The real young master thought he was hated by everyone - Chapter 99

“Why do I feel like something’s off between the two of you?”

Xie Sizhi put down his chopsticks, frowning, uncertain whether it was because he’d drunk too much the day before and his head still felt a little foggy, or if there was really something wrong between these two.

But he had only been away from home the day before, and at most, counting the night before, not enough time had passed for anything to happen.

The more he looked at them, the stranger it felt, and he tried to push further, “Xie Heng, confess, and I’ll be lenient; resist, and there’ll be severe punishment—maybe I can get big Brother to help you out, you know?”

Mrs. Xie shot them a look, half amused and half exasperated, probably realizing that the “window paper” had been pierced.

However, she had promised her youngest son to keep things secret for now, so she simply cleared her throat and nudged her second son to quell his curiosity. “What’s off? I didn’t notice anything.”

“…” Mom, I think there’s definitely something wrong with your eyes.

Xie Sizhi hesitated, considering that he had just stayed out all night and had jumped all over her limits a few times, so he decided to switch to another target for harassment.

“I’m not the only one who feels something’s off, right, Big Brother?”

Xie Shenzhi, who had been caught in an unexpected situation, looked confused but still carefully scrutinized his two younger brothers.

“No, I think Duzhi and Heng have a really good relationship.”

He said this casually, “Yesterday, he even went out with Heng.”

“…?”

“They went where?”

Xie Sizhi felt betrayed, especially after hearing his younger brother’s helpless reply: “Second Brother, we just went to the amusement park, took a few photos.”

“Why didn’t you invite me?”

Xie Sizhi was choked, unable to understand why they would go to the amusement park with Xie Duzhi.

As long as Xie Duzhi was there, no matter how fun or interesting the attractions were, everything felt dull. After all, no matter what he did, his face remained expressionless.

If anyone was going to play, it should have been him, right?

Was there anyone else in the house who understood how to make things fun and enjoyable?

The answer, of course, was no.

“Which amusement park did you go to?” Without waiting for an answer, Xie Sizhi asked again, “…Was it the new one, or the one in the east of the city? Or was it the one where we were supposed to have a party after the college entrance exams?”

“The one in the east of the city. Second Brother, if you want to go, we can go together when we have time.”

Li Heng kept a straight face, secretly holding Xie Duzhi’s hand under the table, “But after this break, I’ll probably be too busy with make-up lessons and preparing for finals.”

“Then we can go during the winter break.” Xie Sizhi answered without thinking.

“Winter break, we’re going to Europe. We didn’t get to see the aurora last time,” Xie Duzhi said, “I’ll take him to see it.”

“…”

Xie Sizhi wasn’t interested in the aurora and definitely didn’t want to go to Europe.

Two months during the summer break had made him feel utterly disconnected from the fashionable world, and after returning to the country, he even felt like a complete country bumpkin.

“Forget it, next time then. When we have time, I’ll take you to play,” he quickly backtracked.

But he still felt like something was strange between the two, and his suspicion didn’t fade despite the earlier diversion.

“You guys don’t have any little secrets, do you?”

For the first time, his intuition was spot-on.

When their parents left the room, he quickly reached out to stop Xie Shenzhi, who was about to head upstairs. “You two better come clean with Big Brother and me—are you two involved with anyone?”

He was prepared with two different lines of reasoning.

“Third Brother, you need to think this through. He’s only in his first year of college, and now everyone knows he’s the rich, naive target in the family. Who knows if anyone approaching him is just after his money?”

This was directed at Xie Duzhi.

“Think about it, you’re handsome, young, and capable. To any of our aunts, you’re the perfect catch. But what if someone’s getting close to you with ulterior motives, wanting to use you to improve their own position?”

This was directed at Li Heng.

And, as though worried that his words wouldn’t shake them, he quickly added:

“There are a lot of ill-intentioned people out there, and if they’re targeting Third Brother’s money, thinking we’re treating him poorly and trying to drive a wedge between him and us—what then?”

“…”

Li Heng was sure his Second Brother had read too many novels recently.

If he wasn’t mistaken, Chen Xue even had a side job writing online novels. It was clear that his second brother was willing to go to any lengths to cater to whatever was trending.

