Li Yifei couldn’t help but smirk at the side.
“Auntie, you’re loaded,” Zhao De coughed while rummaging through the handful of changes Qian Fei had pulled out. “There’s a lot of coins, but it’s not even twenty yuan in total!”
Qian Fei swatted his hand away. “Keep your hands off my pure and innocent little bills! Just wait and see how your auntie uses them to turn the tables and dominate the game!”
Initially, the ranking of their performance was Li Yifei > Zhao De > Qian Fei, but with money as motivation, Qian Fei, who had been too lazy to use her brain, finally showed some ambition and started to calculate the cards diligently. The ranking of the three began to change.
Li Yifei and Qian Fei won an almost equal number of times; Zhao De was at the bottom, and soon he bid farewell to a hundred-yuan note.
As he took out a second hundred-yuan note from his wallet, Zhao De felt a bit regretful. “Damn, Qian Fei, you’re playing dumb to trick us! How come you were losing so much before, and now you’re winning non-stop?”
Qian Fei had a look of schadenfreude on her face. “I haven’t won that much! I just lost twenty to Young Master Li in this round! But you know what, Zhao De, if you hadn’t used the money to spark my fighting spirit, I wouldn’t have realized how much I’ve improved at playing Landlord! Thanks!”
Zhao De glared at her.
Li Yifei suddenly asked, “Are you thirsty?”
Zhao De’s eyes darted around, and he quickly said, “Not thirsty!”
Qian Fei said, “A little bit.”
Li Yifei continued to ask her, “Want some water then?”
Qian Fei said, “Sure, why not.”
Li Yifei handed his cup to her, “Help me get a cup too while you’re at it.”
Qian Fei was stunned for a moment, seeing Zhao De’s “I knew it” expression as he looked at her with glee.
She calculated how much money she had just lost to Li Yifei in that round, then lowered her head and held her forehead, sighing, “Suddenly feeling a bit dizzy.”
Li Yifei took out a ten-yuan note from the pile of money in front of him and placed it in front of Qian Fei.
Qian Fei continued to hold her forehead, “Feeling a bit better, but still dizzy.”
Li Yifei took out another ten-yuan note and placed it in front of Qian Fei.
Qian Fei still held her forehead, “Not dizzy anymore, but just feeling a bit weak.”
Li Yifei reached out to take the twenty yuan back.
Qian Fei quickly scooped up the money, put it in her pocket, and stood up briskly. She grabbed the cup and marched towards the water dispenser with great vigor, “Hey, isn’t it strange? This dizziness comes quickly and goes quickly too! Haha!”
Zhao De watched from the side, feeling distressed, “Damn, you’re paying for it! If you’re paying, let me go next time!”
This incident of exchanging gambling money for fetching water somehow gradually evolved.
Whenever Li Yifei was thirsty, he would ask Qian Fei, “Are you thirsty?”
Qian Fei would then extend her hand, “Twenty!”
Li Yifei would say, “Put it on the tab.”
Then Qian Fei would happily go to fetch water.
Later, Li Yifei’s questions became increasingly diverse.
“Qian Fei, are you cold?”
So Qian Fei would happily go to turn on the air conditioner.
“Qian Fei, do you want to eat an apple?”
So Qian Fei would happily go to wash an apple.
Finally, one day, Li Yifei pointed at an oil stain on his clothes from lunch and asked, “Qian Fei, what do you think I should use to wash this?”
Qian Fei couldn’t help but shudder, “Young Master Li, you’re not asking me to wash your clothes too, are you?” Can you be any lazier?
Li Yifei looked at her, thought seriously for a moment, and said, “Never mind, I don’t have a change of clothes. I can’t work in the afternoon wearing just an undershirt.”
Qian Fei lowered her head and held her forehead.
Her head was starting to feel dizzy!
She asked Li Yifei in a muffled voice, “When are you going to pay me for all these errands?”
Li Yifei said, “In a hurry? Alright, when we play Landlord later, I’ll be more serious and let you win it all back. Save the trouble of moving money back and forth.”
Qian Fei gritted her teeth. So all those times he won so many rounds, he wasn’t even trying that hard? How can someone be so arrogant? Doesn’t he fear being crushed by a cross in his sleep? Is God okay with this?
However, Li Yifei seemed to be possessed by something. He didn’t let Qian Fei win a single round. After calculating, he had indeed balanced out the previous errand fees.
Qian Fei ground her back teeth until they were worn down.
That night, when she was on the phone with Yao Jingjing, she asked, “Yao Jingjing, tell me, this guy is lazy, arrogant, self-righteous, loves to boss people around, and doesn’t know how to save money. He rents a place outside but spends money like a young master from Beijing every day. I don’t know what Gui Lili sees in him!”
Yao Jingjing pondered for a moment and said, “I analyze that there are two possibilities. One is that he’s good-looking; the other is that he might be good in bed. With a handsome face and good skills that can make young girls cry out in ecstasy, even if he has all those flaws you mentioned, it’s not surprising that a young girl would be head over heels for him! For men, conquering the vagina is equivalent to conquering the world!”
Qian Fei wanted to spit in Yao Jingjing’s face, accompanied by a loud “Pfft!”
Just as she finished saying this, she heard the two people next door arguing again. Gui Lili was crying loudly.
Qian Fei couldn’t help but laugh.
Yao Jingjing asked on the other end of the phone, “What’s so funny, Feifei?”
Qian Fei said with a laugh, “Nothing, just heard the girl next door crying out in ecstasy!”
A couple of days later, before going to bed at night, Qian Fei thought that she hadn’t been in touch with Hu Zining for many days and hadn’t seen him at the hotel during the day either. So she sent him a WeChat message before sleeping.
