Salt Friend

Suspended before he could even find his footing, delinquent Tong Yang’s first day of school ends in a brawl that earns him a swift exit. When he finally returns to campus, the silence that greets him is louder than any jeer—his classmates keep their distance, whispering behind his back and leaving him to navigate the hallways in solitary disgrace. Crushed beneath the weight of his own reputation, Tong Yang retreats to a hidden corner, where the school’s untouchable top-scorer, Xiao Zhen, catches him mid-meltdown, tears betraying the tough front he desperately tries to maintain. What follows is a humiliation Tong Yang never anticipated: his blustering threats crumble in an instant, leaving him physically worsted and emotionally exposed. Yet, instead of exploiting his vulnerability, Xiao Zhen does the unthinkable—he begins staying after class to tutor Tong Yang, transforming hostility into quiet, baffling patience. But just as Tong Yang starts to believe there might be more to this arrangement than pity, a shattering truth surfaces: the boy who landed the punches on that fateful first day was none other than Xiao Zhen’s younger brother. Now, Tong Yang must grapple with whether this unexpected kindness is genuine redemption or a calculated ruse—and whether he can ever escape the shadow of his own violent past.