Song Yuting, Gao Yushan, and Huang Jingzhe descended the train with the other passengers.
Upon reaching the platform, they found many people gathered there.
At this moment, a staff member was holding a sign on the platform. The sign read: "International students, please proceed to the designated meeting point outside the train station exit by following the arrows."
Song Yuting, Gao Yushan, Huang Jingzhe, and the other international students walked towards the exit. Like any other train station, the exits on this platform were crowded, with everyone converging towards a single exit.
Outside the exit, Song Yuting, Gao Yushan, and Huang Jingzhe found themselves in a plaza. The plaza was bustling with people. It looked much like the train stations in small counties.
In the distance, a large number of buildings were under construction. Various construction machinery hummed to life, their rumbling sounds reaching all the way to the plaza.
Near the exit, a sign displayed in large letters: "International Students Please Gather Here."
As soon as they exited, they could see the large sign.
Song Yuting, Gao Yushan, Huang Jingzhe, and the other university students walked towards the sign.
Several staff members were already standing by the sign.
After a large group of people had assembled.
One staff member, holding a loudspeaker, announced: "All international students, please come here. We are now distributing satellite phones. Those whose names are called, please come forward to collect them."
"Zhang San. Come up and collect your satellite phone."
"Li Si, come up and collect your satellite phone."
One by one, students came forward to receive their satellite phones. As they collected them, another staff member used a satellite phone to perform facial recognition on the recipient to confirm their identity before handing over the device.
Soon, all 789 international students had received a satellite phone.
Their personal phones were no longer usable, and only these satellite phones could be used for communication now.
The staff member continued with the loudspeaker: "After receiving your phones, you will be staying here for one night. Tomorrow, we will arrange flights to send you to your respective study destinations. Please pay attention to the information on your satellite phones. Tonight, you will be accommodated in the nearby hotel, and there will be an orientation session this evening. Please monitor your satellite phones for updates."
The staff member also pointed towards a hotel nearby. A few hundred meters away stood a hotel, named the Magic World Dragon Country Guesthouse. The name had a retro feel.
In such a short period, a hotel had been constructed here, boasting over a thousand rooms, which was remarkably fast.
A text message immediately appeared on the satellite phones that the 789 university students had just received.
"Welcome to the Magic World Dragon Country Guesthouse. Your room number is xxx. Please present this message at the front desk upon check-in."
The 789 international students then proceeded in a large group to the Magic World Dragon Country Guesthouse. The guesthouse was prepared for their arrival. Nine staff members were stationed at the front desk to handle check-ins.
It took about 20 minutes for 780 university students to check into the hotel. However, most of them were assigned to double rooms.
After checking in, the time was already 6:30 PM. Around this time, meals would be served at their schools.
While Song Yuting, Gao Yushan, and Huang Jingzhe were checking in, Huang Jingzhe tentatively asked if they could have a room with three beds for the three of them. To their surprise, a three-bed room was available, and so the three of them were assigned to it.
After settling in and leaving their luggage, Song Yuting, Gao Yushan, and Huang Jingzhe felt hungry.
Song Yuting remarked, "It's already half past six. Shall we go for dinner?"
At this point, Huang Jingzhe took out the meal tickets distributed during check-in and said, "Then let's go for dinner. It says here we need to eat at the nearby canteen. I didn't expect this guesthouse hotel not to provide dinner."
Gao Yushan replied, "Then let's go. There's a map posted in the lobby of the guesthouse hotel. On that simple map, it indicates that the canteen is not far ahead."
Song Yuting also recalled the simple map he had seen in the hotel lobby. The map seemed to indicate that the canteen was not very far away. He walked to the window and looked out. He saw a building in the distance with a large sign. The sign had the characters "Canteen" written on it. The canteen was just across a road from here. He could also see many people entering and exiting the canteen.
"Song Yuting, what are you looking at?"
"What's so interesting? Let me see too."
Gao Yushan and Huang Jingzhe leaned in to look. They also saw the canteen across the road.
"So the canteen is just behind the hotel."
"It's really close. No wonder the hotel meal tickets direct us to eat at this canteen. Let's head over then."
Just as Song Yuting, Gao Yushan, and Huang Jingzhe were about to leave, there was a knock at the door.
They opened the door to find university students from the same province, Caiyun Province.
"We're going to the canteen for dinner, are you coming?"
Song Yuting, Gao Yushan, and Huang Jingzhe readily agreed.
"We were just about to go to the canteen for dinner ourselves."
So, the twenty university students from Caiyun Province went down together.
When they reached the hotel guesthouse lobby, they encountered other university students from different provinces of Dragon Country, and they joined forces.
Upon arriving at the canteen, they found many people already eating.
The canteen was simply named "Canteen," as the sign displayed on the building read "Canteen."
Entering the canteen, the university students were surprised to find that its layout was very similar to their own university canteens. At the entrance, an electronic display screen showed the real-time number of people on the canteen's two floors.
The electronic display showed 3,397 people on the first floor and 2,827 people on the second floor.
This canteen was larger than many university canteens, and it used stainless steel trays for meals.
As Song Yuting, Gao Yushan, Huang Jingzhe, and the other students approached the counter with their stainless steel trays, they were astonished by the information displayed on the screen.
One student stammered, "They even have this?"