The real young master thought he was hated by everyone

Before uncovering whether Xue Ce had offended anyone else or whether the person he offended might be connected to him, Li Heng received an unexpected phone call.

The call came from a red-haired man he had met briefly—Xu Zhiyuan, whom Xie Sizhi had mentioned. Over the phone, Xu Zhiyuan seriously outlined the strange behaviors of Xie Sizhi recently and concluded that he might be contemplating suicide.

The reason for his concern was that although Xie Sizhi had been known to occasionally indulge in bouts of melodrama or act out when feeling down, he’d never before gone so far as to blacklist and delete his friends in the band.

Li Heng listened to him on the other end of the line and couldn’t help but feel a sense of knowing, as if Xu Zhiyuan had summed things up perfectly. He didn’t explain anything, just asked him to hold on for a moment, then rushed over to hand the phone to Xie Sizhi.

“Second brother, your turn to explain,” Li Heng shrugged as he handed over the phone. He was soon treated to an endless series of laughs from the other side of the call.

Unfortunately, before he could figure out how long the laughter would last, Xie Sizhi had finished his explanation, and in an instant, his embarrassment had him hanging up the phone.

“Second brother, does this mean you’re ditching your friends for your crush now?” Li Heng couldn’t help but laugh too, though he had an urge to share the lesson of how best to clear up misunderstandings—by addressing them directly. However, before he could act as the voice of reason, Xie Sizhi kicked him out of the studio.

This was the first time he had been turned away at his place, which normally would have left him feeling defeated. But thinking about the reason behind it, his fleeting sadness was quickly replaced by amusement. He immediately ran to share the funny story with Xie Duzhi.

It was one of those moments where joy had to be shared—even if it was at the expense of his second brother’s discomfort.

Xie Duzhi also laughed when he heard the story and casually described Xie Sizhi’s typical melodramatic behavior. Xie Sizhi was prone to it whenever a competition started—or ended—or before an art auction or exhibition. His melodrama consisted of constant sighing, lamenting how “such a talented person like him” could be so misunderstood by those who admired him only for his family background and fame, instead of understanding his true personality.

“…So, second brother is the artist, and we are not,” Li Heng commented after hearing Xie Duzhi’s description, unable to hold back his amusement.

But Li Heng hadn’t come to Xie Duzhi only to share this amusing story. He understood what Xie Sizhi had said about him being overly sensitive in these matters.

When Gu Mingyue had mentioned public relations and talked about experiences in the entertainment industry in that seemingly sorrowful tone, he had subconsciously thought of Bai Ruan.

After the phone call during the variety show over the summer vacation, it was as if Bai Ruan had completely disappeared from his life. Li Heng didn’t pay much attention to what happened afterward, but when Mrs. Xie mentioned the matter in a video and asked if Bai Ruan hadn’t called him, he found out that the call that had been included in the show’s outtakes was not the one he had with Bai Ruan. It must have been another phone call, recorded later with a different friend, as their conversation had no substance to be edited for broadcast. No matter how the words were restructured, it would never sound like they were close friends.

Because Bai Ruan seemed to vanish, Li Heng had only then started connecting the dots, which led him to investigate everything thoroughly, hoping facts would dispel his doubts.

“Third brother, what if—just what if it really was Bai Ruan? What would his goal be?” He wondered aloud, absentmindedly scratching the chin of his pet cat. He couldn’t figure it out. “From the angle of making me out to be the ‘villain,’ I definitely couldn’t like him for teaching Xue Ce a lesson.”

Li Heng didn’t believe that Bai Ruan’s motives were that simple.

If that were the case, it wouldn’t be the Bai Ruan he knew.

If the things he had dreamed about had given him a clearer understanding of him, then their real-life interactions, based on different identities and stances, had added depth to his understanding.

Bai Ruan was hypocritical and selfish, but what Li Heng should be more wary of was the lengths he would go to in order to achieve his goals, including using various tactics and schemes.

Li Heng had to admit, Bai Ruan was smarter and more cold-blooded than him. It wasn’t hard to maintain a facade of civility with someone, but if that civility was part of the other person’s strategy, that was a different matter entirely.

“What if he’s targeting Xue Ce to take over his family’s company through underhanded methods, using it to get to me?” Li Heng suddenly thought of another possibility.

When chatting with Xie Duzhi recently, he had brought up Bai Ruan, but he mostly shared trivial stories or funny events, not these suspicions.

“That seems unlikely,” Xie Duzhi said before Li Heng could fully explore the idea.

“First of all, third brother, you’re pretty good at remembering your collaborators. If there were any changes with them, you’d surely hear about it.”

But Xie Duzhi hadn’t heard anything, and like Li Heng, only had a few clues, all related to Xue Ce’s leave of absence.

“I don’t think I ever said I remember every partner,” he casually rolled his fingers along the tail of the Siamese cat, his tone playful.

“…So third brother doesn’t remember?” Li Heng blinked in confusion.

“I do remember,” Xie Duzhi finally admitted, without further teasing.

Li Heng realized too late that he had fallen into Xie Duzhi’s trap. However, he wasn’t angry. Instead, he felt a sense of relief, thinking, “I knew it! There’s no way he’d forget.”

After a moment of contemplation, he realized that his sense of certainty came from how Xie Duzhi always seemed so capable and omniscient.

