The real young master thought he was hated by everyone

“Your second brother here follows the law, is upright, and has excellent self-control. How could I possibly go as far as hitting someone with a car just to stick up for you?”

A look that could only be described as one of humiliation crossed Xie Sizhi’s face, and if you looked closely, you might even see a hint of embarrassment. There was no trace of the tired, half-asleep look he’d had just moments ago.

“Second brother, I was just asking if you’ve heard any rumors or gossip from your friends these past few days,” Li Heng said, startled by Xie Sizhi’s clearly exaggerated reaction. He quickly added another sentence before Xie Sizhi could answer. “But you did look like someone who got caught doing something bad and is refusing to admit it.”

“That’s exactly what he’s like,” Xie Duzhi added calmly, dealing another blow. “You can ask Mom tonight—he was the same way whenever he got caught skipping class.”

“…”

Xie Sizhi ground his molars silently. “Thanks so much for coming all the way here just to insult me, third brother.”

Li Heng couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing.

As he laughed, he defended Xie Duzhi, “Third brother wasn’t doubting you, he just…”

“Alright, you don’t need to say anything more.” Xie Sizhi made a stop gesture with his hand. “Second brother knows your heart is with third brother.”

Realizing he might indeed be leaning a bit towards Xie Duzhi, Li Heng decided to stay silent and directly change the subject. “So, second brother, have you heard anything or not?”

“No.”

Xie Sizhi returned to his earlier, uninterested state, sounding a little exasperated. “That classmate of yours is a nobody in our circles. How would I know if he offended someone?”

“Besides, he might have just not been watching where he was going when he got hit by the car. Traffic accidents are pretty common during the holidays—”

Xie Sizhi rolled his eyes.

“Honestly, college students these days are getting more and more boring.”

No matter how he looked at it, this seemed like a pure accident to him. “With your situation, it’s already a miracle if people don’t look down on you, and here you are spinning some revenge plot out of nothing.”

“Second brother!”

Li Heng glared at him fiercely.

What did he mean by “if people don’t look down on you”? He had never been looked down upon!

“I’m here, I’m here.” Xie Sizhi told him to lower his voice. “Mom’s home today—watch out, or she’ll hear and come over.”

In truth, the soundproofing in the small garden wasn’t that bad. Xie Sizhi only said that because he found it amusing.

“And besides, your brother wasn’t wrong.”

He comfortably leaned back in his lounge chair and crossed his legs. “Do you believe that if it were me, your roommate would be totally obedient from the first day of school? If I said it was a horse, he wouldn’t dare call it a deer.”

Li Heng was at a loss for words. “…Why are you so proud of that, second brother?”

And he looked like he’d had a lot of practice.

“Of course, because I have a reason to be proud,” Xie Sizhi said shamelessly. “Back in my college days…”

“Okay, okay, I know you were impressive in college and had a bunch of followers.”

Li Heng quickly covered his ears, not wanting to hear more. “And besides your followers, you also had a failed relationship.”

“…”

That’s not how you poke at someone’s scars. If he weren’t Li Heng’s brother, Xie Sizhi might have tossed him out of the garden room right then and there.

He definitely didn’t look as friendly when he turned to Xie Duzhi.

Xie Duzhi was clearly trying not to laugh.

“Heng coming to me is one thing, but what are you doing here?” Xie Sizhi asked, raising his eyelids slightly. “Aren’t you supposed to be working?”

Even if he himself wasn’t in much of a position to criticize, he still felt the need to point out that Xie Duzhi had been slacking off more than a little compared to the past.

From his previous schedule—where a day off meant working from home, and he was on call 365 days a year—he now reliably returned home every weekend, spending his time either reading on the couch or hanging out in the cat room.

Oh, and moments like this, standing with the youngest member of the family, either playing games or dropping by to give him company.

“There’s no expansion going on recently,” Xie Duzhi said calmly, completely unfazed by the attack. “Besides, I have something to discuss with you.”

“It’s about the same matter,” Li Heng added, trailing behind him. “Third brother also thinks this might not have been an accident.”

“If it wasn’t an accident, then what was it?” Xie Sizhi rolled his eyes so high they nearly hit the ceiling. He felt the two of them were just being overly suspicious.

Especially Xie Duzhi.

In his eyes, it was all straightforward. Li Heng’s former roommate had been hit by a car, which only proved the guy had terrible luck and an even worse personality—he must have done some nasty things in the past.

Even if it had been intentional, at most, someone would have dragged him into an alley and given him a good beating, not staged a car accident.

There simply weren’t that many people willing to break the law like that.

