Chapter Two: The First Step of Transformation

"Squeak~" The door opened.

Sheng Jiaoyang, who was drying her hair in the bathroom, was startled and peeked out to see Xu Qing walk in.

"Why are you back already?" Wasn't she supposed to be at work? It was only a little before four in the afternoon, and Xu Qing had left around one o'clock. Subtracting travel time, she'd only been at work for about two hours.

Hearing her daughter's voice, Xu Qing quickly composed herself and forced a smile, replying, "The boss let us leave early today."

"Oh." Sheng Jiaoyang turned back to dry her hair.

This shower was quite an ordeal for her. She spent a long time in the cramped kitchen before finally finding an electric kettle in a hidden corner to boil water. To make

matters worse, after showering, she discovered that Xu Jiaoyang hadn't used any skincare products.

"Jiaoyang, didn't you eat lunch?" Xu Qing had already noticed the untouched food on the table.

Sheng Jiaoyang hung the towel on the wall, brushed her half-wet bangs aside with her left hand, and walked out of the bathroom, casually saying, "I have no appetite."

Xu Qing was taken aback when she saw Sheng Jiaoyang, feeling that her daughter looked somewhat different from the one she had seen before going to work. She looked her over more carefully and suddenly noticed her daughter's clothes: "Your clothes..." "

Made from old clothes." Sheng Jiaoyang pointed to the scraps of fabric on the floor beside the bed.

"Oh, right," Sheng Jiaoyang looked at Xu Qing, "the teacher just called and asked me to pick up my acceptance letter. Since you're back early, come with me to the school."

"The acceptance letter is here? That's great, let's go now." Hearing about the acceptance letter, Xu Qing's face lit up with surprise.

Sheng Jiaoyang's lips curled up slightly.

Following Xu Qing through several winding alleys, they arrived at the back gate of the school. Sheng Jiaoyang was surprised to find that Xu Jiaojiao's school wasn't far from where they lived.

As Xu Qing stopped, Sheng Jiaoyang immediately said, "The teacher said he's waiting for us in his office."

Sure enough, Xu Qing led Sheng Jiaoyang towards a building.

When they met the teacher who had called Sheng Jiaoyang, the teacher was sitting behind her desk scrolling through her phone.

"Teacher Jiao," Xu Qing greeted her.

Teacher Jiao looked up and smiled when she saw the two of them. "Jiaojiao's mother is here too."

"Thank you for waiting here, Teacher."

"It's my pleasure. The first batch of college admission notices have all come in. The last thing I, as the homeroom teacher, can do for these children is to personally hand them their notices."

Xu Qing nodded, her eyes filled with anticipation as she looked at the admission notices in Teacher Jiao's hands.

Teacher Jiao noticed Xu Qing's gaze, smiled, and handed over Xu Jiaojiao's admission notice, saying, "Jiaojiao did quite well on the exam and was admitted to F University, the best university in our province."

"But Jiaojiao," Teacher Jiao looked at Sheng Jiaoyang, "I remember when I asked you about your choices before the college entrance exam, you said you wanted to choose a finance-related major. I didn't expect you to be more interested in language-related majors..."

"The English Department of the School of Foreign Languages?" At this moment, Xu Qing also saw the contents of the admission notice clearly, and she looked at Sheng Jiaoyang in surprise.

The teacher's words and Xu Qing's expression made Sheng Jiaoyang's eyelids twitch. Was there some hidden reason behind the original owner's choice of major?

On the way back, Xu Qing finally couldn't help but ask, "Jiaojiao, on the day you filled out the application, you told me that your first choice was finance, so how come you were admitted to the English Department? Did you agree to be assigned to a different major?"

"Maybe," Sheng Jiaoyang said nonchalantly, "English is a pretty good major too."

"But your weakest subject is English!"

Uh...

Sheng Jiaoyang blinked. Okay, she almost forgot that she was now Xu Jiaojiao's classmate.

“Jiaojiao, do you think you should repeat a year? Otherwise, studying will be very hard.” Xu Qing said in a consultative tone.

