The real young master thought he was hated by everyone

The book eventually reached Xie Duzhi’s hands before he left.

It was Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil.

The good news was that Xie Duzhi didn’t already own the book. The bad news? He didn’t seem to like Nietzsche much.

As for why?

When Li Heng tried to probe, Xie Duzhi merely helped tidy up his messy hair, smoothing down the little tuft of hair that always stuck up, without offering much of an explanation.

He only said one thing while buttoning the last button on his shirt:

“Not everyone becomes a dragon.”

Li Heng had heard that line before, but even after thinking it over for a long time, he couldn’t figure out exactly what Xie Duzhi meant.

Even though he knew it wouldn’t affect his relationship with him whether he understood it or not, his curiosity still got the better of him.

Perhaps it was just a desire to understand him a bit more.

Later that evening, while chatting with Gu Mingyue, who was far away in the capital, Li Heng couldn’t resist asking for his interpretation.

[It’s the Moon: I don’t have proof, but I suspect he’s just showing off.]

Li Heng had a hesitant look on his face. Before he could type a few words to refute him, the message was quickly deleted.

[It’s the Moon: Maybe he just thinks it fits the image of what an older brother should be like.]

[It’s the Moon: After all, you haven’t studied philosophy. If he tried to explain a bunch of abstract metaphysical concepts, you wouldn’t understand them anyway. You might even find him long-winded. But since you want to know, brushing it off wouldn’t be good either.]

[It’s the Moon: (Confident Pig Meme.jpg)]

…Though Li Heng would never think Xie Duzhi was long-winded, and sometimes he even felt awkward because the other talked too little, Gu Mingyue’s analysis wasn’t without reason.

[Little Zhi Meow Meow: That makes sense (Thinking Cat Meme.jpg)]

[It’s the Moon: Never mind that for now. Hey, where do you want to travel?]

[It’s the Moon: We’re going to Norway for a competition this year! I’ll bring back some souvenirs for you!]

[It’s the Moon: I have a feeling you did great on your exams!]

Gu Mingyue listed a bunch of scenic places in China and nearby regions, even suggesting they could go to Japan to watch the fireworks, but in the end, no decision was made.

Every place mentioned, Li Heng rejected one by one.

The highlands and beaches would give him a tan, there might be geological disasters in the southwest, the mountains would be windy, the rainforest had too many bugs, Japan had a language barrier, and the people there weren’t particularly friendly…

In short, he wanted to go everywhere but felt nowhere was quite right.

Still, it wasn’t just Gu Mingyue who had a feeling Li Heng would do well on his exams.

Li Heng himself had a vague sense that he had performed pretty well, perhaps even exceptionally well.

Since finishing the exam, whether out of superstition or genuine belief in the mysterious power of the supernatural, his parents had invited many fortune-tellers and masters to the house to inquire about his exam results.

There was a shaman who could supposedly communicate with the gods, a fortune-teller skilled in Liu Ren divination, and a blind Daoist who was good at face reading…

And all of them gave the same prediction: the results would exceed expectations.

So on the day the results were released, everyone in the family seemed more nervous than Li Heng, the one who had actually taken the college entrance exam.

Multiple computers and phones were refreshing the exam results website at the same time, trying every available channel to check the scores again and again.

Even his usually composed father, who could remain calm even in the face of a collapsing mountain, had gathered in front of one computer with his eldest brother.

By the way, it was Xie Duzhi who was operating the computer.

Through the reflection on the screen protector, Li Heng could vaguely see the young man’s serious expression and his furrowed brows.

The website was unbearably slow.

In contrast, Li Heng seemed the calmest of them all—if you ignored the Siamese cat sleeping peacefully in his room, completely indifferent to the whole ordeal.

The score finally came out: 587, ranking just over 9,000, close to 10,000.

Perhaps it was because the exam papers were especially difficult this year.

Mrs. Xie was the first to find out the score. When she saw the message, she instinctively covered her mouth and accidentally dropped her phone.

But no one cared about the phone.

Before he even had time to react, he was already being hugged tightly by her, who was as giddy as a young girl, and then lifted off the ground by Xie Sizhi, who spun him around several times.

“Our baby is amazing!” he heard his second brother say. “A genius!”

Li Heng felt a bit embarrassed by all the praise.

The truth was, he just got lucky. The last three notoriously difficult and tricky math problems happened to be ones he had encountered before and was familiar with.

And he had to thank Gu Mingyue, who was currently in grueling training.

“It was just luck. I happened to know the questions,” he tried to stay humble amidst all the praise. “And my teachers and Mingyue also…”

“Luck is part of skill.”

Even Xie Shenzhi said this, his tone firm:

“You did incredibly well.”

“…” Could it be that he really was a little genius, and he just hadn’t realized it?

In the end, Li Heng couldn’t resist and drifted off into a blissful sleep that night.