Of course, another big reason was that Xie Sizhi figured if even he wouldn’t casually arrange a car accident, nobody else would dare either. After all, in all of S City—or even nationwide—there weren’t many families wealthier than theirs.

“If people want to say you’re ruthless, let them say it. It doesn’t actually impact you.”

He yawned. “Your teachers aren’t going to lower your grades because of this or mess with your GPA, so why worry about it?”

“Didn’t you tell me before that there were quite a few students from other colleges sitting in on your classes just to get a glimpse of you? Now it’s even better—they won’t interrupt your classes or secretly write gossip on the forums. They’ll keep their distance, admiring you from afar without daring to get too close…”

The more he talked, the more it seemed like this could be a blessing in disguise, and he even got a little excited.

“Be good, tell me if your second brother’s analysis isn’t spot-on. Even if your school, or possibly other schools, are gossiping about this and imagining our family as having connections in both the underworld and the legitimate world…”

At this point, he paused, then declared emphatically, “Second brother believes that there will always be a kind and gentle girl, unshaken by rumors, who will understand you and make the firm choice to be with you!”

He even gave a thumbs-up, winking and grinning mischievously.

Li Heng: “……”

The young man’s face remained expressionless as he directly threw a punch at his older brother’s stomach, followed by a few hard stomps, still unsatisfied.

He wasn’t concerned about the rumors right now—he just wanted to figure out if this was truly an accident or if someone had taken the opportunity to do something shady.

Xie Sizhi gasped in pain, teeth bared, repeatedly crying out. Although he exaggerated a bit for show, those kicks really weren’t light.

“I didn’t say anything wrong,” he insisted, not showing any intention to reflect, even getting more cocky, clicking his tongue, “Isn’t this the kind of drama lots of girls like these days?”

“You seem to know a lot about it,” Xie Duzhi observed thoughtfully, finally breaking his silence.

“…Not really, it’s just that I heard someone mention it the other day when we were out. His girlfriend likes that kind of thing.” Xie Sizhi’s expression was uncomfortable for a second. “You know, that guy who’s always asking me to go drinking.”

But given how vague he was, and how many people had asked him out for drinks, Li Heng honestly had no idea who he meant.

“But you, my dear brother, really can’t take a joke anymore,” Xie Sizhi shrugged, changing the subject quickly.

“If you two think there’s something off about this whole thing and want me to help dig around, you need to give me a more concrete reason.”

His joking tone faded, replaced with a more serious one as he adjusted his posture.

“There are so many small companies like his in S City. Even if I know your ex-roommate’s last name is Xue and that his family’s in foreign trade, looking into whether they provoked someone they shouldn’t have won’t be easy.”

But by “not easy,” he didn’t mean in terms of finding trouble or the time and effort it would take—he meant the social favors it would require.

Each circle has its own entry threshold, but there aren’t always clear lines. Someone at the top of one group might just be at the bottom of theirs, and eventually, you’ll find someone familiar with the Xue family.

Especially since the Xu family is involved in that line of business. At least seven out of ten companies in the industry want to cozy up to them, making Xu Zhiyuan an invaluable asset. So if they really wanted to investigate, it could be done.

The tricky part was that Xie Sizhi wasn’t too keen on lowering himself.

He’d just unilaterally cut ties with his own group of drinking buddies a few days ago, announcing his retirement and going so far as to block numbers and social media accounts. To go crawling back now, asking about so-called gossip, was a hard pill to swallow.

“So, little brother, do you just want to clear your name, or do you actually feel bad for that guy and want justice for him?” he asked, half-joking.

“Neither. I just think it’s really odd.”

Li Heng explained his reasoning while also complaining, “…If you hadn’t been joking around this whole time, I would’ve gotten to the point already.”

“Right, Third Brother?” he turned, looking for backup.

Xie Duzhi, who had been quiet, nodded in agreement.

By now, he had already figured out why Xie Sizhi was acting out of character but chose not to reveal his thoughts just yet.

“There are two things about this that don’t add up,” Li Heng began, organizing his thoughts. “One is the direction of the discussion on the school forum. The other is Xue Ce’s injuries.”

He had wanted to explain the second point earlier, when his brother was still insisting it was just an “accident.”

“The forum might be easier to understand—there are moderators who delete posts and monitor the overall tone, so typically, overly harsh comments won’t stay up. But our school also has an anonymous confession board.”

And he was pretty sure his second brother knew exactly what kind of place that was.

“What’s strange is that neither I nor Mingyue saw many extreme comments about me.”

