The real young master thought he was hated by everyone

The next morning, Li Heng took a taxi to Xie Duzhi’s company.

It was a Monday, and he had morning classes, but his afternoon classes didn’t start until late, leaving him with over three hours of break time. So, he took half a day off with his tutor’s approval, planning to return before afternoon classes started.

He had been to Xie Duzhi’s company not long ago, so he knew the way. When he arrived, the receptionist was a bit surprised. “Are you here to see President Xie?” she asked.

He nodded and asked when Xie Duzhi would be free and if he could make an appointment. The receptionist smiled and led him to another elevator.

Since the work hours of different departments didn’t align exactly, this time, instead of waiting a long time at the first elevator, she guided him to one that would be faster.

“No need to make an appointment; President Xie is always free. Just head to the 29th floor,” she said cheerfully. She knew that their boss had no meetings scheduled that day. Plus, given his doting on his younger brother, even if he were busy, he would probably make time to meet him anyway.

After sending Li Heng off, the receptionist didn’t immediately report to her boss. Instead, she happily shared a few photos in her small workgroup, taking a quick break. She figured she’d check the elevator’s arrival time before messaging the boss.

Once she thought the elevator was near the 29th floor, she opened a chat with her boss and reported, “Your younger brother is here.”

She could almost guarantee that the younger brother had decided to visit on a whim, so President Xie likely had no idea yet.

Recalling the gossip that had circulated in the office, the receptionist even found herself hoping that when Li Heng arrived, Xie Duzhi would be in a bad mood, maybe scolding someone—just for fun.

However, Xie Duzhi wasn’t scolding anyone.

He was replying to the work emails that had piled up over the weekend. When he heard the knock, he thought it was his assistant coming to deliver a document and said gruffly, “Come in.”

The door opened, but it wasn’t his assistant or a senior company member entering.

“…You’re not going to class today?” he asked, surprised. He was aware of Li Heng’s class schedule, even knowing which class he had at what time. Monday mornings were for sociology and Chinese literature, and afternoons were for foreign language classes.

As soon as the question left his lips, he realized it wasn’t the right way to start the conversation. It sounded too stiff and formal, making it feel distant.

“I took the morning off with my tutor’s approval,” Li Heng replied, closing the door behind him. “Is Brother busy right now?”

If Xie Duzhi was tied up, he would have organized his words more carefully, planning to talk after lunch.

“I’m not busy. There’s nothing important this morning,” he shook his head and asked, “Why the sudden visit?”

Li Heng hadn’t mentioned he was coming today.

Xie Duzhi didn’t need to prepare for topics in advance, especially in business or social situations where topics were related to interests or benefits. He was always capable of discussing anything, but he was genuinely surprised now.

He should have asked how the dinner with his roommates had gone the night before, not why Li Heng was suddenly visiting.

“There’s something important… about Mo Mo’s boyfriend,” Li Heng took a deep breath.

Xie Duzhi gave a sound of acknowledgment, nodding to show he was listening, waiting for him to continue.

The night before, Li Heng had told him about his roommates being invited to dinner by their boyfriends and mentioned the name of the private restaurant, talking about the tea they hadn’t finished drinking.

After saying goodnight, Xie Duzhi hadn’t sent any messages about it.

Heguessed that the meeting would probably not go well, but not to the point where Li Heng would feel the need to come to him about it.

Was it a character issue? No, if it was just about morals, they could’ve cleared it up easily through text or voice messages. There was no need for this level of urgency.

Could it be that Mo Mo’s boyfriend was someone they knew? He excluded family members and narrowed it down to people they knew, but who were not local to S city.

Li Heng had mentioned before that his roommate was in an online relationship.

Gu Mingyue seemed unlikely. He had too much pride to be interested in someone so self-deprecating—just like the way he dismissed André earlier.

If it was someone like them, then after dinner, they would’ve rushed to tell Xie Duzhi right away—not waiting until after the dinner ended.

There were also no signs of the tense atmosphere that would’ve accompanied such a situation.

