Su Ruo had once thought that the year she spent hospitalized was the most miserable time of her life. Little did she know, the world had far crueler ways to break a person.

Due to an accident, she had been hospitalized for a full year, missing the registration period for her senior year of high school. Then, influenced by some unfounded rumor, her kind but clueless mother sent her to Bingzhou’s most prestigious private school—where she was forced to repeat freshman year.

A seventeen-year-old girl, in the prime of her youth, was now demoted to freshman status. While others only needed three years to endure the hellish gauntlet of high school, she would have to suffer through at least five.

On the first day of school, freshmen lined up in front of the gymnasium to receive their uniforms.

The September sun blazed mercilessly, hanging high in the sky like a white-hot disc, its scorching rays reflecting off the horizon and rising in waves of heat.

Su Ruo stood in the middle of the queue, fuming as she missed her old friends from her previous school. Her heart was a storm of emotions.

The shade under the trees was already claimed by those who had arrived earlier, leaving her no choice but to stand in the open sun, frowning as she craned her neck to see how much longer the wait would be.

The back of her neck burned under the relentless sun, and she shifted restlessly, trying to distribute the heat more evenly across her body.

Twenty minutes passed, and beads of sweat began to form on her forehead. Finally, the line in front of her started to dwindle—relief was within reach. Just as she began to relax, a shrill voice shattered the moment.

"Move, move, get the hell out of the way!"

Before she could react, a hard shove sent her stumbling forward, nearly knocking her off balance.

Rubbing her sore shoulder, Su Ruo straightened up—only to find a group of at least ten people had suddenly cut in front of her. The leader of the pack was still barking orders.

"Damn, it’s fricking hot. Who even wants to stand here for uniforms?"

She had been third in line—now she was pushed back at least fifteen places. And it wasn’t over.

"Hey, call the rest of your guys over. We can finish this quick and go play soccer," the leader said.

"Sure thing!"

A scrawny boy, thin as a monkey, nodded eagerly and dashed off. Following his gaze, Su Ruo spotted another large group approaching in the distance.

The line-cutters laughed and joked, utterly unbothered by their own rudeness. Worse, the other students in line didn’t even react—either too intimidated or too apathetic to care.

Already dizzy from the sun, Su Ruo had been seconds away from her turn—only for these jerks to steal it from her. Her temper, already frayed from a year of hell, finally snapped.

"Hey, do you morons even know what 'first come, first served' means?"

Her sharp voice cut through the air like a blade. The entire line fell silent, all eyes turning to her.

"Can’t you see everyone’s waiting in line?" she snapped, gesturing behind her.

From the group of line-cutters, a boy with dyed yellow hair—barely taller than 165 cm—stepped forward, sneering as he sized her up. His gaze lingered on her name tag before he smirked.

"So you’re a freshman transfer, huh? No wonder you don’t know how things work here."

His cronies burst into laughter.

Su Ruo glanced down at her name tag, realization dawning. Freshman? These punks must be from the middle school division. Unbelievable. Even the junior high kids here are insufferable.

"What ‘rules’ are you talking about?" she shot back, glaring up at him.

The yellow-haired runt smirked, sauntering up to her with the swagger of a wannabe delinquent.

"In this school, I make the rules!"

He punctuated each word by jabbing a finger against her forehead.

Then, as if that wasn’t humiliating enough, his gang erupted in mocking laughter.

"Sorry, newbie," the leader sneered. "Not only are you getting skipped in line—you’re going to the back."

"Why?" Su Ruo demanded.

"Why? Because I said so! " He burst out laughing, then slapped her cheek with exaggerated slowness, his voice dripping with mockery. "Did you learn this move from some cheesy drama? Trying to get my attention? Well, congrats, sweetheart—you did succeed."

He waggled his eyebrows, playing the part of a smug "bad boy," while his lackeys cackled behind him.

The scene played out in slow motion in Su Ruo’s mind, her rage building with every passing second.

The year of hospitalization, the demotion, the humiliation of repeating freshman year, the scorching sun, the loneliness—all of it exploded in her chest like a bomb. And this idiot had just lit the fuse.

Without thinking, she lashed out.

"Screw you, you short little bastard! " she screamed, shoving his hand away. "Who do you think you are, playing tough guy?!"

For a moment, the entire world seemed to freeze.

To everyone there, the only things more reckless than the cicadas screaming in the trees were Su Ruo’s guts.