Liu Yingzi’s heart sank. She hurried forward, squatting down to grab her daughter’s shoulders.

"Jiajia? Who bullied you? Tell Mom. I’ll go talk to the teacher!"

"No one bullied me."

Cao Jiajia shook her head.

Liu Yingzi grew more anxious and quickly asked,

"Then... then why?"

Her daughter’s expression was clearly not right.

She reached out to feel Cao Jiajia’s forehead—no fever. Then she checked her backpack—it wasn’t torn.

’What in the world is wrong?’

"The teacher said... Shanshan skipped grades. She’s in the sixth grade now."

"Mom, I... will I ever be able to catch up to her in this lifetime?"

As soon as she said this, her tears welled up.

She wasn’t crying because Shanshan had skipped grades; she was crying for herself.

Some people are born ten kilometers ahead of you on the starting line.

You give it your all, only to find you’ve just begun.

Liu Yingzi almost laughed out loud.

"Skipped grades? Bullshit! How old is she? She must have powerful connections!"

She shot to her feet, her brows furrowed.

"A little second-grade brat skipping four grades? Who’d believe that! Someone must have pulled strings and gotten a leader to open a back door for her!"

The more she spoke, the more agitated she became, waving her hand dismissively.

"Schools these days love to prop someone up as a model student, creating some ’child prodigy’ persona to fool parents and the public!"

She was indignant, partly because her daughter was so upset, and partly because she just didn’t believe it from the bottom of her heart.

’How could something so outrageous be true?’

’If she’s really that amazing, why even bother with school? She might as well go straight to university!’

But her daughter’s next words left her frozen in place.

"The teacher said... she did the tests for third through fifth grade, and she got a perfect 100 on every single one."

Cao Jiajia looked up, her tear-filled eyes gazing at her mother.

"This morning, the teacher passed her tests around our class for everyone to see... Her handwriting was beautiful, every question was right, and even her steps were marked out clearly."

"Even the teacher said she’d never seen such a smart kid..."

The smile on Liu Yingzi’s face stiffened.

A perfect score, and not just on one test.

This wasn’t something you could achieve with connections. This was genuine ability.

That child, Cao Xueshan, was truly a genius.

Cao Jiajia lowered her head.

Looking at her daughter’s back, Liu Yingzi’s heart ached for her.

She suddenly remembered her own childhood, when the neighbors would compare her to "other people’s kids."

She would never forget that feeling of shame, inferiority, and helplessness.

Now, it was her daughter’s turn to endure it.

"Let’s go home."

From then on, whenever Cao Jiajia saw Shanshan, she would go out of her way to avoid her.

It wasn’t that she hated Shanshan; she just hated the version of herself that could never catch up, no matter how hard she tried.

And Shanshan?

She was completely unaware of all this.

To her, skipping grades was like moving from the first floor to the sixth. It didn’t feel particularly special.

Once in the sixth grade, the classroom ceilings were higher, the desks were bigger, and her deskmate was half a head taller than her.

The boys around her were going through puberty, their voices cracking, and the girls had started tying their hair in high ponytails and discussing the transition to middle school.

But she was still wearing the little dress from her second-grade days, sitting in her chair and gently swinging her legs.

Her new deskmate was a tall, skinny boy named Wei Si Ze. The first time he saw her, his eyes went wide.

"You... you’re the one who skipped grades?"

Shanshan nodded, pulled a pack of fruit candies from her bag, and offered it to him.

"Want one?"

The boy stared for a moment, then took a candy and mumbled under his breath,

"Wow, you’re way cuter in person than in your photo..."

But to her, life hadn’t changed.

She still listened to the teacher in class, ate candy after class, and dozed off during her lunch break.

When the teacher asked a question, she’d raise her hand and answer. If she was wrong, she’d correct herself. If she was right, she wouldn’t show off.

At first, her classmates were curious about her, but they later discovered she wasn’t so "superhuman."

