A week later, Li Yifei moved out. During that week, he barely came home at all.
Qian Fei looked around the empty apartment, feeling an indescribable sadness.
They had lived together for so long, and now, in this vast space, she was alone again.
She pulled herself together and cleaned the entire place from top to bottom. While tidying up, she realized Li Yifei had left behind quite a few things. After much hesitation, she decided to call him and ask if he still wanted them.
But no matter how many times she tried, his phone was turned off.
She put her phone away and laughed at herself mockingly.
Two days later, to her surprise, Li Yifei actually called her.
“I lost my phone, so it’s been off. Today I got a new one and saw the missed call notifications from the service center. Did you need something?” His explanation was brief, his tone flat and professional, as if he were delivering a routine project update to his team.
Qian Fei replied with an “Oh,” then said, “There are still some of your things here. I wanted to ask if you still want them.”
Li Yifei paused before answering, “No, just throw them away.”
Qian Fei said, “Got it,” and hung up.
She posted a rental ad online, and within three days, the apartment was leased out again.
The new tenant was a woman in her early thirties, unmarried, polite, and often away on business trips. Even though the apartment was rented out again, Qian Fei still felt the place was cold and lifeless. Sometimes, when she thought back to the times she and Li Yifei had sat in the living room drinking beer and chatting, it felt like something from another century—so distant and unreal that the memories only deepened her loneliness.
In early July, Qian Fei heard from her project team that Li Yifei, their contact at the brokerage firm, had passed the sponsor representative exam and was now a candidate sponsor. Their company had a private placement project, and as the co-sponsor, he had signed off on it. Soon, he would officially register as a sponsor representative and soar to new heights. Everyone said how lucky he was.
Qian Fei listened quietly and walked away without comment.
Since he moved out, they hadn’t been in contact at all, not even for work-related matters—she communicated directly with Zhao De now. All news about him came to her through others.
Before she knew it, August arrived, bringing Beijing’s hottest weather of the year.
Over the past two months, Wang Ruohai had been diligently and earnestly playing the role of a reformed playboy. He really was different now—when Qian Fei was late for their dates, he waited patiently without complaint. When she worked late, he would bring her dinner to the office and wait for her in his car downstairs, even if it meant staying until 2 a.m. and getting bitten by mosquitoes all night, acting as if he enjoyed every second of it.
Qian Fei was somewhat moved by this man who felt both familiar and unfamiliar. Her initial resolve began to waver. One breezy midnight after working late until 2 a.m., she finally agreed to let Wang Ruohai come to her place to “sit for a while.”
That night, she allowed him to kiss her. Her body was relaxed, but she couldn’t summon any passion. She remained as calm as an observer, watching coldly as he closed his eyes, lost in fervent excitement while kissing her.Finally, she lost her patience and pushed him away. Straightening her clothes and hair, she said coolly to his stunned face, "Wang Ruohai, let's stop here. I think my heart and body will never open up to you again."
She stood up, walked to the window, pulled open the curtains, and looked at the city lights outside. Calmly, she said, "Wang Ruohai, do you know how I survived after you cheated on me and broke up with me last year?" She turned her head to look at him and whispered, "I thought about doing the same to you once, but now I'm tired. Let's just end it here."
Wang Ruohai panicked. His eyes reddened with urgency, and his voice nearly choked with emotion. "Feifei, it was all my fault before! Let's take it slow. One day, you'll accept me again!"
Qian Fei felt exhausted, both in heart and body.
"Wang Ruohai," she called his name softly, "Sometimes I wonder, do you really still love me? Or is it just because after I left you, I didn’t wither or fade—instead, I thrived—and that made you feel lost? Did you ever wonder why your departure didn’t bring me pain?"
"Wang Ruohai, I think maybe you’re just unwilling to accept it. Unwilling that I left you and only grew better."
"I don’t think we can ever be together again. I’ll always remember the sight of you opening the door for me in your bathrobe. Always."
She closed her eyes and murmured, "Wang Ruohai, let’s stop here."
●︶3︶●
The next day, Qian Fei called Yao Jingjing and told her, "Wang Ruohai and I broke up again."
Yao Jingjing was shocked and yelled, "What happened? Did he cheat again?"
Qian Fei replied, "No. This time, I was the one who ended it."
Yao Jingjing was silent for a long moment before speaking. "Feifei, tell me the truth—is there someone else in your heart now?"
Qian Fei laughed. "I don’t know."