“No!” Sheng Jiaoyang realized her tone was too harsh after saying that. She cleared her throat and softened her voice, “It’s okay. Now I realize that English is a really good major. Whether you go abroad or work for a foreign company, you have to learn English well first, right? Since I was able to get into university smoothly, my learning ability is pretty good. At worst, I’ll just have to spend more time on English.”

To be honest, Sheng Jiaoyang was quite worried at first about what kind of major Xu Jiaojiao would choose, Chinese literature! You know, she went to live in Europe with her grandfather when she was ten years old. Later, in order to become her grandfather’s excellent successor, she studied financial management. If she had been admitted to Chinese literature, then she would have to consider changing her major.

“Jiaojiao, you’ll have to work even harder in the future.” Xu Qing said helplessly.

“Okay.” Sheng Jiaoyang brushed aside her rather long and unsightly bangs and suddenly stopped.

"Do you have any money on you? I want to get a haircut."

Seeing Sheng Jiaoyang constantly fiddling with her bangs, Xu Qing said, "I'll trim your bangs when we get home."

"I want a new hairstyle. This one is so outdated, I'm speechless."

Xu Qing's expression stiffened. She had always been the one to style her daughter's hair since she was little...

"Okay, then let's go to the hair salon." Xu Qing touched her pocket, then, remembering the money, her face fell.

Sheng Jiaoyang, who was nearsighted and had to focus more on her steps, didn't notice Xu Qing's change in expression. She was preoccupied with figuring out what hairstyle would suit her best. They

circled around to the area near the phone payment center, and right across from the bus stop was a tiny hair salon, less than 20 square meters.

"Welcome!" A tall, thin, flamboyant male clerk greeted them as they entered.

"My daughter wants a new hairstyle," Xu Qing said.

"Okay, this way please—"

Sheng Jiaoyang looked around the shop with a critical eye. It was her first time in such a small barbershop, and looking at the decor and the staff's various bizarre hairstyles, she had already given up hope on the barber's skills.

Seeing the punk-style staff member about to lead her to the shampoo area, Sheng Jiaoyang quickly said, "I just washed my hair, just cut it for me."

"Okay, then please sit here." The punk-style staff member pulled out a height-adjustable chair.

Immediately afterwards, another young man with a buzz cut who looked a bit more comfortable came over. He stood behind Sheng Jiaoyang's chair, looking her up and down through the mirror in front of her, and said, "What kind of hairstyle do you want?"

"Do you have a pen and paper?" Sheng Jiaoyang asked instead of answering.

The buzz-cut man was a little confused, but the customer is always right, so he turned around and asked someone to bring a pen and paper and handed them to Sheng Jiaoyang.

The shop wasn't big, so everyone noticed the commotion, and both the customers and the staff looked over curiously.

Ignoring the stares of others, Sheng Jiaoyang laid out a sheet of white paper on the dressing table in front of her and began to draw. With fluid strokes, a portrait of a girl with short, playful, choppy hair appeared on the paper.

The hairdresser standing behind her was stunned.

Curious shop assistants who approached were also speechless.

Even Xu Qing, waiting nearby, couldn't hide her surprise.

"Okay, this hairstyle will do," Sheng Jiaoyang stopped drawing, her slender fingertip touching the white paper, glancing at the hairdresser, "Is everything alright?"

The hairdresser snapped out of her daze, looking at Sheng Jiaoyang with amazement, and said, "No problem! I didn't expect you to be an art student, beautiful lady."

So much talk. Sheng Jiaoyang leaned back in her chair, seeing the hairdresser preoccupied with showing her drawing to others, and impatiently urged, "Please hurry up."

"Okay, coming right away."

Xu Qing, sitting beside her, was filled with mixed emotions. Two days ago at this time, when she received the call saying Jiaojiao was in the hospital in emergency care, she was terrified. Although raising her daughter alone all these years had been tough, she felt it was all worthwhile, especially since Jiaojiao was a bright student with consistently excellent grades. Then one day, she was shocked to hear that her well-behaved and sensible daughter had been hit by a car and was in the emergency room.

