As a high school homeroom teacher, Zhao Yu had not been able to relax even during the summer break.
In the past few days, the College Entrance Examination results had been released one after another. Phone calls from students reporting their success came in waves, and the school was constantly monitoring the students’ university application information.
“Teacher Zhao, please come to the third floor of the First Teaching Building this morning.”
The principal’s call was expected. This year, Zhao Yu’s class had produced two students in the top one hundred of the entire province, making it the best class in the school.
The night the results were released, the principal was so excited he practically jumped for joy. As a private high school, they had been competing with several key public schools since their founding. This year’s results finally allowed them to surpass their old rivals.
The principal had hurriedly ordered several red banners and immediately gathered the homeroom teachers of the graduating classes to provide several days of counseling for parents at the school. With good scores, the university choices had to be handled with just as much care.
Zhao Yu reminded her son, Chen Zihan, not to drink cold water.
“Your stomach just recovered; you can’t eat indiscriminately.”
Chen Zihan nodded obediently but couldn’t help asking, “Mom, you said there’s crispy eggplant for lunch today. What is crispy eggplant?”
Zhao Yu filled a large thermos with flower tea for her son. “Mom hasn’t tried it either.”
Chen Zihan’s eyes sparkled. “It must be delicious.”
Zhao Yu bundled the little foodie into the car. “Then enjoy it properly at noon and tell Mom about it tonight.”
After dropping her son at the library, Zhao Yu rushed to school.
After working all morning, the teachers discussed what to eat for lunch.
“Should we just order takeout?”
It was too hot outside. This year, for some reason, the weather felt off; it hadn’t rained since late June. The drought worsened day by day, and the high temperatures persisted.
One teacher suggested eating at the gate. “The little restaurants at the school entrance are all open. It’s only a few steps to the shops.”
Another female teacher quickly waved her hand. “Don’t. Think about it—those shops usually have a lot of customers, so their ingredients stay fresh. In the summer, business is obviously slow.”
And the slower the business, the less fresh the ingredients.
“Isn’t ordering takeout the same thing?”
“I order from places with high volume! Like this one—four thousand monthly sales.”
The teacher scrolled through her phone. “Hunan-style stir-fry. Let’s order a few dishes, some rice, and some drinks.”
Several teachers ordered from that shop. Only Zhao Yu suddenly remembered the place where she had ordered lunch for her son yesterday.
“You guys go ahead, I’ll look for something myself.”
She clicked on Mother Wen’s social media profile. The background image displayed the restaurant’s name and address. Zhao Yu thought that since her son said it was good, she might as well try it.
But after scrolling through the delivery interface for a while, she couldn’t find the shop. Finally, searching by name, a shop with no rating popped up.
“…Is it newly opened?”
Zhao Yu felt something was wrong. When she saw the photo of the kitchen Mother Wen had posted, it looked clean but clearly showed signs of use.
When she clicked on the details, Zhao Yu became even more confused. “This location… why is it so close?”
The female teacher next to her leaned in. “This one? It’s on the street opposite the school, opened last year. Walk along the street to the end—it’s the second to last shop. You usually eat at the canteen, so you probably haven’t been there.”
Zhao Yu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She had taken a long detour only to find the food right across from her own school. She scrolled through the reviews—there were only a few, and several were from the same person.
“Teacher Zhao, you’re eating from this place?”
“Yes, I ordered their lunch program for my son. He said it was quite good.”
The other teacher remarked, “…Really? This place just sells rice and noodle platters. It’s clean, but the taste isn’t much different from the canteen.”
Zhao Yu casually selected a portion of Tomato and Egg over Noodles on the app. “I’ll try it. It’s probably just home-style cooking.”
She lowered her expectations. After all, how bad could a dish like tomato and egg stir-fry be? Whenever she didn’t know what to eat, she ordered this; it was a safe bet.
The order arrived very quickly. The delivery rider didn’t even use his scooter; he left it in front of the restaurant and walked over to the school.
“Your meal.”
Zhao Yu took the takeout box and entered the office. The other colleagues’ meals arrived shortly after.
“Hey, that was fast! They picked up the meals in five minutes.”
As the female teacher spoke, the rider’s expression seemed somewhat hesitant. Zhao Yu had just returned from the restroom and overheard the young man muttering as she passed him.
“A restaurant that puts out food in five minutes… what is there to be happy about?”
Zhao Yu: “…”
The female teacher invited everyone to eat at a clean desk. Zhao Yu tactfully refrained from repeating the rider’s words.
The aroma of the Hunan food was a sharp, spicy scent that tickled the nose. As the boxes were opened, the teachers all felt hungry.
“Looks decent.”
Spicy Diced Chicken: fried to a crisp and buried in bright red dried chilies.
Pepper Stir-fried Pork: the green peppers were soft, the pork slices thin and charred, with a thick layer of oil at the bottom.
There was also a dish of “Grandmother’s Vegetables” (pickled greens with meat); it looked dark but clearly promised to be a “rice-killer.”
Regardless of how they tasted, the dishes looked good spread out. After working all morning, the teachers began to eat. The surge of salty, fragrant, and spicy flavors paired with rice was considered delicious.
“Teacher Zhao, try some.”
Zhao Yu couldn’t handle spicy food well. Seeing the bright red dishes, she waved them off repeatedly. “I’ll stick to mine.”
The Wen family’s takeout box was exceptionally simple: just a large, transparent round container. The tomato and egg stir-fry filled half the bowl, and a plastic bag held the cooked noodles. It lacked the trendy branding or high-quality packaging bags of the other shop.
