Meng Yan's Transformation

In order to win the English competition and gain the joy of the future through challenges, Zhan Mengyan began to prepare for the exam actively. She would not let go of any time on the way to school or on the way home from school. She put cards with English words in her pocket and could easily pick them up. The number of words she memorized increased day by day, with rapid growth.

At night, Zhan Yu didn't let Zhan Mengyan turn on the light for fear of "wasting" electricity. Zhan Mengyan looked at the English dictionary and memorized English words in the moonlight. In the embrace of the moonlight, Zhan Mengyan was immersed in the world of English words. Every page was like an ancient memory awakened by the moonlight, flashing with sparks of wisdom. In this silent communication, Zhan Mengyan felt a kind of depth and purity that had nothing to do with reality. Zhan Mengyan's eyes flashed with a firm light. The faint moonlight sprinkled on the English dictionary, and she silently studied every word and sentence. Savoring the mellow fragrance of knowledge.

One night, Zhan Zixun was woken up by the urge to pee. When he went to the toilet, he found Zhan Mengyan reading an English dictionary by moonlight. He quietly approached Zhan Mengyan and whispered, "Sister Mengyan, are you trying to kill yourself? You can't stay up late at night and read an English dictionary by moonlight. Your eyes will be damaged if you do this for a long time. There is a classmate in my class who studies very hard, but he has become nearsighted. He can't even see clearly what the teacher writes on the blackboard in class. The teacher suggested that his parents buy him a pair of glasses for myopia..."

Zhan Mengyan was afraid that Zhan Zixun's voice would wake up the family, so before Zhan Zixun finished speaking, she covered his mouth with her hand, leaned over and whispered to him, "Brother Zixun, please keep your voice down and don't wake up Dad. I'm at my wit's end now and have no other choice. Dad doesn't allow me to turn on the lights to study because he's afraid of wasting electricity. The school's English competition preliminary exam is imminent. If you don't accumulate more vocabulary, how can you pass the school's upcoming English competition preliminary exam? In addition, I was suspended from class by my head teacher some time ago and I've missed many courses. I have to find time to make up for them myself. I feel that I don't have enough time, so I have to choose to use the light bestowed by the moonlight goddess sister to memorize a few more English words. Stop persuading me and sleep well..."

At this time, Yunqing also got up to go to the bathroom. Seeing that Zhan Mengyan and Zhan Zixun were still awake, she came over and whispered, "Zhan Mengyan, Zhan Zixun, you two are still awake in the middle of the night. What are you whispering about? Do you want to wake up your father and get beaten? Go back to your beds and sleep well."

Zhan Mengyan glared at Zhan Zixun fiercely, pointed at his head, and said softly: "Zhan Zixun, you are just a dog trying to catch a rat - meddling in other people's business. You are more likely to cause trouble than to help others."

"Zhan Mengyan, you are like a dog biting Lu Dongbin - you don't know how to appreciate a good person's kindness." Zhan Zixun also responded softly.

"Are you two done yet? Aren't you afraid of getting into trouble?" Yunqing patted Zhan Mengyan and Zhan Zixun each.

Zhan Mengyan was forced to go to sleep by Yunqing and Zhan Zixun.

The preliminary examination for the school English competition was held before Zhan Mengyan had fully prepared for the exam.

On the eve of the results announcement, Zhan Mengyan was eagerly waiting for the results to be announced with anticipation and trepidation. During this period, she felt that time seemed to have become extremely slow, slower than the slowly crawling snail. Every second of waiting seemed extremely long, as if the sky was frozen in time and the clouds were slowly moving. Her heart seemed to be tightly entangled by steel wires, unable to breathe, unable to calm down, unable to release... Zhan Mengyan's imagination began to rage wildly. For a while, she imagined that her grades were outstanding and she got a good grade, and she couldn't help laughing out loud; for a while, she imagined that her grades were very bad, and she encountered endless incomprehensible questions, and tears of despair and pain filled her eyes... Zhan Mengyan's mood was ups and downs in her imagination - sometimes she was full of hope, and sometimes she sank to the bottom of the valley, just like the ups and downs of a roller coaster. Various results intertwined and entangled in Zhan Mengyan's mind, making her fall into an inextricable tension and anxiety.

