Gan Lan sat in her room with her chin propped on her hand, staring blankly at the dazzling stars outside the spaceship. Beside her sat an extra-large temperature-controlled box and her luggage. Ever since she boarded the ship and entered her room, she had maintained this exact posture. She wasn’t exactly zoning out; more accurately, she was questioning her life choices. She had gone straight to sleep upon returning last night, only to be notified early this morning that the school’s spaceship was about to take off.
On the way, Gulu had opened the Star Network forum for her, showing her the trending posts on Banan Star from last night, as well as a minor trending topic hanging near the bottom of the main Star Network’s hot list.
The clickbait title she had imagined last night was now sitting at number three on the Banan Star Network’s trending list: [SHOCKING! Number Nine actually did this astounding thing after the banquet ended!]
It was word-for-word exactly what she had pictured. Either the author of this post possessed the Mind Reading Technique, or they were just unbelievably accurate at guessing her thoughts. Thanks to her actions yesterday, she had once again made a massive splash on Banan Star.
Naturally, the vast majority of the comments under the article were filled with sarcasm, mockery, disdain, and fake pity. Only a tiny fraction of users spoke up for her, but their comments were quickly drowned out by the mob, impossible to find again.
Gan Lan’s head was full of question marks. What kind of heinous, unforgivable crime had she committed to make the people of Banlan wish she were dead? At least two-thirds of the commenters under that post were sending colorful "greetings" to her ancestors. The viciousness of their language was frankly staggering. Thankfully, she had a strong mentality; otherwise, seeing such filth might have actually driven her to do something stupid.
She had also checked the minor trending post on the main Star Network. Afterward, she felt a bit sad and suffocated. Meanwhile, her Light Brain was chiming non-stop with messages from the Foodie Group and private DMs—there were simply too many people looking for her.
All she did was pack up the leftover food and bring it back. Why were they acting like she had done something genuinely shameful?
As for the contents of the minor trending post on the main Star Network, she had already explained it countless times. She needed to save up to buy her home planet, so she couldn’t afford to donate too much during this period. Even so, she had still donated ten million Credit Points to her home planet, yet this had somehow become another excuse to attack her. This left Gan Lan feeling deeply disheartened.
Because of this, she had just sat by the window, questioning her life choices and even experiencing self-doubt. If their goal was to break her spirit, then they had succeeded. She was genuinely hurt.
"Gan Lan, are you in there? Why aren’t you answering your calls? Did something happen?" Chu Yuanyi shouted from outside.
After seeing those posts on the main Star Network and Banan Star Network, he had immediately ordered his people to suppress the trending topics as much as possible. He had then called Gan Lan’s communicator to ask her out for a chat. When she didn’t answer, he grew worried. After all, the sheer amount of filthy abuse on the Star Network was more than enough to crush the mental defenses of an eighteen-year-old girl.
Originally, he thought that not wasting food was a good thing. However, wanting to avoid a spectacle, he and Liang Cong had slipped away first. He hadn’t considered how the people of Banan Star would seize the opportunity to make an issue out of Gan Lan taking the leftovers.
As for the post on the main Star Network, he suspected Huang Xingyan was behind it. Aside from him, Chu Yuanyi couldn’t think of anyone else who would escalate such a trivial matter into a debate about the moral character of Mingzong 1888 and even Mingyang Star. They had even dug up the old incident regarding Gan Lan’s stream gifts and fiercely criticized her for it.
In short, the narrative was that Gan Lan had thoroughly disgraced Ming Yangming and the Mingzong 1888 students. It claimed that despite making a fortune from her livestreams recently, she was so stingy she only donated ten million to her home planet. Furthermore, she wouldn’t even part with the Credit Points to buy that seafood herself, proving she was nothing but cheap and petty.
The internet was buzzing with discussions about these events. Even some Mingzong students felt that Gan Lan was too greedy for petty gains, embarrassing the school, her home planet, and even Mingyang Star. They also heavily criticized the previous incident where Gan Lan had refused large gifts and refunded them, only to suddenly change her mind and reopen the gift channel. They accused her of drumming up hype, being fake, and claimed that closing the channel was just a manipulative trick to bait out even larger gifts.
They argued that buying Star 1888 was nothing more than an excuse to absolve herself. In reality, despite earning so many Credit Points, she had still only donated ten million to her home planet. Packing up the leftover food was just the trigger; the real focal points were the gifts and her home planet.
Gan Lan knew all of this, which was why she was in such low spirits.
Hearing the ceaseless ringing of the doorbell outside, she finally snapped out of her daze. Standing up, she went to open the door.
"Dean, what brings you here?" Despite her poor mood, Gan Lan still managed to put on a smile.
"It’s good that you’re alright. I was worried something had happened to you." Chu Yuanyi observed Gan Lan’s complexion. Though she didn’t look great, she seemed generally fine, which was perfectly understandable. He walked into the room, followed closely by Liang Cong.
"I saw the posts online earlier. When you didn’t answer your communicator, I got a bit worried," Liang Cong said. Upon sitting down, he added, "As soon as I arrived, I saw the Dean frantically ringing the doorbell. We thought something had really happened to you."
"Don’t worry about the stuff online. The school is doing its best to suppress it for you. My guess is that Huang Xingyan is behind this. That guy loves pulling these kinds of stunts. He wants to mess with your head before the finals begin," Chu Yuanyi said, taking a sip of tea. "Ge Feng is definitely a disciple taught by him. He was aiming to break your spirit in the arena before, but his methods were still a bit too green compared to Bald Huang."
Liang Cong nodded in agreement and chimed in, "Indeed, everyone associated with Huang Xingyan—especially his disciples—has used this tactic. The method is old-fashioned, but highly effective. Over the years, who knows how many culinary geniuses have had their mentalities shattered by them."
"So, Gan Lan, you mustn’t fall for their trick. The school will suppress this issue. When we find solid evidence, we’ll deal a fatal blow and ruin the reputations of that master and disciple completely! We’ll have them expelled from the Culinary World!" Chu Yuanyi’s tone carried a lethal edge. Mingzong had finally produced such a genius; they couldn’t just let her be casually stifled. More importantly, Gan Lan was crucial to breaking the current stalemate in the Culinary World. Nothing could happen to her, and her mindset absolutely could not collapse; otherwise, it would be extremely detrimental to the upcoming finals!
"Teacher, I’m not as fragile as you think. But after everything I’ve done, to have it all completely negated by one or two minor incidents... it made me doubt myself. I even wanted to give up for a moment," Gan Lan said, cradling her water cup and keeping her head down, her tone despondent. "But I don’t feel like I did anything wrong. Is packing up leftover food really a mistake? Is it wrong to not waste food and the hard work of other chefs? I don’t think I’m wrong, yet so many people are saying I am..."
Gan Lan was genuinely bewildered now. She truly didn’t understand. Closing and reopening the gift channel was admittedly a blemish on her record, but there was a reason behind it, and she had already explained it. Why did they have to fixate on it?
However, trying to crush her like this wouldn’t be so easy! Her Huaxia soul would never surrender, and she would absolutely not admit defeat!
At the thought of Huaxia, Gan Lan’s body filled with strength. It was just a few posts attacking her, right? Then she would host a live stream right now—a live stream featuring the leftover shrimp she had packed up! She would let them know that even leftover shrimp could be transformed into a brand new delicacy!