Strike first and gain the upper hand; hesitate and face a tough battle.

Evening self-study was over. Su Jiazhen grabbed his barely packed backpack and slung it over one shoulder.

He always thought carrying a backpack on one shoulder looked super cool. If the school didn’t ban dyed hair, he’d definitely have dyed his hair green.

Then styled it like Iori Yagami.

And finally, if he had a bass guitar in hand, that would be the ultimate cool look.

He remembered clearly—Iori Yagami was the bassist in the band.

Of course, if he really went all out like that, instead of girls screaming for him, the only thing waiting for him would be his dad’s Seven Wolves leather belt.

“Jiazhen, let’s roll. Wanna grab some skewers? That new place at the street corner is pretty good,” a follower came up.

“Nah.” Su Jiazhen didn’t even bother to lift his eyelids. “Skewers? What’s so good about eating that every day?”

After being humiliated in front of the whole class that afternoon, all he wanted now was to be alone.

He didn’t even blame Lin Mo. As for Zhang Yuzhong, it was obvious Lin Mo was backing him up, so there was no way Su Jiazhen would go pick a fight with Zhang Yuzhong.

He was just choking on a mouthful of anger, feeling suffocated.

“Ah, just an unfortunate accident,” he muttered to himself.

Su Jiazhen walked to the bike shed. The dim light stretched his shadow long and thin.

He unlocked his bike and pushed it toward the school gate.

Just as he stepped outside, he spotted Zhang Yuzhong coming out from the same direction.

Su Jiazhen’s heart skipped a beat. Almost instinctively, he sharply veered to the side, pushing his bike into the shadows beside the security guard’s booth, crouching behind it.

But his sudden movement was too obvious to go unnoticed.

Sure enough, Zhang Yuzhong heard the noise, glanced back, and caught sight of Su Jiazhen skulking in the corner.

Their eyes locked, and for a brief two seconds, the air felt frozen.

Zhang Yuzhong’s gaze was complicated, but he said nothing. He just turned away and quickly strode in the opposite direction.

He remembered Lin Mo’s words—no way he’d arrange a fight with this guy.

So he headed toward the other exit.

Once Zhang Yuzhong was out of sight, Su Jiazhen let out a sigh of relief and pushed his bike out from the shadows.

“Damn it, since when did I, Su Jiazhen, become such a coward?”

He didn’t even bother riding anymore. Instead, he pushed his bike across the street to a convenience store, opened the freezer, and grabbed a bottle of Coke covered in frost. The glass bottle was so cold it stung his hand.

Su Jiazhen’s signature move was to down a whole bottle of Coke in one gulp.

Of course, this was a 330 ml glass bottle.

Not like the common 248 ml or 200 ml bottles you see nowadays.

“Glug glug glug…”

The icy liquid fizzed and bubbled, like a cold stream rushing straight down his throat, sending tingles up to his scalp.

“Burp!”

A thunderous belch escaped, carrying the sweet taste of Coke and the frustration bottled up inside him, echoing through the convenience store.

Ah, that was satisfying!

At last, he’d swallowed down that suffocating anger.

After paying, Su Jiazhen hopped back on his mountain bike. The wheels clicked crisply on the pavement.

He pedaled toward the direction Zhang Yuzhong had just taken.

He turned onto the main road he usually took home, but a sudden uproar of shouting and cursing broke through his thoughts.

Near the pillar under the pedestrian bridge, Zhang Yuzhong was cornered against the wall by three men.

He carried that worn-out backpack on his back, standing before several tall, burly men. His face showed no unnecessary expression, only a stubborn gleam in his eyes.

"I'm going to be late for work, please let me through..."

Before he could finish, a dark-skinned man suddenly shoved him hard.

"Late for what work! It’s because of you student brats that the boss has been on our backs for days!"

"If you keep coming and going like this, we’re damn well going to lose our jobs!"

Zhang Yuzhong stumbled back, his back hitting the weathered bridge pillar. He pressed his lips tightly and tried to reason:

"The boss pays me to move goods, it’s only fair. Besides, I only work three hours, it doesn’t affect you."

Another tall, skinny man sneered and spat on the ground:

"Doesn’t affect us? You damn well working three hours is worth six of our hours! How do you think the boss sees us, huh?!"

Su Jiazhen listened for a moment and roughly guessed that Zhang Yuzhong was just too earnest at his part-time job, working harder than the full-timers.

Making the few slackers look like useless dead weight.

How could they keep slacking off now?

Cutting off someone’s income was like killing their parents.

So they blocked Zhang Yuzhong right here on this path.

Judging by the situation, verbal intimidation was just the appetizer; next came the fists.

Zhang Yuzhong clearly realized this too. His body tensed as he slowly edged sideways, trying to find a gap.

"What if I don’t go? Will you let me leave then?"

"No way!" The dark-skinned man grinned viciously, cracking his knuckles with a sharp snap. "We’ve been holding this anger in for days. If we don’t beat you up now, we’ll never get this frustration out."

The men cracked their knuckles and circled him, their gazes hostile.

Just a student, and a poor one doing manual labor at that. What kind of backing could he have? Beat him, so what?

Zhang Yuzhong saw through their intentions without hesitation. He slipped from the side of the pillar and turned to run.

One of the men was quick. He grabbed the strap of Zhang Yuzhong’s backpack and yanked hard.

Zhang Yuzhong staggered, nearly falling to the ground.

He struggled desperately, but the man, used to hard labor, gripped him like a vice.

"Run? Try running again, see what happens."

At this critical moment, a shadow slammed in from the side with fierce force.

“Bang!”

The dull thud froze everyone’s movements for a moment.

The man holding the backpack stiffened, then slowly loosened his grip, eyes wide with shock.

A streak of bright red blood trickled down his temple, dripping onto the sidewalk bricks.

Su Jiazhen stood expressionless, holding a brick in each hand like a mason ready to build a wall.

He knew the essence of street fighting:

Strike first, strike hard — it’s the only way to win.

Before the other two could react, he didn’t hesitate. The brick in his right hand smashed down on another man’s forehead.

“Bang!”

Another muffled crack. The man didn’t even grunt, clutching his head as he crouched down.

If three people ganged up on one, Zhang Yuzhong definitely wouldn’t be able to hold his ground.

But with Su Jiazhen delivering two powerful strikes with his bricks, the odds were much better.

The only remaining man with dark skin suddenly spun around, his bloodshot eyes locking fiercely onto Su Jiazhen.

“Who the hell is this little punk? Looking for death!”

Though he had no idea where this student had come from, backing down in a fight was out of the question.

With a furious roar, he lifted his foot and slammed a brutal kick straight into Su Jiazhen’s stomach.

The kick was fast and vicious. Su Jiazhen barely had time to react and was struck solidly in the gut, staggering backward several steps. The bricks in his hands nearly slipped loose.

Zhang Yuzhong got to his feet just in time to see Su Jiazhen take the hit, his eyes instantly reddening.

At that moment, he knew he couldn’t run anymore. A low growl escaped his throat as he launched a thunderous Leo flying kick at the dark-skinned man.

Caught off guard with his back turned, the man was knocked down hard by the kick.

But the trouble was far from over.