“I knew it,” he muttered to himself.”But I don’t know everything, and I can’t perfectly reconstruct the full picture of an event just from scattered clues.”

Xie Duzhi thought this was a great opportunity.

Rather than maintaining an image of being all-powerful in front of the person he likes, showing a false perfection, he preferred to gradually expose his flaws.

Because humans are not gods, there will always be times when things are beyond one’s control. Admitting imperfections and facing one’s more authentic side might bring pain from the struggle, might cause disappointment.

But he still preferred that to the possibility of failing to live up to the “all-knowing, all-powerful” image someday, which would disappoint the person, as opposed to seeing that disappointment in his own eyes.

He didn’t want to stand on a high pedestal, far from him; he only wanted to walk alongside him.

“Even if I find out that Bai Ruan is behind this, I still can’t be sure of his ultimate intention without more interaction with him.”

The possibility of him acquiring downstream companies, manipulating them, and creating a domino effect to disrupt the entire supply chain was ruled out right from the start.

After all, in a domino effect, if one step is off, the whole chain of reactions would stop.

Bai Ruan should know he couldn’t outsmart Xie Duzhi in business—he wasn’t a genius in this field, and even with many more years of experience, he would still fail miserably in front of him.

He knew Bai Ruan’s target was always him, so there was nothing to worry about.

Apart from that, he didn’t have other speculations.

He instinctively trusted Li Heng, believing the person he admired would never be swayed by false friendships or sweet words.

“But Third Brother, that’s totally normal.” Li Heng, not knowing why, just wanted to comfort him. “People aren’t gods; no one can be perfect. There will always be things they can’t do.”

“I just think…” He thought for a moment and adjusted his wording. “My view is that, no matter what, in my heart, you are the closest to perfect among all the imperfect people.”

So, whether Xie Duzhi was perfect or not didn’t really matter.

What mattered was that Li Heng confirmed he was perfect in his heart.

Since the time he explained to his older brother about favoritism, he felt more at ease with it now.

He had even learned to justify his preferential treatment—he didn’t dislike his other brothers; it was just that he gave more to Xie Duzhi on top of loving all his brothers equally.

It was perfectly reasonable for him to give more love to Xie Duzhi.

Not to mention how patient he was with him, or how he helped them resolve things with their mother, patiently searching for her for so many years—he deserved much more love for that.

Moreover, Xie Duzhi was always there to back him up when Xie Sizhi bullied him.

…When you think about it, it’s totally normal for him to favor Xie Duzhi.

Xie Duzhi was momentarily silent, suddenly having many questions to ask.

He wanted to ask if there would be someone else who might surpass him, if one day Li Heng would suddenly change his mind, or if he even liked him in this way.

He wanted to ask for reassurance, to gain confirmation and a promise, but he was also afraid that a promise made too easily would fade just as quickly.

He simply nodded in response, but decided to keep the words to himself, not probing further.

However, Li Heng kept talking.

“I’ve actually thought about it—if one day I go through a rebellious phase, or if I change a lot after some special experience, or mature a little more, and look at you, maybe even Second Brother and Big Brother, would it be different from now?”

He sighed a bit sadly, pausing even from petting the cat’s tail.

The reason he worried was that he really liked the current family atmosphere and didn’t want anything to change.

Xie Duzhi’s heart tensed as he waited for judgment.

“But then I also feel like that possibility is pretty low.”

He looked at Xie Duzhi seriously. “And besides, worrying about the future doesn’t really make sense, right, Third Brother?”

“…Right.”

Xie Duzhi’s anxious heart relaxed, returning to its steady rhythm.

Li Heng continued petting the cat, chatting casually.

“You don’t need to wait till tomorrow; we should know the result soon.”

A moment later, Xie Duzhi suddenly spoke.

Though he said he wasn’t omnipotent, it seemed he had once again predicted how things would unfold.

When Xie Sizhi walked into the room with a smug expression, striding in with good news, Li Heng wasn’t the least bit surprised.

The company’s information, partners, competitors, and other details were all written down by Xie Sizhi.

“They just happened to get on Xu Zhiyuan’s boat when the summer vacation was almost over. He did some research beforehand, otherwise, it would’ve taken more work.”

“Is it the latest?” Xie Duzhi asked.

“Of course.” Xie Sizhi didn’t even look up. “A few days ago, Xu Zhiyuan did an evaluation and was about to kick them off his boat.”

Xie Duzhi immediately began investigating the names on the list. Li Heng, feeling he couldn’t help much, took out paper and a pen to write down what he thought were key pieces of information, and made coffee at the same time.

“You’re making it look like you’re my little secretary,” Xie Sizhi said, laughing from the sofa while petting the cat.

Xiaozhi bit him in retaliation.

The results came out sooner than he expected.

Xue Ce had indeed been beaten, but the one who ordered the attack was none other than his girlfriend, who had been “threatened” into doing so because of a previous conflict with his family.

Xue Ce had fallen into a “trap.”

The mastermind behind the trap, his girlfriend, had lost a big order to the Xue family half a year ago, causing a long-term client to not renew their contract.

It had nothing to do with Bai Ruan.

Of course, despite this, Xie Duzhi maintained his usual thoroughness.

What he had found out was that Bai Ruan had left for a film crew in the west a month ago.