They did know each other, but since Xie Duzhi wasn’t immediately informed, he suspected there was a reason why Li Heng had to come here personally.

Li Heng mentioned Bai, and suddenly Xie Duzhi had an answer.

“…Bai Ruan?”

“Mo Mo’s online boyfriend is Bai Ruan,” Li Heng answered.

The two spoke almost in unison.

“…!” Li Heng was startled.

“Brother, I haven’t even said anything yet. How did you know?” he asked, unable to hold back.

“I guessed,” Xie Duzhi replied calmly.

“Bai Ruan was the most likely,” he continued, organizing his thoughts briefly. “But it’s just a question of character. You could’ve just texted me or mentioned it Friday.”

At the end of the day, if the boyfriend wasn’t a good person, there wasn’t much that could be done right away.

“Do you think Mo Mo’s boyfriend has a problem with his identity?” Li Heng asked, impressed by Xie Duzhi’s clear thinking.

“There are other possibilities,” Xie Duzhi shook his head. “Maybe he’s been scammed or has hidden debts.”

“But in that case, you could solve it yourself.”

Xie Duzhi said this, and Li Heng felt a bit embarrassed. He opened his mouth but hesitated, trying to explain himself.

“Brother, I didn’t mean to keep it from you. When I saw Bai Ruan last night, it was so sudden. I didn’t know how to tell you.”

He sincerely explained the reason to Xie Duzhi, “And it was already really late by then.”

At least he had wanted to sort everything out, including the timeline, before disturbing him.

He didn’t want to keep him awake too late.

Xie Duzhi didn’t mind the timing and asked, “You didn’t sleep well last night?”

“Not really,” Li Heng said, trying to prove he wasn’t tired. “I was just thinking about it the whole night, wondering why morning hadn’t come yet.”

In the morning, he could finally come find Xie Duzhi and tell him everything that had happened the night before.

Xie Duzhi’s thoughts were interrupted by this comment. He looked away slightly, his gaze dropping as he typed out a few words.

“You’re suspicious of Bai Ruan’s motives, but he probably acts very concerned and protective of Mo Mo… Maybe even close in some ways.”

“His behavior makes you suspect him, but at the same time, you can’t help but wonder if he really likes Mo Mo and met him by chance,” Xie Duzhi guessed.

Li Heng nodded enthusiastically, feeling like he was expressing his own feelings. “Yes, that’s right, I’m not trusting him completely.”

He remained wary of Bai Ruan, not believing he’d just give up after failing to get him on his show.

“I know he is bad,” Li Heng almost blurted out some examples from his dreams, but then he bit his tongue.

“I know he’s bad,” he emphasized again.

He reiterated to Xie Duzhi, “But people are complicated. They play different roles in different people’s lives. A bad person might still have good qualities.”

“…”

After speaking, Li Heng felt something was off. His words might be misunderstood, but he didn’t know how to fix it.

“I don’t mean to say Bai Ruan is a good person,” he added, looking a bit frustrated. “I mean, in Mo Mo’s eyes, he is probably a good person.”

“How he behaves towards Mo Mo doesn’t feel like how he treats us. It feels…”

“More real, more sincere?” Xie Duzhi asked, understanding the awkward description.

Li Heng nodded, explaining everything he could think of about how Mo Mo met Bai Ruan, how Bai Ruan came to like him, and everything that led to this moment.

Xie Duzhi listened patiently and helped Li Heng clear up the confusion.

He was worried that Bai Ruan might genuinely like his roommate, but at the same time, he feared that he was using him, causing his roommate to fall into a complicated situation that should have nothing to do with him. He worried that Bai Ruan, once his goal was achieved, would heartlessly abandon his roommate.

What he was most concerned about was whether Bai Ruan had any plans in S city that could harm Xie Duzhi.

As for himself, whether Bai Ruan would try to stir up trouble between him and his roommate, or even try to get into S University, or become an honorary alumnus, that was a secondary concern.