On the midterm exam, only three students in the entire class correctly answered the final, most difficult question on the sixth-grade math test. She was one of them.

These achievements didn’t make her arrogant.

She simply folded the test paper, tucked it into the innermost pocket of her backpack, and took it home to show her dad.

She didn’t go to cram school on the weekends, either. She did exactly as much homework as was assigned and didn’t spend any extra time on it.

Before leaving on a business trip, her dad patted her on the head.

"Are you tired?"

She looked up, her eyes curving into crescents as she smiled. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"Not tired. It’s pretty fun."

Ling Anxun was on the night shift at his unit for several days in a row and couldn’t come home at all.

Shanshan was considerate and never disturbed him while he was working.

But she missed her dad and wanted to go see him in person.

Taking advantage of the school holiday, Shanshan made a special trip to the military base to see him.

She had her grandmother help her contact the reception desk and get a temporary pass.

She remembered her dad telling her not to just barge in through any gate; she had to use the main entrance and register her information.

So, she dutifully lined up in the visitor’s queue, obediently took out her pass, and waited for the sentry to inspect it.

But just as she entered the main gate, she ran into Cao Daqiang, who was dressed in a sharp suit.

He was walking alongside two military officers, holding a folder in his hand.

When he suddenly saw a little girl standing by the entrance, he paused.

Shanshan looked up and instinctively took half a step back.

’Isn’t that the deputy section chief who was transferred a while ago for disciplinary violations?’

’How...’

’Is he still here?’

Shanshan quickly followed the directions to Ling Anxun’s office and mentioned the matter to him.

"Oh, Cao Daqiang? He’s been discharged from the military. He’s in a management position on the industrial side now. He isn’t stationed here permanently, he just comes over for business trips occasionally."

"Oh... I see."

Shanshan’s heart sank.

Cao Daqiang, at the entrance to the compound, was wearing a crisp, shiny suit and looked endlessly successful.

Then she thought of Cao Jiajia, whom she had seen yesterday, still wearing old clothes that had been washed until they were faded.

Both father and daughter, yet their circumstances were worlds apart. It was enough to make one’s heart feel heavy.

She sat with Ling Anxun for a while before getting ready to leave.

Just as she reached the corner of the hallway, a glance revealed Cao Daqiang again.

He was surrounded by a crowd of people, each with a fawning smile on their face, showering him with compliments.

"Well, well, if it isn’t Old Cao! You’ve really made it big since leaving the service! Look at this prestige, these connections... ’Soaring to success’ doesn’t even begin to cover it! You must have been born with a golden spoon!"

"Who would have thought? Back then, he didn’t even make deputy battalion commander and lost his position as company commander. Everyone said he was finished for life. Who could have predicted he’d make a comeback in just a few short years and climb his way up to a management position at the factory? His luck has really turned around!"

The people around him were murmuring amongst themselves.

Shanshan listened without saying a word.

She just quietly lowered her head and gently tugged on the sleeve of Xiao Zhou, the young officer who had been escorting her.

Meanwhile, Cao Daqiang’s face was full of smug satisfaction.

But just as he was about to raise his glass to give thanks, he caught sight of a figure in the corner out of the corner of his eye.

’Shanshan?’

He immediately looked down to smooth out the creases on his new suit and strode over to Shanshan.

"Girl, you must regret it now, huh? Want to come back? As long as you’re willing to say the word, I can pretend the past never happened. We can still be father and daughter. We’ll let all our past misunderstandings be bygones."

"Heh..."

Shanshan let out a cold laugh.

"Who’d be eager to go back to you? Do you think I’m a beggar who needs to grovel at your feet for a meal?"

She took a step back as she spoke.

"All this stuff you got through crooked means, sooner or later, you’ll have to give it all back. I won’t tell you to stop, but I will advise you to slow down. That way, you won’t fall too hard and be left without even a fig leaf to cover your shame."