Chapter 566: Chapter 171: Three Times a Day, Troublemaker Physique_3

This list alone is enough to kick that private company out of the volunteer pool.

Su Xiaocai snickered to herself. She really wanted to see what Yang Zhao’s next move would be. He counted as inside the Blue Star system, yet he was using this type of backup—very weird, suspicious all over.

For dinner they ate quite a few frozen chickens: salt-baked, spicy diced chicken, chicken stewed with pork tripe...

It lacked the fresh sweetness of a live slaughter, but they were very satisfied. The canteen dishes were very healthy—so healthy they were a bit bland. Supposedly, the person who set the menu every day was some expert in healthy eating.

Eating it for a day or two was fine, but long term, your mouth would go so bland a bird could fly out of it.

This meal soothed body and mind. Hu Ping commented casually, "These days lots of people at the canteen just choose Nutrition Pills. Convenient, and the taste’s about the same."

Hearing that, Su Xiaocai put her chopsticks down. "A lot of people choose Nutrition Pills? Do they have to pay?"

"No, but if you collect Nutrition Pills, you can’t eat the regular food."

Su Xiaocai’s gaze turned serious. "The soldiers also choose Nutrition Pills to save time?"

The Vegetable Farmers could feel Su Xiaocai about to blow up.

All ten of them nodded in unison. "We swear, the canteen food is too bland, tastes bad, it’s dry as dust. Every day over ten thousand people would rather eat Nutrition Pills. If we lie even half a sentence, we’ll do handstands and eat dirt."

Su Xiaocai shoveled down two more bites of rice. Nope. No way she was letting her own kids eat dry-as-dust dishes, and there was no way they were living on Nutrition Pills alone.

She simply stopped eating, and first sent a long wall of text to Admiral Bai, Colonel Yuan, and Admiral Bai’s secretary.

Colonel Yuan: Again?

Three times a day, and every time it was the same person causing trouble. He really couldn’t not deal with it.

Such a handful!

Using her advantage, Su Xiaocai tore into them, cursing them out, copying Ai Shengping’s style—word choice precise, the protective-teacher subtext extremely obvious.

She accused them of abusing her students, said if the canteen wasn’t going to hire an expert then fine, but if they insisted on getting one, how did they end up with such a freak who was torturing the students’ meals.

The two Majors didn’t stop her at all, because this wasn’t under their jurisdiction.

After her whole tirade, Admiral Bai was in a meeting, cursing people out there, while the comm device in his pocket was cursing him out.

When he saw the texts, he got even angrier. The issue originally had nothing to do with logistics, but he turned and chewed them out anyway—asked what kind of "expert" they’d hired. No wonder he hadn’t had an appetite lately; so it was because the food was awful.

The logistics officer in charge of the canteen jumped, stunned by the scolding.

He started deeply doubting whether the expert he’d hired was a real expert at all.

Wasn’t Admiral Bai supposed to not care what food tasted like? Why was he suddenly talking about the canteen being inedible? The players’ canteen shouldn’t even be linked to the leaders’ canteen, right?

After the meeting, the logistics officer nervously asked around if the canteen food really didn’t suit everyone’s taste.

He just happened to ask Colonel Yuan, who had just been mass-dragged and roasted by Su Xiaocai together with all the military leaders.

As one of the victims, Colonel Yuan nodded bluntly and said solemnly, "You’d better replace the person in charge of meal planning today, and handle it yourself. Don’t hand it off to anyone else. Otherwise even I won’t be able to save you."

If it were only one or two hundred people who didn’t like the food and chose portable Nutrition Pills, that would be understandable. But if most of the players didn’t like it, then it was no simple issue.

Post-war zones always came with a pile of problems. Too many people trying to make a fortune off national disaster.

They did it sneaky, assuming no one had time to care.

But Admiral Bai hated a messy rear echelon. He just managed it secretly—his specialty was silently screwing people over.

The logistics director’s heart sank. It had to be that some big shot had filed a complaint. It didn’t matter who that big shot was; what mattered was they could influence the decision-makers.

He rushed to the players’ canteen to see for himself. It just happened to be serving time, and he saw a large portion of people lining up for Nutrition Pills.

Then he had one of the players get a few portions of the actual dishes. They looked fine—colorful, appetizing, nothing lacking in vegetables or meat.

But once he took a bite, he almost spat it out.

The vegetables had an overpowering sour-salad taste, the chicken leg was so bland he could taste the raw meat stink, the ham was more starch than meat, and even the fruit was sour—couldn’t even compare to canned fruit.

