The real young master thought he was hated by everyone

Xie Duzhi thought for a long time, but still couldn’t come up with a proper response. 

It was like how he didn’t know how to show his concern, either. 

Why didn’t he ask? Of course, it was because he was afraid that he would still get no reply. That the person might have seen the message but chose not to ask anything, showing no curiosity, while more interesting topics, like those with other friends, were much more engaging than a name that meant nothing… Even if the other person did notice the message after being reminded, clicked on it, and remembered to check it, it still felt like a blow to his pride. 

Because, at the same time, without checking his own messages, the person had sent a “goodnight” emoji in a group chat, saying that the military training was exhausting and that they were going to rest early. 

No matter the reason, it eventually pointed to the fact that he was probably not as important as he thought. 

And after sending that message, he hadn’t made any follow-up actions, which showed just how much he was trying to avoid this truth.

He had never even considered the possibility that his message hadn’t been sent out (for whatever reason) and that only he could see it, while the other person knew nothing about it. 

Theoretically, he should have realized this and verified it through other means. 

But when it came to the matter of “liking” someone, he was panicked, timid, and cautious, often trying to deceive even himself.

“You were busy with military training last week,” Xie Duzhi avoided his gaze and started working on another document saved on his computer. “And I also had things to do.”

“I was going to wait until you got home to tell you,” he explained, with an almost imperceptible awkwardness. “But I didn’t expect you to come back today.”

“I only remembered to send you a message when I was at the door,” Li Heng defended himself. “It was just instinctive, no, very natural, I just ran over here.”

Xie Duzhi didn’t want to keep talking about this topic, afraid that his emotions would be exposed, so he changed the subject. “Next time, remember to send me a message. I’ll go pick you up.”

“This is what I found.” He indicated another document for Li Heng to look at. 

Starting from the hypothesis that Xie Sizhi encountered something or someone while waiting in line, the investigation wasn’t particularly difficult. 

First of all, the person or thing that could make the second young master of the Xie family so distracted that he even made up an excuse to leave wasn’t many. It could either be a lifelong rival or a failed relationship.

But to make him feel like he was in a “meeting of kings” situation, away from the family’s company in another region, while his family also had someone capable of making the eldest son fly back for several hours just to report for duty and get a campus card, who could that person be?

The only possibility left was a former crush.

It was known that in just a few short years, Xie Sizhi’s past lover couldn’t have been married with a child and gone to college with an infant. 

It was also known that his crush was a year older, had successfully gotten a recommendation for graduate school, while her then-boyfriend was only mediocre academically.

Xie Duzhi concluded that her ex-boyfriend was probably studying for his master’s degree here, or after graduation, he stayed at the university, and just happened to be recruited by S University.

Both the admissions and recruitment information were publicly available on the university’s official website, and the announcements had already been posted during the summer. Xie Duzhi didn’t even have to pull any strings to check. 

He hadn’t seen the ex-boyfriend’s name in the admissions list, but when looking through the list of counselors hired by the school, he found the name of Chen Xue. Xie Duzhi then asked his technical director to search for related news from two or three years ago, and they eventually found the information on an anonymous forum. 

Chen Xue had broken up with her boyfriend during her first year of graduate school. The forum posts maliciously included mentions of Xie Sizhi, portraying her as hypocritical and regretful. Xie Sizhi, in turn, was painted as a man who changed girlfriends faster than changing clothes.

“But the second brother wouldn’t take advantage of their cold war and swoop in to steal her away. He’s very pure,” Xie Duzhi said, continuing to scroll through the document.

Li Heng saw these comments and didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t help but defend Xie Sizhi, “And besides, Dad would break his legs if he did something like that.”

Xie Sizhi wasn’t exactly suave in the traditional sense, and he certainly wasn’t the kind of person who could maintain an air of elegance for long. He could only hold up an act for a few minutes in front of those who knew him, which led others to think he was a player.

