The squad leader took a drag and exclaimed, "Damn it! Don't tell me you've taken a fancy to a dude!"
Li Yifei reassured him, "Absolutely not. This young master still prefers little beauties with long hair, big eyes, fair skin, gentle and easy to push over." He tossed a peanut into his mouth, "But this girl is really quite interesting!"
When Li Yifei returned home after the wedding, Qian Fei was busy shopping on Taobao in her room.
Seeing him back, Qian Fei excitedly waved at him through the open door, "Come here, come here!"
Li Yifei teased her while changing his shoes, "Why don't you grab a handkerchief to wave?"
It took Qian Fei a moment to catch his drift, then she glared, "Get lost! Even if I had a handkerchief, I wouldn't wave it at you! I'd wave it at some rich old man!"
As he walked into her room, Li Yifei mocked her, "You're not like our company's receptionist, reading too many CEO novels and dreaming of marrying our president every day, are you?"
Qian Fei looked at him seriously, wagging her finger, "No! Actually, compared to a CEO, I prefer factory managers! So down-to-earth!"
Li Yifei stopped in front of her, "What kind of taste is that?" Then asked, "What do you want?"
Qian Fei immediately got excited again, pointing at the computer, "Look! The exact same gold-buttoned shirt as yours! Only a hundred bucks, and free shipping! I've already ordered it. I'm a woman of my word—if I say I'll compensate you, I won't pretend to forget! Now you don't have to worry about your shirt missing gold buttons anymore!"
She grinned at Li Yifei, her expression screaming for praise, but his face gradually twisted in response.
He took a deep breath, pointed at the shirt on Taobao, and said, "How am I supposed to wear something this cheap?"
Qian Fei's smile vanished, "Damn it, Li Yifei! Can't you stop being pretentious for once? Over a hundred bucks is cheap? How extravagant are you usually? Can't you save up and buy a place to move out? Even if it's just a small one first!"
Li Yifei rolled his eyes and said calmly, "I only buy villas."
Qian Fei couldn't help but scoff, "I think you should buy some medicine first! Your rich-boy syndrome needs money to cure!"
※※※※※※
Qian Fei's nurturing instincts kicked in, and she tried her best to convince Li Yifei that saving money was more important than showing off in life. The main way to save was to start by avoiding malls and shopping online instead.
She dragged a chair from the living room, forced Li Yifei to sit beside her, and made him face her computer. Step by step, she taught him how to use Taobao. Whenever he showed the slightest impatience and turned his head away, she'd ask, "Do you not want dinner tonight, or do you want to keep doing the dishes?"
Li Yifei would purse his lips, sneer, "Small-minded people get arrogant," and reluctantly turn back to the computer.
After teaching him the entire online shopping process, Qian Fei told him, "This is just the beginning. Maybe you're still resistant to Taobao because we don't know each other well yet. But trust me, in time, you'll love it as much as you love money! No more getting ripped off for your knock-offs—Taobao can fulfill all your pretentious vanity needs at the lowest prices!"Li Yifei scoffed at her disdainfully, "Did you sell Amway before getting into investment banking?"
He got up and left without hesitation.
Though his departure was swift and decisive, his expression changed two days later when the Taobao-made gold-buttoned shirt arrived in the mail.
"Other than the buttons being gold-plated, this is practically identical to mine! What kind of workshop made this? It’s insane! How can a fake be this convincing? Don’t the police care?"
Qian Fei couldn’t help but snicker beside him, "As if yours wasn’t a knockoff too. If the police were to arrest anyone, they’d start with the place that made yours!"
In the following days, Qian Fei noticed an increasing number of packages arriving at their place…
All of them were clothes Li Yifei had bought!
She was on the verge of losing it.
From then on, Li Yifei wore a new outfit every day, strutting to work like a peacock.
With his naturally good looks and his shameless "I’m the handsomest man alive" confidence, he managed to charm several young women at the hotel.
One day, Qian Fei finally couldn’t take it anymore and asked, "Young Master Li, who was it that once sneered at Taobao clothes for being too cheap to wear? Now you’re buying them nonstop? Can’t a person have some firm principles and consistent integrity?"
