On the street next to Suicheng No. 1 High School, Friday afternoons were always the busiest time.

Especially the corner with the black-market internet cafe called "Blue Spider," which was a magnet for third-rate students from nearby schools who had no intention of studying. They either played video games or sneaked around on secret dates.

But today, the atmosphere was a bit different.

Everyone in the cafe seemed to be paying attention, whether intentionally or not, to a certain corner.

Seven or eight delinquent boys, either sitting or standing, had occupied that spot. In the middle of them was someone who looked like they had been slumped against the wall for quite some time.

“Rui-ge, nothing serious is going to happen, right?” asked a boy who looked as thin as a monkey, his foot propped against the wall.

The one called Rui-ge glanced up from his mobile game and shot a look of irritation. “How could anything happen with just one hit? I didn’t have a brick in my bag. That scrawny kid probably has some illness.”

Someone else spoke up, “Maybe we should let it go today? After all, he is the Yang family’s biological son.”

“So what if he is? Does the Yang family lack sons?” Rui-ge snorted, putting away his phone. “That guy, just because he’s Yang’s blood, has to constantly compete with Yang Shule, even wearing the same clothes. He speaks with such a poor accent, but doesn’t even realize it. Arrogant and standoffish. I heard he was even top of his class at his old school. Country bumpkin raised in the sticks. Quite inspiring, huh? You guys should learn from him.”

Someone chimed in, “Learn what? How to be an outcast? How to act smart, or how to flaunt ignorance as if it’s a personality trait?”

The group burst into raucous laughter again.

Chen Mo came to consciousness, his head throbbing dully.

Various sounds filled the air, muffled, like they were coming through a thick fog. He could only make out a few words—Yang Shule, switched at birth, school.

He thought to himself that he must be dead and on his way to hell, otherwise, why would he be replaying memories from his high school years?

Years ago, Yang Shule's biological mother, Li Yunru, had been working in the city when she gave birth unexpectedly. Due to her poor health, combined with a husband who was a compulsive gambler and abusive, she considered giving the child away for foster care.

But in the end, she didn’t give him away; she switched him.

She secretly took Chen Mo back to a poor, remote village 300 kilometers east of Suicheng called Yuhuai Village. Because Chen Mo didn’t resemble her husband, Chen Jianli, in the slightest, he suspected she had cheated on him.

This led to even more beatings, accompanied by a constant stream of verbal abuse.

Most of Chen Mo's childhood memories were of the dark, gloomy woodshed.

There was no end to feeding the livestock, and his stomach was always painfully empty. He vividly remembered the burning pain of cigarette butts on his feet, the heavy blows landing all over his body, and the rare moments when Li Yunru would shield him with her frail body, offering what little warmth she could.

Eventually, he began to fight back.

From being completely passive, he slowly managed to make Chen Jianli suffer a few losses until the year when Chen Mo could finally fight back fully, though he hadn't yet finished his first year of high school. Chen Jianli, while cursing him as crazy, began to fear him, while Li Yunru frequently traveled to the city, staying for three to five days before returning. Whenever Chen Mo asked, she would avoid his gaze.

The truth came out, not too late.

It was just two months after Chen Mo’s seventeenth birthday.

That day, it poured rain.

Li Yunru knelt on the muddy road, clutching Chen Mo’s sleeve, pleading, “It’s my fault. Everything is because of me. It has nothing to do with that other child. Chen Mo, I beg you, don’t blame him.”

Chen Mo was overwhelmed by confusion. He heard himself ask, “And what about me? What am I supposed to be?”

The Yang family sued Li Yunru.

Chen Mo’s fate, as the villagers said, skyrocketed.

This “skyrocket” meant that the Yang family was a well-known wealthy family in Suicheng. They weren’t wrong—Chen Mo started wearing expensive brand-name clothes and shoes, being chauffeured everywhere, and living a life catered to by servants.

But no one ever taught him how to reconcile such an enormous class gap.

No one ever told him that what could be even more excruciating than physical pain was the overwhelming sense of not belonging in this new world. The servants deliberately replicated every aspect of Yang Shule’s life for him, under the guise of "equal treatment," but in reality, it was mockery and torment. And the blood relatives he once had hope for showed favoritism time and time again.

His desolate world grew wild with weeds.

He occasionally wondered, Why?

Why was it that even though he was the one who had been left out in the cold for seventeen years, everyone still cared more about the other person? So he fought. He fought hard to seize what he thought should have been his.

During this process, every word that had ever been said to him burned like oil on fire.

