During the first week of the new semester, simply because I was wearing a smart bracelet worth over a hundred thousand yuan, my homeroom teacher went ballistic in his office.
“A hundred grand and you buy this piece of junk? You’re just throwing money at foreigners, you idiot!”
He slammed the desk, looking like he wanted to rip the bracelet right off my wrist.
“School is a place for studying, not for some spoiled rich kid like you to flaunt your wealth.”
“I heard you come from a single-parent family, just living with your mom? No wonder—when a woman’s in charge, things fall apart!”
“Right now, go stand on the field! You’re not allowed to come back until I say so!”
The September sun was still blazing, the temperature outside well over 40°C. If I really listened to him, I’d probably shed a layer of skin.
I ignored him and simply turned back to the dormitory.
Mr. Miller was so furious that he stormed into the dorm, pointing at my face and cursing.
He threw my belongings all over the floor, smashed the drone model I had painstakingly prepared for a competition, and demanded I hand over my bank card.
“As the saying goes, once a teacher, a lifelong father. Since you don’t have a father, I’ll take his place and teach you how to behave.”
“A household still needs a man in charge, so I’ll be generous and pair up with your mom.”
“Since I’ll be marrying your mom, I’ll be the head of your family from now on. I’ll control the money, and anything you want to buy, you’ll ask me first. If I don’t approve, you won’t spend a single cent!”
I looked at the broken model with distress and called my father, Robert Carter, the director of the city’s education bureau.
“Hey, Dad, someone’s trying to steal your wife.”
…
The bell rang for the end of class. I closed my notebook, about to rest my head on the desk.
Mr. Miller suddenly strode toward me and slammed a hand down on my back, the sharp sting instantly spreading across my skin.
“You! Come with me to the office!”
He seemed to be barely holding back his anger, his eyes glaring so wide he looked ready to devour me.
Once we got to the office, he pointed at the watch on my wrist and barked, “What’s this? You’re a guy—what are you doing wearing something like this? It’s sissy! Take it off now!”
I was stunned by his words and instinctively explained,
“Sir, my mom bought it for me to monitor my health data.”
“There’s nothing in the school rules that says boys can’t wear smart bracelets.”
“You dare talk back?!” He slammed the desk, drawing the attention of several other teachers.
“I’m your homeroom teacher. If I tell you to take it off, you take it off. You hear me?”
He grabbed my arm so hard it felt like he might break it.
He scrutinized the bracelet—plain in appearance, nothing outwardly special.
After staring at it for a moment, he sneered, “Tch, what a worthless trinket to be wearing. Do you think this will help you pick up girls? Women are far more realistic than that.”
One of the teachers in the office, recognizing it, whispered, “Mr. Miller, I think that bracelet’s an imported brand from overseas—worth over a hundred thousand.”
“A hundred thousand?”
Mr. Miller instantly lost his composure, springing to his feet and yelling at me,
“A hundred grand and you buy this piece of junk? You’re just throwing money at foreigners, you idiot!”
“You’re just a student—what gives you the right to wear something that expensive? School is for learning, not for some rich kid to show off. Don’t think that wearing luxury goods will make all the girls adore you!”
The other teachers in the office had never seen such a scene before, and for a moment, no one dared to speak.
The more he spoke, the louder his voice became, and flecks of spit landed on my face.
“I heard you come from a single-parent family, just living with your mom? No wonder—when a woman’s in charge, everything falls apart! Look how spoiled you are, not a trace of manliness!”
“See? A household without a man to lead is bound to be a mess! On the very first day of school, I noticed the way your mom was dressed…”
I’d had heart problems since I was young. This bracelet was something my mom specifically bought to monitor my health data, to prevent emergencies. I never expected it would bring me this kind of trouble.
Seeing him start to drag my family’s privacy into it, I could no longer hold back and shot back at him:
“Mr. Miller! I’ve already said this is for monitoring my health data, not a decoration!”
“Second, the money spent on it was from my own family. We’ve been trading internationally for decades—how does me buying a bracelet make me some kind of foreign-worshipper?”
“And finally, as a teacher, please mind your words and behavior. Focus on teaching, not on what clothes my mom wears!”
Seeing me talk back, Mr. Miller’s face turned the color of pig liver. If not for a few other teachers restraining him, he probably would have slapped me right then and there.
“You brat, you dare insult a teacher?”
“You think having a bit of money makes you special? I don’t think you’re focused on studying at all! Pretending to be sick—you’re just spoiled rotten.”
“Right now, go stand on the field! You don’t come back until I say so!”
His last sentence was almost a roar, his eyes locked on me, clearly hoping to see me give in.
But I wasn’t afraid in the slightest. I met his stare without flinching.
Veins bulged on his forehead. “You still dare glare at me? Get out, now!”