●︶3︶●
In late August, the two companies held a progress meeting regarding their previous projects. That day, Li Yifei didn’t show up.
Qian Fei tried her best to sound casual as she asked Zhao De, "Why isn’t Li Yifei here?"
Zhao De sighed heavily. "Don’t even ask. He’s been swamped with trouble lately!"
The news unsettled her. After the meeting, Zhao De insisted on taking her to Yu Xiang Ren Jia for dinner, saying he missed her.
During the meal, Qian Fei noticed Zhao De looked pale and was sweating. When she asked if he was okay, he said, "It’s nothing. Probably just bad sleep lately—my chest feels a little tight. Once the project’s done, I’ll rest and be fine!"
Changing the subject, he teased her with a grin, "Little Feifei, you’ve really changed for the better! You’re more beautiful than ever! Do you have a boyfriend now? If not, I might just make a move!"
Qian Fei smiled without answering.
After more small talk, the conversation finally turned to Li Yifei.
Qian Fei asked Zhao De what exactly was going on with him. Zhao De said, "Ugh, he was pulled into another team to work on a corporate bond issuance. Everything was ready, but the company’s boss kept delaying the submission and even stirred up some issues. Yifei and the others have been stuck there for ages!""Later, the team members were finally sent back. Everyone prepared the materials and sent them to the company's boss for confirmation, waiting for his approval before submitting the documents to the association. But as they waited, they discovered that the company had already issued its bonds! Turns out they thought our fees were too high, so they took the complete set of materials I prepared and secretly hired another securities firm to do it! Our company then started a lawsuit against this rogue company for breach of contract."
Qian Fei asked, "But that's between the company and the enterprise. What does it have to do with Li Yifei personally?"
Zhao De took a sip of water and continued, "Listen on! Since negotiations fell through, we proceeded with the lawsuit. The company hired a lawyer—an arrogant and annoying one at that. While organizing the evidence, he claimed a guarantee contract was missing and insisted it had been handed to Yifei with instructions to keep it safe. At the time, Yifei seemed out of sorts, like he’d lost his soul, and he couldn’t confirm whether he’d actually received or kept that contract."
"Then the lawyer asked everyone on the project team to compile all communication records—texts and emails—with the company, print them out, and get them notarized to prove the team had indeed established business relations and completed all necessary work for the bond issuance. But Yifei said his phone was lost, so the call logs and texts were gone. As for emails, he used Yahoo Mail, which was no longer accessible, and he hadn’t backed anything up. The lawyer then reported to the deputy manager, accusing Yifei of being a mole, claiming he must’ve taken bribes from the company to sabotage the lawsuit. Otherwise, how could he afford his lavish lifestyle on his salary?" [Yahoo Mail shut down on August 19, 2013.]
Zhao De paused to drink more water.
Qian Fei said firmly, "Li Yifei isn’t that kind of person!"
Zhao De agreed, "Exactly! None of us colleagues believed Yifei could do such a thing. But strangely, he really was distracted back then—documents lost, phone lost, and he hadn’t transferred his emails before Yahoo shut down. No one knew what had gotten into him!"
Qian Fei retorted, "But you can’t just label him a mole based on that! What kind of lawyer is this?"
Zhao De said, "I suspect the lawyer was settling a personal grudge. Yifei was in a bad state at the time, irritable, and this lawyer was always acting high and mighty, ordering everyone around. Yifei once snapped at him in front of everyone, embarrassing him. Now the lawyer had his chance to get back at him!"
Qian Fei asked anxiously, "What happens next?"
Zhao De replied, "In theory, nothing much. But the problem is this lawyer was hired by the company and has connections with the CEO. Even if we don’t believe his nonsense, the CEO might! If the CEO buys it, Yifei probably won’t last long here."
Qian Fei pressed, "So we need to prove Yifei isn’t a mole, right?"
Zhao De sighed, "How? His phone’s gone, and his email’s shut down."
The rest of the meal tasted like cardboard to Qian Fei.
When she got home, she anxiously booted up her computer, plugging her phone in to charge while logging into QQ.She happened to have a middle school classmate working in Zhongguancun, and thought she could ask him if there was any way to recover the emails from the Yahoo mailbox.
The moment she plugged her phone into the computer, iTunes automatically popped up. Qian Fei ignored it and logged directly into QQ.
Fortunately, IT folks were always online, so she didn’t have much trouble finding her old classmate. She explained the situation, and he readily agreed to help her retrieve the emails.
