The next day when I got up, I took a good look at myself in the mirror for the first time. In my memory, I had a very ordinary appearance. Without the money to dress up, I was a dowdy and self-conscious girl throughout my three years of high school. I never expected to meet my teenage self again after so many years. She didn't have dark circles under her eyes, her hair was thick and black, her figure was healthy, and she was full of vitality all over, not needing to chug down black coffee to stay awake. Indeed, youth is the best beauty treatment. I put on my white sneakers, tucked one corner of my school uniform T-shirt into the loose school uniform sweatpants, tied a fluffy high ponytail with a hair clip in the opposite direction, and wore a red string on my wrist as an accessory. After dressing up like this, I actually looked quite presentable. I went to school feeling good about myself, but I was stopped by Mr. Ma right at the door of the classroom. "Pull your clothes out! No jewelry is allowed! Go home and cut your long hair!" "High school is a place for studying. Do you think you're here for a beauty pageant?" Mr. Ma loudly berated me, and the classmates in the classroom snickered. In fact, there was no school regulation prohibiting long hair, and the red string I wore couldn't even be considered jewelry. Some people weren't inexperienced because it was their first time being a teacher; they just forgot how to be decent after getting a taste of power for the first time. I said, "Oh, with you here, if I were here for a beauty pageant, wouldn't I be the champion?" The classroom burst into laughter. Mr. Ma got angry. "Xue Fan, stop being glib with me! With the way you are, don't even think about getting into a first-tier university. You might not even be able to get into a junior college!" Mr. Ma was the only teacher among the veteran faculty who had a degree from a first-tier university. He would brag about it every time he had a class. But I knew exactly what level that degree was. Five years ago, I entered one of the top three universities in the country with the highest college entrance examination score in the city. Even while treating my illness and studying at the same time, I won the first-class scholarship every year. And he was just a mediocre person with a lousy undergraduate degree. How dare he think he can teach me how to behave?