A kind-hearted female teacher came over to pull me aside. “Classmate, just apologize to your homeroom teacher. He’s only doing this for your own good—he’s just… overly concerned.”
Her voice trailed off by the end, clearly realizing Mr. Miller was being unreasonable.
I ignored the others’ attempts to intervene, keeping my gaze locked on him without backing down.
My defiance made him laugh in disbelief. It was as if he couldn’t imagine a student having the audacity to challenge his authority.
As if searching for an outlet for his anger, he suddenly grabbed my collar and dragged me back to the classroom. Standing on the podium, he barked orders:
“Quiet! Everyone shut up! Alex Carter has ignored class rules, worn accessories, and talked back to a teacher. Do you think what he did was right?”
The class looked at each other in confusion, unsure what he was even going on about. It was only the start of the school year—nobody had ever heard of such a rule. No one knew how to respond.
When nobody spoke, Mr. Miller raised his voice. “Are you all deaf? Didn’t you hear my question? If you think what he did was fine, stand up and take the punishment with him! I’ll ask again—was he right or wrong?!”
This time, all the students reluctantly dragged out the words: “Wroooong.”
A look of satisfaction spread across Mr. Miller’s face. He turned toward me, clearly expecting me to fall in line like everyone else.
He smirked and said venomously, “Hear that, Alex Carter? Everyone says you were wrong. If you don’t apologize, I’ll have the entire class shave their heads—let’s put an end to this obsession with appearances!”
Groans filled the room. My classmates looked at me with either pleading or resentful eyes, clearly not wanting to be punished because of me.
Mr. Miller looked even more pleased, tilting his chin upward as if certain I would now bow my head and apologize to him in front of everyone.
But to his disappointment, I wasn’t afraid in the slightest. I stayed completely calm.
“Mr. Miller, you don’t have the authority to force every student to shave their heads—especially not when you’re clearly acting out of personal spite.”
“If you think wearing a smart bracelet is wrong, you can take it up with the principal and propose adding a rule banning them, instead of threatening to punish other students just to get at me.”
“If you really dare shave the entire class’s heads, I’ll be happy to report it to the principal. And if he doesn’t handle it, I’ll call the education bureau and ask exactly who gave you the power to trample on students’ dignity!”
The smug look on Mr. Miller’s face vanished instantly, replaced by a flush of humiliation and rage. He was breathing heavily, clearly never expecting me to embarrass him in front of the whole class.
“You little brat!”
He raised his hand high, but I quickly said, “If you dare hit me, that’s corporal punishment. Are you sure you want to bet your teaching career on this?”
My words stopped him cold. His hand hung awkwardly in the air before he finally slammed it down on the desk instead.
“Get out! Go! Back to your dorm and reflect on your actions!”
I thought for a moment. With only two self-study periods left in the day, going back to the dorm to relax didn’t sound so bad. I nodded. “Alright, sir, I’ll head back then.”
I packed my things and started for the door. My desk mate kept his head down and whispered, “Alex, that was badass—standing up to the tyrant like that. You don’t know… some graduates said every year he picks someone at the start of the semester to make an example of. Several students ended up transferring because they couldn’t stand it. One girl was even pushed into depression and nearly jumped off a building. Now that you’ve gone against him, he’s definitely going to come after you even harder.”
I just smiled faintly. “I haven’t done anything wrong. If you walk straight, you don’t fear a crooked shadow. The one who should be afraid is someone like him—someone with a bit of power who thinks he can do whatever he wants.”
“The teacher-student relationship is equal. We’re not his slaves. If he really ignores school rules and does something excessive to me, he’ll be the one in trouble.”
I thought the matter would end there.
Even a fool like Mr. Miller should realize I wasn’t someone he could mold at will.
But I was wrong. He really did start his retaliation, just like my desk mate had warned.
This time, though, his methods were subtler and more vicious.
In class, he would deliberately ask me questions far beyond the scope of the curriculum. When I couldn’t answer, he’d mock me and send me to stand in the back for the entire period.
When I turned in homework, he’d claim he never received it, then publicly berate me for being a liar and tell the class to be wary of me.
During exams, he checked every single answer I wrote, and because the crossbar on my “7” was slightly short, he deliberately marked every “7” as a “1,” docking me over thirty points on my math test.
Holding my exam paper, he stood proudly at the front of the class.
“Some students have really disappointed me. You placed in the top three on the entrance exam, yet now you’ve dropped more than twenty places. Makes me wonder how you got those original grades.”
“If our class had taken first place in the grade this time, I would have rewarded everyone with an afternoon off to watch a movie. But no—someone had to drag down the average!”
“Alex Carter, are you spending all your energy on your appearance? I’ve told you before—that’s not what a student should be focusing on. Especially you, a boy. Do you want to end up like a girl and find a man to marry?”