He asked if she knew the email account and password. Qian Fei remembered that when she had set up Li Yifei’s phone before, he had told her the Apple Store login credentials—the account was his work email, which was his full name in pinyin, and the password was the same as his email password, which was his birthday. At the time, she had teased him, "Remember to change your password, or I might peek at your emails!"
And Li Yifei had replied, "Go ahead, they’re all work emails. If you read every single one, I guarantee your professional skills will skyrocket!"
She sent the account and password to her classmate, who then asked for her address, saying, "I’m afraid you might not know how to handle it, so I’ll just print out all the emails and courier them to your office tomorrow!"
Qian Fei thanked him profusely and promised to treat him to a nice meal another day.
With the email issue resolved, she finally felt a little more at ease.
As her mouse hovered over the iTunes interface, a sudden thought struck her.
Back when she had transferred Li Yifei’s contacts, she had backed up everything from his phone—including call logs and text messages! Judging by the timeline, that would have been right around the period when he was in close and frequent contact with the company about the project!
At this realization, her heart lit up with hope.
But immediately afterward, panic set in.
She had used her old computer to back up Li Yifei’s data—and she had given that computer to Yao Jingjing’s cousin!
Glancing at the time, it was already past ten. She forced her restless legs to stay put and made herself wash up and go to bed. The next morning, she got up early, took leave from work, and took a taxi straight to the culinary school in the suburbs.
When she arrived, she learned that Yao Jingjing’s cousin had already finished her course and returned to her hometown. Qian Fei smacked her forehead in frustration. What was it called when you were so busy you lost track of things? She should have realized her cousin’s classes were over by now. Chaos from overwork—what a waste of time.
She quickly called Yao Jingjing, briefly explained the situation, and asked for her aunt’s address and contact number.
Yao Jingjing gave her the number first, then said, "Feifei, you’re running around so much for Li Yifei—does he even know? What’s in it for you?"
Qian Fei replied, "I don’t need him to know!"
Yao Jingjing sighed. "It’s over."
Qian Fei asked, "What’s over?"
Yao Jingjing said, "I mean Wang Ruohai’s done for. He’s got no chance."
Qian Fei didn’t have time to banter and hung up to call the aunt. Luckily, the cousin was still at home and hadn’t gone out job-hunting yet. Qian Fei asked if she had deleted any software or files from the computer, and the cousin said no.
Qian Fei clasped her hands together, took a deep breath, and silently thanked the heavens.
After getting the aunt’s address, she hung up.
She then called Xiao Yuan to ask for two days off, booked a flight, and rushed to the airport by taxi.She dozed off on the plane and headed straight to the bus station after landing.
Her aunt's home was in a small village under the provincial capital, and there was no direct train to get there. The only way was a four-hour long-distance bus ride.
As Qian Fei squeezed into the old, crowded, non-air-conditioned bus, sweating profusely, she seriously pondered Yao Jingjing's words.
What was she hoping to gain by running around and worrying so much about Li Yifei?
She didn't know the answer herself.
After more than four hours of bumpy travel that nearly rattled her insides apart, the small bus finally reached its destination. She stepped off the bus, sticky with sweat, to find her aunt and cousin waiting by the roadside.
At the sight of them, for some reason, Qian Fei just wanted to cry.
●︶3︶●
After retrieving the backup from the computer, Qian Fei rested at her aunt's house for the night and set off early the next morning, catching the first bus back to the provincial capital. By the time she boarded the plane in the provincial capital, it was already afternoon. She arrived at the Capital Airport by evening and got home when it was completely dark.
Exhausted, Qian Fei collapsed onto the bed, too tired to move.
Her phone rang, and with great effort, she managed to get up and answer it.
It was Wang Ruohai. Even after their breakup, he still called her from time to time under the guise of being classmates and friends, making it hard for her to refuse.
Wang Ruohai asked why her phone had been off earlier. She didn't hide anything and told him the whole story.
She could hear the sadness in his voice over the phone.
He asked, "Feifei, why are you willing to go to such lengths for him? Do you have feelings for him?"
Qian Fei answered truthfully, "I don't know. I just feel compelled to do something for him."
Wang Ruohai hung up.
Qian Fei wasn't sure if her honesty was right or wrong, but she could sense Wang Ruohai was hurt. Still, it was better to end the pain sooner rather than later—they truly couldn't go back to how things were before. It was better for him to see that sooner rather than later.