Xie Duzhi wasn’t sure how to respond to his concerns. He was both helpless and a little amused, but he wasn’t surprised by his worries.

“It’s alright. We can analyze things slowly, eliminate each possibility one by one, and then figure out what he might do next.”

He calmly reassured him. “Have you had breakfast?”

“…No,” Li Heng replied.

After finishing his morning routine, he went to the gate to wait for his pre-arranged driver, not even stopping by the cafeteria.

“Let’s have breakfast first.” Xie Duzhi sent a message to his assistant. “Breakfast is important.”

But Li Heng felt that understanding Bai Ruan’s intentions was more urgent than eating breakfast.

He instinctively wanted to argue, but before he could, Xie Duzhi stretched out his hand and gently ruffled his hair, almost casually.

“Only after eating can we have the energy to think properly.”

“…Alright,” Li Heng said, unable to argue with that logic.

He sat back down obediently.

“First, we need to understand Bai Ruan’s attitude toward Lin Mo,” Xie Duzhi continued. “That’s the most important thing.”

Once they figured that out, other problems would solve themselves.

Although Xie Duzhi didn’t think understanding this would be difficult. In fact, by the time Li Heng was halfway through his description, he had already concluded that this was a premeditated approach. Bai Ruan wasn’t sincere.

But Li Heng wasn’t like him.

Xie Duzhi’s brain operated like a multi-threaded computer, filled with dense data, while his heart was like a piece of steel, more focused on logic and the hidden motivations behind behaviors than the complexities of emotions.

Most of the time, he was just an observer in this world.

On the other hand, Li Heng’s heart was full of love and emotions, and despite knowing that life was more often filled with suspicion and malice than kindness, he still instinctively and completely trusted people.

Xie Duzhi didn’t want to, nor would he, deny or try to change that. At most, he would guide him back onto the right path if Li Heng was misled and walked into any traps. He would help him avoid the pitfalls, allowing him to continue his journey with his feelings intact, blissfully and naively.

He asked him, “If you liked someone, and they liked you back, seeing you as the light of their life, never questioning any of your decisions, agreeing with everything you did without any complaints, what would you think?”

Li Heng thought for a long time but couldn’t imagine a concrete image of such a person.

“Would you like them more?” Xie Duzhi added.

For some reason, Li Heng imagined the hypothetical person as Xie Duzhi and tried to ignore the slight discomfort and unfamiliar emotions that arose in his chest.

“I would find it strange, and the behavior would seem a bit abnormal,” he said, still with a thoughtful expression. “Because in that case, between me and… me and him…”

He almost bit his tongue as he corrected himself. “Between me and him, it wouldn’t feel equal. He might value me a lot, and that’s fine, but he shouldn’t think of himself as so unimportant. He shouldn’t be so insignificant.”

He even tried to put himself in the other person’s shoes, imagining being the one who never disagreed, seeing Xie Duzhi as the “light.” The feeling only seemed stranger.

While he typically wouldn’t disagree with Xie Duzhi, nor feel any resentment—okay, sometimes he did feel a little annoyed, but that wasn’t the point—he never saw him as the “light.”

Xie Duzhi had been taking special care of him since he came home, but Li Heng also did his part in caring for him in his own way. He would remind him to eat, not stay up too late, to rest on time, and if he had the chance, he would drag him to do things that weren’t related to work. Sometimes, they would bicker or brush the cat’s fur, or chat about all sorts of things…

They were completely equal—there was no talk of “light” or “salvation.”

“I wouldn’t like him more because of that,” Li Heng said, thinking about it. “But I would tell him that mindset is wrong. If we want to be together long-term, he needs to correct his perspective, see his own strengths, and first learn to love himself more.”

“Only by loving yourself more can you love others better.”

He remembered something his elementary school teacher once said during a reading comprehension exercise, probably in fifth grade. He couldn’t remember the specific article, but he still remembered the teacher’s words clearly.

