At noon, I went to swipe my card with a tray, but the machine displayed four big red words: "Insufficient balance."

Feeling embarrassed, my roommate Yi Linyang stepped forward to help me, expressionless, and used his own card to pay.

Just as he approached, I heard him say, "Don't eat the claypot rice."

I was wondering if he was trying to tease me about my weight, when suddenly I saw the lunch lady's hand shake violently, and she gave me a sinister look!

Yi Linyang quickly pulled me away and insisted that we sit at his table.

Wait, he usually sits alone at a table, what's different today?

I felt Yi Linyang's palms were sweaty against my arm and it felt hot.

I shook off his hand, carefully placed the braised pig elbow claypot rice on the table, and was about to start eating when I suddenly heard a piercing noise from the cafeteria speakers.

Immediately, the eight LCD TV screens around lit up, displaying a distorted figure surrounded by snowflakes.

"Welcome to the new cafeteria, please follow the rules below, violators will become a meal on the plate."

The words were filled with a strong sense of threat and malice.

Immediately, there was an uproar from nearby, usually these screens just played sports channels for entertainment, but today some cafeteria administrator decided to make a grand entrance.

"Please remain quiet." The eerie figure on the screen made a "stop" gesture, and the rapidly spinning ceiling fan suddenly broke, crashing down on the noisiest table.

Four people instantly fell silent, warm liquid splattered on the back of the chair, and the table next to it was a mess.

Silence fell around us. That's when I realized it wasn't a prank, and I immediately shrunk back.

Some people were scared out of their wits, ready to rush out the door, but the cafeteria door wouldn't budge, the doorknob had serrated edges that cut their hands.

"Rule one, dining alone at a table is not allowed, violators will be eliminated."

"Rule two, no wasting food. Bones or food residue should not be left on the table."

"Rule three, dining time is limited to one hour, after the meal everyone must drink a bowl of soup."

"Rule four, for dinner, this cafeteria will provide buffet food, each person must eat seven different types of food, with a mix of meat and vegetables."

"Rule five, if the selected food disappears, you must find a replacement."

"Rule six, if there are... foreign objects in the food, do not eat... store..."

I sat listening to these rules, not daring to take a breath, mustering all my focus to memorize them. But due to nervousness, I didn't catch the sixth rule.

Yi Linyang next to me had already taken out a notebook and was quickly jotting down notes.

As all ten LCD TVs blacked out simultaneously, people in the cafeteria began to panic, scrambling to grab seats at two and four-seat tables, everyone afraid they would be left without a seat.

However, all seats were taken, and in the end there was still one person left standing.

His outfit didn't match the school uniform, clearly he was a delivery man.

Seeing him trembling and unstable, I had an idea. There were a few individual plastic stools in the corner of the cafeteria...

I immediately brought one over and called out to the delivery man, "Hurry, come sit here!"

He quickly realized and sat at our table with me and Yi Linyang.

"This place is too weird!" Zhao Lijiang took off his motorcycle helmet, covered in sweat.

He had snuck in through the back door to deliver food, received a big order, the customer asked him to deliver it to the cafeteria door, but there was no one to be found.

"Don't say much." Yi Linyang's tone was indifferent, but he still accepted him, handing my braised pig elbow claypot rice to Zhao Lijiang.

Zhao Lijiang looked at him gratefully, he didn't have a meal card so he couldn't order.

Strangely, the cafeteria staff disappeared, and for the students who hadn't gotten their food yet, a lunch box appeared out of thin air on the table with two chopsticks sticking straight up in the rice.

"What about me?" I panicked, Yi Linyang ordered two dishes, chive scrambled eggs and oilseed rape, he picked out half to share with me, very carefully.

Zhao Lijiang was eating hard, suddenly he shouted, nearly bursting my eardrums.

"This is... a human finger!" Shivering, he scraped the bottom of the bowl.

At the bottom of the claypot rice was a round object, already cooked.

Zhao Lijiang picked it up with his chopsticks, about to throw the finger on the table. Yi Linyang immediately stopped him: "Bone residue shouldn't be left on the table, and... this is a foreign object."

He wrapped it in a tissue, put it in his pocket.

The chives in my mouth turned bitter, I couldn't swallow, but I was afraid of being eliminated for eating slowly.

As I was forcefully swallowing, I heard a muffled sound beside me.

Turns out, a girl at the nearby table suddenly collapsed, clutching her chest, and fell heavily to the ground.

When I asked her companion, I found out she was severely allergic to peanuts, but the lunch given to her contained... celery fried peanuts, she reluctantly finished eating and then coughed violently, immediately stopped breathing.

Others were experiencing abnormal reactions, like the guy behind me who bit into a red bean bun, only to find dark red, thick and greasy filling oozing out!

The fishy sweetness

of the taste, made him nauseous yet reluctant to vomit, after eating, even his teeth were stained brown.

A couple found mushrooms in their dishes, the stalks had twisted words that were blurry and seemed to say "help." After eating, the two began to laugh stupidly, their expressions were sweet, holding hands tightly, feeding each other mushrooms.

Not far away, someone was eating chicken wings, accidentally dropped a bone on the cafeteria table, and his arm suddenly and rapidly swelled, his skin becoming transparent, blood vessels clearly visible, followed by a snap as it broke!

While his tablemate found a hair in the food, seeing the miserable situation of others, he dared not spit it out randomly, forced himself to swallow it, but his mouth became itchy.

He reached out in confusion to desperately pick his teeth, finding many fine hairs blocking them, piercing through the gums and emerging.

Shortly after, his mouth seemed to be blocked by something, only able to make a "uhh" groaning sound.

Many hairs grew in his throat, densely and rapidly proliferating, spreading outward.

He frantically turned his mouth open and around, howling in pain, his body stiffening and twisting, the hairs climbed up his neck, entangling tightly, like a living scarf, soon he stopped moving.