The real young master thought he was hated by everyone

Li Heng returned to school on Sunday, and it was thanks to Xie Duzhi’s gesture.

He sat in the front passenger seat and recounted the interesting events that had occurred from the night he reported to school until the end of military training, picking out the things he found most amusing.

For example, the class leader who introduced himself through a comedy routine, the instructor who could sing pop songs to military drills, and the small incident during the military training closing ceremony caused by having the same name—plus, his roommates.

“Isn’t that great?” Xie Duzhi couldn’t quite understand his subtle unease. “He even brought you lunch.”

“The problem isn’t that someone brought me lunch,” Li Heng tried to explain the feeling. “It’s… it’s just really awkward, you know? Because a lot of times, not only did I not teach him how to play games, but I also told him not to play them.”

Every day during military training, they had to write summaries and share insights in the class group, and sometimes, Wei Zhuowei would even forget to copy and paste.

“You didn’t do anything wrong.” Xie Duzhi, unlike Wei Zhuowei or another roommate named Lin Mo, cared more about the frequently mentioned Xue Ce.

Of course, he also knew that Li Heng mentioned this name so often not because of any fondness, but because he couldn’t understand him and subconsciously rejected him.

Xue Ce’s behavior and the values he expressed seemed completely out of place, even contradictory to normal personality traits. Yet, he took pride in being different and considered himself superior.

Although it probably wouldn’t lead to significant conflicts, just the fact that they were in the same dormitory was enough to make the atmosphere uncomfortable.

“You’re just like Mom, trying to get me to change roommates.”

Li Heng was speechless but also a little amused. “Third Brother, be honest—did Mom secretly ask you to talk me into it?”

“No.” Xie Duzhi denied it quickly. “I just think changing roommates would be better, once and for all.”

“But I just started school, and I haven’t even had time to adjust with my roommates,” Li Heng explained.

“I know, I just think it’s not to the point where we need to switch roommates yet. We can try talking things out first.”

Li Heng told him that he planned to find an opportunity to talk to Xue Ce this week.

“He’s not the only one with flaws. I have my own, Wei Zhuowei and the others have theirs. We need to tolerate each other.”

Xie Duzhi didn’t think Li Heng had any flaws, and even if he did, they didn’t seem like flaws to him. In fact, they were almost endearing.

“His flaws are bigger,” he said seriously, but held back the harsher words he initially wanted to say.

Li Heng smiled again. “It’s not right to mock someone else’s flaws when we have our own.”

But in truth, he wasn’t disputing what Xie Duzhi said. “It’s like with games, changing roommates would be the worst possible outcome. I want to try to see if I can make things work.”

If things didn’t work out, at least he would have tried, and when the time came to go to the counselor or dorm supervisor, he wouldn’t feel guilty.

“If you need anything, call me.”

Before getting out of the car, Xie Duzhi said this, looking like he wasn’t entirely at ease.

Li Heng responded with a long, exaggerated “I—know—la—” and urged him to rest well after returning.

However, when he sent Xie Duzhi a good night message before going to bed, he suddenly felt a little guilty.

There were many pinned chats in his messaging app.

The family group, which included his elder brother and father, was followed by messages from Gu Mingyue, his deskmate, Wei Zhuowei, and Lin Mo. Below were some class notification groups and general classmate chats.

His mother often asked how he was doing at school, while his younger brother, Xie Sizhi, sent jokes and often critiqued things. His deskmate even messaged him asking if he wanted to have dinner the next night, mentioning a new seafood restaurant nearby.

Even classmates like Wei Zhuowei and Lin Mo, with whom he hadn’t known each other for long, had already developed a good rapport, and the relationship was growing into something stronger.

As for Gu Mingyue…

Though he didn’t mind his tendency to split his sentences into multiple ones, Li Heng did feel like their friendship was a bit shallow.

His dad and elder brother mostly just called him directly or talked to him face-to-face. They wouldn’t even notice the messages unless he tagged them repeatedly, so Li Heng usually just communicated with them directly in the group.

Sometimes his elder brother would send him pocket money via a private transfer or red envelope.

Given their special circumstances, Li Heng didn’t consider them in his tally.

So, in essence, the people he communicated with most frequently and felt closest to were Xie Duzhi and his family, but technically, only Xie Duzhi hadn’t yet developed a “fire” of friendship with him.

He couldn’t help but scroll through their chat history again, finding it hard to explain whose fault it really was.

He would send messages to Xie Duzhi, and Xie Duzhi would message him too. The frequency of their messages was even high before the military training, where Xie Duzhi would remind him to go to bed and even brought him milk because he’d heard it improved sleep quality.

Feeling guilty, Li Heng silently removed all his pinned chats and rearranged the order, pinning Xie Duzhi’s chat second, just in case he forgot to message him one day, causing his plan to cultivate their friendship to fall through.

But now, Xie Duzhi’s chat, wedged between a line of fiery contacts, seemed even more pitiful.

He felt even more guilty.

After Xie Duzhi responded with a good night and he put down his phone, he double-checked his backpack and finally felt at ease before climbing into bed.

Wei Zhuowei was still playing games, while Lin Mo had gone to bed earlier.

As for Xue Ce, Li Heng didn’t pay much attention to what he was doing.

When he rearranged his pinned chats, he noticed that Xue Ce had gone out for a phone call, and when he returned, his face didn’t look too good.

It wasn’t until the next day that Li Heng found out what had happened.

He had originally planned to rest in the dorm after lunch before heading to the library at 12:30 to study, and then go to class afterward.

