To clear up Xu Duoduo’s misunderstanding, Xu Qiduo had no choice but to hold both of their phones up right in front of her face.
Only then did Xu Duoduo finally believe that the two of them were genuinely just playing a mobile game.
“If you’re playing a game, play it properly! Why do you have to hug and cling to each other? Don’t even try to explain, Xu Qiduo. I saw the two of you playing sneaky little games with your legs under the dining table during dinner tonight too!”
Xu Qiduo opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for how to explain things to this little brat.
“That was us signaling each other in the game! We weren’t flirting.”
“I don’t believe you. You guys weren’t acting like this when he first arrived. It has only been a week, and now you two are secretly getting cozy behind my back? Xu Qiduo! Do you even have me, your sister, in your eyes anymore?” Xu Duoduo fired off a mile a minute, chattering away even faster than Xu Qiduo could.
Standing right in front of her, Xu Qiduo was lectured so thoroughly that he couldn’t even squeeze a word in.
Speechless, Xu Qiduo bumped Zhou Mengxing’s arm with his own, trying to signal the youth to step in. “Look at her! Darling, say something already!”
The moment those words left his mouth, Xu Qiduo instantly felt as though he had been locked in someone’s crosshairs.
He didn’t process it right away.
Because during their gaming session just moments before, while Zhou Mengxing was carrying the entire team, Xu Qiduo had been running his mouth and acting obnoxious in the global chat.
He would trash-talk after getting a kill, trash-talk after getting himself killed, and whenever he was targeted by the enemy, he would cry out to Zhou Mengxing: “Baby, save me! Baby, save me!”
Zhou Mengxing had stayed right on his heels the whole time, protecting him and backing him up.
Their gaming match hadn’t officially ended, and Xu Qiduo hadn’t broken out of his role yet.
So when Xu Duoduo nagged him, those words slipped right out of his mouth on autopilot.
In that kind of scenario during the game, Zhou Mengxing would normally pop up and wipe out whoever was giving him grief. But he had completely forgotten that the two of them weren’t playing a video game anymore.
Inside the bedroom, three pairs of eyes instantly locked onto him.
Xu Qiduo snapped back to reality, hastily leaping up from the sofa and waving his hands toward the man standing in the doorway as he babbled, “No, Big Brother! Let me explain! I was just running my mouth!”
The man radiated an air of high-class elegance, dressed in a sharp black suit. With handsome, refined features and around thirty years of age, he already carried the absolute authority of someone sitting at the very top.
“Fine. Step outside, I have something to say to you.” The man standing at the threshold was none other than the older brother Xu Duoduo had just mentioned: the eldest legitimate son of the Xu family, Xu Qizhi.
Feeling like a primary school student caught by the headmaster, Xu Qiduo obediently shuffled toward the exit.
Before walking out, however, he muttered a quick parting instruction to Zhou Mengxing: “Explain it to her.”
Once Xu Qiduo had been summoned away by Xu Qizhi, Xu Duoduo turned back to Zhou Mengxing with a fresh round of questioning: “Were the two of you really just playing a game?”
She still harbored doubts. Who hugged and clung to each other just to play a mobile game? She and her best friend weren’t even that touchy-feely.
Zhou Mengxing nodded silently without offering any further explanation.
Xu Duoduo stood there studying him for a long moment. Seeming to have reached a firm conclusion about something, she finally spoke up again. “Actually, if it’s you, I suppose I wouldn’t mind.”
Lifting his gaze slightly, Zhou Mengxing finally reacted with a trace of curiosity. “Why?”
“That person he likes…” Xu Duoduo wore an expression of undisguised disgust. “I’ve seen pictures of him on Xu Qiduo’s phone before. Doesn’t Xu Qiduo like that one classmate of his…”
Zhou Mengxing immediately identified who she was talking about. “Wang Shuo.”
“Right, him. Xu Qiduo’s phone is full of pictures of that guy, and honestly, I think he’s nothing special at all. Plus, a cousin of his is in my class, and her personality is absolute trash. Anyway, I think Xu Qiduo must be completely blind to fall for a guy named Wang whatever. But if it’s you, I can actually accept it.”
