It was not until she became the Thunder Herrscher and grew her hair to knee length that Mei finally escaped her fate of getting endlessly beaten down. Her famous first battle was defeating Herrscher Kiana, who was in poor condition, atop a building in Changkong City.
Then she went to fight Herrscher of Ice Anna, only for the traitor Night Owl to stab her in the back, sending her once again on a journey of getting beaten down—a journey of helplessness.
For Aunt Mei, hairstyles represented the different circumstances and states of her life. Aside from her carefree days as a young lady before Raiden Ryoma's accident, the time she spent studying at St. Freya Academy had been the happiest and most joyful period of her life.
Even though the academic workload had been heavy, she had to let Ji Anya run wild, figure out how to pass exams and graduate for her, and watch as Ji Anya borrowed away all her monthly allowance... only after those ordinary days had passed did she realize that such trivial everyday moments had been the most precious things in her life.
Aunt Mei had come over to help Mei cook not because she wanted to teach her past self how to cook, but because she wanted to find an opportunity to talk with her past self. She wanted to properly tell her what she had been thinking all these years, hoping she would cherish this life and strive to protect such happiness. She hoped Mei would not be like her, waiting until everything was lost and beyond saving before clutching Ji Anya's lost orange-red coat and crying there as though she could do nothing.
As for Mei, she had played part of Honkai: Star Rail and roughly knew some things about her future