In this lifetime, Guan Yao was determined to live a different life. She refused to live another day without dignity, vowing to forge an existence that others would envy.
Enduring the agonizing pain, she took a deep breath, dragged her injured body, and began to search for first-aid supplies with a pronounced limp.
Beads of sweat dotted her forehead, and her complexion was somewhat pale from the suffering.
After rummaging through the cabinet, she finally found alcohol, cotton pads, and gauze.
She set the cotton pads aside, picked up the bottle of alcohol, and with slightly trembling hands, unscrewed the cap.
A pungent scent of alcohol instantly filled the air. She frowned, yet did not hesitate for a second.
She first looked at the wound on her arm, stained with blood and embedded with shards of glass.
Gritting her teeth, she used a pair of tweezers to carefully pull out the glass fragments one by one. Each extraction brought a wave of piercing agony, causing her body to tremble faintly, though she merely let out a muffled groan, refusing to make any further sounds of distress.
Next, she picked up a cotton pad soaked in alcohol and gently wiped the wound on her arm.
The moment the alcohol touched the flesh, the excruciating pain struck again. Her hand jerked violently, and she bit her lower lip until it turned white.
Yet, she still held firm.
Fine beads of sweat trickled down her cheeks, dripping beside the wound.
Having finished with her arm, she shifted her gaze to her calf.
Bending down with great difficulty, she repeated the process. Because of the awkward angle, extracting the glass with the tweezers was both more laborious and more painful this time.
Her breathing grew shallow and rapid, but she never stopped moving.
When the alcohol touched the wound once more, the searing pain nearly caused her to lose her balance. She steadied herself by gripping the edge of the table and sat down.
Her knuckles turned white from the exertion, and the veins on her forehead bulged slightly, but she continued to clean the wound meticulously, her eyes burning with stubbornness and unyielding resolve.
***
Having finished tending to her wounds, Guan Yao dragged her utterly exhausted body and slowly crept toward the bed.
Every step felt as though it drained the last of her strength. Each time her injured calf bore weight, a sharp spasm radiated through her nerves across her entire body.
When she finally reached the bed, she turned gently onto her side and lay down.
The moment she touched the mattress, its soft texture offered no comfort whatsoever; instead, the throbbing pulses from her wounds drew a soft gasp of pain.
She adjusted her position with utmost care, trying to find an angle that would ease the pressure on her injuries.
The gauze wrapped tightly around her arm scraped against the wounds with her every movement, sending wave after wave of stinging pain.
At last, the pain seemed to subside into something bearable.
Guan Yao gazed blankly at the ceiling, her eyes somewhat hollow.
Everything that had just happened replayed in her mind like a film: the resolute dash, the excruciating agony of glass piercing her flesh, and the heart-wrenching pain of treating the wounds—all of it left her heart pounding with lingering fear.
Yet right now, she was pondering something far more important.
A moment later, she struggled to her feet and took out her phone.
The screen clearly displayed the year 2015.
She opened her contacts, found the name "Jinhai Education – Math Teacher Li," and pressed call without a moment's hesitation.
A voice sounded from the other end of the line: "Is that Guan Yao? What is it?"
The wound that had just begun to clot on Guan Yao's arm split open again, staining the gauze red.
Feigning her usual, normal tone, she fought hard to keep Teacher Li from detecting anything amiss: "It's like this, Teacher Li. I still have a few questions I don't understand, and I'd like to ask for your guidance again. Do you have any other students' classes tonight?"
The voice on the other end replied: "No, none at all. If it's convenient for you, I'll wait for you at the Education Building at six o'clock tonight."
Guan Yao gave a brief response, "Okay, see you tonight."
It wasn't that she didn't want to say more; cold sweat was literally streaming down her face in beads. Using the very last shred of her strength, she hung up the phone.
***
Six o'clock.
Guan Yao appeared outside the Education Building right on time, dragging her injured body.
She had changed into a loose, long-sleeved shirt and floor-length wide-leg pants, specifically chosen to completely conceal her injuries.
Only she knew how many of her wounds would tear open just by sliding her arms into the sleeves, or how difficult it was to meticulously button every single button.
Even so, that was something only she would ever know. She refused to let anyone else see her weakness, and she needed no one's pity.
It was the same familiar building, the same office, and the same Teacher Li.
He was lazily half-reclined in his chair, his light-colored shirt stretched tight across his bulging belly, the top button undone to reveal a patch of slack, wrinkled skin.
He hadn't washed his hair in days; it lay greasy against his scalp, strands crisscrossing in a greasy mess that caught an unnatural sheen.
Noticing someone enter, Teacher Li slowly raised his head. A smile instantly plastered across his face, though to Guan Yao, it looked rather sycophantic.
The corners of his lips curled upward to reveal teeth stained yellow by tobacco, and his eyes narrowed to slits behind his spectacles, gleaming with a calculating shrewdness. "Ah, Guan Yao is here!"
Although Teacher Li's appearance could hardly be called fresh or presentable, Guan Yao knew full well that he was the most highly qualified person she could possibly reach within such a short window of time.
In her past life, after waking up in the hospital following the college entrance examination, a mad Guan Yao had repeated that unwritten math exam over and over again.
But now, she had another chance.
Guan Yao took a deep breath, forced herself to ignore the overwhelming oily stench radiating from him, and said politely, "Teacher Li, I'd like to ask for your help with a few math problems."
Teacher Li pushed up his glasses, the fawning smile still plastered on his face, and said, "Sure thing, Guan Yao. Bring the problems over and let me have a look."
Guan Yao pulled out the problems she had stayed up late the previous night to compile. They were the major essay-style questions from the previous life's math exam—the very parts where she had lost the most marks.
She understood all too well just how crucial these problems were to her upcoming exam scores, so even though her body still throbbed with hidden pain, she listened to Teacher Li's explanation with total concentration.
Teacher Li's problem-solving logic was clear; under his guidance, those complicated mathematical formulas and geometric diagrams gradually became crystal clear.
Guan Yao listened intently while rapidly taking notes in her notebook, chiming in with questions whenever appropriate.
Her gaze was focused and resolute, as if all her physical pain had been cast far behind her.
Outside the window, the sky slowly darkened. Inside the office, only the sound of Teacher Li's lecturing and the soft scratching of Guan Yao's pen remained.
When the problems were finished, Guan Yao thanked Teacher Li gratefully, then left the Education Building with an exhausted yet strangely exhilarated body.
Naturally, she didn't forget to pay the 400-yuan tutoring fee.
Guan Yao had only brought those four bills when she left home; a past experience of having her money stolen on the bus had broken her habit of carrying extra cash.
Gazing at the four crisp, bright red hundred-yuan bills, the smile in Teacher Li's eyes deepened.
Little did he know, as Guan Yao looked at the answers to those major math problems, she was laughing bitterly inside her heart.
"In this lifetime, I will defy the heavens and change my fate."
"I'll take back everything I lost."
"I do not belong in a vocational technical college."
"If I hadn't missed two subjects on the exam, a 985 university is where I truly belonged."
"Tomorrow is my chance to prove myself to the world!"
"Tomorrow!"