The simplest language question is, "Eating at midnight costs nothing …" Does this sentence mean eating at midnight costs money or not?

Nothing is spent except eating at midnight. "

There are two ways to crack this sentence:

Nothing is spent except eating at midnight.

This means that eating in the middle of the night costs money, and other things cost nothing.

If it breaks down,

Nothing is spent except eating at midnight.

This means that dinner at midnight is free, and everything else costs money.

Generally speaking, this kind of sentence that is not obvious is usually punctuated by the second sentence in life, because I haven't heard of anyone who doesn't spend money on everything, but on food.

If a person eats without spending money, other things will cost money. There are many such examples.