He pointed out what had been bugging him, “When you almost hit someone, you got ripped apart online. But me? There’s barely a word of scolding under those posts about me ‘hiring someone to run someone over.’”

“At most, people think I went too far, that my methods are ruthless, that I’m a ‘you-know-who,’ and they say it’s better to keep a distance from me, just to avoid provoking me someday.”

“But as for Xue Ce? He’s totally deserving, reaping what he sowed.”

If not for those posts, he wouldn’t even have known that Xue Ce, after transferring to another hospital, had offended so many people and done such unpleasant things.

According to reliable sources, he had even used shady methods to get a girlfriend and then threatened her to engage in certain activities.

To prove his point, he pulled up some saved screenshots and showed them to Xie Sizhi, “Take a look at this, Second Brother.”

He’d originally taken those screenshots for Xie Duzhi, who didn’t have access to their school forum. Now, they were proving useful again.

“And I kept track of the timestamps on these posts—they started appearing almost as soon as Xue Ce filed for medical leave.”

After that, it was only later that Gu Mingyue shared that post about some “Li Tao.”

Xie Sizhi stroked his chin thoughtfully, “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, though. It just proves your ex-roommate was a scumbag who took most of the heat off you.”

“That’s exactly the point,” Xie Duzhi finally interjected.

When someone who should be seen solely as a victim turns out to be far from innocent, and instead is playing multiple roles, the focus shifts away from them as a victim. People start linking together unrelated events, viewing them through a different lens.

At that point, “victim blaming” becomes the mainstream narrative, and any harm they suffered is seen as deserved, while the perpetrator conveniently fades into the background.

If it weren’t for Gu Mingyue sharing that thread with him, jokingly asking during their voice chat how much his family’s PR department was getting paid, he might have left it at just feeling uneasy without digging deeper.

“Are you saying someone’s been using PR tactics to divert attention?” Xie Sizhi raised his eyebrows, finally catching on.

It did seem like classic PR, but he couldn’t think of any real necessity for it.

First off, their parents clearly didn’t know about this—if they were paying attention to school forums, his little crush back then would’ve been long exposed, and he’d have no privacy.

Xie Shenzhi might know, but even if he did, his approach would definitely not involve hiring a PR team. He’d call a family meeting, first eliminating any internal suspects, and if proven baseless, he’d send out legal threats or sue—not exactly subtle.

As for himself? He’d long since given up such under-the-table tactics.

“Third Brother, maybe you did it and just forgot?” Xie Sizhi suggested with feigned sincerity.

Xie Duzhi shot him a meaningful look but remained silent.

“I’m just joking, trying to lighten the mood.” Xie Sizhi quickly backtracked.

“Even if it was a PR maneuver, it could’ve been someone else Xue Ce pissed off, someone who wanted to ruin his reputation entirely.”

“I’ll reserve judgment for now.” He said this, but barely a few seconds later, he suddenly spoke with a hint of suspicion: “Sweetie, you haven’t met any other good brothers or sisters outside, have you…?”

What if this was done by someone else who wanted to stand up for his brother? It wasn’t entirely out of the question. After all, his precious little brother was so adorable. Every time they went out drinking or racing, there was always someone asking why he didn’t bring their “little brother” along.

Just listen: “our little brother.” They’d barely met a few times, but they already thought of themselves as family. If that wasn’t lovable, what was?

Li Heng really didn’t want to pay him any mind, feeling speechless and starting to regret ever going to his second brother for help.

Xie Sizhi was off on a tangent again.

“Didn’t you introduce me to a lot of brothers before, and even a few sisters?” He shot Xie Sizhi an exasperated look.

“…Then maybe I should ask Xu Zhiyuan if he had anything to do with this?” Xie Sizhi seized the opportunity, successfully shifting the topic a bit further away.

Of course, he was just saying that—there was no way he would actually contact Xu Zhiyuan.

He had just painfully deleted his contact yesterday.

Li Heng ignored him and continued with his own pace, taking the teacup from Xie Duzhi’s hand as he did.

“And another point—the injuries.”

Since they were former roommates, when their department organized a visit to their classmate in the hospital, they had also invited the members of their dormitory.

To avoid suspicion, and because it would indeed be very awkward, Li Heng feigned having some other responsibilities during evening study and declined the invitation.

However, Wei Zhuowei went, because he didn’t want to attend the evening study session.

Even if he was just playing games on his phone during study hall, the classroom itself gave off a vibe that he didn’t like.

Wei came back to the dormitory looking mysterious and even called him out to the balcony.

