The real young master thought he was hated by everyone

It wasn’t until he saw the figure that he realized it wasn’t that he couldn’t remember that face. 

On the contrary, it was so deeply ingrained that it evoked fear.

The uncertainty he had felt upon meeting **Xie Duzhi** after being recognized by the Xie family wasn’t due to forgetfulness, but rather the impression being so strong that it made him doubt himself.

He no longer had any thoughts left to consider whether he’d board at school or not. 

The many forgotten details from his dreams that he had tried so hard to avoid thinking about suddenly surged forward like waves, wrapping around him like seaweed—damp, sticky, slowly suffocating him.

Instinctively, he clenched Mrs. Xie’s  hand.

“…What’s wrong, sweetheart?” she reflexively tightened her grip, noticing his expression and pausing in surprise.

His face was pale, his lips bloodless, and his pupils trembled uneasily—he looked completely out of sorts.

Mrs. Xie quickly replayed in her mind what she had just said, wondering if anything she mentioned might have frightened him.

“Your second brother was just joking,” her voice softened considerably. “There’s no large plot of land next to the school.”

What **Xie Sizhi** had actually said earlier was: “Since First High is so close to the university town, we might as well move the whole family over there so he won’t have to commute when he starts college.”

“N-no, it’s nothing.” Out of some instinct, Li Heng quickly denied it. “I just suddenly thought about the exams, and I got a bit nervous.”

He didn’t dare meet her gaze and instead found his attention drawn back to the figure on the TV screen.

Mrs. Xie’s suspicion grew, but just as she was about to comfort him, her peripheral vision caught something on the screen, and her own attention shifted.

“…Isn’t that?”

Before the image changed, she quickly pressed the pause button on the remote. Of course, she also did this partly to divert Li Heng’s attention.

The screen froze on a close-up shot from the cameraman. Under the lights, the young man’s skin was milky white, his smile sweet, and the golden shimmer beneath his eyes sparkled like a fairytale prince, pure and untouched by the world.

“Second son, come over here and take a look!” Mrs. Xie waved at **Xie Sizhi**, who had been feeling guilty and was preparing to sneak away. “Isn’t this… that kid from your aunt’s family?”

“Who?” Xie Sizhi came back, casting a glance at the TV.

He frowned subtly, “**Bai Ruan**?”

“He became a celebrity?”

“Yes, yes, that’s him—the one your aunt adopted. I even saw him during New Year’s.”

With that reminder, Mrs. Xie finally remembered the boy’s name on the screen. She complained lightly about her own memory, “I think he’s even younger than our little one by a few months.”

Why wasn’t he focusing on his studies and instead running off to join the entertainment industry?

It wasn’t that she looked down on it—after all, there are countless ways to succeed. However, being part of the older generation, with a more conservative mindset, she still believed that studying and completing one’s education should come first.

“…Bai Ruan?” Li Heng unconsciously repeated the name, his pronunciation slightly sharper than usual.

After the initial fear, his emotions had mostly calmed down.

A dream was just a dream; reality was reality.

The love and care from his parents, brothers, and others were not illusions—he could feel and distinguish that clearly.

But there was still a small knot in his heart, a lingering fear of that person.

“Yes, his name is **Bai Ruan**. He was adopted by your aunt—your mother’s cousin,” Mrs. Xie explained. “I remember she wasn’t in good health and couldn’t have children of her own.”

That’s what she said, though Mrs. Xie didn’t have much of an impression of this nephew named Bai Ruan. The Bai family was large, with plenty of good-looking younger members. She only knew of him in passing and hadn’t made any effort to learn more.

After all, it was someone else’s family business.

Xie Sizhi, however, knew a lot more about the situation—not because he was nosy, but because he had a lot of friends. 

When you have many friends, you tend to hear gossip, especially in casual conversations, and sometimes the gossip even involves your own family.

Mrs. Xie’s younger sister, Bai Wei, and her husband, who had married into the Bai family, were a well-known couple in their social circle.

“It’s not that my aunt wasn’t healthy,” Xie Sizhi couldn’t resist his urge to gossip, “it’s that my uncle has weak sperm.”

“Mom, didn’t you know? Ever since that was discovered, they’ve been living separate lives. Plus, my aunt…”

His dear aunt was nothing like her delicate name suggested. She was fiercely competitive, always trying to imitate everything their family did, like some reincarnated rabbit spirit.

Even adopting a child and building a charitable reputation—she had to find the same orphanage as theirs.

“…Second son, enough!” Mrs. Xie quickly interrupted, “Your little brother is still here.”

Don’t talk about such sordid things.

“What? He is an adult now. What’s wrong with hearing a little gossip?”

Xie Sizhi widened his eyes in disbelief. “Mom, if you shelter him too much from the ugliness of the world, he’ll be easily deceived in the future!”

Mrs. Xie: “…”

Was that what she meant? What she had actually wanted was for him to speak more appropriately, to stop blurting out things that weren’t really suitable for the conversation.

Li Heng was a little confused by the conversation but managed to grasp the general idea.

**Bai Ruan**, the “Xie Duzhi” who appeared in his dreams, was the child adopted by his aunt—due to some issues in the marriage.

