Back in the academy, she wasn't solely focused on scholarship and lecturing. The academy was vast, with countless affairs to manage—far more troublesome and numerous than the interdimensional shops—all of which she handled herself. To be honest, now that she's only managing a chain store, she feels like she's really relaxing and taking a break.
Ye Xu was shocked: "The headmaster has to manage the academy's general affairs? Shouldn't this kind of thing be left to others?"
“In previous years, all the headmasters were men, and all of them were married,” Xiao Suguang explained. “So the headmasters focused on their studies and asked their wives to help with general affairs.”
However, Xiao Suguang was not married, and even if she were, her husband might not be willing to be a submissive man behind a strong woman. She could not rely on her younger brother, and there were no suitable relatives in the Xiao family. So she had no choice but to come in person.
Fortunately, she has now shed this burden, and she has arranged a good marriage for the successor headmaster. The woman is elegant and dignified, and has learned to manage the family business from her mother since childhood; she should be able to handle all matters, big and small, within the academy.
The new headmaster was a bookworm, not very cunning. A dignified and quiet girl would have a better life marrying such a husband. At least a bookworm wouldn't find his wife too rigid and uninteresting, nor would he be love-struck and flirt with his concubines, which would upset his wife.
At this point, Xiao Suguang sighed and said, "It is really not easy for women in this world. Even though I have a title bestowed by His Majesty, there are still many people who speak ill of me and think that I, a mere woman, am unfit to be the headmaster."
For a woman's life to improve, it's not something she can achieve alone; it takes time. Now that she's escaped the mire, hopefully the lives of others will gradually improve as well.
Xiao Suguang felt that she was fighting for her ideals by helping Ye Xu manage the store. Even though Ye Xu was the only actual store manager, she treated the entire chain store as their shared business and was willing to contribute more.
Her actions put a lot of pressure on Ye Xu. He quickly offered to pay another share of the profits as a management fee, which finally eased his conscience a little.
Xiao Suguang didn't refuse. It would be beneficial for him to accumulate more points before opening his shop, so there was no need to be so polite, lest it damage their friendship. She smiled and accepted the money, thanked him, and then continued to busy herself with the account books.
Ye Xu watched for a while and realized there was nothing he could do to help, so he took a plate of freshly fried crispy pork and went back to the rest room to continue practicing.
As Ye Xu walked out of the kitchen, he suddenly heard a commotion in the lobby. He turned around and saw a pretty young woman who had just entered the store and was about to sit down at an empty seat.
Is this some kind of celebrity? Ye Xu was a little puzzled. He knew very little about celebrities in the interstellar era, mainly because there were too many people in the interstellar population and countless celebrities from all walks of life, making it impossible to keep track of them all.
There were quite a few customers who shared his doubts. Many looked up and stared, but after a while they couldn't see anything special about the girl. Then they went to look at the customers who had exclaimed in surprise earlier.
Before Ye Xu could even search on the StarNet, he overheard the guests talking without lowering their voices.
"Am I mistaken? That's Chu Chu's assistant, isn't it?"
"It should be, I think so too."
"Of course! I'd recognize her even if she were ashes! Last time I went to Chuchu's roadshow, she was the one standing next to me helping me carry things!"
"Is the assistant here for lunch too? Or is she here to pack some food for Chuchu?"
The group exchanged glances, their eyes gleaming with excitement. Sharing the same food as their idols was a delightful surprise for any fan.
So it's a celebrity's assistant. No wonder nobody recognized her. Who would pay attention to that? At most, they'd remember what the celebrity looks like.
Ye Xu left after satisfying his curiosity, without bothering to find out which celebrity "Chu Chu" was. The other diners, however, immediately understood, clearly knowing the celebrity's existence.
The assistant had reserved a table in advance and arrived at the restaurant at the agreed time, without wasting a single second. After sitting down, we started ordering, eagerly ordering a table full of signature dishes, since we could always take the leftovers home.