“Second Brother, have you had too much to drink…?”

Li Heng hesitated to speak but secretly wrote something on Xie Duzhi’s palm.

He asked Xie Duzhi if this situation reminded him of the scene in the movie yesterday, where the main characters were being interrogated separately.

Xie Duzhi lowered his eyes and carefully wrote back a “Yes” on his palm.

Li Heng’s palm itched, but his expression remained serious, “At most, it’s been 24 hours. How could we possibly find someone and fall in love that quickly?”

They were just in love.

—But no, they hadn’t even officially established a romantic relationship yet.

Xie Duzhi still hadn’t admitted he liked him. When Li Heng asked him yesterday, he had clearly hesitated, and once he realized it, he awkwardly made an excuse and suggested going for takoyaki at the shop next door.

It seemed like the word “love” was too hard to say.

So, strictly speaking, they were only just entering the ambiguous stage.

“Neither I nor Duzhi are the type to rush into things, right?”

Li Heng countered, thinking that once their relationship was confirmed, they could slowly figure out when and how to come clean.

Xie Sizhi studied his face, trying to detect any signs of lying. Failing to find any, he had no choice but to give up.

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll go upstairs. I didn’t get to play with Xiaozhi yesterday.”

Li Heng found an excuse and started pulling Xie Duzhi upstairs.

He had to find a way to get Xie Duzhi to admit it outright. “Mm” or a nod, the meaning was the same as saying “I like you,” but the feeling was different.

Affection was never too much, and with the foundation already confirmed, he couldn’t resist wanting just a little more confirmation.

Of course, there was also the fact that Xie Duzhi’s frustrated look was incredibly cute.

When he thought about how he handled even multi-million dollar deals with ease, always calm and composed, and never flustered, it made his frustrated expression seem even more interesting.

“…Wait.”

Xie Sizhi stopped him, having caught onto a blind spot, “Why are you calling him Duzhi? Didn’t you always call him Third Brother?”

“Duzhi is Duzhi,” Li Heng blinked, “Second Brother, don’t you think ‘Duzhi sounds better than ‘Third Brother’?”

He called him that because he thought it sounded nice. Originally, the term “brother” also sounded good, so he combined them on the spot.

“…Then why do you still call me ‘second brother’?” Xie Sizhi pointed to himself, then to Xie Shenzhi. “And ‘big brother’?”

Xie Shenzhi: …

Xie Shenzhi was completely dragged into this, and he didn’t really care about the titles.

“Second brother, you should reflect on yourself, not ask me,” Li Heng stuck his tongue out and made a face before quickly running upstairs.

Xie Duzhi followed behind him but paused before going up, turning back to say, “He means you’re a bit ‘second’ (silly).”

For a moment, Xie Sizhi actually felt like he hadn’t fully recovered from his hangover.

Why did that cold, indifferent remark seem like Xie Duzhi was saying it with a gentle expression?

The sudden realization made him shiver.

After a moment of silence, he kept thinking, not even noticing when Xie Shenzhi went upstairs, still pondering a strange feeling.

Could his brothers really hide things from him?

Unrequited love is still love; he wasn’t inexperienced in romance.

Upstairs, after closing the door, Li Heng began to laugh. “Second brother’s interrogation wasn’t thorough enough. He should have separated us and asked us separately, then compared our confessions.”

Xie Duzhi helplessly understood that Li Heng was still thinking about the movie they watched yesterday, so he simply agreed with a “hm” without saying much.

“…Should we tell him the truth soon?” Li Heng tested him.

Xie Duzhi nodded, agreeing. “Hm,” he added. He was leaving it up to the younger one — after all, second brother wasn’t really going to break his legs over this.

“Should we change the ‘hm’?” Li Heng teased.

“…” Xie Duzhi was a bit helpless under his gaze.

“Fine.”

“‘Fine’ and ‘hm’ mean the same thing,” Li Heng said, grabbing a cat toy and sitting on the blanket. “Right, Xiaozhi?”

The cat meowed in agreement.