Li Yifei raised an eyebrow and replied, "The clothes may be rough, but what can I do? I was born with a great physique—I look good in anything, no matter how I wear it!" At the end, he even ran a hand through his hair and squinted at her flirtatiously. "You know what it means to be so handsome you have no friends? That’s me!"
Qian Fei stared at him, nearly gagging.
※※※※※※
On their way to work one morning, while on the subway, Qian Fei had planned to tentatively bring up the idea of Li Yifei finding another place to live. But then she received a WeChat message from Hu Zining and completely forgot about it.
Hu Zining told her he was back from his business trip and asked if she was free for dinner that evening. He also said he missed her.
Qian Fei replied with an "Okay."
When she looked up after sending the message, she saw Li Yifei glancing down at her phone.
She frowned. "Why are you looking at my messages?"
Li Yifei didn’t answer directly. "Then what am I supposed to do for dinner tonight?"
Qian Fei rolled her eyes. "Since when did you become my responsibility? If you move out one day, are you just going to starve to death?"
Li Yifei looked at her and said, "How about I tag along for dinner? I can help you figure out if he really missed you or not."
Qian Fei nearly choked. "I’m starting to think you have a crush on my boyfriend! Go home and make yourself some instant noodles!"
Li Yifei gave her a sidelong glance but said nothing.
During dinner that evening, Qian Fei felt something was off between her and Hu Zining. She figured it might just be because they hadn’t seen each other in a while.
Hu Zining, however, seemed in high spirits. He mentioned his trip to Malaysia and even brought her back a small gift.
Qian Fei unwrapped it—a sweater necklace shaped like the Petronas Twin Towers. It was quite pretty, but upon closer inspection, she noticed the words "Made in China" engraved at the base of the towers.
At first, she didn’t think much of it and found it amusing. Smiling, she pointed it out to Hu Zining. "My colleague once said China dominates the global small goods market, and I didn’t believe it. But seeing this, I’m convinced! This is the perfect example of ‘exported and then sold back domestically’!"She couldn't help laughing after speaking, but when she looked up, she saw Hu Zining's face had turned extremely unpleasant.
It was as if a "snap" sounded in her mind—that thick nerve of hers had finally snapped...
Hu Zining looked at her and asked, "Feifei, do you suspect I bought this domestically?"
Qian Fei quickly explained, "Zining, don't overthink it. I didn’t mean anything else—I genuinely think the idea of 'exported goods returning for domestic sale' is amusing!" To dispel his doubts, she immediately put the necklace around her neck and asked, "So, how does it look? Pretty?"
Hu Zining's expression gradually returned to normal as he looked at her and smiled. "It looks great!"
Qian Fei thought Hu Zining's control over his facial muscles was truly impressive—his expressions shifted effortlessly at will.
She figured this wasn’t so bad. At least he was easy to placate.
After dinner, the two strolled along the street, with Hu Zining holding her hand.
"Feifei," he called out after a while, stopping her. "There’s something I want to discuss. I need your advice. Our department is selecting a new supervisor, and I’m one of the two candidates. It’s hard to say who’ll get the position. Since you’re handling our hotel’s IPO, you interact with our senior management regularly. Do you think you could find a way to put in a good word for me?"
Qian Fei met Hu Zining’s eager gaze, feeling like she was about to be steamed alive under its intensity.
When someone was clinging to their most fervent hope, she couldn’t bring herself to douse it with cold water—especially when that someone was her boyfriend.
"I’ll try tomorrow!" Qian Fei replied.
Hu Zining happily kissed her on the cheek.
The next day, Qian Fei tactfully brought up Hu Zining’s situation with the securities representative, who also oversaw HR. Since they got along well and the representative knew about her relationship with Hu Zining, he readily agreed to help.
Qian Fei thanked him profusely, promising to repay the favor generously later. The representative laughed and said, "Don’t thank me yet. I’m fine with it, but the final decision rests with the chairman! Wait until everything’s settled before thanking me!"
That evening, Qian Fei shared the news with Hu Zining, who was overjoyed. Beaming, he kept calling her "baby" and showering her with kisses.