Zhao Yu poured the noodles into the disposable box. Initially, the presentation looked so poor it was almost unappetizing. But once the noodles were coated in the rich tomato sauce, everything changed.
The stir-fry retained some shape, but the edges of the tomatoes had melted into the eggs. The golden eggs were stained with the red tomato sauce, looking bright and enticing. Specifically, the sour fragrance that wafted up the moment the noodles were tossed hit her nose immediately.
Zhao Yu felt her spirits lift. She picked up a mouthful of noodles.
The sweet and sour flavor bloomed in her mouth. Zhao Yu, who normally wasn’t a fan of sweet-style tomato and egg stir-fry, found herself speechless.
The other teacher had already smelled that sweet and sour aroma. She stared at Zhao Yu, whose brow had smoothed out after just one bite.
“…Teacher Zhao, is it good?”
Zhao Yu wiped her mouth, looking a bit apologetic. “It’s delicious! But since it’s noodles with soup and sauce, I won’t offer any to the group.”
With that, Zhao Yu quickly slurped the noodles.
The other colleagues collectively swallowed hard and looked back at their own food. It suddenly felt tasteless.
Although no flavor is objectively superior, once hit by the sweet and sour punch of the tomato and egg stir-fry, the salty and spicy dishes felt… shallow. They felt like “placeholder” food—prepped simply and sent out. The spicy aroma they had found appetizing moments ago now felt like a hollow attempt to fool the stomach.
The female teacher poked at her rice and gave a dry laugh. “That shop must have changed their chef.”
She had visited a few times before and had certainly had their tomato and egg stir-fry. It definitely didn’t taste like this!
In the end, the group didn’t finish the three dishes. The female teacher began asking Zhao Yu about the lunch program for the kids. Zhao Yu discarded her empty box and explained the situation.
Another teacher slapped her thigh. “You should have said so sooner! Mine is soaking in the library too!”
“Come, come, recommend the group to me.”
Zhao Yu was full of questions. “Teacher Liu, hasn’t your child already graduated?”
Teacher Liu waved her hand. “Graduated last month, but he’s taking the civil service exam. He goes to the library every day to fight for a seat.”
Zhao Yu: “…”
Teacher Liu was indifferent. “The lunch program didn’t specify an age limit. No matter how old he is, he’s still a child.”
Teacher Liu successfully joined Mother Wen’s group and excitedly ordered the lunch program for her exam-studying child.
On the other side, things were not peaceful for the children eating their lunches today.
Although Zhang Zhuangzhuang had eaten the incredibly delicious Scallion Oil Drenched Chicken and the sweet and sour Crispy Eggplant, his world felt like it was ending when he saw the tomato and egg stir-fry in the other kids’ boxes.
“Waaaaah, why didn’t I get the tomato and egg stir-fry…”
Seeing Chen Zihan enjoying his meal with the tomato and egg over his rice, his face full of satisfaction, Zhang Zhuangzhuang felt even more broken.
“Waaaaah, I’m telling my grandma!”
He couldn’t wait to go home; he called his grandma on his watch phone right away. It was the same ordered meal—why were his dishes incomplete!
Mother Wen found it strange. Lunchtime had passed when “Zhuangzhuang’s Grandma” suddenly asked in the group if she could have a separate portion of rice with toppings sent over. She specifically requested Tomato and Egg over Rice.
Mother Wen typed into the group, puzzled. [Zhuangzhuang’s Grandma, didn’t you say the child doesn’t eat tomatoes?]
The grandma was silent for a long time. Eventually, she sent Mother Wen a private red envelope. Mother Wen clicked it; it was twenty yuan.
The grandma’s voice message followed, her tone no longer as aggressive as before. “Shopkeeper, the child saw the others’ food and got greedy… from now on, no need for special treatment for us.”
Mother Wen frowned and returned the red envelope, sending a voice message of her own. Twenty yuan was too much; rice with toppings was a regular menu item. Since there were still some portions left in the shop, she told the grandma she could just order directly through the delivery platform.
After turning off her phone, Mother Wen suddenly smiled.
Wen Fan was currently sneaking a stolen Coke into her backpack. Father Wen saw his daughter’s actions but quietly stood in front of her to shield her.
“What are you laughing at?” Father Wen asked, trying to strike up a conversation.
Mother Wen waved it off, thinking it was quite funny. “I just feel like… being too clever can backfire.”
Her phone chimed a few times; Mother Wen’s eyes lit up. Four more people had just joined the ordering group. Seeing the membership reach ten, Mother Wen was in a great mood.
However, she also had an idea. She suggested to her daughter that they change the lunch from “two meat and two vegetable” to “two meat and one vegetable.”
“We’ve run out of lunch boxes too. When I buy more, I’ll get the ones with three compartments, and we’ll add a serving of fruit for lunch.”
Fruit was cheap in the summer. While stir-frying greens wasn’t much trouble, her daughter always complained that they couldn’t be made in advance. No matter how well a stir-fry was done, it would be significantly worse after half an hour. Instead of that, it was better to reduce one vegetable dish and add a serving of watermelon or cantaloupe.
After getting her daughter’s approval, Mother Wen explained the change in the group, and the customers all agreed.
Thus, the next day, Mother Wen had Father Wen buy a large bag of watermelons.
The moment Wen Fan saw the watermelons, she suddenly thought of something.
“Mom, save a few watermelons for me. I have a use for them.”