The traffic police had shown her the surveillance video of the accident; the driver wasn't at fault. Jiaojiao had been crying as she crossed the road when the driver braked suddenly. Although the car hit Jiaojiao, she only suffered a mild concussion from hitting the back of her head on the ground and had no other injuries. The driver, however, was the one who suffered a heart attack, reportedly due to the sudden braking causing excessive strain on his heart.

She didn't know what had happened to her daughter that day. She wanted to ask but dared not. Something that could cause her daughter such heartbreak and despair must be a wound she could never reopen.

Fortunately, Jiaojiao seemed to have become more cheerful afterward… but she felt increasingly confused about her daughter.

She hadn't known Jiaojiao was so good at drawing. Jiaojiao had never drawn at home before; after graduation, she sold all her books, workbooks, and other paper notebooks to a scrap collector, and now there was no trace of her studying.

Watching Jiaojiao slowly transform under the hairdresser's scissors, Xu Qing felt a pang of guilt. Because of her limited resources, she hadn't been able to provide her daughter with a good life all these years, and to save money, she even cut her daughter's hair herself.

"All done," the hairdresser's voice interrupted Xu Qing's reverie.

Sheng Jiaoyang also opened her eyes, and what greeted her was a completely new version of herself in the mirror—thinned bangs accentuated her beautifully lined eyes, and a few playful short sideburns made her small chin appear even more delicate and adorable. The entire short hairstyle was playful and lively, full of youthful charm.

"How is it?" the hairdresser asked expectantly.

"Not bad," Sheng Jiaoyang replied casually.

"Beautiful lady, want to take a picture together?"

"No," Sheng Jiaoyang glanced at the rather eager hairdresser, "I'm not a celebrity, I don't like taking pictures with strangers."

Besides, she could tell at a glance that the hairdresser wanted to use her portrait for advertising.

"Then can we keep this painting as a souvenir?" the hairdresser persisted.

"What will you give in exchange?"

The hairdresser was stunned, clearly not expecting that the painting required something in exchange, but he quickly realized: "I won't charge you this time."

"Sure, I'll paint another one, and you can do her hair too." Sheng Jiaoyang pointed to Xu Qing.

"No problem!" the hairdresser readily agreed.

"No, no need, right?" Xu Qing quickly waved her hand.

"It's free, why not?" Sheng Jiaoyang looked at Xu Qing strangely, and without waiting for a response, went to paint the picture.

If she had money, she would have taken Xu Qing to a club for a complete makeover long ago. It's really enough that such a beautiful woman has been squandered and turned into this haggard old woman.

Xu Qing's hairstyle was much more difficult to do than her own, requiring not only trimming but also a perm and straightening. The hairdresser didn't complain and quickly followed her design, but because of the perm and straightening, it took nearly four hours to complete the hairstyle. The salon even provided them with two quick meals in between.

A hairstyle can truly change a person's appearance and temperament; Xu Qing's new hairstyle was a complete transformation, a stark contrast to her previous ponytail look.

Admiring his masterpiece, the hairdresser exclaimed, "Beautiful lady, with your talent, you could totally be an image consultant."

A young, flamboyant employee couldn't help but chime in, "Beautiful lady, with that height, you could totally be a model. Look at so-and-so, how successful they are, more famous than most celebrities."

"They're world-class supermodels. Of all the models, how many actually achieve true success?" the hairdresser scoffed.

"But modeling pays fast! There's a supermodel talent show recruiting contestants right now, isn't there? The winner gets a million-dollar prize, and even the runner-up and third-place winners get prizes. Lots of people are signing up, even my sister did. You could try it out, beautiful lady, who knows, you might even make it to the finals!" The punk-style shop assistant enthusiastically rattled off a string of words.

"My daughter just got into university, F University,"

Xu Qing couldn't help but say. She always believed that education was the proper path, especially since her daughter had gotten into a top university.

The punk-style shop assistant wanted to say something, but the hairdresser glared at her and she shut her mouth sheepishly.

"Haha, I can tell your daughter's going to be very successful," the hairdresser chuckled.

"Thank you!" Xu Qing's expression softened.

"Let's go," Sheng Jiaoyang stood up.