He guessed that perhaps both families had adopted children from the same orphanage, but chose different children.

In the dream, it was his aunt who had adopted Xie Duzhi, while his family adopted Bai Ruan, which led to everything that happened later.

Reality was the reverse.

Still, a small doubt lingered in his heart.

In the dream, even though he wasn’t very welcome, he was still allowed to visit relatives during the New Year. So why hadn’t he ever seen Xie Duzhi?

“No matter what, your aunt is still your aunt,” Mrs. Xie sighed. “Kids may not know all the dirty details between adults.”

“Maybe next year, Li Heng will even get along with him and make a friend.”

The grudges of the older generation belong to them; what do they have to do with the kids?

She gave an example, not taking the gossip Xie Sizhi had shared seriously. “Just like how your father and I don’t get along with Uncle Lin, but you and Little Lin are good friends.”

Xie Sizhi was disgusted by this comparison. “Which eye of yours saw that I have a good relationship with Lin Wen?”

“And I wasn’t talking badly about my aunt—all of it is true.”

He grumbled, “She really does copy everything our family does, trying to outdo us in every way. Like they say, when the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam follows…”

In any case, he didn’t think his precious little brother would ever be friends with that phony Bai Ruan who smiled so insincerely on the screen, someone like that was obviously full of tricks.

And even if it were possible, as his big brother, he wouldn’t allow it.

“Xie Sizhi,” Mrs. Xie’s expression suddenly turned stern, her tone serious.

“Is this how I’ve raised you? To gossip and make baseless assumptions about others?”

She was genuinely upset.

“I agree with second brother.”

The previously silent Xie Duzhi suddenly spoke up, “Bai Ruan is not suitable to be a friend.”

At least, not for their little brother.

Mrs. Xie was taken aback by this unexpected opposition and felt a strange sense of frustration. “When did I ever say…”

That they should be friends?

“I used to be in the same orphanage as him,” Xie Duzhi said indifferently.

“…What?” Mrs. Xie hadn’t known this detail.

Her anger quickly dissipated as the conversation took a new turn.

“I was just about to mention that,”

Xie Sizhi muttered as he walked back over, sitting next to Li Heng and pulling him into his arms, “Li Heng is so well-behaved, if someone tricky like that deceived him, he’d probably think it was his own fault.”

“…I’m not that easy to trick,” Li Heng instinctively protested, though his weak resistance was quickly squashed.

Xie Sizhi ruffled his hair hard, leaving no room for debate, “Yes, you are.”

“…”

Li Heng tried to look to his second brother, who was sitting on the side, for some reassurance.

But he found that Xie Duzhi nodded in agreement as well.

“He’s very good at creating situations to get what he wants.”

There was a hint of disgust in his voice. “He wanted someone else’s toy bear, so he persuaded the owner to bring it to craft class, where he ‘accidentally’ caused another kid to cut it with scissors, leaving several deep marks.”

The bear was torn, with its stuffing showing. It no longer looked as cute and endearing as before, so naturally, the owner would start to dislike it and throw it away, using the excuse of not wanting to be laughed at for having a broken toy when everyone else’s toys were in good condition.

Bai Ruan ended up with the bear he wanted and took the torn-up teddy to the orphanage director.

Because he was seen as frugal and valuing his possessions, not only did he get the toy bear stitched up with an added bow, but he was also rewarded with a brand-new puzzle.

As for the original owner of the bear… Xie Duzhi couldn’t quite remember what happened to them, maybe they were scolded, or maybe they were punished with some extra chores.

At the time, he hadn’t paid much attention to what was happening around him. He only noticed Bai Ruan because he had used these kinds of little tricks on him before.

“…And then what?” Li Heng didn’t quite follow.

But Xie Duzhi didn’t continue.

He was interrupted by Xie Sizhi, who ruffled his hair again and said firmly, “Did you hear that? Stay away from kids with too many schemes.”

Mrs. Xie seemed deep in thought.

She didn’t immediately label the other boy as bad, keeping her own judgment reserved.

Her thoughts shifted instead to her own child’s experiences, and her heart ached at the realization.

The orphanage where Xie Duzhi had stayed was one of the most famous, yet even there, children had to resort to cleverness and manipulation just to get a toy bear.

How much harder must it have been for her own precious Little One, growing up in a remote town all these years?

“…Well, it’s not like you’ll see each other more than once a year,” she didn’t want to continue the topic. “If Li Heng wants to make friends, that’s his choice. We don’t need to worry about it.”

What Xie Duzhi didn’t mention was that at the time, **Mr. Xie** had actually leaned toward adopting Bai Ruan.

A successful young businessman, Mr. Xie had approached the orphanage director with his request, hoping to be shown well-behaved children who would be liked by adults.

And in the eyes of the director and the other adults, the best-behaved, most obedient, and prettiest child in the orphanage was Bai Ruan.

Of course, he didn’t think there was even the slightest resemblance between the so-called “well-behaved and obedient” Bai Ruan and the boy sitting in front of him now.

After all, imitation gems can never compare to real pearls.