She was no different from any other diner. After finishing her meal, she went to the takeaway area and lined up to pack up a large amount of food. Unlike other customers, she didn't have the problem of her backpack not being big enough to hold everything. She packed up ten of each type of dish, up to the maximum limit, and left with it all easily.
The ten-serving limit is one of the new rules that have been gradually added over this period. There was no limit on regular dishes before. After food delivery services were launched, Ye Xu added it, since regular dishes can be ordered through food delivery platforms, and there is no need to buy so many.
If too many orders are placed in the store, customers waiting in line for takeout will have to wait even longer. The food delivery platforms have a lot of people and machines, so taking orders from them doesn't put much pressure on them, but it greatly reduces the burden on the store. Ye Xu thinks it's a good deal.
After watching the assistant leave, the guests finally focused on their meal and stopped gossiping.
The assistant left early, leaving a table empty. This table couldn't be given to anyone else, since it was impossible to be sure if the seated guest would stay until the next booked guest arrived without having finished eating.
The reservation system automatically sends a message to the next guest, informing them that they can come to dine earlier if they are available.
There were many customers queuing outside the store who hadn't made reservations; they were all hoping to snag a free meal. Since there was no queue at the takeout area, the staff would allow one customer in line to come in and order takeout directly, but they couldn't sit down and eat in.
The success rate of finding a takeaway is very high; the store packs orders quickly, and the packing area is often empty. Unfortunately, only one person is allowed in at a time, and the next person can only enter after the previous one has finished packing. If a customer goes to get their food packed up, the remaining people have to wait.
The decision to allow customers to dine in was made two days ago, when Ye Xu had just accumulated a billion points in this dimension, so he wasn't as keen on dining in. But they still needed to attract people to the restaurant. They were a respectable restaurant and couldn't just do takeout and leave the place empty, as that would easily lead unsuspecting passersby to think the food was bad.
The assistant was unaware of this procedure, so she struggled for several days to secure a reservation, even enlisting the help of all her friends and family, before finally managing to snag a table. Since her artist loves the restaurant's signature dishes, she had no choice but to order them in-store; they weren't available for delivery.
"Sister Chuchu, I'm back." The assistant had just pushed open the door to the lounge when she met a pair of beautiful eyes with burning gazes inside. She was used to it and closed the door behind her to prevent the interstellar goddess from being seen looking so greedy.
Chu Jifeng, currently recognized as the top actress in the Interstellar Alliance, has won every award imaginable and is the dream girl of countless men and women. However, this artist is very concerned about her image and resolutely maintains her "noble, aloof, and domineering" persona, politely declining any cute clips or memes.
The assistant was quite helpless about this, because Chu Jifeng maintaining her aloof and glamorous persona wasn't something the company required her to do to attract fans, and her personal abilities didn't require her to rely on a persona to increase her charm. This guy was purely driven by personal preference; everyone has this kind of embarrassing past when they're young and impetuous.
For example, the female assistant liked to act well-behaved and quiet during her school days because she felt that it made her "like a princess".
In short, it's childish.
"Have you bought the things?" Chu Jifeng tried her best to remain reserved, but her hungry eyes had already betrayed her.
The assistant stepped forward and laid out the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall and other dishes one by one: "We bought them, eat up."
Holographic dishes won't make you fat, so Sister Chuchu can only indulge herself here, what a pity.
Chapter 51 Initiative
The aroma of food is irresistible, so when Chu Jifeng took out Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, the smell quickly spread. The dogs outside, with their noses drawn by the aroma, came over and started banging on the door before she could even take a sip of the delicious soup.
"Sister Chuchu! Sister Chuchu!"
"What is this? It smells so good."
"Sister Chuchu is eating all by herself!"
"Xiao Chu, open the door quickly, everyone gets a share!"
The assistant looked at Chu Jifeng, awaiting instructions.
Chu Jifeng: "..." Are you guys reincarnated starving ghosts? How did you get here so fast?
"Go open the door." Chu Jifeng waved his hand weakly, glaring at the bowl of soup on the table, sulking.
