Chapter 43: The Vicious Rich Family’s Fake Young Master · 43

Su Wenyu wanted to go rafting. He wanted to go so badly.

But he was also deeply conflicted, unsure how to tell his family that he wanted to go out and have fun during the National Day holiday.

He’d gotten used to being confined in the sanatorium before. Even when he snuck out to play, it was only to the back garden of the rear mountain; he never dared to leave the sanatorium grounds.

Now in this small world, Su Wenyu was also used to staying at home or at school. The few times he’d gone out alone before were either to buy a bicycle or to deliver food to Zhou Xu. In his mind, those were legitimate reasons to go out, approved by his guardians, so he hadn’t felt the least bit guilty.

But ‘going out to have fun’—that involved the word ‘fun.’ That changed the meaning of going out for Su Wenyu entirely. It made him both nervous and guilty. This guilt wasn’t something he could control; it was something ingrained by his twenty years of life in the real world, making him subconsciously feel that ‘going out for fun’ was not allowed, that his guardians wouldn’t permit it.

Su Wenyu even felt that simply having the thought of ‘wanting to go out and have fun’ was wrong in itself.

But this was rafting. Su Wenyu had never been rafting. The various short videos he found online looked so thrilling and fun. The longing in his eyes was practically overflowing.

Seeing his obvious interest, Xia Yehang struck while the iron was hot. “After rafting, the next day we could also go to an amusement park. During the National Day holiday, the amusement park has a really lively Flower Street Parade, and they even do cosplay events where visitors can dress up as their favorite characters.”

“Ohh~ an amusement park.” Su Wenyu’s eyes lit up again. When he was little and hospitalized, the little girl in the next ward didn’t want to take her medicine, so her mom said if she took her medicine obediently, they’d go to the amusement park.

Back then, Su Wenyu had been so envious, because even if he took his medicine obediently, his mom and dad wouldn’t take him to an amusement park.

He wanted to go rafting, and he wanted to go to the amusement park.

Xia Yehang sat cross-legged on the floor and continued, “The National Day holiday has ten whole days. You could go home for two or three days, and we could still play outside for a week. We could even go to the neighboring city for mountain climbing, zip-lining, target shooting, archery, go-karting…”

The more Xia Yehang listed, the more Su Wenyu’s heart was swayed, as if he were already on break and high up in the mountains, doing all these things he’d never touched before.

“I… I’ll think about it.” Su Wenyu didn’t dare make the decision himself. He secretly shot a glance toward Zhou Xu.

Although the fact that Zhou Xu liked him had made Su Wenyu keep a certain distance from him over the past few days, Zhou Xu was still the eldest young master of the Su family, his older brother. Su Wenyu instinctively felt that as long as Zhou Xu agreed to go with them, Shi Pei and Su Duanhong definitely wouldn’t refuse.

Zhou Xu met his glance and pressed his lips together.

He thought Su Wenyu wanted to go out alone with Xia Yehang, and that made Zhou Xu very unhappy.

Su Wenyu clearly knew Xia Yehang liked him, yet he still wanted to go out and play with him—wasn’t he afraid Xia Yehang might do something?

Afraid of him being gay, but not afraid of Xia Yehang being gay?

He thought to himself that Su Wenyu had better refuse. That way, when the break came, he could take Su Wenyu out alone.

But then Su Wenyu, after sneaking looks at him for ages and picking at his fingers, tentatively asked: “Bro, what do you think?”

Zhou Xu: “?”

“What do I think?” About you going out and having fun?

Zhou Xu felt like he was about to grind his back teeth to dust.

“What do you think about going out during the National Day holiday? Do you want to go?” Su Wenyu tried to coax Zhou Xu into joining them. This way, Zhou Xu just needed to mention it to the family, and Su Wenyu could simply tag along with him.

Hearing this, Zhou Xu immediately spared his back teeth.

He raised an eyebrow in surprise, swept a glance over Xia Yehang, then looked at Su Wenyu. “You want to go with me?”

Su Wenyu pointed at Xia Yehang. “Let’s all go together.”

Xia Yehang was the one who proposed it, so naturally, Xia Yehang had to go.

Once he’d said that, Su Wenyu turned to look at Shen Yi, who had just walked in from the balcony after hanging laundry. He quickly waved him over. “Are you busy during the National Day break? Want to come with us and have some fun?”

It seemed like the more people accompanied him, the more courage he’d have to bring it up to his family.

Shen Yi paused mid-step and thought over his National Day plans. He nodded: “Okay.”

Plans could always be pushed back. Going out to have fun with Wenyu was more important.

Xia Yehang watched his intended duo trip turn into a dormitory group outing and clicked his tongue. Fine, whatever. It worked too.

He knew the chances of getting to go out alone with Su Wenyu were slim. Having everyone together was still a win.

Now, only Zhou Xu was left to give his stance. Su Wenyu’s hopeful gaze immediately landed on Zhou Xu’s face. After all, whether Su Wenyu had to go and tell his family he wanted to go out depended entirely on Zhou Xu’s decision.

Meeting Su Wenyu’s big, shimmering eyes, Zhou Xu had absolutely no resistance.

Fine. Since Su Wenyu still thought of including him even while planning to go out and play, Zhou Xu nodded.

Su Wenyu immediately let out a happy cheer. If it weren’t for the fact that the other three were all gay, Su Wenyu would definitely have given each of them a big hug.

As it was, Su Wenyu could only finish his cheering and then eagerly pull up his phone to search what to pack for a trip.

–

For the entire following week, Su Wenyu’s mind remained in a state of high excitement. Even after lights out, he’d hide under his blanket and secretly look up travel guides.