“It’s still the same question,” Xie Duzhi said, offering no comment on Li Heng’s answer. He simply nodded and added, “Change the person to Bai Ruan and Lin Mo.”

“…Ah!” Li Heng’s eyes suddenly widened as everything clicked. “No wonder when Lin Mo told us about his boyfriend before, sometimes it felt a little strange.”

“Before, I thought he was just someone obsessed with love, like Wei said.”

“That might be part of it,” Xie Duzhi replied seriously, “But the main issue is that this imbalance has been allowed to exist and even been deliberately magnified.”

If they were to compare Lin Mo to someone drowning, then Bai Ruan was the floating piece of wood.

When the importance of that piece of wood was exaggerated, unknowingly, the person in the water would see it as their only “salvation.”

They would rely on the floating wood, forgetting that there were other people on the shore, that boats passed by, and perhaps they could swim or try to save themselves.

“I think, although there might be a tiny possibility that Bai Ruan genuinely likes Lin Mo, he definitely wants to use him as the main goal, which is why he’s not showing genuine concern. That’s why his behavior doesn’t seem sincere.”

Li Heng’s thoughts became clearer. “He must have been bored, met Lin Mo by chance, then investigated him after finding out we were roommates, and decided to take advantage of the situation.”

“But what about Lin Mo?” He asked, even though he felt like he understood things better now. “He’s definitely going to be upset.”

They still hadn’t figured out Bai Ruan’s specific intentions, but he couldn’t keep pretending to be the “perfect boyfriend.”

“He’s probably going to use him.” Li Heng’s worry only deepened.

“…Hmm,” Xie Duzhi replied. “You can try distracting Lin Mo, get him to focus less on his relationship.”

Xie Duzhi didn’t mention his guess about Bai Ruan’s methods. He simply advised, “That way, he’ll be less hurt.”

Li Heng promised to do so. “I’ll start taking him to the library tomorrow, and in the evenings, I’ll make sure he studies foreign languages. Or maybe sign up for some online courses together.”

Before he could ask Xie Duzhi which course would be most useful, his phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket.

The next morning, Li Heng took a taxi to Xie Duzhi’s company.

It was a Monday, and he had morning classes, but his afternoon classes didn’t start until late, leaving him with over three hours of break time. So, he took half a day off with his tutor’s approval, planning to return before afternoon classes started.

He had been to Xie Duzhi’s company not long ago, so he knew the way. When he arrived, the receptionist was a bit surprised. “Are you here to see President Xie?” she asked.

He nodded and asked when Xie Duzhi would be free and if he could make an appointment. The receptionist smiled and led him to another elevator.

Since the work hours of different departments didn’t align exactly, this time, instead of waiting a long time at the first elevator, she guided him to one that would be faster.

“No need to make an appointment; President Xie is always free. Just head to the 29th floor,” she said cheerfully. She knew that their boss had no meetings scheduled that day. Plus, given his doting on his younger brother, even if he were busy, he would probably make time to meet him anyway.

After sending Li Heng off, the receptionist didn’t immediately report to her boss. Instead, she happily shared a few photos in her small workgroup, taking a quick break. She figured she’d check the elevator’s arrival time before messaging the boss.

Once she thought the elevator was near the 29th floor, she opened a chat with her boss and reported, “Your younger brother is here.”

She could almost guarantee that the younger brother had decided to visit on a whim, so President Xie likely had no idea yet.

Recalling the gossip that had circulated in the office, the receptionist even found herself hoping that when Li Heng arrived, Xie Duzhi would be in a bad mood, maybe scolding someone—just for fun.

However, Xie Duzhi wasn’t scolding anyone.

He was replying to the work emails that had piled up over the weekend. When he heard the knock, he thought it was his assistant coming to deliver a document and said gruffly, “Come in.”

The door opened, but it wasn’t his assistant or a senior company member entering.

“…You’re not going to class today?” he asked, surprised. He was aware of Li Heng’s class schedule, even knowing which class he had at what time. Monday mornings were for sociology and Chinese literature, and afternoons were for foreign language classes.

