I was still the undisputed bottom of the class.

　　When I saw my grades, I was devastated.

　　You see, if I can't even take a step up the mountain, then I may never have a chance to climb to the summit in my life.

　　The harder I tried, the more I realized how much I lacked.

　　I knew I wasn't smart, so I tried to compensate by spending more time.

　　I studied with a flashlight until two in the morning, only to fall asleep in class the next day.

　　I missed important explanations of key concepts.

　　Missing one step meant I had to take ten or a hundred steps to catch up.

　　That's how the whole semester went.

　　In the final exam of the first year, I ranked fourth from the bottom, similar to my performance in the entrance exam.

　　It showed that I had made no progress this semester and was stuck in the same place.

　　The winter wind was bitterly cold.

　　The ranking posters are not firmly attached.

　　They flutter in the cold wind, making a rustling sound.

　　My name sways in the corner, like a thin talisman that is about to be blown away by the wind.

　　My mentality is on the verge of collapsing.

　　Adding to that, the cold sarcasm from my grandma, parents, and gifted classmates, I start to doubt myself.

　　Maybe I really am not cut out for studying.

　　Perhaps my fate is to be the dust between heaven and earth, no matter how hard I struggle, the end result will be the same.

　　Should I give up? Should I sink into despair? Just like most of my junior high school classmates.

　　Their lives are also a lifetime, aren't they? It was in this confusion that Chao Chao came to find me.

　　She came back this time with her boyfriend to go through the motions.

　　Her boyfriend is her classmate, also our alum, one of the few Tsinghua students in our school's history.

　　I shamefully told her about my grades, unable to lift my head.

　　But she didn't blame me, she took out her phone and said, "I'll transfer the living expenses for next semester to your account." I waved my hand repeatedly, "I still have 1500 yuan, enough for next semester's living expenses." Chao Chao's hand paused, her gaze became serious, "You only spend 1000 yuan per semester, 200 yuan per month?" "So you've never eaten meat, never eaten enough, never had snacks? Never bought clothes, trousers, shoes, socks?" "These, these don't matter.

　　I've been living like this for three years in junior high." "Of course it matters!" Chao Chao's tone rose, "This is the time when your body is growing, studying requires a lot of energy.

　　If you don't have enough nutrition, your brain won't keep up." "By saving this little money now, you're breaking your own future.

　　"Starting next semester, you need to have at least one meat dish for every meal, and drink one glass of milk and eat one egg every day.

　　"You still need to buy the necessary clothes." She gently touched my back and lowered her voice: "For example, underwear, if you don't pay attention now, you won't be able to adjust for the rest of your life.

　　"Don't feel guilty about the money you spend now, because it's an investment in your future.

　　"You deserve it, and you should spend it." After winter break, I returned to school.

　　I went to buy milk.

　　After comparing, I ended up choosing powdered milk.

　　Powdered milk is more cost-effective than boxed milk.

　　I eat a meat bun and a boiled egg every morning, sometimes with a glass of soy milk.

　　For lunch and dinner, I have one meat dish and one vegetable dish.

　　Before bed, I make a cup of milk.

　　Every weekend, I go to the cake shop to buy leftover bread crumbs, which are very cheap and can fill me up if I get hungry.

　　My body is no longer constantly in a state of hunger like before.

　　After about half a month, I feel much better mentally than before.

　　I used to be one of the shortest in my class, not even five feet tall.

　　But during that period, I could feel myself growing like bamboo, shooting up with each passing day.

　　My pants were visibly shorter.

　　Perhaps my nutrition caught up, and my mind became clearer than before.

　　Wearing clothes that fit me properly, I no longer have to hunch my back and lower my chest.

　　I gathered up the courage to ask teachers and classmates for solutions to problems.

　　I did my best to find patterns between different questions.

　　I no longer sacrifice sleep to study.

　　I tell myself not to be impatient.

　　One cannot become a fat person in one bite.

　　In the final exams of the second semester of the first year, I ranked 600th in the grade.

　　In our grade, there are over 800 students.

　　Although it is still an average or slightly below average result, at least it's not at the bottom.

　　I'm pretty happy about it.

　　But Guicai learned of it and sneered at it: "600? Your grades are really terrible!" "Is your brain full of shit?" My parents also frowned: "You're really not cut out for studying, let's just give up."