“Zining, how come I haven’t seen you these past few days?”
There was no reply.
Qian Fei turned off the lights and went to sleep. When she got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, she saw her phone indicator light flashing. She lit up the screen and saw Hu Zining’s reply, sent at 12:30 AM.
“The company startup failed due to insufficient funds. I’ve been running around exhausted for this these past few days. I’ve been on a business trip recently, I’ll find you when I get back.”
Qian Fei sighed, turned off the screen, and went to the bathroom.
Every time the topic of starting a company came up, she felt an inexplicable sense of guilt. She always felt that if she could come up with eighty or a hundred thousand yuan, the company could have been started successfully.
As she was lost in thought, she suddenly heard the door outside. From the sound of it, it should be Li Yifei coming back because the other room instantly resonated with the sound of a door being pulled open and Gui Lili’s crying. She remembered that the time she saw on her phone earlier was 2 AM.
She heard Gui Lili question accusingly, “Li Yifei, you still know how to come back? What time is it now?”
She heard Li Yifei say, “Stop arguing, it’s the middle of the night. Whatever it is, let’s talk tomorrow!”
She heard Gui Lili cry and ask, “So you know it’s the middle of the night? Why don’t you just not come back at all?”
She heard the outside door sound again.
Li Yifei had left.
Then there was another “bang,” and Gui Lili had also closed her door.
Then she heard Gui Lili hysterically shouting in her room, “Li Yifei! You have the guts to never come back! Li Yifei, I hate you, I hate you!”
Then she heard something “crash” to the ground.
It seemed that Gui Lili must have smashed another phone.
She couldn’t help but sigh silently.
According to her private statistics, Gui Lili had smashed at least 20,000 yuan worth of phones, and with tonight’s addition, it would be no less than 24,000 or 25,000 yuan. How nice it would be to keep that money to start a business, but instead, she had to smash it after an argument just to hear the sound. She thought Gui Lili was a wasteful child.
Gui Lili was dramatic and loved to argue, while Li Yifei was too proud to coax her. These two were really… a match made in heaven.
The next day at work, Qian Fei saw that Li Yifei didn’t look tired at all. She found it particularly strange and couldn’t help but ask during lunch, “Did you take stimulants or hormones? How come you’re not tired at all during the day when you didn’t sleep until 2 AM?”
Li Yifei turned his head at her words, narrowed his eyes, and looked at her askance, asking, “You heard again?”
Qian Fei nodded while biting her chopsticks, “I didn’t mean to listen, and it’s not that my ears are particularly good, it’s just that… your voices were too loud, hehe!”
Zhao De, who was sitting nearby, anxiously asked, “What are you two talking about? I feel like something’s off!”
No one paid attention to him.
He was so frustrated he was scratching his ears and cheeks.
Li Yifei suddenly said, “How come I haven’t seen your boyfriend come to see you recently?”
Qian Fei thought he was embarrassed and trying to change the subject, so she cooperated to help him save face, “He was busy with his startup recently, unfortunately, it failed, and then he’s been on a business trip these past two days!”
Li Yifei looked at her, his gaze gradually deepening. After a while, he slowly let out an “Oh.”
Qian Fei felt strange and couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong?”
Li Yifei frowned and said, “Nothing.”
In the evening after work, Zhao De asked Li Yifei if he was going out to play or taking the subway home. Li Yifei said he was going home.
Zhao De said, “Then let’s go to the subway station together!”
Li Yifei stood up, felt his trouser pockets, and called out to Qian Fei, “Qian Fei, let’s walk together today. I left my keys on the shoe cabinet by the door last night and forgot to bring them out.”
Zhao De, listening from the side, glinted in his eyes, “Wait! I thought something was off at lunch! What’s going on between you two? Is there something fishy? Are you two living together?”
Qian Fei quickly stopped his wild imagination, “Rein in your scattered brain cells! I’m his landlord!”
Zhao De looked incredulous, “Really? Is it such a coincidence? Your aura suggests you’re poorer than him by more than one level, how come you’re his landlord?” He turned to ask Li Yifei, “Since you two are roommates, why don’t you ever leave work together?”
Li Yifei pursed his lips, “I’m afraid people might think she’s my girlfriend and lower my aesthetic standards.”
Qian Fei scoffed, “I’m afraid people might misunderstand that I’m keeping a toy boy and didn’t even choose one who’s sweet-talking and accommodating!”
Zhao De marveled from the side, “I must say, just based on your sharp tongues, you two are well-matched!”
On the way back, Qian Fei couldn’t help but advise Li Yifei, “Actually, you know, girls need to be coaxed!”
Li Yifei glanced at her without saying a word.
Qian Fei couldn’t help but continue, “And when it comes to arguments, men should give in to women a bit!”
Li Yifei glanced at her again.
Qian Fei continued earnestly, “Household chores and such, it’s best if both people share the work!”
Li Yifei’s glance at her was almost ethereal.
Qian Fei went on, “And you, don’t spoil yourself like a young master just because you’re from Beijing. We’re all out here trying to make a living by pleasing others. No one is much more bourgeois than anyone else!”
Li Yifei glanced at her and let out a cold snort.
Qian Fei couldn’t help but ask, “What does that snort mean? Is it opposition, disdain, or sarcasm? Why do I feel like there’s so much content in it?”
Li Yifei snorted again and said, “If you have the free time to manage me, why don’t you think about you and your boyfriend!”
Qian Fei pondered for a while before realizing he was saying she was meddling in other people’s business.
She immediately got angry. If the subway wasn’t so crowded that she couldn’t extend her arm, she wanted to point at Li Yifei’s nose and ask him: Do your family members know how inconsiderate you are outside?