At eleven o'clock in the middle of the night, Qian Fei took a taxi to the Changying Hotel.
She sent another WeChat message to Wang Ruohai: Where are you? When are you coming home?
It took nearly five minutes for Wang Ruohai to reply: Working overtime with the boss. Not coming back tonight. Go to sleep.
Gritting her teeth, Qian Fei walked into the hotel.
Yao Jingjing was waiting for her on the sofa in the lobby. The moment she saw Qian Fei, she sprang up and grabbed her, agitated as if the sky were about to fall. "Could you be any slower? I've been waiting for almost an hour! Any later and they might've finished up and gone home. What kind of cheating are you going to catch then?"
Qian Fei asked, "Are you sure it's Wang Ruohai who brought a woman here to check in?"
Yao Jingjing pounded her chest in frustration. "Why would you doubt me? Have my eyes ever failed me since we were kids? Besides, I told you long ago that Wang Ruohai wasn't acting right—he must have someone else! Who has social engagements every single day?"
Access to the elevator required a room key, which they didn’t have. Yao Jingjing seized the moment when no one was looking and pulled Qian Fei toward the stairwell.
As they climbed the stairs, Yao Jingjing spilled the details like pouring beans: "Tonight, my company had a dinner at Chuanban Restaurant. Coincidentally, Wang Ruohai was there with some woman. I saw him, but he didn’t see me. When they left, I saw her practically hanging off him. Something felt off, so I followed them out. And sure enough, the moment we stepped outside, I saw them making out! Then Wang Ruohai hailed a cab. I smelled a rat, so I got a taxi too and tailed them. Holy shit, I actually caught them—they came straight here to book a room! I went through hell sweet-talking and bluffing the front desk to get the room number—1208. Hurry up! Any slower and they might be done and pulling their pants back on. Then he’ll just swear up and down they were only chatting in the room, and you’ll have no way to prove otherwise!"
Qian Fei clenched her jaw. "If he dares to open the door without his pants on, I’ll kick his balls into next week!"
Huffing and puffing, they made it to the 12th floor and tiptoed to Room 1208, pressing their ears against the door.
Moans and groans came from inside.
Qian Fei felt her heart twist in pain.
She knocked. The sounds inside stopped. A man’s voice, irritated, called out, "Who is it?"
Hearing that voice, she clenched her teeth so hard she tasted blood.
"Sir, our system shows a smoke alarm in your room. May we come in to check?" Yao Jingjing piped up in a fake sweet voice.
After a moment, the door opened.
Wang Ruohai stood inside, wearing a hotel bathrobe. Qian Fei stood outside, her face ashen.
The next second, Qian Fei slapped him across the face.
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Qian Fei stared at the half-empty apartment, her heart aching so much she wanted to cry.
She slid down the wall and sat on the floor.
The day after being caught, Wang Ruohai openly broke up with her.
"That slap of yours was great—it woke me up. I was hesitating between choosing you or her, but that slap shattered whatever feelings we had left after all these years!"
He delivered those words as if she were the one who had betrayed him.He packed up all his things and left that same day. Before leaving, he said, "I'll only pay my share of the rent until the end of this month. Starting next month, you'll have to cover it all yourself. As for that apartment we both liked, I definitely don’t want it anymore. The 100,000 yuan deposit can be split fifty-fifty—just give me 50,000. As for our 450,000 yuan in savings, let’s divide it 70-30—you take 70%, I’ll take 30%. Consider the daily expenses as my contribution."
Qian Fei looked at Wang Ruohai, feeling like she barely recognized him anymore.
The memory of him relentlessly pursuing her during their junior year was still vivid in her mind, yet now, in the blink of an eye, he could coldly calculate every penny between them with such detachment.
A chill ran through her heart.
They had been together for seven years—the best seven years of her life, all given to him. She had scrimped and saved to buy a house so they could get married, only to end up saving him for another woman’s bed.
She couldn’t help but ask, "Who is she? When did you two get together?"
