The real young master thought he was hated by everyone

“Look who I caught!” Xie Sizhi squeezed into the back seat, wedging his younger brother between him and Xie Duzhi, looking smug.

“When I saw Third Brother leaving early, saying he had something urgent, I knew for sure you guys were coming here.”

He had specifically gone to wait in the hotel parking lot, keeping a close eye on Xie Duzhi’s car license plate. Instead of openly appearing when they started getting into the car, he waited until the door was about to close before suddenly squeezing into the back seat, catching everyone by surprise.

Even though the front passenger seat was empty.

“Go sit in the front,” Xie Duzhi said, not bothering to ask why he had come to ambush them in the parking lot. After all, Xie Sizhi wasn’t clueless.

“You’re making it cramped sitting in the back,” Xie Duzhi stated plainly.

“Cramped?” Xie Sizhi asked, but he shifted towards the window, squeezing his long legs together in a slightly awkward position.

“Third Brother, why don’t you take the front seat? It’s your car after all.” He seemed to seriously consider the situation. “By the way, where are we going?”

He directed the last question to the driver. The partition hadn’t been raised yet, so the driver could hear him. After hesitating for a few seconds, he finally answered, prompted by Xie Duzhi’s gaze.

“The arcade? Not bad,” Xie Sizhi remarked approvingly.

Apparently, he also thought playing games would be a good way to relax.

“Shall I move to the front?” Li Heng glanced around, feeling a bit embarrassed. “Then it won’t be so cramped.”

It wasn’t that he was timid; it was just that Xie Sizhi had shown up so suddenly. Up until now, he had been trying to calm his nerves, which was why he hadn’t spoken earlier.

Both Xie Duzhi and Xie Sizhi immediately stopped him, each believing the other should be the one to move, and each having their own reasoning.

One felt that the car owner should naturally sit in the front, while the other insisted on a first-come-first-served basis. They reached an impasse, with neither willing to back down.

The tension in the air was thick, and for a few moments, Li Heng even thought they might start fighting.

Fortunately, the car eventually got on the highway, with all three brothers crammed into the back seat.

“What about the speech later?” the younger brother suddenly remembered.

Xie Duzhi had previously told him that their second brother would help with the speech. But now that Xie Sizhi was with them, the staff who had been told to find him might not know where to look.

It was even possible that the speech had already started while they were speaking. If Xie’s mother finished her part, but no one came forward with the script, wouldn’t the scene become incredibly awkward? Especially since there had already been some commotion earlier.

“What speech?” Xie Sizhi initially didn’t get it.

A moment later, he seemed to realize, slapping his thigh in sudden understanding. “Oh, that? Don’t worry.”

“Big Brother’s there anyway.”

He shrugged and suddenly adopted a serious expression, lowering his voice as he mimicked Xie Shenzhi’s tone.

“We appreciate everyone for taking the time to attend…”

His impersonation was surprisingly accurate.

Li Heng couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

Just as he was about to speak, Xie Sizhi burst into laughter, his shoulders shaking with amusement, clearly very pleased with his own performance.

The young man laughed so hard he could barely catch his breath.

“…”

The boy, utterly mystified about what was so funny, scooted a little closer to Xie Duzhi with a hint of bewilderment.

Considerately, he made more space for his brother, who was clearly having a great time.

“I can’t help it; just thinking about it makes me laugh,” Xie Sizhi pulled out his phone. “I need to ask if anyone at the scene can record it for me… Hey, do you want a copy too?” he asked Li Heng with a grin.

“No thanks, Second Brother,” Li Heng declined firmly.

The arcade wasn’t far. It felt like they had only exchanged a few words before the driver, following the GPS, parked the car and opened the door for them to get out.

Xie Sizhi was the first to hop out, pulling Li Heng along with him.

“Second Brother used to skip—” He realized mid-sentence that he’d said too much and coughed several times, trying to cover his slip.

Then, when his brother asked if he needed some water, out of concern, he quickly changed the subject. “Second Brother used to come to places like this with friends when he had time off. Though it wasn’t this arcade, the one we used to go to was near No. 1 High School, but I think it’s closed down now.”

“Not to brag, but I was really good at these arcade games.”

Skipping classes to play video games was indeed something he used to do. And there really had been an arcade near No. 1 High School.

However, he wasn’t actually as skilled as he claimed. He’d mostly spent time watching others play, particularly arcade classics.

Back in the day, he and his friends would skip class to go to internet cafes, using smurf accounts to play in low-rank games, hunting unsuspecting random players.

But he figured that no matter the game, it ultimately came down to strategy and execution, and he had plenty of confidence in himself—especially since this time, there was Xie Duzhi, who obviously had no clue about these things, making him look even better by comparison.

It was his moment to shine!

As he walked toward an arcade machine that clearly belonged to the action genre, Li Heng tugged on his sleeve.

“Second Brother, we need to exchange tokens first.”

Li Heng reminded him, then asked, “How many should we get?”

