The real young master thought he was hated by everyone - Chapter 113

The next day, Li Heng eagerly picked up his intern badge and began running around delivering documents or helping him verify various data in the office.

When tired or idle, he would blatantly stare at Xie Duzhi or draw him a sketch to relax.

After work hours, he would quickly kiss him when he wasn’t paying attention, making their 9-to-5 work life unusually fulfilling.

They officially set off a week and a half before the New Year. Xie Duzhi had finally added a few extra days off, citing the trip being too short and that the round trip would be rushed.

In the end, they didn’t go to Norway but instead headed to North America, where Li Heng had a farm. He hadn’t had the chance to inspect it personally during the summer vacation.

The aurora borealis was seen in an Alaskan national park.

They took a luxury cruise to Alaska. On the way there, heavy snow started falling on the sea, and under the warm lights of the ship’s deck, it felt as though countless stars were falling from the sky.

When Li Heng went to the deck to watch the snow, Xie Duzhi didn’t even have time to help him tie his scarf.

The distant sea was dark and calm, the waves not very strong. More than the sound of the wind, they could hear the soft sound of snowflakes falling.

Even with perfect vision, they could only see the area lit by the deck lights, and there were only the two of them as guests.

The world suddenly felt much smaller.

As Xie Duzhi bent down to tie the scarf, Li Heng couldn’t help but kiss his forehead, the eyelashes still holding a snowflake.

Once the scarf was secured, Xie Duzhi reached out to hold him.

They exchanged a long yet fleeting kiss in the falling snow.

“This is the first time we’ve watched snow together.” After the kiss, Li Heng, out of breath, spoke, his eyes sparkling like snowflakes. “When we get to Alaska, it will be the first time we see the aurora together.”

In fact, apart from the aurora, they also watched a sled dog race, tried snowmobiles, and even took a train ride that almost went through the entire state of Alaska.

They didn’t return home until the day before the New Year, rushing just in time for the family’s final cleaning of the house.

“Well, if it isn’t Xie Heng. What, you actually decided to come home?” Xie Sizhi pulled him aside and tried to mess with his hair, his tone sarcastic.

Li Heng, holding the broom he just got from Mrs. Xie, thought about it for a moment and decided to be a bit nicer to his second brother, who he hadn’t seen in over ten days. He didn’t immediately smack the broom in his face, but quietly distanced himself.

“Second brother, you’ve got a lot of dust on you,” he said.

Xie Sizhi: …

He had just come out of his art supplies storage room, biting his teeth. He was afraid of rubbing the dust on his white down jacket and had to speak in a low voice from at least five or six steps away: “Stop messing around, I’m talking business with you.”

But it was clearly him who started it.

Li Heng silently cursed in his heart.

Xie Sizhi cleared his throat. “While you and the third brother were away, was there anything going on?”

“Although I know it’s unnecessary to worry about it, still…”

Before he could finish expressing his concern or emphasizing the importance of safety measures, Li Heng mercilessly swatted him away with the broom.

“Move— I need to clean the room,” Li Heng interrupted him calmly, his ear tips hot under his hair. “I’ve got several rooms to clean, second brother, please don’t get in my way.”

He and Xie Duzhi hadn’t progressed to that point yet.

They only helped each other on the ship.

“Did you sweep Xiaozhi’s room? It’s done.” Xie Sizhi yawned. “You clean your own room, then wipe the display room downstairs where you put your awards.”

The tradition of Xie family’s New Year cleaning was that whoever’s room it was, that person was responsible for cleaning it. Due to an inexplicable debt, Xie Sizhi felt more attentive to the cat than to a potential future child.

“The other day when I was out, I saw a cute female cat in a pet store. How about we get her a boyfriend for the New Year?”

“…Xiaozhi’s already been spayed.” Li Heng was curious what went on in his brother’s mind all day.

“That female cat’s been spayed too,” Xie Sizhi didn’t think spaying was an issue. “Although she can’t have babies anymore, they can still be in love.”

Li Heng thought he was probably infected by his brother’s bizarre thinking.

What Xie Sizhi just said didn’t even seem strange to him.

“Or we could take all the female cats back, let them date, and whichever one pairs best with Xiaozhi can stay,” he continued. “If they all get along well, we could keep them all—if there’s not enough space, we’ll knock down the wall next door.”

Hearing the end, Li Heng didn’t even bother rolling his eyes. He just went to call Xie Duzhi, who was unpacking luggage in a room. “Duzhi, second brother says he needs to talk to you.”

He didn’t trust Xie Sizhi to bring up issues like whether they’d done anything or not, or if they were using protection, directly in front of Xie Duzhi.

Xie Sizhi was frustrated and decided to slip into the kitchen to make some food.

Before he left, he messed up Li Heng’s hair with a forceful hand. “Your red envelope is gone this year!”

Li Heng didn’t care about the red envelope.

Besides, Xie Sizhi only made empty threats—he always changed his mind clearly.

Xie Duzhi helped Li Heng tidy his hair and then took the broom from him without hesitation, telling him to go downstairs and rest while he finished cleaning the house.

Li Heng passed by a robot vacuum turning endlessly in the hallway and went to find Mrs. Xie for more tasks—like sticking window flowers, or helping with the ladder at the front door to see if the Spring Festival couplets were neatly pasted.

He ran into Xie Shenzhi around the corner.

He waved at him, signaling him to come over.

“Big brother?” Li Heng was puzzled, thinking he might need help with something, only to be met with Xie Shenzhi solemnly stuffing a red envelope into his arms.

“The password is your birthday,” he said.

“…” Wasn’t it still before the New Year?

Li Heng was a bit confused and almost forgot to thank him.

“What are your plans after graduation?”

He heard Xie Shenzhi ask him.

“I plan to take the graduate entrance exam first,” Li Heng answered honestly. “… I’m not sure yet what kind of job I want to do.”

Xie Shenzhi then asked him whether he wanted to join the family company.

“I didn’t ask you before because I thought you were too young, starting from the grassroots would be too tiring,” Xie Shenzhi tried to prepare in advance. “It’s not that I didn’t want you to be involved in the family business.”

He had dreamed a few days ago that his brother knocked on the door and asked if he could learn from him, only for him to reject him.

“I might join Duzhi’s company, but there’s a higher chance I’ll do freelance work, like photography.”

Or turn from a live streamer into a video content creator.

“Why bring this up now?” Li Heng remembered the last time his future was discussed was a long time ago.

“A few days ago, I had a dream about it.”

Xie Shenzhi’s tone was serious. “I just remembered after seeing you and thought I’d ask about your future plans and clarify things.”

“Anything else?”

The day before they watched the sled dog race in Alaska, Xie Duzhi received an email from the project team saying that the experiment had been successful.

According to calculations, they had indeed affected the parallel world through the associated magnetic field.

But the exact impact was still unknown—current technology couldn’t directly observe the parallel world yet.

“No,” Xie Shenzhi shook his head after recalling, “It was just that dream… Why?”

As for why he felt oddly concerned after that dream, feeling like it had really happened—he didn’t think it was necessary to bring it up.

Li Heng bade him farewell and reminded him to come down for dinner early before going downstairs to find Mrs. Xie.

She was cooking in the kitchen.