Wang Ruohai suddenly lost his temper. "Qian Fei, this is exactly what I can’t stand about you!" he snapped impatiently. "Since we’re breaking up anyway, what’s the point of digging into this?" He kicked the wall in frustration. "Let me tell you, Qian Fei, I’ve had enough of you! You keep blaming me for cheating, but have you ever stopped to look at your own flaws? Back in college, you were fresh and charming—everyone liked you. But after graduation, you turned into some middle-aged housewife! You insisted on saving for a house, fine, but then you forced me to give up dressing well, shopping, and any kind of fun, living like some peasant from the old society. You think this kind of life is virtuous and frugal, but did you ever ask if I could stand it? Every time I went out with colleagues, I got laughed at for dressing like a beggar! When I wanted a new phone, you blocked me at every turn. Everyone else was using iPhones as their daily phones, and for my birthday, you gave me some crappy Lenovo worth less than a thousand yuan like it was some huge favor! I work for a listed company, for god’s sake, but my standard of living is worse than the security guards in our building! Qian Fei, I can’t live like this with you anymore! You’ve saved up plenty over the years, but you cling to that bankbook and drag me along like a beggar—what’s the point?"
Qian Fei felt wronged. "I did it for our future! If we didn’t save like this, how could we ever afford a house? This is Beijing! Not some third- or fourth-tier city like where you or I grew up! Prices here are thirty or forty thousand per square meter, not three or four thousand! If we didn’t cut corners, how could we ever buy anything?"
Wang Ruohai waved his hands dismissively. "Enough, enough, I don’t want to argue! If you’d just agreed to let our families help, we wouldn’t be living like this!"
Qian Fei stared at him in disbelief. "Wang Ruohai, you know perfectly well—the money in my family came from my stepmother. She’s only been married to my dad for a little over a year! How could I possibly ask her for money?"Wang Ruohai retorted dismissively, "What's wrong with asking your stepmom? So what if it's only been a year? So what if we have to ask for money? There's nothing wrong with having her help out—we can pay her back later! All this talk about relying on ourselves—have you even looked at what we're capable of? If we can't afford a house, does that mean we can't live anymore? Just to buy a house, I have to go back to the old society days of eating porridge and pickles with you? You said it yourself—this is Beijing! Glamorous Beijing! I don’t want to spend my whole life in Beijing living some dull existence just for the sake of a stupid apartment!"
Qian Fei couldn’t hold back any longer—tears streamed down her face.
"Wang Ruohai, that’s not what you said when you were chasing me back then!"
Wang Ruohai’s eyes reddened too. "And you weren’t like this back when I was chasing you! Qian Fei, forget it. At the end of the day, it’s all because I’m too poor. Find someone more capable than me, someone richer, so you don’t have to live so stingily anymore!"
He made it sound like he was doing her a favor. With that, he shouldered his belongings and walked away without looking back.
Qian Fei sat on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
She thought of the line Princess Iron Fan said to the Supreme Treasure in A Chinese Odyssey :
"Back when we were watching the stars, you called me 'Sweetie.'"' Now that you’ve found someone new, you call me 'Madam Ox.'"
When he was pursuing her, he said he loved how sensible she was, how she didn’t waste money. Now that there was another woman, suddenly she was too stingy to live with.
Qian Fei wiped her tears furiously.
So he thought she was poor? Told her to find a rich man? Fine. She refused to believe that in a city like Beijing, she couldn’t make something of herself on her own.
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For the past two days, Yao Jingjing had been staying at Qian Fei’s place to keep her company. During dinner, Qian Fei suddenly started crying again. Yao Jingjing rolled her eyes at her puffy eyelids. "Seriously, sis? It’s just a breakup. Why the endless waterworks? What do you do at work—burst into tears like this too? Haven’t you freaked out your coworkers yet?"
Qian Fei yanked a tissue to blow her nose. "Couldn’t you comfort me the normal way?! Try losing a seven-year relationship! I’ve been with him since I was 19—for seven years, I barely knew what other men were like besides my dad!"
Yao Jingjing sighed. "That bastard Wang Ruohai is really something! Who knew he’d turn out like this back in college?"
Qian Fei sniffled. "I really want to know who that woman he cheated with is—what’s so great about her?"
Yao Jingjing said, "You’re asking me? There’s no one more plugged into the CBD corporate scene than me! I’ve already checked—she’s the niece of some executive at his company, practically his boss. As for what makes her better than you? Three things that crush you to dust: richer than you, richer than you, and richer than you."
Qian Fei flung her snotty tissue at Yao Jingjing’s face.
Yao Jingjing shrieked, "Qian Fei, could you be any grosser?!"
While wiping her face in disgust, she asked, "Feifei, what about that apartment you and Wang Ruohai were planning to buy? Still going for it?"
Qian Fei gritted her teeth. "Yes! Not buying it would be a betrayal of the five years I’ve spent pinching pennies!"She had been strict with herself for five long years, all just to pay taxes for five years and buy a house. She endured those five years, only to find that Wang Ruohai had ended up in another woman's arms.