Zhan Mengyan did not study that night. She pulled Zhan Zixun to the corner and said, "Brother Zixun, I beg you for a favor: Tomorrow the school will post the list of results of the preliminary English competition on the bulletin board, and I don't have the courage to look at it. Can you help me check it? If I pass the school's preliminary English competition, you can only put one pot of sunflowers on our windowsill after school. If I don't pass, you can put all the pots on the windowsill as before. I will wander around on the way home from school for a while, and I will go home after you put the pots away. If I don't pass the preliminary English competition in school, don't tell Dad and Mom yet. If Dad and Mom ask about my test results, please help me lie - the test results have not been announced yet."

Zhan Zixun saw Zhan Mengyan's nervous and pleading eyes, and said distressedly: "Sister Mengyan, isn't it just an English competition preliminary exam? Why are you so nervous?"

"Brother Zixun, don't ask me anymore. Will you agree to me or not?" Zhan Mengyan asked anxiously.

Zhan Zixun saw Zhan Mengyan's impatient look and said with a smile: "I promise, I promise. You have lost a lot of weight because of the preliminary examination for this English competition. Since you finished the exam, the moon has been dim these past few nights. All its light has been borrowed by Mengyan..."

"Brother Zixun, how dare you tease me? It was you who found out that I was studying by moonlight and said nonsense. You almost ruined my preparation for the exam. Next time you get beaten by your father, I won't help you anymore..." Zhan Meng said while patting Zhan Ziqiang.

“Hard work pays off. A piece of iron rod can be ground into an embroidery needle.” Zhan Mengyan passed the preliminary examination for the English competition with the second highest score in the school.

Zhan Zixun made Zhan Mengyan feel a little nervous and heavy. After school, he went to the school bulletin board and saw the results of Zhan Mengyan's English competition preliminary test. He was so happy that he turned over on the ground, laughing, shouting, clapping his hands, and stamping his feet. He ran to Zhan Mengyan's classroom to know her good news as soon as possible, so as to save the trouble of moving flower pots back and forth when he returned home. But Zhan Mengyan had already left the classroom and disappeared.

Zhan Zixun felt as light as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his heart. His face was beaming with joy. He ran all the way back home, hurriedly took down the flower pots on the windowsill, and put only a pot of sunflowers on the windowsill.

Zhan Zixun had just put the flower pot away when he returned to the house, put down his schoolbag, and prepared to do his homework. But he heard Yunqing say, "Zixun, tomorrow is Sunday, you can do your homework and review your lessons tomorrow. Now help mom push a bag of sorghum to the processing plant with a cart, and help me grind the rice. Mom has been feeling weak these days and can't push this bag of grain."

Zhan Zixun and Yunqing went to grind rice together.

Zhan Yu came back from work early and saw that all the pots of flowers he planted had been moved from the windowsill to the ground. He said unhappily, "Who is so careless to put such beautiful flower pots on the ground? If the chickens step on them, the beautiful flowers will be ruined." As Zhan Yu spoke, he put all the flower pots back on the windowsill.

Zhan Yu had just finished arranging the flower pots and was about to go into the house to wash his hands when he saw Zhan Mengyan walking into the yard with her schoolbag on her back. Zhan Mengyan stared blankly at the flower pots on the windowsill behind Zhan Yu and shouted, "Impossible! Impossible..." and ran out of the yard crying.

Zhan Yu was really confused when he saw Zhan Mengyan losing control. He felt inexplicably surprised and puzzled, and then he said angrily: "How come Zhan Mengyan ran away as if she saw the plague god? This girl is getting more and more outrageous, and she is so obsessed with studying..."

Not long after, Zhan Zixun and Yun Qing came back from grinding rice.

"Who put all the flower pots on the windowsill?" Zhan Zixun shouted when he came back from getting some rice and saw the flower pots neatly arranged on the windowsill.

When Zhan Yu heard Zhan Zixun's shout, his nameless fire suddenly ignited, and he said angrily: "I put it there, Zhan Zixun, why are you shouting when you come in? I also asked you, who put my flower pots on the ground in a mess? What if the chickens trample them?"

"Dad, have you seen Zhan Mengyan?" Zhan Zixun asked.

"Zhan Zixun, I asked you what's going on with the flowerpot, why are you asking Zhan Mengyan? This Zhan Mengyan seemed to be possessed by some evil spirit. She ran away crying when she saw me. Am I a plague god? Am I an evil ghost?" Zhan Yu roared.

"It's over, it's over now. Zhan Mengyan will be so sad..." Zhan Zixun said and ran out of the yard.

"Yunqing, look, look, what's going on with these kids? They are so confused." Zhan Yu asked Yunqing who was standing there in a daze.