The yellow-haired runt clearly hadn't expected her to strike back so suddenly. His face twisted in rage as he lunged forward, grabbing Su Ruo by the collar with both hands, his eyes bloodshot.

"Are you fcking suicidal?!"

The students who had been queuing up promptly retreated to a safe distance, their movements almost synchronized.

At Bingzhou Academy, from the kindergarten kids to the teaching staff, everyone knew there were three groups you never wanted to cross—

The apex: the Student Council. The second tier: the Imperial Club. The lowest rung: the middle school delinquents.

The group before her was the core of the middle school troublemakers, which was why no one had dared speak up against their line-cutting earlier. Who would've thought that Su Ruo, completely unfamiliar with the school's unspoken rules, would walk straight into their trap?

"Ah!"

A collective gasp rippled through the crowd as something unexpected happened in the span of mere seconds.

A boy who had just received his uniform walked past Su Ruo—right at the critical moment, she yanked the clothes from his hands and whipped them across the yellow-haired runt's face. Simultaneously, she lifted her leg and delivered a vicious kick to his stomach.

Caught completely off guard, the runt stumbled backward, collapsing onto the ground with a thud. His gang immediately swarmed around him.

Su Ruo clutched the collar of her uniform, her face pale with fury, her eyes burning with an intense flame. This was the outfit someone had given her as a discharge gift—her first day of school, and now it was...

"Say that again!"

Her hands clenched into fists, her entire being radiating an icy chill.

At the same time, the group of delinquents suddenly paled, their expressions shifting to sheer terror. Someone stammered, trembling as they patted the yellow-haired runt's shoulder: "B-boss... s-she... s-she..."

Following his trembling finger, Su Ruo looked down at her right arm—and finally understood the reason for their fear.

Her right arm, from her shoulder down, bore an extremely vicious tattoo. It was the shape of a tree, but the pitch-black ink and the eagle perched on its branches made it look particularly menacing. Beneath the tree's canopy was a line of ancient Greek text, translated as: Life and Blossoming.

Su Ruo smirked inwardly. So these were just a bunch of kids—scared witless at the sight of a tattoo. Still, this gave her a splendid idea.

"I'm seventeen years old, repeating freshman year. Any idea why?"

She stepped closer to the yellow-haired runt, bending slightly at the waist, a cold smile playing on her lips.

Originally, she had only intended to scare them with this cryptic statement, leaving room for their imaginations to run wild.

But she had never expected their imaginations to be this vivid.

A chubby boy in the crowd trembled so hard he collapsed onto the ground, his voice quivering with hysteria: "I-I saw the news once... there was this... this murderer... who had... who had the same tattoo..."

"..."

Su Ruo could clearly feel everyone within a ten-meter radius recoil in unison.

The yellow-haired runt and his gang turned even paler, their mouths agape, too terrified to speak.

She frowned in exasperation, about to clarify, when a voice suddenly cut through the tension:

"The Student Council is here!"

The moment the words left the speaker's mouth, the yellow-haired runt reacted as if he'd just spotted the Red Army during the Anti-Japanese War—scrambling backward on all fours, screaming: "H-help!! Someone's killing me!!"

Su Ruo: "..."

---

The Student Council

Before officially enrolling at Bingzhou Academy, Su Ruo had heard countless rumors about the school. The most widespread one was about the unshakable authority of the Student Council.

Legend had it that the Student Council's office was located on the floor directly beneath the principal's office—a position that already spoke volumes about its power.

This organization was filled with extraordinary individuals, and it even had direct jurisdiction over the school's teachers, placing it above even the Moral Education Department in terms of influence.

Before arriving, Su Ruo hadn't believed these stories. But after stepping into the Student Council's headquarters, she began to see the truth behind the rumors.

The entire seventh floor of Houde Building was dedicated to the Student Council's offices, equipped with facilities so advanced that even her previous school's teachers would have wept in envy.

Earlier, when the Student Council members had suddenly appeared at the gymnasium, those arrogant middle school bullies had wilted like vegetables, whining and sniveling as they recounted their beating.

The onlookers, meanwhile, didn't dare linger a second longer, scattering in all directions.

The top predators in the food chain were indeed a different breed.

Su Ruo had been standing in the Student Council office for a full thirty minutes now. During that time, the seven or eight staff members had remained buried in their work, exuding an oppressive aura that made her skin crawl.

She happened to be standing directly under the air conditioning vent, where a steady stream of 22-degree cold air blew relentlessly at her. It had been refreshing at first, but the prolonged exposure was starting to wear on her.

Just as she was about to speak up, a bespectacled boy suddenly stood up from his seat.

"The president is coming."

At the same time, everyone else rose to their feet. Even the middle school delinquents instinctively straightened their backs and adjusted their sitting posture.

Su Ruo frowned toward the office door, listening to the approaching footsteps growing louder with each passing second.