The assistant, suppressing a laugh, opened the door, and a group of people rushed in instantly—all crew members who were on good terms with Chu Jifeng. Some were actors, some were staff members, and some were members of the stars' assistant teams—a motley crew.
Outsiders don't understand Chu Jifeng and only think that she is as cold and domineering as her character portrays, so they don't dare to provoke her. However, the crew members who have spent some time with her are different. They see through the appearance and know that Chu Jifeng is not actually that difficult to get along with, so they naturally become bolder.
The senior leader, without any hesitation, sat down to the side with a smile and preemptively said, "Little Chu, that's not very kind of you. How can you secretly hide away and eat all the good food by yourself?"
Chu Jifeng inwardly complained that the door to the crew's dressing room was too narrow, but he could only say aloud, "Let me taste it first, and I'll call you all if it's good."
To prove she wasn't eating alone, she asked her assistant to bring out more of the packed food. Soon, the table in the lounge was piled high with food, including several bowls of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.
The assistant was a clever girl; she wisely didn't bring out all the signature dishes. Since no one present really knew much about the dimensional restaurant, she only brought out the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, which had already been revealed, and even then, she only brought out half of it.
Chu Jifeng gave her an approving look, which lessened the heartache in his heart a little.
Reservations for the dimensional food are so difficult to make. She finally managed to get this many, so minimizing the losses is always a good thing. She'll definitely encourage these people to make reservations themselves later, and if they do, she'll make up for it with a bowl of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. Humph.
Although the aroma of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall was overwhelming, it was temporarily masked by the surrounding array of strongly flavored dishes. Therefore, the group didn't notice the difference between the signature dish and the regular dishes. Seeing the table laden with food, and noticing several bowls of the same dish in front of Chu Jifeng, they were immediately satisfied.
No one noticed that Chu Jifeng had secretly hoarded a lot of delicious food and happily asked the production assistant for a bunch of disposable tableware. However, the director saw their actions and brought back a few extra people with him.
The director is a chubby guy who loves to eat. He hadn't smelled the aroma from a distance, otherwise he would have been the first to come in. The person who went out to get the cutlery was covered in delicious smells, and after wandering around for a while, even the slow-witted director would have noticed. He called the screenwriter and producer, and they all squeezed in.
Fortunately, their script was recorded online this time, and the virtual space was quite large, with a fairly spacious dressing room for each person. Otherwise, with so many people crammed in, there wouldn't have been enough room to even turn around.
"Hey, is this the kind of food sold in that dimensional shop?" The director, who knew his stuff, chuckled at first glance.
Chu Jifeng inwardly cursed, but put on a smile: "Yes, my assistant fought for days to get a seat and packed all this food."
So take it easy, don't eat too much, leave some for me!
The director remained unmoved: "I think most of the dishes here can be ordered directly for takeout. There's no need to come in and get takeout; that's too much trouble."
Just when Chu Jifeng thought the old man was about to expose his hoarding, he changed the subject and said that Buddha Jumps Over the Wall wasn't available for delivery, which explained why he had to get it to go.
The others didn't think much of it and started eating as soon as they got their utensils. Chu Jifeng firmly held onto the entire Buddha Jumps Over the Wall dish, and the others were too embarrassed to take it from him, so they had to share the other dishes among themselves, with each person only getting a couple of bites.
Chu Jifeng regretted it the moment she took her first sip of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. Giving such a delicious dish to those animals was a huge loss for her. The thought of how difficult it was to pack the leftovers made her heart bleed even more.
No, I need to find a way to get in touch with the interdimensional shop. She's been waiting for so many days, why hasn't it contacted her yet? Is she really that powerless with just a UR card? Oh well, if the mountain won't come to me, I'll go to the mountain. Once I become an employee, I can eat as much as I want.
While others ate, they weren't stopped from asking all sorts of questions. The dimensional shop had indeed been very popular lately, and the well-informed people in the entertainment industry had certainly heard about it. However, its hype was simply too exaggerated, and even though it attracted many customers, a considerable number of people were unwilling to try it.
