Learning to play games, a 40-year-old woman achieves a remarkable turnaround.

Chapter 3 Bizarre Relatives Like Bloodsuckers

Back in the day, when Yuan Baoya was in junior high school, her aunt Yuan Xiaogu, as if by some strange twist of fate, became her homeroom teacher, and she even taught Chinese.

In her deepest memory, Yuan's father's relatives were like a group of "bloodsucking leeches," relentlessly clinging to her family.

From his time in the army to his current job, Mr. Yuan upheld the principle of "the eldest brother is like a father." He tightened his belt and sent large sums of his salary and subsidies to his uncle and Aunt Yuan. He provided them with financial support throughout their education, marriage, and career development. The family only had a little money left to make ends meet, and they also had to deal with the occasional visits from relatives in the countryside who would try to "beg for money."

Back in the day, the Yuan family was so poor that even a mouse would leave the house in tears after wandering around inside; food was pitifully scarce.

Yuan Baoya was at a crucial stage of growth and developed a strong craving for food. Seeing her classmates happily munching on White Rabbit milk candy and crunching on potato chips every day, her saliva kept swirling in her mouth. She was so envious that over time, she forced herself to become a "foodie." Her longing for delicious food was like wild grass in spring, growing wildly in her heart and impossible to eradicate no matter how hard she tried.

Unfortunately, Uncle Yuan and Aunt Yuan were restless. As if they had conspired beforehand, they took turns coming to the door to complain about being poor.

Every time Uncle Yuan came over, he would yell that he had no money to buy vegetables and that he was almost starving. Aunt Yuan, on the other hand, would burst into tears and complain that she couldn't afford rice and that her family was going to go hungry.

Mr. Yuan is too soft-hearted and can't bear to see his relatives suffer. Every time, he would empty his pockets to subsidize them without hesitation.

As luck would have it, the two men were perfectly in sync, never visiting on the same day, and each time they left with a full load of goods, leaving the Yuan family still struggling financially.

Until one time, when Mr. Yuan was hospitalized and desperately needed money to save his life, he shamelessly went to their door to ask for their help. Unexpectedly, the two of them treated him like a fly, with disgusted expressions, and turned Mr. Yuan away without saying a word.

Only then did Mr. Yuan realize that the help he had given out in the past, like water being poured out, was easy to give but impossible to take back.

When Yuan Baoya was in elementary school, her grades were outstanding.

When Yuan Xiaogu was about to enter junior high school, she used the pretext of "taking care of her own niece" to put her in her own class.

Yuan Baoya's anger flared up instantly, her rebellious streak erupting like a small volcano. She deliberately daydreamed in class, staring blankly out the window, and sloppily did her homework. She was determined to fight her studies to the death, venting her dissatisfaction.

Yuan Xiaogu is a shrewd person; she says one thing to your face and another behind your back.

In front of Yuan's father, he thumped his chest loudly, boasting about how much effort he put into tutoring Yuan Baoya and explaining Yuan Baoya's studies in great detail; but in private, he neglected Yuan Baoya's studies, letting her wander aimlessly on her own and fend for herself.

Several times, when Yuan Baoya ran errands for her English teacher to deliver homework, she would pass by the office and hear Yuan's aunt loudly comparing her grades with those of her two daughters, showing off how good she was at teaching students. Then she would turn around and gossip about Yuan Baoya to other teachers, saying that she was not good at studying, always hanging out with boys, very difficult to manage, and not cut out for studying. This made Yuan Baoya's reputation in the teachers' circle very bad.

Back in junior high, most children were in the naive and confused stage of adolescence, their minds like unripe fruit, rarely fully mature and stable.

Even if the teacher does something wrong, and the student is unhappy with certain behaviors or words of the teacher, they are mostly confused and don't know how to deal with it properly, let alone think of a way or ask someone for help to solve it. They can only keep it to themselves, feeling angry and wronged, letting that negative emotion run rampant in their chests, making their hearts a mess.

However, good teachers still make up the majority; it's just that Yuan Baoya was unlucky to have encountered such a few unpleasant ones.

There are two other unforgettable events that influenced Yuan Baoya to completely give up her studies.

One is from the chemistry teacher's side.

The chemistry teacher and Aunt Yuan were very close. She had a habit of publicly praising the student who got first place in every chemistry test, and she would take the student's test paper and explain it to the whole class in detail. The student who got first place was treated like a hero in the class.

Yuan Baoya was initially fascinated by chemistry, finding the subject fascinating. She also hoped to receive praise from her teacher to prove that she was not to be underestimated, so she quietly worked hard for quite some time.

Hey, you know what? In yet another chemistry test, she genuinely came in first place.

But who would have thought that after the results were announced, the chemistry teacher simply read out the scores, his face turned cold, which was very unusual. He immediately started teaching the new lesson, and while teaching, he would occasionally glance at Yuan Baoya with disdain, as if to say, "You, you can get first place? Nobody believes that."

Yuan Baoya, with her rebellious nature, couldn't stand this. She stomped her foot and muttered to herself, "Hmph, what's so great about it? If you don't like me, I won't study either! I'll make you angry to death." From then on, she threw her chemistry textbook into a corner and never looked at it again.

Another teacher was a very good English teacher to Yuan Baoya, who often praised her for her excellent English reading. At that time, Yuan Baoya's English grades were always first or second in the class. Unfortunately, in the second semester of the first year of junior high school, Yuan Baoya's English skills retired along with that teacher.

Later, during her long working life, Yuan Baoya often slapped her forehead in regret: "How could I be so stupid? How could I have used such a childish way to get revenge? In the end, I was the one who really suffered."

She secretly vowed that if she could do it all over again, she would study hard, get excellent grades to make herself and her family proud, and give a good slap to those who looked down on her.

In the game, Yuan Baoya, back in the classroom, just wanted to get out of school quickly. She glanced at her deskmate, Wei Li, who was just as silly and carefree as her. It really felt like she was back in junior high school, seeing her junior high friends again. How wonderful.

Yuan Baoya wrote in her class notes: How much longer until get out of class ends and school is over?

Then move slightly to the side so that my deskmate, Wei Li, can see.

Wei Li then wrote: "Probably another ten minutes or so."

Yuan Baoya continued writing: Okay! Okk!

I wrote again: "Mwah (da)," but then I suddenly remembered that no one knew what "Mwah da" meant at that time, so I quickly crossed it out!

Yuan Baoya pretended to take notes and wrote her study plan in her notebook.

It's been almost a month since junior high started. Today is Thursday, and next Wednesday we should have the first diagnostic tests for each subject. We have exactly one week, so we need to hurry!

So, a few lines were written on the notebook: "Strive for a score of 90 or above in all subjects."

Then, he meticulously planned out the main subjects to be reviewed each day for the following week, including how to review Chinese and which key points to focus on in math, making the arrangements very clear.

Just as she finished writing, Aunt Yuan appeared like a ghost, standing next to Yuan Baoya's desk.

Her eyes swept across the room and spotted Yuan Baoya's study plan. A mocking and sarcastic smile flashed across her face in an instant, as fast as lightning, but Yuan Baoya still caught it.