—“Chen Mo, can’t you just get along with Shule?”

—“Shule will face gossip at school in the future. Be careful what you say publicly. You were switched, not stolen.”

—“Yang Shule has always been an excellent student with countless competition trophies. He didn’t even accuse you of cheating; he covered for you! What about you?”

—“It’s been years, Chen Mo. Why can’t you let this go?”

—“Start in the company from the bottom and work for three years.”

—“You’re so ruthlessly ambitious, do you really think the Yang family would ever give you power?”

—“As far as I’m concerned, I’ve always only had one brother, and that person will never be you.”

—“How could the Yang family have a son like you? Get out!”

—“Chen Mo, Chen Mo...”

All those years of hard work, studying night and day just to appear effortless, became nothing more than a joke.

Years later, Yang Shule stood firmly in the Yang family. He was handed half the shares of the company without any conditions, the second young master of the Yang family—though not born to them, treated as if he were their own.

Chen Mo? He failed the college entrance exams, worked his way up in the company from the bottom, and fought tooth and nail against his older brother. In the end, he lost everything. Estranged from his parents, abandoned by everyone, he died in a deserted building on the outskirts of the city, killed by the Yang family’s enemies seeking revenge.

The last thing he saw was the dirty, gray concrete ceiling above him, mirroring the dullness that defined his entire life.

Did he regret it?

No, not really.

The only thing he regretted was realizing, just before his death, that he had lived his entire life for others.

For the approval of his parents, the opinions of others, the expectations of society.

For these things.

The only person he had ever wronged was himself.

•  

“Hey, he’s waking up!”

As someone kicked his shoulder again, Chen Mo’s senses slowly returned. He heard a voice above him say, “Get up, stop pretending to be dead! Who are you trying to scare?”

There were various sounds all around him, some near, some far.

From a distance, someone curiously asked, "What’s going on?"

Another person scoffed, “What do you think? Bullying, as usual. Looks like Chen Mo is going to get messed up by Li Rui and his gang.”

“Isn’t his family rich? He’s only recently been found; they must be treating him like a treasure.”

“So what if he’s rich? The wealthier the family, the more complicated it gets, and the more you need to learn to be likable.”

“I heard Li Rui and his group have called him several times, but he always ignores them. His personality is strange, and compared to the other kid who was switched, it’s like night and day. No wonder he’s a target.”

“Come on, when has it ever been okay to pick on someone just because you don’t like them?”

Chen Mo started coughing.

The cough, slow at first, quickly intensified, as if he were trying to cough his lungs out.

Supporting himself with his hands, he sat up and leaned against the wall, taking in his surroundings. He looked down at his school uniform and the prominent bones and veins on the back of his hands.

It all felt too real.

So real that it took him several minutes to accept that this wasn’t a dream.

“You’re not contagious, are you?” The lead boy with a buzz cut, his face fierce, looked at him like he was staring at some virus.

Chen Mo recognized him immediately—Li Rui.

He remembered not because they were particularly close, but because after he transferred to Suicheng No. 1 High School, most of the trouble he encountered was spearheaded by Li Rui.

Li Rui, the school bully of Suicheng No. 1, the only son of the Li family that owned Huiyuan Real Estate.

Back then, finding sand in his water bottle or dead cockroaches in his clothes were minor inconveniences. Chen Mo had been locked in a storage room overnight by these guys, beaten ten against one for fighting back, and ended up hospitalized. His family believed he had caused trouble at school.

Chen Mo held grudges.

Later, he went to great lengths to get revenge.

When Huiyuan Real Estate went bankrupt, this same arrogant, domineering boy came crawling to him under the guise of being an old classmate, begging for help.

At that time, Chen Mo had already risen to the position of vice president of the Yang Corporation.

He had been embroiled in a bitter power struggle with his older brother, Yang Zhi, over company shares.

Wearing the most expensive suits, speaking fluent English while negotiating multi-million-dollar deals, flitting from one negotiation table to another, yet when he lay awake in the dead of night, he knew he was already rotten inside.

Power and money were the only things he clung to.

Back then, everyone knew that the biological son the Yang family had retrieved was a mad dog.

Now, back at seventeen.

The people who once seemed so hard to handle were nothing more than fleas.

“Hey, I’m talking to you!” Li Rui stepped forward to kick him again.

But this time, Chen Mo blocked it.

The boy who had been coughing his lungs out a moment ago now pressed his hands against the ground and slowly stood up.

