Chapter 114 Reading Comprehension

The ‘Happy Zoo’ lesson contained four pages, each with six clear cartoon images and a few words describing each one.

Everything was new in the textbook. Both the paper and print qualities were luxurious. The pictures were brightly colored, and the characters were beautifully drawn.

Bai Yan felt nothing for aesthetically-pleasing cartoon characters, but after reading the entire section, he found the story quite interesting.

…

[On Saturday, Li Hua took his father, mother, and cute little sister to the zoo.]

[Li Hua saw a lion at the zoo.]

[Li Hua and his sister saw the clown.]

[Li Hua bought sweet hawthorn candy. The candy was so delicious.]

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[Nk Twy’p qyxkzu oyzjle swv sq vbl gss.]

[Nk Twy bye qwd!]

Mblal olal y vsvyz sq pkm pldvldnlp kd vbl ldvkal plnvksd, yde clzso lynb zkdl oyp y rknvwal.

Ebld alyekdt vbl vlmv, vbl vlmv kvplzq eked’v xyjl ydu pldpl, cwv obld ynnsxrydkle cu vbl rknvwalp, Jyk Zyd nswze pldpl vbl ellrla xlydkdt clbkde vbl pvsau.

Mbl qkapv rknvwal oyp vbl xspv dsaxyz pnldl kd vbl pvsau.

Rd vbl nszsaqwz gss, olyakdt nszsaqwz nzsvblp, Nk Twy yde bkp qyxkzu byrrkzu pvsse kd qasdv sq vbl gss.

Fkdnl vbl qkapv rknvwal oyp saekdyakzu csakdt, Jyk Zyd xlalzu tzydnle vbaswtb kv yde pjkrrle vs vbl dlmv sdl.

Mbl plnsde rknvwal oyp oblal vbl pvsau clnyxl alyzzu ckgyaal.

The text of the second picture was ‘Li Hua saw a lion’.

Although in the picture, the family had already finished seeing the lion, Li hua, together with his mother and sister, walked towards the exit of the lion exhibit. Their hearts were gleefully content after seeing the mighty and fierce lion.

However, as they left happily, Li Hua’s father had gone missing.

To be more precise, Li Hua’s father wasn’t actually missing, but he wasn’t completely visible in the picture.

At the far left of the picture, Bai Yan saw a sweating hand.

The hand was chubby, with a few thick hairs drawn on it together with a wristwatch.

Bai Yan subconsciously scanned through the first picture and noticed that Li Hua’s father was a chubby middle-aged man with a watch on his wrist.

Without a doubt, this hand belongs to Li Hua’s father.

Below the text, there was only one picture, and the text didn’t explain what happened to Li Hua’s father.

However, in the third picture, Li Hua’s father had completely disappeared…

Disappearing with him was Li Hua’s mother….

In the picture on the right, a clown with strange makeup was handing out balloons.

With a burst of excitement, Li Hua and his sister happily dashed to get one for themselves.

On the far left side of the picture, there was not a single person in sight.

But on the empty ground, there was a woman’s red shoe lying at the center. Even without looking at the first picture, Bai Yan could tell. This shoe belonged to Li Hua’s mother.

Just like Li Hua’s father, his mother had also mysteriously disappeared.

Reading up to this point, Bai Yan, with a heavy heart, suspected what might happen next.

Upon reaching the fourth picture, his conjecture was answered.

On the right side of the picture, Li Hua saw a hawthorn candy stall, so he left his sister alone at the fish-feeding pond and went to buy some candy.

At the pool’s vicinity, nothing was there, but on the surface of the rippled reflecting water floated a piece of braided hair with a red hair tie. Undoubtedly, it was Li Hua’s sister.

On the far right of the scene, Li Hua was savoring his candy. He didn’t even notice that his sister fell into the pond, just like how he didn’t notice that both of his parents had gone missing.

In the fifth picture, the story entered an even more mysterious twist.

In the scene, Li Hua had finished eating his candy and contentedly, with a big smile on his face, walked outside of the zoo while holding his green balloon.

But in the distance of the picture, there were three small gray dots falling far behind Li Hua. Together with the text, Bai Yan could easily tell that the three people behind were the missing family members of Li Hua.

No one knew how Li Hua’s parents had disappeared.

But, as for Li Hua’s sister, the three-year-old undoubtedly drowned to death in the pool.

Now that the three family members had appeared again, something obviously didn’t seem right.

And for some reason, although in the picture these three people were far away from Li Hua, just three gray dots that could not be seen in outlines, Bai Yan felt that there was something wrong with their composition.

He automatically moved his attention to the sixth picture. At that moment, he understood everything.

As Bai Yan looked at the picture, the corners of his lips curled up subconsciously, just like how Li Hua happily smiled in the picture.

The sixth picture of ‘the zoo’ was just like the beginning of the first picture.

The father with the gold wristwatch, the mother with the red shoes, and the sister with the braided hair all stood beside Li Hua, revealing the same smiles, seeming like a typical happy family.

However, except for Li Hua, the other three people were all gray.

In this picture, the three had appearances that looked like they were soaked in mud, stripping away all the colors from their bodies.

Their skins were pale, similar to photos of the deceased. It didn’t match the theme of the story at all.

In the center of the picture, Li Hua didn’t realize that the other three people were actually fading.

The four people stood in front of the gate of the zoo, living up to the title of the text. All were happy, none were unhappy.

Including Bai Yan, he was also quite happy after reading the text.

Reading an interesting article always made people feel satisfied.

Bai Yan quietly looked at the students around him and found that they too were also engaged in the story.

Unlike the boring old textbooks, one didn’t need to read a lot of words, and anyone could easily understand the pictures.

The new textbook was like a picture book, with lots of images and very few words, so everyone read it with great enjoyment.

However, there were only two other classmates that actually understood the message behind the pictures. Their petite body trembled slightly with their heads buried low. They seemed terrified.

But most students here had already been listening to horror stories since they were young. They should have already gotten used to it.

The content of the pictures may be weird, but it should be within their acceptable range.

Instead of copying words for ‘a hundred times’ until their hand broke, they would rather learn from this horror fairytale.

As the time for self-study was almost over and as most of the children lifted their heads from their respective textbooks, Ning Xiuli, with an unchanged smile, said, “I think most of my students have finished reading the story. Ning Xiaobo, stand up and tell me what kind of story was told?”

The student that was called was a chubby boy.

In the past ten days of school, he ate rice with sand every single day, but he still failed to lose some weight.

The little fatty became extremely nervous after being called by the teacher. He was afraid that he might get beaten if he got the answer wrong.

But after recalling the encouragement Ning Xiuli had given to the other students, the little fatty became more confident. The chubby boy cleared his throat and answered in a trembling voice, “The story is about a child that went to the zoo to play, and his whole family was taken away by ghosts! Finally, the child and the ghost went out of the zoo together. Teacher, is that how the story went?”

“Very good, please sit down. Can any other student tell me what you have learned from the text?”

Not only was the little chubby boy not beaten, but he also was praised by the teacher who told him to sit down. The students couldn’t help being a little eager to try too.

For elementary school students, the teacher’s praise meant a lot to them.

As a result, some elementary school students with exuberant expressions raised their hands one after another, yet one elementary school student couldn’t help but yell,

“I know, I know!”

A little girl raised her hand excitedly, waiting for Ning Xiuli to call her name. She couldn’t wait, so she stood up and said, “This story tells us that children shouldn’t run around when visiting the zoo! Otherwise, if they get separated from their parents, they will be eaten by ghosts.”

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