Fishbone

After failing the university admission test, eighteen-year-old Li Qi rejects her mother’s plan for her to retake the exam, straining their already fragile relationship. While helping at her mother’s fish stall over the summer, Li Qi accidentally smashes a classmate’s new phone at a birthday party. Unable to afford the compensation and afraid to tell her mother, she tries to handle the problem alone. The secret becomes like a fishbone lodged in her throat, small but impossible to ignore, slowly driving a wedge between them as Li Qi is forced to confront guilt, pride, and the painful first steps into adulthood.