Chen Mo's hair fell over his eyebrows, his face, flushed red from the violent coughing, slowly returning to an unnatural pallor. He dusted off his school uniform, raised his head, and looked at them. "No. I drank poor-quality formula as a baby, which messed up my immune system. I have issues with my respiratory and digestive systems. Is my explanation clear enough for you?"

The internet cafe, which had been noisy moments ago, fell silent.

Chen Mo’s raspy voice cut through the quiet, every word heard by everyone present.

In this environment, Li Rui's expression darkened noticeably.

He took two steps forward and grabbed Chen Mo by the collar, slamming him against a nearby computer desk, gnashing his teeth. "You still dare act cocky? Do you know why we came after you today?"

“Of course I know.” Chen Mo stared straight into his eyes. “You like Yang Shule.”

The words were spoken lightly, but as soon as they left Chen Mo’s lips, Li Rui’s face crumbled. Chen Mo, taking advantage of the moment, loosened his collar and continued, “You like him, but you don’t have the guts to chase after him. So, you come after me, hoping to catch his attention, to earn a few points with him. Li Rui... you're pitiful.”

“You bastard, you’re asking for it!”

The crowd watched in stunned silence as the two suddenly started fighting.

Li Rui, who was tall and muscular, swung his fist toward Chen Mo. But the seemingly frail boy grabbed a mechanical keyboard from the desk and slammed it down on Li Rui’s head with a loud "thud."

The sound was deafening, and the movement was swift.

Before Li Rui’s friends could even react, Chen Mo had Li Rui in a chokehold, ignoring the blood dripping from Li Rui’s head. He leaned in and whispered, “You know that word—‘gay’—will ruin you in this school, don’t you? How about I let everyone know that your dear old dad is a scam artist who’s been having affairs with multiple men? You hate gay people, but aren’t you just a coward who can’t admit you like men?”

Li Rui’s face turned red from the pressure.

The school bully looked like a turkey with its throat squeezed, his voice trembling as he stammered, "How... how do you know?"

“Yang’s family is huge. Do you really think gossip about your family is anything new?”

“W-What do you want?”

With the tables turned so quickly, Chen Mo lost interest. He let go of Li Rui and looked around calmly. "Take your gang of... lackeys and get lost."

Thanks to his foresight from the future, having the upper hand didn’t even feel satisfying.

Chen Mo bent down to pick up his bag, ignoring the still-stunned Li Rui and his friends as he made his way to the front desk.

Instead of leaving, he tapped the counter lightly. "I'd like a computer for three hours."

“Y-Yes, of course.”

The cashier, a young woman, glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

She had only one thought: rumors are definitely unreliable.

The boy might be thin and pale, but he wasn’t short. His blue-and-white school jacket, which had gotten a bit dirty in the scuffle, didn’t make him look stiff at all. His good looks and the way he carried himself with casual confidence overshadowed any signs of messiness, leaving only the slight paleness of his face to tug at her heartstrings.

While the cashier processed his request, Chen Mo grabbed a pack of regular Yuxi cigarettes and a lighter from the nearby shelf.

He placed them on the counter. "How much for everything?"

“That will be… forty-eight and fifty cents.”

Chen Mo patted his pockets before pulling out a black wallet. When he saw the thick wad of red bills inside, he raised an eyebrow indifferently and handed over a hundred. “Keep the change.”

The girl blushed slightly at the casualness of his gesture as she took the money. Hesitating, she said, "Isn’t that a bit too much?"

Chen Mo looked up and asked, "What kind of food do you have here?"

“Oh, we’ve got instant noodles,” she answered quickly. “Pickled pepper, spicy, or the sauerkraut mushroom kind?”

“Nothing else?”

“Uh… no.”

At that moment, Li Rui and his gang came out from inside.

As they passed the front desk, Li Rui deliberately bumped into Chen Mo’s shoulder, pointing at him as he snarled, "Chen Mo, I’ll remember this. You’d better watch out."

The glass door opened and closed, and the group quickly disappeared. The cashier looked at Chen Mo with concern. "Shouldn’t you tell a teacher? Those guys are always causing trouble. I’m worried they’ll come after you again."

Chen Mo picked up his cigarettes and lighter, smiling faintly. “Don’t worry about it.”

The girl didn’t know what else to say, so she asked, “Do you still want the noodles?”

“No need.” He turned and headed toward the back of the cafe, leaving behind a parting line: "I'm on a health kick lately. No instant food."

As the girl watched him walk away, tearing open the cigarette pack, stuffing the wrapper into his pocket, and expertly tapping out a cigarette, she couldn’t help but wonder.

Was this guy really trying to "maintain his health?"