The real young master thought he was hated by everyone

When they arrived at the hotel, Li Heng started feeling his usual tension again.

He discreetly glanced at Xie Duzhi, who was standing beside him. His expression was calm, his gaze naturally and attentively focused on the increasingly bright view of the river outside the transparent elevator, as if he were detached from the situation, completely unaffected by this family reunion.

The elevator stopped on the thirty-ninth floor.

Apart from Xie Duzhi and him, everyone else was already seated at the table.

Li Heng took a deep breath, standing nervously at the entrance of the private room, unsure of which foot to step in with first, and feeling awkward for being a little late.

“You must be hungry, let’s eat first,” Mrs. Xie said with a warm smile, beckoning him over with a kind tone. “Where’s Uncle Fu?”

Xie Duzhi was supposed to bring the butler, but he had refused, citing the need to tidy up the room, and only asked him to bring the cake along.

Before Li Heng could find the words, Xie Duzhi had already sat down next to Mrs. Xie and shook his head. “Uncle Fu didn’t want to come.”

Before Li Heng’s brain could fully process, he had already sat down right next to him, sandwiched between him and Xie Sizhi.

…Now he was even more nervous and didn’t know how to greet them.

When they met formally in his dream, the scene was chaotic. Everyone, including himself, was too busy worrying about Xie Duzhi’s injury, and the rest of the meeting felt less important.

He blushed deeply, managing only a quiet “Good evening.”

Mrs. Xie lovingly placed a piece of braised pork into his bowl and reminded him to eat more.

Then, Mr. Xie also began adding food to his bowl, this time a rib.

He thanked them awkwardly but soon found that his bowl had turned into a battlefield. Each of them kept adding food, quickly filling his bowl to the brim like a small mountain.

He couldn’t thank them fast enough.

Finally, the last piece of food added to the mountain was a duck leg, given by Xie Sizhi.

“Little one,” he said with a teasing smile, his peach blossom eyes full of playfulness. “I just gave you the only leg on the table, so shouldn’t you thank your second brother especially?”

Before he could respond, Xie Shenzhi, who had the same face as his twin brother but with a completely different demeanor, elbowed him hard, chastising him for being improper.

Then Li Heng saw the eldest brother, whose expressionless face was hard to describe as kind, looking at him.

“You can call me ‘big brother,’ just Xie Shenzhi is fine,” he said, offering a somewhat awkward smile.

This self-introduction was so sudden that Li Heng wasn’t prepared at all. “O-Okay.”

For a moment, he thought he saw a hint of regret on Xie Shenzhi’s usually impassive face.

Mrs. Xie discreetly pinched her palm to stop herself from calling out her youngest son’s nickname.

“Xiao Heng… Is it okay if I call you that?”

When she heard the news, she had been the most excited. But now, seeing him in person, now that the clouds had parted and she could finally see the sun, she suddenly felt unsure, her tone inevitably carrying a touch of caution. “Did Qin tell you anything on the way?”

“I’m your…” Mom.

Li Heng already knew.

He even knew each person’s likes and dislikes, including their favorite dishes.

Perhaps because their initial meeting had left such a bad impression, for a long time afterward, he only dared to secretly call Mrs. Xie and Mr. Xie “Mom” and “Dad” in his heart. Most of the time, he even avoided it, using “you” as a formal term instead.

Then there were his two brothers, Xie Shenzhi and Xie Sizhi.

Xie Shenzhi was always busy and rarely came home more than once a week. He was cold toward him.

Compared to Xie Sizhi’s blatant disdain and contempt, this coldness seemed almost gentle.

He remembered one time when he happened to be downstairs and helped bring up coffee for Xie Shenzhi, who had stayed up late working. Xie Shenzhi had just frowned at him and the coffee in his hand before closing the door.

“Don’t do unnecessary things,” he warned him, but in the next moment, he was asking Xie Duzhi, who was studying in the room, if he wanted him to make some milk.

