The three-day New Year holiday passed quickly. On the 4th, when Qian Fei returned to the company to continue her on-site due diligence work, Zhao De pulled her aside and said mysteriously, “I saw Yifei at Yansha yesterday!”
Qian Fei looked at him in confusion, “Little De, are you that desperate to show off? I see Li Yifei every day, what’s so special about that?”
Zhao De took a sharp breath and said fiercely, “Can you let me finish? I’m saying I saw Yifei at Yansha yesterday, and he was with a girl. She was holding his arm, they looked quite intimate. It should be his girlfriend!”
Qian Fei gave him a “you’re making a big deal out of nothing” look, “Are you trying to show off that you knew about his new girlfriend before me? Haha! Poor child, I already knew!”
Zhao De looked at her with a worried expression, “Fei Fei, can you please let me finish? I’m saying, his new girlfriend is not an ordinary person! She’s a minor celebrity! I’ve seen her in several TV commercials!”
Qian Fei was stunned, “That’s impossible, right? You must have seen it wrong. He’s just a poor guy, he’s even renting from me. How could he afford a celebrity girlfriend? Is this a case of the poorer you are, the more you play at true love?”
Zhao De nodded firmly, “I couldn’t have seen wrong! I later hid in a corner and heard Yifei call that girl ‘Jin Tian’! That minor celebrity is called Jin Tian!”
Qian Fei took a long breath, “This guy is something, burning money like that, really acting like a rich second generation! But if you say this young master has money to date a little beauty from the Film Academy, why can’t he save up to buy a house?”
Zhao De thought for a moment and said, “If I had the chance to date Jin Tian, I’d rather sell my house and spend all the money on her!”
Qian Fei gave him a look, “With your looks, you’d need money to make up for a girl’s emotional needs!” She suddenly changed the subject, “Hey, do you think the little beauty may think Li Yifei is a good-looking pretty boy and is using her commercial money to keep him instead?”
Zhao De almost choked.
Before he could speak, a cool voice cut in from behind.
“Even if this young master went into that line of work, could a few commercial fees be enough to keep me?”
Qian Fei turned around, looked up, and gave a stiff smile to the newcomer, “I think she just hasn’t figured out the trick. Keeping you doesn’t need money at all. Throwing a sack of eggplants at your bedside would be enough to completely satisfy you!”
For a period after the New Year, the main work of the two securities firms was to confirm certain matters with the heads of some departments of the company. This meant that Qian Fei, Li Yifei, and Gui Lili inevitably had many occasions where they had to interact face-to-face due to work.
Qian Fei noticed that Gui Lili’s state was getting worse and worse. There were several times when she almost lost control in front of others, nearly calling out “Yifei” with a mixture of resentment and coquettishness. It was just like when they were still together, after every argument when they were about to make up.
Sometimes Qian Fei felt a bit sorry for her. From her words and actions, it was clear that she still genuinely liked Li Yifei. But more often, Qian Fei still felt that she didn’t deserve sympathy. Having chosen material things over love, she should just enjoy what she chose. Why still cling to and yearn for love?
In this regard, Qian Fei thought Wang Ruhai had done better. After choosing material things, he was ruthless and decisive enough, never lingering on thoughts of her, his ex-girlfriend.
In contrast, Li Yifei’s state was getting better and better, more and more relaxed. Even when the project team members were in meetings with the company boss, who was reportedly Gui Lili’s fiancé, he behaved in a poised and commendable manner, making the awkwardness of the engaged couple seem petty in comparison. His calm and effortless work demeanor made his ex-lover unable to take her eyes off him, even with her reluctance.
Qian Fei felt that in some ways, Li Yifei was a terrifying person. He could pick things up and put them down easily. After wallowing in his room for a week right after the breakup, he completely turned that page.
He didn’t dwell on the past. After adjusting his state, he could quickly immerse himself in a new life. Such a handsome man with a ruthless style of action was like an addictive drug, most attractive to women. But Qian Fei felt that falling in love with such a man must be a woman’s misfortune.
At least she wouldn’t fall for such a person, because she knew herself well. She knew she didn’t have the qualities that would make a man love her desperately, so she wouldn’t provoke someone she couldn’t handle.
