The Youthful You Who Was So Beautiful

Two

The Mathematics teacher walked past her, observing how she solved the problem. Finally, the teacher nodded his head, and walked to the front of the classroom before calling out, "Eliza."

Eliza raised her head.

"Tell us the answer for this problem."

Eliza slowly put down her pencil, and straightened up. She replied in a small voice, "A......A......Alpha plus 3 Beta."

"A......A......A......" Lily mimicked Eliza's stutter in a breathy voice, her eyelashes fluttering rapidly, and an ambiguous expression forming on her face. The classmates found Lily's little interruption rather hilarious, and burst into laughter. To them, classes were only interesting with such interruptions; it didn't matter whether Lily possessed any malicious intent when interrupting Eliza.

Eliza calmly remained standing upright. She had grown up surrounded by a sea of mocking laughter, and was used to people laughing at her by now.

The jeering and the disdain had started since she was in Kindergarten. Whoever said that man's nature at birth is fundamentally good? Whoever said that it's only a 'children's game'? It is precisely the collective disdain and bullying of children that is the cruelest and rawest form of human nature. Unlike adults, children have no idea how to cloak themselves with layers of pretense. As such, children often displayed their hate and disdain for others openly without any shame. They bullied her, mocked her, isolated her, and jeered at her – all without experiencing any sense of shame.

"Silence!" The Mathematics teacher hit the table in his rage. "The rest of you may be able to laugh now, but how many of you would be able to laugh after the Mathematics exam?" The teacher's power is always limited to mocking the students' uncertain futures.

"Lily, stand in the corridor as punishment."

Screech. The chair scratched against the floor of the classroom, the sound ringing out loud and clear, arrogantly challenging the teacher's authority. Lily stood up lazily, and nonchalantly walked out of the classroom whilst chewing her gum. Before she left the classroom, she turned back, giving Eliza one final stare.

Eliza sat down on her seat. Her deskmate and good friend Andrea squeezed her hand encouragingly, and looked at her with an apologetic expression. Eliza shook her head, indicating that she was fine.

As the final exams neared, everybody suffered from the stress of having to get into a good new school. To them, feelings of happiness and sorrow dissipated as quickly as the wind, and they didn't expend any effort in taking anything to heart. Rather, they preferred to focus their entire energy on studying and preparing for the examinations.

Physical Education classes were now allocated to the students as free time. Those who wished to study could remain in the classroom, whereas those who wished to relax, or those who had long given up on studying, could head to the field for some exercise.

The basketballs and badminton rackets that were originally in the basket were long gone, having been snatched by the enthusiastic and eager students. Eliza picked up the lone skipping rope that lay at the bottom of the basket.

"Eliza, do you want to play badminton together?" Noah's voice rang out. Noah was the tallest boy in class. Although he broke the district's record for the 100m race, he as not merely an athlete. Indeed, he also excelled in his academic studies. Thus, he had already been offered a spot in an extremely prestigious university.

Eliza shook her head, the ponytail at the back of her head bobbing in the process.

"Eliza, you really don't like to talk, do you?" Noah lowered his head and smiled at her.