From that moment on, Li Heng knew that, in the hearts of both of his brothers, he would always be the outsider.

For a moment, he found it difficult to connect the cautious and hopeful faces of the Xie family in front of him with the cold and resentful faces from his dream.

In a daze, he thought that maybe this reunion was just a dream. Maybe, in reality, he was lying on the small bed at the construction site, burning up with a fever.

He pressed his lips together and softly called out the word that had circled in his mind countless times.

Even if this is a dream, he thought, it’s such a beautiful dream. What harm is there in holding onto it a little longer?

Mrs. Xie’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears. She softly replied with a tender “Yes,” quickly lowering her head to wipe her tears before pretending nothing had happened and serving him another bowl of soup. “You must be starving after the long trip. Eat more.”

Li Heng didn’t have the heart to tell her that he had already eaten rice balls and oden from a convenience store.

He had never felt so full as he did tonight—especially when, after the waitstaff cleared all the dishes, they brought out several desserts along with the strawberry cake they had brought from the Xie family home.

The cake was unevenly cut into six pieces, two of which were large enough to take up half the cake, while the remaining four were squeezed into the other half.

Before he could reach out, the others had already quickly divided the cake.

Only the two larger pieces remained.

Smiling, Mrs. Xie pushed the one with more strawberries toward him, looking delighted. “Uncle Fu said you like sweets too, just like me.”

Even though he was already stuffed, for some reason, when he met her kind eyes, crinkled at the corners with a gentle smile, he felt like he could still make room for the cake.

So, mimicking her smile, he gave a heavy “Mm” and started eating the fresh strawberries on the cake with utmost seriousness.

He didn’t eat fast, taking only small bites at a time, like a kitten.

But the Xie family never lacked patience when it came to waiting. In fact, they wished he would eat even more slowly.

“Tomorrow, I’ll have Ah Qin go and pack your things. How about that?”

Mrs. Xie asked the servers to clear away the desserts. “I’ll take you shopping for clothes.”

Although Li Heng was dressed neatly and appropriately, with a cloud-patterned short-sleeved shirt that matched his gentle temperament, as a mother, she wanted to give him the very best.

The Xie family never lacked money. Rather than buying luxury ready-to-wear, they preferred custom-made clothes.

Measurements had already been taken earlier in the afternoon, and the clothes would take time to make. They would likely arrive with the new seasonal collection next week. In the meantime, she couldn’t let her youngest son, who had just come home, go without proper clothes to wear.

After all, even her eldest son, who wasn’t very particular about fashion, had several wardrobes in his room.

And birthdays—

Every year on April 24th, she would prepare a birthday gift, hoping that one day she could finally give them all to him.

From remote-controlled drones to an imperial jade peace charm, from gemstone brooches to unlimited credit cards, even the naming rights to an asteroid… However, now that he was truly standing in front of her, she felt that none of it was enough.

If only they had found him sooner. Then they would have had more time to prepare. They could have welcomed him home with a grand birthday party instead of the hasty and unprepared way they had done, without even having invitations ready, let alone other arrangements.

Duzhi should have told them as soon as he found out.

How could a mother not recognize her own child?

There was no need to wait for any DNA test results. The moment the boy stood in front of her, she only needed one glance to know for sure that this was her son.

She paused, realizing that her idea might be too sudden, and worried that it would scare the boy who had little emotional preparation.

He had no idea how much they had missed him or how hard they had searched for him all these years.

Mrs. Xie also wouldn’t let him know, for fear of burdening him.

Her little one only needed to be safe and happy—that was all that mattered.

“Mommy’s missing a necklace,” she finally said with a smile. “Will you come with me to pick one?”

In his dream, this was something he didn’t even dare hope for. Li Heng was already eager to agree, so how could he possibly refuse her?

Still, before he opened his mouth, he hesitated, swallowing his words several times before finally making up his mind.

His eyelashes trembled, and he unconsciously shifted his gaze to the window.

“Mom… Can I stay in my old place for now?”