The kitchens were busy with many mortals cooking meals for the academy. Given the size of the class, the size of the staff could not be said to be miniscule.
Fang Yuan had never been here before, but he immediately noticed the person who seemed to be in charge.
It was this way everywhere, even back on Earth. Those with a higher status would distinguish themselves in some way in their manner of dress- on Earth, it might be as simple as the presence of a clipboard in their hands. Even among the students, wasn't the pin that he was wearing on his uniform a sign of his status?
People always placed a high value upon status and rank, such was the nature of humans everywhere. Even the mortals, servants they may be, wore things to distinguish their place in the ladder of servitude.
The head chef, who was the only one who was not working and instead inspecting the others, greeted Fang Yuan.
"Greetings, Young Master. What can I help you with today?"
"I've recently become class president," Fang Yuan said. "As such, there were certain changes that I wanted to be made to the menu."
The head chef was taken aback- no one had ever spoken to him regarding such a matter before.
"But, I think we need to start small," Fang Yuan said. "Starting with my meals. I would like to request a jar of wine- either rice wine or bamboo wine will do, and two servings of either pork or beef with lunch."
The head chef wanted to protest, but didn't dare. Instead, he would simply refer the matter to the academy elder. He bowed his head lightly, "This one will see if he can fulfil your wishes- though this will need to go through the academy elder first."
Fang Yuan hesitated a bit- he wondered if the system was going to chide him or punish him for this mild act of petty extortion. It wouldn't let him take away primeval stones- but was fine with this.
Why was that? Because the amount was small? Because this was technically a 'request' and not a demand, meaning it was not technically extortion and so was okay? Or because it also wanted him to grow stronger and was willing to overlook this act of corruption at grass-roots level?
The academy elder was a bit shocked when he heard of this request. Fang Yuan had only 'officially' been class president for five minutes and he was already abusing his position of power? Prior class presidents usually took about two weeks before they would start doing so.
With that said, he had no problem with accepting a few of Fang Yuan's requests. After all, by seeing what benefits he was getting, the others would be spurred to work even harder. He was mainly trying to encourage Mo Bei, Chi Chen, and Fang Zheng.
If they were egged on by these kinds of benefits, it was a small matter.
"It is alright," the academy elder said. "Though, his demands are a bit too much. For the wine, tell him he can have a glass, and no refills. For the pork or beef, only three-fourths of a portion." Normally he would not allow students to drink in class, obviously, but he knew that the real reason that Fang Yuan wanted the glass of wine was to ease off the burden of feeding the Liquor Worm.
He had several other ideas in mind as well.
The next day, when Fang Yuan wandered in for lunch, he was told, "Young Master, not here, there is a special place reserved for you."
The other students watched as Fang Yuan was led to a special table for him. It was apparent based on what was going on that this was because he was class president.
The table was made of bamboo rather than the more common wood used in the mess hall. On top of which, Fang Yuan's tray and cup were made of glass rather than the usual disposable grass used to make up their utensils. He also had proper chopsticks, not the cheap disposable ones.
The difference in treatment was immediately apparent!
Near his chair (which was larger than the others), two smaller empty chairs were kept. These two chairs were still slightly grander than the ordinary ones that the students otherwise had.
These two chairs were clearly for the vice-presidents.
"He's getting a serving of wine...?"
"I'd like a sip..."
"He's using it to feed his Liquor Worm, he's not actually getting drunk, doofuses..."
The Liquor Worm was an open secret, so there was no need for Fang Yuan to hide it as he took it out and allowed it to swim in the cup.
This was not the jug he asked for, but he had not expected an entire jug in the first place. He had, on purpose, asked for more so that the academy elder would feel good about himself by giving him less.
It was not enough to fully feed the Liquor Worm, but it would reduce its feeding cost by about half. It would be worth more, but Fang Yuan constantly was using it, and the more he used it, the more often he needed to feed it.
That was easy enough to understand, a person who worked in something like construction every day needed more calories compared to someone who did an office job, in the same way, gu worms that were used more often had to be fed more often as well.
However, he was not doing this for the sake of the liquor worm. His true goal was the serving of pork, which he could take away at times to feed the White Boar Gu.
He had been relying upon the hunters up till now, but their support was growing scarcer. It was not that they didn't want Fang Yuan's stones, it was that they simply could not hunt right now as boar season was fading away.
This world did not have a fully developed economy like back on Earth, where one could buy things year-round. Here, if it was not the season for it, it was hard to come by.
Come to think of it, when he had first come to this world, he had wondered what kind of economical classification this world would fall into. It was merely a thought experiment given that he had been from a different world.
One could see it as being fully capitalist as there were no laws or restrictions, but that only applied to the demonic path.
In truth, there were quite a many rules and regulations in the villages. The clan head controlled the entire means of production (the spirit spring) and then distributed this to the others. It seemed to be more similar to a command economy of the likes of North Korea or Soviet Russia in that sense, or like feudalism. Many things about the economy would make no sense from an Earth sense since there were widespread monopolies on most goods. These created bottlenecks and inefficiencies which would give many people headaches, not to mention the chaotic situation between villages meant it wasn't easy to transport goods either.
He had asked for an alternation of beef and pork, as he couldn't reveal its existence, but this might alleviate some of the burden of feeding the White Boar Gu.
For people like Mo Bei or Chi Chen, seeing Fang Yuan have beef or pork was no big deal, but for those from economically weaker households, one could already see the envy in their eyes.
However, that was not what was important. Chi Chen and Mo Bei might be able to eat whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, but people were not angry about not getting enough, they were more angered by unequal treatment! Wasn't that what Aunt and Uncle had done to drive a wedge between Fang Yuan and Fang Zheng in the first place?
Tomorrow, if every student got one million primeval stones but Fang Yuan got one million and one because he was class president; a good portion of the student body would be resentful of the fact that he got one extra. Such was just human nature.
The two empty chairs on display were a deliberate move by the academy elder in order to motivate the three hopefuls to compete for the two vice-president spots.
Today was beef and not pork, so Fang Yuan finished his meal before stepping out. He had work to take care of, even as he took no notice of what was going on behind him.