Part 1The Mother I Knew

My mom has an IQ of 74, I have an IQ of 142. Yet, she was obsessed with teaching me. She’d say, “Without me, you’re nothing.”

“Your brain is so slow, so stupid. You’re in middle school and I still have to watch you every day! Just look at this problem, how could you get it wrong?”

“How can 0.11 be less than 0.8? I, such a smart person! How did I give birth to such an idiot like you? A two-digit number, a three-digit number, you can’t even compare their sizes?” She slammed the pencil onto the floor in a fit of rage! “Teaching you is worse than me becoming a college student myself!”

So, my 43-year-old mother decided to take the college entrance exams with me. She declared, “You don’t even know which is bigger, 0.11 or 0.8! I’ll show you who’s smarter with my own ability!”

* * *

I looked up at her, startled. She angrily slapped her cheeks, a sharp thwack each time. "Look, look! Is there writing on my face? Are you going to stare at me until you get smart yourself? Write! What are you dawdling for!" She slammed her foot into my chair. I flinched, trembling all over.

Since kindergarten, she had forced me to study every single day. She'd haul home every textbook she could find. Other kids played happily outside, but I was locked in my room, practicing calligraphy. At an age when I could barely hold a pen, I had to write fifty pages of characters daily. Under such high pressure, my grades excelled once I started elementary school. Back then, the English taught in school was incredibly simple, and Mom learned a lot of it alongside me. Plus, with her constant vigilance over my Chinese and math, anyone could have been top of the class.

I nervously picked up the fallen pen, but I didn't want to follow Mom's instructions to revise the solution steps. Since middle school, I’d noticed that there was a lot she didn't actually know. So, I cautiously looked up at her and said, "Mom, actually, after the decimal point, you don't look at the number of digits to compare size."

Mom narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?" I thought this was my chance and quickly continued, "The teacher said that trailing zeros after the decimal point can be omitted, so you just compare the first digit. Then 0.11 is indeed less than 0.8."

Mom's face instantly contorted with rage. She slapped me across the face. "You're full of it! How dare you try to use the teacher against me?! You just don't want to spend more time re-doing this problem, do you?!" She leaned in close, her eyes blazing. "Tell me! Are you dating? Have you been hanging out with delinquents?" I trembled uncontrollably, then burst into sobs. Mom grabbed my lower eyelid between her index and middle fingers, pinching it fiercely. "Do you take me for a fool? Trying to deceive me with such a pathetic lie! I just wasn't born in a good era, otherwise, I would definitely have been among the first college graduates!" She spat. "You're living in a good time and you don't even appreciate it! You're so ungrateful!"