Meng Yan's Transformation

Zhan Mengyan went home after school and brought back cotton seeds, nutrient pots and a nutrient pot machine. She also brought along Lu Hongzhi, a teacher from the Agriculture Department.

Teacher Lu enthusiastically and patiently taught Zhan Yu, Yun Qing, Zhan Mengyan, and Zhan Yingying how to select seeds and soak them for germination. Then they went to the garden and chose a sunny place that was sheltered from the wind as a seedbed. They dug out a seedbed that was more than one meter wide, 15 centimeters deep, and 10 meters long. The excavated soil was mixed with farmyard manure and chemical fertilizer to make nutrient pots for seedlings. The nutrient pot is a soil column with a diameter of 6 or 7 centimeters and a height of 10 centimeters. There is a hole on it for cotton seeds. The tools for making nutrient pots are similar to those for making coal balls. Making coal balls is to put coal into a steel cylinder and insert a few holes while compacting it. Making cotton nutrient pots is to put soil into a steel cylinder and use a concave iron sheet on the steel cylinder to press a hole while compacting it.

Agriculture teacher Lu Hongzhi picked up the nutrient pot machine and pounded it in the soil a few times, then stepped on the iron sheet on the steel cylinder. Zhan Mengyan reached out her hand, and Teacher Lu lifted the nutrient pot machine and stepped on the iron sheet again, and the nutrient pots came out of the machine. Zhan Mengyan caught the nutrient pots and used her other hand to neatly place them in the seedbed. This hand would reach out again to catch another nutrient pot that came out of the machine. Teacher Lu beat the pots very quickly, one, two, three, one, two, three, one after another... Repeatedly, thousands of nutrient pots were ready.

After the nutrient pots were made, they were arranged into neat squares in the seedbed. Teacher Lu also gave everyone a series of scientific explanations on the cotton growth process, from planting seeds to germination and transplanting seedlings to topping.

The next day after school, Zhan Mengyan, together with Zhan Yu and Zhan Yingying, fished out the cotton seeds that had been soaked in water, mixed them with wood ash and pesticides, and planted them in the small holes on top of the nutrient pots. While they were working, their neighbor Zhang Ersao came to help. She expanded the seedbed a little and made more nutrient pots, saying that she wanted to grow her cotton seedlings in them as well.

The work of throwing cotton seeds into the small holes of the nutrient pots is mainly done by Zhan Yingying, who throws 3 or 4 seeds into each hole. Zhan Yu and Zhan Mengyan also do it, but they are not as fast and good as Zhan Yingying. She grabs a handful of cotton seeds and lets them slip through her fingers, and three or four seeds are thrown each time. After throwing the cotton seeds, Zhan Yu sprinkles a layer of fine soil on them and gently pours an appropriate amount of water. Don't pour too much water, otherwise the nutrient pots below will fall apart. Then use thin bamboo poles or thorns to make an arc-shaped frame forty to fifty centimeters high above the seedbed, and then stretch a film on it, and a mini plastic greenhouse is made.

A few days later, the cotton seeds sprouted. The plastic greenhouse is light-transmitting, heat-insulating, and moisturizing, but the temperature inside cannot be too high. If it is too high, it will be like the air conditioner in the car that is broken in summer, and the seedlings will be killed by heat. Therefore, both ends of the greenhouse should be opened for ventilation at noon to reduce the temperature inside the greenhouse. After ventilation during the day, Zhan Mengyan covered the plastic film at night after school and took care of it carefully, just like taking care of a child, fearing that something might go wrong.

Soon two tender leaves emerged from the cotton seeds. When Zhan Mengyan saw them, she was overjoyed and decided to transplant the cotton seedlings.

Zhan Mengyan, her sister and her father moved the cotton seedlings one by one from the "greenhouse" to the "vast world". From then on, whenever she had time, she would water, weed and apply fertilizer with her father.

Summer is here, the grass is growing and the birds are singing. The plants are all lush and green, and the small cotton seedlings are also growing gracefully. However, some cotton plants have aphids. (Aphids insert their piercing and sucking mouthparts into the back or tender part of cotton leaves to suck the juice. The affected leaves curl back to the back, and the leaves have honeydew excreted by aphids on the surface, breeding mold. After the cotton is affected, it grows slowly, the plants are short, the leaves become smaller, and the number of leaves decreases.) This made Zhan Mengyan very distressed. She asked Lu, a teacher in the agricultural department, for ways to eliminate aphids. On a Sunday afternoon, Zhan Mengyan prepared the pesticides. She carried the medicine barrel, moved the joystick up and down with her left hand, and sprayed the pesticides with the spray rod in her right hand. It was really a day of spraying pesticides, and sweat dripped into the cotton soil. Pesticides are highly toxic. Even if Zhan Mengyan was sweating, she dared not wipe it with her hands. The pungent pesticides made Zhan Mengyan's tears and snot flow uncontrollably.

