Youth in the Mud

To put her mother through college, “money-grubbing teacher” Xia Lin accepts a sky-high offer from Anshen City’s work-study school, only to step into a nightmare from the start. Its “experimental class” has just three students, each with a horrifying past: a theft prodigy, a girl who poisoned someone, and a drug abuser. She’s a pawn in the battle between the school’s principal and vice principal, and an enemy in her students’ eyes. Xia Lin chooses unconventional methods to break through each impasse. From cigarette-fueled provocations in the alley behind the toilets to risking life and limb on the rooftop; from a hot-blooded youth causing a scene in the cafeteria to a dazzling comeback by an Olympiad champion. When five scarred souls call her “Mom,” and those who were once mired in the mud begin reaching for the light, Xia Lin finally understands that redeeming these “troubled youths” is her way to atone for her dark past and rebuild her sense of self-worth. Even in the depths of the mud, you can reach for the light.