As soon as the question left his lips, he realized it wasn’t the right way to start the conversation. It sounded too stiff and formal, making it feel distant.

“I took the morning off with my tutor’s approval,” Li Heng replied, closing the door behind him. “Is Brother busy right now?”

If Xie Duzhi was tied up, he would have organized his words more carefully, planning to talk after lunch.

“I’m not busy. There’s nothing important this morning,” he shook his head and asked, “Why the sudden visit?”

Li Heng hadn’t mentioned he was coming today.

Xie Duzhi didn’t need to prepare for topics in advance, especially in business or social situations where topics were related to interests or benefits. He was always capable of discussing anything, but he was genuinely surprised now.

He should have asked how the dinner with his roommates had gone the night before, not why Li Heng was suddenly visiting.

“There’s something important… about Mo Mo’s boyfriend,” Li Heng took a deep breath.

Xie Duzhi gave a sound of acknowledgment, nodding to show he was listening, waiting for him to continue.

The night before, Li Heng had told him about his roommates being invited to dinner by their boyfriends and mentioned the name of the private restaurant, talking about the tea they hadn’t finished drinking.

After saying goodnight, Xie Duzhi hadn’t sent any messages about it.

Heguessed that the meeting would probably not go well, but not to the point where Li Heng would feel the need to come to him about it.

Was it a character issue? No, if it was just about morals, they could’ve cleared it up easily through text or voice messages. There was no need for this level of urgency.

Could it be that Mo Mo’s boyfriend was someone they knew? He excluded family members and narrowed it down to people they knew, but who were not local to S city.

Li Heng had mentioned before that his roommate was in an online relationship.

Gu Mingyue seemed unlikely. He had too much pride to be interested in someone so self-deprecating—just like the way he dismissed André earlier.

If it was someone like them, then after dinner, they would’ve rushed to tell Xie Duzhi right away—not waiting until after the dinner ended.

There were also no signs of the tense atmosphere that would’ve accompanied such a situation.

They did know each other, but since Xie Duzhi wasn’t immediately informed, he suspected there was a reason why Li Heng had to come here personally.

Li Heng mentioned Bai, and suddenly Xie Duzhi had an answer.

“…Bai Ruan?”

“Mo Mo’s online boyfriend is Bai Ruan,” Li Heng answered.

The two spoke almost in unison.

“…!” Li Heng was startled.

“Brother, I haven’t even said anything yet. How did you know?” he asked, unable to hold back.

“I guessed,” Xie Duzhi replied calmly.

“Bai Ruan was the most likely,” he continued, organizing his thoughts briefly. “But it’s just a question of character. You could’ve just texted me or mentioned it Friday.”

At the end of the day, if the boyfriend wasn’t a good person, there wasn’t much that could be done right away.

“Do you think Mo Mo’s boyfriend has a problem with his identity?” Li Heng asked, impressed by Xie Duzhi’s clear thinking.

“There are other possibilities,” Xie Duzhi shook his head. “Maybe he’s been scammed or has hidden debts.”

“But in that case, you could solve it yourself.”

Xie Duzhi said this, and Li Heng felt a bit embarrassed. He opened his mouth but hesitated, trying to explain himself.

“Brother, I didn’t mean to keep it from you. When I saw Bai Ruan last night, it was so sudden. I didn’t know how to tell you.”

He sincerely explained the reason to Xie Duzhi, “And it was already really late by then.”

At least he had wanted to sort everything out, including the timeline, before disturbing him.

He didn’t want to keep him awake too late.

Xie Duzhi didn’t mind the timing and asked, “You didn’t sleep well last night?”

“Not really,” Li Heng said, trying to prove he wasn’t tired. “I was just thinking about it the whole night, wondering why morning hadn’t come yet.”

In the morning, he could finally come find Xie Duzhi and tell him everything that had happened the night before.

Xie Duzhi’s thoughts were interrupted by this comment. He looked away slightly, his gaze dropping as he typed out a few words.

