Chapter 34: Mercenary Fake Rich Young Master 34

During lunch that day, the dining table was a cauldron of undercurrents.

One moment, Zhou Xu slid all three chicken legs from his own plate onto Su Wenyu’s. The next, Xia Yehang refused to be outdone, adding his untouched chicken cutlet to the pile. Even Shen Yi specially got up to buy a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice and placed it before Su Wenyu.

The three men exchanged glances, a clear three-way standoff brewing.

Su Wenyu didn’t notice the strangeness between them. He just looked at the mountain of food in front of him, momentarily at a loss on where to start.

Out of a desire not to waste their goodwill—and even more so, not to waste food—Su Wenyu valiantly attempted to finish it all.

The char siu rice was a bit mediocre, but everything else was delicious.

Finally, downing the orange juice to fill the last remaining gaps in his stomach, Su Wenyu rubbed his belly as he walked back to the dorm, feeling like the contents were sloshing around.

Back at the dorm, Shen Yi and Xia Yehang took off their camo jackets and went into the bathroom to wipe off sweat. Su Wenyu collapsed directly into his chair, unwilling to move.

Zhou Xu fetched the digestive tablets from the first aid kit and handed them over: “Indigestion tablets. Take four.”

Su Wenyu looked despairing: “Can’t eat another bite. Not even one tablet.”

“You can chew these directly and swallow. They aid digestion.” Zhou Xu didn’t give Su Wenyu a chance to refuse. He popped out four tablets and directly shoved them into Su Wenyu’s mouth.

Su Wenyu was about to push them out with his tongue when he paused at the taste.

Hey? Sweet and sour. Kind of hawthorn-like.

Su Wenyu sprawled in his chair, chewing away, and swallowed the tablets down.

Maybe it was the huge lunch making him drowsy. After Xia Yehang and Shen Yi came out of the bathroom in their tank tops, Su Wenyu used the bathroom himself, then had Zhou Xu help him up to bed for an afternoon nap.

When his nap alarm woke him, Su Wenyu groggily looked down from his bed and only then realized that aside from him, none of the other three had napped.

The three sat at their respective desks, each tending to their own business with clear boundaries. Su Wenyu didn’t sense anything wrong. He called Zhou Xu to help him down, went to the bathroom to splash water on his face to wake up, then shouldered his backpack, ready for afternoon classes.

Shen Yi and Xia Yehang’s assembly time matched their class time, so the four went out together again. At the intersection, they turned where they needed to turn and walked on where they needed to walk on.

The following week, this strangely harmonious dynamic persisted among the four.

On Friday, Su Wenyu received a call from his mother, Shi Pei, asking if he wanted to go home that weekend.

Because of his ankle injury last week, he hadn’t wanted to make his mom worry. Su Wenyu had asked Zhou Xu to make up some excuse and they stayed at school. This weekend, there was nothing special, so Su Wenyu agreed.

Knowing that Su Wenyu and Zhou Xu would be going home together for the weekend, Xia Yehang’s eyes practically radiated jealousy whenever he looked at Zhou Xu.

Shen Yi looked calm on the surface, but he mistyped several characters while tapping at his keyboard, then silently deleted them.

That day at noon, Su Wenyu unusually skipped his nap. He changed his bedsheets and pillowcases, gathered up the clothes from last night’s shower he hadn’t had time to wash, and packed them all into his suitcase to take home.

Su Wenyu had made great progress in packing. He now folded the dirty clothes and sheets neatly into bags and separated them from other items before placing them in the suitcase—a stark contrast to the disastrous state of affairs during the first week of school.

Xia Yehang stood by, wanting to help but not quite knowing how. He just munched on a cucumber, asking curiously, “You’re taking all that home?”

“Yeah. Take it home, wash it, and bring it back.”

Su Wenyu sighed, saying: “The dorm washing machines are too dirty. These sheets and covers are too heavy to hand-wash—I can’t wring them dry. Only option is to take them home.”

Xia Yehang nodded knowingly with an “Oh~” and added: “You could also take them to a laundry shop.”

Su Wenyu looked up, puzzled: “Laundry shop?”

Xia Yehang nodded: “There’s one behind our dorm building. Another pretty big one over by the junior dorm building. I went to check it out. It’s quite clean inside. They wash, dry, and air them out, then send you a text. You just go pick it up.”

Su Wenyu only then learned such a thing existed on campus. He immediately turned a pleasantly surprised look to Zhou Xu: “Then we can send our laundry to the laundry shop from now on!”

Zhou Xu fell silent. He really hadn’t thought of solving Su Wenyu’s daily hand-washing problem this way.

The fact that the campus had laundry shops—Zhou Xu knew that.

It was just that Zhou Xu was used to being poor and had no concept of using a laundry service. Generally, he hand-washed whatever he could. For things that absolutely couldn’t be hand-washed, he’d rinse the machine with hot water first, then use the dorm washing machine.

Only now, hearing Xia Yehang mention it, did it click.

Zhou Xu always forgot that he was now a wealthy second-generation young master. He lacked the concept that money could solve most problems, still instinctively thinking he could just handle minor things himself.

“From now on, we’ll send laundry to the laundry shop.” Zhou Xu met Su Wenyu’s expectant gaze and agreed.

Su Wenyu immediately bounced with joy. No more doing laundry ever again!

“But underwear and socks still need to be hand-washed yourself.” Zhou Xu added.