But three days later, Qian Fei received bad news.
The supervisor position had gone to the other candidate.
The securities representative sought her out privately at noon and confided, "Qian Fei, I’m really sorry about this. I did promise to help your boyfriend, but it turns out the other candidate has the chairman’s backing—I only found out yesterday. The decision’s final now, and the results will be announced in a couple of days. I truly apologize for not being able to help."
Qian Fei still thanked him sincerely. She knew it wasn’t his fault—just bad luck for her and Hu Zining.
After work, she mustered the courage to break the news to Hu Zining. His expression darkened the moment he heard it. She could tell he was deeply unhappy.
After a long silence, Hu Zining asked coldly, "I thought the chairman liked you. Why didn’t you just ask him directly?"Qian Fei was a little angry. The chairman had only asked for her business card once, and it was likely that Chairman Lin didn’t even remember what she looked like now. How could she shamelessly go to him for favors?
She took a deep breath to calm herself and told Hu Zining, “Even if I went to your chairman, it wouldn’t help, because your colleague got the position through the chairman’s connections!”
Hu Zining fell silent, though his expression remained sour. Qian Fei felt it was pointless to sit there any longer, so without even eating, they both went their separate ways home.
The next afternoon, while Qian Fei was organizing documents, the securities representative came to see her. His face was grim.
They stepped out of the office to a secluded spot, where the securities representative asked sternly, “Qian Fei, everyone at the hotel is saying that colleague got promoted to supervisor because he’s related to the chairman! I was the only one who knew that, and I only told you! Now I want to know—did this rumor start with you?”
Qian Fei felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. She was so ashamed she wished she could bury her face somewhere.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” she kept apologizing. “I must have accidentally let it slip! I’m really sorry, Representative! Will this cause any trouble for you?”
The securities representative sighed helplessly. “Whether it does or not, the damage is done. Qian Fei, I’m not trying to lecture you, but you really can’t handle things like this in the future. It puts the middleman in a tough spot!”
Qian Fei kept apologizing until she was nearly in tears.
After the representative left, Qian Fei called Hu Zining to ask if he was the one who had spread the rumor.
Hu Zining sounded indignant over the phone. “Yes, I did! He didn’t win that position fairly, so people should know he only got it because of his connections with the chairman!”
Qian Fei was upset. “How could you do that? You’ve embarrassed the middleman!” Their conversation ended on a sour note.
After work, Qian Fei told Li Yifei that she wouldn’t be eating out tonight and planned to buy groceries to cook at home.
Li Yifei seemed delighted at the prospect of her cooking.
“Finally, this young master doesn’t have to eat out today!” Li Yifei said, running his fingers through his hair in a show of arrogance. “Strangely enough, after getting used to your terrible cooking, I can’t even enjoy fancy restaurant food anymore. Isn’t that weird?”
Qian Fei glared at him and retorted sharply, “That’s not weird—it’s called being a masochist!”
During dinner, feeling a bit down, Qian Fei recounted the events of the past two days to Li Yifei and asked, “Who do you think is really to blame here?”
Li Yifei set down his chopsticks and gave her a sidelong glance. “You. You’re even more of a masochist than I am.”
Qian Fei pouted and stayed silent.
Li Yifei looked at her and suddenly grew irritated. “Qian Fei, I’m begging you—can you stop being such a pushover? No one’s giving you a medal for playing the saint every day!”
Qian Fei looked at him earnestly. “Okay, I’ll be more careful!”
Li Yifei snapped, “Can you at least stay mad for longer and show some personality?”
Qian Fei nodded sincerely. “Okay, I’ll try!”
Li Yifei huffed. “Hu Zining isn’t right for you.”
Qian Fei replied earnestly, “Okay, I’ll think about it!”
Li Yifei rolled his eyes. “You’re the type who never learns from getting burned.”Qian Fei looked at him, her sincerity so profound it could shake the heavens and split the earth. "I'm happy to!"
Author's Note:
Since I'm updating three chapters at once, I'm not holding out much hope for comments. If your heart overflows with sympathy after reading, feel free to toss a flower my way >3
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