"What kind of bullshit is this? You think if Dad doesn’t flip the table, Dad is blind and brain-dead?"

The logistics director was furious, face flushed red. This was food for Mecha Masters, not diet meals for bodybuilders.

Outrageous.

He took a few brothers straight into the back kitchen and caught that so-called expert braising pig’s trotters—perfect in color, aroma, and flavor—with lobster noodle soup on the side.

"Good day, sir." The "expert" was just a middle-aged man. When he saw the logistics director come over, he was surprised for a moment, then quickly smoothed out his expression.

His expression management was impeccable.

"Sir, want to eat with us? Freshly killed. I’m treating the boys out of my own pocket."

The logistics director gave a cold laugh. Great acting. The crap he fed the players was one thing, yet he himself was feasting on meat and seafood.

"You’re done here." The logistics director stormed off to audit the accounts. On paper they looked clean, but how could they escape an old fox like him?

"Grab him. Make him cough up every last thing he embezzled."

"Why are you arresting me? I didn’t embezzle anything—just skimmed a bit of ingredients. That doesn’t count as a crime..."

This scene happened to be seen by the players coming to eat.

They’d been fed up with the menu for a long time. Finally someone made a move; they all clapped and cheered.

The logistics director: "..."

Luckily, he acted in time. Any later and someone might have died over this.

If the dishes had stayed like that, the players really might have snapped. If they had no hot blood in them, they wouldn’t have signed up for this, and they wouldn’t be winning.

As Mecha Masters, they were welcomed wherever they went. Since when had they ever been treated this badly?

Solving the problem before it blew up was best.

Su Xiaocai might bother the Military Department a lot, but she was also trying to solve the root of the problem. It wasn’t like she was pestering them just for fun.

It was mainly that if things were left for her to solve, it was never going to be a "gentle" approach.

That night, the players got a giant pot of braised dishes: soy-braised chicken, braised duck necks, big pig trotters...

Finally getting a decent meal, all the mecha masters who’d been furious at the canteen earlier lost their previous irritability.

Ever since returning from the wrecked Mechanical Planet, if they couldn’t eat well, they couldn’t decompress.

The more repressed they felt, the less obedient they’d be.

Collapse always started from tiny cracks—logistics all shivered at the thought.

With the canteen changed for the better, the Vegetable Farmers were moved to tears. Before leaving, the beauties each planted a kiss on Su Xiaocai’s cheek. "Almighty Xiao Cai, we’re coming to mooch food off you next time too."

Su Xiaocai: "Get lost!"

...

Late at night, the few chickens still alive huddled together quietly, eyes closed in sleep.

Su Xiaocai once again performed acupuncture on Admiral Bai, though this time it was to adjust his condition, not to immediately accelerate his Qi Sensing. She also stuck a few needles into herself from time to time.

This acupuncture therapy was like an empirical method, built up over time, day after day.

After needling, they soaked their feet, and fell asleep especially fast.

Admiral Bai woke from two hours of deep sleep feeling incredibly refreshed.

After confirming he could undergo a Qi Sensing upgrade, Su Xiaocai had him eat a bit of food first, then take the medicine refined from Martial Emperor Bamboo, and get ready to upgrade his Qi Sensing.

This round of acupuncture lasted a full twenty minutes. Admiral Bai’s upper body was bare, the night air getting colder, yet he didn’t feel it.

His solid muscles were steaming faintly, the energy inside his body flowing in a steady circuit, round and round, his aura climbing higher and higher.

Colonel Yuan and the secretary watched nervously. Ever since Admiral Bai coughed up that mouthful of blood last time, they’d been worried about his physical condition.

Even though the doctors had diagnosed no gene collapse, they still feared that this sort of folk-remedy approach might cause irreparable damage to Admiral Bai.

When the time was up, Su Xiaocai pulled the needles. Admiral Bai said, "I can hold on a bit longer." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"No. Ji Heng also needed a while before he upgraded. If you can stay off the battlefield for now, you can come every day." The higher the Qi Sensitivity Level, the harder it was to upgrade. Even forcing growth had to stay within the limits of natural rules.

"Do you think Professor Su could go to the front lines with us?" the secretary asked.

The corner of Su Xiaocai’s lips curled. "What price do you think it would take to hire me to the front?"

"Just dealing with one Mother Body already put me at a huge loss." She had to admit, the root cause was saving the Vegetable Farmers, but she had indeed taken care of a massive headache for them.