The next morning, he was woken up by the lively discussions of various experts on college application strategies downstairs.

With the decision to stay in S City already made, the debate now was whether to prioritize choosing a major or choosing a school. The experts were divided into two camps, their arguments becoming so heated that it almost escalated into physical conflict.

“Choosing a management major is the best option, whether considering the child’s future career prospects or personal development. And if we consider joint programs with foreign universities, we can aim for even higher-tier schools…”

“With this score, staying in the city, you can get into a decent school. We should definitely prioritize the school.”

Li Heng stood on the stairs, listening for a while. Already without much of a plan for his future, he became even more confused.

Previously, he had obediently followed his homeroom teacher’s suggestion and applied for a math education major, as his teacher had said that even if he couldn’t find a job after graduation, he could always return to school to become a teacher.

And he had indeed been accepted into a math education program.

But the experts downstairs had been discussing for a long time, and no one had mentioned education, as if it wasn’t a good choice.

Hesitating for a moment, he decided to go back to sleep and wait for them to reach a conclusion.

Before he could turn back, Mr. Xie, who was seated downstairs, called him over, and he had no choice but to go down. He was sandwiched between his parents, one on each side.

“What do you want to study, Little Darling?” Mrs. Xie pulled him closer to her side, so he wouldn’t be influenced by the furrowed brow of her husband sitting nearby.

“You don’t have to stay in S City if you don’t want to.” She had originally wanted her youngest son to stay in the city for university because of her fear—fear of not being able to hold on to him and not being acknowledged by him.

“Is there a city you like? If you want to go somewhere else, we can arrange for you to study there.” She continued, “If the family doesn’t have a business in that city, I’ll go there and start one.”

“S City is fine,” Li Heng shook his head. “I want to stay in S City.”

He never really had a dream university or a city he wanted to settle in.

Although, when he first arrived in S City last year, his initial impression wasn’t great—he thought it was too big, there were too many people, and everyone seemed like strangers with the same indifferent expressions. The pace of life was so fast that he couldn’t adapt.

But now, he had learned how to live at that pace, and he had made friends here.

More importantly, his family was here.

If he stayed in S City, he could see them regularly instead of waiting until the holidays.

Besides, he had his own little plan—by staying in S City, he could save some time during the holidays to visit the orphanage and see the director more often.

“Then it’s S City,” Mr. Xie made the final decision.

After speaking, he hesitated for a rare moment, then added, “What do you want to study in the future?”

As soon as he asked, Mr. Xie regretted it, thinking his wife would have been better suited to ask that question.

He felt like he wouldn’t get much out of asking himself.

All of the kids were a bit afraid of him and didn’t want to get too close to him. They preferred to talk to their mother about things—this was true for both the eldest and the third.

The eldest and the third would seek him out occasionally, but only to discuss business matters.

His youngest son, though closest to him, hadn’t been so since he was very young.

So much time had passed that it was questionable whether that bond still existed.

“I was admitted to the education program,” Li Heng answered softly, feeling inexplicably nervous. “My second brother asked me about it before, but I wasn’t sure.”

He thought for a moment, “I think I could do anything, really?”

No matter what major he chose, he would study hard.

“Being a teacher is good too,” Mrs. Xie mused. She thought becoming a teacher wouldn’t be a bad path. “I’ll transfer some shares of the private school over tomorrow, and maybe acquire a bit more. Once you graduate, you can teach there, and no one will dare to bully you.”

No matter which major he chose, whether it was education, management, or even landscape architecture, he would always have a share of the family business. After graduating, he could take on a light position in the company, live happily, and pursue whatever he wanted.

From the time he was still swaddled in blankets, Xie Zhuwei had never intended for his son to become some extraordinary figure.

He only wanted him to be safe and happy, always their little boy.

He felt the urge to smoke, but seeing the college counselors and his family in front of him, he resisted.

“…Study whatever you want,” he said, knowing it was an utterly meaningless remark, earning a playful glance from his wife.

“What if he decides to study civil engineering? You’ll be the one worrying later on,” she teased.

Xie Zhuwei suddenly wanted to smoke even more.

“If Xie Heng doesn’t have a particular interest in any major, he can spend the next few days researching online, looking up different options,” one of the teachers, who wore glasses and seemed quite authoritative, suggested. “The schools haven’t released their official cutoff scores yet, and the application period hasn’t started, so there’s no rush.”

Mrs. Xie agreed, thinking it made sense. She told him not to worry and take his time.

“We could also invite professionals from various fields to the house. They can tell you about their jobs or take you to their workplaces and teach you how things are done.”

She was so proactive that she even made a schedule, one that could be implemented immediately if Li Heng nodded in agreement.

However, before that plan could begin, an unexpected piece of good news caused it to be indefinitely postponed.

Mrs. Xie’s closest friend from her school days—someone with whom she had even become godparents after they both started families and had once been neighbors—had decided to return to China to develop her career.