She washed up hastily and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
The next day at work, she printed out the call logs and text messages, along with the email printouts her old classmate had sent her, and mailed them to Li Yifei via Shentong Express.
She left the sender field blank.
Coincidentally, Zhao De came to the office in the afternoon to deliver a document related to joint sponsorship. After work, Qian Fei invited him to dinner.
As soon as they sat down, Zhao De broke into a sweat again, looking pale and complaining of chest tightness after just a short walk.
Qian Fei sighed and sincerely advised him, "Stop staying up so late. Work belongs to everyone, but your health is your own. There's no need to ruin your body for work!"
Zhao De nodded earnestly, swearing he would start going to bed early that very night.
When the food arrived, Zhao De said between bites, "Feifei, I have good news! Yifei's issue has been resolved!"
Qian Fei stared at him, momentarily stunned.
She had only sent the package out that morning—could Li Yifei have already received it? Then again, she thought, it was possible, since they were all in the Financial Street area.
Keeping her expression neutral, she asked Zhao De, "What do you mean by that?"Zhao De said, "Yifei's buddies are seriously badass! A few of them practically made that arrogant lawyer kneel! No idea what methods they used, but that lawyer definitely won’t be spouting nonsense anymore!" He paused, then sighed, "I always thought Yifei was different from ordinary people, but I never expected his connections to be this wild and unorthodox!"
Qian Fei smiled faintly in agreement but said nothing, though her mind was in turmoil.
It seemed her express delivery had been unnecessary.
That evening, back at home, she tried calling the courier from Shentong Express to ask if it was still possible to retrieve the package. The courier informed her that the package had already been delivered to its destination at 5:30 p.m. Since the recipient wasn’t in, a colleague had signed for it instead.
After hanging up, Qian Fei collapsed onto her bed in frustration.
She had really gone out of her way for nothing.
●︶3︶●
The entire next day passed without a single call or text from Li Yifei.
Her emotions fluctuated wildly, like riding a roller coaster. She had no idea whether he had received the package or not, nor what he might think if he had. Would he guess it was from her? And if he did, how would he feel? Would he find her meddlesome, unnecessary, and annoying?
She drifted through the day in a daze. By evening, she finally dragged herself through work, ate tasteless street food in a fog, and returned home. She couldn’t even remember how she got inside, changed her shoes, or ended up sprawled on the sofa like a lifeless lump.
Her thoughts were a blur, her memories fragmented as if soaked in alcohol.
It wasn’t until she heard urgent knocking at the door that she snapped back to reality.
She got up, walked to the door, and lazily called out, "Who is it?"
The knocking stopped, and for a moment, silence enveloped both sides of the door.
"Me."
A familiar voice answered.
Qian Fei froze, then leaned closer to the peephole.
Her heart instantly pounded like a drum.
She opened the door.
Standing inside, she looked stunned. Outside, Li Yifei was breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
The next second, he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a deep kiss.
Still kissing her, he pushed his way inside, hastily kicked off his shoes, hooked the door shut with his foot, and pinned her against the wall. He devoured her lips with desperate intensity, pressing against her so tightly she could barely breathe.
At first, she was too shocked to react. By the time she regained her senses, she was already trapped against the wall, helpless under his relentless assault. She tried to push him away, but every inch of her was locked against him, leaving her powerless. Gradually, she gave in, her body softening as she weakly kissed him back.
His tongue forced her lips apart, dominating her mouth with ruthless possession. A tingling sensation spread from the soles of her feet up her spine, leaving her legs so weak she could barely stand.
In that moment, all she could hear was their ragged breathing and the thunderous pounding of their hearts.
She had no idea how long they kissed, only that when he finally released her, her lips were swollen and numb.
Gasping for air, she asked, "Why did you come?"He answered hoarsely, "I received the package. I called Yao Jingjing, and I know you ran off to the countryside!" He cupped her face, his nose almost touching hers, his gaze piercing straight into her eyes. His voice was restrained and husky as he asked her, "Why did you do all this for me? Why? Hmm?"
Qian Fei listened to the pounding of her own heart, her breath quickening as she replied, "No reason at all!"
He pressed his forehead against hers and laughed. "Yao Jingjing said you broke up with that guy Wang again!" He brushed his lips against hers. "So now it's my turn, isn't it?"
Author's Note:
Well, the earlier foreshadowing about the phone has finally come into play, hehe...
Doesn't this feel like an unexpected turn of events...
Won't you leave a comment of at least 25 characters and wait for me to send you points? ^_^
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