That winter when I was 14 years old, at midnight, I sat at the table working on various exercise books my dad had prepared for me, inadvertently dozing off.

My dad was sleeping on the small bed next to me, suddenly waking up with a start. He saw me dozing off, angrily grabbed my hair and lifted me up, kicking me from one end of the room to the other.

Then he tore off my cotton jacket, pushed me out the door, and forced me to kneel in the heavy snow for a whole night.

The winter in the northwest was bone-chilling.

Since then, I have never seen snow as heavy as that again in my life.

My dad treated me like that because I was incompetent, a waste, daring to doze off while doing exercises.

My dad was educating me.

For my own good.

My dad poured all his efforts into educating me.

He always saw me as a potential student of a top university.

But I failed.

I missed the admission to Tsinghua University by two points in the college entrance examination, and could only be adjusted to a second-tier university.

I disappointed my dad's efforts.

That's why my dad despises me.

I am a waste.