Qian Fei screened several potential matches on Baihe.com, carefully compared and considered these few people, and finally chose one she felt was most suitable for her and began to cultivate feelings.
After chatting online for a while, the other party suggested meeting face-to-face first. Qian Fei agreed.
The meeting time was set for Friday evening after work.
On Friday morning, Qian Fei stuffed her makeup bag into her large handbag and went to work. On the way, Li Yifei saw her bag was bulging and asked, “What are you carrying that’s such a big lump?”
Qian Fei smiled without speaking. Li Yifei’s eyes rolled, and he said, “The bag must be heavy, right? Here, let me carry it for you!” As he spoke, he took the bag from Qian Fei’s hand into his own.
“Tch! When have you ever been such a gentleman before?” Qian Fei couldn’t help but mock him.
“You’ve never carried so many things before!” Li Yifei said while feeling the contents of the bag through the fabric.
“What’s this? Hey? This texture feels like English letters… Isn’t this Steve… Damn, this is the makeup bag Steve gave you!” Li Yifei squinted at Qian Fei sideways, “You brought a makeup bag to work? What’s going on? Are you feeling lovesick?”
Qian Fei spat at him, “Pah! A dog’s mouth can’t spit out ivory! You’ve already found your second spring after breaking up, what’s wrong with me, who broke up first, feeling a bit of spring fever?”
Li Yifei raised his eyes and scanned Qian Fei’s down jacket that seemed to reach her heels.
“You’re wearing this to feel spring fever?”
“Of course not!” Qian Fei grinned mischievously, unzipping her down jacket and opening the lapels, “This is what you call having hidden depths, you know!”
She let Li Yifei take a look and then quickly closed the lapels and zipped up the jacket. When she looked up, she found Li Yifei tilting his head, frowning, and twisting his mouth as he looked at her.
“What kind of expression is that?”
Li Yifei narrowed his eyes, “This is the expression of being shocked by your flamboyance!”
Underneath, she was wearing a seemingly modest dress, but in reality, the skirt part was so short it barely covered her hips, while the upper part from the cleavage up to the collar was made of semi-transparent lace material. This outfit indeed accentuated her body curves beautifully and alluringly, but those leggings… no, they should be called stockings! Those black stockings were too seductively tempting! No wonder she wore such a long down jacket, otherwise she’d freeze her kidneys off in the dead of winter!
“Who are you meeting that you’re dressed up in such a provocative, vulgar style?” Li Yifei asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Provocative, my foot! It shows what kind of person you are by what you see! This is the latest trendy outfit I learned from the most recent fashion magazine, okay? The magazine you threw at me to read! Why is it high-end and classy when models wear it, but provocative and vulgar when I wear it?”
Ever since Li Yifei accompanied Qian Fei to the mall to optimize her image, he had been working on fundamentally changing her aesthetic sense and matching skills. He taught her many clothing-matching techniques and often threw a pile of fashion magazines at her to learn how other women dress. He didn’t expect that while she was usually rough and tomboyish, once she seriously learned to be a woman, her comprehension was quite high. She had indeed spruced herself up more and more presentably.
Li Yifei looked at Qian Fei expressionlessly, “Don’t take off your down jacket during the day. I’m afraid if people see you dressed like this, someone might not be able to resist calling the public security bureau’s anti-pornography hotline.”
Qian Fei twisted her mouth and spat out a “Pah!” at him.
They were the first to arrive at the office. As soon as they entered the room, Qian Fei was about to take off her down jacket when Li Yifei immediately stopped her, “Don’t take it off!”
Qian Fei glared at him, “Are you trying to make me die of heat?”
Li Yifei looked at her sideways, “You won’t die of heat, the air conditioner is broken!”
Qian Fei didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, “Broken, my foot! It’s broken just because you say so?”
Li Yifei raised his chin, “Yes! It’s broken because I say it is!” After saying this, he tore off a piece of paper from his notebook, waved his arm, and wrote on it: Air conditioner is broken, repair coming Monday. To prevent colds, please work with your coats on.
He pasted this paper next to the air conditioner switch.
So for the whole day, everyone in the office from both securities firms sat in the supposedly air-conditioner-broken office wearing their coats and working seriously, without any suspicion…
When Gui Lili came to check the contract data, she wasn’t wearing a coat. After sneezing twice from the cold, she took out her phone to call the building management.