“I know, I know. I’d wash those myself even if you didn’t say so.” Su Wenyu happily finished packing and closed his suitcase.

Friday afternoon, both Su Wenyu and Zhou Xu only had two classes. After class, a luxury car was waiting right in front of Su Wenyu’s academic building for him. After picking him up, it turned around and went to get Zhou Xu.

Thus, the information that the real and fake young masters took a luxury car home together quickly spread across the forum.

The campus forum and the confession wall were probably the two fastest places for all kinds of gossip to spread. A post with attached photos of Su Wenyu and Zhou Xu getting into a luxury car was up for barely an hour or so before it was flooded with replies and gossip.

When Xia Yehang saw this post that afternoon, it had already been turned into a hot post within just over an hour.

He truly racked his brains and could not understand why some people were so obsessed with stalking Su Wenyu’s life. The moment they spotted something, they’d snap a photo and upload it online. What psychological need did this satisfy for the poster?

However, this post didn’t last long. When Xia Yehang checked again, it was gone.

At the same time, many other posts on the forum also disappeared. Anything defamatory or slanderous towards Su Wenyu—vanished.

Following this, some people noticed these posts were gone and put up new posts questioning why they were deleted.

But these new posts, floating on the front page for only a short while, were also deleted.

Then, the forum admin released a new set of posting rules: no naming specific individuals, no slander, no rumor-mongering, and so on.

The rules on names, slander, etc., went into such detail that they even forbade specific monikers, pinyin abbreviations, and such. The gossip section crowd was left stunned.

No monikers, no pinyin abbreviations, no real names? Then how were they supposed to post when eating melon and gossiping?

Did this mean the gossip section could only discuss events and not the people involved from now on?

Some began questioning whether these rules were specifically designed for the fake young master. How much money had the rich fake young master paid the forum admin? But the moment such posts were made, they were deleted within two seconds, the speed absurdly fast.

No one knew the forum admin’s misery. Only the admin knew: the school’s upper leadership had received a legal notice from the Shen family’s legal team and had only then learned just how badly the young master of the Su family had been wronged at school. They immediately pressured the forum managers.

Deleting posts was just the first step, the easiest one. The Shen family’s legal team wasn’t just sending a legal notice as a warning. They were genuinely going to sue the students behind those posts, to make those who casually attacked and cyberbullied others online pay the due price.

Xia Yehang guessed this was likely Shen Yi’s doing. When he got back to the dorm, he was in a good enough mood to bring Shen Yi a bottle of water, asking curiously: “How did you get your family to step in and deal with this?”

Shen Yi unscrewed the bottle and drank a sip, unconcerned: “I came out.”

Xia Yehang gave an “Oh,” then frowned, feeling like his ears might be malfunctioning.

“You what?”

“I came out.” Shen Yi repeated. “I told them I like Su Wenyu. Then they helped.”

Xia Yehang’s eyes flew open. He was stupefied: “They didn’t scold you?”

“They probably did, but I hung up fast. Didn’t hear it.” Shen Yi shrugged indifferently.

Xia Yehang was shocked by Shen Yi’s courage. He knew Shen Yi’s family well. His parents, uncles, aunts, older male and female cousins—they were all top lawyers, a true elite family.

But at the same time, their expectations of Shen Yi were sky-high. Not only had they mapped out his academics and future career, they’d even had ideas about what kind of girl he would marry.

For a family like that, suddenly receiving a phone call with their son coming out… it would probably make them question reality even more than losing a case they’d been certain of winning.

“You’re probably going to get beaten when you go back.” Xia Yehang made a “seven” with his fingers. “At least enough to keep you in bed for a week.”

“So what? Keep hiding it once you have someone you like?” Shen Yi gave him a sidelong glance. “Can you hide it forever?”

Xia Yehang: “…”

Xia Yehang thought about it and felt Shen Yi had a very good point.

“Fine. I’ll call my family too.” Xia Yehang pulled out his phone and dialed his dad’s number.

Shen Yi, holding his water, looked like he wanted to say something but held back. He felt Xia Yehang didn’t necessarily have to be in such a rush, as Xia Yehang’s family was a bit more complicated than his own. Back when Shen Yi’s parents and Xia Yehang’s parents had become acquainted, it was to help Xia Yehang’s parents fight for the Xia family fortune.

Father Xia was a man of deep city and ruthless methods in business, and he firmly believed in “spare the rod, spoil the child.” When Xia Yehang and Shen Yi caused trouble as kids, Shen Yi at most got a lecture from his parents and maybe a light slap on the palm as a lesson. But Xia Yehang’s dad would use an actual rod on Xia Yehang, whaling on him until he was climbing the walls. Every time, after being beaten to the point of agony, Xia Yehang would run to his grandparents to tattle. Then his grandparents, fiercely protective, would grab their own sticks and rods and go beat Xia Yehang’s dad.

But a few years ago, Xia Yehang’s grandparents, having reached a ripe old age, passed away one after another. If Xia Yehang truly enraged Father Xia this time, there would be no grandparents to shield him anymore.

Before Shen Yi could voice his objection, the call went through after two rings.

“Hey, Dad?” Xia Yehang said “hello” a few times. Hearing his dad impatiently asking what he wanted, he just replied, “Oh,” and said, “Nothing. Just wanted to let you know—I’m gay.”

Before Father Xia on the other end of the line could react, Xia Yehang, following Shen Yi’s method to avoid being yelled at, directly hung up the phone.