Back home, Qian Fei saw Gui Lili sitting on the living room sofa with both her phone and laptop screens set to maximum brightness. The eerie glow projected onto her face gave Qian Fei a momentary fright.
Upon seeing her return, Gui Lili rushed over with tears in her eyes, like a poor peasant from the old society finally seeing the Communist Party.
"Qian Fei, you're finally back! I was just thinking about what I'd do if my laptop and phone ran out of battery!"
Qian Fei couldn't help rolling her eyes.
She'd already checked on her way upstairs—their apartment was the only one in the entire building without power. So—
"This isn't a power outage, the fuse must have blown!" Qian Fei told Gui Lili.
Gui Lili lifted her pretty face, looking at her with a confused expression.
Qian Fei sighed. Clearly, expecting her to admit anything voluntarily was impossible.
"Were you using multiple high-power appliances at the same time at home?" she asked Gui Lili point-blank.
Gui Lili's expression changed instantly as she denied vehemently: "Are you suspecting I blew the fuse? That's impossible! I wasn't using multiple appliances at once, Qian Fei!"
Qian Fei felt her eyelid twitch. Giving up on arguing with Gui Lili, she went to her room to take off her coat, then used a flashlight to search for the toolbox in the kitchen.
While looking, she noticed something in the kitchen trash bin. Shining her light on it, she saw it was a thin manual for a 2000+ watt electric heater, with a receipt tucked inside showing the purchase date was a month ago.
Holding these items, she suddenly understood why this month's electricity bill had skyrocketed. She'd previously thought there was an issue with the meter and had even planned to schedule an inspection with the power company.
She stared at the manual in her hand, hesitating whether to confront Gui Lili about it.
Just then, the door opened—Li Yifei had returned.
She heard him ask Gui Lili: "What's going on? Power outage?"
Gui Lili responded with a soft, delicate "Mmm."
That single sound inexplicably irritated Qian Fei.
While Li Yifei went to change clothes, Qian Fei walked into the living room holding the manual and receipt. "Gui Lili, you've been using this electric heater, haven't you? You can't leave these things on continuously—they can cause short circuits if used too long. That's probably why the fuse blew tonight. Also, this thing uses a lot of electricity—this month's bill is much higher than usual. Maybe we should split this month's electricity bill?"
Gui Lili tilted her head, her delicate, pretty face turned toward Qian Fei. "But Qian Fei, our contract clearly states that you cover all electricity, water, and internet fees!"
Qian Fei felt a headache coming on, unsure if she was unconsciously mimicking Gui Lili's tone. "But you were using high-power appliances!"
Gui Lili batted her big eyes innocently. "But the contract never said we couldn't use them! It's so cold—using a heater is perfectly normal. We can't risk getting sick just to save on electricity, right?"
Qian Fei found herself speechless.
Her head was absolutely pounding.
At that moment, Li Yifei emerged from his room after changing.
"We'll pay this month's electricity bill," he suddenly declared.Gui Lili jumped up from the sofa and stood facing Li Yifei, shouting, "Li Yifei, are you out of your mind? I've been home alone in the dark, scared out of my wits, and you come back in the middle of the night only to pick a fight with me the moment you step in. What's your problem?"
Li Yifei also lost his temper. "Don't you have any idea how much electricity you waste every day? Bullying her? Have you no shame! Can't you see she's poorer than us?" He pointed at Qian Fei while yelling at Gui Lili.
Qian Fei stood to the side, her emotions in turmoil.
To be pointed at and called poor right to her face... Didn't Li Yifei understand the concept of "don't expose others' hardships"?
Their argument escalated with neither willing to back down. Amid their flying spittle, Qian Fei slipped out to buy a fuse.
She deliberately went to a distant hardware store that stayed open late. After purchasing the fuse, she lingered outside the apartment for a while, waiting until the shouting inside subsided before entering.
She found Li Yifei sitting on the living room sofa, their bedroom door closed.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
Li Yifei glanced at her. "Fine. She cried herself to sleep."
Qian Fei nodded.
"I'll take half a day off tomorrow to have the property management replace the fuse," Li Yifei told her.
After some thought, Qian Fei suggested, "How about I try first?"
Li Yifei frowned. "You?"
Qian Fei handed him a flashlight. "I already bought the fuse! Come to the hallway—hold the light for me while I try. If I can fix it, neither of us will have to miss work tomorrow!"
With a "don't be ridiculous" expression, Li Yifei asked, "Should you write a will first? What if you electrocute yourself?"
Qian Fei glared at him. "No wonder people say Beijing playboys have sharp tongues! Can't you say something positive for once?"
Shrugging, Li Yifei followed Qian Fei into the hallway with the flashlight.
Over the next few minutes, he watched in astonishment as Qian Fei swiftly replaced the fuse.
"How do you even know how to do this? Are you even a woman?" he couldn't help exclaiming.
Qian Fei scoffed. "My dad was an electrician at his workplace. I grew up watching him replace fuses!"
Li Yifei clicked his tongue. "Could your family afford better quality fuses? Needing replacements every other day—was the good stuff too expensive?"
Rolling her eyes, Qian Fei retorted, "Dude, that was just a figure of speech!"
"Oh?" Li Yifei sounded intrigued. "What else can you do?"
Encouraged by his curiosity, Qian Fei boasted, "Lots of things! My specialty is soldering radios. Give me a pile of parts, and I can assemble a multi-channel radio without even needing a circuit diagram!"