Although Xu Duoduo was already in middle school, she was still fundamentally a young girl without a complex ulterior motive. She said what she liked and discarded what she didn’t.
“Why is that?” Zhou Mengxing softened his tone, trying to coax an explanation out of her regarding why he was acceptable.
“Because you look good, obviously. You’re handsome, and since Xu Qiduo is into guys, he should at least find someone who looks as good as you do. That way, at least my eyes won’t suffer looking at him.”
Turns out it all came down to matching the little girl’s aesthetic standards.
Zhou Mengxing offered Xu Duoduo a faint smile and pressed the matter no further.
Xu Duoduo, on the other hand, remained intensely curious about him, settling down to pepper him with questions about his background.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the estate, Xu Qiduo had been summoned by Xu Qizhi into the study.
Xu Qizhi was Xu Qiduo’s eldest brother by blood.
Furthermore, he was the publicly acknowledged future heir of the Xu family. His presence and political savvy were leagues beyond what ordinary people dared to look up to.
Inside the study, Xu Qizhi locked the door behind them.
Xu Qiduo didn’t dare act recklessly in front of Xu Qizhi.
For one thing, he was terrified the man would spot any discrepancies and realize the current occupant was a fake who had replaced his real younger brother, Xu Qiduo.
For another, Xu Qizhi’s overwhelming aura and pressure made him anxious that his acting wouldn’t hold up.
In short, he was terrified of exposing himself in front of someone as sharp as Xu Qizhi.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t met the old patriarch of the Xu family, but the old man was advanced in years, had long since tucked away his sharp edges, and looked infinitely more easygoing.
Xu Qizhi was entirely different. He was at the absolute peak of his influence, young, capable, and possessed limitless prospects. He looked far more like the genuine protagonist of this world than Wang Shuo ever did.
Behaving like an obedient student, Xu Qiduo called out a respectful “Big Brother” before immediately launching into his defense: “Big Brother, I really was just playing a game with Zhou Mengxing just now. What I said to Duoduo was just me messing around.”
Despite his nervousness, Xu Qiduo had managed to pick up on certain patterns from his limited interactions with Xu Qizhi so far.
Xu Qizhi was roughly twelve years older than Xu Qiduo. After their mother passed away and their father remarried, completely washing his hands of his sons, Xu Qizhi had stepped into the role of a surrogate father.
Xu Qiduo had practically been raised single-handedly by Xu Qizhi, though later on, as both older brothers threw themselves into their careers, they had far less time to stay home and accompany him.
Consequently, Xu Qizhi harbored an immense amount of guilt toward Xu Qiduo within the context of their family bond.
This guilt had ultimately translated into deep, unwavering indulgence.
All the bottomless pocket money, black cards, and gold cards at Xu Qiduo’s disposal had been provided by Xu Qizhi.
Even Xu Qizhi’s silent acquiescence had allowed Xu Qiduo to chase blindly after Wang Shuo for all those years.
Just as Xu Qiduo was about to offer a few more words of explanation, Xu Qizhi cut him off.
“I have something to tell you.”
Xu Qiduo paused. Catching the faint frown on Xu Qizhi’s brow, a wave of nervousness washed over him.
Xu Qizhi asked him, “Were you with Wang Shuo this afternoon?”
The abrupt mention of Wang Shuo made Xu Qiduo’s heart skip a beat. He thought to himself: Don’t tell me I offered to treat everyone at the club this afternoon, and those people went and maxed out my credit card…
“I… I was…” Xu Qiduo replied with a guilty conscience.
On second thought, though, that polo club was registered directly under Xu Qiduo’s name by Xu Qizhi. No matter how wildly he spent, it shouldn’t be enough to max out the card, right? Surely those people didn’t use his card to buy actual horses, did they?
Xu Qiduo noticed Xu Qizhi’s hesitation and assumed his wonderful older brother simply couldn’t bear to scold his younger sibling for reckless spending. Hoping to diffuse the tension, he proactively copped to the blame: “Big Brother, I was wrong. I promise I won’t spend money so carelessly from now on.”