“See, even Xiaozhi thinks you’re being dismissive,” he poked at Xie Duzhi with the toy.

“I’m not dismissing you. I’ll be more careful next time,” he quickly responded, pressing his lips together.

…He just didn’t know how to express his feelings now. Since yesterday, his ability to organize his thoughts seemed to have gone a bit off-track, especially when it came to feelings like liking or love.

“Can we not wait for next time?” Li Heng said, eagerly. “You still haven’t told me you like me.”

“Right, yesterday when I asked you ‘Do you like me too?’, you just answered ‘I like you too’,” Li Heng reminded him.

Xie Duzhi looked away again.

He definitely liked Li Heng, but he found it hard to say it the way Li Heng did — so calmly, so naturally, looking straight into each other’s eyes without hesitation.

He was still practicing, but it wasn’t going well so far.

He mentally rehearsed again, but when the words almost came out, he automatically replaced them with another question, “You never told me why you invited me to the amusement park yesterday.”

“Mingyue suggested it,” Li Heng blinked. “Don’t you think his suggestion, though a little odd, was still useful overall?”

Li Heng genuinely believed that Gu’s suggestion had been effective, and he told Xie Duzhi about his plan and some of Gu Mingyue’s advice from yesterday.

“No matter if it’s a black cat or a white cat, a cat that catches mice is a good cat.”

Li Heng was certain of this.

Xie Duzhi almost answered with his usual “hm,” but remembered he had promised not to say “hm” or “good” just a few minutes ago.

“It was a lucky shot,” he said after thinking for a moment, still trying to keep his answer moderate, giving the other person some leeway.

Of course, this was all based on the fact that they had already mutually expressed their feelings.

“Ah? So, during the haunted house, when I suddenly burrowed into your arms, why were you so stiff?” Li Heng brought up the old story.

It couldn’t have been because of nervousness, right?

“…I didn’t expect you to suddenly hug me,” Xie Duzhi explained somewhat awkwardly, trying to articulate his feelings from that moment. “I hadn’t thought about that situation.”

“Before that, I always thought I had clearly separated the roles of older brother and admirer.”

That’s what he said.

“You hid it too well,” Li Heng couldn’t help but say. “So, before I invited you to the amusement park, I was really nervous, wondering what if you figured it out and I accidentally made things awkward.”

“I thought you figured it out already, but you were just avoiding making things awkward for me,” Li Heng recalled the moment when he handed Xie Duzhi a candy skewer, as that action had been quite sudden.

Looking back, Xie Duzhi had noticed many details, ones that Li Heng had subconsciously overlooked.

Li Heng’s acting wasn’t that good. If Xie Duzhi had focused on the clues like he had with other people, he would’ve figured it out before they entered the haunted house.

But this wasn’t the same as the so-called “the darkness under the light.”

It was just that Li Heng was too timid and careful, so he had intentionally overlooked that possibility.

“At that time, I was worried my presence might mislead you, make you think something was off.”

After a long pause, Xie Duzhi finally spoke, “Bai Ruan talked to you about this topic before.”

“I don’t trust him,” Li Heng replied instinctively. “…I didn’t trust him, so I asked Mingyue instead.”

Otherwise, he would’ve confessed directly.

“Before all this, I always hoped that, no matter the relationship, you would get the best,” Xie Duzhi said seriously, especially after learning about the “parallel worlds.”

The tension in his forehead gradually relaxed, but he still couldn’t look at Li Heng the same way Li Heng looked at him.

“Family, classmates, friends… everything should be perfect, without flaws.”

“…Including romantic experiences?” Li Heng asked.

Xie Duzhi nodded. “I thought you liked me too, but I didn’t want you to like me.”

Li Heng strangely understood what he meant. “But who could be a better match than you? And I proved yesterday I wasn’t confused, I had everything sorted out.”

“Mom even thinks it’s perfectly normal that I like you,” Li Heng casually added, revealing what Mrs. Xie had said after realizing her overthinking.

Xie Duzhi froze, unable to ask about Mrs. Xie when he saw Li Heng take out his phone.

“…Luo Zhi asked me if I’m free, he wants to take me out for a meal?”

Li Heng said this with a grin.