The talent for learning is innate.

Obviously, this talent is not in our genes.

My dad sells pants in the clothing market, and my mom has her own store.

My dad is often not at home, and I rarely see him throughout the year. Most of the time, it's just me and my mom.

My dad has a high school education, and I still don't know what my mom's education level is.

Some people say she only went to elementary school, while others say she didn't even finish elementary school before starting to work.

This time, I ranked third in my class. The first place is a very clever girl, and both her parents are university teachers.

The second place is a boy, and his parents have signed him up for many tutoring classes, including small group ones with a teacher to five students ratio.

I heard that he even had a foreign teacher in his tutoring class, so his English grades were several points higher than mine.

Is this talent?

I thought, maybe this is also a kind of talent.

Talent is not only about being clever; those natural advantages and innate gifts also count as talent.

When my mother saw my third place report card, a long-lost smile appeared on her face.

But she purposely kept a straight face, as if trying to forcibly push away the joy from her heart. Her fingers kept poking the questions that were crossed out on my test paper.

She said, "Can you make mistakes on these simple questions? How could you be so careless?

“How much did you score below the second place?”

I honestly replied, "Five points. I'm far behind in English compared to him."

She heard my words, and furrowed her eyebrows heavily. "English? ABCD is so simple, don't you know? Even five points, you can't compete with? What can you possibly do in the future..."

English is not just about the twenty-six English letters. Those letter combinations turn into unfamiliar and headache-inducing patterns to me.

Her overbearing attitude left me speechless.

I felt an unreasonable discontent in my heart, a very strong one.

I felt it shouldn't be this way.

They shouldn't only compare me to other people's children; they should also compare my parents to other people's parents.

The gap between me and those other children, I cannot close it by myself.

Thinking about this made me angry, so I interrupted her and said, "His English is good because his parents signed him up for tutoring classes, each session costing three hundred yuan!

“The first place, her parents are university teachers, they guide her homework every day. I can't compete with them, because you can't compete with their parents either."

My mother looked at me in shock, then her face went from white to red, and from red to blue.

She slapped my head so hard that my head was spinning.

She raised her voice, "I can't compete with them? What qualification do you have to compare me to others? Instead of finding the reasons within yourself, you blame your parents for all your mistakes, then go be someone else's child, don't rely on me or wear my clothes!"

I didn't know what I said wrong.

She turned and picked up the familiar clothesline pole from the balcony. When the sunlight came in through the window, I could clearly see the bulging blue veins on her arms.

I held onto the other end of the pole with all my strength.

I was afraid of pain, it would be too painful, so painful that tears would uncontrollably fly out of my eyes.

But even though I used a lot of force, I firmly grasped it, but my mother effortlessly took the pole from my hand.

I dodged and pleaded with her for forgiveness.

Later, my mother and I had a cold war for a long time. She looked down on me, and the fact that I should go to someone else's child for a living became her daily mantra in front of guests.

I was a little confused, I vaguely felt that the words I said to her that day didn't seem to mean that.

Guests comforted her, "Kids are ignorant, but you should also make up for it somehow. In this day and age, you can't do without extra classes. You'll fall further and further behind, and then you won't be able to catch up."