“You’re suspicious of Bai Ruan’s motives, but he probably acts very concerned and protective of Mo Mo… Maybe even close in some ways.”

“His behavior makes you suspect him, but at the same time, you can’t help but wonder if he really likes Mo Mo and met him by chance,” Xie Duzhi guessed.

Li Heng nodded enthusiastically, feeling like he was expressing his own feelings. “Yes, that’s right, I’m not trusting him completely.”

He remained wary of Bai Ruan, not believing he’d just give up after failing to get him on his show.

“I know he is bad,” Li Heng almost blurted out some examples from his dreams, but then he bit his tongue.

“I know he’s bad,” he emphasized again.

He reiterated to Xie Duzhi, “But people are complicated. They play different roles in different people’s lives. A bad person might still have good qualities.”

“…”

After speaking, Li Heng felt something was off. His words might be misunderstood, but he didn’t know how to fix it.

“I don’t mean to say Bai Ruan is a good person,” he added, looking a bit frustrated. “I mean, in Mo Mo’s eyes, he is probably a good person.”

“How he behaves towards Mo Mo doesn’t feel like how he treats us. It feels…”

“More real, more sincere?” Xie Duzhi asked, understanding the awkward description.

Li Heng nodded, explaining everything he could think of about how Mo Mo met Bai Ruan, how Bai Ruan came to like him, and everything that led to this moment.

Xie Duzhi listened patiently and helped Li Heng clear up the confusion.

He was worried that Bai Ruan might genuinely like his roommate, but at the same time, he feared that he was using him, causing his roommate to fall into a complicated situation that should have nothing to do with him. He worried that Bai Ruan, once his goal was achieved, would heartlessly abandon his roommate.

What he was most concerned about was whether Bai Ruan had any plans in S city that could harm Xie Duzhi.

As for himself, whether Bai Ruan would try to stir up trouble between him and his roommate, or even try to get into S University, or become an honorary alumnus, that was a secondary concern.

Xie Duzhi wasn’t sure how to respond to his concerns. He was both helpless and a little amused, but he wasn’t surprised by his worries.

“It’s alright. We can analyze things slowly, eliminate each possibility one by one, and then figure out what he might do next.”

He calmly reassured him. “Have you had breakfast?”

“…No,” Li Heng replied.

After finishing his morning routine, he went to the gate to wait for his pre-arranged driver, not even stopping by the cafeteria.

“Let’s have breakfast first.” Xie Duzhi sent a message to his assistant. “Breakfast is important.”

But Li Heng felt that understanding Bai Ruan’s intentions was more urgent than eating breakfast.

He instinctively wanted to argue, but before he could, Xie Duzhi stretched out his hand and gently ruffled his hair, almost casually.

“Only after eating can we have the energy to think properly.”

“…Alright,” Li Heng said, unable to argue with that logic.

He sat back down obediently.

“First, we need to understand Bai Ruan’s attitude toward Lin Mo,” Xie Duzhi continued. “That’s the most important thing.”

Once they figured that out, other problems would solve themselves.

Although Xie Duzhi didn’t think understanding this would be difficult. In fact, by the time Li Heng was halfway through his description, he had already concluded that this was a premeditated approach. Bai Ruan wasn’t sincere.

But Li Heng wasn’t like him.

Xie Duzhi’s brain operated like a multi-threaded computer, filled with dense data, while his heart was like a piece of steel, more focused on logic and the hidden motivations behind behaviors than the complexities of emotions.

Most of the time, he was just an observer in this world.

On the other hand, Li Heng’s heart was full of love and emotions, and despite knowing that life was more often filled with suspicion and malice than kindness, he still instinctively and completely trusted people.

Xie Duzhi didn’t want to, nor would he, deny or try to change that. At most, he would guide him back onto the right path if Li Heng was misled and walked into any traps. He would help him avoid the pitfalls, allowing him to continue his journey with his feelings intact, blissfully and naively.

