“Yes.”
With a nod, Zi Yan added, “We’ll have Mengmeng have some meals in the school cafeteria.”
When she took Mengmeng out to travel, the girl ate the special snacks from all over the world. She had been eating the ingredients on Mount New Moon. They were delicious, but once in a while, she had to try other foods.
Maybe the food in the school cafeteria was not tasty, but it would help her understand how well she ate in daily life.
Therefore, they went to the school cafeteria together to get a meal card.
The first day passed just like this.
The next day was September 1st.
Li Muen and Li Kai were waiting for Mengmeng at the school gate.
When Zhang Han sent the little fellow over, the two girls entered the school hand in hand.
Mengmeng didn’t feel anything when she was accompanied here by her PaPa and MaMa yesterday, but today she felt very strange and novel.
“Well, Muen, we are going to the classroom of Class One, where we sat yesterday.”
Many students ran to the teaching building. There were three teaching buildings in total. Mengmeng and Li Muen walked to the teaching building for students of the first and second grades.
“Yeah,” Li Muen replied, “We have no one but the two of us to depend on today, but my seat is so far away that I can’t see the blackboard clearly.”
“Ah?” Mengmeng was shocked. “Muen, are you short-sighted?”
“No, the doctor said I spend too much time on my mobile phone at ordinary times,” Li Muen replied.
“Mobile phone?”
Mengmeng was startled. “I don’t have a mobile phone yet.”
“Then what do you usually play with?” Li Muen was puzzled, but she suddenly saw the light. “I forgot that you have a big castle, as well as Dahei and Little Hei.”
“Uh-huh. I play with Big Heihei and the others every day. After that, I go back to the castle. Sometimes I watch cartoons, sometimes I play games with PaPa, but I seldom play with a mobile phone.”
“A mobile phone is a great plaything. There are a lot of games on it. Look, I’ve taken my mobile phone to school. My dad said that if the lead teacher bullies me, I can make a phone call to him,” Li Muen replied.
Actually, Li Kai usually did not allow her to take her mobile phone to school, but he felt that his observation was sharp. When he saw the lead teacher, Yan Ying, look at Li Muen that way, he was on his guard and asked her to take her mobile phone to school. If the lead teacher really made trouble, Li Muen could call him directly.
He, Li Kai, was worth a billion at least, and he had some confidence in doing things.
“Make a phone call?”
Mengmeng’s eyes suddenly lit up when she heard those words.
“I’ll call PaPa and MaMa. Hey!”
“I want a mobile phone, too,” Mengmeng suddenly said, “Muen, can you lend me your mobile phone?”
“Of course, we are good sisters.”
Li Muen generously took out her mobile phone and handed it to Mengmeng. “Do you want to play games? We are heading for our classroom now, so we can’t play games.”
“No, I want to call PaPa…”
Mengmeng seemed somewhat confused after she finished. “But I don’t know his phone number.”
Li Muen said in a hurry, “How about I ask my father about it later? The class will begin soon. I’ll ask him about it when the class is over, okay?”
“Okay.”
Mengmeng returned her the mobile phone.
After arriving at the classroom, they sat on their benches. Many students who came earlier had begun to chat with each other.
Children at the age of six were quite lively.
Mengmeng’s deskmate was a little boy. He was neither fat nor thin, and he looked pleasing to the eye.
When he saw Mengmeng coming, he greeted her.
“Hello, Mengmeng. My name is Lu Quan.”
“Huh? How did you know my name?” Mengmeng was curious.
“I heard your dad call you this way yesterday.”
“Dad? It’s my PaPa.”
Mengmeng knew that a small number of people called PaPa Dad.
“Yeah. Mengmeng, where is your home?”
“It’s on a mountain in New Moon Bay, and it’s my Xanadu.”
“It must be broad.”
“Yes, it is.”
“My home is right here. Mengmeng, which kindergarten did you attend?”
“Saint Kindergarten. How about you?”
“Ah! Me too. I was in Class Three.”
“Hahaha, I was in Class Five.”
“…”
With just a few words, Mengmeng got to know a new classmate named Lu Quan.
While they were talking, the lead teacher, Yan Ying, looked at them a few times. When the bell rang, she left in a hurry, as if she had something to do.
At this point, a middle-aged man in neat clothes came in from the outside.
He smiled and said, “I’m your language teacher. You can just call me Mr. Wu. I’ll teach the language course of the first grade.
“When I entered the classroom just now, everyone was chatting merrily, and some mentioned their parents. Some students call their parents Dad and Mom. These are expressions in the local spoken language. Some call their parents Daddy and Mommy, which are derived from English. Some call their parents PaPa and MaMa. There are many kinds of addresses. In the world, there are 5,651 kinds of verified languages. Among them, more than 1,400 languages have not been recognized as independent or are dying.”
After the teacher said a few words, the students all focused their attention on him. The good education they had received in their early years spared them the bad habit of whispering to each other.
“From now on, I’ll teach you three languages, Hua language, Cantonese, and English.
“That is to say, we’ll address parents in these three languages, namely, Daddy, Mommy, Dad, Mom, Father, and Mother. Repeat after me, everybody.
“Daddy, Mommy.”
“Daddy, Mommy.”
Their voices were pleasant to the ear, but someone was saying PaPa and MaMa.
It was Mengmeng, who had gotten used to calling her parents like that.
“Let’s do it again. Daddy, Mommy.”
Mr. Wu also heard it, but he was not sure who it was. He spoke out loud three more times and finally fixed his eyes on Mengmeng.
“Please stand up, that beautiful student.”
“Oh.”
Mengmeng was called out.
She suddenly became a bit nervous when she was looked at by others.
“Daddy, Mommy. Repeat after me.”
“PaPa, MaMa.”
“Your pronunciation is not quite right. Try them one by one, Daddy.”
“Daddy.”
“Mommy.”
“Mommy.”
“Link them together. Daddy, Mommy.”
“PaPa, MaMa.”
“No, it’s Daddy.”
“Paddy?”
“It’s Papa. Oh no, it’s Daddy…”
Mr. Wu was pretty patient. It took him two minutes to successfully make Mengmeng speak Daddy and Mommy.
“Dad, Mom…”
Mr. Wu simply asked Mengmeng to speak in the other two languages. Unexpectedly, he found that she was good at speaking the local language, her English was pretty standard, and she was able to speak Mandarin fluently. It was just that she had gotten used to calling her parents PaPa and MaMa, but it was nothing serious.
“Well, they are just three sets of simple words that you were able to say when you began to babble. Now, please introduce yourselves on the stage. Everyone has one minute, and this beautiful female student will be the first one to start.”
Mengmeng’s appearance got full marks from Mr. Wu. She was rather eye-catching, and he liked her a lot.
Mengmeng grew even more nervous when she suddenly had to go on stage.
“Come on.”
Mr. Wu cast her an encouraging look.
Under everyone’s gaze, Mengmeng went on the podium with her hands clasped together.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Zhang Yumeng. My friends all call me Mengmeng. I live on a mountain in New Moon Bay. I like to play with friends. My PaPa and MaMa are super awesome.”
“It’s Daddy and Mommy.”
“Oh, my Daddy and Mommy are super awesome.”
“Well, Zhang Yumeng, you’ve got a nice name. Go back to your seat.” Mr. Wu smiled. After Mengmeng went back and sat down, he looked at the first person in the first row on the left.
“You are the second one. The one on your right side is the third one. After all the students in the first row finish introducing themselves, the first one in the second row on the left shall continue. You don’t have to leave your seats. Just stand up from your seats and introduce yourselves.”
“I’m Lang Da…”
Therefore, the students began to introduce themselves one by one. Only those with distinctive characteristics could be remembered, such as Mengmeng, who was good-looking.
Another example was Qian Chao, who was the tallest and pudgy.
Lu Quan, who was relatively thin and pale beside Mengmeng, and a few others were all remembered by their classmates.
When every student introduced themselves, they would sometimes make some oral problems. Mr. Wu would correct them.
This was his first class. His purpose was to get to know his students and correct their everyday language.
When Zhang Han and Zi Yan came to pick Mengmeng up from school in the evening, she called them as soon as she saw them.
“Dad, Mom.”
“Ah?” Zi Yan was stunned at once and felt strange.
“Daddy, Mommy.”
Mengmeng had been practicing at school for a long while, and now she could finally pronounce them properly.
“Why didn’t you call us PaPa and MaMa?” Zhang Han asked with a smile.
“No, PaPa, our language teacher, Mr. Wu, taught us how to address our parents in three languages; Daddy, Mommy, Dad, Mom, Father, and Mother. What I learned today is different from what I learned in kindergarten. In kindergarten, the teachers taught us knowledge without saying these things,” Mengmeng answered seriously.
“Hahaha.”
Zhang Han burst into laughter. Mengmeng first called him PaPa, and when she remembered what she had learned at school, she called him Daddy.
Zi Yan touched Mengmeng’s pink and delicate face and asked, “What did you learn at school today?”
“I’ve learned numbers, Chinese phonetic alphabet, and language. I haven’t learned much. We had to introduce ourselves. I even went on the stage.”
The teachers wanted to know their students, and the students also needed to know their teachers and classmates. They introduced themselves several times, but some teachers were not in a hurry. They only asked about their names when they called the roll in class.
“Daddy!”
All of a sudden, Mengmeng called out again.
“Ah.”
“Mommy!”
“I heard you.”
Mengmeng shouted again, which made Zhang Han look a bit emotional.
“My daughter went to primary school.”
Although Mengmeng’s voice still sounded immature, it was much less childish.
She had always called him PaPa, but now she called him Daddy, which made him feel that she had grown up.
How time flew!
He had accompanied Mengmeng for nearly three years, but it seemed to be the blink of an eye.
It felt like yesterday that he first met Mengmeng.
The places they had been to and the scenes of him playing with her were still vivid in his mind.
Time passed quickly.
That was the thing that impressed Zhang Han most.
In his previous cultivation career, he had once cultivated in seclusion for 20 years, but he didn’t think it was a big deal. But now, it was different.
Children grew up really fast.
“Alas.”
Zhang Han sighed secretly and put these feelings behind. He didn’t start the car immediately. Instead, he looked at Mengmeng, pinched her little face a few times, teased her with a few words, and then drove.
No one could make the past come back. Cherishing the present was the top priority.
Habits, however, were hard to change. Most of the time, Mengmeng would call her parents PaPa and MaMa, and when she recalled what she had learned in class, she would call them Daddy and Mommy.
This was just the first day. They were sure she would get used to calling them Daddy and Mommy in a few days.
Because of this, Mengmeng forgot to mention her desire for a mobile phone. Li Muen was forgetful and confused. Since they encountered new things in class, Li Muen forgot to inform Mengmeng even though the mobile phone was in her schoolbag.
