeng laughed. "Shen Yushu and Gu Mengyao are both upstairs. They'd never eat with the likes of us. Though if you're lucky, you might run into Tang Zhi."

"Is that so?" What Wei Zhao cared about was where Gu Mengyao was; he had no interest in whether this Tang Zhi would show up here.

"Though Tang Zhi's family seems to be in rather poor straits — most days she brings her own lunch." Kang Xiaofeng sighed. "Honestly, with looks like hers, she could say one word and countless boys would fight to buy her a meal. Even eating in a second-floor private room every day wouldn't be out of the question."

"Hah. A girl with spirit wouldn't care about any of that," Wei Zhao said mildly.

"You're right about that. Tang Zhi has never cared about such things — a girl like that is truly rare." Kang Xiaofeng spoke as though thoroughly convinced. "But the more she's like that, the more boys fall for her. A girl who doesn't chase after money and status — that's exactly what we students adore."

Unfortunately, Tang Zhi never appeared, not even by the end of lunch. Wei Zhao did not much mind, but Kang Xiaofeng was faintly disappointed. Many students were like him, coming here every day to eat in hopes of seeing Tang Zhi — it had become a kind of expectation.

Then Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu came down the stairs from the second floor arm in arm, drawing sidelong glances from many of the boys. To the vast majority of those seated there, the two were princesses high above them all — visible, but utterly beyond reach.

Many of the boys did not even dare look them straight in the eye. Wei Zhao watched the two of them leave the school cafeteria, then went with Kang Xiaofeng to the management office by the cafeteria entrance.

"Wei Zhao, you were staring at Shen Yushu and the others the whole time, weren't you?" Kang Xiaofeng asked.

"Just looking around." Wei Zhao felt a little embarrassed.

"Ah, give it a few days and you'll understand — they're not our princesses. Tang Zhi is." Kang Xiaofeng looked at Wei Zhao with sympathy. And yet, back when he had first enrolled, hadn't he too secretly harbored a crush on Shen Yushu and Gu Mengyao? But as he grew older, he came to understand the gulf between them.

That all men are equal is a lovely fantasy. Anyone even slightly mature will understand that between people there has never been equality. "Behind vermilion gates, the stench of wine and meat; on the roadside, bones of the frozen dead" — that is no joke, but a fact of existence.

And the lives of Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu were brilliant, many-hued things. The charmed, princess-like existence they led was not something a plain, ordinary boy like him could ever step into.

So although many in the class knew that Gu Mengyao did not much care for Zhong Yongliang, they were equally clear that within this class, he was the only one with any standing to court her.

The card application went smoothly enough — after all, they were handing money to the school. The canteen manager claimed the place turned no profit, but only a fool would believe that.

Wei Zhao produced his student ID, prepaid two hundred yuan, and had his canteen card in hand without the slightest trouble. On the way out, though, Kang Xiaofeng grumbled, "Brother, what did you go and load that much money on for?"

"To eat. Why, what's wrong?" Wei Zhao was baffled. Kang Xiaofeng had been shooting him looks the whole time he was paying, and he still had no idea what the fellow was driving at.

"This is the school canteen, you know. Hand them your money and it's all smiles, but the day you stop eating there and want your refund, just you wait and see. We're in our last year of high school already — who knows how much longer we'll even be eating here? Load on that much at once, and come graduation you'll be making trips every other day to get it back. Who's got that kind of time?" Kang Xiaofeng said, half in reproach.

"Ha, is that all? It's fine. It's only two hundred yuan. Look, we go through ten-odd yuan a day — two hundred will be gone in a month or so." Wei Zhao laughed without a care. "And if they won't refund it, so be it. Worst comes to worst, the two of us skip a day's meals and come here for a proper blowout."

"Aren't you the free spirit," Kang Xiaofeng said approvingly. "If the restaurants off campus weren't even pricier, I wouldn't touch this canteen at all."

"We're lucky to have anything to eat." Wei Zhao was not a picky sort. The canteen fare might not match the skill of the chef Uncle Qing had sent over yesterday, but it was at least a good deal better than the little snack shop Widow Wang ran at the head of the village.

Back in the classroom, he found that most of the students had not gone out to play. Time in the final year of high school was precious and tense. This was the divide in a person's life: strive and struggle, and a key university might lie ahead; slip up even a little, and one might fall by the wayside.

Anyone who tested into No. 1 High School was among the best, and no one wanted to be outdone. Those sons of the elite were the exception, of course — at this moment they were out on the sports ground playing basketball to their hearts' content, or off campus in internet cafes playing online games.