The street next to Suicheng No. 1 Middle School is always busiest on Friday afternoons. 　　In particular, the illegal internet cafe on the street corner called "Blue Spider" always attracts third-rate students from several nearby middle schools who don't do their jobs properly to gather there. They either play games or secretly date their partners. 　　Today, however, the atmosphere is a little different. 　　Everyone in the internet cafe was paying attention to that corner, whether intentionally or unintentionally. 　　Seven or eight delinquent teenagers occupied that spot, some sitting and some standing, while the one they surrounded at the very back seemed to have been leaning against the wall for quite some time. 　　"Brother Rui, is something really wrong?" the skinny boy asked, leaning against the wall. 　　The boy called Rui, who was playing a mobile game, glanced at the person and said irritably, "What could possibly happen if I just hit him like that? I didn't put any bricks in my bag. This skinny kid might have some kind of health problem." 　　Some people said, "Should we just let it go today? He's still the Yang family's own son." 　　"So what if he's Yang's biological son? Does the Yang family lack sons?" The other person, as if they'd heard a joke, put away their phone and said, "This guy, just because he's Yang's biological son, insists on comparing himself to Yang Shule in everything, even wearing the same clothes. His Mandarin sounds like a broken rag, and he doesn't even realize it. He's arrogant and selfish. I heard he was number one in his high school back then. A country bumpkin raised in the countryside is different, huh? Quite inspiring. You guys should learn from him! Understand?" Some people chimed in: "What should we learn? Should we learn his aloofness? His shrewdness in dealing with people? Or his mistaking ignorance for individuality?" 　　"Hahahahahaha..." 　　A group of boys started joking around again without any restraint. 　　When Chen Mo woke up, he felt a dull ache in his head. 　　The various noises around me were like looking through a layer of fog, making them difficult to hear clearly. 　　He only vaguely caught some words, such as Yang Shule, the mistaken identity, and the school. 　　He thought he was definitely dead and most likely going to hell, otherwise why would he be experiencing the same high school memories again? 　　Many years ago, Yang Shule's biological mother, Li Yunru, gave birth in the city while working. Due to her poor health and her husband's gambling addiction and long-term domestic violence, she had the idea of giving her child away to be fostered. 　　However, she ultimately chose to exchange it instead of giving it away. 　　She secretly took Chen Mo back to a poor mountain village called Yuhuai Village, 300 kilometers east of Suicheng. Because Chen Mo had never shown any resemblance to her husband Chen Jianli since birth, Chen Jianli suspected her of having an affair. 　　The beatings escalated, accompanied by a barrage of harsh insults and curses. 　　Chen Mo's childhood memories are mostly of a dark and gloomy woodshed. 　　He was like an inexhaustible livestock, a belly that could never be filled. He could remember the excruciating pain of Chen Jianli's cigarette butt burning his instep, the weight of the punches and kicks landing on various parts of his body, and the pitiful warmth of Li Yunru occasionally holding him against her chest. Later, he began to rebel. 　　From being completely passive and taking hits, to occasionally managing to give his opponent a hard time, until the year he could actually fight Chen Jianli, Chen Mo hadn't even finished his first year of high school. Chen Jianli called him crazy while simultaneously starting to fear him, and Li Yunru frequently took long-distance buses to the city, staying for three to five days before returning. Whenever Chen Mo asked her about it, she would always dodge the question. The truth came not too late. 　　It had been less than two months since Chen Mo turned seventeen. It rained heavily that day. 　　Li Yunru knelt on the dirt road, tugging at Chen Mo's sleeve, and pleaded with him, "It's all because of me, it has nothing to do with that child. Chen Mo, please, as your mother, don't blame him." 　　Chen Mo was enveloped in a profound sense of confusion. He heard himself ask, "Then what about me? What am I?" 　　The Yang family sued Li Yunru. 　　According to the villagers, Chen Mo's move to the top was a meteoric rise.

Chapter 1