This is unavoidable. Those in the know pride themselves on having access to vast amounts of inside information. They are well aware that even official sources haven't deciphered documents from tens of thousands of years ago, and they find it hard to believe that a mere private organization could accomplish this. They don't believe the claim that the documents have been translated and passed down through generations. If such documents truly existed, how could there have been no word about them for so many years?
"I always thought that shop was a scam." The popular young actress took a sip of soup, her whole body bubbling with happiness—this wasn't just an adjective, but a true description of her current situation.
The actor sitting next to Xiaohua reached out and popped the bubble: "Hold on a bit, or the bubble will float into the food."
"I'm so sorry, that's just how our race is. I didn't mean to." Xiaohua quickly put down her bowl and spoon and went to deal with the bubbles.
The others took the opportunity to eat quickly, and by the time Xiaohua returned, the table was more than half empty.
"Ugh..." You guys are awful!
After finishing their meal, the group patted their full bellies, still wanting more. The old-fashioned senior colleague, who never checks trending topics, pulled his assistant aside and asked all sorts of questions, inquiring about the store.
The excitement lasted until lunch break and the next scene was about to start. Chu Jifeng couldn't wait to see the group off, secretly resolving that next time he would eat alone, he would definitely hide outside.
Then, turning around, he saw the director who hadn't left yet. He was sitting casually on the sofa, looking like he wasn't going to budge.
"Director, filming is about to start over there," Chu Jifeng urged.
The director waved his hand: "The assistant director can handle this scene. Come on, Xiao Chu, let's talk about the signature dish."
Here it comes, here it comes. Chu Jifeng knew this hurdle wouldn't be easy to overcome.
When the director suddenly stopped pursuing the matter, she realized that he probably had other plans. Now it seems that he wanted to wait until everyone left before secretly taking a share, so that he wouldn't end up with little after benefiting everyone.
Faced with a director who knew the inside story, what could Chu Jifeng do? She could only reluctantly give away half of the remaining signature dish.
We have to share. If we don't, she'll definitely tell everyone she has a bunch of limited-edition food items, and then we won't be able to keep half of them. Even if those guys try to reserve a table for her later, how long will that take? Who knows if those unlucky guys will even be able to get a table!
After finally seeing the director off, Chu Jifeng's expression changed. He immediately closed the door, collapsed onto the sofa, and took a deep breath.
The assistant was startled and quickly came over: "Sister Chuchu, are you alright?"
"I'm not happy." Chu Jifeng pouted. She felt bad just thinking about how half of the dishes were missing.
The assistant was at a loss; she had already mobilized everyone she could to secure a seat. Should she talk to the manager and see if she had any other ideas?
Before his assistant could make a decision, Chu Jifeng suddenly sat up straight: "No, we still have to take the initiative."
The director's actions further solidified Chu Jifeng's resolve to take the initiative and go to his place. Counting the days, her scenes would wrap up in three days, after which she could switch careers and become a waitress at a restaurant. Three days was nothing; she could wait.
Before doing this, she needed to talk to her agent. When the system contacted her, she had already decided to retire from acting, and after discussing it with her agent, the agent was quite supportive.
"Chuchu, you've been busy for so many years, it's time to enjoy life." Her manager felt sorry for her. "You're not young anymore, and you have to work all night every time you're filming. Your body can't take it."
Chu Jifeng appreciated the concern, but strongly objected to the remark, "You're not young anymore." A woman is in her prime at thirty; how can thirty not be young?!
Well, that's not young for an actor; there are plenty of young buds in their teens and twenties.
Despite the interstellar age lasting for tens of thousands of years, human lifespan hasn't seen much improvement, and technology for preserving youth has also only reached a mediocre level. The reason is simple: war is too brutal. There was no time, energy, or resources to research these things. At the time, everyone was focused on developing the military industry and felt there wasn't enough time.