Meng Yan's Transformation

Chapter 650 The Unyielding Light in Zhan Mengyan's Eyes

Overwhelmed by joy, Zhan Mengyan strode to them, her eyes sparkling, her cheeks flushed with excitement. Her gaze darted back and forth between them, the surprise and delight instantly filling the emptiness she had felt earlier. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but ultimately just smiled and shook her head, her eyes shining brighter than any lamplight.

"Brother," Zhan Mengyan suddenly reached out and gently tugged at Zhan Zixun's sleeve, her voice filled with a hint of coquettish excitement, "How did you two feel after eating the dumplings I bought? Did you perform exceptionally well in the exam? When will the college entrance exam results come out? I want to celebrate with you."

Zhang Xincheng shyly avoided Zhan Mengyan's gaze: "The dumplings that Mengyan bought for us are really delicious. But we have let Mengyan down. Just now, Zhan Zixun and I checked the answers to the exam papers for each subject. The last big question on the math paper... I messed up all the steps... I feel like I did very poorly on the exam. There's no need to celebrate... That's it."

Zhang Xincheng's voice was hoarse in his throat.

Zhan Zixun didn't speak, but his knuckles cracked loudly. He recalled the magnolia petals he had glimpsed outside the exam window, swirling and falling in the wind, much like the jumbled formulas and poems swirling in his mind right now.

The setting sun was melting into a dazzling golden-red. Zhang Xincheng's shadow stretched diagonally beside Zhan Zixun, like a similarly weary wound.

“Zhang Xincheng, we’re only in our second year of high school. It’s already pretty good that we can take the college entrance exam with the third-year students. Didn’t you see those third-year students walking out of the exam hall? Some of them were shouting vertically against the railing, and some were silently folding their admission tickets into paper airplanes and flying them into the air. Look at them, some of them didn’t do much better than the two of us. Come on! Let’s go to the roof.”

Zhan Zixun suddenly grabbed Zhang Xincheng's arm, his footsteps shattering the dappled shadows of the trees on the ground.

Zhan Mengyan followed the two to the roof of the small storage room. A gentle breeze was blowing, making it very cool.

Zhan Zixun sat cross-legged on the roof of the small storage room, and took out a crumpled mock exam paper from his schoolbag: "Look at this question, I got it wrong last time too—" He directly poked a red cross on a certain part of the paper, "but I wrote it down in my error notebook three times, and I will definitely... Sigh, but I still got it wrong in this college entrance exam."

"This is the college entrance examination!" Zhang Xincheng interrupted Zhan Zixun, like a stone thrown into a pond.

"So this time we really got our money's worth from the fall!" Zhan Zixun suddenly laughed, the sunset turning his eyes golden. "While those seniors were doing so many practice problems they were practically spitting blood, we couldn't even read the questions properly—isn't that just making room for next year?" He picked up a pebble and tossed it into the air, the pebble drawing a shimmering arc in the sunset. "Consider it...consider it a warm-up for next year's college entrance exam!" Before he finished speaking, there was a rustling sound above his head, and Zhan Mengyan was holding two cucumbers that had been soaking in a water tank.

“Brother, Zhang Xincheng.” Zhan Mengyan stuffed cucumbers into their palms, the coolness instantly piercing the sticky summer heat. “My mom said that if you fail the exam, just consider it as gaining experience for next year—” She blinked, her eyelashes casting small shadows under her eyes, “like when I lost the basketball team election in fourth grade, but I was selected the following year.”

Zhan Zixun took another bite of the vibrant green cucumber, its refreshing aroma exploding on his tongue. He gazed at Zhan Mengyan's hair, ruffled by the evening breeze. Suddenly, he remembered last year's sports meet, when she, as a freshman, had fallen on the track, scraping her knee, yet she had smiled, gotten up, and finished the race. The light in her eyes now was exactly the same as it had been then.