Xie Sizhi thought he heard a faint, dismissive scoff, filled with sarcasm and disdain. Instinctively, he turned to look at Xie Duzhi, trying to catch any hint of emotion on that expressionless face.

Unfortunately, he found nothing. In fact, Xie Duzhi gave him a puzzled look and asked, “Aren’t you going to exchange the tokens?”

Xie Sizhi: …

He had a feeling he’d been set up.

“Isn’t that what we have Heng for? I’ll go check out the machines first,” Xie Sizhi said, clenching his teeth in frustration. After tousling his brother’s hair, he tried to play it cool, striding confidently toward the arcade machine he’d been eyeing earlier. “Just let me know how much to reimburse you after.”

“Third Brother, how many tokens should we exchange?” Li Heng turned to ask Xie Duzhi.

The arcade was quite large, and since it was already evening, it was filled with people. There were students, office workers, parents with children, and even several couples standing by the claw machines on dates.

Tokens were exchanged at a one-to-one rate with currency, but there were deals for members. For example, charging 100 yuan would give an extra 20 tokens, while 200 yuan would earn an additional 30 tokens, and so on, with no upper limit.

From his experience, different types of arcade games consumed varying amounts of tokens.

For instance, claw machines generally required one or two tokens per try, while the larger racing games with steering wheels connected to screens might cost three to five tokens.

There were three of them, so exchanging too few tokens wouldn’t be ideal. But they also had no idea how long they’d be there or when they might get called back home. Buying too many with a membership might be a waste, as this would likely be their first and last time at this particular arcade.

Xie Duzhi considered all of this, calculating in his head.

He glanced at the large red membership benefits poster behind the counter and tried to match the games listed on the counter’s menu with the machines inside the arcade, figuring out what he could play without embarrassing himself.

Finally, he settled on two options: the basketball shootout game and the drifting racing game.

He casually gave a number, estimating that the banquet wouldn’t end too soon.

Li Heng obediently ran to the counter to exchange tokens.

The server, wearing a rabbit ear headband and with heart-shaped stickers on her face, gave him ten extra tokens—likely because they were new customers and had loaded a substantial amount onto their membership card.

“Once you’ve used them up, just come back to the counter,” she instructed, skillfully counting out ten rolls of tokens from the tray beside her and placing them in a small bag for him. “Have fun with your family!”

A hundred tokens stacked together weren’t exactly light. The acrylic bag, printed with the arcade’s logo, felt heavy, giving Li Heng an odd yet strangely satisfying sense of wealth.

Li Heng separated thirty-four tokens and handed them to Xie Duzhi, who was waiting nearby, then carried the rest over to find Xie Sizhi, who was watching others play.

As soon as the tokens were in his hand, Xie Sizhi eagerly inserted one into a nearby arcade machine and called for Xie Duzhi to join him.

The game was *The King of Fighters*.

Although he had never played it on an arcade machine before, the game—or rather, a pirated version of it—had been wildly popular among students when web games first started to take off.

Just the fact that he recognized the characters and remembered their signature moves gave Xie Sizhi the confidence that he was already unbeatable.

While he had been playing games, Xie Duzhi had been studying stocks, never engaging in popular trends with his classmates, so there was no way he could win against him.

“I’m not good at this type of action game,” Xie Duzhi didn’t take the bait and was even straightforward about it. “You can play with someone else, or let Heng teach you.”

His focus remained clear—after all, the reason they came to the arcade was not for him to play games but to accompany Li Heng, ensuring the boy wouldn’t dwell on thoughts about the Bai family.

From that perspective, he felt that Xie Sizhi, who seemed focused solely on enjoying himself and gaining satisfaction from beating others, had his priorities a bit misplaced.

However, considering that this attitude would help the boy better immerse himself in the arcade experience, he didn’t think it was necessary to point this out now and ruin the fun.

Li Heng was a little curious to try.

He had never played this game before. Back when pirated versions were all the rage, his school hadn’t even introduced computers, let alone arcade machines.

It was only later, when he became a game streamer and began learning about gaming history, that he learned about *The King of Fighters* through articles and various commentary videos.

“I’ll play with Second Brother,” he volunteered, inserting a token into the adjacent joystick station. He began reading the character descriptions and combo instructions, ultimately choosing Mai Shiranui, who seemed relatively simple.

“Don’t blame Second Brother if I go too hard,” Xie Sizhi said as he chose Iori Yagami, a character he remembered as particularly powerful.

The idea of effortlessly beating his little brother with a series of flashy combos seemed like a good one.

He even started imagining the scene of him teaching Li Heng how to play. Just the thought of his little brother looking at him with admiration—perhaps even pleading for combo tips with a hint of a whine in his voice—made his heart itch. “Don’t worry, if you really can’t get the hang of it, Second Brother can teach you slowly.”

Since the banquet wouldn’t end for a while, he was already planning to order an arcade machine for their house once he got back.

Full of confidence, Xie Sizhi was crushed 3-0.

This time, it wasn’t his imagination.

He really did hear a derisive snicker from Xie Duzhi.