Li Yifei snorted. "Yeah right! Can you solder a phone then?"
Qian Fei hesitated. "Well, no. But my dad said mastering one skill is enough to impress people. Back when my English listening exam radio broke, I learned soldering from him. Had I known English would be removed from college entrance exams, I wouldn't have bothered with radios—I'd have learned to solder money printers instead!"
She thought she heard Li Yifei chuckle.
"If you're so good with electricity, how did you end up in investment banking?" he asked.Qian Fei sighed dramatically, "Just to live up to my surname, you know!"
Li Yifei chuckled in response.
The two of them packed up their tools and went back inside. They turned on the light to test it, and the lost current had successfully returned.
Qian Fei went back to her room to wash up. After finishing, she checked her phone—Hu Zining hadn’t sent her any messages. It seemed he was still a little upset.
After some thought, she took the initiative and sent him a WeChat message: "Good night, Zining."
No reply. Qian Fei figured he must have already fallen asleep.
She turned off the light and got into bed.
Just before drifting off, she suddenly found something rather amusing.
At first, she had thought Gui Lili was easygoing and approachable, while Li Yifei, with his nose in the air, would be difficult to get along with. But after spending time with them, the reality turned out to be the complete opposite.
Gui Lili was genuinely hard to deal with—just the thought of interacting with her now gave Qian Fei a headache. On the other hand, she felt that she and Li Yifei were starting to get along quite well.
※※※※※※
The next day at lunch, Qian Fei asked Xiao Yuan, "Say, if your boyfriend wanted to, you know, do it with you, and you refused, how long would he usually stay mad at you?"
Xiao Yuan bit the tip of her chopsticks and grinned suggestively, "He wouldn’t get mad—he’d just drop to his knees right then and there, thanking me for sparing him for another day!"
Qian Fei was shocked. "I had no idea you were such a tigress!"
Xiao Yuan rolled her eyes. "As if you don’t have needs too!" She then changed the subject. "What, your new boyfriend wanted to do it, and you turned him down?"
Qian Fei nodded, putting on a righteous expression. "Yeah. I don’t know what came over me—I just felt like taking the moral high ground for once."
Xiao Yuan clicked her tongue. "You? Moral high ground? More like trying to cure your beard by absorbing yang energy! If you ask me, you just don’t really like him that much deep down."
Qian Fei pondered this seriously.
"But I think I do like him!"
Xiao Yuan blinked at her. "So, he got mad because you wouldn’t let him do it?"
Qian Fei put down her chopsticks and hung her head. "Yeah, he’s been ignoring me since yesterday!"
Xiao Yuan said, "That’s easy to fix. Just find a chance to let him do it. Once yin and yang are balanced, your beard will stop growing, and his temper will cool down. Problem solved!"
Qian Fei glared at her. "Can you have a little sense of chastity, sis? I don’t even know if we’ll end up married yet. If I just let him sleep with me so casually and we break up later, it’s not like I can ask him to pay me back for that night. Total loss, okay!"
Xiao Yuan scoffed, "You’re lecturing me about chastity? Whatever. Don’t overthink it. I’ve seen plenty of men in bed, and guys like your current boyfriend who act all precious—you don’t need to indulge them. The more you coddle them, the more they’ll act up. Just ignore him for a few days, and he’ll come crawling back to you!"
Qian Fei looked skeptical. "Really?"
Xiao Yuan batted her eyelashes. "Of course! Would I lie to you? Men just can’t be spoiled!"
Qian Fei said, "No! I mean—you’ve seen plenty of men in bed? Really?"
Xiao Yuan crumpled a napkin into a ball and threw it at Qian Fei’s face.
※※※※※※
Qian Fei decided to take Xiao Yuan’s advice and give Hu Zining the cold shoulder for a few days.Just before leaving work in the afternoon, General Manager Jin from the Backend Support Department assigned her a task—to help compile the "Quarterly Investment Banking Business Statistics." Manager Jin told her, "This was originally Xiao Ma's responsibility, but she went on maternity leave last week, and now there's no one to handle it! Since you've done this before and know how to compile the data, Qian Fei, I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you with this!"
She had originally been in the Backend Support Department but had managed to transfer to the Project Department after breaking up with Wang Ruohai. She couldn’t bring herself to refuse her former boss’s request, so she reluctantly accepted.
Manager Jin needed it urgently, saying it would be best if she could deliver it by tomorrow morning. Left with no choice, Qian Fei had to work late into the night at home to finish it.
Before she knew it, it was already 11:30 p.m., and drowsiness began to set in. She yawned repeatedly, her nose running and eyes watering.
She got up and went to the kitchen, hoping to find something in the fridge to keep her awake—maybe coffee or tea.
But the moment she opened the fridge door, she was greeted by an overwhelming sight—face masks, face masks, and more face masks…
Silently, she closed the fridge door.
She was so tired she could barely recognize her own family, let alone remember that the fridge was no longer a fridge—it had become the land of face masks.
As Qian Fei passed through the living room on her way back to her room, the front door opened. It was Li Yifei returning, carrying a bag. Gui Lili wasn’t with him.
Casually, she asked, "Just getting back?"
Author's Note: The author tearfully says: Ladies, please leave comments and sprinkle flowers! I’ve given up on the annual rankings—there are just too many amazing authors debuting lately. After being frozen for two and a half years, thinking too much about it would only hurt. But I still want to fight for the quarterly rankings TT. Yet, judging by the current situation, even that seems out of reach now 5555555555.
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