However, when he returned to the dorm, he found Xue Ce and the counselor waiting for him at the door. Xue Ce had forgotten his dorm key and couldn’t get in.

The reason? His fountain pen was missing, and he was sure he hadn’t brought it home. His maid hadn’t seen it when washing his things, and he suspected that someone had moved his stuff while he wasn’t around.

Both Li Heng, who had left a little later, and his roommates Lin Mo and Wei Zhuowei were under suspicion.

The reason the counselor paid special attention and came over in person was that the fountain pen Xue Ce had lost was quite valuable, worth several tens of thousands of yuan, and had already reached the amount where a police report could be filed.

When Xue Ce had spoken to him on the phone yesterday, he specifically emphasized that if it couldn’t be found, he would go to the nearby police station to report it. He said that although his family had money and didn’t care about this few tens of thousands, it wasn’t about the money—it was a matter of principle.

The counselor had been a little annoyed by the repeated emphasis from him.

He wasn’t a newbie anymore, and he had dealt with dorm conflicts countless times—whether in male or female dorms, cases of people not being careful with others’ things would occasionally happen.

College students were inherently concerned about their image and lacked social experience.

Xue Ce didn’t need to go to him personally. If he had just casually mentioned that his expensive pen had gone missing the night before and threatened to report it to the police, the pen would probably have been back on his desk the next day.

He was well aware of this. He knew his roommates—especially the timid ones—would be so scared just by hearing the price of the pen that they would lose their composure. 

Everyone was still new to school, and no one wanted the police showing up just days into the semester, becoming the subject of campus gossip, or even facing disciplinary action like a warning, probation, or expulsion.

But why should he show mercy? The so-called “mercy” was for people who were similar to him and with whom he might have future interactions, not for his roommates from the countryside and other areas.

Once they graduated from university, they would never have anything to do with each other again—maybe even before graduation.

He had already planned to bring up the idea of changing dorms after the counselor found the pen.

The number of male students in their major was relatively small, and although the few wealthier classmates were not exceptionally wealthy, most of them were in other dorms.

In this dorm, he had nothing in common with his roommates and looked down on those who could only afford the cafeteria food. Changing roommates was a good opportunity, especially since he could use the pen incident as an excuse to integrate into a new dorm.

“Teacher, we’ve already entered the dorm, so there’s no need to wait for everyone else.” Xue Ce didn’t care about Li Heng’s opinion.

Although he had suggested the dorm search to the counselor, in his mind, he already had his suspects.

The one who played games, with a square face, was the least likely. Then, there was the effeminate one.

In Xue Ce’s view, the most likely person to have stolen the pen was Li Heng, who had just opened the door for him.

The reason was simple.

Based on the brand of his computer and camera, it was clear that this roommate of his was vain and liked to compare himself to others, the type who tried to inflate his image. 

Xue Ce had also visited the school cafeteria. Before deciding to eat out or order private dishes, he had gone to a few cafeterias to get a feel for the average cost. Ten yuan could fill you up, twenty yuan would get you a great meal—he found the food too basic to be impressive.

He had seen Li Heng standing in line at the rice window, and noticed that his bowl had hardly any meat in it. It was likely that his family spent a lot of money on those things, even possibly dipping into their savings, leaving him with little for daily expenses.

From Wei Zhuowei’s reactions, it was clear that in order to make ends meet, Li Heng might even be making extra money by playing games as a coach.

Such a person would easily steal a valuable pen. Xue Ce could even imagine him making excuses, claiming he had an alibi. Since Li Heng had gone home on the weekend, he could easily shift the blame to the others in the dorm.

He had seen this kind of behavior many times before in high school.

“…Teacher, you may need to check some of your personal belongings. Do you have any objections?” The counselor rubbed his temples and didn’t want to make a big deal of things.

Xue Ce’s family had some connections, so after class, he rushed over without even eating, hoping to resolve the matter quickly without causing a big stir.

“Can I refuse?” 

Li Heng, having figured out what was going on, initially felt some sympathy and shock. But then, that shock quickly turned into confusion and anger.

“Xue Ce’s pen might have been lost somewhere else, or it might have been left at home. Maybe it just wasn’t noticed during the search.”

He didn’t believe Wei Zhuowei or Lin Mo would steal anything. Xue Ce had nothing to do with them, and they had never seen his pen.

“Why would we steal something from him when we’ve never had any friction with him, and none of us have even seen his pen?”

“Because I said I had a 50,000 yuan Montblanc.” Xue Ce stared at him, trying to find any signs of guilt or avoidance in his eyes. “It’s not just taking, it’s stealing.”

“Fifty thousand yuan is not much—just about my monthly allowance.” He chuckled. “But for you guys, it’s probably several months of your family’s income. If I leave it on the table, anyone who sees it might just steal it.”

“And I just happen to not be in the dorm.”

Li Heng hated Xue Ce’s baseless speculation, making accusations without any evidence, directly labeling others as thieves.

For a moment, he even felt like punching him in the face and showing him his bank balance, like his brother, Xie Sizhi, had suggested.

But he had forgotten what Xie Sizhi had recommended next. He was still weighing his options, deciding to see how Xue Ce would react.

But he refrained. Hitting someone wasn’t polite, and the counselor was present.

“Then what if the pen isn’t in our dorm?” he retorted, his voice carrying an edge. “Shouldn’t you apologize to all of us, including the counselor?”

“If the pen’s not in the dorm, then you must have taken it home on Friday night,” Xue Ce insisted. “I specifically asked the other two people before bed last night, and no one else came into our dorm.”