Lin Wan, ranked third in science across the province on the unified exam, is dragged by her son-preferring father into Rocket Class Eight, the lowest-ranked class in the school.
“Your sister's grades are bad, so Class Eight is just right for her,” her father declares in front of the entire school. “The money we save can go toward your younger brother repeating the year.”
The class's 43 underachievers watch the spectacle with cold eyes.
No one steps forward. No one says a word. Only Qin Ye, the school bully sitting in the corner, gives her a second look.
Lin Wan doesn't cry or make a scene. She calmly walks to the shabbiest desk.
In a pocket of her schoolbag lies the report card her father tore to pieces: third in science across the province, ripped into seven fragments.
She only wants to quietly finish her senior year, but whenever she's “forced to act,” she gives herself away: casually solving a difficult problem, blurting out the correct answer without thinking, writing out the solution when the school bully corners her against a wall… Each time, she smiles and passes it off as “just a coincidence.”
The school bully sets his sights on her, suspecting she has a secret. The top student suspects she's putting on an act. But the 43 “underachievers,” after being mocked, targeted, and looked down on time and again, begin to defend her with everything they have. They don't know that the “pushover” they're protecting is precisely the trump card who can lead the whole class back to the top of the grade rankings.
The day the truth comes out, the whole school erupts.
The report card that was torn to pieces is painstakingly put back together, fragment by fragment, by all 43 students in the class.