But what about Chen Xue?

Li Heng was even more puzzled by the maliciousness directed at her. “Even married couples get divorced, it’s normal for people to break up. As long as it ends well, it shouldn’t affect anyone else.”

“Maybe she was rejected,” Xie Duzhi said casually, dragging the file further down. “Look at this.”

He didn’t want Li Heng to keep focusing on this thread, so he quickly redirected the conversation, “But that’s just an anonymous forum. Some people can be quite malicious there.”

“I think this behavior is really bad,” Li Heng said, “It feels like we’re invading someone’s privacy.”

“The posts are public, though,” Xie Duzhi explained.

He didn’t admit that his methods were much more subtle, and deep down, he wished that the file he had destroyed earlier had never existed.

“I know, but even so, it doesn’t look good.”

Li Heng sighed and suddenly felt conflicted. “Does anyone else know? We should probably destroy these files after reading them.”

“No,” Xie Duzhi said. “My tech director just sent me the forum link based on keywords. He didn’t actually look at it himself.”

The majority of the posts, including those found by the director, came from screenshots seen on anonymous forums. Some images had been poorly edited, with parts left exposed, making it easy to trace.

Li Heng felt a bit disgusted. “No one manages this?”

“It’s hard to hold anyone accountable. It’s very time-consuming and tiring to deal with,” Xie Duzhi said, not wanting to see Li Heng disappointed.

“Maybe the second brother would manage it. After all, it’s their school’s forum and anonymous platform. He should be able to guess who’s behind it.”

Xie Duzhi paused, then decided to find something for Xie Sizhi to do, “He’s also a victim here. He has a legitimate reason to be concerned.”

“And the person he likes is also a victim.”

Li Heng said seriously, confident that Xie Sizhi would take action.

But this seriousness lasted only for a few seconds.

“By the way, do you know if that sister accepted the gift? Did he start to pursue her again? What’s the progress now?”

He swore he didn’t want to ask, but he just couldn’t hold back.

Xie Sizhi’s romantic life even ranked above the things he had originally wanted to tell Xie Duzhi. “Do you think they have a high chance of getting together?”

A series of questions came pouring out, and Xie Duzhi couldn’t help but laugh. He was curious what kind of image he had in Li Heng’s mind—inputting various factors and conditions, even the most advanced computers couldn’t calculate the exact probability of two people being together.

His brain wasn’t as powerful as a computer’s, and contrary to what he might think, he didn’t have all the juicy details. 

Though Xie Sizhi gave off the impression of being a carefree, easy-going person, he was actually very private, and Xie Duzhi hadn’t discovered much useful information. 

But one thing he was sure about:

“He’s too shy to give it.”

“…” 

Li Heng fell silent, unable to refute this point. In fact, it seemed entirely plausible. 

“Second brother probably just went with his friends to pick out a gift, saw something he thought was suitable, and didn’t think much of it.” After all, Xie Sizhi wasn’t short of money. 

“And then he bought it, went home, tossed and turned all night, struggling whether to give it to her or not, coming up with excuses…” Li Heng continued, imagining Xie Sizhi’s turmoil, and even smiled at the thought.

“As Wei always says, Wei is my college roommate,” Li Heng said, “I feel like the second brother is such a typical younger brother.”

“Is he from the North?” Xie Duzhi asked, knowing that Li Heng spoke with a northern dialect.

“He’s from the South, just from a neighboring province. The term ‘younger brother’ here means weak, timid, and cowardly.” 

Even Xie Duzhi couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “…That description fits quite well.” 

“But I also feel a bit sorry for second brother,” Li Heng said with sympathy. “He’s so pathetic, what if that sister remembers him, and when they meet again, she realizes he’s kind of cute?” 

But actually, the most likely scenario was that Xie Sizhi had seen Chen Xue while waiting in line, and when he recognized her, he quickly ran away and hid in the library or somewhere else, not daring to show his face. 