Summer vacation is here, and Zhan Mengyan spends every day in the cotton fields.

In the hot days of the dog days, the heat waves roll in, and the earth is baked hot by the scorching sun, making it hard to breathe. This is also the time when cotton grows the fastest. The cotton must be branched and tipped every day. Moreover, the branching and tipping of cotton must be done under the scorching sun to sterilize. If the branches and leaves are not pruned and the tips are not bent in time, they will compete for the nutrients of the cotton. The cotton will not have enough nutrients to meet the needs of fruit maturation. (Cotton absorbs water and fertilizers for the nutrients it needs for its own growth. Its nutritional uses are different in different periods. When germinating, it uses nutrients on the roots in order to take deep roots. When it is a seedling, it transfers nutrients to the branches and leaves. In order to bloom, the excess branches and leaves must be removed. In order to produce large fruits, the cotton plants must experience the damage of branching and tipping several times to accumulate more nutrients.)

After working in the cotton fields for many days, Zhan Mengyan's face, hands, and exposed arms were all burned by the scorching sun. Her face was swollen, and there were red things like rashes. Some places had blisters, which were itchy and painful. Yunqing was afraid that the blisters on Zhan Mengyan's face would break and get infected, so she applied soybean paste on the wounds on Zhan Mengyan's face, saying that it could have a sterilizing effect. It was like sprinkling salt on the wound. Although it was a bit painful, the wounds coated with soybean paste did reduce swelling a lot, but the face looked disgusting and dirty.

Yunqing was worried that Zhan Mengyan's face would be disfigured, so she didn't dare ask her to bend the branches and tips of cotton under the scorching sun anymore.

One day, Zhang Ersao, a neighbor, came to Zhan Mengyan to ask about the mixing method of pesticides to eliminate cotton aphids. She was shocked to see Zhan Mengyan with soybean paste on her face. She asked Yunqing why. She said jokingly, "Aunt Yunqing, will your folk method work? Won't it leave pockmarks or scars on my sister Mengyan's face? Won't this affect my sister Mengyan's future in-laws? It's not worth destroying a beautiful girl just to grow some cotton. Aunt Yunqing, please don't let my sister Mengyan go to the hot sun to prune cotton branches and leaves and tip them. She is a delicate girl and a future college student. How about this, I will take some time to help your family prune cotton branches and leaves and tip them. I am a thick-skinned person and I am not afraid of the sun."

"Mrs. Zhang, what nonsense are you talking about?" Zhan Mengyan stomped her feet in anger and walked away.

"Oh my god, Sister Mengyan, please don't go. You can't be ungrateful. I mean well and I feel sorry for you, but you haven't told me the method of mixing pesticides for spraying cotton." Neighbor Zhang Ersao said hurriedly when she saw Zhan Mengyan running out of the back door.

The neighbor, Mrs. Zhang, was about to chase after Zhan Mengyan, but Yunqing stopped her and said, "Sister-in-law, don't bother Mengyan now. The sunburn on her face has made her feel bad and she doesn't want to see anyone. Go home first. I'll ask her to write down the pesticide ratio on a piece of paper and I'll bring it to you."

"Okay, okay, I'll leave now. Aunt Yunqing, please find Mengyan and go back to the house to avoid getting sunburned again. I heard that there was a girl in my mother's village who got sunburned and then developed some kind of ultraviolet allergy. Whenever she was exposed to sunlight, she would get a rash on her face that was itchy and painful. She dared not go out of the house when the sun came out in the summer." Neighbor Zhang Ersao said as she walked out of the house.

Yunqing sent her neighbor Zhang Ersao away, called Zhan Mengyan back from the back garden and said, "Mengyan, don't go out when the sun is strong. Take good care of yourself for a few days so that the wound on your face can scab over quickly. You have to make it healed before school starts. Tomorrow, mom will make you a beautiful sun hat. When school starts, wear it to go to and from school to block the sun. Don't get any UV allergies!"