Qian Fei amusingly waited to see what expression Li Yifei would have when his lie was exposed. But Zhao De, that deserving-of-a-slap motormouth, immediately displayed his talent. Before Gui Lili could dial, he quickly said, “Assistant Gui, you’d better not call. It probably won’t help. There’s already a notice on the wall saying they’ll come to fix it on Monday.”
Gui Lili had no choice but to put away her phone. After sneezing twice more, she left hurriedly, clutching her folder of contracts.
Qian Fei felt that Li Yifei might have some kind of lucky streak that others didn’t. If only Gui Lili had taken a look at that “notice” on the wall, Qian Fei didn’t believe she wouldn’t recognize whose handwriting it was. And if she had just pressed the button on the wall to try, she would have known whether the air conditioner was broken or not.
Qian Fei said quietly to Li Yifei, “You’re about to give our Assistant Gui a cold, huh!”
Li Yifei glanced at her sideways and said flatly, “Remove the ‘our’, thank you.”
As it was almost time to get off work, Qian Fei took her makeup bag to the restroom.
The air conditioner was on in the restroom, and she was sweating in her down jacket, so she took it off and hung it nearby.
She first washed her face, then carefully recalled the makeup steps and techniques Steve had taught her, and applied those powders and creams bit by bit to her face, then carefully sculpted with color cosmetics. She wanted to make herself look as natural as possible, so she chose light pastel colors for her makeup. After applying lipstick, she let her hair down. As she was fixing it, someone came in from the door. Qian Fei had seen her before, she was the general manager’s secretary, surnamed Rong.
Secretary Rong looked at Qian Fei and exclaimed, “Wow! Manager Qian, you look so beautiful today! Both pure and charming!” She looked Qian Fei up and down, her exclamations sincere and heartfelt, “Your figure is simply amazing! Why did you go into investment banking? You should have gone to the Film Academy!”
Qian Fei felt embarrassed by her compliments, and with a red face, she responded with a couple of words before fleeing the bathroom with her makeup bag and down jacket.
She felt that this was the extent of her composure. Having lived like an ugly duckling all her life, suddenly turning back into a swan, she couldn’t handle being praised. As soon as someone complimented her, she felt so embarrassed that she wanted to find a place to hide her face.
Walking in high heels, she was looking down and fumbling to stuff her makeup bag into her handbag, so busy that she accidentally bumped into someone.
She kept saying “sorry” while raising her head to see who she had bumped into.
As she looked up, she wished she could find a hole in the ground to bury her face in.
The people in the office were taking advantage of the end of the workday to walk to the elevator together, and coincidentally, the person she bumped into was her nemesis, the young master Li Yifei.
She heard everyone start with exclamations like “Hey”, “Yo”, “Ah ha”, and then uniformly end with “Qian Fei looks so beautiful today, she must be going to see her boyfriend”.
Her ears started to burn.
She felt that she might never be able to do anything great in her life, because just being stared at by these few gazes together made her feel like she was about to burn up.
The elevator arrived, and colleagues entered one after another. When only Li Yifei and Qian Fei were left, Li Yifei waved to those inside, “It’s too crowded, we’ll wait for the next one.”
The elevator doors closed. Qian Fei let out a long sigh and raised her hand to wipe away the fine beads of sweat that had formed on her forehead.
“Do you know what I fear most? It’s when one day I wear a new outfit to work, and my colleagues notice it and say, ‘Oh, Qian Fei, you’re wearing new clothes, it looks so good!’ Whenever this happens, I just want to find a crack in the ground to hide in. I don’t know why, but every time I encounter colleagues like this, I feel so embarrassed that I can hardly raise my head!”
Li Yifei pressed the down button for the elevator again and said in a flat tone, “I’ll tell you why. It’s because deep down, you think you’re an ugly woman, so when others compliment you on your looks, you feel insecure.” He looked down at Qian Fei, “So you’ve always thought of yourself as an ugly woman.”
Qian Fei was stunned. She looked up at him and said, “You’re talking as if you don’t think so. Didn’t you always say I was like a man?”
Li Yifei stroked his chin and looked at her with narrowed eyes, “Hmm, I didn’t expect that even this young master could misjudge sometimes!”