“Sorry, Heng, I wasn’t firm in my stance before, and I wronged you.” When he apologized, Wei Zhuowei looked genuinely sincere. “Xue Ce exaggerated his injuries to gain sympathy.”

When Li Heng pressed for more details, he learned that even though the group went to visit Xue Ce, they hadn’t actually seen him. They were stopped outside the hospital room, and their fruit and flowers were handed over to the medical staff.

Because he had taken the entire evening off, Wei Zhuowei wasn’t in a rush to leave and played a level of the latest Goddess series game on his handheld console in the hospital.

He happened to encounter Xue Ce in the hospital restroom, but Xue Ce didn’t notice him, seemingly preoccupied with a phone call.

He looked nothing like the image in the forum photo—covered in bandages, casts, and with a broken arm.

One of his hands was swollen, but it didn’t seem to hinder him much, and his upper body appeared completely normal, without any signs of severe trauma.

“A car running over someone and someone getting beaten up are two different things—I can tell.”

Wei Zhuowei, afraid that Li Heng wouldn’t believe him, even brought up his family’s background in orthopedics, asserting his unique insight.

“I knew it, you would never go so far as to run someone down, just maybe throw a sack over them or something.”

“So, who actually beat up your ex-roommate?”

Xie Sizhi’s thoughts had been relatively clear before, but after hearing all this, he was confused again.

To be more precise, he wasn’t so much confused as he was perplexed—the whole situation seemed even stranger now, in a way that was hard to describe.

It felt like a painting that looked fine from a distance, but upon closer inspection, the brushstrokes and lighting seemed disjointed, as if trying to conceal something deeper.

“Right? No matter how you look at it, from whatever angle, it’s just very strange—all these coincidences are so strange.” Li Heng couldn’t help but sigh alongside him.

The only thing they could confirm at the moment was that someone had definitely orchestrated everything—whether it was the forum and the anonymous board’s narrative, or the suspension from school under the pretext of a car accident.

But the motive and identity of that mysterious person remained as elusive as ever, impossible to grasp.

Li Heng couldn’t determine what role he played in the hidden conflict between this mystery figure and Xue Ce.

His unease didn’t stem from Xue Ce’s situation or experience, but from the sense of oddity and the vague anxiety that arose from it.

Xie Sizhi didn’t speak again, his brows showing a rare hint of somberness.

“…Well then, I’ll ask Xu Zhiyuan tomorrow. It should be faster for him to check.”

Better safe than sorry, he understood that.

After a moment, he said, “Don’t worry, I’ll have results by tomorrow night at the latest. Just wait for my good news.”

These small companies had very limited clients and competitors; he just needed to follow a single thread, gathering the names involved.

Specialization mattered—once he figured out those details, the rest would be up to Xie Duzhi.

…But before that, he needed to come up with a good reason tonight to re-add Xu Zhiyuan.

Deleting was easy; after all, as the saying goes, “Brothers are like clothes—use them and discard them at will.”

“—Hey, Second Brother, how does it feel to be rejected by your crush?”

Just as he was racking his brains for an excuse, he suddenly heard Xie Duzhi ask, catching him off guard.

“What else could it feel like? It feels like failure.”

The words slipped out before Xie Sizhi’s brain caught up, “Besides feeling bad, it just feels bad.”

“…Wait, how did you know? Are you spying on me???”

Once he realized, he jumped in a flash, “Third brother, if you keep doing this, I swear I’ll hire someone to pose as your lover and cause a scene at your company!”

“Was it that hard to figure out?”

Xie Duzhi raised an eyebrow, coldly questioning.

“I not only noticed you were rejected by Chen Xue, but I also know that she didn’t think highly of you—she called you a spoiled young master.”

“…What kind?” Li Heng perked up his ears and instinctively leaned closer, his curiosity piqued.

“The kind that constantly tests the edges of the law.” A hint of amusement crept into Xie Duzhi’s voice.

Li Heng suddenly had a realization, as if he finally understood why his second brother had been so touchy at first, and he found it amusing.

“Then, Second Brother, you better work hard and turn over a new leaf.”

He tried to keep a straight face, but he couldn’t help remembering the meme he’d sent to Xie Duzhi a few days ago.

It was a bird with unusually long legs, taking hesitant steps forward before quickly retracting them, with the caption: “Constantly testing the edges of the law.”

He couldn’t hold back—he laughed.

Xie Sizhi didn’t think it was funny. He didn’t even understand what was supposed to be funny about that sentence.

All he felt was coldness—the kind of cold that came from being betrayed by a once-reliable confidant and feeling left out.