“You want to play matchmaker?” Xie Duzhi asked, curious about what Li Heng planned to do.

“Not matchmaker,” Li Heng shook his head. “I’m not trying to matchmake them. Who she likes is her choice, and I don’t know her anyway.”

What he knew was that Xie Sizhi liked her, and it was his matter. He was just someone who was aware of it.

Li Heng clearly defined his boundaries, “Although I’m the second brother’s younger brother, and from that perspective, I definitely want him to end up with the person he likes. But if I were to help—like pretending to bump into her at school, quickly sending a message to the second brother, or helping him pass messages, or even keeping an eye out for potential rivals…”

He listed many examples in one breath. “Second brother would definitely thank me, think I’m a thoughtful younger brother, and might even mention me as the matchmaker during his wedding speech, giving me a big red envelope. But actually, doing that would be very disrespectful to her.”

“I think it’s a form of labeling because by doing these things, I’m treating her as ‘second brother’s future girlfriend,’ ‘second sister-in-law,’ rather than Chen Xue.”

“I don’t even know what kind of person she is.”

If Xie Sizhi truly decided to pursue Chen Xue, Li Heng thought that the only thing he could do was help him choose an appropriate gift or figure out which outfit to wear when going out… small things like that.

His explanation was long-winded, but Xie Duzhi understood it clearly without any pressure, “You want Chen Xue to always be able to decide and choose according to her own will, not influenced by external factors or pushed in any direction.”

“Exactly!” Li Heng couldn’t help but shake his head, “Whether she likes the second brother or not is her own business. Even if second brother wants to know if he has any rivals right now or what her opinion of him is, he should figure that out for himself.”

Feelings cannot be handled by someone else.

“I just want second brother to stop acting like a younger brother.”

In his mind, many words like timid or shrinking came to mind, but he eventually decided that “younger brother” captured the essence more precisely, “I want to know what he’s really thinking and whether he has any intention of making a move.”

“What if he doesn’t?” Xie Duzhi asked, considering the possibility of Li Heng’s concern.

“That depends on whether he really doesn’t, or whether he’s just pretending not to.”

Li Heng answered without hesitation.

If he really doesn’t, then the feeling of longing is far beyond mere affection. Once that sudden melancholy fades, the lively and carefree Xie Sizhi would be back again, and they could just pretend they never knew about his first love and keep this little secret hidden forever.

But Li Heng worried that he might have feelings but be too afraid to act on them—like a turtle hiding in its shell—only managing to convince himself, then quickly retreating again. 

Maybe, years later, upon hearing that the other person got married and had children, Xie Sizhi would drown his bitter feelings with a drink, swallowing the bitterness along with it.

There were many similar plots in movies and other works.

Based on Xie Sizhi’s reactions when he previously mentioned his love life, Li Heng believed there was a 90% chance that second brother would drink after a failed pursuit.

The remaining 10% was that he would not only drink but also find an excuse to drag others along with him.

Li Heng understood him far better than the dreams he had of him, “Regret and regret are different. You might regret failing in your pursuit, regret finding out that you’re incompatible after confessing and being together, or even regret it after getting married because of various trivial things.”

No one can avoid regret.

Even with their parents’ good relationship, when talking about some past events, Mrs. Xie would roll her eyes and say, “I shouldn’t have…”

“But the regret of having tried is better than the regret of never trying at all, right?”

“Third brother, we’re going home this week…” He leaned closer to Xie Duzhi, almost sticking to him, and began to babble about how he planned to test the waters and, once successful, how to persuade Xie Sizhi to make a decision.

He was as lively as a little bird.

But as he spoke, Xie Duzhi was thinking to himself that no matter what choice he made, he wouldn’t regret it in the end.

He could hear Li Heng’s voice, but he couldn’t process the content.

Until the boy suddenly paused.

And asked him.

“Third brother, you’ll help me observe second brother’s reaction, right?”