NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20 - Which is Better, Black or White?
Meat dishes are not allowed to be taken out of the cafeteria.
The cafeteria staff’s words left He Gu stunned.
What kind of bizarre rule is this?
And he had clearly taken meat buns out with him this morning!
He Gu felt a little annoyed: “Since when have you had this rule?”
The staff member woodenly repeated: “Cafeteria rules, meat dishes are not allowed to be taken out!”
He Gu was unwilling to accept this: “I took meat buns out with me this morning, the chef gave them to me himself!”
Upon hearing these words, the staff member suddenly gave He Gu a bizarre look: “So he’s no longer here.”
He Gu was taken aback by these words, what did “no longer here” mean?
At this moment, He Gu noticed that all the staff at the service windows were slowly walking towards him, staring straight at him with bizarre expressions on their faces.
He Gu felt a tingle go down his spine, and hurriedly said: “Then give me some vegetarian dishes to take away.”
The staff continued staring fixedly at He Gu, not even glancing at the ladle as they carelessly spooned some dishes into a takeout box and handed it to He Gu.
He Gu quickly paid, then fled from the cafeteria as if he was escaping.
This place was too strange, it felt like bizarre events could happen at any moment.
After leaving the cafeteria, He Gu clutched the takeout box and hurried towards the dorm building. Soon he arrived at the entrance.
The middle-aged dorm supervisor wearing a red vest was still sitting at the entrance, completely absorbed in reading a newspaper.
He Gu walked past him, and the supervisor suddenly muttered to himself: “Disasters show no mercy… And it was one of our own students too, tsk tsk, how tragic.”
Hearing the supervisor’s words, He Gu couldn’t help but stop in his tracks: “What did you say, uncle?”
The supervisor looked up at him and flatly said: “There was a car accident in the city next door last week, the victim was a student from our school…”
Halfway through speaking, it seemed the supervisor suddenly thought of something and paused, then said: “You’re from room 302 right?”
He Gu nodded: “Yes.”
Upon hearing this, the supervisor sighed: “Oh, then I guess you already know about it.”
“The unpredictability of life…”
Having said that, the supervisor patted He Gu on the shoulder again: “Don’t be too pessimistic, when things like this happen there’s nothing anyone can do. Try to think positively, don’t just mope around in your dorm room all day. If you really can’t handle it, go hang out with the students from the next room over, just be patient and wait for your internship arrangement.”
After saying this, the supervisor patted He Gu’s shoulder again and sat back down to continue reading his newspaper.
He Gu was left completely confused, he had a nagging feeling that the supervisor was implying something?
But could the dorm supervisor really be trusted…?
He Gu gave the supervisor a wary glance, but didn’t say anything more. He quickly went upstairs.
Back in the dorm room, Xiao Ying was still on her bed clutching her phone.
Probably from spending the whole day in bed, Xiao Ying’s face looked a little pale now.
“Time to eat,” He Gu said, placing the takeout box on the edge of Xiao Ying’s bed.
Xiao Ying nodded silently and picked up the box.
However, when she opened it, Xiao Ying’s expression didn’t look too happy: “No meat?”
He Gu explained helplessly: “The cafeteria people are being weird for some reason, they said meat dishes can’t be taken out, they’d only let me take vegetables.”
Xiao Ying seemed a little unhappy about this. She frowned at the box in her hands without saying anything.
After hesitating for a moment, He Gu added: “If you really can’t stand it… I can go to the store and buy you some ham or something?”
Xiao Ying shook her head: “No need.”
With that, Xiao Ying started eating from the takeout box with a grumpy look on her face.
Seeing Xiao Ying like this, He Gu felt another wave of uneasiness rise within him.
He increasingly felt like Xiao Ying was becoming more and more… bizarre, like she had done a complete 180 from yesterday.
Oh well, this was still better than how she was yesterday at least.
He Gu shook his head and climbed back onto his top bunk, leaning against his pillow as he started fiddling with his phone again.
The phone contained photos of all the rules He Gu had seen since entering this world. He Gu flipped through them, carefully recalling everything that had happened since he entered this realm.
The sleepwalking Wang Tao, the uniformed dorm supervisor, the strange cafeteria, Teacher Fang…
At first glance, these events seemed chaotic and unrelated, some completely irrelevant to each other, some even outright contradictory.
Yet faintly, He Gu could sense that there seemed to be something that could connect everything together.
However, right now He Gu still felt confused, unable to see things clearly.
That’s right, there was still the parrot.
So far, He Gu knew of 4 hidden messages, 2 of which were related to the parrot.
His deceased dorm leader Elder Huang, who Teacher Fang claimed had died the previous week, had sent him a bag of bird feed, also relating to the parrot.
Moreover, in Elder Huang’s note to He Gu, he had specifically instructed him not to ignore anything the parrot said, and that its words needed to be understood in reverse…
What exactly was so special about this parrot?
What critical role could it play in this realm?
Thinking of this, He Gu glanced again at the parrot hanging by his bed.
The parrot was also cocking its head looking at He Gu, its gaze… increasingly human-like.
After locking eyes with the parrot for a while, He Gu suddenly noticed its food tray was still full, seemingly untouched since this morning.
He Gu turned his head to ask Xiao Ying: “Did you refill the parrot’s food today?”
Without looking up, Xiao Ying replied: “No, why would I take care of it?”
“If there’s no more meat to eat, I’ll even want to eat it!”
Hearing this, He Gu’s heart skipped a beat and he hurriedly said: “You really can’t eat parrot meat.”
Just then, the parrot suddenly flapped its wings and squawked: “Eat meat! Eat meat!”
“Help! Help!”
…
After squawking twice, the parrot became quiet again, seemingly exhausted. It tucked its neck in and turned away.
He Gu felt a headache coming on.
This parrot kept randomly bursting into loud shrieking, what exactly was it trying to express?
According to Elder Huang’s words, the parrot’s speech needed to be understood in reverse.
But in reverse… the parrot said to eat meat, so did that mean it was saying not to eat meat?
How should “help” be interpreted then?
He Gu felt a little tired.
After hanging the parrot back by his bed, He Gu reclined into a comfortable position again and picked up his phone, continuing to scroll through videos.
Time ticked by second by second.
After racking his brains for a while but still drawing a blank, He Gu simply started watching short videos on his phone.
Unknowingly, it was already 11:24pm.
Just as He Gu was absorbed in his video scrolling, Xiao Ying’s voice suddenly sounded from the lower bunk.
“He Gu, come take a look at this for me.”
He Gu was puzzled: “Look at what?”
As he spoke, He Gu turned his head downwards.
But after just one glance, He Gu’s expression froze.
Standing there, Xiao Ying had mysteriously changed into an outfit resembling the Japanese schoolgirl (JK) style, her slender legs sheathed in black stockings.
Upon seeing this, He Gu’s body stiffened, a foreboding feeling bubbling up inside him.
Xiao Ying looked at He Gu with a mischievous, semi-smiling expression, her eyes twinkling playfully. “Do you think I look good in this?”
He Gu replied with an awkward smile, “Uh, yes, you look good.”
To his surprise, Xiao Ying teasingly removed the black stockings right in front of him. She then leisurely began to put on a pair of white stockings.
“Which do you prefer? This one, or the one I just took off?”