When her family found out about her breakup with Wang Ruohai, they were distressed for days. Later, Qian Fei's father called her and said, "Sweetheart, your Aunt He and I have decided to sell our current big house. We'll move into a smaller one, and we'll sell the car and the garage too. I don't drive, and your Aunt He says she's getting older and it's not safe for her to drive anymore. In a few days, we'll transfer the money from selling these, along with our savings, to you. We've calculated it—it should be over a million yuan. Use it to buy the house you’ve been eyeing. If it’s not enough, take out a loan, and your Aunt He and I will help you pay it off. Your Aunt He said she treats you as her own child and wants you to take the money without hesitation. Don’t think of it as spending our money—after all, when your Aunt He and I retire, we’ll be living with you anyway, so this is also like buying a house for ourselves. It’s not easy for you alone in Beijing. At the very least, you should have either a man or a house. Since Wang Ruohai has turned bad, don’t grieve for him anymore. Pull yourself together, live well, and find someone better later!"
His words made Qian Fei burst into tears again. Her mother had passed away when she was in her senior year of college, and a year and a half ago, her father had remarried. She called his new wife Aunt He. Aunt He had brought her own house, car, and money into the marriage, so most of the family’s current assets were thanks to her. Qian Fei had always considered those things Aunt He’s and never thought she had any right to them, so she had never imagined relying on her family to buy a house. But in the end, she still ended up relying on her stepmother. She felt like such a failure—already so grown up, yet still making her father and stepmother sell their house, land, and car just to worry about her.
Half a month later, the money was transferred to her account. When she saw the amount, her nose stung as if soaked in vinegar. She knew her father and Aunt He must have given her their entire retirement savings. She swore she would pay them back every last cent someday.
After five years of working since graduation, she had saved up 300,000 yuan herself. She combined it with the money from her family, set aside 100,000 for future renovations, and used the rest for the down payment. She then took out a loan of over a million yuan from the bank and finally held a bright red property deed in her hands.
Soon after, the house was ready. During the day, she worked, and at night and on weekends, she busied herself with renovations. For the time being, she didn’t have the luxury of wallowing in sorrow. After a month, though physically exhausted, her mental state had actually improved a lot compared to before.
But while moving, she found a photo album of her and Wang Ruohai under the bed in her rented apartment. Flipping through the pictures, she couldn’t hold back another flood of tears.They bought the apartment in Shoucheng International on East Third Ring Road, close to CBD. Back then, they chose that location for Wang Ruohai’s convenience since he worked in CBD. Thinking back now, Qian Fei felt she had really shortchanged herself. Everything had been for Wang Ruohai’s sake. She worked in Financial Street, and commuting from East Third Ring Road to Financial Street meant taking Line 10 and transferring to Line 1 in the morning—every stop along the way was a suffocating squeeze. Yet for Wang Ruohai, she had chosen the East Third Ring apartment without hesitation. But what good did it do? In the end, she still wound up with an outcome he couldn’t tolerate.
She wanted to toss that photo album away and move into the new home unburdened. But after hovering her hand over the trash can a dozen times, she still couldn’t bring herself to let go. In the end, she stuffed the album at the very bottom of a cardboard box and took it with her to the new place.
Yao Jingjing couldn’t stand her indecisive, wishy-washy attitude and remarked, “Qian Fei, are you keeping it so that one day you and Wang Ruohai can reconcile, sit by the window gazing at the stars and moon while flipping through this album, reminiscing about the bittersweet past?”
Qian Fei thought for a moment and said, “So you think there’s still a chance for us to get back together, huh?”
Just as Yao Jingjing was about to explode, Qian Fei followed up with a venomous declaration: “If that ever happens, next time it’ll be my turn to cheat. I’ll find some rich guy, book a hotel room, and make sure he wears the green hat!”
Yao Jingjing was thoroughly pleased. “That’s the spirit! Now that’s ambition!”
※※※※※※
On her first night in the new home, Qian Fei couldn’t sleep. Not for any sentimental reason—it was all about money.
Lying in bed, she did the math. Though her monthly salary was over 8,000 yuan, the mortgage alone took 7,300 yuan, leaving her with just 1,000 yuan to spare. No matter how she calculated it, that amount wasn’t enough to live on. She couldn’t ask her family for more money—they had already emptied their savings for this apartment. She needed to find another way to make ends meet.
She got out of bed and paced around the apartment, reluctantly coming to a decision.
She had to rent out part of the apartment—otherwise, this place would be the death of her!
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