It wasn’t until Zhou Xu noticed the glow from under his covers and threatened that if he didn’t sleep now, they wouldn’t go anywhere for National Day, that Su Wenyu reluctantly put his phone down. That night, his dreams were all about rafting.

The day before the National Day holiday, Friday, was the last day of military training for the freshmen. It was also the day for the final performance review and commendation ceremony.

Su Wenyu had never participated in an event like this. It just so happened that his morning class that day was rescheduled due to a personal matter of the instructor, giving him the chance to spectate.

Hearing that he was coming, Xia Yehang immediately beamed. “Then you’ll be able to see me.”

Su Wenyu thought that with so many freshmen, all wearing camouflage, he had little confidence in picking out Xia Yehang and Shen Yi from the sea of camo.

But seeing Xia Yehang so happy, Su Wenyu didn’t have the heart to rain on his parade. He could only offer encouragement: “I’ll cheer for you from the stands.”

Shen Yi chuckled softly, peeled a tea egg, and placed it on Su Wenyu’s plate. “Eat your breakfast first.”

Su Wenyu obediently lowered his head and ate the egg.

After breakfast, Shen Yi and Xia Yehang had to assemble at a different location, so Su Wenyu didn’t go with them. Instead, Zhou Xu escorted him to the large athletic field where the military training performance would be held and found him a seat at the bottom of the bleachers.

Once Zhou Xu dropped him off and left for class, Su Wenyu sat alone, hugging his backpack. He pulled out an apple and nibbled on it slowly as he waited for the performance to begin.

Quite a few upperclassmen came to watch. By around 8:30, the surrounding bleacher seats were almost completely full.

At 9 o’clock, the performance officially started.

Su Wenyu pricked up his ears, listening as the various square formations from different schools entered the field. When he heard the School of Physical Education announced, he immediately widened his eyes, searching for Xia Yehang. At the same time, he opened his phone’s camera to video mode. If he couldn’t find him with his eyes, he could at least zoom in and go frame by frame later.

Su Wenyu had originally thought picking Xia Yehang out among so many people would be difficult. After all, the School of Physical Education had many tall, burly guys, all wearing camo caps that covered most of their faces when viewed from the stands. It was hard to tell anyone apart.

But to Su Wenyu’s surprise, the moment the School of Physical Education came into view, he spotted Xia Yehang almost instantly.

Xia Yehang was a standard-bearer, leading the formation at the very front. As they approached the reviewing stand, a command rang out, and everyone in the formation marched in lockstep, their shoes striking the field surface with a heavy, resounding cadence. The two team leaders in front saluted the reviewing stand, and Su Wenyu clearly captured Xia Yehang’s face.

Xia Yehang had a great physique, and his features were sharply handsome. In his camouflage uniform, his entire demeanor was different. When he saluted the reviewing stand, his eyes held a steadfast resolve, completely unlike their usual cheerful curve.

Su Wenyu immediately sat bolt upright in excitement, his heart pounding. He wanted so badly to tell the person next to him: See that guy in the front, the most handsome one? That’s my roommate!

His phone camera zoomed in, focusing solely on Xia Yehang, until Xia Yehang moved too far away for the phone to film clearly. Only then did Su Wenyu, clutching his racing heart, pull his craning head back, buzzing with a kind of excited pride: My roommate is so awesome, he’s a standard-bearer!

Su Wenyu heard some people behind him discussing Xia Yehang and immediately perked up his ears, wanting to hear how they complimented him.

“That guy leading the formation up front, pretty handsome,” one girl said.

Another responded, “Yeah, wonder what major he is. Did you get a picture? If so, post it in the group chat and ask around.”

The first replied, “I did. Tch, it’s all that Su Wenyu’s fault. Can’t post photos on the forum anymore, or I’d definitely have found him there.”

Su Wenyu, sitting in front, slowly turned his head: “?”

Was the ‘Su Wenyu’ they were talking about him?

Or was there another Su Wenyu at this school with the same name?

The girls sitting behind him looked down and met Su Wenyu’s gaze. Their eyes flew wide open.

“No, that’s not what we meant,” one of them immediately apologized. The others also hurriedly apologized, afraid Su Wenyu might give them trouble.

Su Wenyu understood now. They really were talking about him.

But he didn’t know anything about this forum business at all.

Su Wenyu was a curious creature and asked directly: “Why are you blaming me for not being able to post photos on the forum?”

The girls’ faces turned various shades of green and white, and they didn’t know what to say.

Su Wenyu cleared his name: “If the Su Wenyu you’re talking about is me, then I didn’t do anything about the forum. If I had, I definitely would have admitted it.”

The girls laughed awkwardly, unsure of what to say.

After the forum changed its rules and deleted many posts about Su Wenyu, it had been spread around privately among students that Su Wenyu was the one who got it done.

One person tells ten, ten tell a hundred. It was repeated so often that even people who didn’t know Su Wenyu instinctively blamed him.

The girls never imagined their one-off complaint would be heard by the person in question.

“Sorry, we misunderstood,” the girl apologized again.

Su Wenyu good-naturedly said, “It’s okay.” Then he added, “But don’t spread rumors that it was me in the future. It really wasn’t me.”

The girls nodded rapidly.

They had only heard it from others and had no proof. Now that the person involved had denied it, they naturally believed him.

After all, Su Wenyu’s personality had also been spread widely online before. Someone like him, if he’d actually done it, would definitely admit it, because there was no need to deny it.

After clearing his name, Su Wenyu turned his attention back toward the field. The girls behind him, seeing that he hadn’t made things difficult for them, breathed a collective sigh of relief.

One of the girls whispered very quietly, “Doesn’t he seem… a little different from what they say online?”

The others nodded in fervent agreement.

But Su Wenyu didn’t hear their murmuring, because the Law School was now entering the field.