He asked him, “If you liked someone, and they liked you back, seeing you as the light of their life, never questioning any of your decisions, agreeing with everything you did without any complaints, what would you think?”

Li Heng thought for a long time but couldn’t imagine a concrete image of such a person.

“Would you like them more?” Xie Duzhi added.

For some reason, Li Heng imagined the hypothetical person as Xie Duzhi and tried to ignore the slight discomfort and unfamiliar emotions that arose in his chest.

“I would find it strange, and the behavior would seem a bit abnormal,” he said, still with a thoughtful expression. “Because in that case, between me and… me and him…”

He almost bit his tongue as he corrected himself. “Between me and him, it wouldn’t feel equal. He might value me a lot, and that’s fine, but he shouldn’t think of himself as so unimportant. He shouldn’t be so insignificant.”

He even tried to put himself in the other person’s shoes, imagining being the one who never disagreed, seeing Xie Duzhi as the “light.” The feeling only seemed stranger.

While he typically wouldn’t disagree with Xie Duzhi, nor feel any resentment—okay, sometimes he did feel a little annoyed, but that wasn’t the point—he never saw him as the “light.”

Xie Duzhi had been taking special care of him since he came home, but Li Heng also did his part in caring for him in his own way. He would remind him to eat, not stay up too late, to rest on time, and if he had the chance, he would drag him to do things that weren’t related to work. Sometimes, they would bicker or brush the cat’s fur, or chat about all sorts of things…

They were completely equal—there was no talk of “light” or “salvation.”

“I wouldn’t like him more because of that,” Li Heng said, thinking about it. “But I would tell him that mindset is wrong. If we want to be together long-term, he needs to correct his perspective, see his own strengths, and first learn to love himself more.”

“Only by loving yourself more can you love others better.”

He remembered something his elementary school teacher once said during a reading comprehension exercise, probably in fifth grade. He couldn’t remember the specific article, but he still remembered the teacher’s words clearly.

“It’s still the same question,” Xie Duzhi said, offering no comment on Li Heng’s answer. He simply nodded and added, “Change the person to Bai Ruan and Lin Mo.”

“…Ah!” Li Heng’s eyes suddenly widened as everything clicked. “No wonder when Lin Mo told us about his boyfriend before, sometimes it felt a little strange.”

“Before, I thought he was just someone obsessed with love, like Wei said.”

“That might be part of it,” Xie Duzhi replied seriously, “But the main issue is that this imbalance has been allowed to exist and even been deliberately magnified.”

If they were to compare Lin Mo to someone drowning, then Bai Ruan was the floating piece of wood.

When the importance of that piece of wood was exaggerated, unknowingly, the person in the water would see it as their only “salvation.”

They would rely on the floating wood, forgetting that there were other people on the shore, that boats passed by, and perhaps they could swim or try to save themselves.

“I think, although there might be a tiny possibility that Bai Ruan genuinely likes Lin Mo, he definitely wants to use him as the main goal, which is why he’s not showing genuine concern. That’s why his behavior doesn’t seem sincere.”

Li Heng’s thoughts became clearer. “He must have been bored, met Lin Mo by chance, then investigated him after finding out we were roommates, and decided to take advantage of the situation.”

“But what about Lin Mo?” He asked, even though he felt like he understood things better now. “He’s definitely going to be upset.”

They still hadn’t figured out Bai Ruan’s specific intentions, but he couldn’t keep pretending to be the “perfect boyfriend.”

“He’s probably going to use him.” Li Heng’s worry only deepened.

“…Hmm,” Xie Duzhi replied. “You can try distracting Lin Mo, get him to focus less on his relationship.”

Xie Duzhi didn’t mention his guess about Bai Ruan’s methods. He simply advised, “That way, he’ll be less hurt.”

Li Heng promised to do so. “I’ll start taking him to the library tomorrow, and in the evenings, I’ll make sure he studies foreign languages. Or maybe sign up for some online courses together.”

Before he could ask Xie Duzhi which course would be most useful, his phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket.